12-16-07
Windspirit camp life

The cows were back in camp and lunching on the pad cactus. There really isn’t much else for them eat and they don’t seem to mind the spines.

There have been some messy a$$hole campers here again. I finally got almost all the beer cans and bottles picked up but I need to get these shotgun shells picked up too. I haven’t looked but I would imagine there are lots of broken clay pigeons down off the ridge. There is a lot of broken glass in the fire ring too. It is really too bad some people have to be so trashy.

I had to go in and get a new tire for the pickup. I was amazed by this huge elk head mount in the office. The owner said he got this monster here in Arizona. He said it is one of the top twenty in the world for non typical.

I was on my way back to camp from getting the tire I met a cop going the other way. The road is marked as a 55MPH zone but hardly anyone goes that slow. I was just dogging it along at a little over 60 and was surprised to see the cop hit his brakes and make a u turn and hit the blue lights. Damn, he had me dead nuts going faster than the limit but sheesh, it seemed like I was within limits. Well he walked up and said that I wasn’t doing anything wrong but he noticed that my windshield was cracked. True, it has been that way for four or five years but it wasn’t cracked up in the zone where I looked out of. I knew it was useless to point that out so just sat there and accepted a ‘fix it’ ticket. At least it isn’t going to cost me money for the ticket. I asked one of the mechanic shops in town where I could get a windshield and they sent me downtown to what I thought was a real jerk. I went to another guy and he said go see Lonny at this little body shop behind the Circle K. It turns out that Lonny was one of the Harley bikers that I met last year down in Winkleman last year at a gas station. Both these guys are serious Harley guys and really don’t think much of a BMW dog but were really good at changing windshields. It only took them about fifteen minutes to do the job. All this happened in the middle of a little side street out front of their shop. They gave me a much better deal than that jerk downtown. Cash American dollars without a receipt can get a person a better deal……..

I missed getting a photo of a guy in the parking lot that I met at the Safeway store. He came up to me after seeing the license plate on my motorcycle. It was really hard to understand him as he was speaking a really heavy accent that I am not sure just what it was. I think it might have been Apache/Spanish but not sure. He was saying something about Montana but I didn’t understand exactly what. He had the most amazing tattoos all over the exposed parts of his body. I asked him where he got those cool tattoos. He said he got them in Montana!! Wow, I said, where in Montana? In the State Prison he said!!!

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This is a huge mine spoil pile along the highway right across the street from the Wal-Mart store. I worked at this mine back in 1969 when I came down from Alaska on my motorcycle. I worked as a geophysical tech and worked in the backcountry all over the southern part of the state one winter. At that time this pile was in use but now they are trying to ‘reclaim’ these piles all over the state. I am sure the government must be making them do this reclamation work. In this high visibility spot they are using intensive rotational grazing on these little fields. This is what we did on our farm on the Tongue River but we were doing it on flat ground, which looks like it was a bunch easier than this almost vertical field. The system I am sure still works the same and I am sure that the mining company doesn’t need to make money like we had to. 

Ahh, fine food here in camp!!! These are some of the citrus that I picked off the trees and a really nice batch of ‘Tova’s wholesome oaties’ that I made all myself. Tova was really nice to let me have the recipe, as these are my ‘most favorite’ cookies of all time.  Sheila asked if I can make bread and cookies, what do I need her for? I am sure I will think of something…….

There were several days of light rain. I went over the pass to Globe the day before this photo was taken and I ran into a little snow on the top of the pass, which is about five thousand feet. I think the camp here is about 3500 feet so it is a 1500 foot climb over the pass and down into Globe. This is in twenty miles of one of the nicest roads. It really is too bad they have the speed limit at just 55 as I know it is a road that can be easily ridden at 90. I learned that last year while riding with a guy on a 1150GS BMW. When we got to the top of the pass he pulled over and asked it I usually rode that fast? Well, “No, I said, I was just being friendly and staying with him.” After that 4000-mile trip to Florida and back I will have to say the best part of the road trip was the last part from Globe to camp. It is a popular motorcycle road for riders from both Phoenix and Tucson. They make a little round about trip back home using this road. I will have to say that most of the bikes are Harleys and I can hear them huffing up the hill with their loud pipes. Sometimes I can hear some of the crotch rockets screaming up the hill as well. 

I have been working on my bench making jewelry again. I made a batch of copper hair clips that I donated to the Windspirit community. I really like to make stuff out of copper especially now that I am back in Arizona, the ‘Copper State’.  They have built a nice little gift shop that they started last year when I was here. It is almost done now and there are a few things in it. I think mostly they have community members display their stuff for sale but I want to donate my stuff so anything they can get for them will go for community needs. I go down and use their computer hookup/wifi as well as I used their oven in the cook shack for making bread and cookies. The members are required to pay a rent as well as do community work projects. 

I went down today and helped pour a little pad for an extension of the cook shack. (photo down below) I guess I shouldn’t call it a cook shack, it is probably better described as a community kitchen.

I made a quick run down to Winkleman for some milk for breakfast and saw this nice little rod across the street from the little grocery store.

I was working on the bench and had this idea of making something for Sheila’s dog. I hope she will like it (the dog). I doubt if it will have much smell unless I can find some sort of road kill to rub it with before I send it. (Sheila: don’t let on to Spice Dog)

I volunteered for a little concrete project that one of the residents had started. His name is Jim and he is originally from Boston where he worked as a union sheet metal worker. He and his wife Gail have been here for quite a while and are serious communal type folks. They tried a communal development down in Tucson but that really didn’t turn their crank. They seem to like it here but as with any situation there are things that they would like to do different. It is really interesting to see the interactions of the community. It is a constantly changing community and social interactions.

Another batch of bread came out of the oven just perfect!! I pulled off part of the batch and kneaded in some raisins and nuts.

Life is good in the desert......