1-14-2008
Winter time in the desert

It rained lightly for a couple of days and nights. When I got up in the morning I found the bloodhound over on its side in the mud. The side stand had pushed the rock down into the mud that I had the side stand propped on. It almost bagged the solar panel when it fell over. I propped it back up and leaned it against the pod (trailer) until it dried out some. It started up after a few cranks and smoked a little for a while. When this ground gets wet it can really get soupy. It is really different from that gumbo we have in Montana. Both are slick but this stuff doesn’t stick to your feet/bike tires nearly as bad as that dinosaur shit does.

I got to making a few earrings for a change. I don’t have a lot of ear wires for them but I should be able to pick up some down at the Tucson Gem Show that I will be attending in February.

This is the addition to the community kitchen that Jim Flood has been working on. This is the addition that we poured the slab for.

This space it primarly for the really nice big commercial refrigerator for the community.

I really like the mail box letter flag as well as the cool box next to it for larger packages that need to go our or large things that arrive. I finally got my mail forwarded to me from Miles City and it came here.

One evening I saw a strange outfit pull up the road by my camp and noticed the KLR mounted proudly on top. HEY, that looks like Mark’s bike!!! Yup, it was Mark and his new girlfriend Karen who found a place to get situated in this big campsite. I really like the unusual packing system he ended up with two trailers. I told him that it had all the earmarks of a Rex packing job. It doesn’t look that good but it ‘works’.

We got it rigged up using the loading the ramps for getting the bike trailer off. It worked out well and nobody got hurt.

Next day we suited up and went for a motorcycle ride down to Benson.

From San Manuel the road becomes dirt/gravel and other than some traffic at the start and the washboard surface in spots, it was a really nice ride.

I saw Jim and Gail’s van along the road. I stopped and had a little visit with them. They had been looking at a house for rent not far off the road. They took me over to take a look at it. On the way back I took Mark and Karen over to see it. Photos of the straw bale house down below.

I had to stop and go back and take a picture of the sign on this guys driveway.

We stopped at Reb’s Café in Benson and had a really good lunch. On the way out Karen spotted this ‘by God’ sticker on one of the newspaper vending machines outside.

Here is that straw bale house. This is the south side and it was just about noon here. The sun is really high down here in the south even in the winter. The sun was making it in this sliding door but this house is not planned for trapping solar heat. It does come in on the floor maybe eight feet or so. Up in Montana I am sure the sun is low enough to go way to the back wall. This little house has a nice north covered porch that I am sure would be the place to hang out.

The east wall had a nice outdoor shower right outside the bathroom.

There were a couple of these special tiles, which was a nice touch. The builders did a nice job on this building but it evidently had some problems and looking inside I could see that they must have had problems with the plumbing with this shower. Maybe a freeze broke the pipes? The big door had a lot of work done over the top of it too but I imagine that was structural settling.

The north side of the house.

My latest attempt at raisin nut bread. Oh yeah!!!!!

Sheila is going to come out to Arizona for a visit and when I told her that I had forgotten to bring a seat cushion for her, she asked for a picture and measurement on the size of the area she will need a cushion for. So, here is the picture Sheila and it is 12 inches of space. I had used a boat cushion/floatation device on the old Yellow Dog for her and this bike is set up the same way as that bike with a R100GS seat and rack. This bike is a 1981 R80GS but now it has that seat, rack as well as a gas tank from a R100GS. Looking at it in this photo I see it is finally taking on a rather ratty appearance. I like that. It picked up a nice dust patina from that ride down to Benson with Mark and Karen. I just made a run down to the post office in Winkleman and stopped at the gas station and had a couple of new BMW bikes came in. They sure did look down their noses at the Bloodhound, while I dismissed them as those new fangled oil heads that they were afraid to get dusty.

I wonder what the Homeland Security folks will think of a woman boarding the plane with a crash helmet and a floatation device……….. If that plane should crash over land or water, she will be ready…….