Phillip was hiking.

 While I was sitting, Reading and soaking up peace and quiet, Philip took a long hike and found these things amongst others.  Broken Metate and monos.

 Had to get a Picture of this red bush.  Leaves look similar to the wild current bushes up in Idaho and MT.

This is a whole metate he dug up.  Too bad it is in about 2 miles as it looks on Google.  This is on a huge ranch we recently got permission to hunt rocks on. I found some almost clear chunks of quartz and some green quartzite.  One broken arrowhead but Phillip had to go far inside to get these photos and 6 good arrowheads and scads of broken ones. A lot of hunters scout the places close to the road where I was.
We may be able to take people here for rocks.  Still up in the air about that. Too many deer and pig hunters in the area yet. Trailers,tents, motor homes in almost every place there is a spot big enough to put them.  Although this ranch abuts BLM land and with so many hunters out and about, I have yet to hear a gunshot.  Deer and pig tracks all over the place. Phillip got pics of the pigs, but the hunters never seem to see them.  I think they never get off their ATV's long enough to look.
Granny.

Fw: [This and That] New comment on More pics from out and about..

From: Anonymous <noreply-comment@blogger.com> Subject: [This and That] New comment on More pics from out and about.. To: daisydew3302@yahoo.com Date: Tuesday, October 30, 2012, 7:07 AM Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "More pics from out and about.": Tremendous! This particular is all I can think pertaining to a blog post like this excellent. This kind of is literally a notably explanatory article post on the blog. You just need to know a lot about this amazing. Posted by Anonymous to This and That at October 30, 2012 6:07 AM

Another day in AZ.

 A field of gold.

 The piggy family.

 More of the golden fields.

And a beautiful end to the day.
Granny.

"Borowed" from the internet.

 Got the washing done for another week.
 Finally the dude came and got the oxy tanks and stuff.  I think they piddle around and don't pick the stuff up so they can charge more rent.
A boring day.  I did get some mending and clothes sorting done though.  Put the shorts away. Culled out some clothes I haven't worn in quite a while. I suppose if I donate them to the senior center I will wish I kept something. Gotta get tough and do it anyway. Only room in the closet for so much and I did pick up 2 pair of jeans and a blouse at the thrift store.  Need to find a decent pair of shoes. Got all the kickers I need now.

Now that it's cooled off I hope it will be the end of mildewed towels until next summer.  Funny how I can hang my towel to dry but I end up with the mildew stained ones. At least none of my clothes are mildew stained. Not that it can be said about all the people in this house. And they say you live and learn?

Can you believe, blueberry pancakes with cactus fruit syrup. Not for breakfast but for desert.?  Yummy.

I see it is about my bedtime so nite all.
Granny

Some this and that.

 Definitely bad company. Phillip spotted it while rock hunting the other day.

 Some pretty daisy like flowers were hiding up under the holly oak.

 Don't know what these are but they remind me of forsythia's in a way. Summer flower though.  May be in the wildflower book, just haven't looked.

Some fruits of Phillip's labor.  Applesauce, second batch and his wild grape jelly.  Yum, Yum. In a few of these bottles he put some of the red cinnamon candies.  Should have made them all that way.  You live and learn.
Well tomorrow is laundry day. Gotta get down there early because the snow-birds are coming back and they can use all the machines in a hurry.  Place opens at 5:00 so you better be close to opening.
So far we haven't got a frost. Only 45 this AM.  Got to 79 here today but was a bit breezy.  Cool breezy. Had to close the window during the middle of the night when I made pit stop. Only got sheet blanket and spread on the bed yet. If I put a blanket on then it will get back up in the 80's again. Had the window open today but I think I will make a cup of tea and close it while I'm up.  Getting a bit chilly in here now.
I put the old puter game " Scratches" back in this laptop and have been playing it again.  Been 4 or 5 years since I played it last.  Forgot how it went. This way it's like a new game.
Gone for refreshments and game.
Granny.

Fw: [This and That] New comment on More wildflowers..

