FINALLY.....A NEW CAMERA LENS:))

THIS WAS THE WAY OF THE OLD WEST

Tonight's photos are a random sampling of pictures from the day we dropped into RATTLESNAKE CRAFTS near Gleason & Tombstone Arizona this past winter.

 

SELF PORTRAIT IN A GLASS BALL

With the exception of some weed whacking this morning I didn't get much done around home today but I did get a few things done a whole bunch of miles away.

CHATTING IT UP WITH THE RATTLESNAKE MAN HIMSELF..................... JOHN WEBER

I have been thinking for over a year now about trading my 55-200mm  Nikon camera lens in for a new 70-300mm lens.  Been watching the prices on a particular lens for quite awhile & finally it went on sale so it was out the door & off to Henry's Camera Store in Masonville Mall, London Ontario this morning.  I did have an alternative reason for going as well because yesterday I while on the way to & from London with the mobility van I had spotted a Jeep Wrangler for sale in the little town of Hensall.  

 

MY NEW AF-S VR NIKKOR 70-300 f4.5-5.6 G IF-ED ZOOMERGATOR LENS:)) (fully extended)

AN ANTIQUE BROWSER'S PARADISE

The Jeep turned out to be a 2001 with a ka-zillion million miles on it plus rust spots so that was the end of that.  Proceeded on to London.  I have blogged before about dealing with some of the 'kids' in retail stores so I didn't go through the door with a lot of optimism going for me.  Computer & camera type stores usually have those young wiz bangs behind the counter who no doubt know their 'technical' stuff but don't seem to have a lot tact when dealing with older folks.  Luckily, this time I dealt with an older fellow by the name of Mike who didn't talk to me like I was some kind of old homeless geezer who just crawled in off the street & didn't know which end of a camera to look through anyway.  I traded in my 55-200 lens plus a 2x Tamron converter.  I didn't expect to get much for them.....and I didn't.  In retrospect I probably should have kept that lens as a spare because there was nothing wrong with it.  It had a lot of miles on it for sure but still worked fine.  Like I've said before.....I'm not the brightest crayon in the package sometimes!!

IT WAS JUST NICE TO STAND HERE LISTENING TO ALL THESE HANGING ANTIQUES TINKLING IN THE DESERT WIND

The new 70-300 lens is much bigger than I had expected but that's fine.  I'm from the old school where heavier feels better.  I know I'm going to love this lens & I'm hoping to get in a bit closer on those bugs & bird shots now.

Leaving the camera store I got the brainwave to head on over to a Stratford Ontario auto dealership that had some Wranglers on the lot.  Looked at a couple nice 2007's but the prices were enough to pull your pants down & I could not believe the low ball price the guy offered me for the Caravan.  It was $1,300.00 lower than the lowest offer I have had on the van so far. 

Headed on back to Bayfield stopping at a few car lots on the way but no Jeeps in sight.  Also stopped in Goderich to take that red 2005 TJ for another run.  It's a 4 cylinder 6 speed & I like it but Kelly is not keen on it.  This is the only place that will take the bike on a trade.  Yes, I could maybe get a few more dollars for the motorcycle if I tried selling it myself but I absolutely hate all that 'bargaining & stupid dickering crap' you have to go through with everybody coming to look at whatever your selling.  Some people enjoy that BS but I am not one of them.  Nothing like haggling over money to bring out the worst in people!!

The big spring rush is over at our front yard bird feeders for another year.   Activity is way down as the Cardinals, Blue Jays, Red Breasted Grosbeaks, Orioles, Nuthatches, & others have all but disappeared.  Still a few Goldfinches at the feeders, some sparrow type birds & of course the ever present all time front yard scavengers....the squirrels!!

I unplugged our troublesome external hard drive from the desktop computer & hooked it up to our newer Win 7 Toshiba laptop this afternoon & it worked perfect.  Re-plugged it back into the desktop tonight using a different USB port this time & so far so good.  I'll know when I go to publish this thing in a few minutes.  Maybe it's not the X-drive after all.  Maybe it's just the color of my socks or something.

NO, THE CACTUS IS NOT FOR SALE!!

I have finally decided to include my SMUG MUG photo gallery on the bottom tag line now.  It is nowhere near done, nor will it probably ever be done because I just have way too many thousands of photos to sort through.  But, it is a work in progress for sure.

GROANER'S CORNER:((  Suburbia: where they tear out the trees and then name streets after them.

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Tourists see the world, travelers experience it......

"UNTIL ONE HAS LOVED AN ANIMAL, PART OF THEIR SOUL REMAINS UNAWAKENED"

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

RATTLESNAKE CRAFTS IN THE DESERT

THESE OLD WEATHERED GUNS ARE THE REAL McCOYS

( For some unknown reason to-night's blog would not publish in Live Writer so I have reverted back to the Blogger program for to-night's post,)

My back was tweaking this morning but not as bad as yesterday. I'm not quite out of the woods yet because the upper back muscles have tightened up & bent we slightly forward. Just going to take a little time for things to ease up & settle down. Did not want to just sit around all day again so we decided to take a drive over to the old mining town of Gleeson & see if we could find the Rattlesnake Craft place we had heard about. We had spent a few hours in what's left of Gleeson last March & our blog for that day is HERE. And, check out our PHOTOS of the old ghost town.

