MANY MILITARY HELICOPTERS OVER THE HOUSE HEADING WEST TODAY

  

A FEW FAMILY SELFIES FROM OUR EARLY FEBRUARY 2014 BOONDOCKING DAYS IN ARIZONA’S KOFA MOUNTAINS

Whether late evening or early morning star gazing I often stand transfixed by the overhead diamond like glitter stretching across the vastness of space.  Wednesday night I dug out & dusted off my go-to ‘Nightwatch’ astronomy book in an attempt to once again re-familiarize myself with all the constellations & characters in the velvety black canvas high over my head.  Arizona night skies always fire up my imagination………….

HEY, NO BUTT PICTURES PLEASE >>>

Busiest place in Congress this morning was the local landfill site just off highway 89 north of town a mile or two.  Pheebs & I hauled our utility trailer load of brambly brush out there about 9.  We are so much looking forward to a couple cooler 70 degree days this coming week-end.  Think we were in the upper 80’s again today so it goes without saying it was another slow inside day for us.  Kelly, not feeling well spent a fair part of the day in her room resting. 

SURE GLAD WE FOUND THIS UTILITY TRAILER AT THE NORTH RANCH GARAGE SALE A YEAR AGO ABOUT THIS TIME

Made the mistake of pressing the red button on our singing fish this morning & for the rest of the day I could not stop Bobby McFarrin’s song ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’ from rattling around in my head like a loose stone in a tin hub cab.  Sarge gave us this singing fish after we moved into our Congress house.  He had it hanging in the basement of his Elfrida house a few years ago when Kelly & I first saw it while Ranch sitting in nearby McNeil.  I gotta remember to put a sign on it to remind myself not to press that red button!!  Well not if I want to keep a clear head for the day that is.   Warning…do not click on this LINK or you too will have ‘Don’t Worry Be Happy’ rolling around in your head for hours too.

My ears always seem to be attuned to the skies & if I hear an unfamiliar or unusual sound coming from up there I am out the door in a flash with my camera in hand.  This morning it was an unusual & increasing kind of low distant rumble slowly coming closer.  I knew it was not the usual jet aircraft we have overhead here.  Out the door I went & barely made out 7 Helicopters to the north high over the Date Creek Mountains heading west.  Now here’s the coincidental thing, while typing this very paragraph this afternoon around 2 I again heard the distant rumble approaching.  Figuring it was the same choppers heading back I was surprised to see a formation of 9 helicopters heading straight for & over our house heading in the same direction as the first group earlier in the day.  A tight diamond formation of 4 military choppers in the lead with a looser diamond formation of 4 helicopters following.  A single helicopter seemed to be bringing up the rear.  Then a few hours after that & for the 3rd time today I again heard a now familiar rumbling in the sky just as we were sitting down for supper.  Four more helicopters heading west over top the Date Creek Mountains.  No idea where all these choppers were coming from today but am guessing they may have been heading for the military Marine gunnery & bombing range west of Quartzsite Arizona which is just a few miles east of Slab City & Niland California.  The thought did occur to me, hmmmm, wonder if the American military is gearing up their desert assault & attack training maneuvers for some reason……………..

THIS WAS 4 OF THE MORNINGS GROUP OF 8 HELICOPTERS OVER THE DATE CREEK MOUNTAINS…I COULD HARDLY SEE THEM BUT MY 300mm LENS CAUGHT & TRACKED THEM

THIS IS 4 OF THIS AFTERNOON’S  9 HELICOPTERS HEADING OVER THE HOUSE…NOTICE THE DIAMOND FORMATION & THIS SHOT ACCURATELY DEPICTS THEIR HEIGHT

 

THAT’S TAIL END CHARLIE ON THE RIGHT WITH NO ROCKET PODS

I’M GUESSING THEY ARE ATTACK HELICOPTERS BUT I DON’T KNOW WHAT KIND

She might not want me to say this but Kelly has been struggling with some health issues.  Aside from a few better days she just has not been feeling very well ever since we left Bayfield.   She still has congestion in her chest & that was one of the problems 2 summers ago when she landed in the Goderich Hospitals emergency room.  After a couple mis-diagnosis she was finally found to be suffering from Primary Biliary Cirrhosis at that time.  We don’t know if this fatigue, congestion, & a couple other things are all due to her liver condition or not.  We talked over a few things tonight at supper but we’ll wait to see if her health improves before making any decisions on what to do……………………..

