The Monsoons Are So Interesting

When you hear a loud clap of thunder, look out the window and see sunshine it's hard to figure out. So I always grab my camera and head to the patio because that is where I am going to find my answer. This time of year it's "The Monsoons". That is one reason I want to get my bike riding in during the early morning because any time after noon, all bets are off when it comes to weather right now. Those are the Mule Mountains that Al on The Bayfield Bunch mentions sometimes in his winter travels to the SW.

Starting with that top photo the top three photos were taken in order from left to right. All withing one minute. Luckily Stella was sleeping all through the noise outside as was Heidi but she isn't afraid of any kind of storms.

The small mountain to the left of center sits across the border in Mexico.  You can see how the sudden rain splits the skies into two different worlds.

This morning at 5:55am Stella and I witnessed some fantastic skies taken after we got back from her daily walk. I always take these photos from my patio and from left to right. There is never a morning where I am not amazed at what I am looking at. I remember seeing some early morning sunrises across the field in back of the house in Indiana but even at that time of day the air could be really heavy with thick humidity, not here.

This time of year, it is going to be clear weather in the mornings and then things get interesting from 12:30pm on and never at the same time. I haven't got caught in the heavy rain grocery shopping yet but I have come close, where there was hard rain less than a mile from the store as I drove home.

You really can't go on the percentage for chance of rain either. I looked at WeatherBug and Wunderground weather this morning before I went bike riding and both said I had a 10-15% chance of rain up to 12 noon. Yet it didn't surprise me that it was lightly raining on me 45 minutes into my bike ride. It only rained for a short time toward the mountains where I was heading but I could tell by the rain puddles coming home it had rained hard near town.

With weather like this, I canceled any plans for a short trip. I really didn't want to look at Tombstone in the rain and didn't want to leave Stella at home if there was going to be on and off thunder. Heidi cannot control Stella's pacing and whining when it thunders. I can usually get her calmed down enough that she will lay down and go to sleep.

With two days off I was planning a big ride today on my road bike. I knew exactly where I was going and what I was going to do. I rode 30 miles and climbed over a 1,000 ft in elevation on long gradual climbs, then spent the last part of the ride on fairly flat bike path and streets to get the pulse rate a little lower or what some call a "warm down."

I don't know what, if anything comes into our yard at night, but if you watched Stella this morning giving the yard a close inspection you would have thought we had a zoo of animals pass through last night and then escape the fence by the time she woke up.

I would pay a large sum of money to know what really goes through her mind and know her thought process.

Like I have said before, I like my barren plain rock yard. It's much easier to see the scorpions, rattle snakes and tarantulas WHEN they show up. So far I've only seen the one dead tarantula yesterday afternoon. My friend did post on Facebook last night a picture of a rattlesnake he saw at ... ???? The Ramsey Canyon Ranch House last night ... we were there that morning taking photos.

My couch has been tested and passed with flying colors as a couch that siestas can be taken, they might last longer than an hour. Here I was, wondering what to do with all the pillows that came with the couch. (j/k)

I saw where the NFL started their pre-season games last night but I did not watch one of them. I wasn't interested. Instead I grabbed a tall glass of ice cold water, sat in that ugly blue chair on the patio and took in the sky show. Rain was on the way later in the night so it was nice to hear all of the animal activity off in the distance.

Last month I had a wisdom tooth break below the gum line leaving about 1/4 of the tooth. I had it extracted along with some bone, based on what the invoice said. It was painless and I had no issues the following week. Something happened the next day though that I had never experienced in my life as far as dentists go. Dr Edwards called me to see how I was doing and reminding what could happen in the next six days. I must admit the call surprised me and confirmed to me ... I had been given the right dentist office, recommended by a blog reader and the owner of the bike shop I visit.

So today as I was about to dose off on that new couch, soon after lunch, when the phone rings. It's Dr. Edwards again calling to see how I am doing with the work he did yesterday and reminding of things I might feel, maybe not. He also reiterated his plan for when I go back on the 27th of August. Not surprised he called but with minor dental work I didn't expect the call.

Where as my dentist back in Bloomington that I blog about here in August 2015 was entirely different as well as his office. His focus was money money money. Not a lot of explaining, just get done as fast as possible ... patients in and out as fast as possible ... more bang for the buck. I had a permanent crown put on the same day he did a root canal. No ... he never called to see how I was doing. I paid in cash in full and owed him nothing so he was happy I guess.

Every day around 4:30pm local time or 7:30pm Eastern time (Heidi's still on Eastern Time), she will walk into the kitchen right to the door where the small bone treats are. It's that door on the left in the corner. Of course that wakes up Stella and just the sound of possible food of any kind has her drooling ... they both get one bone treat and are soon back to sleep ... but Heidi leads the attack on that one. IF that treat is not given out fast enough she will bark nonstop.

