Mountain, Cross and Shuffleboard Nats

[pixychick]

The Barb wire is up and we are 90% fenced in. We do however have a small open section between our property line and the gate which is on the easement that will have to be negotiated with our neighbors. We do not expect any problems, we just thought best to run it by them before we erect more poles and wire. It is very thick with plants and eroded hilly, so it may take awhile for the cows to find their way in that way.

In the mean time I have tackled a few projects: Sewing a bed cover and pillows out of old linens from my family beach house and purchased discount fabric. I had to wing it a bit with a vision and it came out ok. I am not a master sewer, but can handle simple things. We also got a start on the backsplash tile that was never completed. We ran into a problem and had to order some more tile. Sugar consumption continues until flowers supply enough nectar to slow down the feeders. I do enjoy the hummingbirds!

 

[pixychick]

I am really excited to report that my veggie and herb seeds are coming up in my windowsill pots. I have never successfully done this before, so it feels pretty good to be growing some of my own food. I hope they make it to maturity and survive outside. I will probably keep them in pots on our patio since there are too many hungry critters out here at night. It still could freeze at night, but the long term forecast is looking good for milder weather compared to a few weeks back, so I think we are over the hump. The sun is actually coming up earlier now. Soon it will not blind me at breakfast and be higher in in the sky.

I have not posted too many words on biking and bike racing. I know the title of thread has something to do with racing, so I suppose I should discuss this years plans, and they are to not race. I have been racing for 25 years without much of a break. I enjoy racing and what motivation and purpose it has given me each year, but as of lately, the negatives are beginning to out weigh the positives. I have had no conclusive diagnosis of why I get run down, fluctuate iron levels, and struggle to recover enough to get in race shape, but it is clear that my body is telling me it needs a break. So, no races planned, no usacycling license, and absolutely no endurance races. It is funny how most people assume that when you stop racing, you will do more endurance races like Bearcat and Erie, but the long rides may be what messed me up, so no more. I plan to keep it short and fun and only do what feels within my comfort and desire. I will not totally rule out showing up to race once or twice, but no racing is planned at this time.

I have friends flying in today to visit. I am so looking forward to spending time together.

 

[pixychick]

 

[pixychick]

Over the past few days we have gotten more rain. The wash is running, flowers are blooming and a big freeze is expected for tonight. The snow just let up, so I will get out to take more pictures shortly, but in the mean time, here are some from yesterday. It started out partly sunny and got cloudy before sun dropped. The wash was twinkling across the valley before sunset. It looks like we will be covering plants again tonight. I hope some flowers survive.

 

[pixychick]

My Campmor friends left last week. It was a great visit, but I am sad to see them go. Art and I did a few projects over the weekend, and Monday my mom arrived for a few weeks.

Below is the laser cut steel panel with painted panel behind on the built in door in our BR. Today it is raining again. We spent the day at the Gem show downtown. It is one of the largest gem shows in the country. People come from all over the world and invade our little city for 3-4 weeks. It is not just jewelry but rocks and fossils too. I never knew so many people were into rocks.

I have only been on my bike for a few short rides in the last week, but hope to ride more next week, weather permitting. Weather is not looking that great, but often the forecast will be for rain multiple days and it may only rain part of a day. I stocked up on food incase the wash runs and overflows past the bridge and we get stuck at our house for a few days.

 

[pixychick]

So we got 1.2 inches of rain last night on top of 1.5 a few days back and the wash is RUNNING! Basically the whole flood plain is under water between two rivers. The far river has a bridge but the one at the bottom of our hill does not and had over a foot this morning. It has since gone down a few inches, but the plain in between is more flooded. So, we will be staying home for a few days. I have plenty of food for us, but only 4 pounds of sugar for hummingbirds. Thankfully there are some nectar flowers blooming.

Being stuck home is not too bad and once trails dry out, I can ride because the trails are on the same side of the wash as us! My mom made us an awesome strawberry tart that we plan to indulge tonight.

Projects: Art has finally been working outside the wall. The birds are causing erosion and as much as we are tempted to cut out bird feeding, Art is convinced to do some major terracing. Think of it like trail maintenance. He blew himself out the first few days, but now he is pacing himself and letting me help some. He has placed down several footings and started block wall terracing. He plans to use stone as well. We will work until we run out of supplies, which may be soon, as we only have 3 bags each of concrete and mortar. We hope the wash goes down by then. To be continued ...

