Happenings At The Ranch

Here's a quick catch-up of what's been going on at the ranch while I've been working to download those pictures.  My tree which appears to now have roots in Texas instead of Africa, is blooming like crazy.  That may be why I'm sneezing for ten minutes every morning.

The weather has been so fabulous I even went out and mowed the postage stamp I call my back yard. This little guy came out to say hello.  He must have had a close encounter of the roadrunner kind because half his tail was missing.

I'm happy to report Mr. and Mrs. Dove have again set up housekeeping in my smaller palm tree that is blooming like never before.  I'm sorry to say she is a terrible nest builder.  Sometimes even her eggs fall out through the bottom.  Hopefully this year she will hold it together.

With all the blooming going on, the orchid has held it's own.  Every single little bud blossomed into gorgeousness.  

Here's another one I've never seen before.  Every one of my cactus are going crazy with blooms.  It's certainly not because "I" have done anything.  I'm VERY curious to see what these turn in to.

Now THIS part of the day is all Doug Laning's fault.  He keeps showing pictures of those hot dogs he's barbecuing.  I truly don't eat hot dogs, but they looked so GOOD!!  Although there wasn't a great supply at the store, I saw Ball Park dogs.  If I'm going to eat one, these are the brand.  

Well, not exactly.  When I went to throw one on the fire, I noticed I didn't see the words ALL BEEF.  Oh good grief ... these are CHICKEN AND PORK!!!  NOOOOOOOOO!!

It's all in the details I guess, and that little detail completely escaped me.  I barbecued it until it split open.  Maybe if it's brown enough, it will taste okay.  The bun was another story altogether.  I got the last package of Kings Hawaiian hot dog buns, which I threw in the freezer.  

After wrestling with it for five minutes, I finally got ONE bun out and into the microwave to thaw.  Wait .... they aren't even cut!  That's weird, I've never seen that before!!  I grabbed a knife and slit the side allowing half the top to fall off in my hand.  What the heck?  

I guess I'm old fashioned, assuming the cut would be on the SIDE.  Instead, it was on TOP, right down the middle.  Who does that?  It made it rather hard to hang on to all the pieces, but it did taste pretty good, followed up with a big handful of potato chips.  Who knew a hot dog could be so much trouble!

Here's the good part.  If I get tired of them, being they are chicken and pork, Cooper can have the rest.  He said YAHOO!!

The rest of the afternoon I spent slaughtering my tall palm tree.  No one has ever cleaned off any of the leftovers from the dead branches.  I didn't have a clue, I just knew it looked terrible.  You can find anything on the internet.  I looked it up, watched a video and proceeded to work on it for over an hour.  

What an amazing plant, the way the leaves wrap around and around before becoming a palm frond.  Come to think of it, it was the perfect task for Palm Sunday.

Although you are supposed to use a box cutter, all I had was a hand saw.  It worked pretty well.  Only ten more feet to go!!  I'll go get a box cutter first ... it will make it much easier.  

By the end of the day, I was roasting with not a pair of shorts to be found.  I went outside to the rig, opened the bedroom slides and looked in very drawer, desperate for something cooler to wear.  

Well here it is folks ... a skirt.  I took the picture because you'll probably never see me in one again.  Bad picture too, but there is only one long mirror in my house and it's over the tub.  Who in the world puts mirrors over the bathtub!!  No one wants to see that!!

There's more exciting news in the wings, but tomorrow we'll take a tour of Fairbank.  Only 1500 miles to get there according to my phone GPS.  I better pack a lunch.

Two Down ... Two To Go

Back on the road hunting Ghost Towns, the most famous one around is of course Tombstone.  It's not really a ghost town since people have repopulated it quite nicely, what with the Ghost Hotel Attraction and the OK Corral gunfight reenactment.  I can't complain because some of those guys walking around in long black coats are mighty good looking!!  I always was attracted to cowboys.

Sadly on this day, there were maybe ten people on the sidewalks.  What a shame to see it completely deserted.

Except for this guy!!  Here's the latest and greatest in delivery service.  He owns the Sarsaparilla Hotspot in town and was delivering anything you needed from the restaurant next door.

If you've ever been to the Linear Garden up on the hill, you may have seen these guys.  They live at the bottom of the hill.  You can tell from the ears and tail wringing they were not happy campers.  If you HAVEN'T been to the Linear Garden, it's a must see.

