Saturday, December 24, 2016

OUR SKIES HAVE FINALLY CLEARED

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OH HOW NICE TO FINALLY SEE SUNLIGHT SPLASHING ACROSS THE SANTA ROSA MOUNTAINS THIS AFTERNOON

Right up front let me thank readers for their comments and Shout Box suggestions in repairing or replacing the metal hardware at the camera end of my camera strap.  I agree, nothing wrong with the rest of the strap so why replace the whole strap.   Bob (Bob's Eyes) Noble’s ‘hammer’ suggestion made perfect sense to me so decided to first try that and see it it worked before heading off to the hardware store in search of some suggested clamps, clasps, and fasteners.  Bob said, “put that metal piece on a hard surface and whack it with a hammer a few times and it will be as good as new”.  I figured if it worked, great and if it didn’t I could still go with option 2 at the hardware store.

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GUESS WHERE PHEEBS AND I WENT THIS MORNING

Friday mornings are market days at Christmas Circle ("Borrego," incidentally, is the Spanish word for fleecy white clouds.) so Kelly headed off into town early.  She didn’t seem to keen on me coming along so I figured she had herself some more browsing and shopping to do.  No matter as Pheebs and I were needing to take ourselves out for a tour anyway.  No Jeep this time so we had to travel on our legs for a change.  Out the door we went scrambling up the southern lower end of Coyote Mountain.DSC_0004-001

It was our annual Pilgrimage up to see the Great Stone Snake.  I know some of you are going ‘oh no not more pictures of the Great Stone Snake again!!!!  Well I’m afraid so folks and this time there was even more to see in the tiny hollowed out shallow sandy dish area where the big Snake makes it’s home.

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NOT MANY RV’ERS AT PEG LEG YET

This is an area we have been hiking up to for a long time now and walking along the ever upward narrow path I again thought of the original Bayfield Bunch when all five of us would climb this trail up and back again.  Even in their last months Max and Checkers walked this trail with Kelly, little Cora, and myself.  Less than a year later Cora aka Motormouse also made her last climb up the trail to stand atop a rocky knoll overlooking the valley leading to Borrego Springs.

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PATHWAYS AND TRAILS ON COYOTE MOUNTAIN CAN SOMETIMES BE A LITTLE DIFFICULT TO FOLLOW

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HIGHWAY S22 FROM SALTON CITY IS FAINTLY VISIBLE COMING IN FROM TOP CENTER

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KNOWING WHERE THE GREAT STONE SNAKE WAS PHEEBS GOT THERE BEFORE I DID

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IT WAS EVIDENT TO ME RIGHT AWAY OTHER STONE CREATIONS HAVE BEEN ADDED SINCE MY LAST TIME HERE A YEAR AGO

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NO MATTER WHERE I CLIMB MY LITTLE FURRY MOUNTAIN GOAT IS ALWAYS RIGHT BEHIND ME

The solution to my camera strap problem is a good example of how different types of minds work.  Generally if something breaks, ceases to function correctly or stops working altogether my non mechanical engineerless mind immediately thinks either replace the whole darn thing, run out of the room screaming, or go hide under my bed until the problem resolves itself.  Much better minds than mine think either fix only the broken part or replace only the broken part.  Yes, there are lots much more betterer minds in this world than this one I got stuck with alright.

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I’M SURE ALL THESE STONE CREATIONS MEAN SOMETHINGSPECIAL TO THEIR CREATERS

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PHEEBS KINDA BLENDS RIGHT IN WITH THE ROCKS

And here’s another fine example of how my mind works.  This morning while clicking on a weather site my Toshiba laptop seized up followed shortly thereafter by the dreaded ‘blue screen of death’.  No matter what I did I could not get rid of that solid robin’s egg blue color and I know I’ve heard about computers suddenly ending their days with these blue screens.  My first thoughts were of my blog thinking is this it, is this finally the end of my blogging days.  My mind then shifted to things lost followed closely by where is the nearest and quickest place I can get another computer.  Indio is the closest big city and for sure would have a Best Buy store.  There’s a Walmart in Brawley.  Should we leave here early and head for Yuma??  By the time I fretted and worried about where to find another laptop Kelly had walked by, picked up my computer without a word and sat down with it in her lap.  Ten seconds later the ‘blue screen of death’ was gone and my computer was running normally.   I don’t want to talk about!!

