What's For Dinner Mom??

I'm sure this has happened to everyone.  I had to defrost two pork tenderloins before I could throw them on the barbee.  I purchased them at Costco, so I guessed the heavy plastic would be plenty to contain the juices.  I was wrong.  I noticed early in the morning that the bag had lost pressure.  That has only one terrible outcome.

Oh my ... yes, there was lovely pork blood and guts flowing all over my fridge.  Not the kind of activity I envisioned for my morning.

I removed bin after bin, glass after glass and all the plastic supports.  It's amazing how far that stuff can run.  At long last dinner time rolled around and I barbecued both tenderloins.  Let me tell you, that is entirely too much meat for one person.  

I've been eating on it now for about three days and I admit, I'm sick of pork.  I've fixed it every way you can imagine.  Note to self ... no more pork tenderloin.

Just for giggles, Patty and I took a short drive over to Green Valley to peruse the perfect puncturing machines.  Long arm quilting machines have come into my sights.  I never wanted to go there, but honestly, I probably could have purchased TWO with what I've paid my quilter over the last few years.  It's a costly purchase, so much more investigation will be required.  

Having returned home, I stopped in the Chance driveway just as we noticed these two roadrunners.  The smaller of the two kept following the other, shivering it's feathers.  I thought it might be a baby since it was so small, but maybe there was some courting going on.

The mystery was quickly solved when the smaller ran in front of the bigger with mouth agape and wings fluttering.  It was a baby looking for food.  MOM ... what's for dinner??  Mom??

Mom kept looking up into the trees, we decided in the hopes of spotting a nice juicy bug.  Nothing seemed to jump out, so she left the baby and ran across the yard.  In no time, she came back with a big black bug.  Dinner was served with a smile.  Mom and baby trotted off looking for more yummies.  What a great spectacle to see.  

So I'm packing this morning for an early takeoff.  Two dogs, one parrot, eight boxes of fabric and what's left of my threadbare wardrobe.  Wouldn't you know, the weather has cooled down considerably, just in time for my departure. 

Several of my desert friends came to say goodbye ... hummingbirds, bats and my favorite .... Mr. Spider, in all his three inch glory, came sneaking in when I opened the from door.  YIKES!!  I chased him half way down the hallway with a flyswatter before my aim took hold.  Sorry little guy ... not really.  

I am .... on the road again!! 

Big Nose Kate In Dos Cabezas

Mary Katherine Horony-Cummins was born in 1849 in what was then the Kingdom of Hungary.  Her father was a physician and her mother a teacher.  In 1860, they left Hungary for the United States in hopes of a better life.  Sadly, it didn't turn out that way.

They settled in Davenport Iowa.  Three years later, both parents died within a month of each other.  Mary Katherine and her younger sister Wilhelmina ended up in the house of a lawyer, finally working as domestics (housekeepers).

Hard to believe that at 16, Kate snuck out and stowed away on a riverboat for St Louis.  By 1869, with no chance of getting regular work of any kind, she became a prostitute.  In 1874, she was working as a "sporting woman" in a "sporting house" (brothel) in Dodge City Kansas, run by Bessie Ketchum Earp.  You've heard that name before.  Bessie was married to James Earp, Wyatt's brother.

In 1876 (she moved around a lot this girl) she ended up in Fort Griffin Texas where one year later, she made the acquaintance of Doc Holliday.  In no time, they hooked up and moved to Dodge City where Doc opened a dental practice.  With many more moves under their belts, Doc ended up making money at gambling in Prescott while Kate worked as a prostitute in the Palace Saloon.  They finally ended up in Tombstone.

In 1881, three cowboys tried to rob a stagecoach near Benson Arizona, killing the popular driver, along with one passenger.  It was thought Bill Leonard (a former watchmaker from New York and good friend of Doc Holliday) did the dirty deed.  

When Kate and Doc had one of the infamous fights, Sheriff Behan made a beeline for Kate, getting her drunk and convincing her to sign an affidavit implicating Doc in the murder.  In the end, she testified in court that it was not true and Doc was released.  Needless to say, she moved out of town for a time, eventually landing back in Tombstone just in time for the big shootout at the OK Corral, which didn't even happen there.  It happened behind the stables and down the street a bit in an empty lot.

I'll skip that part about the shootout.  Kate says she saw it through her hotel window, but apparently Kate lies a lot, or at least had a hard time remembering the truth.  After Doc died, she married blacksmith George Cummings in Aspen Colorado.  They eventually ended up in Willcox Arizona where George became an abusive alcoholic.  