--- On Mon, 10/22/12, Anonymous <noreply-comment@blogger.com> wrote: From: Anonymous <noreply-comment@blogger.com> Subject: [This and That] New comment on More wildflowers.. To: daisydew3302@yahoo.com Date: Monday, October 22, 2012, 5:37 AM Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "More wildflowers.": I am really satisfied with this posting that you have given us. This is really a stupendous work done by you. Thank you and looking for more posts Posted by Anonymous to This and That at October 22, 2012 4:37 AM

You guessed it! More flowers.

 Actually this plant doesn't have flowers on it. These are seeds.  Now the plant looks much prettier than when it blooms.  Flowers are small pale blue white very tiny blossoms. Stinky smelling. I like the seedy bush much better.  Don't remember what it is called.

 Penstemons in the foreground with several different kinds of flowers in the back ground.

 Brittle bush in the foreground and some penstemos hiding back in the holly oak bushes.

I'd have to look it up what these orange flowers are called but the natives around here call them horehound. There were some yellow flowers i can't remember what they were and some purple flowers in the background that didn't show up too well.
Today was kinda a half bummer day.  We were supposed to meet a guy out in the valley but he didn't show up. Phillip finally turned the cell phone on to check and see if he left a message. No more got the phone turned on when the guy called.  His car wouldn't start so he was going to have a neighbor jump him so he could go get a new battery.
 We decided since we were already out that way we would check out a place nearby for arrowheads. Some huge ranches out this way.  This one area is open for hunting by the ranch owner.  No one was parked where the hunters usually camp.  Phillip parked there and I parked in the chair to read while he hopped the fence and went to look for Indian camps.  I could never make it over the fence. He lucked out and found 2 camps a good hike from where we were parked.  He found 4 good arrowheads and quite a few broken ones.  He said anything close to the road had been gone over recently because he saw a lot of footprints around the encampments.  This wasn't deer hunters looking for deer.
 Down the road a ways from the camping spot there is a gate you can access the property thru.  When I was sitting there 4 ATVs with hunters went in. about a half hour later they came roaring out again.  How in the hell did they expect to hunt from a roaring ATV?
 Seemed to be a lot of traffic on this dirt road. Lots of rigs pulling horse trailers.  3 motor homes with trailers pulling ATV trailers behind them heading up to the forest service camp 17 miles further up the road probably.  2 huge cattle haulers coming down off the mountain loaded with cattle the ranchers were taking off the leased BLM land before the hunters shot them for deer or elk.
Sure are some massive alligator junipers trees up this way.  One we were parked under must have been 8 feet around if you run the tape measure around it.  Maybe 200 feet tall. Huge oaks and ash trees too.  Lots of walnut trees by the washes.  No walnuts around here either.  I checked.
Well kidies, it's my bedtime.  Night all.
Granny

More flowers, you say?

Things turned out differently today than expected.  We were going to take a couple out crystal digging but they opted to go with some friends to Quartzite to look at new motor homes.  Phillip and I decided to take in the flea market.  Been a while since we were there.  Place was packed. Lots of vendors.  I got tired walking all over the place. We looked for canning jars and rock picks.  Didn't find either. Checked out 3 thrift shops and still zilch.  We did get some groceries.  Got the stuff to make fruit cakes.  Phillip made some more cactus fruit jelly but turns out it didn't set up so we have cactus fruit syrup for our pancakes. Just another AZ day. How was your day?
Granny.

I been thievin again.

 Since all my posters were on the HP, I will either have to get busy and make new ones here on the laptop or just steal them from the Internet. Clever ehhh!!

 Like they say, "Life's a bitch".

Well I could if I still had any of them. Somehow they went the way of my peddle pushers, penny loafers, bobby sox and full pleated skirts. Yeah , those were the good old days. Girls stole one of their dads white shirts, had friends autograph them and then we embroidered all the autographs in different colors. The more names on the shirt the better.  These were worn, with the sleeves rolled to the elbows, like a jacket of sorts.
Status symbol?  You bet.  Oh my, and the sweaters. Don't forget them. Back then they were mostly wool.  The itchy stuff so you had to wear a blouse under them or scratch yourself to death.  Yuck!! All that hand washing and blocking.  Was happy when they finally came out with nylon.  No itch but you still had to hand wash or they became a mess real fast. But the beauty was, it would dry by morning. Those pleated skirts would really swing when we jitterbugged. We danced some slow dances too.  Big Band Era music.  The Dorsey brothers, Guy Lombardo, Glenn Miller. Yep we danced to them all.  Wore my earrings at school and all the dances. Those were the days.
Granny.

