4-20-11
Cold and Hot
It had been really hot and had almost broken, or at least tied, the hot weather temps in the area. It was probably in the mid 90’s here at camp when a cold front blew in and dumped a little snow on the top of the hills not too far above where I camp. There was a little rain over night but not enough to really make the ground that muddy. Well, I guess that is not totally accurate, because I took the truck, as it would not have been safe to ride the bike on those little greasy patches on the road.
I have been using the old desert dog trick of putting a wet towel on the contents of my cooler and leaving the top open. The water evaporating from the towel keeps the food chilled down during the day and it even works better at night, down here in this dry desert. Well, a damn squirrel found it and dove right in and helped himself to a bag of pizza dough that was under the towel, chilling out. I went down to the commune and borrowed a trap and it took me a couple of days, but I finally caught the little rascal. I was going to bring him/her down to the commune and let one of the cats have fun with it, and hopefully eat it, but then decided that they might want the cats to be vegetarians. So, what to do with it? I thought of just stabbing it and tossing it out for the buzzards, that are busy working in the area. That would have worked well, but then decided that I would just take it on a motorcycle ride and deliver it to a little camp ground down near Winkelman when I rode down that way to get my daily ice cream bar. Oh, they have some really nice Mexican juice and ice cream bars down there for a buck, that are well worth the ride down on these beautiful warm days. I am not sure what he/she thought of the ride but sure took a huge jump and scurried off to the trees when I opened the door on the trap.
I was walking by the bike and noticed that it was leaking gas from the carburetor. Well I dropped the sediment bowl and checked the float and every thing seemed to be fine, but when I turned the gas back on, it leaked again. After getting my glasses on I could see that there was a little damage to the plastic gas line (damn squirrel:?). I racked my little brain and finally went thru my emergency stash of fix it stuff and found a stick of epoxy that you cut off a little piece and knead it up for a minute and it will set up in four minutes. I remember that they said that you could use it for fixing gas tanks, which is why I bought it, in case I dropped the bike and poked a hole in the tank. Well, I can say that it works on soft plastic fuel lines too. I don’t know how much bending and flexing it would take to make it leak again but for now, it works fine. (note: Amigo Bob,,,, order some more fuel line.) I guess you can see that I have been doing a little off pavement riding. J
Actually here is a stop on the way down to see my friends that is one of those dirt roads. I stopped at this nice Aeromotor windmill to take a break and walk around a little.
I sure like these signs to help remind folks that the wild animals need and depend on these water sources.
I have been down this road a few times but this time it was in the worst shape that I have seen it. It was almost all really bad washboard, but I find that if you go fast enough, it smoothes things out pretty good.
This is Jim and Gail’s new straw bale home that they are building. Jim said that they just finished putting up the framing a week or so ago.
The north side of the house will be a nice shady place to hang out in the summer.
This is the east end of the house that will be screened in and be the summer kitchen.
The south wall, you can see the two-foot thick wall that the straw bales will sit on.
The west end has a little loft.
It looks like this will be a nice place to hang out.
This big wash goes up to the far hills where there is a fancy hot spring.
I followed on down the road and passed this dairy cow operation. It sure is different than what they do down in New Zealand where the cows go out in the fields and chew off their own grass and have nice grass to lay down on.
I made it down to Benson and stayed the night with Bob Barnaby (the guy that I helped pour the floor in the last dog log). This Century plant, or Agave, had just started shooting up its flower stalk. The plants grow for many years and when they flower like this, they die. Bob said this was about a three day growth on this stalk. After this big guy dies, those little pups around the base will grow big and do this all over again in a few years.
Bob had found a R100GS Bumble Bee for sale on Craigslist. We went over to a casino where this guy was camping out in the parking lot. It turned out to be a really rough old dog and ended up a no sale.
It was interesting to see that he was cooking with a solar oven that he had sitting on the back of his bike trailer.
That sure got me wound up to go see the 29th annual Solar Potluck that is held just north of Tucson at the State park. It is free to go in and look around and visit with the folks. There were a lot of old gray beards there and I suppose they have been doing it for thirty years. This is an amazing collection of solar cookers.
This big trough oven behind these folks has a solar panel that runs a little fan that the guy says keeps the oven temperature more even.
He had two pizzas in the oven as well as a batch of cookies. The pizzas were really looking good and were even toasted brown around the edges. This thing must get really hot.
Two
simple little cookers made with cardboard and some aluminum lath covered with reflective foil.
One of the antique cookers on display.
It sure was a nice group and always nice to find live music.
Fried potatoes didn’t talk long with this reflector.
This guy could take endless hard pets, and loved them.
This guy made this oven with some left over plastic panels that are reflective that he got from the airport. He didn’t know what they used them for but it made a nice cooker.
This is a big Frensel lense cooker. It focuses on a small spot and was charring that piece of wood.
Solar guys and their toys. Great idea eh?
The guy said this oven could be either used as a solar one or plugged in and cook that way with electricity. They had big solar panels and battery for it.
another old one.
The food sure did look good..
This one sure was a fun project for someone.
I bet this is major heat in a hurry.
They were going to open the cookers and feed everyone at five and I was there about four. It would have been nice to stay and eat, visit and all but I was really tired and just felt I needed to get back to camp. It was a perfect day for solar cooking and motorcycle ridding. J Time to think about heading up to Nevada I think, where it wont be so hot.
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