GROANER’S CORNER:(( Two friends were standing in a bank when a pair of robbers entered. Not only did the thieves clean out the tills, but they walked around with bags and ordered everyone to throw their valuables in. Just as the robbers got to the pair, one of the friends turned to the other and, passing him a bill, said, "By the way, Joe, here's that twenty bucks I owe you."

IT’S ALL IN WHAT YOU ARE ACCUSTOMED TO

CACTUS WREN

Reading MERIKAY'S post this morning I was reminded of the stress & strain side of driving an RV.  Under ideal weather conditions with little traffic on long wide open roads it can be a true pleasure indeed.  But throw in some nasty weather conditions, heavy city traffic, unfamiliar roads, dicey driving conditions whether construction zones or vehicle infested commercial parking lots & the stress & strain of travel can very quickly become a problematic nightmare.  And much of those stress & strain levels have to do with what you are accustomed to.

ONE HAS TO ALWAYS KEEP A WARY EYE OUT WHERE ONE IS WALKING IN THESE PARTS

Years ago in a former job I spent a bunch of years & put on countless thousands of miles driving almost daily at times in some of the heaviest traffic in Canada.  Toronto!!  Many times I would have passengers ask me “how can you do this every day”??  Answer was simple, I had grown accustomed to driving in heavy traffic.  No problem & for the most part I actually enjoyed the challenge of transporting passengers to Pearson International Airport safely & on time for their flights day after day.  Some shifts I headed into the city during morning rush hour & for the last 3 years there I launched out of the airport right into the late afternoon rush heading back to Stratford Ontario & beyond.  I became very good at what I did simply because I did it over & over & over 5 & 6 days & nights a week in all kinds of weather & road conditions.  Now fast forward to today.  I left that job on August 25th 2000.  Enough was enough & it was time to get off the 200 mile round trip stock car track.  Guess you could say I just kinda quietly burnt out.   I went literally overnight from a consistently heavy congested traffic job to the quiet back country roads of sleepy rural living.  And by choice that’s where I have remained.  What was once a normal high pressure working/driving day for me soon became a part of my fast driving past.  What I had once been used to gradually became something I purposefully avoided.  And I still avoid it to this very day.  My learned driving skills from those years remain sharply intact but my patience & comfort zone with city driving are gone.  I’ve have just kept myself out of the crush & madness too long now to ever enjoyably do that kind of driving again.  My zest & enthusiasm are just not into it anymore.  A good example of ‘been there done that’ I guess.  I get a kick out of the ‘aw there’s nothing to it’ people.  I know where their heads are at.  They too may someday reach that ‘enough is enough’ point in their hurried city lives…………..

I always have 2 options with brush on our property.  I can collect it into a pile & burn small amounts of it any time or I can load it up in my utility trailer & take it to the Congress landfill.  Dumping right now & for the next few days is free & not wanting to have to phone the fire department to let them know I have a little pile of brush to burn I instituted my second option & piled all the brush into the utility trailer this morning.  Thursday morning I will haul it away.  Prickly & thorny stuff all those Mesquite & Palo Verde branches.  Always an ‘ouchy’ or two handling that stuff.

I can always tell when Pheebs is bored by the way she lays on the floor.  Head down with her chin flat on the floor & eyes looking up watching me.  It’s a sure sign she is laying there wishing & hoping I will make a gesture towards the door.  Back home in Bayfield readers know Pheebs & I are out 2 & 3 times a week for our most enjoyable back roads country drive photo tours.  We don’t have back roads here like at home & I’m hesitant to wander out into the desert in the heat of day with no cell phone.  But today with her laying on the living room floor giving me ‘that look’ I knew the only way I was going to cheer her up was grab the cameras & say to her “going in the Jeep’'.  She instantly transforms into the most excitable happy little dog I have ever seen.  Kelly was grabbing an afternoon nap in her bedroom so Pheebs & tip toed out the door, hopped into the Jeep & headed off down the road with both windows full down & the vent blowing air.  We didn’t nearly as far or for as long as we usually do back in southwestern Ontario but we did amble ourselves around Congress taking a few photos of houses here & there.  Despite Congress’s kind of tumble down & sparse late 1800’s look there are some nice homes & properties here.    

