Arizona, the Grand Canyon State

Jared's mom Judy joined us in Arizona last week. During her 10-day visit, we traveled up to the Grand Canyon. It was a 6(ish) hour drive from our home in Sierra Vista, but well worth the trip! The views were spectacular.

Queen of the Night

Our new backyard neighbor, Tom "Monty" Montgomery, and his wife, Elizabeth, introduced themselves to us one evening this past week. It was a scene straight from the set of Home Improvement, where one can only see half of Wilson's head when he is talking to Tim; that is about all we could see of Tom [side note: Earl Hindman, the person who played Wilson's character, was born and raised in Bisbee, Arizona!]. At any rate, Monty introduced himself and quickly nicknamed us his "quiet nieghbors." I've admired his yard long before we were actually neighbors because he has gorgeous, well-maintained landscaping, complete with waterfalls, subtle lights, and various indigenous cacti and plants. After making his introductions and bfore heading in for the evening, he was very kind to share with us a flower from one of his Night-Blooming Cereus plants. The Queen of the Night only opens during ONE midsummer's night every year.

The first picture is from around 9:15 P.M.

The second picture is from 9:00 A.M. the following morning, never to open again!

Peach Cobbler

This past month, the peaches were at their prime--and so were their enemies' tactics. I caught one of the little buggers in action:

The below fruit was damaged as a result of finches pecking at the skin:


As for the peaches that made it into the house unscathed, I used THIS RECIPE to make a delicious cobbler.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

VOILA!:

Tarantula

Jared was in the church parking lot this past Friday when he stumbled across this tarantula. Apparently rainy weather drives the tarantulae out of their burrows.

"Monsoon" Clouds

It tickles me when people use the term "monsoon" season to describe the weather in Sierra Vista from June until September. Are you kidding me? The rain is so predictable--at approximately 6:00 every evening, it will rain for up to an hour, and then, as expected, it will stop.


Personally, I will stick with the term "rainy" season until I see reason to call it otherwise. Unless you have lived on a little island in the middle of the Pacific or on the coast line of the Atlantic or Indian Ocean (or any ocean for that matter), and have lived through a real monsoon season (hurricanes and/or typhoons included), I don't think you should be using that word lightly!


Below are some pictures from our neighborhood right before a rainstorm. The middle picture shows a rain cloud running vertically in the center of the photograph.

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

is a hummingbird!

One of our daily visitors zipped into the photo as I was snapping it this afternoon.

Desert Flowers

Until I moved to Arizona, I had no idea that a desert could have so many blooming beauties!

I don't have a photo...

But I saw the neatest thing yesterday. I had been procrastinating getting blood work/labs done, but I finally decided to go in to the clinic yesterday. Due to the procedure, I was "fasting", and although waiting patiently, a little cranky because I was hungry. Just ask Jared. He knows all about making sure to buy me a snack if I am cranky. Around 8:30, I checked in to the clinic, but I wasn't finished (partly due to the fact that I had to pee in a cup, too), until 9:45. Since I started working full-time permanently (my interim clearance was finally pushed through with a waiver from the SJA) I knew I needed to pick up some breakfast on the way back to the office, in order to protect my office mates from my wrath. The single fast-food joint with a drive-thru window (on post) is Burger King, and since that was pretty much my only option, I stopped. I ended up ordering a #8 for breakfast--the Whopper meal. Apparently no one else was ordering burgers that early (why would they?), so they made me pull up out of the drive-thru lane and wait while my burger and french fries were made (I didn't mind waiting--at least I knew they were fresh!). I parked next to a bunch of little jasmine bushes and noticed that they had lots of funnel-shaped spider webs at the bottom of them. All of a sudden, a Rufous or immature Ruby-throated hummingbird appeared, and started eating the bugs stuck on the webs. I am sure it got a few spiders, too! The bird was really quick, and tearing the spiderwebs apart when it would go back for more bugs. Pretty neat! A lot of people mistakenly think that hummingbirds only drink nectar, but in reality, the nectar is more equivalent to "red bull" for the mini birds. Nectar provides them with hydration and energy, for sure, but realistically, the birds eat quite a few insects, providing them with the majority of the protein they consume.

Budweiser Clydesdales

The weather was beautiful this weekend. We decided to go to the local Festival of the Southwest, with attractions including carnival rides, music and vendors.

Additionally, the infamous Budweiser Clydesdale horses made an appearance at the festival on both Saturday and Sunday.

There are 10 Budweiser Clydesdales, and 8 of them pull the iconic wagon; 2 are used as alternates. The two strongest horses are harnessed last--up front. They must be strong enough to start pulling the wagon, and strong enough to stop it without any aid from the other horses.

Here is a shot of Barney and his beautifully braided hair; the handlers braid all the horses hair with red and white ribbons before they are harnessed to the wagon.

Their harnessing equipment is kept in one big Budweiser semi-truck, separate from the animals.

The below picture is of Regel, who is over 6 feet tall!

The long white hairs on a Clydesdale (from the knees down) is called feathering. Look how large his horseshoe is!

Once they were all hooked up, they took a stroll around town...

Garden Update

Peaches

Apples

Apricots

BeepBeep

For those of you who have never seen a REAL roadrunner before (Wile E. Coyote cartoons don't count), here is a picture of one Jared and I spotted on-post. it has been my experience that they are quick little creatures, so I was excited to have the camera on hand and an opportunity to snap a shot.

A few minutes laters, it rustled its feathers. Although we didn't see any predators, we figure he got scared or sensed something we could not.

Red-Tailed Hawk

Jared and I were returning from a local church ward's Provident Living fair when this big guy swooped down in front of us.

Empty-beaked, he flew back up to a telephone pole to perch. Yes, he is as thick as a telephone pole. And he knew I was taking a picture of him and looked straight into the camera...

I looked out the window and what did I see?

Popcorn blossoms on the Apricot Tree!

We are excited about the fruit to follow. Jared tells stories of the awesome apricot pies he made in Argentina while he was serving on his mission. Apparently there was an apricot tree outside of his apartment window in Bahia Blanca. Can't wait to see him use his "mad" baking skills.

Cool Cacti

Just a few shots from the past several weeks:

Looks like "Geoffrey" from Toys R' Us!

The Arizona State Bird

Another Cactus Wren

See the bird in her little house?

A male wood pecker making a NEW home!

Didn't Expect This

Last Monday afternoon, emails were furiously being launched all over the Army base regarding "Winter Storm Warning" protocol due to an impendig snowstorm predicted to hit during the early morning hours of Tuesday morning. We rolled our eyes about the mass volumes of emails and went about our day secretly wishing we lived somewhere cold (not the desert) so we could reap the benefits of a snow day. Falling asleep with the wind howling outside our windows, at 5:00 a.m., we woke up to silence:

P.S. Believe it or not, we had a two-hour delay to work--Fort Huachuca is at the bottom of the Huachuca mountains, which had more snow than us city folk. Yippee!