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.