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PHEEBE CHECKS OUT THE GREAT STONE SNAKE IT’S VERY SELF

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CHECKING OUT THE STONE SCORPION

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I took Pheebs for another short afternoon walk when all of a sudden we saw a sun splash on the Santa Rosa Mountains way far across the Clark Valley.  Soon a few more sunny spots and glancing up I was surprised to see some large patches of blue sky overhead.  We have been here since Wednesday afternoon and up to late this afternoon hadn’t even seen the tops of the mighty Santa Rosa or San Jacinto mountains. 

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A FEW SUN SPLASHES BEGIN TO SLOWLY TICKLE THE SIDES OF THE SANTA ROSA MOUNTAINS

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Despite a few weather sites calling for big rains overnight the skies just kept on clearing with a lot of soggy RV’ers out of their rigs with faces raised to the skies cheering on the clearing:))

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OH HOW SWEET IT WAS TO FINALLY SEE SOME BLUE SKIES THIS AFTERNOON

This morning was the first time I had hiked up Coyote Mountain under a totally overcast sky so it was interesting to see how differently things looked without sunshine popping out the desert colors along the way.  On the way back down Pheebs and I decided to forego the easier path route and simply launched ourselves down the steeper rock strewn slope.  I’m on a bit of a kick to get my leg muscles back up to strength again and knew it would be a strain for them holding their own coming down along the slippery rock strewn slope.  And I was right.  My legs were sore by the time we got back to the rig and that soreness felt oh so good.

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INSTEAD OF TAKING THE PATH BACK WE TOOK A SHORT CUT DOWN THROUGH THESE ROUGH AND TUMBLE ROCKS

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PHEEBS SAYS ‘HEY DAD THERE’S A BETTER WAY DOWN OVER HERE’

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WE’RE AIMING TO GET OURSELVES DOWN TO THAT PATH BELOW

Had forgot to mention that before Pheebs and I started out for our morning hike I did take my camera strap with attached metal parts over to the fire pit whereupon I laid it on a flat rock then proceeded with my hammer to carefully tap the two slightly contoured horizontal edges running around the hole flattening them out and effectively tightening them in making the hole with the clasp pin in it smaller.  From what I can see this has made a perfect fix and a big thank you goes out to Bob Noble for suggesting it,  I tromped all the way up to the Big Stone Snake area and back with the camera and lens swinging and bumping along the way with no problem.IMG_0515

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HEY DID YOU JUST TAKE A PICTURE OF ME YAWNING!!

Kelly was back from the Market around noon I think and mentioned how small the market is now with this morning only having 6 vendors selling produce etc.  One of the Vendors told her it’s been down since the first of the year.  DSC_0002-001

OH HOW NICE TO SEE THOSE BLUE SKIES

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KELLY POSITIONED HER CHAIR TO CATCH AS MANY OF OLD SOL’S WARM RAYS BEAMING THROUGH THE WINDSHIED SHE COULD

The first few years we came here we boon-docked further east out on the flatter valley floor but the last bunch of years we always try to get ourselves tucked up as close as we can to the foot of Coyote Canyon.  It’s higher ground with a better view than on the Valley floor plus I like to be in short walking distance of the Coyote Mountain trails.  The spot we are in right now is our all time favorite spot and we were surprised to find this little area open again.  There has been some confusion here as to who owns what with rumors of Anza State Park having taken over the Rock House Road area.  Well at least that was the way it was last year and the area we are in now seemed to have signs up discouraging boon-dockers so we camped elsewhere.  How happy we were when pulling in to see people once again boon-docking where we thought we’d never be able to camp again.  Some days are just darn well better than others:))

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GROANER’S CORNER:(( The young couple invited their aged pastor for Sunday dinner. While they were in the kitchen preparing the meal, the minister asked their son what they were having. "Goat," the little boy replied.  "Goat?" replied the startled man of the cloth, "Are you sure about that?"  "Yep," said the youngster. "I heard Pa say to Ma, 'Might as well have the old goat for dinner today as any other day.'"

