Dove Drama

6/23/07 

Things here are pretty slow. With afternoon temps soaring above the 100º mark, slow has become the only way to move.

This morning while walking around the yard with our Schnauzer Bailey, *Bailey being his usual bird killing sweet self, pounced on a baby dove. Fortunately, he didn't crunch it when he picked it up in his mouth, instead, he dropped it at my feet as I requested (in a shriek that probably woke up the whole neighborhood). I picked up the drool dampened baby bird and inspected it for damage, finding none, I put the baby on a limb in one of our Mulberry trees. As morning progressed we kept an eye on the tree to see if the baby's parents would find their lost baby and sure enough they did. If we hadn't seen their behavior, we wouldn't have believed the joy expressed by Mama and Papa Dove when they discovered their baby was safe and sound. They greeted him with coos and murmurs as they stroked his feathers and fed him. They nudged him to a secure spot in the tree and then spent the entire day nurturing and reassuring him as they made trips back and forth to feed him. Each time one of the parents approached the baby, he would wrap his wings around the parent and hold it until he was fed, in turn, the doting parents would put a wing over the baby dove and stroke its feathers...quite a moving and amazing sight to see.

 

*To play devil's advocate a bit...Schnauzers were bred for their ability to use their noses to sniff out and destroy rodents. In the absence of rodents, Bailey will seek out lizards and birds as an alternative. Not his fault, it's in his genes.

 

                                                  

                                              Bailey

                                     

 

6/25/07

Update:

Baby Dove is doing just fine. This morning he's beginning to fly around a bit. He's not fearful of me when I walk up to him to take a picture. It looks like he'll make it. Hopefully after escaping the jaws of the Schnauzer, he'll be careful about other, more wild predators. 

Here's his picture taken this morning.

 

                    

 

                                                               

 

                            

                                 

 

A-Cross, Jackrabbit & Cemetery

6/13/07

We were on the road at first light. It's difficult for us to go more than a few days without Jeeping.  I suppose it's an addiction of sorts and we're "enablers" because we both want to go out and explore so we rationalize it to each other. A-Cross Road is a favorite, when our time is limited because of pending heat, we head for our old standby, A-Cross.

It seems that no matter when we go, we see something we hadn't seen before. We noticed a cemetery visible through the scrub so we stopped for a look around. It turned out to be the Bacon Family Cemetery. The Bacons were early ranchers in the Tonto Basin area dating back to 1874.

Along the way we were stopped by a young Jackrabbit sitting in the middle of the road. When we stopped the Jeep, instead of running away, he came for a closer look. It's not unusual to see a Jackrabbit standing close to three feet tall (at the ears) they're neat looking critters. Jackrabbits got their name because their ears bear a similarity to those of a Jackass.

Anyway, after a great omelet breakfast at Butcherhook Restaurant, we're inside for the day while the thermometer continues to rise ....

Gisela's Pioneer Cemetery

 6/11/07

Fabulous weather today! Overcast skies with temperatures this morning staying at 72º making it a perfect time to get our for some badly needed Jeeping.

We'd been reading about the history of the early pioneer town of Gisela (guy-see-la) located below Payson, so we thought we'd go check it out.

Gisela was first settled by miners around 1876 just about the same time Mormon settlers came to the area. Finding plentiful water from the Tonto Creek and lots of fertile bottom land to grow their crops they decided to settle. When you see the mountains and hills surrounding Gisela, it's easy to understand why they decided to stay. Prettier places are hard to find.

We also looked for and found the Gisela Pioneer Cemetery, a peaceful place located on a hill overlooking the freshly plowed fields of a cattle ranch.  

