September 1 - Life At Faranuf (Part 1)

This will be the first in an occasional series of musings and a listing of things I do in a typical day here at my house in rural Arizona. First off, I get up early -- REALLY early. I wake up at about 2am every day, no matter how much (or how little) sleep I get during the night. I get a mug of filtered water from my double-door refrigerator, sit down at my MacBook Pro laptop, and do my Facebook "stuff" and this blog. I also make hummingbird nectar (4 parts water to 1 part sugar) -- and as they'v been ravenous lately, I make enough to have a gallon milk jug filled with it,  maybe two.  At around 4am I have my first cup of coffee (I have about 3 total), then about this time it's sunrise (about 5:45am lately) so I look out east to New Mexico and the Peloncillo mountains, then west to Cave Creek Canyon and the Chiricahuas, and if the colors are photo-worthy -- and lately they have been -- I take photos of the views. Here's one from yesterday September 1,  looking east --

after Then I have breakfast, which usually is dry cereal with blueberries, along with orange juice, a banana, a tangelo -- if I've been a good boy, a square -- OK, maybe two -- of Ghirardelli Double Chocolate brownie (to help power me through the day, of course).  Following breakfast, I do something "constructive" to Faranuf; lately I've been re-conditioning and staining the decking on the back and side porches. They probably haven't been treated for eons, and the strong Arizona sun dries and cracks out the redwood eventually. So I use the roller and treat 'em, and early in the morning before the decking gets too hot. Then it's time (9am) to pick up my mail at the tiny Portal post office, which looks like one from "Mayberry RFD" but "postmistress Joan" and her daughter, Debbie, are extremely helpful, friendly and accommodating to "Portalites" (our term for residents of Portal). I've been getting a lot of things from Amazon lately, and along with my laptop and the Internet Amazon, and especially with the Prime membership, has proven to be a Godsend out here in a rural, thinly populated area where the nearest big market (Wal-Mart) is about 55 miles away in Douglas to the south. After that, I might do a bike ride -- I have a Diamondback (appropriate, that, as the prevalent rattlesnake in my area is Western Diamondback) hybrid bike that is good for both dirt and paved roads. Or, as I've been doing lately to rest my left shoulder, watch the birds and critters come into my back yard. I've been especially diligent with the hummingbird feeders as there are reports of Magnificents and Plain-capped Starthroats lately -- and you NEVER know what might come up from Mexico, as the Chiricahuas are the northern point of a land bridge extending down to Mexico's Sierra Madre mountains. I'm keeping a "yard list" of what I see in the back yard, and have my Canon 7D MK II with the 500 f/4 lens plus 1.4x teleconverter, all on a tripod, pointed out back at the sliding glass door for immediate photo-ops (and my Canon 7D MKI and 17-55 f/2.8 IS lens for landscapes and macros). After lunch I might practice my classical guitar (I've been playing on-and-off, mostly off, since I was 10 or so) or take a short nap -- after all, I've been up since 2am. Then it's time to go outside and look at the clouds, which have been spectacular lately; this is from yesterday, September 1 -- 

And here's the same massive cloud formation, a mere 10 minutes later, complete with a rainbow at the bottom of the cloud -- 

Both of these were taken either from Faranuf's front porch or the driveway. Then it's time for the late-afternoon visit of Faranuf's "residents"; here's the Ms Coues Deer, taken yesterday --

She comes in to drink out of the water feature. And another to add to the Faranuf Resident List is this Roadrunner; here he's on top of the well house, on the fan -- 

And on the roof of the well house -- 

I REALLY want to encourage him to be a permanent Faranuf resident as he'd keep the snakes and rodents under control -- but of course it's his call. Then after dinner it's time to post the day's photos, and if it's "thunder-y" as it's been lately, I'll go on the front porch and take photos of the lightning. Coming from coastal Los Angeles, where there's no "weather" to speak of, only clear skies and/or fog, this weather, at least so far, is heaven-sent. By this time, I call it a day, go to bed -- and wake up to another 2am, early morning call...