She was skin and bones a few years ago and now may be a pound or two overweight. No bare skin on her legs, feet or ankles.

She looked like this in October 2016 if you remember. Four different vets, grain free food, allergy shots and pills, blood tests ... Each vet attempting something the other had not ... and no one had an answer. Was it food or environmental allergies???

Then I went back to basic ingredients dog food with chicken meal with brown rice, Wholesome Sportmix. It is made by the same company that makes the grain free food called Earthborn. Within a month I started to see changes to Heidi's legs and Stella's coat and weight gain. She was also having weight loss problems that blood work was showing normal readings.

I am still using the Wholesome Sportmix w/grains.

I have caught myself being so amazed by the constant changes in sky in back that I cannot stop taking photos of it when I am at home. I was reminded the other day by a long time local, that this month and September are the two worst months of the year. If that is what this is, I'll take it.

I am going to take a little drive south of me tomorrow for lunch. I hope they let me take photos inside otherwise it will just be one or two taken outside before I walk in to eat. It has good reviews on Yelp, as if that makes any difference and is nearby. I keep forgetting how much business is south of me, a direction I rarely drive.

The hounds are sleeping before the Reds game that starts at 4:10pm Pacific Time. That's their normal procedure. Someone asked me if I still played Mahjong and if I ever got bored. She seemed to think I sounded bored for years when she read my blog. She may have been right.

Yes, I still play Mahjong, just not as much.

The Monsoons are playing right now in the Wild West.

Ramsey Vista Campground Trip

I am writing this post a little late tonight. I had some dental work done 8am this morning that put me under the weather a little. Luckily my cleaning appointment should not be as painful as today. Last month a friend/blog reader wanted me to check out a campground called Ramsey Vista Campground but I found out it was not on my bike road named Ramsey Canyon Road but at the very top of Carr Canyon Road. The hounds did not know what they were getting me into. Some of the best photos were not taken because I was too scared to stop the 4Runnder and start again ... two hands on the steering wheel at all times.  LOL

Since we had made a similar trip up and over Montezuma Pass a day earlier I wasn't too concerned with roads like this but I did know we were going to the very top of the mountain so things could get interesting. Would we meet anyone driving down the mountain as we were driving up? Not really a lot of room for oncoming traffic, if you know what I mean.

As you can see we are slowly gaining elevation. It's level where I could stop and take a picture over the side of the road. It was a beautiful day to go on an excursion but my neighbor had warned me previously that I needed to get down off the mountains this time of year by noon to miss the thunderstorms. On a day like that ???

We saw many trailhead signs and campground signs on the way up ... or I did because Heidi and Stella were sound to sleep in the back of the 4Runner. They didn't see any of this.

We did a lot of climbing to get to this point and a couple of switchback were just amazing and I was thrilled I had 4-wheel drive. We didn't meet any trucks or cars coming down but did slowly pass 3 hikers that were walking in the middle of the road. Maybe they too were afraid to walk near the edge of the road at times.

I also saw a couple of signs warning me this was bear territory. Would it be safe for the hounds to do a little sniffing around once we stopped and got out to look around?

As I let both hounds out with their 6' leashes attached, something they wear at all times when traveling even short distances. It didn't take Stella long to find where those food storage containers were. They are bear proof but are they bloodhound proof?

I let them both wander within eyesight while I took photos of the area. Believe it or not, Heidi has a better nose than Stella. She is keen and bred to find rabbits and there are a ton of rabbits in the area we live in. I was hoping there were no rabbits in the area.

Between the bear warnings and the chance of rain under sunny bright skies, I figured it was time to load up and head back down 'the hill'. Little did I know the pucker factor was going to double going down than what it was going up. I sent a few pictures to friends that want to come to visit me but they swore there was no way they were riding with me up that mountain no matter how fantastic the scenery was.

We live somewhere down there.

Not a bad road, fairly level, wide enough for two vehicles and an occasional pull-out.

Those are bugs on my windshield collected on the way from Indiana to the west a few weeks prior.

Does it look like we are getting ready to drive over the 'edge of the world' ????

That big shadow you see to the left ... it's that Aerostat I took a picture of a few days ago.

This is where things got 'tight', my knuckles were white as I gripped the steering wheel tighter. I was proud of myself for at least stopping one time to get a photo of something like this switchback. There were 4-5 more of these along the way to and from. Luckily about a 1/2 mile before I got here I noticed a warning in the middle of my speedometer.

"Stop the car, shift to low 4-wheel drive"

I did as they told me plus from the start going down I followed their speed limit signs of 10mph max and I was going 5-7 miles before that switchback. It took me almost 45 minutes to drive down the 6 miles and over 9,000 ft.