Kate left him in 1900, which brings me to why Miss Patty and I visited this little ghost town of Cochise.  Kate moved to Cochise and worked in the hotel owned by John and Lulu Rath.  The hotel is not only still standing, but up until recently, was available for rent.

Starting back at the top, that's the church, still standing but not in use as far as we could tell.  At it's height, Cochise had about 3,000 people here, only because it became a stop on the railroad for water and coal.  It was also a good shipping point for cattle.

The next picture with the red roof is the post office, as evidenced by the sign on the highway, Post Office.  As we drove through, this magnificent abode came into view.  

Although approximately 50 people still live here, we only saw three cars and one human.  It being summer and all, maybe the town is shut down until cooler temperatures prevail.  It was rather hard to tell which places were really old and which were just in disrepair.

This is the hotel, in very nice condition I might add, that Big Nose Kate worked at.  I wonder if anyone called her that name to her face?  The sign says it's available for weddings, barbecues and whatever event you may have.  

In the 1910 census, Kate was listed as living at the home of miner John J. Howard.  When he passed away, she was the executrix of his estate.  By this time she was 61 years old.  

She said the money she received as Executrix wouldn't even buy wood for the winter to keep her warm.

Directly across from the hotel is the railroad line.  I can just imagine huge corrals full of cattle and cowboys, waiting for the train.

In 1931, Kate contacted her old friend Arizona Governor George Hunt and applied for entrance to the Arizona Pioneers' Home in Prescott for destitute and ailing MALE miners.  It took six months to be admitted, even though she was female, because the home had citizenship restrictions.  Amazingly, a birth certificate appeared with her name on it.

The old general store is also still standing in Cochise.  By the way, the town was originally named Dos Cabezas.  Two Heads, named for the two granite peaks of the nearby mountains.  This building would make a good quilt store, yes??  I could live in the back.

There are lots of discrepancies in Kate's life, as her death certificate says she was born in Iowa,  which probably allowed her into the Pioneers' Home.  She recited many memories until her death, none of which could be verified.  She died in 1940 and was buried under the name Mary K Cummins in the Arizona Pioneers' Home Cemetery in Prescott Arizona.  

That was a pretty exciting life for a prostitute.  Driving through the little town of Cochise Arizona, I could just imagine the hustle and bustle of cowboys and robbers, gamblers and ladies of the evening.  The town is just off Highway 191 heading from Highway 10 to Douglas.

In case you were wondering, the Big Nose Kate Saloon in Tombstone was originally called the Grand Hotel, built in 1880.  The McLaury brothers stayed there the night before the gunfight.  The main entrance was in to the hotel.  The bar was downstairs.  It basically burned to the ground in 1882 and was rebuilt and renamed.  If you haven't been, check it out ... the food is good ... and wander down the spiral staircase to the original bar.

Edible ..... Inedible

There's a very fine line between words in this house as I walk the corral fence tops.  Competent ... incompetent.  Flexible ... inflexible.  Edible .. Inedible.  Every day I walk those lines, most times falling off the fencepost to the ground below.  Yesterday was a fall day.

Try as I might to be the Parrot Chef of the year, Jonathan continues to put me in my place.  It's hard to get birds to eat, let alone eat what they SHOULD to be healthy.  Every morning I'm put to the test.  Things like bananas and banana bread have been left in the bowl each morning for a week.  His bird biscuits, specially made to contain something that resembles vitamins, remain untouched.

Yup ... there's carrots, apples, peanuts and even spinach in this bowl, but like a good 3 year old going on 46, he has refused everything but the sunflower seeds.  I tried corn on the cob, which he used to love.  Nope ... not having it.  THUNK!!  That's me falling off the fence and hitting the rocky ground.

Our sewing confab always puts me in a good mood.  There's nothing like being around friends who laugh with you and make you forget your Chef shortcomings.  This was supposed to be the best red velvet cake ever.

It all went well until the last of the mixing when the batter got so thick I could barely whack it off the spatula into the pan.  Unfortunately, I missed the part about this being baked in a 7" pan.  This is a NINE inch pan, with the batter barely half an inch thick by the time I spread it out.  I was teetering about midway between the fenceposts on a cracked wobbly board.

Having tasted the frosting recipe previously, made with fake sugar, I was hopeful it would pass the test.  How wonderful it would be to have an ooey gooey dessert without the carbs and sugar?

