WE ARE BACK INTO OUR WINTER CLOTHES......Brrrrrrrrrr!!

WOKE UP TO SNOW ON THE SWISSHELM MOUNTAINS  (telephoto lens)

It's a good thing we brought our Canadian winter clothes with us. Woke up to snow on the distant mountain tops & our temps never got above 43F with gusting winds. Reminded me of a cold, wet, gray, mid November day in Ontario. I hauled out the telescope lens & cracked off some photos of the far away snow tipped mountains this morning.

SNOW ON THE DRAGOON MOUNTAINS NORTH OF US THIS MORNING

Had planned on blogging about our visit to Marybeth Webster's house yesterday but I was talking to Marybeth to-day & asked if she could email me a few facts about her house, the Quaker Friends of the Southwest Center, & herself. Want to get all my facts straight about everything before doing the post. I've had the towns of Truth or Consequences NM & Borrego Springs California nicely email about mistakes I made about their respective towns so I sure don't want Marybeth chasing me down for not getting something right:))

SNOW CLOUDS SITTING ON THE DRAGOONS

Noticed BITS FROM BILL had a post to-day about a device that is essential for backing up hard drives if you have more than one computer in your home. Windows Home Server has made a big impression on Bill. RICK has some videos on what to do if you have a tire blow out & JERRY has been getting some great red faced comments about his cheeky red pajamas. WANDERING WILLY is doing battle with Mexican sugar ants & GYPSY has landed herself at Fort Pulaski in Savannah, Georgia. For some of you folks who follow TIOGA GEORGE you might want to stop by with a few words of encouragement. George has had a recent spate of bad luck & his RV was towed into Gila Bend Az to-day.

SADDLEBACK MOUNTAIN NEAR DOUGLAS AZ (saddle horn is far knob at left & saddle sways to the right) 

We had our usual 4 suspects out to the photography group to-day & were actually able to solve more problems than we created:)) And we all did well about staying on photography related topics & issues.

RAIN FALLING IN THE TOMBSTONE HILLS OFF TO THE NORTHWEST

The weather remained bad all day with heavy rains at times. Arizona's country roads are not graveled like in Ontario & are made of a hard packed sandy clay like mixture. When it rains, that sandy clay turns to a soft glue like mixture that sticks to your shoes like a fly's stick to gooey fly paper. Tires slip in the red mud & absolutely everything tracks into the motorhome. For us that is 4 shoes & 12 paws hauling mud inside. We've got quite a mess going on in here but I did have a go at it with the vacuum after Kelly went to her exercise class this morning. When this mud is in it's dry form it is of course called, dust. The southwest has waaaaaaaay more dust than it really needs & before we head home in the spring we'll really have to hose the vehicles down inside & out. We've got so much dust in the motorhome & car right now we would be charged big bucks for hauling a full load of Arizona dirt across the border & up into Canada.

THESE SAND HILL CRANES WERE FLYING AGAINST BLANK WHITE CLOUDS  SO I GOT OUT MY PAINT BRUSH & PAINTED THE SKY ORANGE:))

GROANER'S CORNER:))  And, some medical advice......If you have a bad cough, take a large dose of laxatives, then you will be afraid to cough.

BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/
OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

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

MY SMUG MUG (I am finally working on updating this site)
http://stargeezer.smugmug.com/

A VALLEY OF LEGENDS

It was the pitter patter on the roof that roused me out of sound sleep this morning followed by a few flashes of light & the low roll of thunder. Rain!! Not unexpected because the spectacular cloud formations of the past couple of days signaled another weather change moving through the area. It has been these clouds that have been making for some very beautiful sunrises & sunsets, not to mention the awesome cloud formations during the day.

Where we live in Bayfield Ontario the sky is seldom visible to us because of the heavy pine tree cover in our area so the open desert skies of Arizona are a huge attraction. Here in the Sulphur Springs valley we are surrounded by mountains on all horizons. On our walk this morning skies were dark & foreboding to the northwest over near Tombstone. We could here thunder rumbling somewhere between the Mule & Dragoon Mountains some 40 miles or more away. We were in sunshine down on the valley floor as another storm came thundering across the Swiss Helm mountains to our east. South of us about 20 miles near Douglas the skies were so black even Castle Dome mountain was hardly visible. Great sheets of rain could be seen to the north, while Bisbee, hidden away in the Mule mountains, huddled under a heavy cover of clouds squatting on the mountain tops. All this was visible in a complete 360 degree panoramic view all around us as we walked in early morning desert sunshine.

