WE ARE ALMOST ALL FENCED IN

OUR NEW FRONT GATES ARE OPEN

It’s really kind of neat now because my bed is positioned right under a large window & I can lay in bed & see the night sky.  When I went to bed last night I could see a star cluster, often mistaken for the Little Dipper.  The grouping of stars is called the PLEIADES .  One of my favorite night sky objects.  So nice to be out here under crystal clear Arizona night skies again.  Stars, Planets, & Constellations marching across the sky from horizon to horizon.  Well, actually, aside from the Planets & Moon, the Stars are stationary, & it is our own Earth which is moving.  Well, moving & rotating that is……….. 

MAYBE NOT AS NICE AS AN ADOBE WALL, BUT A WHOLE LOT LESS EXPENSIVE & IT DOES PROVIDE US WITH SECURITY FROM COYOTES & JAVALINAS

By the time we returned from our morning walk our front yard was abuzz with activity.  Three white pick-up trucks in front of the house & fencing workers busy at various fencing tasks.  One fellow had a saw & was busy leveling the top of the posts.  Another affixed some kind of hardware while another fellow carried & laid long top poles in place.  One truck carried a welding machine & a fellow was busy welding pipes together.  A few hours later they were unwinding the chain link fencing.  And, then it was lunch time.

 

WE HAD A BUSY FRONT YARD THIS MORNING

Let me dispel the old rumor of Mexican folks taking an afternoon Siesta.  These guys were back an hour later & the fence work continued.  Soon the entire front fence was complete including the gates.  Now their attention turned to pulling out the existing fence & posts around the house & next week they will install that fence across the back of the property.  So nice to see the inner fence finally gone from the front & side of the house.  Our acre now looks pleasingly larger.

 

PULLING OUT OLD FENCE POSTS, WELDING, & INSTALLING THE GATES

A neighbor from down the road walking her dog stopped out by the road for a chat.  Pheebs & Thunder hit it off right away & the zany stuff was afoot.  Been awhile since Pheebs found a playmate & she was sooooo excited with her new Pal.  Karen, her husband, & Thunder the dog are traveling Snow Birds from Colorado & have lived on Ghost Town Road for the past couple winters.

KAREN & THUNDER

SPENCER LOOKS ON AS PHEEBS & THUNDER GET TO KNOW EACH OTHER 

Bev & Jim dropped in this afternoon.  They are in Wickenburg for the season doing a bit of Ranch sitting.  Hadn’t seen them since last March when we did a back roads Jeep tour together.  Jim also prospects for gold during the winter months so knows the back country well.  They spend their summers in Oregon on a Cherry farm.  We are cooking up a couple Jeep runs soon but probably not for a few weeks yet.  This is a link to our previous Jeep day….. JEEP TOUR THROUGH GOLD COUNTRY.

 

JIM & BEV DEEM

Kelly spent the majority of the day house cleaning while I , yup you guessed it….hung off the end of my shovel, rake, pitchfork & shrub clippers.  More brush burnt up.   

WHEN I AM FINISHED BURNING ALL THE BRUSH I WILL DISMANTLE THE CEMENT BLOCKS & MAKE A STONE CAMPFIRE RING

I have always called our ‘Blog Follower’s list, the Blog Follower’s list.  Somewhere along the line I am told the name has changed to Friend Connect.  Something to do with Google again….of course.  So be it.  Friend Connect or Blog Follower’s list, tonight we welcome PAMELA  to Travels With The Bayfield Bunch.

 

OUR FRONT YARD IS SLOWLY COMING TOGETHER 

GROANER’S CORNER:((  Four surgeons were taking a coffee break and discussing their work. The first one said, "I think accountants are the easiest to operate on. Everything inside them is numbered."
"I think librarians are the easiest," said the second. "When you open them up, all their organs are arranged alphabetically."
The third surgeon said, "I prefer to operate on electricians. Their organs are color coded."
"You're all wrong," said, the fourth. "Lawyers are easiest. They're heartless, spineless, gutless, and their heads and asses are interchangeable."