We soon discovered why the ugly looks.  There's absolutely no feed for these guys in this enclosure.  The only thing they had to eat was a huge cactus someone threw over the fence.  Gosh this makes me mad.  The poor babies were eating the thick base that had fewer spines on it.  Someone please FEED them.

The Chance family had never been up this little road where they could be impressed by the Linear Garden creation.  Honestly, it's just a long pile of junk.  I feel like it used to be a little more organized.  Just a little oddity along the way.  This gentleman is doing his part to keep junk out of the dump.  Truth is, he was tired of sitting around inside with his wife and began this creation when he retired.  Also it's a nice picture of the BAT (Big A$$ Truck)!!

On the way back down, this guy gave me one last chance to rub that soft nose.  Do be careful.  I'm a horse woman with more years than I care to admit and I can read them like a book.  They can and DO bite.

This beauty was in the linear garden, lovingly cared for obviously, as evidenced by all those blooms.  This has to be the prettiest cactus I've ever seen.

One more really cool ghost town to see on this trip.  We were heading there when all of a sudden it sounded like someone was shooting buckshot at us.  The noise made me jump!!!  We hit a swarm of bees with the BAT.  OH NO!!!  You'll never get all those sticky guts off the truck!!  So sorry Dan, but lets go ... we've got another ghost town to see!!

The entire NEXT day was spent watching my stew cook.  Staying home is definitely NOT my thing.  I must have checked it twenty times before deciding it was done.  It actually turned out very good instead of my usual cemetery donation.  

For my new readers, I have a cemetery out back in the desert where I bury all of my failures ... and there are MANY!!

Up next ... the end of the line train station to silver and riches.

Hold That Thought .....

We interrupt the Ghost Town Trail to bring you this exciting news.  There's nothing better than meeting new RV friends along the byways and trails of the old West.  When I found out Doug Laning was parked at my all time favorite Empire Cattle Ranch, I was determined to make the trip out and say hello.

I travel these roads at least once every time I'm in Tucson, but had no idea there was actually places you could park, as in BLM land.  All I knew was nearby ranchers kept cattle here during the winter and spring.  

I can definitely see why.  The open expanse offers great feed for cattle and an amazing landscape to ride horses.  

I was a little surprised that the roads were not in better shape, with potholes everywhere.  People drive their RV's back here?

Then I came to Cienega Creek.  It wasn't the water but the five inch jump up the side of the concrete.  I'm not sure I have enough nerve to drive my rig down here.  I figured there would be a matching drop off on the other end.  No big deal for my Jeep, but OUCH in my rig.

Up the hill, I was surprised to find six or seven rigs parked all around the area.  This is WAY cool!!  Then I saw it ..... the White Lion .... parked about halfway up the hill in a perfect spot.  And there sat Doug and Yuma.  I've been reading his blog for several months and wanted to meet the guy who likes to hike as much as I do.  

Gosh ... he even dressed up real spiffy!!  I think he was a little surprised I actually showed up though.  After all, it isn't often a perfect stranger drives all that way to say hello.  Yuma greeted me with great enthusiasm.  What a sweetheart he is!!

We spent the next two hours talking like old friends while I scratched Yuma from head to toe.  In no time I got a nice sunburn from the wind and rays.  Really, I need to get sun a little more often!!  In the blink of an eye, it was time to head back home.  How time does fly when you're having fun.

You definitely need solar out here, although Doug said some people just ran their generators.  I've never thought solar would be cost effective for me because I'm not out in the boonies much.  I'm rethinking that now ... I would LOVE to park out here for a couple of weeks.  And Quartzsite!!!!!

On the way back home, I stopped to check out these beautiful flowers.  These would look very nice in my back yard.

Apparently a wild flower of some kind.  I'm going to the nursery to see if I can find some seed.  

Or maybe I should go take a look first.  Yesterday I found this magnificent fairy duster right out my front door.  I guess I won't be buying any more of those!!

I had a great time Doug.  Thanks for your hospitality.  It was nice to spend time with someone who loves animals as much as I do!!  That Yuma is the BEST!!

On my way out I drove through the camping area and was surprised to find two HUGE rigs, at least 40 footers.  I'm talking the fancy painted immaculately waxed rigs I would never expect to see here.  No doubt now, I'll be back with my motorhome next year.

I'll return to the Ghost Town Trail tomorrow.  Until then, I hope you have been blessed with toilet paper!!