This is a valley of legends where we are. Cochise & Geronimo fought battles in nearby canyon passes. Indian raids into Mexico came through here. Pancho Villa & his men rode these ranges. Cattle rustling was carried on by men like the McLaury brothers who had a ranch near here & later died in a shoot out over in Tombstone with the Erp brothers & Doc Holiday. This is a valley of prospectors, miners, & ghost towns. This is a valley of ghosts. This is a valley of restless spirits. And, this is a valley where we walk in the footsteps of history each day.

The American southwest is a land of ever changing beauty & enchantment & we feel very much at home here. There is a magic in the mountains that deepens the mysteries of the desert valleys below. When the clouds sit on the mountain tops & the lumbering cloud shadows slowly make their way through the canyons & valleys it gives one a sense of awe to be in this land of magic shadows. We will keep returning here to the southwest for it's fiery sunrises & sunsets as long as we can. Until the desert winds erase our tracks, until the brooding mountains wrap themselves around us no longer. Until the magic shadows drift through our memories no more.

To-day we visited with Jeanie & Ray for awhile & then headed down to Douglas for some groceries. A very special & dedicated lady living & working in the area had invited us for supper & I will be blogging about that shortly & adding photos of our visit.  It was late when we arrived back at the rig & with another camera full of photos I decided to work on that little project Monday morning. I think we might be in for some rain to-night & to-morrow so that would work out perfectly for me.

It’s after 10 o’clock & Live Writer has just failed me again!! I had thought the problem before was with the web albums but I do not have any web albums in to-night’s post. Checked the connection & it was fine so now I have to start over by moving all this to Blogger's Dashboard……..:((

GROANER'S CORNER:)) . A man walks into a bar with a slab of asphalt under his arm and says: "A beer please, and one for the road."

BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/
OUR PHOTO ALBUMS http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/
The only thing better than right now will someday be the memories of right now....AL.

MY SMUG MUG (I am finally working on updating this site)
http://stargeezer.smugmug.com/

OLD PEARCE HERITAGE DAYS PART 2

 

REFLECTIONS IN THE RANCH POND

We are under stormy skies with heavy wind gusts.  A few spatters of rain a couple hours ago & that was about it.  Cold front bringing in rain & snow to the higher elevations over the next few days.  Might see some snow on the Swiss Helm mountains east of us.

AN OLD TIMER REMEMBERS DAYS GONE BY

Jeanie & Ray, the ranch owners made it home to-day after their 3 week cruise to Hawaii.  Had themselves a good time but they were looking pretty tired with lots of un-packing to do.  We didn't tie them up with a bunch of questions like, how big was the ship, was Hawaii green, did you swim in the ocean & if so was the water really wet!!

           

I sorted out all my Pearce Heritage Days photos to-day, assembled them into an album & am uploading that album right now as I'm typing this.  You can see those captioned pictures by clicking OLD PEARCE HERITAGE DAYS You can also see our previous visit to Pearce LAST MARCH.  If anyone reading this happens to live in this area maybe you could pass on the albums address to anyone living near here.  I'm sure some of the folks would get a kick out of maybe seeing some of their friends.  I did catch a few colorful characters' with my 200mm lens:))

THIS COLD WILD WEST STARE NEARLY FROZE UP MY CAMERA LENS

This is a brief history of Pearce:  The discovery of gold in the 1880's set off gold rush fever & resulted in prospector's flooding into the area from neighboring mining towns like Tombstone & Bisbee.  The frenzy was so great that it nearly emptied Tombstone of it's residence.  People dismantled their homes & business's & hauled them over the Dragoon Mountains by wagonloads to Pearce.  By 1896 100 homes had been built with 2 or 3 being added each week.  A stage & mail route was established to Tombstone & soon Pearce had 4 grocery & merchandise stores, many eating places including 2 Chinese restaurants, a butcher shop, 4 boarding houses, a blacksmith shop, livery stables as well as brothels & saloons.  A Doctor's office opened & by 1896 Pearce had it's own Post Office & jail.  A school opened in 1897 & was also used as a Church.  The population soon blossomed to 1500 residents with a large dance hall, movie theater, & a golf course.   Mining & Milling Companies had moved in establishing mines & by 1903 a rail line was in operation bring supplies & hauling out the ore.   The mine flourished until 1904 when flooding limited underground mining.  A fire at the mine in 1910 added further stress to the declining market but the town struggled on into the 1930's.  The mine finally closed & the railway was terminated.  People demolished their homes to avoid paying property taxes & by 1935 less than 50 people lived in Pearce.  To-day Pearce is a ghost town.  The mine is silent, streets are deserted, & only a few buildings remain including the old Pearce Store built in 1896.  Once a year the town comes to life for 2 days following the Thanksgiving week-end. 

