WE GOT US SOME NIGHT WALKERS!!!!

PLANET VENUS & THE CRESCENT MOON TO-NIGHT

Well, I'm really stuck for something to blog about to-night. Haven't even come up with any photos yet & it's getting dark. I can hear the neighbor's dog barking so that suggests we are probably going to have another noisy night. My theory is that this warmer weather has brought out.....the night walkers. The Border Patrol refers to the illegal aliens crossing the border from Mexico as "walkers." Last night the dogs once again heard the walkers, & so did I.

We are only about 20 miles from the Mexican border here at the ranch & between two mountain ranges which makes this flat valley a natural walk way north for people heading for Tucson or Phoenix from around the Douglas area. We have also found out a popular pick up point is a mere 2 or 3 hundred yards down the road from us here. We sometimes see slow moving vehicles in the dark. Earlier last night Kelly saw a flashlight beam in that area. The ranch dogs Gleason & Pearce plus the neighbor's dog started running & barking around 10. This went on for awhile so I quietly slipped outside & walked up along the fence line to the road. Both dogs were focused on a spot just south of the gate but I couldn't see anything. However, I heard the footsteps. Someone was walking down the road & it wasn't a neighbor out for a leisurely stroll. Because of the warmer night temperatures & basically moonless nights right now, I figure there are probably a lot of walkers out there these nights in the desert making their way north. The dogs have really been barking up a storm for about the last 4 nights. A neighbor said there are also a lot of deer in the area that make the dogs bark as well. And, there are coyotes nearby because we hear them at night all to well. I think the coyotes just come up to the fence & make stupid faces at the dogs just to rile them up. So far all is quiet to-night but we'll see how it goes as the night wares on. MY LAST MINUTE ROOSTING CHICKENS PICTURE

Heard the chickens making a ruckus earlier so went over with my camera in case there was a wily coyote making faces at them from the fence line or something. No coyote but I did flash off some chicken pictures in the dark. The girls were all roosting. Haven't downloaded the pics yet but I'll have to go with whatever I got because it's the only photos I took to-day.

It was another warm day up in the 80's but we had a big wind come in around noon & stayed until about 6. That was a big relief from the heat. Kelly wanted to do some browsing & shopping in Bisbee so she headed off over there about mid morning. I do not do browse & shop!!!! Didn't take me long to crank up the tunes & grab my little can of paint. Before you could say likity split I had my brush & paint roller in action on the last remaining bathroom wall. Same adobe color as the rest of the joint. Figured RV's are too small for coming up with different colors for each room so we've stuck to our adobe color throughout. This completes the interior painting now but I do have enough paint left over to maybe paint the bottom of the car or something. Hate to waste paint you know & whatever happened to two toned cars anyway:))

I MAY HAVE EVEN WOKE UP SIR ROOSTER OF SHUSTER

Looks like this computer is messing up the dates again for some reason!! This is Wednesday, not Thursday!!!!

Kelly's off to a yoga class in the morning so I'll have to figure out what trouble I can get myself into for an hour & a half. Say, maybe Jeanie & Ray would like the bottom half of their brand new Jeep Wrangler Sahara painted a nice adobe color. Hmmmmmm, now there's a thought.............................................:))

No photos for the web album to-night.

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WISHED WE COULD SEND SOME OF THIS HOT WEATHER TO CANADA RIGHT NOW

Well, we wanted hot....now we got hot!! I'm already seeing some other bloggers succumbing to the heat & pining for those good old cooler northern winter days. "Give me some ice, give me some snow, let the winds come, let the winds blow." Well, fellow bloggers..........ya gotta be nuts!!I'M THE BIG HORSE BOSS AROUND HERE & DON'T YOU FORGET IT

Aside from cleaning some outside windows on the rig this morning it's been a quiet day. We were low on come grocery items so headed off for the Safeway store in Bisbee. That part of Bisbee used to be called San Jose years ago & is actually a few miles west of downtown Bisbee but I think that whole area is now referred to as Bisbee. Stopped at Jimmy's Hot Dog Company for some eats before the grocery store Someone once said it's better to grocery shop on a full stomach so that was our logic this morning. It worked because we didn't come home with the usual 25 cases of Oreo cookies.

