TODAY WE VISITED THE GRAPEVINE CANYON RANCH

Our outside thermometer probe told us we dropped to 7F just before sunrise this morning so it didn’t take me long to climb into my warm Canadian winter clothes before going outside.  By the time we headed out with the Jeep a couple hours later we were up to a balmy 25F.

Cochise Stronghold dead ahead & then left to the Grapevine Canyon Ranch.

Another clear blue Arizona sky overhead as we headed north up the Sulphur Springs Valley this morning in search of, THE GRAPEVINE CANYON RANCH.  The ranch first came across our desktop early this past summer.  An email arrived from the ranch’s webmaster Ben Hill asking permission for the ranch’s owner, Eve Searle to use one of my Rucker Canyon photos in her websites blog, which Eve masterfully writes.

Kelly & I made a note at that time to stop in at the ranch & meet Eve next time we were in the Southwest.  Well, today was that day.  Kelly had emailed Eve a few weeks ago & we arranged to be at the ranch this morning at 9:30.  It was not our first time in that area just a few miles west of Pearce, Arizona.  The ranch is tucked snuggly into the foothills of the Dragoon Mountains not far from the Cochise Stronghold.   We loved this area right from the time we hiked into the Stronghold a couple years ago.  This morning, as we rolled west out of Sunsights Arizona & approached the Stronghold we again expressed our thoughts of how nice it would be to live in this beautiful area.  Coming over a small hill we saw a treed canyon ahead & caught a glimpse of a building through the distant trees.  A gate at the bottom of the hill told us we had reached the Grapevine Canyon Ranch.

Kelly opened the main gate to the Ranch about 9:20 & minutes later we were making our way along a winding sandy road to the main building.  All the time driving in, the scenic Dragoon Mountains rose higher in the background.  We were soon surrounded by trees as we rolled into the dusty parking lot at the main reception building & office.

      

   

LEAVE YOUR TROUBLES AT THE GATE & BE SURE TO CLOSE THE GATE BEHIND YOU…..OR ELSE!!

Right from the beginning you know you are at a special place.  You know you have just set foot on a real working Arizona ranch as the sounds & smells of horses & working wranglers drift through the trees.  Cozy reception area & minutes later we met Eve herself.  

  

COZY RECEPTION AREA

We didn’t realize it at the time but we were in the presence of a very great woman.  It wasn’t until we arrived home later in the afternoon & Kelly got on the computer & did a search for Eve Searle that we realized just who we had spent nearly 3 hours with this morning.  I will include the links about this ladies life & many accomplishments including medical school & a flight instructor in Australia.  Sally Middleton writes about her visit to the ranch & Eve Searle in CONNECTIONS FOR WOMEN.  A New Zealand magazine’s Art Director spent time at the ranch & wrote the following article about her experiences there as well.  HOW THE WEST WAS ONCE.

   

KELLY & EVE HEADING FOR THE COOKHOUSE

Let me say right off the bat that this is a beautiful Dude ranch, well organized & operated.  Staffed by fourteen on site staff members who are all of the West & know of the West.  In true western style, Eve led us the short distance along a stoned lined pathway under a canopy of trees to the Cookhouse.  Minutes later with coffee in hand, cookies in a cookie jar & home made Tortilla chips with Salsa, we sat down at a large round table right next to a warming pot bellied stove.

EVE ANSWERS SOME QUESTIONS ABOUT RUCKER CANYON

  

KELLY FINDS THE FRIDGE

Eve was able to answer some questions I had about the FORT RUCKER RANCH HOUSE I had photographed up in the Chiricahua Mountain’s Rucker Canyon a few years ago.  That ranch house is the very one author Mary Kidder Rak writes about in her book that I am reading right now entitled, ‘A Cowman’s Wife.’ 

   

EVE EXPLAINS HOW THIS COLORED GLASS WINDOW WAS MADE FROM OLD BOTTLES & IS NOW A PART OF THE RANCH’S BAR AREA

We also talked about the current problems along the Mexican border & we all agreed about how the media has portrayed the situation to be much worse than it is.  Eve told us how that fear the media has generated has affected their Dude Ranch business this past year.  There have been cancellations & bookings have dropped off.  Kelly & I have been coming to & boondocking in this southwest area for the past 3 years & feel far safer in this region than we would in any Canadian or American city.

