How to spend the winter in Arizona!

As usual, we remain busy, busy, busy! The weather is still holding as incredible as ever. We are now on 61 days of no rain and the temperatures on average about 14 degrees higher than normal. I am not sure what this will mean for Arizona temperatures for this summer but they have already had 2 grass fires this week that the news said doesn't usually start till May!

 Doug and Ann Made a super bowl bet of $1.00 and of course Doug won. Here is Ann passing over the $1.00 plus 25cents interest because she didn't pay him for a week! He figures he did very well considering the exchange rate -if he lost, he was going to pay her with a Looney which would have only given her about 90 cents!

 We went for an afternoon ride for lunch in the desert just out behind where we keep our RV and we saw this beautiful dead saguaro. We decided to cut it down and bring it home to use in our landscaping. Trent and Doug just love doing this kind of thing!

 It wouldn't just push over so they had to dig around the roots a bit and then use their reciprocal saws to cut through the bottom

 It was too funny watching them discuss next steps as it just didn't want to be pushed over even after they cut some of the roots! They have straps around the trunk up high and low as the skeleton will sometimes just fall apart once they are cut

 It finally fell over and Ann is having a close look at the trunk while Craig and Trent look on

 Craig, Trent and Doug proudly showing the fruit's of their labours

 Doug being a "he" man and hauling it back to our ATV. Of course he wouldn't take any help from any of us with carrying it!

 Now comes tying it down on the roof for the trip back to our truck. It really was a beautiful specimen. We have just bleached it to kill any bugs (termites) and clean it up and then we are going to cut about 1/3 of it off and use it as a base for our bird bath and the the taller piece with the beautiful roots will be used to put a planter in. Then the rabbits will have no luck eating my flowers! We have to wrap rope around the base and top of each piece, glue it in piece, I will then coat with clear urethane to protect from the weather and we'll be ready to go! I'll post some pictures in a future blog once we are done.

 On our trip out back we checked on our favorite owl's nest and Momma horned owl is now roosting! We expect the eggs to hatch within a week or so - more pictures will then come

 It wasn't so hot out that we couldn't sit out in the sun for our picnic. Nothing beats sitting out in the peaceful desert with friends having lunch, we usually do this at least once a week. We really do live the good life.

 I still had my Christmas turkey to cook so decided to have a Canadian Christmas in February. Rich from Port Coquitlam, Kerry from Hedley and Doug sitting out on the deck waiting for turkey dinner!

 From left: Pam and Rich, Doug, Kerry and Marg, toasting a good dinner

 This is Doug's idea of a joke for all our friends and family back in the cold! It really wasn't that hot - the sun was shining on the back of the thermometer when he took this picture. We reached 92 degrees in the shade on this day!

 This is another one of Doug's ideas of humour! Teasing Catherine when she was on SKYPE with us by showing her his fresh lemon meringue pie (it's her favorite pie)

 We decided to go on a new ride this past week. It is one we have heard people rave about but we had never done. Just Doug and I and Ann and Trent went as our other friends were not able to come. The ride was to the Salt River Canyon so we had to trailer our ATV's for a 1 1/2 hr ride through Globe which is east of where we live and then we turned north and headed towards Showlow for about 14 miles to the trail head

 I had to take a picture of our clean ATV! Trent washed it for us as he heard me complaining to Doug about how dusty it was! Doug figures there is no use washing it till the end of the season as it will just get dusty again the next ride out! (he's not wrong but.....)

 We were told this was an easy ride other than the trail down to the Salt River. Starting out is seemed that way as it was a nice plowed sandy road. The road initially goes into a few ranched so it is kept up nicely until we get by the last ranch. You can see the different terrain here than down in the valley where we usually ride which is Sonoran desert. Here it is scrub, pinon pines and junipers. A few prickley pear cacti but as the elevation is around 6000 ft here, no other cacti grow

 There were some neat rock formations along the way and you just wonder how the heck they got there!