It's 4 P.M. right now, the side door of the rig is open, we've got 2 fans rolling & the thermometer in front of the computer says it's 89F inside the rig. The ranch house is waaaaay cooler so earlier this afternoon we went inside & watched a DVD. We stopped in Elfrida yesterday to drop off some books & the Librarian recommended a good DVD movie so we brought it back & that is the movie we watched about an hour ago. This movie was unlike any other movie I've seen. It's a very powerful thought provoking movie, guaranteed to bring a lump to your throat & guaranteed to remain in my memory from this day forth. The movie is called, Wit. Mike Nichols directs & Emma Thompson plays a woman diagnosed with a devastating illness. My Dad died of cancer years ago & I saw some comparisons. My Mother passed away a few years ago as well & again I felt comparisons. A very touching movie. Emma Thompson's superb performance deserves an award. Movie is based on the 1999 Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Margaret Edson.

Some folks have been having difficulty enlarging the photos in the blog so I'm going to try uploading two other sizes & see if that works. First pic will be the usual larger size. Next one will be medium & the following pics will be the smallest size. Would appreciate knowing if that works.
This is a pretty nice set up we've got here. Kelly is able to watch her night time television shows in the ranch house on the big screen cable TV & I'm able to sit out here in the rig listening to my tunes while working on the blog. If I didn't have this blog to do I'd probably go bonkers because we only have one TV station in the rig & the night time programming is total garbage. (NBC)

So, on that positive note I'll wrap this up & send it off into cyberspace somewhere. Careful, it just might land somewhere very close to where your sitting..........................................

No photos for the web album to-day.

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A SCENIC DRIVE THROUGH LESLIE CANYON

Holy Smackers was that sun ever hot to-day. I think we got up into the 80's somewhere. Not a lot of relief but to stay in the shade. I pulled my lounge chair around the back of the motorhome out of the sun, grabbed my binoculars, tipped my chair back, & watched the spiraling of thousands & thousands of Sand Hill cranes. With outstretched wings they soared ever higher in tightening circles. Some of the flocks had hundreds of birds in them & within the many flocks were many patterns, but no confusion. It was like a single great mind was in charge of the aerobatics as groups merged, split, flowed in & around each other. Sometimes as they made their sweeping turns the sun would catch their feathers & there would be great flashes of white in the sky. I was reminded of gliders & sailplanes I have seen winging their way skyward on ascending warm thermals on hot sunny days. Sometimes the cranes were so high I could only see them with the binoculars & at other times they looked like tiny bits of paper falling from the sky as they made their way back to earth landing just south of the ranch at the Whitewater Draw's shallow lake. THE ROAD TO LESLIE CANYON

Kelly slipped into Elfrida for a yoga class at 10:30. They have quite an active community center program & she is going again Friday morning. Eight people in the class plus the instructor & his friendly German Shepherd dog. When the class ended, the German Shepherd walked over & put a big slurpy smooch on Kelly's face. See, I told you about animals sensing good people:))By early afternoon the sun was beating us up pretty good so we jumped in the car, cranked up the A/C & headed east of McNeal for the Swisshelm Mountains. We had heard that it was a nice drive over to Leslie Canyon. Slipped over the south end of the Swisshelms on a dusty but surprisingly good dirt road into a picturesque rolling hills valley surrounded by gentle mountains. This was cattle country with fields of yellow grass stretching off in all directions to the foothills on the horizons. Some distant ranches here & there scattered about. It was a beautiful day for a drive with beautiful high nimbus clouds high overhead. It was a big Arizona sky day. RED TAILED HAWK SOARING IN THE WARM ARIZONA AIR

We headed north up the valley before heading west back to the Elfrida highway. We could see Cochise's Stronghold ahead & to our left shrouded in the blue haze of the day. We remarked that at the same time yesterday we were over there winding our way down the narrow rocky mountain path. Sore feet & all!! A VALLEY OF CATTLE

We were back to the ranch by 4 & on the job by 4:15. We had happy chickens to-day & have been restored to exalted chicken caregivers, feeders, & egg gatherers, in the eyes of His Royal Highness, Sir Rooster of Shuster. Sir Rooster resides in the pen beside his 9 lovely capons & reins supreme over his haramesque little flock of cluckers.............................................SIR ROOSTER OF SHUSTER

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