Following coffee, Eve gave us a tour of the ranch & all it’s facilities reminiscing about past times & how along with her late husband Gerry, worked hard to make the Grapevine Canyon Ranch what it is today.  Gerry was a true cowboy, rancher & Stuntman with scenes & parts in the old TV series, ‘High Chaparral.’  Gerry also played parts in other movies & was in, ‘Monty Walsh’ with Lee Marvin.  Check out GERRY SEARLE'S bio.  I feel Gerry’s passing a few years ago still weighs heavy on Eve & I also sensed the sadness in her Australian accent as she talked of the devastating fire in December of 2007 that burned their original Cookhouse to the ground.   I also sensed the pride she has in the newly constructed bigger, brighter, & better Cookhouse lounge.

   

THIS IS THE NEW LOUNGE ROOM AFTER THE FIRST ONE WAS TOTALLY DESTROYED BY FIRE

 

EVE’S LATE HUSBAND GERRY & LOOKING AT THE GUEST BOOK

I won’t attempt to describe how impressed Kelly & I were with everything we saw today & I hope my photos will at least convey a basic idea of how truly nice this ranch really is.  The staff members we encountered were all friendly & it was plain to see how they all truly love & care for the many horses there.  And, we met some mighty fine ranch doggy guys too with one of them bandaged from a recent run in with a COATIMUNDI.  More about that in a later blog.   In Wednesday or Thursday’s blog I will post more pics of the ranch including the Tac Room, horses, guest cabins, pool area, the Games Room & Library.

   

I will let the Grapevine Canyons website answer questions about the Dude Ranch in regards to trail rides, lengths of stay, cost, etc.  I can tell you that a lot of folks who come to experience the true west ranch experience at Grapevine are from European Countries & especially Germany.  And, on that website, Eve writes a well written blog about the life & times around the ranch & the many guests that stay there.  You can always find Eve’s blog on our sidebar under, ‘Blogs We Follow.’

A big thank you Eve for taking time out of your busy day to spend some time with a couple Dudes from Bayfield, Ontario Canada.  Your hospitality was much appreciated & who knows, maybe it will be Kelly & I showing up one day to spend a few days at the ranch riding the Dragoon & Chiricahua Mountain trails with you.

THAT’S RIDING COUNTRY OUT THERE

We were back to the rig shortly after 1 this afternoon & I spent the rest of the day working on the 200+ photos I had taken.  Over the next number of days I will add more photos & eventually include them all in a Picasa Web Album.

Wednesday morning we will head out once again to the area near where we were today as we team up with some Jeeping friends for a 3 Jeep bumpity tour somewhere through the historic Dragoon Mountains.  At least I think that is where we’re going.  Guess we’ll find out in the morning………………10-4:))

GROANER’S CORNER:((  The fattest knight at King Arthur’s round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.

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EMAIL THE BAYFIELD BUNCH:))
stargeezerguy@gmail.com
Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.

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.

I GOT LOST TODAY…..IN MY BOOK:))

No current photos today but I will take you back in time to our visit at an old 50’s style Trailer Park with vintage restored trailers at the SHADY DELL in Bisbee, Arizona.

    

A few pitter patters of rain & half a dozen wind gusts brought another Sunday night to an end & left the Bayfield Bunch sleeping peacefully for the rest of the night.

   

Came across a blog site on the RV Net Forum that has helpful info on it regarding boosting WiFi signals in out of the way places such as boondocking etc.  Noticed this young ‘computer background' couple’s site offers a lot of RV tips & info & they are Verizon users.  Check out Nina & Paul’s, WHEELING IT.  They also have RV Park Ratings & a Pet Corner.

