Faranuf From The Madding Crowd: Adventures Living In The Chiricahua Mtns And On The Road: November 27 -- A Day Not Of Nothing, But Something

It's like the scenery around here, and especially in the San Simon Valley. I've mentioned before that people -- particularly the ones that come from the city -- say it's "empty", "nothing here" -- negative terms. And I tell them au contraire, there's a lot of "something" here, you just have to be able to SEE. Well, if I were to say my day consisted of nursing the remnants of my cold, drinking tea with honey, sitting in the rocker watching the birds in the back yard while reading the Sinatra biography, some would say I did nothing today. But even observing and reading is SOMEthing. And even if the sunrise to the east had no colors here, it was still something -- though the view to the west at the same time was more of something --

Silver Peak, with the rising sun creating shadows and light.

I've actually seen a lot of birds here since moving in to Faranuf. I'm keeping a yard list, and while I haven't had anything spectacular like my friends Mark and Lori up the street, the variety hasn't been bad. And my friend Helen said she saw a Sandhill Crane fly over Faranuf -- and that it too can be considered a yard bird as it was over my property, and I could have seen it if I had been outside. (OK, maybe that's pushing things a bit, but Helen's the expert, so who am I to doubt her?) And yesterday I saw a female Northern Harrier flying low across Foothills Road -- another yard bird. But here are some of the ones I actually saw in my back yard --

Female (or juvenile) Rufous Hummingbird

Lincoln's Sparrow

Cooper's Hawk

Roadrunner

Black-headed Grosbeak

In the afternoon, I went to the post office to pick up a catalog of canopies for Discovery II, my travel trailer that I'll be bringing down from Overton, Nevada early next year. I want to keep Discovery on my property, and there's plenty of space on the north side of Faranuf to do it. The thing is, where do I find a place that will not only supply me with the canopy, but will install it, too? Such a company is hard to find in the city, much less a rural area like here. As it turns out, the owner of the Rodeo Tavern, 10 miles to the east of me in Rodeo, New Mexico, is a dealer for "Desert Steel Buildings, LLC" which builds and installs carports, garages, barns -- you name it. There are a couple of examples of canopies in Rodeo that I can check out. It's all steel, including the roof, and you can close up the sides, too, for more protection. There are standard ground anchors cemented to meet 90mph wind loads -- it's a requirement here in Arizona. It may cost a bit, but as I won't be replacing my roof -- I was thinking of getting a metal one -- or buying solar panels, I can afford to get a good quality canopy for Discovery. There are a few things I have to check out, though, like whether I have a building permit for my property...

I started on the Say's Phoebe nest box. I Googled it online, and found instructions for constructing one. I bought the wood board for it, and now all I have to do is size the pieces, then saw them. I cut the bottom part already, and should have it up by next week. After disappearing for about a month, the Say's Phoebe is back, and when I first saw "him" he was with another one, so perhaps I can encourage them to nest here. I just have to find a place to put the completed nest box; usually it's under the eaves of the house.

The sunset was spectacular. It started out as golden --