Birthday Party

Mom brought a photo album of pictures from my "early" years when she came to visit. This is a photo from my 5th birthday party held at great uncle Sid and great aunt Mina's house in old town Pollock. I did not remember most of the names, but once I had the names, I could match it with the little girl more than half the time. I moved from Pollock the next year so had very little to do with most of the guests after that beautiful May afternoon.

How different a little girl's birthday party is today! We're all wearing dresses and our dress shoes with anklets. We played "Drop the Hankie". We also played with our dolls. The lawn had several doll high chairs, rocking chairs, doll beds and cradles scattered about that afternoon. My gifts? Lots of panties! I'm sure I was disappointed. But a new two-wheel bike was waiting for me at home.

Hike on Jacobs Crosscut Trail

The group of hikers last Wednesday at the base of Superstition Mountain.

Who says the desert isn't green? There really is a trail in all the brush.

A new view of Flat Iron, the western end of the Superstition Mountain.

Many in the group of hikers have climbed to the top of Flat Iron.

Rest stop.

Taking a break among the saguaros along the trail.

Thanks to Doug Lowe for the photos.

More Ring Tailed Cat Photos

Thanks to Doug Lowe for more pictures of the coati attending last Wednesday's afternoon social hour and card bingo time at the resort. Notice the nest tucked behind the speaker in the first picture. What a cute face, really! Notice the long body in the second picture.

More Wildlife

This is a coati. He/she participated in the resort's happy hour on Wednesday and stuck around for card bingo which happened after dinner on Wednesday. I did see this AZ native when I went to play card bingo, but did not have a camera. The picture is from our resort manager. Barb says he/she was in the rafters of the club house awning hoping to rob the nests of the doves/pigeons which are nesting above the patio.

Coati: any of three species of omnivore related to raccoons, has a long, flexible snout and a slender, darkly banded tail that it often carries erect as it moves about. It is called the ring tailed cat and lives in trees.

While Eating Lunch...

Male quail

Female quail

Cardinal

While having lunch at Tortilla Flats yesterday, we were fortunate to sit beside a window which looked out to the back of the restaurant. While we were eating, some feathered friends stopped by looking for their lunch. I shot the pictures through the window glass and window bars. We also saw a chipmunk, but it moved along before I got the camera ready.

Today's Adventure

Today it was off to Tortilla Flats, the institution of Apache Junction. We had an early lunch and beat the crowds who also drove the narrow, curvy road to eat a burger & fries.

Tortilla Flats is known for the dollar bills stapled to the walls. Our wait staff person shared there is more than $100,000 in dollar bills lining the walls, posts, booths, and ceiling of the restaurant and ice cream store.

Speaking of ice cream...we all had a scoop of prickly pear ice cream. Yes, it really is pink, not green.

Well, it catches every one's attention! (There are baby rattles lying in the aquarium.)

A replica of the school house built at Tortilla Flats for 14 students. It is a museum.

It was a cloudy day with rain this morning. Every time I am out in the desert or mountains the last couple of weeks I am awed by all the green. Even the rocks/mountains on this drive are covered in moss, hiding the many natural shades, turning everything GREEN.

Cousins

These four women gathered tonight in AZ to share stories and laughter. Two are sisters. Three are "about" the same age. One lives in SD, one in ND, one in WA, and one in AZ. It was fun to hear and share memories of my grandpa and his sister and brother and the fun the cousins had.

Mom's Trip to AZ

As we like to do with all our house guests, we have at least one meal outside on the patio. We've eaten a lunch and a dinner outside since Mom arrived just before midnight on March 17th.

We also like to have a fire. Last night we had smores and colored flames for Mom and the neighbor's grand daughters, Morgan & Grace. Lots of smoke smell on our clothes and chilled bodies by 9:00 PM. But it's tradition!

Today we took a road trip east of AJ. Mom had not been out this way. We had breakfast at the Buckboard Cafe and visited the World's Smallest Museum. It didn't take long, for the museum.

Then we stopped at the Ray Mine to check out the action. Yes, some were working today.

More pictures later. Tomorrow it is relatives, as was Friday. Thursday was a day of rest. Saturday was a trip to town & the market. More action this week.

Playing Dress Up

Mom brought photos along when she flew to AZ. It is wonderful to have the pictures to help "verify" the memories for my life story. While we were looking at the old photos, we came across this one: Playing Dress Up.

Hiking Club Banquet or End of Season Party

Hikers and their significant others gathered on the resort patio for the end of the year party tonight.

The party started at 4:00 with appetizers.
Eating is what we do best this time of year!

The chefs were busy cooking the steaks.
They did a fantastic job, too.

Steak, baked potatoes, salad, beans and then dozens of desserts, including a birthday cake, from which to choose. I chose a small slice of lemon meringue and chocolate cake. YUMMY!

This was the fourth night this week I did not cook. It was the fourth night of socializing with wonderful friends at CV resort. Oh...and we are eating the cooking of someone else tomorrow night, too. What can I say?