   

It was a calm morning until the wind gusts suddenly hit us about 11:30.  There is rarely much warning as the winds seem to thunder down out of the mountains upon the valleys unsuspecting residents.  One minute relaxed outside in a comfy lounger chair & the next minute all hell breaks loose as you scramble for hats, overturned tables, hair pieces, rolling trash cans, false teeth, empty water jugs & just about anything else that isn’t nailed or glued down.   The big southwest winds are always our greatest Nemesis each winter & this afternoons mainline runaway freight train out of the north west let us know once again just who is the big boss in these dusty Arizona lands.  And, tonight the predicted low for Elfrida is 13F.  We are a little higher up than Elfrida so I suspect our temps will be down around 10 or lower again.  Not nice!!!!!!!!!!!

   

It was probably the better part of 3 o’clock before I remembered the Elfrida Photo Club had started at 1.  I had become so engrossed in my ‘Cowman’s Wife’ book that the afternoon just slipped away from me.  I was lost in the Chiricahua Mountains rugged Rucker Canyon right along with the hearty frontier cattle ranch folks in the book.  The howling winds & dropping temperatures just made for one of those cozy & warm inside days.  Just kind of a good old book reading day:))

    

GROANER’S CORNER:((  This guy goes into his dentist's office, because something is wrong with his mouth. After a brief examination, the dentist exclaims, "Holy Smokes! That plate I installed in your mouth about six months ago has nearly completely corroded! What on earth have you been eating?"  "Well... the only thing I can think of is this... my wife made me some asparagus about four months ago with this stuff on it... Hollandaise sauce she called it... and doctor, I'm talking DELICIOUS! I've never tasted anything like it, and ever since then I've been putting it on everything... meat, fish, toast, vegetables... you name it!"  "That's probably it," replied the dentist "Hollandaise sauce is made with lemon juice, which is acidic and highly corrosive. It seems as though I'll have to install a new plate, but made out of chrome this time."  "Why chrome?" the man asked.

"Well, everyone knows that there's no plate like chrome for the Hollandaise!"

--------------------------------------------------------------
EMAIL THE BAYFIELD BUNCH:))
stargeezerguy@gmail.com
 
Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.

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.

SPARED FROM THE WINDS TODAY BUT THERE’S CLOUDS OF DUST IN THE VALLEY BELOW

   

Storm clouds moved in late this afternoon so we may have some inclement weather headed our way. 

Hey, isn’t that Bert over there from Sesame Street’s Bert & Ernie team.  >>>>>>

Woke up to a bit of wind in the Valley this morning but was happy to see our over night temps have come way up from just a few short days ago.  47F is far more acceptable than 10F for sure.  By 7:30 the sun had spilled over the Swiss Helm Mountains flooding our coach with warming sunlight.  By noon the south wind had picked up enough speed in the lower valley to cause great clouds of dust to appear like mist across the valley floor.  Higher up & closer in to the Swiss Helm mountains our winds were less intense & barely flapped our window awnings but did manage to blow our outside ladder over & scatter some mats we had out drying.

Kelly stops to tie a shoelace after blowing a running show on the trail.

All of today’s photos with the exception of Rick’s Red Barn photo & the storm clouds were taken on Saturdays Chiricahua Monument hike on the Natural Bridge Trail.

It’s rugged territory in the Chiricahua Mountains of Arizona.

Awhile back, RICK had a snow scene photo with a red barn in his blog.  I commented on the photo saying I liked how he composed it by not putting the red barn in the center of the picture.  Rick stated in his next blog that he really hadn’t composed it that way but wondered if I would explain my comment. 

RICK’S PHOTO…(disregard Bayfield Bunch watermark)