Fw: [This and That] New comment on More pics from out and about..

--- On Fri, 10/19/12, Anonymous <noreply-comment@blogger.com> wrote: From: Anonymous <noreply-comment@blogger.com> Subject: [This and That] New comment on More pics from out and about.. To: daisydew3302@yahoo.com Date: Friday, October 19, 2012, 2:09 AM Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "More pics from out and about.": I'm creating a collaborative blog and I need to know if I can transform a blogspot blog into one where anyone can add content and edit or change the text. Maybe there is another type of blog whee you can do this.. Thanks everyone.. Posted by Anonymous to This and That at October 19, 2012 1:09 AM

Ho hum again.

As usual wed.was dump day.  We took the garbage to the dump.  Passed 3road killed stinkers when we went thru skunk hollow.  Now that the vultures have gone south for the winter the skunks don't get eaten by the crows very fast.  Darn crows pick at them and keep singing out, hawk, hawk but no self respecting hawk will ever stoop to eating road killed skunk. The darn dead skunks just lie there and reek.  I don't know how people that live around there can stand the smell.

After we went to the dump we went on up the road further to another favorite rock hunting and arrowhead hunting spot. I hunted close to the road and Phillip took off on a hike as usual. He found this yellow dendritic and banded Jasper's. Brought a few pieces back with him. He also found an old Indian encampment and took these pictures of a couple of broken metates that were turned upside down.

This last metate was almost completely buried not 50 feet from where I parked my butt and read. I didn't even recognize that it might be one and walked right past it.  It was broken but Phillip took a pic never the less. Some people might take it home for their yard.  Phillip will only get the ones he thinks are the best.
It's strange why the Indians always turned the metates upside down, broken or not.

Today was our volunteer Thurs.  Phillip got a real workout today.  They had pop corn we bagged up today as well as the beans and rice. That's a new one. Got a huge bag of it in so we will be bagging it up for quite a while more. They had donated bread and goodies they gave away along with the commodity box.  Phillip brought all the left over baked stuff down to the senior center to give away there.
There is a group of old folks who ride together down to Yarnell to get the Boxes at the church and then go over to the senior center if they qualify and get food there as well. The driver of the group had car trouble today so Phillip told one old gal to ride back up with us to Wilhoit. She was having a bad day of it with the group. One old fart keeps taking things from her boxes. Good thing we had the 4 runner and not the pickup.
Looks like we will have a rider on volunteer day now. Going to be a long day for her unless she decides to get a ride with someone else.
Getting close to my bed time.  Think I'll read a bit the lights out.
Granny

Visitors.

 Margaret is down here in AZ visiting with Monte and his family.  They drove up from Phoenix on Monday for a visit.

Monte brought along his Wife and Daughter.  Darn, I didn't get pictures of them.  Anyway we had a great visit.  Reminiscing and all.  I got so engrossed with visiting that I forgot to ask if they had lunch.  I feel stupid now about it. No I am not getting alzashimers, I'm just getting old.  Phillip went to help a fried and missed them because he didn't get back in time.  Was only going to  be gone a couple of hours but he did get home before dark.  Brat!!
Margaret said she would be back up before she went home on the 27th I think she said. Phillip will be here then to see them.  He was bummed he missed them but said guy he went to help had more trouble fixing the goat pen than they thought.  Posts were too far apart Phillip said , so was hard to string fencing.
I sent Monte an invite to the blog.  Maybe we will hear from him.  I also re-invited Mark and Margaret.  Who knows, mabe they will add a line or two, and maybe some pictures?
Granny

Stolen from the internet.

