Down here in AZ.

Creeping  Murtle.

This stuff grows wild all over down by the river and also up where Phillip goes to pan. When we were in at Home depot, getting plants, I see where you can buy one of the plants for 3.98.  It's a pretty vine, but it likes shady damp places to grow.

I painted out the bird crap on my cactus flowers.  I'll try again after it is really dry, to paint raindrops again.  Can't figure out why I have such a time with them.  I've painted them before without trouble. Pits.  I also worked on my prospector painting.  One of these days I'll get them finished.

Phillip has been having a baking morning while it was cool.  Made a meatloaf.  A big one.  Will make a couple of meals and sandwiches too.  I like meatloaf sandwiches.  I remember Gene liked them too.

I picked up a used computer tower at the thrift store. An HP Pavillion with windows 7 on it. 35 bucks aint too bad.
A while back, David gave me an Intudos tablet.  With this big screen monitor. it works really cool. I just got it working the other day and really haven't gotten around to doing any thing put play with it. Too many things I want to do and not enough time to  do it all.  Speaking of time, it's happy hour (nap time).

Love ya'll, Granny.

PLANTS

Somebody had a clever idea.

I guess most of you guys will be off pick nicking or some thing.  Have a great day.

Phillip and I decided to stick around home this week end.  There will be lots of people up in the woods, and the damn firebug is roaming around. He or they set 2 fires on Sat, and Sun. down in Black Canyon City Burned 65 acres.  They had ti evacuate 20 homes, but only lost 1. This was in one fire set.  Then another fire set right next to it next day burned a scrap yard with a lot of junk and 6 buildings. Firemen got it out before it got thru the brush and into the woods.  This town is East and south of us.  That was the smoke we smelled yesterday.

Phillip is making  tomato sauce today.  We got a box of roma tomatoes at the senior center on friday. Probably get about 4 quarts. I'm just going to sit on my butt and play puter games.

Carry on, Granny

Ain't that the truth?

Well the ides of May are almost over.  Just about mildew season now.  Can't win for losing.  We need some rain.  Not too much like will come with the monsoon's but a little bit would help.

Never did get a chance to fix my painting yet. Got people coming and going.  Phillip took a couple of guys out prospecting.  They got a little bit, but made those guys happy.  As usual I was the official wife sitter.  Why don't those gals want to pan?  I would if I still could.  I might be able to pan, but getting to the place where they went is out of the question for me. Just like the picture said,  no dice baby, you have done lost out.

Tomorrow is Donna's birthday.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY.

We can smell smoke in the air this morning.  Don't know where it is coming from.  Lots of fires around and most of them have been set.  Got a fire bug loose down here.  He set 3 fires  along the road  by Wilhoit. Grass was still too green for them to get very far. Set 2 fires in the woods down on the road to the river. About 10 miles of woods and brush between there and here. Set one fire here in Wilhoit that burnt one house.  I just hope he is caught before he finally sets Wilhoit on fire like he did the last fire at Yarnell.

 Just a light breeze today.  Has been windy as hell all last week.

Think I'll play a puter game. Carry on kiddies, Love ya'll, Granny.

Settled.

Well now that the crissis du' jour is over, I think I will drag out my
painting stuff and try to fix up what's going wrong with my paintings.
Have fun kiddies.

Love ya'll, Granny.

Wedensday.

Had to go in for another heart ultrasound. Can't understand why? If
they can't do anything with your heart in my case, why bother. The
meds seem to be working fine. Got rid of the missing heart beats and
blood pressure down. Guess I'll make it a while longer.

Went to the dump after. Didn't see any new dead skunks, but about 8
or 9 vultures were sitting on a fence in a persons yard. Must be up to
something. Maybe they know where the skunk den is and waiting for a
skunk to cross over.

Got two rose bushes. One yellow and one dark red. Wish I could find
one of those old fashioned yellow wild roses. They smell so good.
The red one I got smells but the yellow one don't.

Phillip picked dozens of little peaches and necturines off the trees.
The limbs were starting to bend too much. Didn't one apple set on, and
the apricot seed I planted 2 years ago is now as tall as Phillip.
Pnillip planted a couple of plumcot seeds. Nothing came up yet. One of
the cherry seeds came up but some damn thing just keeps munching on
it. Phillip sprayed it with sevin, but will probably die. Pisses me
off to no end. Had him get the yellowjacket traps out and get them
primed. They have already started on the strawberries. One damn
critter after another. Hopefulyl got all the rats One of the damn
things was chewing off the limbs on the necturine tree. Plenty of
weeds for their nests, now they pay the price for getting in the
garden. Have to fight for a garden around here.

Margaret sent me an e-mail. Said Fred is going to Spokane this friday
and will live with Richard Sullivan. Havent heard anything lately aout
Weldon. Or Suzzy either for that matter.
Newsed out, Love ya'll Granny.

Today.

We could use some rain.
Granny.

