Citruspalooza

We've waited patiently for the three and a half weeks we've been in AZ to get our piles of citrus.  This morning we went to the home of a kindly fellow Trivia player and thinned his many citrus trees of fruit that were too hard for him to reach.

Dave could only be happier if there was a cat on his lap admiring the fruit with him.  After the harvest Dave spent about two hours juicing in order to get 2 gallons of juice.  There is still tons of fruit untouched.  However, in Dave's zealousness, he burned out the little juicer and it's a goner. 

                           

Southwestern Projects

I don't know if a rustic headboard for the guest room counts as Southwestern, but it's certainly not Asian.  Rather than use pallets I ended up buying "common boards".  The pallets were just not easy to procure.  My uncle used his table saw to slice up the pieces and I then put them back together is a random way. Then drilled, sanded, stained, and screwed.  And it's up!!

Cactuspalooza

I like how this Saguaro has a wiggly look to the center growth.

This is the famous, and rare, Crested Saguaro Cactus.  Really neat to see.

We discovered this hearty cactus basically growing out of a rock.

Friday's hiking group taking a lunch break after two hours of hiking with a few dicey areas.  At least dicey to the 77 year olds.

First Owl Sightings of 2016

It's nice that we can rely on "our" pair of Great Horned Owls to not move to a new nesting site each year.  First we saw one, then a few minutes later the mate joined up.  Dave saw three coyotes today and one Roadrunner.  A good animal spotting day which may coincide with the sunny and warm weather we are having.

Big Rock Dome

Today we took a 5.5 mile hike very close to Saddlebrooke called the Big Rock Dome.  This was a hike that was also shared with ATV type vehicles.  The reward was getting to the top to see the great view below.  There was also a sprinkling of Saguaro which we always love to see.

During our hiking break Dave is attempting to figure out his Garmin hiking device.   He's going to a workshop in a few days to learn how to use it better.  At least he is outfitted in all the fashionable hiking gear.

I think this is where our house is, looking at it from the Big Rock Dome.

At 5pm tonight we saw a coyote run up a hillside in the neighborhood.  Unfortunately my phone camera photos were too poor to upload onto this blog.  A few seconds after the coyote went into the "bush" five Saddlebrooke deer came out.  We were surprised how close these "enemies" were to each other.

Tucson Oddities

While my daughter Gillian visited this past weekend we wanted to show her some off-the-beaten-path highlights of Tucson.  Since she has been her many times during her childhood she had already seen the Desert Museum, Biosphere, and Old Tucson.  But she'd never seen Rattlesnake Bridge (nor had I).  It took a bit of wandering around but we finally found it and it was worth it!  This is the entrance and you can see the eyes and fangs.

                               

 This is a pedestrian/biking bridge.  Our favorite part was the Rattlesnake tail.  The tail greets you as you exit the "body".  There is a motion sensor that makes a loud rattle sound as you exit.  The tail does not move, but the sound is pretty neat!  It looks like the spine and eyes light up at night which would be great to see.

Hiking Club 1st Hike

This morning we headed out to Alamo Canyon which is a trail in Catalina State Park.  Relatively close to where we live.  Sunny and into the low 60s made for a perfect condition for the 6+ mile hike.  There were a lot of rocks and boulders underfoot, but one of our hiking members was an 81 year old man who had no problem.  We aspire to be like him!

Our view as we got to the top.

The O’odhams greatly respected the Saguaro and considered them nearly human. According to legend, each Saguaro represented an Indian warrior and the arms his wives. A drooping arm signaled a bad wife, but if it turned up again, it meant the husband had straightened her out!  This Saguaro represents a really, really bad wife!