See my post of 3-6-11 for first episode of the Wabbits saga.
By Elmer Fudd with a nod to John Updike.
The homemade bwew of gawlick and peppaw sauce didn't do it so I bought a bottle of Liquid Fence. Pwoblem is, you have to weapply it evewy 3 weeks. It's a woyal pain in the ass and oh my gawd, it weally stinks! I clamp my nose shut with a clothes pin when applying the wotten stuff. Didn't weapply it befoaw a wecent camping twip, came home to find that the fuwwy little bastawds had eaten big bunches of leaves off my owange twee.
I'm giving up on the stink-em-out appwoach, seems to stink me out more than the dwatted wabbits. Besides, I'm not heaw in the summaw to apply it wegulawly anyway. Gonna put a fence awound the owange twee, maybe the fan palms, too. How high can wascally wabbits jump? I'm thinking 2' is high enough foaw the fence; these awe just little cottontail cwitters, aftaw all, not big jack wabbits.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Roadkill
"Been there, done that, got the T-shirt."
On our return to LHC yesterday, we drove historic Route 66 for several miles, stopping in Seligman for lunch. Seligman is one of several small AZ towns that capitalize on the tourism value of Route 66. The standard shtick is a 50s motif with diners, cars, signs, gas pumps, movie posters, Burma Shave signs, jukeboxes and the like. It's fun to cruise through these little towns and see the creative, period stuff the business owners have come up with.
Route 66 ran from LA to Chicago. It figured prominently in Dust Bowl times, the movie Grapes of Wrath and, of course, the TV series of the 60s, and the Get Your Kicks song. It had many nicknames: Main Street of America, The Mother Road, The Will Rogers Highway, and The Great Diagonal Way. The interstate highway system replaced the popular road for the most part, with only short segments of the original road remaining.
I don't know if there's a connection between roadkill and Route 66 other than the Roadkill Cafe in Seligman where we had lunch. Who could resist the siren call of Roadkill Cafe? Not me. No way. I simply had to stop there, no choice whatsoever. Don't know if Trish was similarly driven but she readily agreed in any case. The lunch, BLTs for both of us, was okay but not remarkable.
On our return to LHC yesterday, we drove historic Route 66 for several miles, stopping in Seligman for lunch. Seligman is one of several small AZ towns that capitalize on the tourism value of Route 66. The standard shtick is a 50s motif with diners, cars, signs, gas pumps, movie posters, Burma Shave signs, jukeboxes and the like. It's fun to cruise through these little towns and see the creative, period stuff the business owners have come up with.
Route 66 ran from LA to Chicago. It figured prominently in Dust Bowl times, the movie Grapes of Wrath and, of course, the TV series of the 60s, and the Get Your Kicks song. It had many nicknames: Main Street of America, The Mother Road, The Will Rogers Highway, and The Great Diagonal Way. The interstate highway system replaced the popular road for the most part, with only short segments of the original road remaining.
I don't know if there's a connection between roadkill and Route 66 other than the Roadkill Cafe in Seligman where we had lunch. Who could resist the siren call of Roadkill Cafe? Not me. No way. I simply had to stop there, no choice whatsoever. Don't know if Trish was similarly driven but she readily agreed in any case. The lunch, BLTs for both of us, was okay but not remarkable.
T-shirt front.
T-shirt back.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
City in the Sky
Jerome, AZ is nicknamed The City in the Sky. It's a mile high and clings to the steep slopes of Cleopatra Hill. Its roots are copper mining, a typical boomtown of the early 1900s; population was 15,000 in the 30s, less than 100 in 1960. It was a ghost town for many years before it was rediscovered by the artsy-craftsy crowd and various historians. It now boasts a population of 444. If you want to make it 445, there are still plenty of vacant buildings to choose from.