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Religion as Baseball

Calvinists believe the game is fixed.
Lutherans believe they can't win, but trust the Scorekeeper.
Quakers won't swing.
Unitarians can catch anything.
Amish walk a lot.
Pagans sacrifice.
Jehovah's Witnesses are thrown out often.
Televangelists get caught stealing.
Episcopalians pass the plate.
Evangelicals make effective pitches.
Fundamentalists balk.
Adventists have a seventh-inning stretch.
Atheists refuse to have an Umpire.
Baptists want to play hardball.
Premillenialists expect the game to be called soon on account of darkness.
The Pope claims never to have committed an error.

18 comments:

  1. Al, my father was a mechanical genius. I've inherited that tendency, too, and I can pretty much figure out how to fix things, but a good whack! with a hammer usually works, too! Our son inherited this gift and he fixed some smog thing on his car that 3 mechanics couldn't! Thank goodness because you never know when our "ability" might come in handy! HA! You are lucky you have Kelly! :-)

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  2. I drove up Highway 74 to Anza yesterday to buy pellets for my horses before the snow hit! Good thing I did! They were completely out. The clouds up there against the mountains were spectacular! I stopped and took a bunch of photos and I need to upload them this morning. STAY WARM!

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  3. The sunshine yesterday was wonderful here as well. Nice to see the Great Stone Snake is still alive and well and even more stone creations have joined the party. Keep those great pictures coming.

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  4. Never tire of seeing the rock formations, even some news I hadn't seen before. The comment about the original Bayfield Bunch and Motormouse made me sad for a moment. Glad to see the clouds move to brighten up your day.

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  5. Great pictures as usual Al,,,All I can say is you grow a beard awful fast, I saw you just a few days ago and you were "clean" shaven....... It was the first time I had ever seen you without a beard or anything.... Can you really grow such a nice beard so fast??? :-) I envoy you out there... Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

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  6. Love the pictures, Borrego was one of our favorite places to boon dock'

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  7. LOL ... great computer story ... way to Kelly!

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  8. Your pix of those sun-splashed mountains give a completely different perspective on where you are. I for one enjoy all the pictures I see of the Great Stone Sink. And I wish I had a Kelly who could pick up a computer and fix it! Instead its the other way around, and I'm hopeless! Merry Christmas to you and Kelly.

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  9. Wonderful to see that rather than destroying the rock art, people have chosen to add to it - makes me so happy!! Glad the percussive mechanics worked for the camera strap :-) Those photos of the Santa Rosas are stunning - love all that rock color in the changing light. Oh, I'm really missing our desert now!!

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  10. Probably a good thing to have that continued rain in the area. Otherwise, dust from the thousands of ATV's ripping about at Ocotillo Wells would be dominating the sky!

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    1. Make that millions of ATV's eh....Winds are beating us up pretty good here this afternoon.

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  11. There's some nice new "rock art" there but I think I prefer the snake alone. Glad you're seeing sunshine because it's snowing in Kanab. Merry Christmas to you all!!

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  12. Enjoyed the photos and glad someone had a quick fix for your strap. I quit using mine as the screw in the tripod hole kept getting loose and once fell off. I thought about locktite, but just went back to your two key rings and a long shoulder strap from a Pelican case, works great for me.
    Merry Christmas to you and Kelly.

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  13. Great photos! I haven't been to that area yet, but I'm sure I'll make it some day. I loved the Pheebes photos - yawning, then the "look." So funny. And I always laugh out loud at the jokes. Today's was a really good one. LOL

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  14. Oh, I forgot - Merry Christmas to you and Kelly and Pheebes! Have a happy day tomorrow. 🎄

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  15. Love the photo of Pheebs peering over the valley, Al. I have one of our first golden, Katie, peering out over Jordan Pond from the top of South Bubble Mountain like that. Great job!

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  16. Merry Christmas from all the C's. Wishing you a wonderful 2017 full of new adventures and great memories.

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  17. So glad the snake is there and hasn't been disturbed:) It is beautiful. I also loved the starfish last year so I am glad it made it, too. Nice that the new creations being added are quality work. Beautiful photos with sun lighting up the color of the hills.

    Merry Christmas to you, Kelly, and Pheebs!

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