Not today .... no not today as I hit the ground with a crash.  It actually came out of the oven pretty good, if you were looking for brownies.  I was looking for cake.  Okay ... so we'll just have red velvet brownies instead.

We ate about half of it and they all were sweet to say it tasted great.  They lied.  It was pretty much tasteless.  The texture wasn't bad, but my brain locked up with every bite thinking I was going to get a yummy taste of lovely thick sweet frosting.  It didn't happen.

Having already foreseen the outcome (it happens so often) I had whipped up my favorite cherry pie crisp smothered in brown sugar, oats and nuts.  That's what I'm talking about .... I walked the top of that fine line of a fence like a champ!!

Yes, I did try the brownies again after dinner, but they didn't get any better.  Sorry folks, no BEST EVER recipe this time.  I'm sure even Cooper here wouldn't have eaten it.  Cooper is a smart cookie.  I think I mentioned before, he spends most of his time laying on the AC vent.

As I left the house after conversing about all things long arm quilting, I spotted this tree with beautiful flowers.  If I can figure out what it is, maybe I'll find a spot for one around my house.

I was so tired by the time I went to bed that I forgot to bring in the hummingbird feeders.  This morning they are both completely empty as the bats have discovered the buffet line.  At least hummingbird nectar is something I can cook that turns out right every time!!  In the meantime, I'm packing.  Time is getting short.

Things Are Closer Than They Appear

Although not in the case of the moon, things around here are closer than they appear in pictures.  The moon looked like you could reach up and touch it on Friday the 13th.  I've made no mention of it thus far because it's usually the cause of weirdness in my life.  Now that it's passed, I can post a picture.  Too bad it's not MY picture.  Cloud cover kept us from seeing anything that night.

My steam iron was MUCH closer than it appeared, as I was working on some appliqué (hand sewing) work.  Out of the blue, it shot out a scorcher cloud that steamed my hand quite nicely.  I'm sure I could smell BBQ.  Thanks to everyone for the bag-o-peas remedy.  It worked quite nicely.

Since my rig returned with no recall work done, I figured I might as well clean out the basement while it was relatively empty of everything RV.  I vacuumed from top to bottom and replaced what I could.  It's funny how it didn't all fit back inside, although it was close.  

Things are definitely closer than they appear here.  The train looks small and far away, but it's VERY close.  It's a good thing I love trains, although a steam train going by would be MUCH nicer.  

They've been working on the tracks for the last month, dropping off new concrete timbers for under the rails.  That means lots of REALLY loud equipment going along at 2 mph taking out the old spikes.  Actually, spikes have been eliminated for some time.  They have hook-like things now.  Once undone they pull out the old timber and slide in the concrete one.  

Try as I might, I couldn't get close enough to see how it was done.  How can a machine do all that?  They spent almost three hours in front of my house, possibly because it's on a curve.  Go forward ... DING DING DING ... back up.  Then the engine would stop and I would hear lots of banging, like with sledge hammers.  Start it up ... go forward again!  I thought they would never get done.

Then this guy came along throwing huge amounts of dust into the air with a loud grinding sound.  All of this is at night, by the way.  Then the original big machine came back and they started all over again last night.  In the mornings they take a break to let the freight trains pass.  

This baby is NOT closer than it appears.  Arizona Pizza Company has a place close by where I can get my pizza fix once in a blue moon.  It's definitely not on my diet ... only because of the crust ... but it's a quick and easy dinner.  I broke it up into 8 packages and stuck it in the freezer.  It will make perfect dinners for the week I'll be on the road.  No cooking for me!!!

By the way, if you are anywhere around Tucson, friend them on Facebook and they will post a secret password on Thursdays that will get you a discount.  This $25+tax pizza came to $21.37 including tax.  It's better than a kick in the pants!!  The pizza is good too!

It's sewing and experimental dessert day.  I made my first ever Keto red velvet cake and I'm experimenting on the gals at sewing.  Truthfully, I'd rather skip dessert than eat Keto cakes and brownies.  I'll let you know how it turns out!!

Desert Delights

I have to say, there are an abundance of delightful critters in the desert.  More than you can imagine.  I've probably only seen a snippet of those hanging out around here.  Honestly, I don't want to know just HOW many there are.

I guess they come with the rain.  Even though we haven't received that much monsoon rain here, it has fallen all around us.  The wildflowers are happy campers, even these growing up through a cattle guard.

There are dinosauric (is that a word?)  lizards everywhere, like this guy with amazing scales doing push-ups in my back yard.  I really don't see them that often around the house.  Too bad because maybe they would eat the thousands of moths that scream through the sliding door at breakneck speed every time I let the dogs out.  These guys are really fun to watch.