The town is only about 7 miles from Dead Horse SP so we toured the 'City' and had lunch there. We also toured the state historic park, which is housed in the 8700 SF mansion built by one of the early mine owners in 1916. The mansion is adobe, built from materials found onsite and was thought to be the largest adobe structure in the country at one time.
Don't even think about taking an RV through Jerome: narrow streets and extremely tight switchbacks are enough to make a VW Bug driver wet his pants. A 40' Class A motorhome? Upgrade the wet BVDs to full scale heart attack.
Jerome from state historic park mansion.
Tourists doing squat exercises in foreground.
The town is only about 7 miles from Dead Horse SP so we toured the 'City' and had lunch there. We also toured the state historic park, which is housed in the 8700 SF mansion built by one of the early mine owners in 1916. The mansion is adobe, built from materials found onsite and was thought to be the largest adobe structure in the country at one time.
Mansion/historic park from 'downtown' Jerome
Mansion facade.
Don't even think about taking an RV through Jerome: narrow streets and extremely tight switchbacks are enough to make a VW Bug driver wet his pants. A 40' Class A motorhome? Upgrade the wet BVDs to full scale heart attack.
2700 pounds of azurite and malachite.
Closeup of the rock that's at bottom center in first picture above.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
4 Parks & 1 Town
Grand Canyon South Rim
As magnificent as ever, it inspires an awed silence: words are simply inadequate. They've added 4 shuttle bus routes since our last visit, running every 15 minutes and stopping at the best viewpoints - most of which are not accessible by private vehicle. We had breakfast at El Tovar, the grand old hotel that was once part of the Harvey chain, now owned by Xanterra. The view from our breakfast table didn't compare to that of our last GC breakfast in the North Rim lodge but it was still pretty neat. We took lots of pix but none do it justice. You can find better pix online. That said, I've included one shot just to prove we were actually there.
Dead Horse Ranch SP
In the late 40s a MN family decided to buy a ranch here (Cottonwood, AZ). They looked at the available properties and chose one that happened to have a dead horse lying alongside the access road. The state acquired the property in '73, with the condition the name be retained. It's not photogenic so am not including any pix. We're camped here for 3 nights while we explore the area. Not to be outdone, Utah has Dead Horse Point SP, right beside Canyonlands NP; we stayed there 4 years ago, awesome views. This is horse country for sure, many large fenced areas with horses of all colors. Okay, not all colors - all horse colors. Didn't see any dead ones.
Slide Rock SP
A few miles north of Sedona, Slide Rock was a commercial apple orchard for 50 years before becoming a state park around 1970. Oak Creek has several areas where the rocks are so smooth they serve as a natural water slide. Trish and I neglected to bring our sliding gear and weren't in a wedgie mood anyway, so we skipped the sliding bit. The 3 pix below were taken in the park.
The Sedona area may have the most spectacular red rock formations in the country.
Sedona
We stopped in Sedona for a tea/coffee break. Got our brews at a Starbucks that was part of a Hyatt Hotel/art gallery/wine shop complex; very upscale stuff, very attractively done.
Red Rock SP
A few miles south of Sedona, this park lacks the wow factor of the aforementioned. It's pretty but to quote one of Trish's favorite sayings, 'amazingly adequate'. Here's a couple pix, anyway.
As magnificent as ever, it inspires an awed silence: words are simply inadequate. They've added 4 shuttle bus routes since our last visit, running every 15 minutes and stopping at the best viewpoints - most of which are not accessible by private vehicle. We had breakfast at El Tovar, the grand old hotel that was once part of the Harvey chain, now owned by Xanterra. The view from our breakfast table didn't compare to that of our last GC breakfast in the North Rim lodge but it was still pretty neat. We took lots of pix but none do it justice. You can find better pix online. That said, I've included one shot just to prove we were actually there.