 You can see how nice the road was, although as we were following Trent and Ann, it was very dusty for us - not good for my allergies I must say. It was right about here a herd of javelinas (7 of them) ran right across the road in front of us but I just wasn't quick enough with the camera to get a picture

 The scenery is very barren here with lots of mountains in the background

 This was one of the ranches we went by down below us. Very isolated but they definitely had wonderful views out every side of the place.

 The road has now become a trail and a rough one at that but the scenery remains awesome

 We finally reached a point where we can see down into the Salt River Canyon. You can see the Salt River below and my comment to Doug was: "okay and now we have to get down to that??"

 This is a little lower down as we descend into the valley below. The trail was really rough as the summer monsoons had washed a lot of it away and on down to the river bottom. No one maintains this trail. Good thing we have good machines and 4 wheel options!

 This picture really doesn't do the trail justice as far as roughness goes! but we are almost down the hill!

 You can see we are getting closer to the water

 Finally! We arrive at the Salt River. Beautiful river with fresh clean water but it indeed is low! Pretty obvious with no rain and no snow in the mountains, it is well below its usual level.

 You can see by the smooth rocks the water has been high in previous years and had to have run briskly to cause these smooth rock formations

 Of course Ann and I had to climb the rocks - Doug just wants his fly rod to try fishing! We are wearing long sleeves to protect ourselves from the sun - not because it is cold!

 Of course Trent has to pretend he is an explorer from long ago!

 You can see a butte in the distance. I just love those formations. Reminds me of old westerns we used to watch as kids!

 We found a nice spot by the river where Doug could have shade and the rest of us sun  to have our lunch.

 This is Ann and Trent posing for a picture for Catherine. They gave her 2 belt buckles for Christmas that Trent made with Arizona stones in them so she knitted them slippers to wear in their RV! She mailed them to us and we gave them to Ann and Trent while we were having lunch

 Our forestry map showed there was a circular route we could take to get back to the main trail so after lunch, we headed out to find it. We are now starting to climb back out of the valley into the mountains

 We are back up into the scrub and pinion pines, juniper bushes

 As we had come further north, we were just opposite the butte and were able to get a good picture. The ridge behind it is called the Mogollon Rim. It extends about 200 miles across Arizona and would normally have snow on it at this time of year!

 We are getting higher and this trail isn't as rough as the other one we had come down so Ann and I were happy with that!

 The trail suddenly ended!! No where to go but back down. We searched around but could not find FR 303A so we had to turn around, go right back to where we had lunch on the river and back up the FR 303B to the main road. Not looking forward to the rough ride back up!!

 This is Ann & Trent ahead of us as we headed back down into the valley bottom

 A better picture of the Mogollon Rim

 Well we made it back up the original trail and are nearly at the top. It actually is better going up the hill as you can't see how far you still have to go down so not as scarey!

 Now we really are back up at the top. It was a truly beautiful ride with very different scenery than we normally have

 If you look really close, you can see wild horses in the distance, one of them is white in colour

This is a closer view of them. There were 4 of them but only three got in the picture. There are many wild horses and burros in the deserts of Arizona and it isn't often you actually get to take a picture of them. We had a wonderful ride, and as it was Valentine's day, the fellows took us to dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant in Superior on our way home.

ATVing with the Christie's!

Our friends Rich and Pam from Port Coquitlam BC are now in Arizona for two months. They are staying in a condo in Mesa that they had us view before they decided to take it. Their daughter Sandra and her fiance Greg were just here for a week and wanted to go ATVing. Of course the week they came turned decidedly cool from the weather we had been experiencing so you'll see from the pictures we are all dressed warmly. The day Sandra arrived was the first cool day and it stayed that way for the whole week they were here! They flew home a week later and the day after they left, the temperature  went back up into the 70's with clear blue skies - go figure! Both Sandra and Greg said it was still warmer than being home in BC! Doug was able to find a rental place in Apache Junction that rented a 4 seater ATV and reserved it for them so they could all go for a ride with us. Since it was cool and we didn't want to head out till about 10am, we chose to ride right out back of the RV park where we leave our RV. We headed back into the mountains towards Superior and Montana Mountain. It was too cool to head all the way up Montana Mountain as the peak is over 6000 ft so we went part way and detoured to visit other sites we knew they would enjoy

 This was in front of our house the day before our ride. We had a beautiful rainbow but no rain! It is now 57 days of no rain!