I picked this one because  the other night when I was sitting here tapping on the puter, I took a break and leaned back in my chair and just happened to look up at the ceiling. There were 2 monster spiders right above my head.  Well not really monster spiders but they were 2 small daddy- long legs  up there and they were casting monster shadows on the ceiling.  They better stay up there and not get down by my bed.  They might be daddy-long legs and not poisonous but their last name is spider. I don't like spiders by my bed.

 It's a thought, don't you think?

Hey!! Not me!! I haven't ever texted a message while driving.  Don't want to meet some sap doing it while I'm on the road.
Granny

More wildflowers.

 Took these the day we went to get wild grapes.  This is a sunflower patch.

Couldn't pass up this Datura.

And a few Penstemons to brighten the day as well.
As I wrote before, we got the grapes and Phillip made Cactus fruit and grape jelly.  Then we went back again for more grapes and he made plain grape jelly.
We picked the last of the apples in the hidden orchard and Phillip found a pear tree.  Not too many pears.  Some old varity. They are more round than pear shaped. Have red on them too.  Thought at first they were apples.Not really the tastiest pears I have tasted though. I guess I really favor a Bartlett pear.
Now that things have cooled down somewhat we have been busy as all get out. Had to cut tour prices a bit.  People don't have the money now.
We have been getting things ready to set up and sell as soon as it cools down on the desert a bit more. Got a lot of grab bags sewed and now to fill them.  At a buck a piece they are consistent sellers.
Tired.  Gonna read a bit then hit the hay.
Granny

Fw: [This and That] New comment on Labor day was a while ago.........

--- On Fri, 10/12/12, Anonymous <noreply-comment@blogger.com> wrote: From: Anonymous <noreply-comment@blogger.com> Subject: [This and That] New comment on Labor day was a while ago......... To: daisydew3302@yahoo.com Date: Friday, October 12, 2012, 1:14 AM Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Labor day was a while ago........": Thank you for the blog post. Jones and I have been saving for a new e-book on this issue and your blog post has made all of us to save money. Your thoughts really answered all our issues. In fact, more than what we had thought of prior to when we came across your great blog. I no longer have doubts including a troubled mind because you have really attended to our own needs in this post. Thanks Posted by Anonymous to This and That at October 12, 2012 12:14 AM

Labor day was a while ago........

.......and I'm just now getting around to posting some pictures.  I had every intention to post these images earlier but I just didn't have the time.  I have been crazy busy with the new job and it seems like I just now have some time to relax a bit.  I think that once I've been at this teaching gig for a while I'll have some course notes in place and then I'll just tweak them a bit from year to year.  However for now I'm building everything from scratch at it seems like I just squeak out lectures in the nick of time.  

I digress, but let me tell y'all a bit about the trip the Steph and I took out to the Black Hills over Labor Day weekend.  We learned that the Black Hills have a few cave systems and we thought we would check it out.  We chose to go to the Wind Cave park.

They allowed pictures to be taken in the cave but we were not allowed to use tripods as they didn't want folks setting their camera setups on cave formations, or setting up 3 foot tall tripods and blocking pathways.  Initially I thought "why the hell would you want to drag a tripod down in the cave in the first place."  I soon found out when I took some pictures with the flash on.  I had a terrible depth of field with those images.  So I turned off the flash.  My camera detected the low light levels and compensated for leaving the aperture open longer.  This yielded "smeary" images.  No matter how hard I tried to hold the camera still I still got images that looked "smeary" or "streaky".  Out of all the pictures I took this one was the best.

During our wandering around the Black Hills we discovered a few waterfalls that were accessible by hiking a short distance from the road.  Here a couple of my favorite pics.

On the way back home we stopped at Devils Tower in Wyoming.  I've seen pictures of this formation before but pics do not hold a candle to the experience of standing in front of it and looking up at the top.

 Took this on the way to the river.  Don't know what they are.

 These are called Devils Claws by the locals. Don't know if they are really named that. Seed pods shown here and blooms shown below in the next picture.

The local artists take the dry seed pods and weave them  into balls. Some as large as basketballs.  We have a few of these growing in the front weed patch.
Granny