November 26 -- A Rainbow Over Faranuf, And A Thanksgiving Dinner

On Wednesday the Weather Channel's online site said Thanksgiving day would be partly cloudy and temps in the 60s -- and they stuck with the story until that evening. So of course it made sense when it started raining at 5am. (WHY do I keep on using them for weather reports?)  The rain provided a nice change as I knew I wouldn't have to scramble around outside the house to check out the sunrise looking east and west as I usually do, and feel obliged to be outside taking advantage of the great weather and remaining fall color. I wish I could catch up on sleep, but that's asking too much. The rain didn't last long, perhaps until 9, then it was sporadic, raining in one spot then dry and "sunshiny" in another. I was reading my Kindle (the Frank Sinatra bio), looking out the back sliding glass door to see if any deer would visit,when some color off to the right caught my eye. Dang if it wasn't a rainbow -- and a very vivid one at that. Though it was sprinkling in spots, and a bit windy, I HAD to get shots for another example of the weird and wonderful weather here --

On the north side of Faranuf (and it's a double rainbow)

Over Faranuf

The rainbow lasted at least an hour. I took shots from different angles and also zoom-ins -- 

A friend asked me if these were "Photoshopped". I told him the only thing I used was my circular polarizer filter attached to the landscape lens, which when you turn it either makes the rainbow invisible, or makes it "pop" . The CP never comes off my lens as it cuts down on the glare, particularly that of the sun. So this is pretty much what I saw, except a little more intense. 

The remnants of the storm were blowing through, so it was pretty windy most of the day. The Coues deer eventually came to visit the water feature. They get spooked if they see me in the  house, moving past the sliding glass door, so I stay out of sight until they've left. Alas, I haven't seen the colorful adult male Broad-billed hummingbird for the last 5 days, even though I put a feeder for him close to the mesquite where he perches. (He used to get chased off by the resident Anna's male, though, so perhaps he gave up and left.)  As Faranuf is all-electric, the energy bills can be a bit high -- last month's was nearly $100. I've done a few energy-saving things like close the doors and shut off the floor vents to rooms I don't use, like the 2 bedrooms, and unplugged the standalone freezer as the one in my refrigerator is big enough for my purposes,  but I obviously need to do more...So for starters I'll be bringing my oscillating floor heater that I use in my trailer, which should be good to heat, say, the kitchen or computer area, and if that isn't enough, then I'll look into other types of floor heaters. (Amazon Prime, anyone?) And my friend Helen suggested drying my clothes on a clothesline instead of using the electric dryer, which is one of the biggest energy guzzlers. I'll probably do that when the weather starts getting predictably warmer, say in March... 

I headed over to my friends' house for Thanksgiving dinner at 5. It was quite a spread -- turkey from a day in the smoker, mashed potatoes, gravy, cranberry sauce, 2 types of stuffing, 2 types of sweet potato, various alcoholic drinks (thank goodness I only have to drive 3 miles at most, and there is of course no traffic here) and key lime pie and brownies (my contribution) for dessert. The friends whose house I went to were owners of a Wild Birds Unlimited store in the San Francisco Bay area and retired to Portal, building their own house. There were two other people invited besides me -- a local artist who has some of her work up at the Chiricahua Gallery in Rodeo, and the gal whose "Carrie" getup, complete with blood (fake of course)  won the Best Costume at the Halloween party. The owner of the house is president of Friends of Cave Creek Canyon and was asking for volunteers to be trained to man the Visitor Information Center, the former ranger station where folks now go to get info on the area, so I signed up for a "class" to learn how to be on the VIC staff beginning next year. With being in charge of the FOCCC bulletin board at the post office, helping out on the website, and hiking, photography, and taking care of Faranuf, that's enough for me, as I'm RETIRED... 

What was I doing a year ago today? I was up doing a day hike in Nevada's Valley of Fire, and came encountered a few of the residents there --