Spring Trip Part 3

Day 25 Thursday May 7
Worked on the catiary for a while. Got hot fast. Close to 90 again today. Whew.

Day 26 Friday May 8
Catiary all ready for the metal roof. Finally.. Hope it is not windy tomorrow. Paul came over for brats with sauerkraut and beer. Yumm. Found out the gopher snake at least spend part of its time under Helen's house. Helen thinks it is great. Cuts down on the vermin for sure.

Day 27 Saturday May 9
Got about half the metal roofing on. Then got hot and windy so I quit. Helen and I went for a swim in her pool. Ahhhh.Zipper flying.

Day 28 Sunday May 10 Happy Mothers Day
Ran out of screws for roofing. Being a Mormon town the hardware store was closed. We went swimming in the pool. At 830 pm watched Skylab go over the house. Really neat. Took four minutes from horizon to horizon.

Day 29 Monday May 11
Went to town to get screws. They did not have any. Rats. Had to go to Springerville to get some so we went to Safeway to do some grocery shopping too. Goofed off the rest of the day. Although a neighbor had a solar hot water pumping system I got and tried to make it work to heat Helen's pool. No luck making it pump water. Will try again tomorrow after I finish the catiary. Saw Skylab go over again.

Day 30 Tuesday May12
Finished the catiary roof. Yeah. Looks good too. Went over to Paul's and had a few beers.Catiary roof without gutters and touch up painting.

Dy 31 Wednesday May 13
Took a day off. Drove south on hwy 191 to about 15 miles south of Apline. Took forest service road 26. After turning onto FS 24 we saw a coyote. A nice big one. A few miles further Helen saw an elk running away. I did not, rats. At Buffalo Crossing on the Black River we ate lunch. Then took FS 25. We saw 5 mountain sheep who were kind enough to let us take their picture. They seemed to be at a natural salt lick or something like that. Stopped to take a side road to Reno fire outlook. Nice views of the mountains. Back on hwy 191 we saw another coyote. Saw lots of birds, mostly flickers, and no mountain blue birds. It was a nice trip. No cars on the forest service roads. Wild iris.
Saw some campers and parked forest service trucks. Temperature in the mountanins was mostly in the low seventies. A fun day.

Day 32 Thursday May 14
Put up the gutters on the catiary. Went to the neighbors to get a pump so I can make a solar pool heater for Helen. Cut down the rest of the limbs off the dead tree getting ready to put up weather station. Recieved the new solar panel controller from the company I bought it from and got it installed. Also, put in new lavatory faucet in the trailer which leaked when turned on.

Day 33 Friday May 15
Got Helen's weather station put up on the dead tree. It works great. Fun thing to have especially when the wind is blowing. I built a stand for one of the pumps to make a swimming pool heater. I now need to get some fittings and black pipe. I called my friend Lenny's friends in Payson and made arrangements to meet with them on Sunday. We will go together to get some brainstones nearby. Made a nice spicy chicken salad for dinner. Yummmm.

Day 34 Saturday May 16
Went out to my property early in the morning to do some road maintenance work. The road is holding up pretty well. Got hot today, above 90. Too hot.

Day 35 Sunday May 17
Helen and I headed off to Payson at about 7:30 stopping in Show Low for a Burger King ham omlett sandwich for a snack and getting gas. We had a nice time with Lenny's friends Joann and Jack. We went into the hills and got some Payson brainstones. Had a picnic lunch in the mountains. These cute little white flowers were about an eighth inch across.

We then headed home taking the dirt back road to hwy 260 which goes to Show Low. We stopped there to get some groceries. Fun day. Helen's thermoter registered a high of 98 at the house. Whew.

Day 36 Monday May 18
Helped Helen with a few jobs around the house. Mostly relaxed. Went for a swim before the thunderstorms arrived.

Day 37 Tuesday May 19
Went to my property and worked on the road. Should be in good enough shape for a while. After lunch, played around with my rock stuff. Then Helen and I sat outside and watched the weather and read.

Day 38 Wednesday May 20
Helen and I went to Springerville to take back some things we did not need on the catiary. Also bought some pipe and fittings to finish making the solar pool heater. Finished putting the solar pool heater together. Now it is cloudy and sprinkles for the next few days. Hopefully I will be able to see how well it works before I leave.

Day 39 Thursday May 21
Went to my property and worked on the road again. I am making a bypass around an area that was difficult to keep up. After lunch took a bunch of pictures of Zipper the dog chasing a ball that Helen was throwing.

Day 40 Friday May 22
Cool and rainy this morning. According to Helen's rain gauge we got 0.3 inches of rain. One thunderstorm too. Started packing up some stuff for leaving here on Sunday morning.

Spring Trip Part 2

Day 13 Saturday April 25
Worked on the catiary for part of the day. Put the new facia boards up on the house. Helen painted all the new wood. Got really windy, storm warnings for this afternoon.

Day 14 Sunday April 26
Helen painted some more stuff while I got the pier blocks lined up and some other things done. We decided to go for a drive into the mountains. We made the loop from Springerville to Big Lake and back. Saw two deer which drove Zipper wild and a turkey, but no elk. Zipper had a great time barking at the fishermen at the lake until Helen convinced him it was ok.

Day 15 Monday April 27
I went to my property to play around. Got some juniper wood to make some stands for my blinking and LED light rock project. Back at Helen's I cut the juniper limbs into useable lenghts. Did a little works on the rock polisher.

Day 16 Tuesday April 28
Helen and I did a few small projects around the house in the morning. Played one game of Joker which I was lucky enough to win. After lunch took Zipper the dog to the vet in Holbrook for his rabies shot.

Day 17 Wednesday April 29
We cut the 2x6 rafters down to 2x4s. This turned out to be not as bad as we thought it would be. We had to buy 8 2x4's since the 2x6's were too badly damaaged to use. Helen did lots more painting. I got a lot of the frame up for the catiary. Busy day. Helen won at Joker.

Day 18 Thursday April 30
Spent a good part of the day working on the catiary. Should be done tomorrow except for the roofing. I won at Joker. Nice day, not a lot of wind and temp topping out at 80. I got my slab saw running with the new blade. The mineral oil seems to be evaporating here.

Day 19 Friday May 1
Worked some on the catiary. Did some shopping. Played around with my rocks. Good day.

Day 20 Saturday May 2
Very windy, that is, very windy all day. No way to safely work outside. Helen and I did a few inside jobs today. Went out to lunch. Watched the Kentucky Derby. I am glad a longshot won.

Day 21 Sunday May 3
Worked a little on the catiary. Went over to neighbor Paul's for a few beers. Temps still in the 70's.

Day 22 Monday May 4
Just about got the catiary ready for the metal roofing. Main thing left is to make the concrete piers much more sturdy.

Day 23 Tuesday May 5 Cinco de Mayo
Built two new piers for the catiary and prepared forms for two more. Need to get piers done before adding roofing. This should now withstand over 100 mph winds. Aspen and Zipper cornered a big gopher snake which we estimated to be about 5 feet. This one was not agressive so Zipper did not feel the need to kill it. Helen likes the snakes around the house.

Day 24 Wednesday May 6
Helen and I decided to take a day off and go to the Boyce Thompson Arboretum which is just south of Superior on US 60. We left about 5:30 since it was suppose to get hot today. Saw several groups of antelope just outside of St. Johns. We enjoyed our about 3 hour walk among the cacti and trees and flowers. A lot of the cacti were blooming as well as other plants. It was about 90 degrees when we left. I saw several rocks with copper ores which reminded me that at Superior they are planning a huge underground copper mine said to be a very big reserve. We had a fun day.