Do you think the hounds were sitting up panting and drooling with nervousness while we went downhill ???? No ... the slept from the time they got back in the 4Runner.

Looks like a few deer up ahead. They turned and climbed that steep bank with ease. The roads looked great but there were many places I was sure I was going to hear rocks or a rock screeching along my skid plates even at 8.6 inches high.

We made it back down to reality without any problem. My pulse rate had returned to normal according to my Apple Watch, I could breath again and could relax my hands off the steering wheel. Looking at those skies you would not believe about 100 ft further up the road large rain drops were pounding the windshield. I glanced at my watch and it was 12:45pm. Just like the neighbor warned me ... by the time we got home it was a full out thunderstorm up in the mountains that we had visited. It was sunny sitting on the patio.

On the way down I met 3 vehicles driving up the mountain and all 3 had violated the warning signs.

• No vehicle longer than 20 ft past this point
• I see the largest newest dual axle Chevy Silverado so wide I had to pull over and straddle the edge of the ditch to give him enough room to get by. I'm sure it was close to 20' long based on how my 4Runner barely fits inside the garage.
• All vehicles must have 4x4 past this point
• I meet two cars going up and past this warning sign. One was a Honda Fit who's oil pain was not going to clear the rocks I just passed a 1/4 mile back of me or ahead of them.
• The other car was a low riding Honda Accord and 4 people inside to help with weight and traction I guess. They were not going to make the road in some spots from being too low and all the pull-outs to turn around doing the "million point turn" were way way past the worst parts of the road.

I didn't see anything about accidents in the newspaper in the next few days so I guess all three vehicles made it okay.

There are over 19 official hiking trails in these mountains and I intend to check them all out. There is a waterfall in these mountains but the neighbor who hikes tells me I will need to have some hiking experience to get up to see it. It is steep and treacherous, in his words.

Like I said before ... most mornings I will be bike riding and then hiking in the afternoons or taking local roadtrips to explore this great area of the Southwest.

It seems late at 8:30pm. The hounds have been sleeping for hours and yes ... they did attempt to talk me into letting them on the new couch or as Stella said with her eyes .. "there's plenty of room on the empty loveseat for her" ...

It was a 'numb' morning but a great day in the Wild West.

Hounds & New Furniture

I knew after yesterday's 61 photo post and a tour of some sort outside of the yard or house, putting something together today was going to be tough. It would probably be more verbal than photogenic and hardly any excitement. Yet, like the morning skies showed me this morning, not every day if full of sunshine at 5:30am and not every day will be exciting. Still there were going to be some situations today where the results might be surprising.

As Stella and I prepared for our morning walk, the skies were not the only thing that was different today. A new development happened on the 1st of August that put a slight dent in the daily routine. I could no longer have that cup of coffee before we took a walk unless I go back to getting up in the dark. Why would I want to get up before sunrise? So we had to make a slight change to our schedule. It's also tough to do.

Around 6:16am this large yellow school bus backs into the cul-de-sac at the entry of the neighborhood and waits for all the kids to walk down the street to get on this bus. I am not sure if it is for elementary or jr. high because there is a second bus that does that same thing about an hour later. Kids do get on both buses. With that 6:15am time frame, Stella and I have to be back inside the house or our daily walk will get really complicated. A cup of coffee before the walk will put us past that mark.

So after the walk I was able to sit and watch the clouds change formations as I had my two cups of coffee. The temps had barely hit 70° and the breeze was cool from the SE. I had not made up my mind up yet whether to do any bike riding today, plus Stella wanted to make a full inspection of the fence line after last nights heavy rain.

It was then I remembered I was going to have furniture delivered today.  The last pieces to the furniture I bought one day after I arrived, on June 14. It took all of this time to get a couch and loveseat delivered along with two extra kitchen chairs. I was only joking with the furniture store manager a few weeks ago when I called to see if they had forgot my remaining order, when I asked "what do they have to do ... make it?" ... he replied "as a matter a fact they do." He was serious.

While Stella enjoyed the cool temps I realized I had a 4-hour window to wait around for them to show up. I spent most of my morning while I waited for them, editing all the posts that I had transferred from the WordPress blog. I didn't get all of them done but I did about 3 hours worth.

After I walked back outside with my second cup of coffee, Stella decided she needed to be closer to my chair. The one that is comfortable but doesn't match anything. Yes, probably a little anxiety is still left with the move. I have a few posts worth of stores on that period of time. She did freak out a few times, that you will read about later.

She lifted her head from her sleeping position when she heard the beeping and the diesel engine down the street. She doesn't know it's the morning school bus backing in. She also thought if she looked around the yard it would give her the answer she was looking for. Plus the next door neighbor might be tossing her some morning bbq chicken since he did that the last two Sunday nights, after asking me if it was okay.

