MAX IS BACK IN ACTION:))

 

Max is 100% back to his good old doggy self to-day.  He was the first one out the door on our walk this morning & he's been out & about all day long with the rest of the gang.  And he's really enjoying his newly trimmed paws all way round.  The big black Corky dog came for the day & Max was right over there showing the Cork boy his newly trimmed nails.  Pretty proud fellow & he had a swagger in his walk for the whole day.

CORKY’S MOM HANDING OUT DOGGY TREATS TO A FOUR LEGGED GANG OF RUFFIANS

Big sunny skies are back bringing the temps up but the gusting winds made it jacket weather just the same.  Don't think we got down below freezing last night either because of some cloud cover.  Geeeezzzz, how can you tell I'm Canadian eh!!  Always going on about the weather, that's how:))

Finally got to bed after 11 last night after having to re-copy the blog from Live Writer to Blogger for the umpteenth time in the last couple of months.  I was pretty upset again to say the least & if I didn't like blogging so much I'd pack it in find something else to occupy my time.  But, I enjoy writing & photography which goes hand in hand with RVing so it would be pretty hard for me to just walk away from it at this stage.  Easiest thing would be to use Blogger again like I always used to but once you have used Live Writer it's simply a more funner way to do things & I'm hooked on it.  I have no idea whatsoever what is causing our Live Writer errors & I don't have the patience or interest to track the problem down either.  Kelly already has spent a few hours on it as well as some fellow bloggers.  I actually started out first thing this morning to un-install it & then re-install it.  I couldn't even get to first base on figuring out how to un-install it because I think it's imbedded into Windows Live which in itself has become increasingly confusing to me with all it's fancy schmancy new e-phone kneephone email programs, texting schmexting, live monsoon messenger, my space cry space, & who all knows whatever other kid's techno pop crap they've crammed in there.......etc. etc.  Well, at least it's not as bad as that silly symphony gooey gamed Facebook yet!!!!!  Ya, ya, I know........

<<< Kelly got this Turkey on sale over in Bisbee for only 8 dollars.  Had it to-day & now we have enough left over for Turkey a-la-king, Turkey souffle’ Turkey muffins, Turkey Torte, Turkey pudding with butterscotch sauce & a nice Turkey Flambe’  Oh ya, & some cold turkey sandwiches to boot:))

Read me another big hunk of 'me 'n Henry this afternoon & am really enjoying the book.  A very realistic view of a poor farm family's struggle to survive with a large family back in the 20's, 30's & 40's.  I grew up somewhere in between that depression era & this pathetic mess we are presently in & it angers me to no end when I see how far the attitudes of youth & morals of society have declined.  This book has reminded me of that over & over again!!

SOMETIMES……THINGS ARE NOT QUITE WHAT THEY SEEM:))

I was reading some RV blogs this morning & a link in MIKE & PAT'S TRAVELS caught my eye.  An RV couple came very close to losing their lives in an armed hold-up of their rig recently.  Just goes to show that the slime ball low life are always out their lurking somewhere.  It happened at an RV campground at an RV repair facility in Elkhart, Indiana.  We were there two winters ago when we had a new screen door installed so it hit a little closer to home for us when I read it.  Also in Mike's blog he talks about an RV fire in their park in which a Class A was gutted.  Looks like it may have started in the furnace when the folks were away.

CHECKERS IS TEMPORARILY ON A LEASH THIS MORNING BECAUSE SHE KEEPS WANTING TO WANDER OFF & SEE THE NEIGHBOR’S DOG

And a little note to our usual 'jokes' friends.  While we're traveling we don't send or receive jokes because they totally eat up our limited 5 Gig Verizon limit.  I do save them but we can't look at them.  And yes, despite recent changes in our internet habits we are still going to be waaaaaay over our 5 Gig limit again this month.  I think they must have a program running whereupon for every megabyte we use they assess us 10!!

Going to keep the blog shorter to-night & see how I make out with Live Writer or whatever the heck the problem is.  Besides, I'm feeling a little ranty again & that is not always a good thing for a travel blog......if ya know what I mean.........10-4!!

GROANER'S CORNER:((  What do you call a sheep with no legs?  A cloud:))

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The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now....AL.

SOME FELLOW CANADIANS DROPPED IN TO-DAY

To-night's photos I will entitle....'Ice Castles.'

As soon as I saw the cloud cover this morning I knew we were in for a cold day because the air's been nippy & it has only been the sun's rays keeping things warm this past while. I turn the ranch's water off each night & disconnect our rig's water hose. There is an extensive irrigation system here so it's important not to have above ground water pipes freeze.

