1-14-04

insert here the post from ‘somewhere’

I stopped in to get some food at the grocery store and these bronze pigs were ‘rooting’ around.

I went up the road to Globe and stopped off at the Dripping springs road to drop off the pod. About half a mile in off the highway there is a nice little camp site not too far off the road. Somebody had left a nice pile of wood for a campfire that needs to be burned. J I can do that for them.

I headed into town and I saw that the chamber of commerce office was open. I went in and sent the road log posts that you all should have gotten. I think they came through with photos, at least the post that I sent to myself came back with the small photos. I took  the option of sending the photos small and not very high quality so they would load quickly and not take up too much space in your mail box. If there are any complaints, please let me know and I will take you off my mailing list. If you want a better photo and I can, I will send you a larger more detailed one. You might have to wait until I get back home or have a phone line hookup other than the chamber office. I hate to over use that resource.

The town was very busy as it was some sort of historical festival days this weekend. There was a historic house tour going on, so I paid up and went on the tour. They ferried us around in nice new little vans form house to house. We visited the old territorial jail, an adobe house, small Victorian, craftsman, the grave yard and several other building that have been restored or fixed up with the historical parts saved. I had a chance to get all over town on this tour and meet several of the local people. It is a nice friendly town. Thirty five years ago, it wasn’t that friendly, to a hippie type on a motorcycle. I forgot to take a lunch so I hit Roberto’s for lunch. Great food here and plenty cheap.

This is a rock house that we visited. This was by far the best house we toured. The house was made from rock quarried on the Indian reservation and evidently European craftsmen were imported to build it. The wood work and detail was stunning. It reminded me of the old craftsman style house that Mark and Emma bought in Miles.  Below is the fence around the place as well as the detail of the gate lock. This must be the oldest Cyclone fence I have ever seen. It is very nice iron work and I see where they got their good name. Its too bad they don’t make em like  they used to.

Someone had replaced the lever and now they use a chain to lock it.

someone had replaced the lever and now they use a chain to lock it.

The pass over the hill from Globe to Dripping Springs is really steep. On the way down there are two or three gravel emergency truck ramps for runaway trucks that loose their brakes. On the way down the hill I saw a propane truck that was up a ramp and there was a big tow truck pulling him out. I’ll bet that guys asshole was puckered when he hit that ramp. He may also be a regular at church for a few weeks.

I got back to camp and set up my work bench and got thing somewhat organized. E dog and I went for a ride/run up the little road that goes up the ridge. I think e dog is either retaining moisture or the puppy nibbles are starting to put a lot of size to her middle. It could be that she hasn’t gotten enough exercise since we were camped in town. I may have put on a little too. I guess we both need a little more exercise.

2-15-04

I started pounding on silver and some copper pieces early in the morning and kept it up all day other than a nice nap. I think it was just about the most perfect day here in the desert. If it would have been any warmer I would have had to find some shade. I took a photo of the cactus here in camp this morning. This is pad cactus and chain fruit cholla.

e dog has been either extremely lucky or there is some instinct that keeps her out of the cactus. The cholla drops small sections of the stickiest cactus you can imagine. If you even get near it, it will attach itself to you and the spines are very painful. So far she hasn’t been attacked but it is not pretty when a dog is covered in them. I have had to almost shoot one of my Ridgebacks to get them off. I should have a pair of those tongs used in cooking but I have used two sticks before. As you can see it is starting to green up a little here.

2-16-04

I worked on silver again today and went down mid morning to see Lowell who is the guy I met a couple of weeks ago that took me to see some property that was for sale. He was gone said a guy that lives across the street at Wind Sprit which is the hippie commune. I cant remember the guys name but he happened to mention that they let people take showers for two bucks. I came back latter in the afternoon and  just caught Lowell as he was leaving with his brother and their wives for supper. Lowell took me across the street and introduced me to Kim who was making a birthday cake for  one of the people that live there. She got me lined out on the shower and had me use their biodegradable shampoo and soap. She said they were fussy about that. That was fine with me and the shower was hot and the bath house was clean. I went down after my shower and had a visit with Kim. She said that there were about ten people that live there but  not all were there at any one time since they have to go out to work  to get money. she goes to Tucson to work as a gardener as well as some sort of facilitator for events and only does it on  her own hours and not steady work. She has worked on farms in Switzerland  and Germany and is very informed on open pollinated seed and organic growing. She told me that I should walk around the place and there are fifteen hundred fruit and nut trees on the place. It is seventeen acres and it is really a special place. There is a olive grove on the way to the bath house and under the canopy are several citrus trees. The grapefruit are like big oranges and on my walk around the place I almost foundered myself on oranges and tangerines. The dwelling are very crude and it doesn’t look like anybody had building skills or money to spend on cabins. Kim lives on the bus village which is several old school busses made into homes. My  favorite was a half dugout that  had beautiful rock work underground and wattle and daub walls. The roof was a mess and Kim said that the guy that built it was from Spain and wouldn’t allow any help in building it, and didn’t have building skills. In fact the roof fell in twice and they forbade him to live in it anymore. There are several yurts and domes as well as tents and hobo shacks. There is a composting toilet and little trails that go all over. All along the trails are nice little sculpture items and there are special spots that  look like group gathering areas. There are several garden areas and the peas are in bloom now and they are eating greens out of the garden. There is a small, half in the ground, green house that is doing well. There are water lines and hoses all over the place and I saw one of the most scary wiring jobs I have ever seen. It seems  like all the citrus will go to waste. I imagine that there is so much around the area that they cant sell it. Or maybe they are too lazy to pick it. I see some of the trees fruit is weird looking so maybe it is diseased or not true to type and started from seed????

I’ll head into town tomorrow and hopefully get this sent off and pick up any stray email I may receive ( did you remember to write?) and hopefully my snail mail if they found it.

Here is a photo of some of the recent hair clips that I have been working on. I had a special request for an owl hairclip and it is hard to see but this one is influenced by a coin I saw from Rome that dated from 500-250 B.C. that has an owl on one side and Athena on the other. They seem to always go together the guy who was selling the coins said. The old coins are really cool. Oh, I have a small token that I found in Goldfield many yeas ago that was from a saloon in Sawtell, California that was owned by Virgil Erp.  Who was Wyatt Erps brother. There was a company at the show that auctions off antiques and I saw that  they had some tokens that they were going to sell. I told him that I had that token and he said that they would be happy to sell it for me. It should bring between three and seven THOUSAND dollars!!!!!  Holly cow, I gotta try to find it in all that junk I have stashed.

reflective surfaces are really hard to photograph. I worked this photo over which helped, but I need to work on my camera skills.

Kim said that there were dwarf owls as well as burrowing owls here. While I was over at Lowells place I saw what I thought were little baby doves, but he said that they are Aztec doves. Lowell has a bird feeder as well as a small water fountain with pond to attract birds which he photographs. He said that there are four kinds of doves here. Ring neck, mourning, white wing and  the Inca.