Giving thanks...

...for the sunshine that warms our bones.

Boundary Cone from Rt. 66

A Desert Hike

Weather was beautiful again today, a bit warm for this time of year even, perfect for a walk. We drove over the pass to the rugged 4x4 trail to Cool Springs. The trail was pretty hairy for the pick-up so we parked and took off on foot. Click the photos to enlarge.

Looking towards Golden Valley

Range cattle block the route

  

Tag and desert willow

Watch out for that cactus!

Wild burros watch us

The spring!

Pool after pool of cool water

Tag goes after the stick

Got it!

Now to get out

Tux, always happy to be wet

Warm enough for a small snake

Moo-bye

Condors at Vermilion Cliffs

Road trip! We drove to the Vermilion Cliffs in northern Arizona to look for condors. What beautiful canyon country. We spent the night in the Kaibab National Forest in the trees at 7,000 ft.  Early the next morning we drove to the condor viewing location at Vermilion Cliffs and spotted some of the big birds! The trip continued through the Navajo and Hopi reservations and on to Taylor, AZ to see the house built by Bob's Mormon great grandfather.

Pictures!

Dogs busy with a backbone

Size chart 

Bigger than Bob! Arrows show location of condors

This is the cabin built by Mosiah Lyman Hancock in 1884. Margaret McCleve, I think she is Mosiah's second wife (he had five in total), raised thirteen children in this tiny house! She was appointed midwife/medical person for the area by Brigham Young and assisted in some 1,400 births. Mosiah's story is a colorful one.

Jewelry Part 2

There is still a light deficit on these photos, but they're getting better. I hope to start an Etsy shop this fall and all these will be for sale so if you are interested in anything send me an email. 

The two apple green pieces below look so good with silver. The triangular piece will have a matching green cord, too. I'm cutting more Verde Antique Marble stones during the next week or two. I just love the color!

Verde Antique Marble 

This is another shot of the piece I posted yesterday. I gave the copper a few licks of flame to add some color.

Flame Painted Agate Figure

Another flame painted copper piece I've posted before. The cord has a few turquoise beads worked in.

Flame Painted Leaf

A blue turquoise stone set in hammered silver with a clear rubber cord.

Turquoise in Hammered Silver

(Below left) A rich blue turquoise bead choker with a blue topaz set on a silver drop. The graduated bead sizes give this a simple but elegant look. (Right) A turquoise stone with brown matrix set in silver with matching rough cut beads. (There are so many color variations in turquoise from one location and I love them all!)

Two Kingman Turquoise Pieces

One of my favorite stones (below), green turquoise with turbulent blue and brown swirls set in silver, green turquoise beads and rubber cord for comfort on the back of the neck.

Green Turquoise Turbulence

A small pearl with gorgeous deep blue, flat-cut turquoise stone set in silver with matching turquoise beads.

Pearl with Blue Turquoise

Another shot of the fire agate I posted yesterday. It's just a pretty translucent brown stone until the light shines through and illuminates the brilliant colors hidden inside.

Fire Agate

Two Necklaces

Here are the first two necklaces I want to post, but I am having a heck of a time trying to get decent photos. I really need lights and tripod and the whole shebang. Anyway, the top piece is copper with a leather cord. I think the large stone is an agate. The back of the piece is cut out and you can see through the agate. The blue dot is a glaze stone, a happy accident from a glaze firing.

The piece below is a fire agate we found near here. It's quite colorful in sunlight. This is a small piece set in flame-aged copper on a clear rubber cord. Fire agate is a natural gemstone found in just a few places in the southwest, this area being one. The agates formed during the volcanic activity of the Tertiary Period. (Is there any doubt this area was formed by volcanic activity?!) The iridescent rainbow colors of fire agate, similar to opal, are caused by alternating silica and iron oxide layers interfering with the light as it passes through the gem. Really pretty. 

Neglect

I've been enjoying the sun and neglecting the blog. The sun is a wonderful thing, especially after living like a mole in Homer.

Besides a thorough cleaning of the house I've been doing some metal work and will take pictures in the next day or two. I'll post photos from our trip down, too... maybe. I can't promise. I don't want to sit inside at the computer for long.

So, our proposed sale of this house is being set on the back burner for a few more years. After talking with an agent we learned just how much the real estate market here sucks, and it really isn't a good time to try to sell. I would rather sell the Homer place, but we'll see how Bob deals with that next year. I love Alaska and Homer is a gorgeous place, but the cold, short, rainy summers Homer has now are not enjoyable. I want to summer in a more pleasant climate. Like Sequim, WA. We would be close enough we could drive down and actually enjoy the pool from time to time.