--------------------------------------------------------------
- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.
- OUR PHOTO ALBUMS - .https://picasaweb.google.com/117858411710794543295/
stargeezerguy@gmail.com

A VISIT TODAY FROM GEOGYPSY

Nice to wake up to a comfortable 60F in Congress this morning.  If we were still in Bayfield we would would have been waking up to 25F temps.  It’s no wonder Bears, Squirrels, & Turtles hibernate & Snow Birders like ourselves head south for warmer temperatures.

  

Jeff, over in the Shout Box wondered about the tall white aerial on the back bumper of our Jeep.  Not functional as a CB or Ham radio but generally carries a small orange triangular flag for visibility when off roading.  Vehicles in gullies & washes are hard to see so the orange flag atop a tall aerial is often the only thing visible & warns other drivers of it’s presence.  Suppose I could take it off while not off roading but it’s just easier to leave on.  Besides, if I took it off I would probably never remember where I put it.  Might come in handy next week when we head off into the desert in search of

 

Some may wonder how we ended up in Congress Arizona.  I can tell you, it was not planned.  Beginning the early part of our long journey home last year we headed northeast from Borrego Springs California with the destination of Lake Havasu in mind.  Had never been there so figured we’d boondock in the area & have us a look around.  Unbeknownst to us, we could not have picked a worse time or day to head into Lake Havasu.  It was PYROTECHNICS week-end & I think there was something else going on as well.  Traffic, traffic, everywhere.  Up till then we had spent the previous winter months quietly boondocked in various spots in Arizona & California.  When we rolled into Lake Havasu on that Saturday Pyrotechnic week-end we were in for a bit of a shock.  The few boondocking sites south of town were jammed full of RV’s.  Four lane traffic was heavy as we rolled into Lake Havasu & that traffic flow jsut carried us right through town & dumped us out the other side.  It was a little overwhelming for a couple of country bumpkins like ourselves.  And besides, I was a bit cranky that morning due to a poor night’s sleep.  To make a long story short, we decided to retrace our tracks back through Lake Havasu, head south & get ourselves back down to the sanctity of the quiet desert just west of Bouse Arizona.  Spent a few days there relaxing & deciding which north-east route to take from there.  Looked like we might be able to head east for the town of Wickenburg & head north from there on our way home.  JANNA had told us of a boondocking spot just south of Congress & it was while boondocked here for a couple weeks that Kelly noticed a house & property for sale on Ghost Town Road.  And, that’s how we arrived here:))

After our hectic traffic morning in Lake Havasu & failure to find a quiet boondocking site, I vented my frustrations in my blog that night & shouldn’t have done that.  It wasn’t Lake Havasu’s fault that we blundered into town during the busiest week-end of the year.  Always felt bad about that post & maybe one day we’ll slip on over there again at a quieter time & enjoy what Lake Havasu has to offer. 

ONE OF MY FAVORITE KELLY PHOTOS >>>

A lot of the brush clearing I did this past couple weeks was Palo Verde & Mesquite tree trimming.  Aside from a few dead branches, most of the limbs were green.  Can’t burn green wood so that is what we had to have had hauled away.  Not logical to pile all that green brush & let it dry out until we returned next year.  Fire hazard.  The bigger Mesquite tree limbs I sawed up & kept for fire logs next year.   You can see this was a major clean up job these past couple weeks…….& I still have a little less than a third of an acre to weed-whack, rake, & burn.

THIS CANDID PHOTO KIND OF SUMS UP MY DAY

Not much to tell you about our day.  Helped Kelly put up curtain rods & curtains, burned some more brush & started the last phase of my ground cover clean-up project.  Marteen & his fence crew began dismantling our inner fence surrounding the house & began re-installing it across the back of our property.  Have held off on my Cactus planting until I can get a book identifying the various Cactus plants & what locations they are best planted in.  North side, south, east or west of the house.  Need to know about sun & shade.  Also need to know which Cacti grow tall & slim & which one’s spread out.  Lots to learn & I find that kind of learning enjoyable:))

PHEEBS & I WILL BE HEADING OUT ON A DESERT ROCK GATHERING TOUR SHORTLY

Fellow RVing Blogger Gaelyn from GEOGYPSY dropped in this afternoon.  Gaelyn spends her summers as a Park Ranger at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon & her winter’s in Yarnell just about 12 miles up the road from us atop the Weaver Mountains.  First met Gaelyn when she dropped in to see RV SUE & HER CANINE CREW boondocked at the end of Ghost Town Road last March.  When traveling, Gaelyn drives a big honkin diesel pick-up truck towing a big honkin 5th wheel.  Gaelyn’s planning on heading off to Africa for a month early next year.  This will be her second trip there.