 

Here’s a little tip for you Picasa 3.9 users.  Some of you may know you can darken light skies & clouds by clicking on your ‘Graduated Tint’ button but did you also know you can use that same button to lighten either the left or right side of your photo plus the bottom.  I use this to keep the exposures in some of my photos consistent.  Might be something a little washed out on the side somewhere so I just flip the photo with that ‘washed out’ section to the top & click on Graduated Tint.  And how to flip it??  Look for 2 small blue arrows at the bottom & to the left.  One arrow curves to the right & one to the left.  This is how you can rotate your photo & gain more control over your photo.  Remember to click ‘APPLY’ after you click on Graduated Tint.  Using this on applicable pics will give you better looking overall results.  And remember, if you have a whole lot of nothing blue sky in your photo just crop the heck out of it & bring your foreground forward. I think you may like the results.  Just a suggestion for you to try:))

GROANER’S CORNER:(( A couple were being interviewed on their Golden Wedding Anniversary. "In all that time, did you ever consider a divorce?"  "Oh, no, not divorce, we're too old fashioned for that," one said. "Murder sometimes, but never divorce.

---

Everyone knows I'm a stickler for good spelling. So when an associate e-mailed technical documents asking me to "decifer" them, I had to set him straight.  "Decipher is spelled with a 'ph', not an 'f'," I wrote. "In case you've forgotten, spell checker comes free with your Microsoft program." A minute later his reply: "My Microsoft spell checker must be dephective."

AND THEY BROUGHT A BIG RED FIRE TRUCK TO OUR HOUSE TOO

Kelly phoned the company in Phoenix where we would have had to take our rig to have our inverter problem solved.  We were going to set a date & take the coach there soon.  They informed her their inverter technician is on disability leave & they had no idea when he would be back.  They referred us to a second company in Gilbert which is another part of Phoenix.  Kelly phoned that place & they informed her they charge $125 an hour for starters.  An hour to take the inverter out & an hour to put it back in plus the time on the bench to be checked plus whatever parts it needs if it is indeed fixable.  You can see the $$$$ adding up.  The inverter is 9 years old & we could see dollar signs flying out the window so we had some thinking to do.

I CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON PHEEBS TO HELP ME WITH THE YARD WORK

Decided to send Slab City’s Solar Mike an email to see what his thoughts were.  We trust Mike & his work so we are now leaning towards heading for Slab City.  Something in the system caused our inverter to fail in the first place & we feel Mike’s the right guy to troubleshoot that & find out what caused it.   He can also load test the batteries plus find out if it needs a ‘fet board’ or ‘control board.’  If not he can remove the inverter & have it shipped to Washington State where Magnum’s headquarters are.  There is always the option of a new inverter which he can have shipped in & install for us as well.  Just seems like a more logical thing to do than head to Phoenix for a number of reasons.  Mike’s hourly rate is substantially less than Phoenix plus Mike can trouble shoot the whole system where Phoenix would concentrate their efforts on the inverter only.  Plus here’s the biggy for me, I would sooner drive to the wide open desert spaces of Slab City California any day than have to muscle my way through manic & chaotic traffic in the huge megapolis of Phoenix Arizona.  Any day!! 

I’M NOT IN THE HABIT OF PUTTING FOODY PICS IN MY POSTS BUT MAYBE I SHOULD BECAUSE KELLY SURE DISHES UP GREAT TASTY MEALS HERE EVERY NIGHT

However, we won’t be heading for Slab City just yet.  It’s way too hot over there at the moment.  Temps in the low 90’s & there’s no way we want to be sitting in the rig boondocking in that kind of heat.  We’ll monitor the weather & as soon as we see predominantly cooler temperatures in that part of California we’ll saddle up the Big EEE & hit the trail.  

Would you believe we had to dress warmer for our morning walk.  Yep, had to put on my long sleeve flannel shirt over my regular short sleeve shirt for the first half of our walk.  Felt good & it’s the type of weather I much prefer. 

