ArizonaRanch

  August Play at the Ranch by admin on Aug.10, 2005, under Seasons Playing August 6th, 2005. Aftenoon. Alex playing “Bear” with Papa. Papa is a bear, and Alex is the trapper…   Alex playing under the ramada Setting the Trap August 6th, 2005. Afternoon Alex makes a snare for the Bear.   Alex setting a snare Snares August 6th, 2005. Afternoon. Hunter gets in on the action as he sets his own trap…   Hunter setting a trap Back at Camp August 6th, 2005. Morning. Sometimes the sun gets in your eyes…   Hunter playing at the ranch End of a Long Day August 6th, 2005. Evening. Sometimes the sun gets in your eyes, in a good way…   The boys at sunset

  August Hiking at the Ranch by admin on Aug.10, 2005, under Seasons Hiking August 6th, 2005. Morning. We went for a hike over South Mountain and back to the windmill, ending up back at camp via the road. Here is Alex and Tara at the start.   Alex on the hike Hike August 6th, 2005. Morning Hunter takes a rest about halfway through.   Hunter on the hike Rattlesnake August 6th, 2005. Morning. Tara found this little guy in our meadow. He was small, and didn’t have any rattles yet. He looked like a cowpie from eye level, so she luckily avoided stepping on him.   Small baby rattlesnake sunbathing Taking a Rest August 6th, 2005. Morning. The boys stop for a breather…   Taking a breather

  Another August at the Ranch by admin on Aug.10, 2005, under Seasons Arrival August 5th, 2005. Afternoon. We arrived at about 4:00 on a Friday afternoon for this trip. It looks like a thunderstorm had just passed through within a hour or so.   Muddy Markham Pass Creek August 5th, 2005. Afternoon. The creek was flowing pretty good along the road, which turned out to be a real mud bog. I didn’t get any good pictures of the road, because I had to use both hands to maintain control.   Markham Creek GirlyJeep August 5th, 2005. Afternoon. The GirlyJeep got pretty dirty on the way into camp. We bottomed out in several places, and mostly stayed in the ruts, which were about a foot deep in most places.   GirlyJeep Campfire August 5th, 2005. Evening. It was so wet out that we decided it was safe to build a campfire on this trip. This was the boy’s first trip to the ranch, and we roasted marshmallow with them.   Campfire

  LittleHouse – Finishing the Piers by admin on Jul.30, 2005, under Foundation Finished Piers 29 July 2005. After a series of road trips (vacations, business trips) we returned to the ranch at the end of July to finish up the piers. The pier process has been pretty well documented, so we won’t add too many pictures here. He is how we cut the pier forms to length after setting them in the soil. We used a small jig saw and ran it off of a 300 watt inverter we have in the tent trailer. This worked really well, and didn’t run down the battery too bad. We now have all 24 piers complete (12 for the house and 12 for the porch). We will be happy to work with something other than dirt and cement for awhile!   Finishing the Piers

  Memorial Day – May 2005 by admin on May.30, 2005, under Seasons Memorial Day ’05 May 28th, 2005. Early Afternoon. After all of the rain this past winter, we could hardly find our lane because of all the weeds.   Lane in May 2005 Green Meadow May 28th, 2005. Early Afternoon. The meadow brightened up some, too.   Meadow in May 2005 Meadow from other Way May 28th, 2005. Early Afternoon. Looking back the other direction, the top of the meadow has overgrown with weeds, too.   Meadow full of weeds Jeep at Camp May 28th, 2005. Early Afternoon. Here is our new little girly-jeep parked at camp.   Camp in May 2005 Front View of Jeep May 28th, 2005. Early Afternoon. We were going to get the silver one, because we knew it would hide the dirt of the ranch better. But the red one was too pretty!   Jeep at Camp May 2005 Flowers May 28th, 2005. Early Afternoon. There were b-jillions of flowers on this trip.   Daisy

  April at the Ranch by admin on Apr.30, 2005, under Seasons April Cold nights and Variable Days With an average low of around 30 degrees and an average high around 70 degrees, April is still a little nippy at night… Carpet of Green April, 2005 We have received over 30 inches of rain in the last year, and 25 inches of snow. The meadow is showing the payoff in the carpet of green grass growing.   Green Meadow Good Grazing April, 2005. The cattle have been keeping the vegetation mowed pretty well. We don’t expect the green to last more than another month, but it is nice to have it right now.   More green meadow Nearby Pond April, 2005. Someone put a pond in a little ways south of us. We hiked over to have a look. It looks like it was pretty full, but has probably soaked in, as the soil isn’t very dense there.   Pond over on State Land Black Mountain April, 2005. Another rainstorm moving in.   Black Mountain Rainstorm Little Yellow Fl...

  LittleHouse – Pouring the Piers by admin on Mar.17, 2005, under Foundation Laser Level 13 March 2005. Next, we set up the Craftsman rotary laser level that Randy got for Christmas. It is supposed to be accurate within a quarter inch at 100 feet. The level has a laser on a rotating head, a couple of bubble levels and a mount for a tripod. After setting it up on the tripod, we adjusted it to as near to level as we could get it. Then we used the fine adjustments on the level itself to finish setting it. The laser can rotate on its own, or you can manually rotate it. We found that manually rotating it worked best in the daylight, as the spot was much brighter than the line produced when the motor spins the head.   Laser Level Setting the Height 03/13/2005 We used a piece of duct tape on the rebars sticking up from the footings to better see the laser. We marked each rebar 3.5 inches below the final level of the piers. That way they will not interfere...