GAELYN, AL, & RV SUE…FEBRUARY 27TH 2012

It’s not often Kelly & I eat Pizza but tonight we made an exception.  Had heard a lot about the great Pizza’s at the Congress Mercantile store on highway 89 at the south end of Congress.   Kelly phoned up & Mercantile Judy said to pick it up in half an hour.  Gotta be the best darn Pizza we have had for many, many, years.  We got it loaded so I had to spend a little time picking off all the black Olives:((

We still have not adjusted to the time zone change from Bayfield Ontario.  We can barely make it to 8 p.m. Arizona time before falling asleep.  To nights ago we were both in our jammies by 5:30 in the afternoon.  Of course we involuntarily start our days on the early side with Kelly getting up around 5 & me getting up anytime after 3 a.m.  Absolutely no reason for either one of us to be up that early, but it’s just the way our body clocks are set I guess…………….. 

WICKENBURG’S VULTURE PEAK IN EARLY MORN  

GROANER’S CORNER:((  Let’s just call these, Ed’s Puns. 

-I changed my iPod name to Titanic. It's syncing now.
-When chemists die, they barium.
-Jokes about German sausage are the wurst.
-I know a guy who's addicted to brake fluid, but he says he can stop any time.
-How does Moses make his tea? Hebrews it.
-I stayed up all night to see where the sun went. Than it dawned on me.
-This girl said she recognized me from the vegetarian club, but I'd never met herbivore.
-I'm reading a book about anti-gravity. I can't put it down.
-I did a theatrical performance about puns. It was a play on words.
-They told me I had type A blood, but it was a Type-O.

-------------------------------------------------------------
- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.
- OUR PHOTO ALBUMS - .https://picasaweb.google.com/117858411710794543295/
stargeezerguy@gmail.com

HOW GREAT IT WAS TO HAVE THE JEEP BACK OUT IN THE DESERT AGAIN THIS MORNING

LOOKING EAST TOWARDS CONGRESS ARIZONA FROM A DESERT VANTAGE POINT A  COUPLE MILES WEST OF TOWN

I was desperately feeling the need for some new scenery this morning so instead of our usual morning walk we piled into the Jeep & headed off out into the desert just west of our place.  Even I was getting tired of ho-hum house & property pictures every day, every day, every day.

A LONG EARLY MORNING JEEP SHADOW LEADS US INTO THE DESERT

 

What a nice change of pace it was to be out in the desert again with the Jeep.  All the old familiar ruts, gullies, dry washes, bumps grinds, rocks & scratchy Mesquite shrubs leaving new & exciting desert pin striping on the Jeep.  With the early morning sun behind us highlighting the Mountain tops ahead against a stormy sky, it was just a wonderful feeling to once again be out & about exploring a whole new area.  Reminded me a bit of the Darby Wells area west of Ajo but with fewer Saguaros on the desert floor.  The Saguaros were spread out along the hillsides & up the sides of close in rocky ridges.  There are Joshua trees in this area but we didn’t see any this morning.  What a great feeling to be in the desert again.  We had been sooooo busy with the house these past few weeks that we just hadn’t taken the time to get ourselves free.