The town burros stopped by near midnight at the full moon. It was nearly bright as day as I watched from the deck. Tag was beside himself with happiness. He followed them at the fence giving the border collie eye. A big white female seemed just as fascinated with him and they were nose to nose for a long time. Her baby would creep in for a sniff, Tag would snap, the baby jump and run. Two young males jousted and it was fun to see them all again.

The coyote pack is healthy. They yip and yowl every night. Tux takes off after any that come too close, but I think she has forgotten how limiting her hips are and limps badly after a night chasing 'yotes. Might be necessary to lock her in at night.

I put out a feeder for the hummingbird. There appear to be two now. The phainopepla are here for the winter, quail coo softly in the morning and we found tail feathers of what I think is a common poorwill. We've seen a few taratulas on the prowl in the evening, and tarantula hawk wasps are attracted when I water the plants. No rattlesnakes though we watch carefully, thank goodness.

In the Desert

After a harrowing trip through Canada we are back in Old Trails. (I'll post pictures of the trip later.) It's so hot, dry and sunny after cold, wet Homer. I am liking the sun, not so much the heat, but it is cooling off already. The dry wind has my hair flailing around and standing on end. That is so annoying. My skin feels tight and itchy and I can't seem to drink enough water. Humidity must be zero, maybe less than zero! Ah, the joys of the desert.

Debbie did a great job maintaining the pool and keeping the plants watered. It was disheartening last year to come back to a green pool and dead yard. But there is even a hummingbird feeding at a flowering plant this time! Funny how I can't remember names of plants after only six months away. It will be the same in Homer next summer.

We are putting the house up for sale. If we don't find a good realtor it might be an FSBO undertaking. Much as I like the house, we're finding this place is too far for us to be driving to Alaska and back every year, getting houses up to snuff at both ends after every trip. The place really needs someone to be here full time to keep up with maintenance; the sun is so hard on everything. I hope there is someone out there that will fall in love with our little oasis and just have to have it. 

End of Summer at the Cabin

We are winterizing the cabin now, putting wire cages around trees and shrubs to protect them from hungry moose and rabbits. The raspberries grew well considering they were eaten to the ground by moose last winter, damn them, but there were no berries for us this fall. The hardy roses are still trying to flower despite daytime temperatures in the 40's and freezing nights. Soon we'll be back to the dry rocky desert and I'll miss the color and life of my gardens.

Cabin and dogs, they'll miss the grass

Grewingk Glacier dressed in fresh snow

Caged rose safe from critters

Lilies blooming late

Climbing red rose 

Tree caged to stop moose from eating bark

Raspberry patch looking wild

Autumn

The leaves turn color, the wind blows and fall is over. Sometimes it only takes a few days. Time to put wire around trees and shrubs to protect them from winter moose and rabbit feeding while we're away.

Termination Dust

Fresh snow on the mountains after the latest round of storms. Winter is on its way and we are thinking about heading south with the birds. Waterfowl are staging for the migration. Today we saw a flock of cackling Canada geese hunkered down in a field.

The Endeavor is still in the deep water dock, weeks beyond the one week expected. It had to lower its legs during one storm. Fifty mph winds were threatening to topple it. The two or three tugs holding it were insufficient. The rig began to ram the dock. Considered an emergency, ADFG allowed its legs to be lowered to stabilize it. There is currently a law prohibiting the storage of jack-up rigs in Kachemak Bay, which means the legs are not allowed to be lowered to the substrate. The regulation was enacted in response to a situation a number of years ago where a rig got stuck in the mud of the bay and had to be blasted out. It caused quite a bit of environmental damage and the old timers who have been adamant about protecting Kachemak Bay didn't want it to ever happen again, so this rig's extended stay is becoming quite controversial.

Flame Painting

Bad weather continues. Gale force winds are expected tonight in our area and two to three inches more rain. This rain train (as someone called it) that is pummeling us is apparently a result of the loss of summer arctic sea ice weakening the jet stream so that the weather system remains stationary for an extended period of time. I hope something gives it a kick start out of here soon, but Accuweather shows more of the same for the next two weeks. Very glad we are not living near any of the rivers on the Kenai as they are already flooding and all this additional rain is bad news.

Anyway, being stuck inside has given me time to experiment with flame painting copper. I love the bright colors that develop when you use a hot flame just so. Below is a flame painted hammered leaf pendant on a braided copper wire chain with little turquoise bead accents that pick up the blues in the leaf very nicely.

This is another hanging goodymajig using found objects, flame painted copper scraps and an antique marble drop piece set on flame painted copper. The colors don't show up too brightly in the photo but they really flash in the sunshine.... when we actually get sunshine!