A Day In The Life - 05/31/2011: Hike/Service Project

Tuesday was the service project and the hike to our camping spot. We drove to Juniper ridge lookout tower west of Show Low where we met with the rangers to do the service project. Our assignment was to re-establish a section of trail that was wiped out by the Rodeo - Chedeski fire in 2002. We were issued hard hats and tools and we had to bring our own gloves and hiking boots.
We hiked in about a mile to the location of the work and spent two or three hours clearing the trail of growth, smoothing and leveling it and removing trees and other larger items that had fallen or might fall across the trail. As you can see, the damage from the fire 9 years ago is still quite evident.

Smoothing and leveling the trail

Trimming and hauling out unwanted growth.

Then it was back to the ranger station for lunch and a quick trip up the stairs to the lookout tower for a look down, of course.

Then it is into our backpacks and off for the 5-6 mile hike.

A Day In The Life - 05/30/2011: Encampment Canoeing

 Monday was the canoe high adventure activity for the Chandler Alma Stake encampment. Since it is Memorial Day I tried to choose a location that would not be totally overrun with people. Between this being a fishing lake (no motor boats, etc.) and the fact that they had 60 mph winds the two previous days, there were almost no other people around the lake, as you can see.
We unloaded the canoes and headed for the opposite shore, which is where this picture was taken from.

 The boys completed the requirements for the canoeing merit badge and then had some time for fun. Capsizing and recovering the canoes is one of the requirements but I believe that they may have confused requirement with fun at some point in the activity.

Link to: Maneuvering canoes - requirements

Link to: Having fun with canoes - not requirements

A Day In The Life - 05/30/2011: A Really Early Day

I was scheduled to help out the the stake encampment this year as one of the Varsity High Adventure leaders. We combined with the Venturing guys and so Scott Beck and Josh Mora had Rock Climbing and Rappelling, Bill Fawcett and I had canoeing and Scott Klunt and Dave Hague had the over night hike and service project.
Also, Since our ward was up at the encampment to do the cooking I remained home to be with Bill Johnson during church services.
Which is why I am up at 2:00 am on this fine morning heading for Snowflake in the dead of night. And at this point I am just coming up on top of the Mogollon rim at about 4:15 and the sky is clear, a sliver of the moon is shining and the trees are silhouetted as the horizon begins to get light. It was a great sight and it is a good thing that there was absolutely no traffic at that time of day on that road because I was stopped dead in the center of the road to take this picture.

A Day In The Life - 05/29/2011: Mutiny For The Bounty

Actually, there was no mutiny. I ate them all myself. Do you like those round zucchini? Even though the garden is in the shade of the tree by mid afternoon the tomatoes still are taking a beating. I am going to need to add some more shade so that everything does better.

A Day In The Life - 05/28/2011: The Gaslight Theatre

Ben and Jenn invited us to go to the Gaslight Theatre with their family. It is a little local theater that has great plays where the audience gets very involved with booing and hissing at the villains and cheering for the heroes as well as singing along with the piano player before the play and during intermission. And then there is food. Pizza and malts are our choices plus the free baskets of popcorn.
Gracie was really into this even. She was singing and cheering and throwing her hands up and booing at the villain with great enthusiasm.

The food arrived and fortunately there was no one on stage because the attention was definitely not on The stage at that moment.

Gracie tried out the picture board. I am guessing that dance hall girl is probably not in her future.

The family lines up for the final shot before we depart for the trip back to our respective abodes with Sheriff Noah front and center. He was very adamant that those "other guys" should not be getting into his picture. He was very funny about it . . . and we took the family picture anyway.

A Day In The Life - 05/28/2011: It's a Zoo Around Here!

 Today we traveled to the Old Pueblo tp take Ariel and Hero to the zoo. Reid Park Zoo is such a great place. It is just big enough for kids and at a price that we can go often without it killing us.
So we started out the day with a picture just inside the front gate. Ariel was being extremely patient because she and Hero wanted desperately to be off to see the Tiger which was really close by.

 Near the Elephant and Rhino enclosure they got to ride the statue.

 Outside of the aviary was this great turtle bench. Hero was not at all please that she should have to share her turtle with Ariel.

 So Ariel became the turtle . . .

 and Hero was a very hungry caterpillar inside of a big log.

 Ariel decided to "hang around" with the monkeys . . .

. . . and hatch with the dinosaurs.

It was a very fun morning and we wore them both out in only a couple of hours.

A Day In The Life - 05/27/2011: Dang! That Smarts

You know that old joke about, "don't do that - it hurts". Case in point. I was putting in screws with my drill and the drill slipped off and right onto my thumb. And boy did it hurt much more than this picture can convey. Yes, this one required a band-aid.