Patty and I made a quick stop at the biggest cactus nursery I've ever seen last week.  They also promote kitty adoption.  These older guys hang out in the gift shop getting lots of pets and love.

They are pretty much past their prime, but would make great couch ornaments.  Unfortunately Jessie would think they were just for her chasing pleasure.

With all the rain, many of their plants were blooming, making it very hard to keep my wallet in my pocket.

I haven't been able to keep count of the 30 or so quail that come to drink every morning and evening at my water station.  Apparently I have two resident roadrunners also.  You can't see this guy's tail for the bushes.

They definitely are fun to watch however.  These two are smaller, so I'm guessing maybe they are young-uns.  I could sit outside and watch them all day long.

Except for these guys!  Mesquite bugs about two inches long.  They LOVE the mesquite trees ... and they FLY!!!  Upon landing however they aren't very graceful.  Most tip over, and once on their backs, like us old folks, can't get up!  I saved a couple on my patio by turning them right side up, but come on buddies ... you need to figure that out.

Luckily my mesquite tree is some weird variety that they don't care for that much.  The Chance house has dozens of these babies under THEIR tree.

Sporadic rain has caused many of the barrel cactus to bloom, least that's what I think they are.  As you drive around, you can see bits of red everywhere.  Amazingly ... you're not going to believe this ... it's 70 degrees right now with a high of 82 today.  I think my ski parka needs to come out of mothballs.  I'm sure if I went outside, I'd freeze!!

These guys appear to be pretty prolific this year too.  I showed you one large guy previously ... then I found three babies (or maybe smaller males) hanging out on my screen.  These are the good guys, eating flies and other awful critters.  They can hang out any time.

Here's an unusual one.  It looks like a honey bee, but it's wings are two-toned.  Half brown, half clear.  I didn't want to get any closer, you can understand why.  They swarm my hummingbird feeders in the late afternoon when it's warm, looking for food.  They are not the only ones.  

Every night now I have to bring the feeders inside.  The bats have found their snack bar.  They do fly-bys, swat the feeder with their wings and lap up the syrup as it drips out.  They can empty a feeder three times as fast as 20 hummers.

And there's even MORE ... like the tarantula I've been playing with by the back door.  I drop stuff down his hole, he pushes it out.  He appears to be tired of the game, since now he has covered the entire top of the hole in webs.  If he'll eat the scorpions, I'll leave him alone.  At least some of the desert delights can be entertaining!!

Speaking of Cochise

Interestingly enough, this is Cochise County, in which lies Cochise Stronghold (an easy drive in a two wheel car), and Cochise Cemetery, along with the town of Cochise.  So when I saw this sign as I drove by, I immediately hit the brakes and made a U-turn.

This is a fairly well kept BIG cemetery, probably the only one around for miles.

It even has it's own water supply with working windmill pump.  We had these all over our California ranch.  It was the only way to get water to the cattle, since at the time, there was no electricity.  I'm not really sure WHY there is water here, since it isn't used for landscaping at all.

This was probably the most interesting headstone.  This my RV friends is a World War I Veteran.  This is PFC Ray Amick, II Balloon Company Air Service World War I.  Can you just imagine what his life was like?  Born in 1883, he passed in 1961.  What a great hero!

Here lies Elizabeth Moore, born 1852, passed in 1917.  She must have been a real pioneer.  Originally her headstone only had her initials.  It appears this might have been added in 2007.  In fact, many of these headstones have been replaced with newer ones.

Sadly, Baby Clark died in 1923.  

Back out on the road headed home, I spotted the sign to the town of Cochise too late to stop.  It's now on my MUST SEE list.  In the 1880's, the Southern Pacific Railroad came through here.  A stop was needed for coal and water for the steam engine, so the town grew up around the railroad.  

Originally a bustling old west city of 3,000, it now boasts 50 residents.  There's some interesting history here I definitely want to check out.  Hint ... it involves Doc Holiday!!  Yahoo!  This is a picture of the old general store.  I've no idea if it's still standing, but I'm going to find out.

Since I was so close as I headed back to Hwy 10, I thought I might as well check out Apple Annies.  Not that all that sugar is on my diet list of edible items, but they seem to be famous for their apple pies.  Wasn't I surprised to find such a tiny building for it's big reputation.

The walls were lined with apple jams and jellies, along with apple salsa, apple syrup ... you get the picture.  I'm not sure how apples grow in this area, but there are many orchards around the Dragoon hills.

