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."

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