Ghost Town Trail - Gleeson

You too can visit these once thriving mining towns.  Just look up the Ghost Town Trail.  That is actually the name of the gravel road we traveled.  After leaving Courtland, mostly not visible because the gate was locked, we headed up the road to our next stop, Gleeson.

Originally named Turquoise because of the rocks the Native Americans dug up here and made into their fabulous jewelry, the original post office was established in 1890.  Today, as you can see, there are only SOME that live here.

In 1894, John Gleeson came along and registered a claim, calling it the Copper Belle Mine.  Did he pay for the land?  Who knows.  In 1900 he moved the little town just down the hill and called it Gleeson, building another post office.

With around 500 people living there, a jail was of course necessary.  Here's the original, built in 1910.    The jail was used for storage of mostly drunks and petty thieves waiting to be transported to the Tombstone Courthouse, along with bootleg liquor during their prohibition period.

Today, they say there's a snake oil salesman here.  The owner has actually renovated most of the interior and it is now called a museum.  We didn't knock on the door with the virus and all. 

BEFORE the jail, they chained miscreants to a big tree on this site while awaiting their transfer.  Little kids of the town threw rocks at them.  The only cleaning THAT jail got was when it rained.  

Here's what main street looked like back in the day.  That's the Joe Bono store and saloon on the right.  Originally built as an outlet for the Charles Renaud stores (kind of like Montgomery Ward stores), it spent most of it's life as a saloon.

Unfortunately, there was a fire, and not much remains today except the front section.

Inside the Joe Bono saloon.  This is all gone now .... I snatched this image from the internet.

Sadly, in 1912 a fire burned 28 buildings to the ground.  Much of it was rebuilt, because during World War I, copper mines were booming, supplying the demand of the war.

The largest remnants of a building are those of the old NEW school.  Built in 1918, it was a massive two story structure.  The entire bottom floor was used for storage, with the top floor full of classrooms for kids and community meetings.

The last classes were held in 1945 when it closed.  Most of the remaining wooden parts of the building were torn out and used elsewhere.  The floors were taken up and hauled to Tombstone to renovate the floors of Tombstone's Crystal Palace.

There are ruins of a hospital, built by the Shannon Mining Company in 1906, but we did not see them.  John Gleeson sold the Copper Belle Mine to Shannon and by 1913 they were making money hand over fist.  So much so that they built a hospital for their employees, the only one in the entire area between Bisbee and Benson.

Interestingly enough, a Spanish Flu pandemic broke out in 1918, filling the hospital to capacity.  By 1930, most people had left the area, but mining continued until 1958.

There you have it .... the big little town of Gleeson.  A few miles up the road, the gravel turns to pavement as you turn towards Tombstone.

But WAIT!!  There's another ghost town on the map.  That one is coming up!!

Hunting Ghost Towns

Arizona is a different kind of critter, with some amazing topography from long valleys to crazy hoodoo shapes in the surrounding mountains.  In and around the entire area, you will see mine tailings.  Silver was the name of the game back in the late 1800's and in the early 1900's it turned to copper.  So how better to spend your day than hunting for the remains of the old west towns where whiskey and guns were an every day pair.

Over the hill into Benson and then south past Texas Canyon, you end up in Indian territory.  Not far from here is the Chiricahua National Monument, but that is for another day.  We are hunting for Courtland, founded in 1909 by the Great Western Mining Company owner Courtland Young.

On a side note, this valley shown here is known as the Kansas Settlement.  After World War II farming expanded greatly due to new markets.  This valley had great water reserves below deck, but with so much pumping of the aquifer, in 1963 water levels dropped 50 feet, making it a losing proposition.  Although there is still a bit of farming going on, most of the country looks like this.

Evidence there is still some grain farming in the area.

I had checked out this route previously and discovered the entire road system is gravel.  I wasn't sure Dan wanted his pretty truck to get that dirty, but away we went.  As it turned out, Courtland was just ahead.

Our main objective was to find where the train tracks went along each side of the Dragoon Mountains.  These lines hauled tons of ore to the processing mills to remove copper.  We had to hunt a little for the roadbeds.  

This was weird ... it ran right down the middle of the road.  We thought it was a rail, but there were little square pieces set about 20 feet apart.  Maybe some kind of sight line used by surveyors?  