Paddling around Lake Pend Oreille

When I was a kid I used to have this fantastic dream of being a mad scientist and having my secret laboratory in a castle on a remote island away from public scrutiny.  Whenever we would drive up to the "property," which is now my parents home, I would look at the islands in Pend Oreille Lake and think "yeah... that would be a nice spot for my castle and secret lab."  

Well as I got older I realized how insanely expensive it is to purchase all the equipment for a research facility, let alone purchasing a private island and building a castle on it.  However, those islands still fascinate me and I've wanted to explore them.  

When I bought my kayak a couple of years ago I didn't even consider the idea of paddling around a lake the size of Pend Oreille.  I just thought the waves would be too big and I would capsize, which would not be a good thing.  However, in the warm summer months I figured out what it would take to tip the kayak over from a seated and standing position.  I found out that you actually have to try really, really hard to get the kayak to tip.  I also had the kayak out in some nasty weather on a smaller lake and got a feel for how it handles in rough waves.  

I also looked at weather data for Pend Oreille and it seems like high winds come when there is a high pressure or low pressure transition coming in.  If the weather pattern holds chances are the wind/waves will not be that bad.  With this knowledge and experience, I decided to explore the lake!

The day I went out the weather was calm.  This is a picture from Hwy 200 looking south.  The island that you see right-center is Warren Island.

Here is a picture from the launch site.  I was lucky in that there were not a lot of people taking boats out.  I pretty much had the area to myself.

 

Here is a picture of Cottage island.  I keep my cell phone (aka camera) in a ziplock bag in my lifejacket and it is that ziplock bag you see in the lower left corner of the picture.  Yeah, trying to hold too many things in your hand and take a picture is bad technique.  I also think this picture is weird because of the random photobombing bird and the glassy water.  By this point I was a long way from the launch point and to see the water this calm (aside from the waves created by a boat passing by) gave me the chills.  I thought "hmm.... this water is toooo calm.... this makes me think that I could be in for some scary waves later on."  Nope, the water was pretty much like this all day.

Cottage Island is private land, so I didn't get a chance to walk around and explore it.  I wish I did know the owners of it though.  It looked like it had a couple of old cabins on it.  I love looking at old structures and thinking about how they were built, who lived in them, etc.

The next island was Pearl Island.  This one is the farthest island that you can see from Hwy 200.  It was donated to the public and as a result you can beach your boat and do some exploring.

 

Here is a picture that I took from the northern edge of Pearl Island looking north toward Cottage Island and Hwy 200.

Apparently, the island is a favorite nesting site for eagles.  I couldn't find any but it does seem like a preferred habitat for Canadian geese.  I saw egg shells all over the island and their dung as well.

Here is a picture looking across the east side of Pearl Island looking south.

It was a fun day, but I didn't catch any fish.  I must have trolled about 6 different kokanee setups and I even tried some lures ranging from spoons to spinners to Rapala's, I got zilch.  I got maybe a couple of bites (hard to tell with bluebacks).  I did some serious paddling too.  I was out for about 10 hours paddling around.  I can't believe I fished that long with out a single fish or a serious bite.  Oh well, it was fun exploring.

Some days.

Mamma  said there would be days like this   Can a person have a painters block the same as a writer has one??  Well today my paintings are not going the way I want them to. Tried to put a raindrop on the cactus, but looked more like a bird crapped on it.  Gotta paint that out as soon as it dries enough. Can't get the trees in the other to look like trees.  Gave it up.  I guess I can just tell you the dream.



Well you know me and my far out dreams They don't seem strange while I am dreaming them, but you know how my dreams seem to gravitate into the realm of strangeness, maybe even bizarre.  Any way, Jake would know because he is versed in physics..I'm just a nod-nick, not an Einstine or a Archimedes, I just have strange dreams.  I wonder if they did too.


The Dream.

Now how all this came about,I don't know, because if I dreamed that part, I must have forgotten it, but Phillip had a piece of property. I don't rightly know what state it was in, but we decided to go and stay there a while.  We loaded up the motorhome and with me in the lead we took off.  I was supposed to watch for a road taking off to the left, with a sign that said "End of the road ranch'".  Well I was cruising along when Phillip yelled ' stop", over the 2 way radio.  I had passed it and would have to back up.  Phillip turned in and went to a gate that he unlocked, and I backed up and followed him in.  We went up the drive to a bench above a small lake (pond), any way it reminded me of Glidden Lake up in Idaho. We parked by a rundown looking cabin.  I climbed out of the motorhome and walked up on what looked to be a nice porch. Some of the boards were a bit saggy, ( no wonder, ahem! me fat?).  Believe it or not, Phillip had a key to the cabin, he unlocked it and we went inside.  Wow! it was so dark and dreary.  Only one window in front.  Both bedrooms had only one small window high up on the wall.  Anyway we had to do something to lighten things up.  Hey! No problem there huh?
Good thing the cabin had a good metal roof.  Phillip got up on the roof and swept off all the dirt and pine needles, like I told him to.  Then I told him to get a hose and wash it all off good.( Wow, we had running water, ho ho).
Then I got a bucket of something out of the motorhome and had him smear it all over the roof. Stuff was clear and was thicker than paint. Then I  got some copper wire down from the rafters in the cabin and had him run the wire all along the bottom edge of the roof and attach it to the roof every foot or so.  Then I got a copper rod that was out behind a shed, and had him pound it in the ground below the edge of the roof.  I then attached   the wire to the rod....Whoa ho!  We had lights.  (where the wiring, bulbs and fixtures came from, I don't know) but never the less, we had lights.  I have no Idea what was in the bucket.  It made the metal roof gleam like copper.

