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This very late, but what you see is what you get. I have been trying to post this for the better part of 4 weeks, but there always seemed to be some minor "crisis" hanging fire that required immediate attention. Well, at any rate, the crisis seem to have resolved themselves and here it is...
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| Thanksgiving time came and with it some of the kids and grandkids. Ethan insisted that breakfast consist of biscuits and gravy instead of fried potatoes. He also insisted that he be allowed a hand in making them. Then he refused to eat... What an interesting phenomenon. |
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Kyle made up for it. He eats everything. |
| Ethan tried his best to look cute. He often succeeded. |
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Kyle also tried his hand at baking. Actually, he is an old hand at it. His baking skills easily rank in the 95 percentile of all two-year-olds. |
| Kylie is quite photogenic, and quite proud of that fact. |
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Enjoy it now, because in a few years she will probably become has hard to photograph as Symantha. |
| After dinner, some of us were working on what will be the covering for the duct work from the furnace/AC unit, when I turned around to see Abby on the top of the ladder. Nathen doesn't particularly like swaying in the breeze while perched up there, and I admit to sensing a modicum of danger in that situation, but apparently Abby failed to inherit those genes, (or they don't become activated until later in life...). The impact of news concerning the exploits of the little social climber was not sufficient to jar Ameilia loose from her card game, but Barbara streaked to the rescue before I could adequately document the event... |
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I thought this shot of Cub looked better in black and white. What do you think? |
| I would never try to tell you what to do. And don't your forget it! |
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The repast was fairly well attended. Sabrina, Braxton and Cub came... |
| As did Symantha in a surprise appearance (at least I was surprised...). |
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Jim and Karren came, but Karren wasn't particularly photogenic this trip... |
| KD accompanied Karren and Jim. I get the impression that she thinks we are a wee bit eccentric (that's the kind way to phrase it). |
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Nathen and Terre also made into the photos. Wyatt and Wyatt and Ameilia escaped documentation. |
| As part of the reclamation project at the mine, they are putting "rock armor" (dirt quarried from down near the river) on the area that was cleared for leaching. I watched the white cover spread over the red of the oxide copper ore, and didn't realize I needed a photo until the job was almost complete. |
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After trying to find a mutually agreeable date for the better part of a year, this Saturday Dave Ellis and I visited the fossil beds located along highway 80 (near milepost 354) south east of Bisbee. It was a fun trip, but a major disappointment as far as fossils were concerned. |
| While we were preparing for our first hike, a border patrol agent stopped by and chatted with us. He must have been operating "under cover" as he was not in uniform, and the vehicle he was driving looked like a beat up old farm vehicle (complete with "Arizona pin striping"). He had good cause to be in this area, as just across the road we encountered a pile of abandoned property. Most of it was it surprisingly good condition, and I went as far as to appropriate a coat. Dave picked up three back packs, which he earmarked for the Scouts. |
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A couple of hours later (as we were returning to the car, a Highway Patrolman stopped by, and checked us out. I don't know if we had a visitor who helped us out, or if it happened just as we pulled off the road, but the front bumper came loose, and John Law wanted to know if we had been involved in an accident. |
| There is only one screw holding that side on, and I reinstalled it and came home. The next morning as I was leaving for early morning correlation meeting (Jim Sherman, the High Priest Group Leader, being out of town) the bumper came loose again. |
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After hunting for the proper pieces, I replaced the sheet metal screw with two flat washers, one lock washer, a nut, and a bolt, and hopefully solved the problem. |
| We encountered literally millions of fossils, but most were less than 1 millimeter in length, none were markedly exposed by weathering, and none were identifiable (unless you assume that some were actually multimillion year old oyster beds as we postulated). This location came from a book entitled, "Roadside Geology of Arizona", which I procured some years ago (and have yet to read because I don't understand the vocabulary of geology). |
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After working with Dave on some of his bird studies, I had the feeling that a serious author would not publish the location of highly vulnerable fossils (particularly in a volume that targeted the general public), so I wasn't particularly surprised by this turn of events. Still, I was a bit disappointed. I would have like to have seen something that "made it worth the price of admission." |
| We stopped a couple of other places on the return trip, and in total, may have hiked a half mile. My balance is definitely not what it used to be, and climbing around limestone outcroppings and cliffs tends to be a bit challenging. I really dislike that fact, but truth is truth. |
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I am not sore from exercise, but do have dozen or so places (particularly on my legs) where branches, briars and thorns have interrupted the skin. Still, I avoided major falls, so I count the trip a success. |
| On the penultimate leg of the bicycle trip last September, I lost the seat off my recumbent bicycle, so Barbara and I fabricated another one. It doesn't look professional, and it probably isn't as comfortable as the original, but it lets me use the machine again, so I guess that classifies it as a success. Replacements are available from the manufacturer for about $25, and I may yet go that route (particularly if I decide to sell the bike), but for now my bright blue seat is doing the job. |
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