Here's our first sighting, up on the hill.  This is heading into a canyon and everything is up on the hill.  Courtland is located in the Sulphur Springs Valley, the scene of many skirmishes involving Pancho Villa and his men.  The only recorded murder in town was when Jennie Parker shot and killed her boyfriend over another woman in the saloon.  She spent one year in jail before being pardoned.

The only remnants of town here are what's left of cement block and rock buildings.  The town exploded so fast that the Mexico and Colorado railroad, along with the Arizona and Colorado Railroad, built lines here to serve the mines.  

Courtland's claim to fame was their jail.  Originally the jail was an old mine shaft with a wooden door.  When an inmate almost died by setting his mattress on fire, they built a REAL jail.  Miners quickly figured out it was so much nicer to live in that jail and be fed three times a day, compared to their tent, that they took turns being arrested. 

Soon it became known as the Bright Hotel.  John Bright was the only deputy sheriff here until they did away with his position in 1916.  The bill for food had become so huge, it was unaffordable, so they dismantled part of the jail and moved it to Benson.

Here's a picture of the Crescent Cafe in Courtland back in the day.

All around the area you can see evidence of small mining still going on.  

Then we came to the sign.  CLOSED.  Who knew this was a private ghost town?  Apparently they are more about the rocks you can find here, as they set up tours just for that purpose.  This is why there are no pictures of the jail.  We might have snuck in the back door down the hill, but went on to the next town instead.

It's a very cool place to visit.  Maybe when all this virus stuff has subsided you might want to take a look.  The country is beautiful and the drive, although slow due to the gravel, is well worth it.

In the meantime, I don't know what got into me.  There I was at the grocery store minding my own business when this darn bag jumped in my cart.  What the heck?  Why in the world did I buy these?  They are totally NOT on my edible list, but they sure will go good with those hot dogs I got.

Arizona has now sent out an order urging people to stay home.  Only essential travel they say.  Personally I think it's essential that I drive out and say hello to Doug.  If you don't hear from me tomorrow, please come bail me out.

Day 21

Road Trip!!!

After going completely crazy around here, and growing bigger by the minute sitting on the couch eating, the Chance household and I decided to go ghost town hunting.  Up to that time, the Arizona governor said to get out and enjoy the sunshine.  So we did, giving everyone their space!!

APRIL FOOLS ... I haven't gone through any of the 200 pictures I took.  I'll do that today.

We all jumped in the BAT and headed out past Texas Canyon to Dragoon and beyond.  Oh ... what is the BAT?  Big A$$ Truck.  I'm sure I got dropped on my head as a baby, because I LOVE big trucks. I smile every time I see this one.  I know, it's a Ford and I'm a Chevy girl, but I like it anyway.  It's even bigger than MY BAT.

This one however is usually spotless, unlike mine.  This is just a little of the dirt collected on those gravel roads we drove.

Anyway, we were following the old railroad tracks around the area between Benson, Tombstone and Fairbank.  We arrived in Tombstone just in time for lunch in the first picture.  The only reason Dan stopped was because of the lady in pink and turquoise standing in the middle of the road shaking her maracas, or whatever you call those.

We ordered outside, thinking we could sit at their picnic tables, but NO ... no sitting allowed.  We were directed across the street to the City Park to sit at THEIR tables.  Two big burgers (Patty and I shared) and drinks came to $30.  We figured we were helping the economy, if only for one more day.  

Sadly, the streets were almost completely empty.  Kudos to the OK Cafe for staying open.  From there, we stopped at one more little town before heading back home.  

I did hit the grocery store early in the morning, making it past the Security Guard and the Police Officer (don't know why he was there).  I'm happy to announce that Frys has everything, even toilet paper.  Alas, I was only allowed one package, but no big deal, I still have some in my rig.  

I even stopped at Safeway for Cooper chicken, and am happy to report they are also back in business with most of their shelves full except for pasta, tp and beans.  Somehow those seem to go together.  I totally give it up for Frys however .... they have senior hours every day between 6 and 7 am.  No other grocery store is doing that.

A quick walk through my back yard resulted in this beauty.  April Fools ..... it's not a beauty at all, except for the color.  It's wilty and a little brown around the edges.  It's hard to grow roses in the desert.

 SO ... I've got my work cut out for me getting those images off my camera.  It was one of the best trips I've taken lately with lots of ghost town remnants.  So sad they are not all still intact.  I see another road trip in the very near future!!

PS  The entire time we were on this excursion, we were far far away from any people.  The only time we saw anyone was at the OK Corral, where we kept our distance.