Thanksgiving and day after

We spent a quiet Thanksgiving at home just the two of us. I cooked a turkey about a week ago, before we took our little get-away trip so we feasted on the left-overs (planned-for-overs, really). Made a fresh pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, cranberries, the works. . .we just picked and nibbled all day long. Talked to each of the kids in turn via telephone (Doug last night) and touched bases with various brothers and sisters and Mom to exchange Thanksgiving wishes. Best greeting of the day was an email from China from a couple who were our students back in 2000, LiJi and WenLe, who have remained dear friends.

Also enjoyed the rainy day. Could just hear the thirsty desert soaking up the welcome rain.

Today we went to church with our fellowship group and put up the Christmas tree in the sanctuary. Seems we have inherited that job every year now and we are getting pretty good at it. Had it up and "fluffed" in an hour. Others will come and decorate it.

Hawk Feeder

Home in time to enjoy a shower of rain. What a welcome surprise. Feels like a warm, summer rain that I remember as a kid.

I have a few bird feeders in our back yard. Love watching the little lesser gold finches, and house finches. Hummingbirds are treat and they always let me know when the feeder is empty. I don't even mind the noisy gila woodpeckers who have learned to tip the hummingbird feeders and slurp the sweet syrup. The gamble quail and doves keep the ground cleaned. Occasionally there is a curve billed thresher, or cardinal, or paraloxia but today I guess my bird feeders turned into a hawk feeder. It happens occasionally, a Coopers hawk will sweep in and grab a unsuspecting song bird. But this time the Coopers sat on a branch right over the feeders and just waited. Like if he waited long enough, lunch would come by. Didn't happen today but he stayed long enough for me to get a bunch of pictures.

more 'round Arizona

Had just about enough of “backroading” for a while. This road did us in, the ol’ Honda was doing fine, but we wimped out. Pulled off and stopped to have our picnic lunch and then rumbled back to the main road.
We’ve decided that Safford area is pretty much a microcosm of Arizona. Everything is right here. Lots of agriculture--north of town are cotton fields as big as I have ever seen. Cattle grazing on BLM land plus private ranches . The Morenci Copper mine is just up the road and in fact, there is a smaller copper mine right outside of Safford that has been operational just a couple of years. Mt Graham at 10,000ft overlooks the city and it boasts the Arizona International Observatory and the largest Binocular Telescope in the world. Can’t get up to the Observatory this time of year because the mountain is closed to visitors at the high altitudes for the winter months but we did check out the visitor center here in Safford and found it interesting. The Gila River runs through the area and provides not only irrigation for the agriculture in the area but wildlife and birding and recreational opportunities in its riparian wildernesses. And the upland desert goes on forever with back roads galore. We checked it all out.

More Back Roads and a Copper Mine

More Arizona backroads--dirt tracks through the desert, to be honest. We were exploring Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area along the Gila River and Bonita Creek. Truly an oasis in the desert. The Cottonwoods and Arizona Sycamores are in full blazing fall colors right now so the stream sides were a definite contrast to the dry desert leading up to it.

I tried really hard to make this raptor into some really interesting hawk but I have to admit it most likely is a Red Tail. That seems to be the default hawk in the desert.

Ask me anything about copper mining in Arizona! Will and I took a tour of the mine at Morenci and we came away dazzled with information. It is such a huge mine--perhaps the biggest in North America, 85 square miles, can you imagine!! Our tour guide was not all that great but we did manage to learn a lot. We had no idea about the leaching process to get the copper out of the rock. And can't help but be impressed by "biggness" of everything--look at this truck--not to mention the huge mine itself.

Checking out the back roads

Had a fun day running around some back roads of Arizona. Saw the enormous hydroponic tomato farming operation, Eurofresh in the Sulfur Springs Valley. It is just acres and acres of greenhouses out in the middle of the desert. Drove through apple orchards, --yes, apparently apples do grow in southeast Arizona--pistachio and pecan grove. Checked out the small ranch towns of Bonita and Klondyke on our way to eastern entrance to Aravaipa Canyon. Closer we got to the canyon and entered Nature Conservancy property, the dirt road got narrower and more scenic. The road forded the stream several times working its way into the canyon. The historic Salazar family church sits along the Aravaipa Creek. Where the road ends and the hiking trail begins is a wilderness preserve and requires a permit which we did not have. We soon turned back.

