Arizona isn't all desert.

 This is a massive aligator juniper. I'm standing at the side of it.

 This is taken from the front of it. Phillip and I together couldn't even stretch our arms accross the front. Biggest tree i've seen since the redwoods in Oregon.

Wild flowers of some kind.

Phillip has started the garden.  There were some volunteer potatoes, carrots and chard that came up already, so hopefully the frost is over. He put in radishes and beets so far and a few sprouted potatoes to fill out the row of volunteers.  I had hollyhocks along the back of the garden spot but they came up all over the place so he has been killing them off before they take over.  They were fine til he expanded the garden spot.

So many of the snow-birds have gone back up north so there was a whole lot of produce at the senior center this time.  The old-folks each got a whole flat of strawberries, thats 8 quart boxes, and a whole 4# bag of yellow bell peppers, a flat of tomatoes on the vine and a bag of onions.  Even after keeping some for friday lunch there was enough left for the volunteers to each get a flat of tomatoes, strawberries, peppers and onions.  Phillip has been canning stewed tomatoes and strawberry jam. Stuff like that don't happen too often.  Once in a while there might be a few potatoes,cabbage or lettuce left over to get.  Most times it's bread or bagles.

Phillip came in while I was writing this and wants to play a game.  So til next time.
Granny.

Rock, rock and more rocks.

This is some blue oolitic agate that Phillip found on one of his hikes.

This is some calcite crystals he found in a vug in the sidewall of the creek bank. Otherwise known as dogtooth spar.

This is some oolitic calcite that has oozed out of the bedrock.  It is covered with a crust of druzzy quarts. Really sparkles but you can't see it in the picture.

Spring has sprung.

What a hassle.

Since Christmas I haven't been able to get the blog dashboard to come up.  It was a post by Jake that I linked up to for a comment that let me access the blog to post this.  I did email a post but didn't know if it went in or not.  This new format has screwed me up royally.  I had to wait 7 minutes for this dashboard to show up.  Usually I could wait 20 minutes and it still wouldn't show.  Any way I have bookmarked this create a post page so maybe I can get back on again. I'm goint to try and post a few pictures next and see what happens.

You were not joking Uncle Dave!

I just got back from a little driving 'adventure'.  Yesterday I got caught up on all my work and had nothing planned for today.  I give lectures on Monday, Wednesday and Friday and on Thursdays I have lab.  Tuesday is typically my "get caught up on everything" day.  Rarely do I have my act together enough to take a Tuesday and spend it goofing off.  However, today I have my work done so I took a 'goofing off' day.

I thought I would go for a drive and explore the Little Snowy Mountain Nat. Forest north of Billings.  We have been getting a few flurries and some cold weather but I thought that the roads north of us would be fine as all the severe weather reports have indicated that the bad weather was to the south.  The snow has not been accumulating here in Billings so I figured it wouldn't be that different in the Little Snowy Mts. as they are not that high in elevation nor not that far north of us.

The drive started out great.  Then I hit a little snow but not much.  However, as I drover deeper and deeper into the hills the snow got deeper and deeper.  The road had sections with 6 inch ruts which got to be 12 to 18 inch ruts.  Every time I felt 'the panic' and thought I should turn around the road would level and and be hard flat gravel.  This pattern of "ohhh.. crap    then      ahhh... this ain't nuthin" went on for about 10 miles.  Then I hit a bad patch but I thought "ahhh just around the bend it will get better."  It didn't and 'the panic' began to set in again.  By this time though I had driven in far enough to think "If I turn around now then I will have to drive through all that bad crap to get back, it will probably be easier to just keep going."  As I drove the road got worse and I thought this is some sick "Patrick McManus insanity."  Ohhhh just one more quarter mile it will get better!  I pondered how pissed I was going to be if the road dead ended.

This picture doesn't do the road justice.  It looks pretty tame, but it had me worried.

I wouldn't be typing this if I hadn't of made it out of there, but the forest service roads in central Montana are no joke.  They can be nice and easy for miles and just randomly turn into soupy rutted crap in an instant.  Maybe I'll have to try sometime in late summer, maybe they do some maintenance and make it better during the summer months.  Or maybe next time I'll bring my hiking shoes and next time I hit crap, I'll park it and get out and hoof it.  Yeah Dave, you warned me about roads in Montana and now I know what you were saying. At the time I thought "psssshaaa! I've driven roads from Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado I can handle anything Montana has for me."  Yeah, one major difference between Montana (at least central MT) and any other places I have been is that typically if a road is bad, it will be bad from the get-go.  In central Montana you are lured in by a few miles of pristine road, then it turns into a mire of horrendous treachery.