It was lunch time and no one had shown up with the furniture which didn't matter to the hounds because at 11am local time they like to be fed their lunch. Just like in 'the tropics' Stella also likes to take a nap in the hot sunshine right after her lunch.

The furniture truck pulled up in front of the house while the hounds were enjoying the sunshine out back. So it was simple to keep them in the yard until everything was set inside and the paperwork was signed for proof of receipt. It was sunny today but the low 80's and with my early morning routine of leaving the windows open filling the house with cool air ... I had not turn on the AC yet.

So now for the real test.

Long time readers will know from photos that all of the hounds all the way back to 1997, at least in Indiana, had free reign of the house and could sit or sleep anywhere. I had leather couches and chairs then but not now. Stella's drool could kill a brand new couch's upholstery so I hope to train her to stay off of the furniture. Heidi will be a little bit harder to control because she has total freedom in the house when I am gone. She has never destroyed a thing while being left in the house. So it's very likely I'll come home sometime and she will be on the new couch or loveseat UNLESS I buy a new baby gate to block her from the living room. (It's another Stella story explaining WHY I need to buy another baby gate).

So as I sat on my new couch reading Chinle's book The Cessna Cafe, I watched both hounds to see if they even attempted to get up on the new furniture. Heidi didn't go near it and ended up on her favorite blanket in the same corner as it was before the furniture arrived. Stella did the full inspection with her nose, looked at me for a few seconds and then laid down right in front of it for a short nap.

Yes ... I could buy a new sheepskin type blanket to put on the couch so they can lay on the couch but that doesn't mean that bloodhound drool would stay WITHIN that blanket and if it didn't, it's hard to get "gorilla glue" off anything, any material, once it dries and will stain if it is wet.

So that's it. The house feels a little more like a house now that I have some furniture in the living room. Just one small chair with a coffee table and end tables didn't do much for household decor for the past two months. I did leave room in back of the loveseat for Heidi's blanket to sleep on and for Stella to have enough room to stand and look out the window. They love doing both of those things.

I will not take the time to set up my tripod, manually focus my camera in hopes of catching a lightning strike ... but I did catch this on the other night with my iPhone ... barely. That bit of orange was like a huge ball of fire when I clicked the shutter button ... I didn't know that I even caught that until I downloaded the photos.

It's that time of year where it's going to rain for a short period of time every afternoon or early evening. Maybe not here where I live but other parts of town and within the view of my eyes. I have a group I follow on Facebook from the local county where people can post their photos from snakes, spiders, flowers, rain, monsoons, lightning or food. Plus I can see it raining sometimes off in the distance, just not where my house is.

As I edited photos this morning from blog posts from May back to December 2018, I saw a lot of rain, a lot of ice and snow in those photos and I glanced and saw things like -7° or 10° and knew that Stella and I would not have to walk through that any longer. Nor would Heidi have to be curled up in her sleeping bag to keep warm, even with the heat on inside the house. The more blog posts I saw the more I confirmed to myself why I moved.

I got an email today that said my blog had made a "huge turn into a new world - one of exploring the West." She hoped I would continue to get out and about like that ... That is definitely my plan. As the temps cool down I plan to add hiking to my daily activities where I can take my camera and in some cases can see how the hounds do in that setting.

There is going to be a lot more stuff to blog about out here as a few readers already know because they have during their RV travels. The Western states are so much more easier to write about than east of the Mississippi River. Also while editing my blog posts I saw what I already knew ... boring boring boring ... the same walks, the same photos in the same parts of the hound walk, the same yard work stories and the same farm equipment photos.

I have made two trips where I took a lot of photos and I plan to turn them into two different blog posts in the very near future. Some that follow my Facebook account have seen them and know what I am talking about.

One last thing or two last things ... I have only 76 more posts to edit and publish from the Wordpress blog. I like having everything in one blog ... although I have to keep that Wordpress blog active otherwise I lose all the photos in those blog posts that I have transferred. Second thing is, as things have sorted out these past few days since I returned to blogging ... I will be posting most likely around 6pm-6:30pm Pacific Time instead of Eastern Time.

For those curious, the hounds have adjusted very well to this move. I'm sure that Heidi misses her green grass yard and her big leather chair but she has also found that warm patio is great to sleep on since it's in the shade and she prefers 6-7 different places in the house to sleep depending what time of day or night it is, so the chair isn't needed.

Stella still puts her nose to the ground every walk but is really more curious why all of those different birds talk to her. She has also figured out it feels good to run or trot on the sidewalks or in the middle of the streets since we are always walking when the sun comes up. (very little if any traffic) She gets the same distance if not a little more and by the time we are back home all she wants is some water and a nap.

Stay tuned for more stories and photos from the 'wild west'.