A Day In The Life - 05/24/2011: K1 Racing

There is a kart racing place that used to be called Speedway racing located about 20th Street and I-10 that was OK but their karts weren't very fast or in very good shape. Eventually we started going to F1 Racing over at the Hohokam and Washington. Recently we got a piece of mail from this place called K1 Racing which apparently changed not only it's name but they also run electric karts.
I stopped by to take a look. The track looks mostly the same as before but the sound for the karts racing was quite different. I guess that I am going to have to check this place out. Somebody must be having a birthday soon that we can use as an excuse to do a couple of runs around this track.

A Day In The Life - 05/23/2011: Finally!

Finally! I thought that these plants would never produce anything but I am finally seeing some tomatoes beginning to turn pink.

A Day In The Life - 05/21/2011: Furniture, Anyone?

 The furniture has arrived. Actually, the furniture arrived because we went and got it and brought it home and now I am beginning to assemble it.
As with most IKEA stuff, you end up with quite a selection of allen wrenches and assorted leftovers when you are done. I wonder if I can make some sort of an art project out of them?

I have started on the desk but as you can see there are many boxes to go that have file cabinets, drawers and overhead cabinets along with cable trays, computer racks, lights and other stuff. It should be way more fun than I deserve. Gaye's job is to haul out the cardboard containers with all of the wrappings. That sounds like a deal. I could get lost in all of that stuff, you know.

A Day In The Life - 05/20/2011: I Get More

 Now that I am getting more of the fruits of my labor than the birds are, gardening is a lot more fun. The tomatoes are coming fast and furious and just about the time I think that I may need to give some of them away, Jennie shows up and helps keep the abundance under control.

And the first squash (round zucchini) is just getting about the right size as well. Batter up!

A Day In The Life - 05/19/2011: Yellow to Gray

 I probably mentioned this already but Gaye decided that it was time to repaint the office. I had enjoyed my favorite shades of wake up green for a few years and she wanted something a little more sophisticated. So she chose a bright yellow (It was manilla folder yellow).
She did most of the taping because she konws that if she doesn't that I will wing it and there will be splashes of paint in all the wrong places.
Just after we got the place all painted - we hadn't even taken the plastic up yet, we were out looking at furniture for the office and she decided that gray would look much better. I agreed only because the tape and plastic were still in place.

I does look pretty good. And I think that the color will probably go better with the furniture that we were looking at anyway. Good choice.

A Day In The Life - 05/18/2011: Gardening Is For The Birds

One of the major battles of gardening is getting most of the produce for yourself. For some reason we become great friends of bird and bug when we grow gardens. The story of the Little Red Hen should have had a Dove and a Sparrow and a Caterpillar . . . and the Little Red Hen should have been me (or a spider, because they are the only ones that seem to be on my side!)
So, over to the garden shop I went but all they had was a 24' x 24' piece of bird netting. I took it. Although my little patch of dirt . . . straw is only about 8' x 8', with the stakes sticking up and assuming that I will need some room to get around under there to gather some of that produce that is waiting for me, I draped the bird netting over the garden, Now I am waiting to harvest some birds along with my produce.

A Day In The Life - 05/12/2011: AZ Mills Mall Ride

Since I usually ride at night during the warmer weather it is really hard to get some decent pictures without a tripod and I didn't happen to have one tonight. The hold-your-breath technique wasn't working very well nor was the set-the-camera-on-the-wall strategy. So this was about the best that I could get with the lights on the canal and the tail lights of the cars going over the freeway stack just south of the Broadway curve.

I did finally find a small outcropping along the canal that helped out some as I lay in the dirt along the bank of the canal. I was afraid that some jogger would come by and think that I was dead or deranged or something. But the picture quality was a bit better this time.
Note to self - take the gorilla pod when you go riding.

A Day In The Life - 05/10/2011: Faster Than A Speeding Bullet

 I decided to drop the car off to Gaye at work and ride my bike home. The Tempe canal runs about a half mile from her work along the 101 freeway until it runs into the Western Canal that runs between Guadalupe and Elliot back to home. So I pop on over and catch it at Southern and then rode to Country Club and on home.
As usual, I started my Run Keeper app on my phone to track my distance and speed as well as my route. My eyes nearly popped out when I stopped and checked out my phone when I got home.

As you can see, in about 47 minutes I rode 571.58 miles for an average speed of 450.76 mph. That  must have been a really good tail hurricane! And I only burned 322 calories for all that effort!
I am really glad that I took a picture of this because when I went back to the app later, if had re-done the math and everything was back to normal for a ride of about 7 miles.

A Day In The Life - 05/04/2011: The Bounty Begins

I wouldn't normally consider myself a bounty hunter but when it coomes to gardening, I am all about bounty. These are the first fruits of my straw bale labors. YUM!