She's a Cut-up

Things have been a bit crafty around the Schroeder house the last few days. BJ decided to sew a quilted Christmas table runner. All those little pieces reminded me of her jigsaw puzzles.

With the stars sewn together, she couldn't resist laying out all the other pieces to see how her fabric choices were going to look.

I came home from a morning of desert wandering to find the quilt cover on the back of the couch. Looks nice!

Next thing I knew, she had it the cover pinned to the batting and backing. I think the picture is out of focus because the glasses are laying on the quilt... That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.

I was surprised how quickly the hand stitching of the binding was finished. Seems like it couldn't have been more than a couple hours.

The finished product. Just like the stores - it's not yet Thanksgiving, but the Christmas decorations are starting to show up. ;-)

Bulldog Canyon - Again

There are at least five gated, vehicular access points to Bulldog Canyon. You can get a free access permit and the gate code from the Tonto National Forest District Office in Mesa if you intend to use a motor vehicle. I headed out for a morning hike from the Hackamore Road entrance with no other vehicles in the parking lot at the gate.

As I headed up the hill to a viewpoint, I discovered that someone left a can of starting fluid - just in case you needed some help. It's no wonder they've gated the access with the amount of trash left around.

My special equipment was in working order, and much cheaper to maintain than a 4WD vehicle.

We've had a bit more rain than normal this year, leaving much of the desert quite green. As usual, I spotted some animal life, but never in time to get a camera ready. On this day it was a roadrunner and a couple rabbits that added extra interest to my self-defined loop.

I tried to get a picture looking back to the Superstitions, but ended up with a lot of sun flare.

There was supposed to be an arch (Keyhole Arch) back here, but it was a very poor excuse for an arch and didn't rate a picture. It was worth getting up close and personal with it since there was a geocache located nearby that hadn't been visited for over 7 months.

The view from the hill off toward Four Peaks was interesting and constantly changing as I traversed the side of the hill.

I really love wandering the desert since the vegetation is open enough that you can pick a relatively straight route, at least until you get to a fence. There were fences everywhere in this area as they try to limit the motor vehicles from areas that have been heavily damaged by heavy-footed drivers.

As I worked my way around the fenced off area, I discovered that the fence wasn't applicable to everyone. One post pulled, two posts bent, the barbed wire cut, and fresh motorcycle tracks headed into the fenced off area.

Some saguaro are stately, well formed, classic specimens. Others clearly have a more interesting story to tell. I listened, but couldn't hear the story...

Happy Birthday, Turk

Turk, our wonder dog, celebrated his 7th birthday recently, which makes him officially an old man. He got a cookie

which he didn't gobble. Apparently he's learning some manners.

He also got a cow. A couple years ago, he was affectionately named Turk the City Dog by our friend Ellen at Glory Farm. She seemed to think that he was at a loss on the farm, but clearly he was paying attention while he was there.

He immediately decided that any good Holstein should be de-horned.

He worked on one side and then the other.

Within 30 minutes, the cow was de-horned.

Maybe he didn't learn everything he should have. Instead of tagging the cow's ear, he just chewed them off, too. I'm not expecting the cow to last too much longer!