Dead Horse Ranch SP
In the late 40s a MN family decided to buy a ranch here (Cottonwood, AZ). They looked at the available properties and chose one that happened to have a dead horse lying alongside the access road. The state acquired the property in '73, with the condition the name be retained. It's not photogenic so am not including any pix. We're camped here for 3 nights while we explore the area. Not to be outdone, Utah has Dead Horse Point SP, right beside Canyonlands NP; we stayed there 4 years ago, awesome views. This is horse country for sure, many large fenced areas with horses of all colors. Okay, not all colors - all horse colors. Didn't see any dead ones.
Slide Rock SP
A few miles north of Sedona, Slide Rock was a commercial apple orchard for 50 years before becoming a state park around 1970. Oak Creek has several areas where the rocks are so smooth they serve as a natural water slide. Trish and I neglected to bring our sliding gear and weren't in a wedgie mood anyway, so we skipped the sliding bit. The 3 pix below were taken in the park.
The Sedona area may have the most spectacular red rock formations in the country.
Sedona
We stopped in Sedona for a tea/coffee break. Got our brews at a Starbucks that was part of a Hyatt Hotel/art gallery/wine shop complex; very upscale stuff, very attractively done.
Coffee break. The pillar is native rock enclosed with steel rods and heavy duty wire mesh. Cool!
Aha! Found the dead horse. Appears to have died of starvation. Sad.
The critter on the left is a goat that appears to be biting the horse's tail but not really; the angle of the shot just makes it look that way.
Tasteful arrangement of pots and plants.
Red Rock SP
A few miles south of Sedona, this park lacks the wow factor of the aforementioned. It's pretty but to quote one of Trish's favorite sayings, 'amazingly adequate'. Here's a couple pix, anyway.
Red rocks, red sidewalk and the pavement is mostly red, too.
Saturday, May 12, 2012
South Rim
In mid September, 1989, I met my brother Pat, his wife Julie, his son Bill, and my sister Mary in Utah. They had driven down from MN; I flew in from Portland. Pat, Bill and I had made arrangements to hike the Grand Canyon, rim to rim, starting at the north rim, overnighting at Phantom Ranch at the bottom, and hiking out at the south rim the next day. The ladies would drive the car from north rim to south rim and pick us up there. We spent a couple nights in one of the quaint log cabins on the north rim before the hike. There was frost on the ground each morning but it was 90 degrees at Phantom Ranch when we arrived there mid afternoon.
If hiking's your thing, put this one on your must-do list. It's about 24 miles: 14 miles from north rim to the Ranch, 10 miles from Ranch to south rim. You descend 5800' going in, ascend 4800' coming out. You can backpack it, taking your own food and sleeping gear but I gotta recommend Phantom Ranch: comfortable beds in dorm-style cabins, great meals and interesting folks to chat with. And, of course, a lot less weight to haul around.
Trish and I are doing an RV trip later this month, staying on the south rim 3 nights and another 3 nights at Dead Horse Ranch State Park near Cottonwood. I've stayed on the north rim 3 times, have never stayed on the south - just spent a couple hours there after the hike. The south rim didn't float my boat: too touristy, too noisy, too busy. Compared to the quiet, idyllic setting of the north rim and Phantom Ranch, the south rim was just a shopping mall with a view.
It's been 23 years since my initial south rim exposure. I'm wondering: will I like it better this time? It's a relative thing because, after all, the GC is my favorite natural wonder of the whole world. Even with all the tourists and retail bustle, it's a fantastic place. To be continued.
If hiking's your thing, put this one on your must-do list. It's about 24 miles: 14 miles from north rim to the Ranch, 10 miles from Ranch to south rim. You descend 5800' going in, ascend 4800' coming out. You can backpack it, taking your own food and sleeping gear but I gotta recommend Phantom Ranch: comfortable beds in dorm-style cabins, great meals and interesting folks to chat with. And, of course, a lot less weight to haul around.