Had some brush to burn so I lit up some dry branches in our outside campfire pit this morning.  Wasn’t long & I had 2 Congress firemen standing beside me inquiring if I had a fire permit.  I didn’t……Oh-Oh.  And they even brought their big red fire truck with them & parked it right in front of our house.  The guys were good about it though & said to come on down to the fire hall & pick up a permit later which we did.  Had to pick up my new trailer type wheel barrow tire at the B&B Congress garage plus stop at the post office anyway so we just swung round the fire hall & filled out a permit which is good for a year.  Nice fellas there at the Congress fire station.

BURNING A LITTLE BRUSH THIS MORNING OBVIOUSLY ATTRACTED SOME ATTENTION

Not much else to say about the day except we didn’t have to have all our fans running full tilt.  Never even turned them on & I think we might have ended up in the mid 70’s.  Perfect.  Nice quarter Moon in the cooler night air when I took Pheebs out too.  Just makes it all that much more enjoyable being here.  Oh Geeeezzzzz, there I go talking about the weather again…….:))

OUR BACKYARD NEIGHBOR’S JOSHUA TREES AT SUNSET

GROANER’S CORNER:(( "I have good news and bad news," a defense attorney told his client. "First the bad news. The blood test came back, and your DNA is an exact match with that found at the crime scene."  "Oh, no!" cried the client. "What's the good news?"  "Your cholesterol is down to 140."

MY NEXT KINDLE READ WILL HAVE TO DO WITH ROOTS OF AMERICAN MUSIC COMING FROM THE NORTH…CANADA:))

We did make a successful grocery run to Wickenburg’s Safeway store this morning.  I don’t mind shopping for something if I am by myself & of course that is the key with joint grocery shopping.  I don’t like hanging around leaning on a shopping cart waiting while Kelly checks the prices, expiry dates, reads all the no fat & ingredient labels on everything & meticulously checks the meat counter for 50% off deals.  No, I have my own grocery list of things I’m looking for so soon as we enter the store I am gone off on my own exploratory adventure.  I motor along at my own pace checking things out.  Most of my time is spent in search mode.  My eyes are like oscillating radar orbs swiftly scanning left to right & right to left as I move freely & unencumbered up & down the aisles.  Maybe it’s the word swiftly that has something to do with me not finding stuff.  But overall I kinda enjoy my little solo shopping ventures.  I stop where & when I want & I walk as slow or fast as I want.  If I have to look at my 6 item grocery list once I have to look at my 6 item grocery list a dozen times or more.  Short memory.  But this is the only way grocery shopping works for me.  If & when I find what I want I re-locate Kelly & the shopping cart, drop my stuff in & off I go again resuming my grocery list hunt & of course checking my list another dozen & a half times for the remaining four & a half often eludable items.  It’s all good exercise for me both mentally & physically…..bit of a strain with the memory department thingy though.  Oh well, I like being an independent shopper…..when my mind let’s me do that of course.

Kelly spotted a message on our Verizon Jet Pack (MiFi device) this morning & of course it was from Verizon giving us a phone number to call before our Millenicom internet service could possibly be interrupted November 7th.  Kelly got right on the phone & called.  Right off the bat there was nearly an hour’s wait.  Now I know she is the most patient person I have ever met in my life but not even Kelly was going to sit at the end of that long waiting line.  We’ll wait till after the first week of November to call which is basically what the Verizon message said.

And speaking of Kelly, she is definitely feeling better than a week or two ago.  Congestion is still in her chest & she tires very quickly so it’s important she get’s lots of rest.  Other than our trip up to Prescott’s cooler air last week we have been sticking very close to home.  No idea when we’ll get the rig on down to Phoenix to have that inverter problem looked at but we will definitely wait until Kelly’s rested up enough & the weather has significantly cooled off.  Hang in there folks & we at some point in the not too distant future will try to get the word ‘travel’ back into our blog’s title……‘Travel’ With The Bayfield Bunch:))