TAKING THE ALPACAS FOR A WALK

Kelly & I consider ourselves very fortunate to have been a part of Pearce's Old Heritage Days for a few hours on Friday November 27th & I hope my photos somehow find their way onto area computers & into the hearts of the local folks in the area.   Thanks for the photo opportunities folks:))

 

To-morrow we are off to see a lady who lives just 6 miles from the Mexican border in a 14 sided house called a Polygon.  That should make for some interesting photos. 

Monday or Tuesday I'll post photos & some history of the ghost town we drove through Friday.........Courtland.

We received a couple of electronic internet cards from some Arizona friends lately but we haven't been able to open the cards yet because of our  Verizon megabytes problem so to Jerry & Suzy & Paws & Hooves we'll say thanks in advance until we can get over to the Elfrida Library to open them.  Thanks guys:))

GROANER'S CORNER:((   I went to a seafood disco last week...and pulled a mussel.

BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS  http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

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

MY SMUG MUG (I am finally working on updating this site)

http://stargeezer.smugmug.com/

OLD PEARCE HERITAGE DAYS

 

SUNDOWN AT THE RANCH TO-NIGHT

We ate ourselves up some dust this morning on the old Ghost town trail to Pearce.  We had heard there were a few old ruins left from an old mining town called Courtland along the dusty road east of another ghost town...Gleeson.  A few stone walls & old masonry is about all that is left amongst the prickly pear cactus & Mesquite trees.  One heavily constructed concrete building had iron bars on small high windows which made us wonder if it had once been a jail.  A long cement slab sidewalk fronted what must have been 6 or 7 stores at one time.  Only the low crumbling wall foundations are left showing through the low scrub brush.  I will post photos of Courtland in a later blog & will upload an album on to-day's short hike later this week.  Despite re-sizing my photos I am still reluctant to upload everything to our web album through our Verizon broadband because something is still chewing up our megabytes!!  I will wait until we get to the Elfrida LIbrary again.

OLD RUINS IN THE GHOST TOWN OF COURTLAND

We rolled into the tiny community of Pearce just before noon.  The road runs right through town so we just pulled off to the side where people were scattered about looking at some old farm machinery.  There isn't too much in Pearce but what is there is interesting.  We had been to Pearce this past March & on that day we were the only ones on the street.  But, things were livelier to-day with Pearce's annual Old Pearce Heritage Days in full swing.  Vendors, music, colorful characters, old machinery, & best of all.....the old general mercantile store was open for viewing.  The inside of this store is a treasure trove of old artifacts.  I was very surprised when I walked through the front door to see the excellent shape this store was in & how every nook & cranny was tastefully filled with everything imaginable.  I was immediately attracted to the colors & the way the store was cozily lit.  Old lamps, dated china, glassware, clothes, showcases & shelves filled with history.  We have been through old stores before & I would say this one in Pearce is one of the best.

THE PEARCE MERCANTILE STORE

An small red & obviously antique machine sat by the road whirring & chugging with a wide belt turning a barrel like thing with a bunch of ice cubes inside.  It was a home made ice cream machine:))  Kelly waited nearly half an hour at this spot for the next & last batch of home made ice cream to be made.  In the meantime I wondered off & corralled myself a big double Texas hamburger.  Just finished that up when Kelly walked over with a cup of ice cream.  First time I remember eating home made ice cream & it was really tasty.  Kelly tried on some unique palm frond hats & finally found one on a seconds table for $10.  Live music in a small alley beside the old store had the old timers taping their toes. 

ENTERTAINMENT IN THE ALLEY

My enjoyment at these types of events is photographing things.  I enjoy candid photography & it's fun watching for people doing just ordinary things that people do.  The colors & merchandise inside the Mercantile Store also made for some interesting pictures as well as the old farm machines outside.   By the time we got home I had 3 camera's with 261 photos to download.  Takes me awhile to edit each & every photo in my Picasa photo editing program at the end of the day but I enjoy that just as much as taking the pictures.  It's a fun hobby for me.   It will take me a few days to get all my Pearce photos from to-day into an album & up onto the web but maybe, just maybe somebody from Pearce may stumble across our site some day & maybe even find themselves on the internet:))

A FESTIVE ATMOSPHERE TO-DAY

We were back to the ranch by 3 & it didn't take me long to get my feet up & get some zzzzzzzz's rolling.  It was a good day because we got to see some new scenery, scramble around some ruins, take a few pictures & just generally enjoy another fine sunny Arizona day.  And, of course it was another in a series of great sunsets:))

I THINK SOMEBODY’S PRETTY PLEASED WITH HER NEW HAT

GROANER'S CORNER:((  A hangover is the wrath of grapes.

BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS  http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

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

MY SMUG MUG (I am finally working on updating this site)

http://stargeezer.smugmug.com/

A FINE THANKSGIVING DINNER WITH A FINE BUNCH OF LOCAL FOLKS

 

BISBEE’S MULE MOUNTAINS COMMUNICATION TOWERS

We woke up to a slight cloud cover this morning & that meant some temperatures above 32F for a change.  My feet didn't freeze to the ground when I stepped out of the rig.  The cloud cover also signaled an incoming weather change.  The day started out calm as I relaxed in a lawn chair with my 10 o'clock coffee soaking up some warming rays & quiet serenity.  Minutes later I'm nearly upside down as the first wind gusts swept into the valley blowing swirling clouds of dust before them.  The rig's awning was bouncing & the flags were snapping as we scrambled to get the awning up & secured to the rig.  Just goes to show you can never leave your awning unattended in the southwest.  That wily old wind is always nearby tucked away in a canyon somewhere just waiting for you to head off to town & leave your lawn chairs out & your awning down.  I'm sure it finds great pleasure in swooping down, scattering tables & chairs & bending awning arms around like pretzels.  I swear someday's I can hear that mischievous old wind laughing as it goes blowing by with a load of somebody's laundry in it's clutches.  It's enough to blow the underwear right off a horse.

OUR CHILE LIGHTS IN A DRAGOON MOUNTAIN SUNSET

Noticed we had a new blog follower this morning & would like to welcome fellow Canadian Pat from Guelph Ontario & his blog, TRAVELS WITH LEFTY Welcome aboard neighbor:))

SAND HILL CRANES WINGING THEIR WAY HOME AT THE END OF THE DAY

Received an email from Marianne at, THE RV TRAVEL BLOG this morning.  Turns out they are also Canadian neighbors from Elora, Ontario & while checking out our outdated links site I came across these folks at FULL TIME RVING.  Both of the these sites are very informative & I would recommend you have a look at them.  I can see I am going to have to update & re-vamp our links section because I had totally forgotten about one of them & didn't have the other one linked at all.  While double-checking our blogger list I also came across DOWN THE ROAD FROM DOGPOUND'S latest post 3 weeks ago which I had totally missed in the flurry & fog of Bloggerville. I wonder how many other folks I have missed:((  I did finally catch up on our email correspondence with readers but also feel I've missed some of you so have decided to deal with each email right away from now on as soon as it lands on the desktop.  Well, that's my well intentioned plan anyway!!

It's the American Thanksgiving Day here & I've noticed a lot of other bloggers giving thanks to various things so I'll add our thanks to the roll.  No great grandiose thanks to imagined ethereal entities or supposed worldly Saints.  Just a very simple & realistic thanks to all you folks out there who send in your comments & emails to the Bayfield Bunch.  Thanks to you all for reading our simple little travel blog & thanks to our fellow bloggers for sharing their daily lives.  And a special thanks to my family members both living & deceased for making this whole Travel with The Bayfield Bunch possible.  Somewhere down the road I will share with you all the true motivation of why I do this blog every day.  

TO-NIGHT’S MOON OVER ARIZONA (Nikon D40 in combination with a Stellarview Nighthawk refractor telescope)

I successfully dodged the snipping scissors this morning & kept my gray locks to grow another day.  Even got away without having to trim my beard.  Kelly fixed up a Sweet Potato Baked Casserole for the potluck Thanksgiving dinner over at the FRIEND'S OF THE SOUTHWEST (Quaker Intentional Community) this afternoon.  I was a bit apprehensive about this place having religious overtones but I needn't have worried.  We arrived at 1 p.m. & met a fine bunch of local people who made us feel welcome & comfortable.  About 2 dozen people altogether.  A diverse bunch of backgrounds & I'm sure everyone had a tale to tell of how they ended up here in the Sulphur Springs Valley of southeast Arizona.  A lady sitting across from me had moved with her husband to this area several years ago from Alaska.  Several friendly Mexican fellows were there from Agua Prieta across the border from Douglas.  Lots of great food, fine deserts, & friendly people.  We received several invitations to visit people at their homes & we learned a bit more about the history of the area.  One lady at the table told us about the history of the Quaker like community, but 10 seconds into her description my short term memory had already forgotten the first 5 seconds so I'll have to try & remember to write things down next time.