Thelma & Don (Skip) rolled into the ranch about 10:30 in their Honda CRV. As mentioned in last night's blog they are Canadian snowbirds from Ottawa who like us, enjoy traveling the American southwest. They enjoy staying at State Parks & traveling without a heavy duty itinerary. Like us, they kind of go with which ever way the wind is blowing. They have been following our blog for a couple years & it was nice to meet them to-day. They had been hoping to see a sky full of Sandhill cranes but as luck would have it there were only a couple of distant flocks about a mile or so to the west making their way back to the Whitewater Draw. Too cold to sit outside so we had ourselves a visit in the rig. Thelma & Don wanted to stop into the town of Bisbee on their way back to their rig at Kartchner Caverns so headed out about 12:30. Nice folks & it was nice to meet them. Safe travels folks & may our trails cross again:))

At 10 o'clock last night Max was still unable to stand up despite looking better in the afternoon. His appetite was back but he hadn't gone to the washroom since early morning so we were a bit concerned. About 3 a.m. I was awakened by a whimper & he was on his feet by the door. He was able to go down the steps ok & outside for a little walk around & a whiz. Sure was cold out there in my pajamas!! He didn't want to go for a walk this morning & has spent most of the day snoozing. His mobility is back but he's just a very tired boy. Hopefully he will be spunkier to-morrow. And thanks to Gypsy for your email to-day:))

(click photos to enlarge)

Because of the drab day we opted to just stay in for the afternoon & relax. Several weeks ago one of our fellow bloggers had commented on one of our visits to Bisbee & mentioned a book & bookstore. We did look for that old bookstore but it was long gone. We did remember the book mentioned in the blog & a few days ago Kelly picked it up at the Elfrida library. I started reading "me 'n Henry about 1 p.m. & by the time I put the book down a few hours later I was on page 137. I had read about half the book. That's the way I used to read many books, many years ago, & it was nice to get into a book again that captured & held my attention right from the first page. Not a book you would find on any best seller's list & not a book any of the modern generation would be interested in. This is a book about real people & real times told in a simple manner by a fellow who grew up in the hard mining times of the very area we are in right now. 'me 'n Henry" is a book about two boys as they grew up in Cochise County on the old family homestead when Arizona was a brand new state. Each of author Walter Swans stories are short, exciting, humorous, & sad all at the same time. It's an easy to understand read & for those of us out here in the Senior years we can identify with many of the happenings, understand how & why things were the way they were, & live right along with Walter through his growing up years near the mining town of Bisbee, Arizona.

BITS FROM BILL has an interesting post to-day about Facebook & some of it's affiliates security issues. Both Kelly & I have Facebook accounts but we treat them differently than many folks we see on there. Neither of us have any interest whatsoever in all that game stuff & we totally avoid joining any of the countless applications.  We keep getting invitations to this & that & I can't hit my ignore button fast enough regardless of who is sending them.  Nothing personal against the folks who like these kinds of things but they just are not our cup of tea.  I don't like the television game shows either.  We're not Casino people so I think there is something there that goes hand in hand with that games mentality. Anyway, it is these many so called 'fun' things that are compromising peoples security. Gee, who could have seen that one coming huh!!  I do suggest you slip on over to Bill's site & have a look at what he has to say. I do have a Tweet account too but for the life of me I cannot figure out what is so darn popular about it. I think it's probably tied in with the cell phone & texting craze. Don't even get me started on what I think about......texting!!!!  I don't call myself a Cursmudgeon for nothing you know!!

A year ago to-day we were near Silver City, New Mexico visiting historic HISTORIC FORT BAYARD & two years ago we had just left Dead Horse Park in Cottonwood, Arizona heading for HICKIWAN TRAILS near Why, Az. We ended up putting a little website to-gether for Hickiwan while there & included a bunch of our photos on the site that I taken around there in the past few years. We will always remember our early morning desert walks at Hickiwan.

I saw snow on Mexico's Naco Peak south of us this afternoon & can still see snow northeast of us in the Chiricahua mountains so we may have to wait until things warm up a bit before returning once again to the Chiricahua National Monument's hiking trails. Hope to get down to Belle Star's ranch this coming week sometime too. Also want to do a night trip to Bisbee & photograph the lights. I would like to have a look at Tombstone by night as well. And another run over to Sierra Vista is in the works too. Gotta keep Al busy you know:))

GROANER'S CORNER:(( Don't spend 2 dollars to have a shirt dry cleaned. Donate it to the Salvation Army. They'll clean it and put it on a hangar. Next morning you can buy it back for 75 cents.