HEAD NORTH OUT OF ELFRIDA & TURN LEFT TO-WARDS GLEESON & WATCH FOR THE WEATHER WORN RATTLESNAKE CRAFTS SIGNS

The pavement ends just west of Gleeson's cemetery & the dusty road eventually leads to Tombstone 20 miles to the west. We spotted a large western looking gate with the words 'High Lonesome Ranch Real Estate.' Took a drive through the scenic rolling hills & saw 6 or 7 homes scattered about here & there. Wide open spaces with up to a mile between places & you would need a good set of binoculars to see what color your neighbors car was. I would like it here:)) We continued up the main road a few miles where another old weathered sign directed us onto another dusty & bumpier road. Wasn't long & we rolled into the Rattlesnake Crafts Ranch.

ON THE HIGH LONESOME RANCH PROPERTY

Well, let me tell ya, this was quite the place way out here on the high desert in the shadow of the Gleeson Mountains. As soon as we parked & got out of the car I knew we were going to be there for awhile. Kelly was excited about the number of rocks & mineral specimens. I was fascinated with a whole acre of photo opportunities. This was a step back in time as countless bits of history hung everywhere. Weather-beaten pots & pans, old rusting guns, jars, & well, just too many things to even begin to mention. Somewhere over 5,000 items on display. I'll have to refer you to my photos to give you an idea of this place. Most everything is real & all of it is old, very old, with the exception of the many rattlesnake crafts which Sandy John make.

AND THIS IS THE ROAD INTO RATTLESNAKE CRAFTS

Sandra & John Weber have dragged home a lot of stuff over the years & what they haven't brought home others have brought out to their place. I think these folks were on the 'To-day' show years ago & there are a bunch of newspaper & magazine articles posted about them. They call their little 1 acre place in the desert Rattlesnake Crafts because they have a whole trailer full of just about anything you can imagine made from rattlesnake parts. In fact there are 150+ rattlesnake related items in the jam packed old vintage trailer. Wallets, belts, ties, sunglasses holders, hat bands, cell phone & knife cases, etc. etc. And where do the rattlesnake parts come from?? Usually within about a 20 mile radius of where they live. On warm summer nights during July & August they head out into the desert in search of the rattlers. John said it can take as much as 9 hours to track down a rattler. They have been doing this for years without injury or incident. Kelly asked him if they keep any snakes on their property & John said, "no, they just escape anyway."

LISTENING TO THE WIND TINKLE & JINGLE ALL THE OLD TREASURES

We didn't meet Sandra but she did go by on one end of a table her & John were carrying out to set up a rock collection. John, a very personable & friendly fellow did his best to answer Kelly's many gemstone rock questions. I was busy just looking at everything & taking pictures, marveling at the amount of history packed into this solitary little place kind out in the middle of nowhere. Pretty much everything is out in the open. No specially track lighted display cases or marbled museum floors here. Just the harsh Arizona sun above, cattle wandering by through the mesquite & cactus, & John's big rugged smile lighting up his cowboy boots from under is well worn & weathered cowboy hat. These are real western people & this is a real collection of wild west stuff they have here. No pressure from these folks to buy anything either. John just happened be setting up some stuff nearby when we got there. And everything is on the honor system. He said once they were away for 3 days, just left the place open, & when they returned someone had left $300 for some stuff they picked up. Real trusting down home folks these Webers are & isn't it too bad the rest of the world couldn't follow their example. If you don't mind a little dust on your tires or a bit of sunshine on your face just take the Gleeson road at the north end of Elfrida & follow it west. The placement ends west of the Gleeson cemetery & it's maybe another 5 miles or so to Rattlesnake Crafts. Watch for the signs & make sure your not transporting nitroglycerine or your gonna get blowed up for sure on the bumpy road:)) Check out Sandra & John Weber's website at.......RATTLESNAKE CRAFTS & ROCKS. Tell em the Bayfield Bunch sent ya:))

JOHN WEBER & KELLY.......'ROCK TALK'

Gets pretty hot in these parts by noon so we were back home about 12:30 & spent the rest of the day inside with the A/C on. Took a lot of photos so I will create a separate album for this mornings jaunt to Rattlesnake Crafts & upload it to our Picasa Web Album. Problem is we are almost out of bandwidth but I will probably upload the pics anyway. Sometimes ya just gotta do what ya gotta do!!

THERE WAS A BIRD NEST IN THE FIRST POT ON THE LEFT

Sat out under the stars last night for awhile with my binoculars doing some Stargazing. I am always a little dis-oriented here in the southwest for awhile. Same stars & constellations for the most part but everything is slightly in a different place. No problem for me finding the constellation Pegasus last night but it took me a long time to find the Andromeda Galaxy which is located not far off one of Pegasus's 4 star points. Watched mighty Orion slip up over the Swiss Helm Mountains to our east. The Hyades & Pleiades were in fine form as were many other old familiar pals high in the sky. Could see 2 of Jupiter's moons. Arizona is probably one of the most popular astronomy areas in all of the U.S. & how lucky that is for me to be here in one of it's darkest areas. Stars from horizon to horizon in the cool, crisp, & clean desert air. Will be glad when my forgotten tri-pod arrives & I can pop my telescope on & see if I can find me some alien spacecraft:)) Do I believe in that sort of thing?? Absolutely!! Makes a whole lot more darn sense to me than many other popularly held beliefs.............10-4:))

AL'S SELF PORTRAIT IN A BLUE BALL AT RATTLESNAKE CRAFTS

To see the rest of our Rattlesnake Crafts photos from this morning click…. PICASA WEB ALBUM

And just in case anyone is wondering who AMOS & ANDY was from last night’s blog, just click on their names:))

GROANER'S CORNER:(( What do you call a guy on the side of the road with his hand up a horses behind? An Amish Mechanic!!

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