AZ Trip, Day Three

About 50 miles west of Albuquerque, NM, Pat took over the wheel and got us on down the road.  I got out my camera and started taking pictures as I saw things that looked interesting.  Mostly landscape shots.  I took 28 pictures covering the area from when Pat took over to Kingman AZ.  I have cut the group down to 18 that are mostly clear and I hope interesting.

This is I-40 west bound and it is a very busy truck route.

Still in NM here,  Just a landscape shot

More landscape

Made it to AZ.  Interesting rock formation.  Around on the side it is full of holes that birds use to nest in.

Flat open desert area in AZ.

A couple of "animals" we saw along the way. 

The mountain in the hazy distance is east of Flagstaff, AZ.  It usually has a white top of snow this time of year.  Flagstaff has a big ski resort in the area and they don't have any snow yet. 

Made it to Flagstaff, AZ

Starting to go down hill now.  We were up to around 7,000 feet elevation at one time.  You can see all the trucks we had to contend with.

Still going down.  The haziness is caused by smoke from the California fires I think.

Shot of the flat land we are going down to.

We started seeing this sign about every 20 miles when we got into AZ.  As you can see with the blue sky in the background, it was a sunny day.  We never did have any rainy weather or wet roads.  I think the sign guy didn't go into work on Sunday to change the sign.

More going down hill.  The road had a lot of curves.

Just another landscape shot.

Going down.

I liked this hill.

Wide open spaces.

The last shot.

Patrick

NOVEMBER 13TH GRILLING ATTIRE

We had some steak left in the freezer and decided that today was warm enough to grill it.  I needed the stocking hat to protect the new skin on my head that is from my recent treatment to get rid of the skin cancer skin.  It is a little tender in the cool air.  Anyway, we had enough propane to get the steaks cooked and they were good.

I had just put the steaks on the grill.

Checking the time to see when I started the cooking.  They are very thick steaks and take about 15 minutes to be ready.

Patrick

SHOVELING ATTIRE II

Pat has better attire for snow shoveling than mine was as shown in the last blog.  It is a little colder today.  She should have had a hat though.

Pat on the shovel.

Patrick

SHOVELING ATTIRE

This is my shoveling attire for the first snowfall that requires shoveling.  It is around 35 and no wind, so it works well.  The snow is very wet and would make a great snowman.

Patrick

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES

The following group of pictures of our back yard were taken almost exactly 24 hours apart yesterday and today.  They show the before and after of our first snow of this winter.  It isn't as much as predicted, but plenty for now.

The view from out over our deck.

Over the deck with the new snow.

This shows the Gazebo, and the river.

Same as above with snow.

This is the main part of the back yard.  The two trees on the right are the Cherry and Apple trees.

I think the green looked much better.

Patrick

TREES

We have two nice Maple trees in our backyard and they are both in full color now.  Also one other tree that I am not sure what kind it is, but it has turned a deep purple color.  Here are some pictures.

This is the Maple in front of the Gazebo.

This is the same Maple tree again with the other tree that is back and to the right of the Gazebo.

This is the Maple behind our garage with the Pine tree blended in with the Maple.  They are really to close together, but that is the way they were planted many years ago.

Patrick

HERON AND FLOWERS

Yesterday evening we went for a pontoon ride.  During the ride we spied a Heron sitting on top of a boat lift looking real proud.  Got a couple pictures.  After we got home I took some pictures of flowers we have on the back side of the house.


 This is the right profile of the Heron.

This is the left profile of the Heron

This hanging basket flower has been like this most of the summer.  It slowed down for awhile and I gave it a shot of Chicken Poo and it has really come back.

Like the previous flower this one has responded well to the Chicken Poo.  It had completely quit blooming a couple weeks ago.

This is a flower that sits on the ground.  It has maintained the blooms all summer.  I "fed" it also.

 
Patrick

FIRST PICKINGS

Picked the first Tomatoes and Peppers this morning.  They are finally starting to get ripe.  There will be a lot more to come now.

First two tomatoes, one is a Roma  type and two nice Peppers.  Should be more about every day now.

Patrick

TREE REMOVED

We had two trees in the backyard that were originally planted to close together and were starting to interfere with their growth.  So, we had one removed today.  Ralph Hansen came this morning and had the tree down and hauled away in under 30 minutes.  He did a fine job.  Now all this is left is to get the stump removed.  Here are a few pictures.

This is the before picture.  The tree in the middle is the one going down.

Cutting the major limbs that can be reached off first.

Tree all ready to come down now.

The tree is down and he planned and did fall the tree right onto the wagon so that the top could just be cut off and not have to be loaded a piece at a time.   That is Ralph in the red shirt.

Here he is cutting the top off before cutting up the trunk.

All done and ready for the stump grinder.

Patrick

DEER

We have lived here now for 9 years and one other time about 8 years ago we had a deer in our backyard.  Tonight it happened again.  What looked to be about a year old doe was chowing down on our Cherry tree when Pat first saw her.  She yelled at me that a deer was eating our Cherry tree and I wasn't real sure what she said.  I came into the kitchen where I could see the tree and sure enough there was a deer nibbling on the tree.  I grabbed my camera to get a picture figuring she would take off as soon as she saw me.  I took one picture from inside the house and then went outside to scare her away.  She wasn't scared and moved over to nibble on the apple tree.  I went down from the deck into the yard and started toward her.  She just watched me until I was only about 20 feet away and then moved back toward the river.  But, she didn't want to leave and I chased here all the way around the back yard into the front yard and finally into the neighbors front yard.  This chase was at a medium speed walk.  She finally went on up the street the last we saw of her.  Never saw a deer so unafraid before.  Here are the pictures.

 Deer at the Cherry tree.

 At the Apple tree.

Getting close.

The beginning of the chase around and out of our yard.

Patrick

NEW LAWN MOWER

My new Husqvarna lawn mower was delivered today.  It has a 54 inch mower deck and a Briggs and Straton engine.  It is similar to my old one that I traded in.  Has a couple other bells and whistles that will be nice.

This is the old one.

This is the new one.

This is the new one with an operator.

Patrick