Too busy building animal pens, horse corrals, and marine acquaria to take many photos. We counted all the farm animals in one bin—8 cows and 15 horses, among many smaller creatures.
A different location, upstairs, is home to manta rays, orcas, dolphins, and sharks. The boys know their animals as well as they know their trucks.
Rain, sleet, and eventually, snow. Not quite what was expected. The rationale behind a trip the last two weeks of March is that you depart In winter and return in spring.
L o n g drive, including a punch through a squall line at about Champaign, but we made it. Back to this little patch of ground, of all the vast many across what is still quite a big world.
…even with a huge tailwind (the state is just too big.) But, we made it into Arkansas, and even a few miles beyond Littlerock (just as the sun was setting over Walmart).
…to walk the beach and have some lunch.
Boat-tailed grackle
Sunny, warm, and windy, with a little humidity (which actually feels good).
Palm and live oak on morning walk
Art show
…at Paradise Key.
After an afternoon of re-exploring Rockport. The town appears to be fully recovered from Harvey. Quite a few upgrades, but still very familiar. And busy.
…and the green of live oaks. Made it to Rockport.
And, as usual, right into basketball.
…In other words at Fort Stockton, Texas. Fabulous drive on Highway 9, from Portal to El Paso—beautiful east-west tarmac through a vast landscape right along the border. Desert all the way. Here are a few shots by Sue of the oasis Hacienda Joyal.
Sky island on the east edge of Arizona. Home and hideout of the Apaches.
Drive, hike, sit under the Arizona sycamores, lunch at an amazing restaurant in Portal.
…San Pedro River. And the chance to meet pen-pal Mike (who is a docent) in person. Two hours of fun, watching and listening to a great variety of birds.
Then, over to a river I have long longed to see—the famous and significant wildlife corridor which flows north out of Mexico.
A cottonwood just leafing out along the river
Mike and me
And, a check on my bucket list—wading in the San Pedro
Then lunch at Thuy’s Vietnamese restaurant on Bisbee, where I had, in addition to great food TWO glasses of had squeezed lime juice, and got to try out a little very rusty Vietnamese.
Followed by a fabulous dinner hosted by Mary Jane and George. The conversation lively and long.
A one mile walk each way through white-thorn acacia to the awful wall.
Lots of other desert flora, too. Cholla, mesquite, yucca, sotol, paloverde, greasewood, ocotillo.
Made it to Bisbee, after an interesting stop in Silver City, and a fantastic desert drive which included dust storms. And, once here, a delightful birthday dinner in Sue’ s honor. More photos tomorrow.
Twenty-eight miles of precipitous road, with many hairpin turns, from here to the cliff dwellings. Strenuous hike up to the dwellings. Beautiful all the way.
Beautiful acreage along the edge of the Gila Wilderness. Many, many agave, along with Meyer oaks, alligator juniper, ponderosa pine, and several varieties of cactus.—all on steep, winding trails amongst giant boulders.
Agave seed
Coming back to the hoise
After a beautiful drive through the mountains of the Gila Wilderness.
Breakfast in Los Lunas
Dust storm heading south.
Elephant Butte
Hillsboro
Our rental above Pinos Altos
…in Albuquerque.
Great hotel in a fascinating town.
Dining al fresco. Not too bad a drive.
And some road photos by Sue.
Illinois River
Mississippi
Missouri hills
…the plane might not get off the ground. We are 92% packed, and everything onboard is (quite possibly) necessary (lots of climates are on the itinerary).
Meanwhile, I finished the squirrel-proof grow box.
And put the hickory nuts collected last fall into peat pots.
On the right side are nuts that sank when dumped into a sink full of water. On the left (far) side are the nuts that floated. So now we have a squirrel-proof experiment. Supposedly, the nuts that sink are viable, while the nuts that float lack vitality. At this point I’m just hoping some of them sprout.
I had planned on backfilling dirt all around the box, but discovered that any soil nearby was still resolutely frozen—so that task will have to wait.
Beautiful sunny and warm day, up until about 4 p.m., when the wind switched to the NE and the temp dropped 20 degrees. I attribute that to lake effect.
…patio. Warm enough at last, and bright enough, too, even at 6:30. Nice for us, but the cardinals were miffed that we had disturbed their routine.
Main project was trying to finish the grow box / cold frame before our trip departure. This baby is going to be squirrel-proof.
Above is one half of the lid (which will be covered with hardware cloth).
The aim is the successful sprouting of hickory nuts, acorns, and other tree seeds—along with the seed starting of tomatoes, basil, and other tasty annuals. The box is going to be placed along the garage stone wall (which faces directly south), behind the existing Alpine currant bushes (which have been seriously pruned back). Except for early spring, it should be almost invisible.
Otherwise, we watched basketball and printed off our brackets. Tonight we fill them in—and then place our bets.