First, let me explain that in both painting & photography there are a few basic rules that people follow to make their finished product more pleasing to the eye.  Of course in some cases rules are meant to be broken but in Rick’s photo he accidentally composed it right.  One of the basics in composing a photo (especially landscapes) is to think in the rule of ‘thirds.’  When looking through your lens, imagine two evenly spaced vertical & two evenly space horizontal lines dividing your picture into 9 equally sized squares.  The 4 intersecting lines will give you the area where your main subject can be placed to make a good looking photo.  Top right or left of center or bottom right or left of center.  Rick’s attention was on the lake but the actual main subject in his photo turned out to be the red barn & that red barn just happens to be exactly placed at where one of those horizontal lines intersects with one of the vertical lines.  In other words, his red barn is top left of center & that is one of the things that makes this a good photo.  Many people would look at that scene, see the red barn, & then put it dead center in the frame & snap the picture.  Well, it’s where you place that red barn that will make the difference between having your photo look like an average tourist snap or a great looking photograph.  Rick didn’t know it but he also accidentally did something else that made this a good photo.  He did not put the horizontal horizon line dead center across the photo.  His center horizon line happens to be above center.  That is another thing that separates tourist snaps from well thought out photos.  Keep your horizon either above or below center.  I could tell you why to do that but let’s just stick to the photo at hand.  There are a few other things that caught my eye in this photo.  Notice how the foreground fence breaks up the otherwise almost solid white slope to the barn.  Also notice how the barn buildings step down along a line that continues via shrubbery downward to the right side of the photo & begins to converge with the fence line.  It is that line that brings your eye from the fence back up to the main subject….’the barn.’  In fact this photo has the makings of a classic composition ploy in that it has the much sought after classic ‘S’ line in the photo.  Notice how the fence line comes in from the left foreground & leads your eye across the photo the right & then nearly connects with the converging barn line that draws your eye left up to the barn.  The ‘S’ line then continues from the barn & tapers out around the lake to the right & takes you out of the photo.  Not the perfect ‘S’ but pretty darn close for an accidentally composed photo.  A little more like a ‘Z’ than an ‘S’ but it works just fine in having the same effect.  Also notice how the grey bush frames the red barn before tapering off around the lake.     And also notice a bit of brightness in the sky behind the barn on the left throwing a slight highlight on the snow covered barn roof.  Again very appealing & just the type of scene you would see in a painting.  Luckily, the type of cloud cover lends some texture to the sky but if this was my photo I might have cropped some of that sky out a bit.  Had the sky been blue with big white fluffy clouds I would not crop it.  If the sky would have been a solid white cloud cover I would definitely have cropped about two thirds of it out.  I see a lot of photos with big chunks of bland white or blue & unnecessary sky in them.  Do not be afraid to use your cropping tool!!  Anyway, right or wrong & in my totally humble opinion, that’s my take on Rick’s photo, & I bet some of you folks never even realized why you liked that picture so much, until now………………10-4:))

  

The Shadow Cowboy is followed by Kelly on our long climb back out of the Canyon

Kelly did some laundry in the house today & I settled in to bonking around on the computer & reading my latest book, ‘A Cowman’s Wife.’  This RV lifestyle of ours is sure different from our sticks & bricks lifestyle at home.  I can relax & read a book without feeling guilty that I should be doing something else.  At home in Bayfield Kelly is constantly at work & I am plagued with guilt about that when I am sitting at home twiddling my thumbs.  It is a problem I do not have while we are traveling & that of course makes the traveling lifestyle much more appealing to me than sitting at home all summer.  And, speaking of summer at home……. by the sounds of what is happening with the once named ‘Town & Country’ company I drove for this past 6 or 7 years I will likely not have my job when we get back in the Spring.  The company has been undergoing a lot of changes & growing pains & sounds like it has just stepped from small town charm to big business stiffness with lots of rules, regulations, name & staff changes.  It has been swallowed yet again by a larger company by the sounds of it.  Oh well, 6 or 7 years at the same job was waaaaaaay too long for me anyway.  How boring is that, doing the same thing over & over, year after year!! 

I see an Egyptian Pharaoh guy on the right talking to Jay Leno on the left.

It’s a good thing we are nearly back to the Jeep:))    >>>  

GROANER’S CORNER:((  Latest news reports advise that a cell of five terrorists has been operating in the Harlem area.

Police advised earlier today that four of the five have already been detained. The Regional Police Commissioner stated that the terrorists: Bin Sleepin, Bin Drinkin, Bin Fightin and Bin Pimpin have already been arrested on immigration issues.  The police advise further that they can find no one fitting the description of the fifth cell member:  Bin Workin, in the area. Police are however, confident that anyone who looks like Workin will be extremely easy to spot in the community.

--------------------------------------------------------------
EMAIL THE BAYFIELD BUNCH:))
stargeezerguy@gmail.com
Tourists see the world, travelers experience it.

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.