MANY JEEP ROADS & ATV TRAILS CRISS-CROSS THE DESERT FLOOR

 

We always like finding abandoned signs & sites of old buildings or dwellings.  Came across what might have been a ranch many years ago.  Always fun to try & figure out who may have lived there, where the buildings were & what secrets are looked in the debris scattered about on the desert floor.  Burnt bits of lumber, old weathered fence posts, wooden or metal stakes in the ground, maybe some broken pottery, an old half buried campfire ring.  We often find the remains of civilization but seldom the civilization itself.  Just a great morning to be out exploring & just a great morning to have the Jeep back in 4 wheel drive joltingly pulling ourselves through sections of washed out trails.  It’s a Jeep thing you know:))

A FEW HOUSES AT THE END OF GHOST TOWN ROAD CAN BE SEEN JUST ABOVE KELLY TO THE RIGHT…OUR HOUSE IS LOCATED JUST THE OTHER SIDE OF THAT ROUND ROCKY OUTCROP ON THE RIGHT

Stopped at a turn around point & had ourselves a walk & short rock scramble.  My legs are on the stiff side from not being used a lot this last while because of the hip pain but this morning I was almost pain free & able to scramble myself atop a few large boulders for a look see around.  Pheebs was just having a blast racing around everywhere amongst the many types of prickly Cactus.  She has learned very quickly what not to step on or brush against.  With all her running she never picked up one sticker this morning.  She is a very fast learner.  Me, not so much.  I backed into a Prickly Pear Cactus.     Yeeeeouch!!

OUR HOUSE SITS AT THE FOOT OF THAT DARK ROCKY RIDGE’S EXTREME RIGHT END

 

YOU EITHER LOVE THE DESERT OR YOU HATE IT…I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN ON THE LOVE SIDE:((

A ONCE PROUD OLD BLADELESS WINDMILL HAS NOW BEEN REPLACED BY SOLAR POWER…SAW BLACK ANGUS CATTLE NEARBY

 

PROBABLY AN OLD CHICKEN COOP ON THE RIGHT

NOT MUCH LEFT OF THE WINDMILL’S HEAD, EVEN THE BLADES ARE GONE, JUST RUSTING METAL NOW

By the time we got back home, Marteen the fence builder & his wife were hard at work cementing in fence posts.  A few minutes later Indian Joe rolled in with a worker & set about gathering & loading up all the brush piles I had scattered about.  He has a fair sized utility trailer & had to make 3 full trips to the local dump.  He asked me, “where did ya get all this stuff.”  Well, it’s a one acre piece of property that had been neglected for years so there was a lot of nasty underbrush & prickly tree limbs to be dealt with.  It wasn’t cheap to get all this stuff hauled away but I said to Kelly, can you imagine what this would have cost us had we paid a couple guys to come in & clean up this piece of property.  Also figure this was a one time expense because after this it is just a simple matter of maintenance.  At the local dump here they charge $30 a load to dump yard waste.  Yikes!!  At home in our Park it’s free.  I was also able to burn up another half dozen piles of old dead grass, etc.

INDIAN JOE ON LEFT & MARTEEN THE FENCE BUILDER ARE OLD FRIENDS

And, for the first time since arriving in Congress, we both sat down on the front porch this afternoon for about 15 minutes.  Ya, I know….Slackers!!  To-morrow I may try my hand at planting some Cactus:))

 

Solved the problem with our gasoline weed whacker this afternoon.  Had not been using it because of the problematic spool assembly.  Following a commenter’s advice, Kelly picked up a bladed ‘Grass Gator’ in Wickenburg this afternoon.  Replaced the whacker’s ridiculous spool & line assembly with the blade device & I was instantly back in business doing grievous harm to our yard’s weeds.  But, darned if I didn’t put a miserable little critch in my back from operating that whacker.  One has to be in a bent over position using a back & forth sweeping motion.  That repetitive action just simply woke up another long time sleeping muscle group & aggravated the absolute snarf out of it.  Yeouch!!

OUR FIRST OF THREE DUMP LOADS IS ABOUT READY TO ROLL   

RVING FIT is our latest Blog Follower & we here at the Bunch say welcome & thanks for tagging along folks:))

CAN’T QUITE SEE OUR HOUSE BUT WE ARE JUST THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROCKY FOREGROUND RIDGE AT LEFT

GROANER’S CORNER:((    A wife, one evening, drew her husband's attention to the couple next door and said, "Do you see that couple? How devoted they are? He kisses her every time they meet. Why don't you do that?"  "I would love to," replied the husband, "but I don't know her well enough."