Live Writer, or our connection, or this laptop computer failed to publish the blog again to-night so I've just spent an additional hour wrestling the whole thing over to Blogger yet again!!!!  It's times like this that I just feel like throwing in the towel on this whole blogging thing..............................
. 
THIS IS WHERE I FOUND THE ICE CASTLES THIS MORNING

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The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now....AL.

MY SMUG MUG (I am finally working on updating this site)

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BIT OF A STRESSFUL DAY AS MAX GETS HIS NAILS TRIMMED

 

OUR NUMBER ONE BOY, MAX

Due to recent rains the muddy roads had made quite a mess out of our car.  For the second time in a month I was out with a hose, water bucket, & a sponge this morning scrubbing all that muddy clay mud off.  The interior had about as much dust as the exterior had mud so the inside of the care came under a major clean up as well.

 

SEE, I TOLD YOU THERE WAS A MOLAR PATROLER:))

(click the photos to enlarge them)

Several weeks ago we had taken ranch dog Gleeson over to Hereford for her rabies shot.  While there we had talked to the Vet about getting our dog Max's nails clipped but knew it was going to have to be a special effort.  Several years ago he had an ear infection & when we brought him to the Vet back in Canada it took 4 of us to hold him while the Vet swabbed the ear.  The rabies clinic Vet gave us some anti-anxiety pills plus a tranquilizer & made an appointment for Max to-day at noon at the Vet's home in Douglas, Arizona.  We gave Max the pills at 11 & they acted so quickly I didn't get him into the car soon enough & had to carry him out of the motorhome about 5 minutes later.  We were at the mobile High Desert Veterinary clinic by 11:45 & Max was pretty groggy.  Michael John, the Vet, came out & we slipped a muzzle on Max.  He still managed a growl at us even under the sedation.  We got him on his side in the hatchback of the car & the Vet carefully got Max's nails trimmed without incident.  I was holding Max's head just in case & all the while he was having his nails down his teeth were bared inside the muzzle.  Had it not been for that muzzle & sedation both the Vet & myself would be in the Douglas hospital to-night with cuts, scrapes, scratches, contusions, abrasions, deep punctures, & severe bruising!!   Thanks to a kind & caring Vet the whole procedure went off with much less stress than we had anticipated.  We had been worrying about this for days & we were all stressed out this morning.

   

WAITING WITH MAX AT THE VET’S, TRIMMING THE NAILS, & MAX RESTING IN THE BACK OF THE CAR BACK AT THE RANCH

Made it back to the ranch by 12:30 & let Max sleep it off in the back of the Santa Fe until he started showing some recovery signs around 4:30.  He managed to let off some barks at the distant donkeys so we knew he was slowly on the mend from the sedatives.  We used a ramp to gently walk him down to the ground but he was very wobbly & could not get up the steps into the motorhome on his own so I carried him in & put him on my bed.  Both Checkers & The Motormouse were beside themselves in all the goings on & we could tell they were very upset & concerned about their buddy Max.  By 6 p.m. he was looking a little more like his old self & was hungry.  Still pretty tired but I think we've turned the corner into getting our big old barking dog back to his old self:))

<<<< CHECKERS & MOM CHECKING TO SEE WHAT’S FOR SUPPER

To-day's photos are a collection of pics over the last little while that never made it into the blogs.  I am so far behind now on uploading web albums because of our 5 Gig Verizon limit & failed local Wifi connections that I don't know when I will get the next Picasa web album up & running.

 

Jeanie backs their truck up to the 5th wheel	Morning motormouse snuggle
Tree decoration	Max playing sticks	Old abandoned trailer in the desert
Donkeys in the sunrise	A BIRDBATH DOGGY DRINK	At the ranch

CLICK ON THE PHOTOS TO ENLARGE

To-morrow morning we have some company coming.  Another RV couple from Ottawa Ontario has been following our blog for the past couple of years & are now over at the Kartchner Caverns near Benson for a few days.  We had been in email contact with Don & Thelma this past winter while boondocking near Borrego Springs, California but had departed the area for Quartzite by the time they got to Borrego.  I'm a bit puzzled as to how anyone following our blog for 2 years is not now in some kind of a recovery therapy program:))

SUNRISE AT THE RANCH

GROANER'S CORNER:((  How do you make a blonde's eyes sparkle......Shine a light into her ear!!

FACEBOOK READERS GO HERE TO SEE OUR ACTUAL WEBSITE COMPLETE WITH PHOTOS & MORE INFO.

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The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now....AL.

MY SMUG MUG (I am finally working on updating this site)

http://stargeezer.smugmug.com/

WE ARE ONCE AGAIN ALONE AT THE RANCH

TO-NIGHT’S MOON COMING UP OVER THE SWISSHELM MOUNTAINS

Maybe one of these mornings I can start the blog off by saying how warm it is outside but probably not until later next month when we move over to the Yuma area.  We are in the high desert here in southeastern Arizona so the nights will be cold from now until March sometime. 