Trish and I are doing an RV trip later this month, staying on the south rim 3 nights and another 3 nights at Dead Horse Ranch State Park near Cottonwood. I've stayed on the north rim 3 times, have never stayed on the south - just spent a couple hours there after the hike. The south rim didn't float my boat: too touristy, too noisy, too busy. Compared to the quiet, idyllic setting of the north rim and Phantom Ranch, the south rim was just a shopping mall with a view.
It's been 23 years since my initial south rim exposure. I'm wondering: will I like it better this time? It's a relative thing because, after all, the GC is my favorite natural wonder of the whole world. Even with all the tourists and retail bustle, it's a fantastic place. To be continued.
Monday, May 7, 2012
Cartwheel Galaxy/Vote
The folks at spacetelescope.org mislabeled a couple images, including the one that inspired this picture. It was captioned Hourglass Nebula but is actually the Cartwheel Galaxy. I wanted the 3-piece set to be all nebulae, but finished the painting before discovering the labeling error. So, the set-name is hereby changed from 'nebulae' to 'heavenly bodies'. Makes me wonder: if I googled 'heavenly bodies' would the majority of hits be cosmic or female human? Although most of us naturally associate brushes with the application of paint to canvas, most of this painting was done with sponges.
Cartwheel is 500 million light years away from us, rather a long trip and not much to do when you get there. Consider Hawaii instead. At 150,000 light years in width, Cartwheel is slightly larger than the Milky Way; viewed from earth, it is part of the Sculptor constellation. Scientists estimate that there are 100-500 billion galaxies, each containing 100 million to 100 trillion stars. These statistics remind us of the unimaginable vastness of space, and of the insignificance of earth and its dominant species, the microscopic parasites that number in the billions, blissfully and obliviously breeding and polluting themselves into extinction. Tsk, tsk, how morbid of me.
VOTE! I'd appreciate reader feedback on which of the 3 heavenly paintings you like best - and why: color, composition, whatever. Thanks!
Cartwheel is 500 million light years away from us, rather a long trip and not much to do when you get there. Consider Hawaii instead. At 150,000 light years in width, Cartwheel is slightly larger than the Milky Way; viewed from earth, it is part of the Sculptor constellation. Scientists estimate that there are 100-500 billion galaxies, each containing 100 million to 100 trillion stars. These statistics remind us of the unimaginable vastness of space, and of the insignificance of earth and its dominant species, the microscopic parasites that number in the billions, blissfully and obliviously breeding and polluting themselves into extinction. Tsk, tsk, how morbid of me.
Cartwheel Galaxy
Acrylic on canvas. 16" x 20"
Final of 3-piece series
VOTE! I'd appreciate reader feedback on which of the 3 heavenly paintings you like best - and why: color, composition, whatever. Thanks!
Friday, May 4, 2012
Design/Oops
The blog redesign is complete. I'm sure many of you, my faithful readers, have found the wait unbearable, bursting as you were with unbounded admiration and praise for the creativity and sheer brilliance of the new design. The wait is over. It's time to gush and cheer and utter awe-struck oohs and aahs and other laudatory comments of your choosing.
Oops: the third nebula painting didn't make the cut. Worked on it for many hours, had it pretty much completed, took a hard critical look at it yesterday, decided it was crap, applied 2 coats of KILZ over the entire canvas. It's toast. History. Gone baby, gone.
It was to be the Orion Nebula but now I'm switching to a different one, to be announced at a later date. So, the final nebula painting will be delayed a bit. I know you're bitterly disappointed at this devastating news. Please believe me when I say, 'I feel your pain'.
Oops: the third nebula painting didn't make the cut. Worked on it for many hours, had it pretty much completed, took a hard critical look at it yesterday, decided it was crap, applied 2 coats of KILZ over the entire canvas. It's toast. History. Gone baby, gone.
It was to be the Orion Nebula but now I'm switching to a different one, to be announced at a later date. So, the final nebula painting will be delayed a bit. I know you're bitterly disappointed at this devastating news. Please believe me when I say, 'I feel your pain'.
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