Much the same

   2023 is beginning much as 2022 ended, quietly.   That is not a bad thing at all, but not exciting to write/read about.      Working around the house and Beluga, eating, reading, trips into "the valley" for things we can't get here, communing with our regular second cup visitors and the occasional explorations.    yawn

love those red eyes!

of course, Hooty is still here with us

One exciting thing has happened....but understand that we're easily excited.    The LOG ROOM is no longer!   Janna lent us her trusty wallpaper steamer and Dave set to work removing the tacky log wallpaper that the previous owners applied to try to make a room in Arizona look like a log cabin in the forests of Alaska.      We had already removed the Cabelas camo ceiling fan with optional antler pull chain, the artificial pine bow and pine cone swag draped over the window and the million nails that held various horns and antlers, etc.

thanks Janna

He then painted the walls to match the ones that were not logged and voila!   A normal looking guestroom emerged!

Lewis is feeling much better in the new year and we're working on trying to build some muscle in those wonky back legs by getting him out for daily walks on our hilly, rocky road and doing some house exercises.        He's enjoying these things, he finds it very exciting to poop on the road (I told you, we're all easily excited.....) and  bits of freeze dried salmon make the embarrassing "sit/stand" exercises less boring.

He also invents his own exercises just to keep things interesting.

The weather has been up and down, mostly down.   By that I mean rainy.   I won't complain about it to you, you know how I feel about rain.    It's mildly depressing to me who loves, no....craves sunshine.    Our house is surrounded by washes, it's sometimes an island.    The washes have been running lately and today I saw an evacuation notice (on the gossipy Wickenburg Bulletin FB group) for horses boarded at the Horsepitality RV Park and Horse Boarding on rt. 60 as a result of the nearby Hassayampa River's slow creep toward the horse pens there. 

our own little river between our home and Beluga's 

The terrible storms in California move over us on their way east, causing realitively gentle rains and sometimes pretty skies here.

I'm never awake to see the sunrises, but dear Dave is and he often captures them for show and tell at second cup.....

red sky in the morning, sailor's warning......

We're keeping to ourselves this week.    Dave is having a surgical procedure (he's fine - an elective surgery before we hit the road this spring) on Wednesday and neither of us wants to be exposed to any illness that will delay it.    In light of that, and in light of the fact that we're sort of going stir crazy, we decided to do a little desert exploration the other day.       

 Our loose destination was the small mining town of Bagdad, north of here.   

a borrowed aerial picture of the mine with tiny Bagdad at upper right

Of course, we couldn't get close to the giantic open pit copper mine, containing one of the largest copper reserves in the world, but what we saw was interesting enough to make the drive worthwhile.....    It's not the destination, it's the journey, right?

  Part of the drive was on graded dirt roads so timing was important before the next California rain arrived.       The ground was still pretty wet but we had no trouble.     

   

STOP!    There's a huge skull out there.....    Dave stopped and backed up trying to get a better shot of it, but the RR tracks and a nasty looking barbed wire fence stood between us and Skull Rock.

Legend or rumor has it that it was painted by a trail crew working on the Santa Fe RR as a practical joke.      As the passenger train rounded the curve, the Conductor would tell passengers that a Indians killed a scout and left his skull as a warning - then the huge skull would come into view.....something to spice up an otherwise boring train trip I suppose.

Back on paved roads we approached the mine but Dave's eagle eye spotted one of our most favorite things to find - a wonderful Crested Saguaro.     Once again, barbed wire kept us from getting really close, but it was a beauty and we'll look forward to watching it grow.

That's all I have so far in 2023....stay tuned.