Arizona Wildlife at Picacho Peak State Park

There was wildlife at the top of Picacho Peak in the state park.

Can you see the bird?

Do you see the gecko?
If the geckos are out, the rattlesnakes are not far behind. The hikers have seen lots of geckos recently. With the temps in the 80s this week, the snakes will be making an appearance.

Photos by Doug. Thanks, Doug, for sharing.

Copper Mine

Driving home on Wednesday, on a "different" road took us by Ray Mine, an open pit copper mine south of Superior, AZ. It was close to sun down, so the colors of the tailings were so eye catching.

The fence surrounding & protecting the scoop and tire is just short of 6' in height. That gives you an idea of the size of the tire.

That tire is on the trucks at the bottom of the mine. Notice the little truck to the front and right of the picture? That is a regular size truck. The dump trucks are HUGE! But they looked like the Mattel vehicles Karl used to play with when he was little.

There are three of the huge dump trucks on the road at the bottom of the photo, all to the left of the pumping tower in the bottom middle of the photo.



The sun was setting in the mountains. I really like the golden look of the tailings, surrounded by the two dark hills; one of nature and one of man.

Thanks, Herman, for making the extra stops on Wednesday's road trip. It was a great day!

Part 2 of Biosphere 2

Entering the Habitat area of the once air-locked Biosphere 2. We saw a short video at the ticket area and had a second short video before we started our guided tour. One of the best sources of info came from a short video when we googled biosphere 2.

This is a photo of the Baja or Coastal Fog Desert Biome. Different from the Sonoran Desert Biome in our area of AZ.

A view of the Ocean Biome. It holds a million gallons of tropical water. A coral reef lived in the ocean biome when the Biosphere 2 was inhabited, but does not exist there now.

The Tropical Rain Forest Biome had 80% humidity on Wednesday. The lens of the camera fogged over immediately. It was difficult to take pictures in there. My hair and skin was wet when we left that biome.
An Egyptian something tree in the Upper Savanana Biome. The biospherians tried growing a coffee plant and successfully grew a type of banana in this biome.

I do not have a picture of the fifth biome, the Mangrove swamp biome.

This was a solar test plot outside the facility on the campus grounds. Firestone was one of the sponsors of the test site.

The Biosphere 2:
*has 6500 windows
*7,200,000 cubic feet of sealed glass
*is 91' high at its highest point in the rain forest biome
*covers a 40 acre campus
*is on 3.14 acres
*was once managed by Columbia University
*operates without any funds from the US government or the U of A
*had 2,300,000 visitors from 1991-2007
*is the largest closed system ever created
*during the two closure periods with humans came from 7 different countries
*Edward Bass bankrolled Biosphere 2 for $150 million
*sealed from the earth below by a 500-ton welded stainless steel liner
*was constructed from 1986-1991
*in the 1960s and 70s, the area was a conference center for Motorola
*was a ranch in the 1800s until purchased by Motorola

Biosphere 2, the Buildings

I have been wanting to take this road trip for the last 4 seasons. I thought I learned about Biosphere 2 reading a Weekly Reader when I was teaching 3rd & 4th graders (1976-1984). That can't be since building for the project began in 1986.

This is Biosphere 2, a self-contained living space for 8 people, some animals, some farm land and 5 recreated biomes from 1991-1993. (2 years and 20 minutes) There was a second, short-lived mission in 1993-1994.

This is 2 of the 3 agricultural domes. They farmed 1/2 acre of land which produced 84% of their food. They raised rice, beets, sweet potatoes, peanuts, beans, & wheat in the 3 "buildings". The second year the researchers produced more than a ton of food. Pygmy goats, chickens and some pigs were also sharing the agricultural area. Milk from the goats was turned into cheese. The pigs were eaten early on. The chickens lasted longer, as long as they laid eggs. Tilapia fish were raised in the rice paddies.

This is one of two "lungs" which provided air pressure/volume control to the biosphere. As the temperatures inside the biosphere heated and expanded during the day but cooled and contracted at night, the lungs helped control air pressure/volume levels.

This mid-eastern building design, one building with 5 'humps', was the electrical control center for the biosphere.

This structure was the habitat, the area where the 8 people lived when not working inside the biosphere. (The agricultural center is directly behind.) Each person had their own 2 story apartment and shared a bathroom with another researcher. There were 4 women and 4 men, only one of which was a medical doctor. They were housed in two wings with a research lab, computers and library between the two wings. There was a kitchen and dining area, too. They worked 12 hours a day on biosphere business and survival, living on 1200 calories. They got 1 cup of coffee every two weeks.

Biosphere 2 is in the Santa Catalina Mountains which are snow covered this week due to the rain and cool temps. If it does get to 80 by next week, the snow may be gone from the mountain peaks.

I got most of my info from Wikipedia and today's guide, Bob. For more interesting info Google Biosphere 2.

More pictures tomorrow.