This is one of our orange trees (Navel orange) and there are plenty of oranges on it. They are just starting to turn orange and should be ready about Christmas time. They are huge also which means all our trimming and fertilizing is working!
We got all our patio furniture out so we could sit out and enjoy the sun. Trouble is, we are so busy down here it is hard to find time to sit out in the sun! I have started back going to my aerobics class two mornings a week and I am also leading a water aerobics class 6 mornings a week so that uses up a lot of time. I go down to the club house Thursday evenings for a couple of hours to ladies craft night. We all sit around doing our own projects and just visit. This time of year all us winter residents get caught up on the permanent residents lives and of course all the gossip!
This is my lemon tree we planted 2 years ago and this is the first crop of lemons from it. The poor little tree is so loaded the lemons are almost touching the ground. Doug can't wait for his lemon pies and lemon loafs!
We went out to where we leave our ATV and cargo trailer and unloaded the ATV,. Doug checked out the motor, added the battery back into the ATV, added oil and we were ready to take it for a test run. We went out into the Sonoran desert for a couple of hours, found a lovely Palo Verde tree for shade, got out our lawn chairs and had a lovely lunch out in the desert. We just love being out in the ATV and in the desert.
It has been fun connecting again with all our friends and our riding group made a date for our first long ride for Wednesday this week. We planned to leave at 0830 in the morning and spend the day riding in the back country
This is just a picture of us going thrugh what we call Sherwood Forest on our way to the base of Montana Mountain. There we 8 ATV's and we were riding with some different people this time. We knew everyone but had never rode with some of them so it was fun to have new members in our riding group. We were heading for the town of Superior, would cross the freeway and head up Picket Post mountain. We planned to circumvent it from about half way up, visit a few old mines and then head home.
This was our group stopping for a stretch break. See what a beautiful day it was? Most people are wearing jackets just to protect themselves from the dust. It was so dry and dusty out there it didn't take long before we were all coated with red dust!
That's Picket Post mountain in the back ground that we are heading to. It is going to be a hot day as by 10 am we were already roasting
Dust doesn't look too bad in this picture but it really was. By mid morning we were all filthy and looked like we hadn't changed our clothes in months. Doug's white beard was no longer white: it had a reddish tinge for sure!
Looks like we are headed away from Picket Post but we are heading up to visit an historic cemetery out here in the desert and then we will circle around and come back to the mountain.
We have just arrived at the Historic Pinal Cemetery.
There was a great sign explaining about the cemetery
This was the view of Picket Post mountain from the cemetery
One of the old headstones from the late 1800's. Most of the headstones were for very young children or young adults. Obviously people didn't live long lives back then!
This headstone the writing was totally faded so you really couldn't read it.
We presumed there must still be family around that erected these metal pipes around their loved one's grave to prevent people walking or riding over it. Apparently it has only been in the last year that a fence has been erected around the cemetery to try and prevent vandalism.
This was one of the nice headstones, many were just old wooden crosses as I showed above.
This was Wyatt Earp's common law wife (she was a prostitute) and as the headstone says: she committed suicide! Rather interesting to see it written on the headstone
We had to drive past the gypsum mine in Superior to get out to the freeway and across to head up Picket Post Mountain.
We've stopped for another break and some food. One thing about us "oldies" most of the guys need frequest bathroom breaks so we can get out and stretch our legs
We have come to a spot that looks down into a beautiful canyon. The guys are looking over the edge.
You can see there must be a sping down in the canyon bottom as there are nice green deciduous trees growing.
I'm looking pretty clean and tidy! Dopug kept telling me to "back up a bit"
He's looking just a spiffy as I am and I think he looks like one of the old prospectors that roamed these mountains!
The view as we are heading around the mountain
The rock outcroppings are always so neat to look at
We are on the other side of Picket Post mountain now and have a very different view
We found a spring fed pond that the cattle use for watering so we stopped for a short break here. It is hot enough by now we were ready to go skinny dipping!
Us ladies are taking a break and eating our lunch or at least they are1
You can see the road ahead we will be taking as we head to the other side of the mountain and then home
We found an old miner's shack up on a hill so had to go up and have a look. They at least had a great view
This is where we parked and then hiked up to the cabin
You can just see the old mine entrance below the cabin. It was an old silver mine.
The guys returning to their ATV's after viewing the cabin and mine
We are heading off to oue next adventure
From up here you can see the gypsum mine in the distance that we had driven paqst about 3 -4 hours earlier so we are coming full circle.
The road just wanders on around the mountain. You can see how beautiful the day was. About 32 degrees by mid afternoon so we were drinking lots of water
We came up to the Ajax Silver Mine. It has been decommissioned for many years but the mine still provides quite a commanding view. This was the last picture I took from this ride. We arrived back home again about 5pm so was a long day but very enjoyable. We all went home had showers and then went out for Chinese food. All and all a very good week for our first week back. We live the good life!
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