 

[pixychick]

Well, the wash is still running and our neighbor got stuck trying to leave. Apparently the road grater built a sand damn to keep the water off the road yesterday and it dried out, but somehow, water flooded it again over night. Now the crossing is soft. I think we will wait a few more days and see what develops. We were aware of the wash before we purchased this house, but this is our first time it has flooded this much. I guess this is pretty normal these days with all these storm of the centuries. We also found out that Mt Lemon which is where the water drains from, got over 6 inches. More rain is forecasted for tomorrow, so we will see. I may just go for a ride later today.

We started to set some stone in our terrace erosion control. Almost out of stone and mortar, so that will come to a close until we can cross the wash. It still is a beautiful place to be stuck for a few days.

Racers are currently on course in 24HOP. They should be wrapping up in the next hour. We have a NJ girl out there racing ss solo. Hopefully get some results soon.

Check out the rock my friends gave me from the gem show: It is polished chrysocolla/malachite.

 

[pixychick]

Yesterday Art and I went out to ride trails from the house and exited the trail at another trail head with a major bridge crossing so that we could return on the road past our mail box. I have mail forwarded once a week and wanted to get the box of mail out of the lock box. The trails were actually in great shape and many people were out riding. No freeze/thaw out here, Yay!!!

We rode back on our road and rode across the the second wash. It was only 6 or 7 inches deep. I did get my feet a little wet, but it was on our way back home and temps were ok. Still a long section of road is flooded and super soft. Cars are making it across but Art still does not want to risk taking his truck and getting stuck. We checked again this morning and not much has changed. We are hoping that our neighbor will push some sand back on the berm and let the road dry out. So we plan to wait a few more days before taking the car out. I think we have enough food for a few days, and while beer may run out, we do have 700 bottles of wine in the wine cellar, so we have that going for us.

Jocelyn won 24HOP ss solo with 15 16mile laps! You do the math. That is a lot of miles on a mountain bike. She is one hard core lady!

 

[pooriggy]

Cars are making it across but Art still does not want to risk taking his truck and getting stuck.

Anticipating heavy rains and the wash, could you park a car on the other side of the wash prior to rains and put on hip waders to get to it? Of course this would be for next time.
It looks like Art is doing trail work cutting stone and laying it in place.

 

[pixychick]

Anticipating heavy rains and the wash, could you park a car on the other side of the wash prior to rains and put on hip waders to get to it? Of course this would be for next time.
It looks like Art is doing trail work cutting stone and laying it in place.

Yes, we could leave the car on the other side. Many people do if they have 2 cars, one with water crossing ability and one not so much. However, crossing with many groceries or bags of concrete will not work by foot. I am hoping we get across by Wednesday before the next rain.

This terrace project is much like trail work.

 

[Patrick]

Oh - you can run the local ferry!!!

Thanks for bringing us along. Would have never thought about not having some raised crossing, but i guess it isn't really needed
99.99% of the time..so not cost effective.

More pics of ephemeral plants because by the rain please.

 

[pixychick]

Some road repair was done, so we got out today for supplies. Crossing was still soft, but made it out and back. ....Hoping things dry out.

 

[pixychick]

We have a few cold days expected ahead and unfortunately, more rain. I feel much better with 24 pounds of sugar. That should feed the hummingbirds for awhile. I also picked up some rubber boots to cross the wash by foot when it is not too high. I never thought I would be buying rubber boots in Az. I realize that we probably should invest in a beater 4WD vehicle at some point. Finances have been tight with trying to keep 2 places, and it is one expense that we were hoping to avoid for a few more years. For just us two, we are ok with a little adventure crossing the wash, but I have had my mom here and she has been stuck in the house here for a week. Hopefully we can get her out today and next week for her flight. We could use an uber, uber for water crossing? Perhaps we will rig up a zip line.

So today is our 37th anniversary. Hoping to get out and ride once things warm up. The mountains are snow covered again, so it should be real pretty out there.

 

[UtahJoe]

Happy Anniversary! Makes sense now...I think I remember you telling me about your honeymoon and Art skiing away from you and then off some cliff.

oh my...is this river crossing a recurring issue? Maybe you guys could look into a old dirt bike, or a beater jeep/pick up

 

[moose35]

Happy anniversary Ellen and Art.