One of the more famous inhabitants of the cemetery was Juan Vigil, a 17 year old Mexican sheepherder who was cruelly murdered in 1903 by Zechariah Booth for doing nothing more than tending the flock. Just as we've all seen in western movies, there wasn't any love lost between cattle ranchers and sheepherders. The cold-blooded shooting of young Juan Vigil along with Wiley Berry, the son of the owner of the sheep ranch, was just such an incident. Zechariah Booth was convicted of the murders and hanged in Globe, Arizona in 1905. Booth was known to be an outlaw and ruffian who had already served time in the Yuma Territorial Prison for burglary and grand larceny. He was as tough and mean as they come, often bragging to others about how many horses he'd ridden to death.

Wandering through the cemetery we noticed the seemingly inordinate number of children's and babies' graves, many either being stillborn or barely making it through their first few years of life. As we listened to the sad song of the Whippoorwill, perched amid the scrub, we could only speculate on the harsh existence these early settlers must have faced, their graves are still bearing silent testimony.

 

                      The grave of young Juan Vigil

                       

 

 

 

         The murderer of Juan Vigil

                                               

 

 

Life's Simple Pleasures

6/3/07

We haven't been doing any Jeeping lately, we sure miss it but with hot weather here to stay for a few months, we err on the side of caution and stick closer to home. The desert can be a very unforgiving place when temperatures soar to 100º+ during the summer months. Although the Jeep is air conditioned, we always have to keep in mind the possibility of a mechanical breakdown in some of the remote places we explore. It wouldn't be a good thing to have to hike out under a blazing sun. We don't want our bleached bones to be found and then wind up as hanging on someone's den walls as souvenirs of the old west.  

Anyway, here are some photos we took of our "work in progress" cactus garden. We never know which cactus will be the next to surprise us with spectacular blooms.

Owls Off A-Cross

5/28/07

It's getting a bit too hot here to do much exploration but we did manage to get out for a short trip yesterday morning with Jean & Larry. We've been passing an old ranch on our travels so we thought we'd take a closer look. The place looked to be fairly modern, we haven't found any history on it yet, we'll have to ask some locals to fill in the gaps. We did learn that the Forest Service once used it as a fire station to cover the eastern end of The Tonto National Forest, Roosevelt district. A sign we found leads us to believe it might have been the Lazy S Ranch once upon a time.
The best part of the trip was finding three sleeping owls. Two flew away (sorry for disturbing your sleep guys) but one hung around to watch us and have his photo taken. I think they're either Whiskered Screech Owls or Flammulated Owls, not sure which but either way, they sure were cute.

 

*NOTICE PLEASE*

6/1/07 NOTE: AOL got the journals fixed as they promised. Whew! What a relief!

5/26/07

If you're having any problems viewing the pictures or any of the entries in my journal, you're not alone.  Hopefully the AOL techs will have the problem solved and patched next week some time. AOL is working on a new and different photo viewer and in the process, they've screwed up some existing journals.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience, have patience and check back again.  Please, you might say a little prayer to the AOL gods to fix the problem soon. A virgin sacrifice might help but...well....maybe not. 

Cherry Creek Road to Board Tree Saddle

5/5/07

We set out about 6 AM today to try and beat the heat, as it turned out our temperatures were great anyway with a high of only 75º.

We've been on this trail before, but friends, Larry & Jean hadn't run it in its entirety, so we set out for higher elevations to run Cherry Creek Road to Board Tree Saddle up on SR 288. (288 is Desert To Tall Pines Scenic Highway) It's a beautiful trip. Through creeks, up and down some steep terrain and passing through lovely peaceful wooded glades. The air was crisp and clean with a definite nip in the air at the higher elevations.

 

Only a few critter sightings, a couple of Mule Deer, a pair of White Tail Deer, a large Jack Rabbit and some ground squirrels, none of them paused for picture taking.

 

As I continue writing this journal, I find I'm running out of acceptable adjectives to describe the grandeur of what we're seeing. Today was no exception. The scent of pine in the crystal clear, cool, alpine air is hard to put into words. The deep canyon ravines with dizzying dropoffs and the lush green vegetation of all varieties along the way added even more wonder to the experience.

 

The total trip lasted a bit over five hours, certainly time well spent.