The Christmas tree is apparently up for every holiday, this being Halloween/Thanksgiving, even though it was still August.

They have a small lunch counter and seating area for your apple pie enjoyment.  They also had whole pies, with a choice of crumble crust or regular crust.  I chose the crumble.  I figured to pawn off most of this on the Chance Household.  Shhhhh don't tell them.

Miss Patty and I had a piece with a little ice cream.  It was good, but nothing to write home to Mom about.  Surprisingly, it wasn't as sweet as the apple pie I'm used to and rather dry.  It had good flavor, but not enough to prompt me to return to Wilcox for another one.  Obviously, my plan worked, as this is all I had left.

So there you have it.  Another day, another adventure.  I can't wait to return to Cochise before I have to start packing up.  Time flies when you're investigating the local history.

Cochise Stronghold

The next time you come to the Tucson area, check out this amazing scenery and imagine the people who came before us.  This wasn't on my agenda, I just happened to stumble upon it after not locating the stagecoach stop.

I'm always up for another adventure, so when the first one bombed out, I headed off to the ghost town of Gleeson.  All I found was a defunct golf course covered in brown grass and dead trees.  It looks like a failed housing development called Sunsites.  That's when I spotted the sign ... Cochise Stronghold.  

The pavement ended in a reasonable dirt road headed up a canyon.  In no time at all, I realized why the Indians lived here.  We have a lot in common.  I love back-woods quiet places with streams and mountains.  This place fits that bill perfectly.

Originally, Spain and later Mexico tried to take over this Indian country.  Meeting resistance, they decided to make the Apaches dependent, giving them old firearms, alcohol and food.  When Mexico finally won their independence, this practice was stopped.  The Chiricahua resorted to raiding and stealing in 1830 in order to survive.

This location was not the end for the great Chiricahua Chief Cochise, but the beginning of the end.  In October of 1869 Colonel John Finkle Stone, the 33 year old President of Apache Pass Mine, was taking a mail coach back to Tucson.  When they approached the abandoned stage station ... the one I was looking for ... Apaches jumped out from the bushes and attacked, with everyone being killed.  That was just on the other side of these mountains.

As I contemplated the thought of living here, I was greeted by not two, but THREE roadrunners, all dipping their tails in unison.  I just love these guys.

Within hours of that massacre, Cochise and his band ran into a group of cowboys herding cattle from Mexico to California.  They attacked, killing all the men and stealing the cattle.  One man survived to return to Tucson and tell Lt. Winters, who left with 26 soldiers in pursuit towards Dragoon Springs.  When he discovered the mail coach massacre on the way, he headed off after Cochise who had taken to Rucker Canyon ... NOT this location.

Turns out, the Apaches were armed with rifles and the fight was on in miserable stormy weather.  Cochise knew it was the end, and eventually settled into peace talks, surrendered and moved to the Chiricahua Reservation near Ft. Bowie, present day Wilcox Arizona.  

What you read seems to be history based on who was telling the story.  It has been discovered that many a soldier lied about events of the day, enough to get themselves awarded 31 medals.  It is actually thought Geronimo was the interpreter for Cochise at the peace talks.  At any rate, Cochise finally passed away and was buried on this mountain where it is thought his tribe spent their winters.  Those alive at the time, took the location to their graves.  

Weird, it felt like a very reverent spot as I wandered through the canyons.  I've no information on this rock house I discovered, but it was VERY cool.  Lots of Do Not Trespass signs, so even though no one was in sight, I did not get closer.  The second rock house, called Shaw House, is available to rent at $150 a night, with corrals for horses.  How fun would that be?

At last, the sign denoting this is the Coronado National Forest.

Keep going another couple of miles and you will find yourself in a canyon with amazing rock formations.  Interestingly enough, there are TWO helicopter pads here for search and rescue.  

It's a gorgeous tiny valley with wildflowers everywhere.  Unfortunately, there are also a few houses, not at all well kept, with junk everywhere.  

At the very end of the trail is a campground, with maybe ten spots.  Although there are pit toilets, I saw a sign that said no water.  Bring your own.  It's a little too tight for my camping sensibility.  This is set up for tent camping.

Turns out this is a box canyon, although at the very end there is a nature trail that heads up the side of the mountain.  Since it is a PAY area, I did not check it out.  Maybe next time.

Cochise and I certainly like the same things ... beautiful country, amazing rocky hills and the peace and quiet of the mountains.  It's no wonder they spent a lot of time here.