WE ENDED UP HAVING TO TURN AROUND HERE

Ranch owners Jeanie & Ray finished loading their 5th wheel this morning & it wasn't long & they were hooked up & on their way to Tucson.  Its hard for them to get a break from the ranch so we are staying on here until about the middle of January.  That will give Jeanie & Ray a nice RVing holiday to slip around the southwest doing some boondocking, 4 wheeling, & visiting with family & friends over the next 6 weeks.

RUGGED, BUT BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY OVER IN THE SWISSHELM MOUNTAINS

Kelly & I headed for Elfrida at 8:45.  She had an exercise class at 9 & I had planned to do updates & uploads to the computer at the library next door.  Had problems getting connected but remembered a small restaurant up the road that had Wifi.  No problem so that's where I headed & of course I couldn't get connected there either.  Only logical thing left to do was bury my face in a big mess of bacon & eggs while I was there & cut my losses.  We were back at the ranch by 10:30.

LOVE FOLLOWING BACK ROADS TO SEE WHERE THEY GO

Had a nice sunny cool day going for us so we didn't want to sit around.  Had heard there some roads going up part way into the Swiss Helm mountains north of Elfrida so decided to take the car for a little rock scramble.  Pavement ended & we were onto a rough rock strewn road.  Stopped to open & close a couple of gates & made our way up to as far as we could go.  It was surprising how the vegetation changed just by climbing maybe 5 or 6 hundred feet from the valley floor.  Cholla, Agave, large Prickly Pear cactus, Yucca & Mesquite trees.  Very rocky terrain & prime rattlesnake country in the warmer weather. 

THIS IS PRIME RATTLESNAKE COUNTRY BUT IT’S TOO COLD FOR THE SNAKES TO BE OUT AT THIS TIME OF YEAR

Dropped in for a few minutes to visit a lady we had met Thanksgiving Day at the Friends of the Southwest dinner.  "Cheryl & her husband Tony have a very nice place complete with a hobby barn that Tom calls the Man Cave.  Tom was busy doing some wood staining in the barn so Cheryl showed us around.  They moved here from Alaska 4 years ago.  Visited this area once, went back to Alaska, sold their house with one phone call, & moved right back down to Arizona's Sulphur Springs Valley.  Tom said the change in his health was immediate & Cheryl said he's been 100% better since moving to their home in the lee of the Swisshelm Mountains.  Nice folks. 

GOTTA WATCH YOUR STEP IN THE DESERT

FREE RANGE CATTLE & HORSES FEEDING AMONGST THE CACTI

After some more bumps, bangs, gulley whumps, wash outs, gulches, & some genuine thumps & wonkers, our little Santa Fe mountain goat got us back down to the valley floor & we were at the ranch by 3.  Fed the 8 chickens, gathered one egg, fed Gleeson & Pearce plus the elusive ranch cat Charlie.  Honked at the donkeys & that was it for another day.

 

	CHERYL & KELLY
	NICE HOUSE

CHERYL & TONY’S PLACE UP THE HILL EAST OF ELFRIDA

(click to enlarge the photos)

Well, the Bayfield Bunch has finally made it onto the HITCH-ITCH site.  Took us awhile to make the cut so would just like to say thanks to the Hitch-Itch folks for finally including us on their site & to any folks who may have mentioned our name over there.  Thanks guys:))

OUR LITTLE MOUNTAIN GOAT DOES WELL ON THESE KINDS OF ROADS

With all the health care talk & issues going on in the States we sometimes get asked about the health care system in Canada.  There seems to be a lot of mis-information going around about Canadian health care.  I don't know if it's the media or the politicians who are mainly responsible for all this but lets try to set the record straight about a few things.  Check out JB's second last paragraph on his blog DOWN THE ROAD FROM DOG POUND.   And if your fed up with all that paper junk mail just do as Ray does in his QCC blog……buzzzrup!!

THEY GROW SOME MIGHTY BIG TUMBLE WEEDS AROUND HERE

GROANER'S CORNER:(( A man takes his Rottweiler to the vet and says, "My dog's cross-eyed, is there anything you can do for him?" "Well," says the vet, "let's have a look at him." So he picks the dog up and examines his eyes, then checks his teeth. Finally, he says "I'm going to have to put him down." "What? just because he's cross-eyed?" "No, because he's really heavy."

BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS  http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now....AL.

MY SMUG MUG (I am finally working on updating this site)

http://stargeezer.smugmug.com/