Watching the weather here, and the forecasts, is important. Since Hurricane Odile in 2014, we really need as much of a "heads-up" as we can get so we can prepare. One of the concerns I had when looking for a house was whether it was in the flood plain of Cave Creek; during Odile, my neighbor down the Foothills Road on the other side of Cave Creek was marooned for about a week since he couldn't cross the raging torrent that had come roaring down the mountain. (About a month ago he came over and asked if he could leave one of his vehicles in my front yard when the forecast was for a big storm so he'd have a way to get out.) So if the house is in the flood plain, well....Faranuf fortunately isn't. And the house is sitting on a concrete foundation, rising about 3 feet off the ground, and the 3 outside decks are on concrete "feet" so they're above ground, too. Once again, the original owners of Faranuf thought of everything...So, to go back again, we watch the weather. We use apps on our Smart Phones or iPhones, and/or on our computers and laptops. I use weather.com on my MacBook Pro laptop for a general overview, then Weather Underground for real-time weather maps that show the storm track and its intensity, and the app Radar Now! on my iPad Mini, which has radar stations depending on your location, that also tracks weather in real time. I use Radar Now! when I'm on the road. When I'm at Faranuf, and, say, have to go to Tucson for a "supply run", I usually go up Foothills Road to the I-10 as it cuts off about 40 miles from the paved route, -- but it's paved for the first mile, then dirt for about 20, then paved again for about 5 miles before it reaches the interstate. There are low washes along Foothills, which if you don't plan things in advance can lead you to get stuck -- or worse. So as you can see, we here on the east side of the Chiricahuas need to know about the weather...
Speaking of which, the weather and its accompanying visual effects can be quite spectacular, as you've noticed from past postings. Today was no exception. After the Golden Glow sunrise, the clouds moved in, did much of nothing, then the sun broke through and created a partial rainbow. But it was located in a very unusual spot, at least from my vantage point in Faranuf's back yard --
A friend here said this hill is called Limestone Hill, and has rock striations on it, which you can barely make out in this photo. The partial rainbow not only goes right along the ridgeline, but is somewhat parallel to the limestone layers. And my friend called it "a launch of color" as it does indeed look like nature's version of a rocket launcher, with the rainbow being launched by the rocker launcher of the hill. Another amazing meteorological sight here...
Postmistress Joan called me, saying I had some big packages from Amazon. So despite preferring to stay inside because of my cold -- and by this time it was sunny, though windy and cool -- I went up to the post office to pick them up (the PO is only 2 miles away at most from Faranuf ). Once there I chatted with her and her husband Chuck, who was there also, asking them how they liked the brownies I'd dropped off the day before. (A little "bribery" keeps the wheel greased, and besides, I just like doing it.) Joan said she's getting to understand the "intricacies" of Facebook, where I'd put her and Chuck as the "banner" photo on my page, along with hers' and Chucks', and also on the Friends of Cave Creek Canyon page. So they were getting quite a few responses from friends -- and their grandkids, who appreciated that Joan and Chuck were "becoming famous" on Facebook. Then I went next door to the Myrtle Kraft Library and dropped some brownies off for Kathleen, the librarian there; we have a special friendship as she's originally from Bishop in the Owens Valley, and I've been going to the Owens Valley for years, hiking and backpacking in the eastern Sierra. The big Amazon packages were a 22-pound bag of bird seed, and a new seed tray and platform. I've been wanting to get rid of the present seed tray for weeks now; they're made of wood, and falling apart. And the deer are getting into them and eating the bird seed -- which can cost a lot of money, besides making me run out of bird seed faster. I've actually seen -- and taken photographs of -- Coues deer getting on their hind legs and using their front legs to get into the trays. With the new tray and stand, hopefully that won't happen -- mainly because the stand is 60 inches high, much higher than the present ones, and they'd have a harder time getting to the seed in the trays. And the location of the ones now is close to the unmaintained part of my property next to the old water feature, so they're protected from coming closer to the house. So I'm moving the new trays closer to the house. So for all those reasons I bought the new trays. I'm keeping my fingers crossed...
Arizona Highways, the premier magazine here in Arizona, has a Facebook page. Every week on Wednesday they have a photo "theme" in which you post your photo of the theme to their "wall" and they select 55 photos for display on their page for the next week. It's called Friday Fotos, and I've submitted some of my photos these past few weeks -- and "won". They've all been of the Chiricahuas, which is barely represented by the selections; in fact, despite the scenic wonders here in Cave Creek Canyon and the Chiricahuas in general, there isn't much mention of them in any online or paper magazines. So I'm doing my small part to increase public awareness of the Chiricahuas by posting landscape photos of the area as much as I can. FB's Arizona Highways page is a good example. Here are the two photos I sent in for this week, whose theme is "Your Favorite Places In Arizona" --
False Portal Peak and Portal Peak (wreathed in
clouds on the left), Cave Creek Canyon
Silver Peak, Cave Creek Canyon
I think these are good representations of some of the beauty to be found here...
I think I'll close each post for awhile with photos from what I was doing, or where I was, a year ago today. On November 4, 2014 I was in Overton, Nevada; I'd just arrived the day before, and decided to give Discovery I a long-overdue washing --
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