 Sandra and Greg in our backyard by the only orange tree with any oranges left on it! We have eaten all the rest

 This was the 4 seater Polaris they rented for the day. Trent, Doug and Ann giving them last minute instructions before we head out on our ride.

 We got the dusty position for this ride, riding shotgun to make sure the Christie's didn't have any problems. This is them ahead of us in the 4 seater.

 As we headed out, we saw 4 planes circling around in the area we were heading to. Two were large planes and two smaller. You can see the plane as a small dot in the sky. We thought maybe someone was lost and they were searching for them

 As we got further into the ride, we realized 2 planes were water bombers and 2 were the spotter planes and they were practising dropping a load on a target. We could see the bright orange plastic laid out on the mountain side they were using as a target. You can see the water bomber and the spotter plane off to the right of it. The next picture is a video I took of the bomber practicing a drop. They just used smoke thankfully as they were skimming right over our heads! I had to delete the first video even though it was good because I forgot the video was on and when the bomber skimmed over the hill right above us, I used a few very explicit words not suitable for the general public as it startled me and looked like it was coming right into the ATV!!

It was fun watching the planes although we think they need this practice as it is going to be a very dry, hot summer since the winter rains just haven't come! It is so dry and dusty out in the desert and when we come in we look like zombies we have such a thick layer of dust all over our bodies and our ATV's.  My hair and Doug's mustache are usually a rusty red colour!

 Our friends from left: Rich, daughter Sandra, Pam and Sandra's fiance Greg. Rich is looking pretty spiffy with his goggles still on! He looks like he is ready to go swimming

 I couldn't resist this shot - Doug taking a picture of me as I took his and Trent's picture

 This was the hill side we explored to see if any of the marble had broken lose. It is a shelf of Christmas tree marble (green and red marble) that is absolutely gorgeous. We couldn't really get any samples as nothing had fallen away. With out the heavy winter rains, everything was holding firm

 Doug back at our ATV parked below the marble shelf

 We headed off to our next destination via a wash and it was fun to ride down at the bottom of the hill for a change

 As usual, the mountains were beautiful and each one unique in shape and colour

 A large windmill out in the middle of nowhere! It is used to pump water into a storage area for the cattle roaming out here in the desert

 Another neat mountain view, it continues to amaze us that everything is so green when there has hardly been any rain since we arrived in November - maybe 1/2 inch being generous!

 An old mining shaft the fellows just had to go in to have a look! I was happy to stay outside and take pictures. I could hear the bats chirping inside and see all the animal droppings on the wall rocks and floor!

 The guys went in quite aways

 Doug and Greg looking at who knows what!

 We set up for lunch right outside the mine. From left: Sandra with her head turned away, Pam, Rich, Doug and Ann 

 These are the better half of the group ! Ann, Sharon, Pam and Sandra

 The whole motley crew! From left: Trent, Ann, Sharon, Rich, Pam, Sandra, Greg and Doug

 As you can see, a cloudy dull day but still a fun ride

 Of course we have mountains, saguaros and red rock all around us

 Picket Post Mountain in the distance. It is just south of Superior AZ

The Christie's coming down the hill towards us. We had a terrific, fun day. A good ride and it gave Sandra and Greg just a small taste of the beautiful land we explore on a weekly basis! I figured I would end this blog with a short video Doug took as we were driving home. I was doing the driving and he was behind the camera. The Christies are in front of us.

We are heading out on a ride tomorrow for a full day with Ann and Trent. We are going on a new ride in the Salt River Canyon about 15 miles east of Globe AZ. It will be about an hours tow to the beginning of the trail so hopefully I'll get some good pictures for my next post