-----------------------------------------------------------
- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.
- OUR PHOTO ALBUMS - .https://picasaweb.google.com/117858411710794543295/
stargeezerguy@gmail.com

A SURPRISE VISIT FROM A FELLOW RV’ER:))

NIGHT TIME AT OUR HOUSE

Hip continues to improve & I walked comfortably around the block with Kelly & the Pheebs this morning.  Not out of the woods yet, but getting there.

SPOTTED THIS WILY COYOTE AHEAD OF US ON OUR WALK THIS MORNING

Most exciting thing to happen to us today was having fellow RV’er & one time Blogger, Wandering Willy drop by.  Always good to see WW.  Nice fella.  We’ve known him for about 4 years now & first met Wild Bill in Borrego Springs California.  It was Wandering Willy & fellow RV Blogger IVAN we boon docked with for a few days at Bouse Arizona last year.  And, it was those fellas who were instrumental in repairing our Satellite dish after a nasty night wind slam dunked it into the desert floor.  WW worked at that repair like a true craftsman.

WANDERING WILL HIS VERY SELF

 

AND A BIG FAREWELL WAVE FROM WW AS HE HEADS BACK TO HIS BOONDOCKING SITE NEAR VULTURE PEAK

Moved the Motorhome to what will be it’s regular spot while at home here in Congress.  Close to electric & water so it now has it’s own little RV spot right next to the house.

   

With all the start up expense of getting our house set up we have had to prioritize & cut back on some of our spending.  No utility trailer this year & our second load of crushed stone to complete phase 2 will have to wait until next year.  Some of the more creative outside landscaping & cactus/shrub & tree planting will probably have to wait until next year as well.  Had hoped to get a bunch of plants in along the new fence line complete with a water drip line for the hot summer.  But, we just have to put the brakes on our spending for now.  Awww nuts, hate when that happens:((

Bev, I just checked that tonnage number in JB'S comment awhile back & he says, “Have fun with the rocks Al, we spread 350 tons on an acre of our place. That made it something like 2 inches deep”…………  John & Brenda have horses on their place at Dog Pound South digs near Phoenix.  They are Canadians from Alberta where their Ranch up there is called, yep, Dog Pound North:))

ROPE LIGHTING MAKES FOR A NICE GLOW

Our larger dining room table has become base of operations for Kelly.  Saturday, when over at John & Jackies, Kelly spotted a table John had some saws, grinders, & drills piled on out in the the garage area.  Kelly said she liked the table.  John quickly hauled the saws off the table & said to Kelly, “it’s yours”.  And, that’s how we came upon our bigger dining room table:))

KELLY HANDLES A SKYPE CALL

A few years ago when we met John & Jackie, John gave us a tour of their house in Elfrida.  On their basement wall hung Big Mouth Billy Bass the singing fish.  (and Billy moves while he sings too)  Occasionally over the years, through email contact with John, I made reference to Billy Bass.  Saturday, John presented us with……Big Mouth Billy Bass himself.  Billy is now a proud member of the Bayfield Bunch & hangs prominently on our wall.  And, what song does Billy sing?  Well, he actually sings two songs, but I think he does a real fine job with Bobby McFerrin’s…..DON'T WORRY BE HAPPY:))

GROANER’S CORNER:((  One day three bats decided to have a blood sucking competition.
The first bat went out and came back with blood all over his mouth.
"Where did you get all that blood from?"
"You see that rabbit over there? I sucked all its blood out."
The next bat went out and came back with blood half covering his face.
"Cool! Where did you get all that blood from?"
"You see that deer over there? Well I sucked all it blood out." He replied.
So the next bat went out and came back with blood all over his face.
"Whoa!! Where did you get all that blood from?!"
To which he replied "You see that pole over there?…… I smacked right into it."

-----------------------------------------------------------
- Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.
- Home is where your pet is:))
- "If having a soul means being able to feel
love and loyalty and gratitude, then animals
are better off than a lot of humans."
(James Herriot)
- The pessimist complains about the wind; the optimist expects it to change; the realist adjusts the sails -William Arthur Ward
- The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now...AL.
- It is not so much having nothing to do as it is not having the interest to do something....AL.
- OUR PHOTO ALBUMS - .https://picasaweb.google.com/117858411710794543295/
stargeezerguy@gmail.com