I thought Gaelyn over at GEOGYPSY had an informative post with great photos when talking about which National Park is her favorite.  Gaelyn is a Park Ranger who spends her summers at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon every year.   Her favorite Park might surprise you.  And former Alberta Park Ranger Ivan with his faithful four footed fur-ball companion Hailey has just been reported by Ivan his very self as seen heading south through Montana & Idaho.  Knowing Ivan I wouldn’t be surprised by the time I publish this tonight he could already be somewhere down around the tip of South America.  And British Columbia has just notified motorists to the south Wandering Willy was just spotted in his driveway, map in hand with a big grin on his face revving up his Toyota Tacoma.  Hope he remembered to hook up his travel trailer this year.   By the way, to catch up with the very latest of Wandering Willy’s travels be sure to read his latest & most current post dated March 16th 2011.  Go get em Wild Bill:))

Here’s an example of a small world.  My Son Sean is in Nashville Tennessee at the moment & on his Facebook today he had a photo of meeting his old Stratford Ontario musician friend DAVID KALMUSKY.  I knew David’s Mother Sandie/Sandy when I lived in Stratford years ago from the mid 70’s to mid 90’s.  David’s father was KEN KALMUSKY (1945-2005) a well known guitar player who played bass for Canada’s Ian & Sylvia in their Great Speckled Bird Band days.  I remember seeing Ken around Stratford years ago in the early 60’s when he played in a band called The Rockin Revols.  JOHN TILL, guitarist in that band went on to play with Janis Joplin’s Full Tilt Boogy Band & keyboardist RICHARD MANUEL later played with Ronnie Hawkins & Bob Dylan’s backup group, The Band.  I may have seen Richard Manuel around Stratford in the early 60’s although I can’t remember him but I do remember driving (Stratford Airporter) John Till & his family to Toronto’s Pearson International Airport back in the late 90’s where they were headed for a ‘Woodstock’ revival.  John Till had played at the original Woodstock.  David Kalmusky’s highly successful recording studio is now in Nashville & it is interesting to read Ken Kalmusky & his son David’s bios & all the famous musicians they both have been associated & worked with.  Personally I find all this stuff fascinating so my next Kindle read which I will start tonight is called, ‘Whispering Pines: The Northern Roots of American Music from Hank Snow to the Band.

DAVID KALMUSKY ON THE LEFT & SEAN ON THE RIGHT

Had a little trouble getting myself motivated today so ended up watching Corner Gas & a movie with Tommy Lee Jones & Will Smith called, ‘Men In Black’.  Of course I had seen the movie a bunch of years ago but my aging memory didn’t make me aware of that & let me watch it all over again.  Only thing I remembered about the movie was that I had already seen it.  Now how cool is that eh………And speaking of cool this is the first night sitting here putting my post together that I have not had to have both my ceiling & table fans going full tilt.  And when I took Pheebs out I was surprised at how refreshingly cool the night air felt.  I’ll soon be into my woolies piling blankets on & grumbling about Arizona’s cold weather……………………

GROANER’S CORNER:(( A man approached a local person in a village he was visiting.  "What's the quickest way to York?"  The local scratched his head.  "Are you walking or driving?" he asked the stranger.  "I'm driving."  "That's the quickest way!"

---

Teacher: Billy, give me a sentence starting with "I".
Billy: I is ...  Teacher: No, Billy. Always say, "I am."
Billy: All right ... "I am the ninth letter of the alphabet."

---

The young lady said to Grandpa, "I noticed that when you sneeze, you've learned to put your hand in front of your mouth." "Of course," explained Grandpa. "How else can I catch my teeth???"

A HIGH THIN CLOUD COVER & COOLING SOUTHWESTERLY BREEZE MADE FOR A BETTER BAYFIELD BUNCH DAY:))

 

A FEW VIEWS OF OUR GROUND HOUSE FROM ATOP OUR MOBILE HOUSE

It was quite a symphony in our neighborhood that woke me up this morning with Chickens clucking, Roosters crowin, Owls a hootin & a choral section of Coyotes a howlin.  Oh & throw in half a dozen dogs a barkin in the rhythm section.  And of course all that is backgrounded by the ever present sound of a ka-zillion million unseen Crickets.  Gotta love waking up to these mighty fine serenadingly alluring Arizona mornings:))

I HAVE CACTUS MAN BACK UP ON HIS FEET

   

AM LIKING HOW SOME OF MY PLANTED CACTUS PLANTS ARE COMING ALONG

Only 1 critter capture by the Critter Cam last night & it was a bunny rabbit so without further ado I set to work this morning on blocking that square hole in the foundation with wire mesh, cement blocks, rocks & dirt.  Soon as I get our wheelbarrow wheel back from the garage I’ll pile more dirt on top.  The troublesome tire always kept going flat so decided to replace it with a harder treaded trailer tire.  Just too many prickly things around to puncture cheap thin rubbered wheelbarrow tires all the time.