Can't resist the call of the desert--time to get out of town for a while. We packed up the RV and headed east to Safford, Arizona to Roper State Park for a few days of birding, hiking, relaxing and enjoying this amazing view of Mt Graham from our front door!!

I'm sitting in my comfy camp chair enjoying a cup of coffee taking it all in. Not to rub it in or anything to northern friends and family but. . .its clear and 80 degrees right now.

Quite often I have spied a notice in the paper about an upcoming Mata Ortiz Pottery demonstration and sale at various locations around Tucson and never made the effort to check them out. Thought they might be all gimmick and all about sale. There was one at Heritage Highlands this weekend so Will and I decided to stop in and see what was going on. We hit the jack pot. The "big guy" himself, was there and he did a demonstration firing and told his story--thru an interpreter--of Mata Ortiz. Juan Quezada and three of his sons were demonstrating and answering questions and we watched them actually flash fire a pot.

This man discovered ancient pottery shards in the deserts and mountains around his boyhood home in Chihuahua, Mexico as a teenager and was always fascinated by the beauty and techniques that the long, lost peoples who lived there some 600 years before might have used. He spent his lifetime figuring it out by trial and error, using the clays and natural pigments he could find in the area mixed with firing techniques until he succeeded. But it wasn't until a chance discovery of one of his pots in a shop in Demming, New Mexico in the 50's did he find fame and fortune. Today Juan's pots are highly sought after, they are in the Smithsonian and various other museums around the US and Mexico and he was declared a Living Heritage by the Mexican Government. The only other person to share that distinction to date is Diego Rivera. Juan taught these techniques first to family and then friends and today the whole village of Mata Ortize is in the business of making and promoting and selling this distinctive style with the highest level of workmanship and style.

The particular pot that was fired during the demonstration when on silent auction with a minimum bid of $2000. No, I did not mistakenly add a couple of zeros!! Look at the picture of a table of pots, all by Juan Quezada--there was $40,000 worth of pots on that one table! Since I wasn't expecting much I did not bring my camera so the pics I took were with Wil's cell phone which does not take all that good pics. Sorry, wish you could see the detail better.

That's Juan with the name tag on. Look closely at the pile of ashes in the front of pic and you can see the final pot. By the way, the firing was done with dried cow chips--they burn the hottest and most consistent.

Seven hearty souls from St Andrews Presbyterian Church joined a huge contingent from Pantano Christian Church and traveled the 250 miles to Puerto Penasco in Mexico on a mission/work trip to build houses for the less fortunate in a local neighborhood which happens to be just a few miles from the luxury resorts on the beach of Rocky Point. Quite an amazing contrast that wasn't lost on any of us. We partnered with "Amor", a Christian non-profit that works in the poor neighborhoods to provide suitable housing. They provide all the materials and churches in the US provide the volunteers to build a 20 x 16 structure. There is no running water and no electricity which means no power tools for the crews, but still we were able to lay a concrete pad, put up walls, roof, install two doors and two windows and stucco the outside in three days. The recipient finishes the interior. Doesn't seem like much to our standards but this family of 4 was living in a shabby little travel trailer about the size of my bathroom.

It was really hard, physical work and we had decided that we could be martyrs and sleep in tents--most people did, but on the night before our departure someone offered the use of their three bedroom condo on the beach. I don't think I would have done well in a tent, as I look back on it, as that bed sure felt good on my aching bones!! Our whole team of 7 were able to stay there and then Will and I and another couple stayed on for two more days in the condo.

It was a humbling experience and we all felt good about what we had accomplished but we enjoyed the extra days as tourists also to relax and recover. We walked the beach, ate some yummy seafood, (shrimp is big here), found an estuary to bird, and watched the sunset on the Sea of Cortez.