 

		THANKS FOLKS:))

THANKSGIVING DINNER AT THE FRIENDS OF THE SOUTHWEST CENTER NEAR McNEAL, ARIZONA             (Click the pictures to enlarge them)

We were back to the ranch shortly after 3 & by then the wind had subsided & it turned out to be a pleasantly warm day with a nice sunset.  We had eaten so much turkey at the dinner this afternoon that we skipped supper entirely.  Took a few sunset & moon photos & that was about it for another fine Arizona day.  To-morrow morning we'll head off to Pearce for their annual, 'Old Pearce Heritage Days' & maybe brush shoulders with some real wild west cowboys:))

GROANER'S CORNER:((  A gossip is someone with a great sense of rumor.

BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS  http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

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

MY SMUG MUG (I am finally working on updating this site)

http://stargeezer.smugmug.com/

PHONES-SCHMONES & MAKING FACES AT THE CHICKENS

 

BISBEE:))

Can't remember exactly when it was that I picked up my phone phobia but it was quite a few years ago & I still avoid the darn fangled things to this day.  Wall phones, desk phones, cell phones, iphones, whatever.  The only good phone is a headphone.  Just never figured out why everybody has to be incessantly talking to everybody all the time.  Can't understand the logic for carrying a cell phone around unless it's for emergency purposes.  I know I am the exception to the rule because the world has definitely become obsessed with phone technology & yammering in each other's ear.

I THINK THE WHOLE BISBEE SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT WAS AT THE BBC THE OTHER DAY FOR STICKY BUNS

Years ago when my job took me into Pearson International Airport in Toronto on a daily bases I remember seeing plane loads of oriental people dis-embarking their flights on Sunday nights.  Could never figure out why all the young ones getting off those planes had cell phones glued to their ears & were totally focused on talking a mile a minute to whoever or whatever was on the other end....wherever.  I've never been able to understand what can be so important in life that you have to be jabbering on a cell phone 24/7.  I carried a cell phone for about 3 years when I was on the road with that Airports job & probably never had so much as an hour's talking time on that phone in all of those 3 years.  Ran out of fuel once, transmission leak another time, & a call made in a snowstorm was about the extent of my cell phone time.  A friend told me once that as soon as he leaves the house every morning his wife is immediately on the phone talking to her family for the rest of the day.  Everytime!!  Doesn't anyone enjoy spending quiet time with themselves anymore. ……….phones-schmones!!!!   But, enough of my phone blusterings.  It's just one of my many little pet peeves.

IF IT’S A FLAT SURFACE, THE BISBEE-ITES ARE GONNA PAINT IT

What reminded me of my phone phobia was a website I clicked on to-day.  Usually when someone pops up in our followers box I click on them to see who they are & if they are bloggers or have a website.  Not sure if this is where I came across the following website or not but they seem to have some interesting articles about RV related techno things.  They seem to be very knowledgeable in all that iphone stuff so thought I'd just pass the website along to anyone interested. LITTLE TRAVEL NOTEBOOK

SQUEEZING THE CAR THROUGH A NARROW BISBEE  BACK STREET

It was another quiet day for us & aside from cleaning a couple of windows in the rig & feeding the donkeys some carrots, making faces at the chickens, rolling ranch dog Gleeson over for half a dozen tummy rubs & landing some smooches on ranch dog Pearce's nose, I didn't do much of anything.  Kelly re-arranged some motorhome cupboards & did a bunch of reading.  Oh ya, & I fitted in some zzzzzzzzzzzzz's between tummy rubs & chicken faces.

 

AN OFFICIAL BISBEE TAXI

One of the ladies in Kelly's Yoga class invited us to come over to the Quaker Community Center to-morrow for a pot luck Thanksgiving dinner.  It's only a few miles from the ranch & we'll head over there about 1 o'clock.  We drove through the little Quaker community last March after Kelly had met one of the ladies at another Yoga class.  And, Kelly informed me this afternoon that I was going to have to try & make myself look presentable for to-morrows dinner.  Trim the beard & mustache, pluck that long hair growing on my nose, & submit unconditionally to a haircut.  Oh dread, the hazards of having to attend a social event!!

  GROANER'S CORNER:((  A successful diet is the triumph of mind over platter.

BLOGGER WEBSITE http://thebayfieldbunch.com/

OUR PHOTO ALBUMS  http://picasaweb.google.com/stargeezerguy/

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

MY SMUG MUG (I am finally working on updating this site)

http://stargeezer.smugmug.com/