 

HEY DID AL GET A COUPLE NEW CAMERA LENSES??  ALL MAY NOT APPEAR TO BE WHAT IT SEEMS

SARGE (JOHN & JACKIE) SPOTTED THESE NOVEL COFFEE CUPS AT A RECENT ‘HUDSON HORNET’ CAR RALLY HE ATTENDED, THOUGHT OF MY PHOTOGRAPHY INTERESTS & BROUGHT US HOME A COUPLE TRAVELING COFFEE MUGS:))

Aunt Jean phoned this morning & she’s doing fine way over there in that Sarasota place.  Jean escaped the Canadian winters many many years ago & is totally acclimatized to that hot Florida weather & just loves it.  Still playing golf every Tuesday.

 

ONE PIC OF PHEEBS & I TODAY, ONE OF PHEEBS TONIGHT, & ONE OF ME THE OLD GROUCH ALL BY MYSELF ANY TIME OF DAY OR NIGHT

It was one year ago today we arrived in Congress from Bayfield Ontario & I must say it was a much happier arrival last year than this year.  It’s very evident we were both in much better spirits both mentally & physically by the time we got here a year ago.  ASHFORK TO CONGRESS 2013.  And this year, unlike the last 2 years we did not have to deal with any menacing Yellow Jackets as seen in the photo below.  Bonus.

Liked RETIRED ROD'S take on his new Cam Am Spyder.  Like he say’s, “this thing is not a motorcycle! Its not a quad bike or a side by side either...!  Its somewhere in between”.

Finally finished my biography on Canadian singer/songwriter NEIL YOUNG.  Young is probably best known for the bands Buffalo Springfield & Crazy Horse.  He was also a part of Crosby, Stills & Nash.  Hard to say what I thought of the book except to say he certainly lives up to the books title…..'Shakey’!!  It’s just unbelievable how such a large segment of the music industry from top to bottom was/is powered by drugs.  Sad.

SUNSET FROM ATOP THE BIG EEE >>>

Now here’s something very unusual for me to say, “I’m looking forward to going grocery shopping in the morning”.  Just been too much ‘sitting around time’ & not enough ‘going somewhere time’ so even a drive to Wickenburg’s Safeway store will assuage my restless nature some.  My favorite Safeway store is in Bisbee but Wickenburg’s store is a close second.  Not sure why I like the Safeway stores but maybe it has something to do with the lighting.  Not as white, bright, & garish as a Walmart for example. 

SATURDAY NIGHT’S CRESCENT MOON ABOVE & SUNDAY NIGHT’S SUNSET BELOW

GROANER’S CORNER:(( A fellow is getting ready to tee-off on the first hole when a second fellow approaches and asks if he can join him. The first says that he usually plays alone but agrees to let the second guy join him. Both are even after the first couple of holes. The second guy says, "Say, we're about evenly matched, how about we play for five bucks a hole?" The first fellow says that he usually plays alone and doesn't like to bet but agrees to the terms. Well, the second guy wins the rest of the holes and as they're walking off of the eighteenth hole, and while counting his $80.00, he confesses that he's the pro at a neighboring course and likes to pick on suckers. The first fellow reveals that he's the Parish Priest at the local Catholic Church to which the second fellow gets all flustered and apologetic and offers to give the Priest back his money. The Priest says, "No, no. You won fair and square and I was foolish to bet with you. You keep your winnings." The pro says, "Well, is there anything I can do to make it up to you?" The Priest says, "Well, you could come to Mass on Sunday and make a donation. Then, if you bring your mother and father by after Mass, I'll marry them for you."