Such is the way of dreams.
Granny

Remember?

Do you remember where you were and what you did on this day back in 1980??
Granny

Grass.

Volunteer day at the Senior Center.

Little bit cooler than it was this time last week. Hard to believe
how fast the weather can change down here in AZ. Summer one day then
winter the next.

What a mess the food give away is getting to be any more since some
jackass down in Pheonix seems to think he knows what's best for
Seniors. Damn turkey sent a full pallet of spaghetti squash, a pallet
of green chilies, only one bag of white onions and a pallet of
tomatoes. Half green and half rotten, along with a pallet of SMASHED
bread. Good thing we still had a few boxes of filled bags of
Macaroni, rice and lentils left to add to the mix.

We went out on the desert for a little while since we were already
down that way. Took some stuff to an old homeless guy who lives in a
plastic makeshift shelter behind a gas station in Agulia, Thought
maybe we might find an arrowhead or two, but too much grass now. I
did stumble over that old rabbit hole I fell into way back in 09, ( as
Grandpa would say). Hey! No way! I damn sure don't want to go there
again. I'm tired of all those political nuts residing down there.
Got out by the skin of my teeth. Good thing too, I;m getting too old
for that crap any more. Can't change anything anyway.

Oh heck, I forgot I was going to tell you about my latest dream. Yeah,
I know, yawn, yawn. Well tuff stuff, Maybe next time.

Love ya'll, Granny.

Dump day.

Have you ever seen such a plant? Can't seem to find out anything
about it. First time we have ever seen it in bloom. Just seen it
with those bulb looking things on it before. Real strange plant.

Had to gather up the trash and head off to the dump. On the way there
we have to go thru a small town called Skull Valey. Should be renamed
"Skunk Alley', because ever year about this time there is always a
dead skunk or two in the road. All the vultures( about 6 of them) all
lined up on the fence posts, waiting for a chance to dive down and
grab a bite before the next car comes along, while up on the telephone
lines the mixed bird chorus is singing out lustily. "Theres a dead
skunk in the middle of the road, there's a dead skunk in the middle of
the road, there"s a dead skunk in the middle of he road, stinking to
high heaven". Happens every year. Kinda puts a bookmark on your life.

But then life goes on. Speaking of time, Tomorrow is David's birthday,
(HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE). Looks like he is joining the rest of us old
folks. Retirement age if you dare.

Had another of my weird dreams. I'll save it for another day, then
bore you with it.

Love ya'll, Granny

As time goes by.

I thought for a while this morning I was going to spend a little time
painting, but the sky was over cast and the lighting was poor. So I
did what a lot of us old timers have time to do anymore, I just sat on
my butt and recalled the brain echoes of my youth.

Seems like I have time to do this, even when I'm out and about, well
out anyway, because the about is a lot less frequent now days. Have
you ever done this?? Just sat and remembered?

As time goes by, I can recall a lot of things I did, I shouldn't have.
My gaurdian angel would just have a tizzy. She would shake her head
and say,"Ginia, I don't know what the heck I'm going to do with you".
She always called me Ginia you know. She would hold me and scold me.
"Ginia, I will do all I can to help you out of this mess, AGAIN, but
you are in deep doo doo this time". Oh! but, but all I did was sneak
out the window to go chasing up the river with Carol Peterson and her
pals. How was I to knpw Mom would be standing out there waiting for
me to do it. I feel like I am being spied on, don't you think?.

Oh wow! Must haved dozed off a bit and lost my train of thought.
That's not hard to do any more, dozing off I mean.

Any way, didn't get any painting done but I did get a nap until the
thunder woke me up. Hey!, It's raining out there. Boy we really do
need that right now.

Phillip made Goulash for supper and now it is time to eat. Bye now, Granny

Another day

Still looking for rain, I know, I know, soon I'll be wishing we
didn't have so much rain, but for now, we really need some.

Been doing a bit of painting, Still have a ways to go on the two I'm
working on now. Been doing a bit of writing as well. Just a bit of
fiction and fantasy.

Been too hot down on the desert to do any rock hunting. After the
monsoons start, then maybe we will get out and look for arrowheads.

Phillip is working on the garden as usual. The tiny necturine tree
and the peach tree we found up in the woods are loaded with fruit.
Phillp will have to pick some off or the branches will break. he has
been hesitating to do it , because sure as hell we will get a hail
storm that will knock them all off. Last year most of the leaves got
shredded with the hail. Such is life.

Granny

On the desert.