December 3 - A "Bird Feeder" Visitor, and I Buy A Canopy for Discovery II

My friend Helen saw the "bird feeder" photos and gave the phrase a new meaning. "He's" a real Bird Feeder, and could have created a "Nature Red In Tooth And Claw" scenario in my back yard. While eating breakfast on what must be the tiniest dining table in Arizona (it seats 4, though I have only 2 chairs level with the table; the others are lower, and make you feel like a little kid sitting at the grownups table -- or a "little person") I saw some movement in the back yard out of the corner of my eye. I looked out the back sliding glass door -- and saw 2 Cooper's hawks that had just made a low-level run across my feeder area. They then got into a tussle, one flew off, and the other one went to a mesquite branch where he could overlook the bird feeder area. Needless to say, all the birds had fled for cover and weren't about to make an appearance. I slowly picked up my 500mm lens, slowly opened the sliding door, and got some quick pics before he took off --

That really is the color; it was early morning. Here's closeup, taken at ISO 160; I usually shoot in steps of 100 --- ISO 100, 200 and so forth -- but the 7D MKII was doing weird things, so I kept it at that -- 

My travel trailer "Discovery II" -- I'd traded in Discovery 1, which I'd bought in late November 2010,  at the Mesquite, Nevada Lance dealer this January for a new, upgraded model with options that weren't available back when I bought the first one -- is still at the RV park in Overton, Nevada. When I bring "her" (and Tundra II is a "he") down to Faranuf, I needed a canopy to protect her from the harsh Arizona sun and weather. There were 2 companies I was considering going with, but the first only did "kits" that would have to be installed by someone I would hire as I couldn't do it myself no matter how simple they said the construction is. (Come on, I'm still at the Say's Phoebe nest box stage.) And the maximum height was only 9 feet, and couldn't be customized. Discovery II is 10 feet high, not including the air conditioning unit and TV aerial. So I went with a company whose local dealer happens to be a friend of mine. I'd checked out one of the canopies the other day (see the earlier blog post) that was built to house an RV, and the fellow told me some things about the design -- and the bureaucratic hoops he had to go through. But he dealt with New Mexico; in Arizona, the process is alleged to be easier. So yesterday I got the dimensions of Discovery II from the Lance travel trailer website, went through the canopy company's brochure, and picked out features of the canopy that I wanted, including the color of pewter gray to match Faranuf (and later a blue for the trim), and went over to my friend's house to crunch numbers. Earlier in the day I'd called the Cochise County building permit folks to see what the procedure is to get a permit. I'd been told it's relatively simple, but may take awhile to get. And in talking with the gal at the office, she said they needed a diagram of the canopy before they'd issue the  permit. Makes sense...So I called the company, but she said she couldn't send the diagram to me until I'd ordered it. Makes sense too. But there was one catch, naturally. Faranuf's previous owner had left the original building permit for the house, which included a VERY detailed plan of the 4 acres, including the distance in feet from, say, the house to the well house, actual distance to the posts marking off my acreage, basically everything I'd need to get my own building permit -- and more. It really helped that he was extremely meticulous in everything that had to do with Faranuf, and left all the paperwork for me to use. But he had added the York heat pump after the original building permit was issued. I thought that would be a concern, but the woman at the building permit office said all I needed to do was mention that the heat pump had been installed by the previous owner, and that should take care of it. BUT -- there had to be underground electrical lines connecting it to something like, say, the utility box outside, or the power pole and I'd need to find out exactly where those were, otherwise the installers could, er, "encounter" them and that would create a disaster. As it turns out, my dealer friend said there is a company that comes out and, detects anything underground, and draws their passage on the ground so the installers will know what areas to avoid. WHEW!  So the next step is to go to Bisbee and get the building permit once canopy diagram from the company is sent to me, hopefully by e-mail. So my friend and I shook hands after signing all the paperwork was over, and I invited him and his wife to Faranuf for dinner next week. And I should have a canopy for Discovery II within 8 to 12 weeks...

Sorry, there aren't many photos from today as it took most of the day to order Discovery's canopy. But here is a photo showing the way east to Animas, and the closest gas to Portal. It's in high desert and bare mountains, but I never get tired of making the drive -- 

"Animas, 14 miles". But 25 miles from Faranuf...