 

[Santapez]

Below is the laser cut steel panel with painted panel behind on the built in door in our BR. Today it is raining again. We spent the day at the Gem show downtown. It is one of the largest gem shows in the country. People come from all over the world and invade our little city for 3-4 weeks. It is not just jewelry but rocks and fossils too. I never knew so many people were into rocks.

I went to that gem show when I was dating a hippie. Biggest bunch of weirdos I've ever seen with all the woo-woo crystal stuff. If you're not in that world it's amazing how much gems/crystal stuff there is out there and how many people are into it. That can be said about any hobby really. There's Santa conventions, and ball bearing conventions. Heck I go to wastewater conventions for work...

The fossil stuff is pretty neat. I remember them selling a T-Rex replica. I always wondered who buys that, and where do they put it? How else do you let people know you have baller money than when they park their Bentley in your circular driveway and walk into your house you're greeted by a T-Rex?

 

[mattybfat]

Happy Anniversary kids. Hope it was grand...

 

[pixychick]

Yesterday we had 1.25 inches of rain expected, so we packed up bikes and my mom and headed across the wash with the truck to stay at our friends house just across the wash. I wanted to make sure my mom and the truck could get out tomorrow. Today we woke up to a few inches of snow. It was beautiful out there, and wash levels were up. We were able to walk across the wash with rubber boots. The center had some current but we made it across safely to tend to our bird feeders. I hope to do that again tomorrow as well. Most the snow has already melted but we are expecting crazy low temps tomorrow morning. I fear sugar water may freeze, so I may need to cross the wash at daybreak to get back home to change feeders. The last few days have been fun camping out at our friends house. I am looking forward to seeing the sun soon.

 

[pixychick]

After spending a few snowy days with my friends down the street, Art and I finally got my mom to her shuttle and made it back across the wash to our house. Today the sun is shining and it is 60 degrees. Most the plants and birds seem happy. While there is little snow left in our yard, the mountains are still snow covered and their snowy presence will be around for awhile. If not just by sight, in the form of water running in the wash. While we made it across the wash with the truck, the wash may run for some time. I will keep my rubber boots in the truck just incase.

We went out for a short ride today and the trails were surprisingly firm. Contrary to trails in NJ, local Az trails are very sandy and have little organic matter to absorb moisture. Water that does not make it to the many washes, just percolates into the aquifers. Right now almost all washes are running. When I used to come out to ride before we got the house, the washes were often wet and or running. The last few years have been unusually warm and dry. So I guess the cool wet year is a good thing.

Another thing about the local trails here, is that after it rains, trails get dug up by both horses and cattle. For such a dry place, trails suffer from erosion because the tread is constantly getting loosened and churned up by things bigger than bikers. At first I thought it was insane that so many horseback riders went out after it rained, but now I realize that many prefer to go out after it rains so that the horses have water to drink. If it ever came down to parks not allowing free range cattle, I could see horses being banned. IMHO, they just do not seem sustainable in the desert. Maybe I am missing something.

Loving the desert and the snowy mountains:

 

[pixychick]

We had a party to go to way downtown yesterday. We left in daylight and the wash was really soft, and we barely made it across. Also water had somehow breached upstream and was starting to travel and puddle down the road. We went to our party, but decided not to attempt to drive back across the wash late at night. Somehow getting stuck at night did not seem like a very smart thing to have to deal with. So, we parked west of the wash on the road with many of the other neighbors cars and got into our boots for our late night hike back to our hacienda.

I got out of the truck in my dress, down coat and galoshes with cell phone light in hand ready for my late night challenge. Millions of stars filled the dark sky and the the faint silhouette of the mountains was defined by the distant city glow. It is amazing how many stars can be seen when you exit a major metropolitan area. When we reached the second wash, the one without the bridge, my cell phone worked pretty well to determine depth. There was a pretty good sand bar underneath on the entrance side and only one 3 foot section that looked deep. We walk across easily but it was pretty soft for a car. The walk was about a 1/2 mile and pretty steep uphill, but it was a beautiful night to be out walking. I probably would not have walked at night, so I look at this whole experience as a good thing.

Here are some shots from todays local ride.