Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Busy in Tucson, Touring and Vacationing

Anne-Marie and I have been back in Tucson since our trip North to Carson City, Nevada.  We’ve been busy getting the house ready for sale in Copper Crest, and only have a few more things to pack up, before the final cleaning.  We have toured an art gallery, and I visited the Air and Space Museum with Steve, in addition to several hikes, we just don’t lack for activities.  The winter only lasted about two weeks for us, and the weather is back into the mid 70s, and the happy hours are back into full swing.
Cardinal in Wash
Back in December, The camera caught a Cardinal on the small brush pile.  The Cardinal must have triggered the camera when it flew in, because this series of pictures only had this guy in them.

The trail camera over at Copper Crest is still catching Javelina and Coyote every night, and after owning the camera for a year, I have figured out how to have it take videos.  The process of putting them on the blog has taken me over a week.  I am having a very difficult time learning anything new.
Javelina at sunset
The Javelina travel in small groups, and sometimes stop to investigate the smells where the birdseed was three nights ago.  I scatter bird seed here every three days or so, and these Javelina can still smell it.  I haven’t seen the newborn baby since December, and it was with a larger group, and I hope it is still around.
Timid Coyote
The day this this Coyote was filmed, I scattered two apples broken in half, and some stale bread for the birds, and the Coyote took a liking to the apples.  The video shows the Coyote looking right at the camera a few times, I think that they can sense something is up.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

We are back in Tucson

Anne-Marie and I were on the verge of driving to Salt Lake City to visit our daughter and family, but a call from her Thursday morning changed our minds.  A foot of snow, snowing now, and more to come, not counting that there were over 150 auto wrecks in the Salt Lake City area.  The extended forecast for their area was promising more of the same, so we traveled south and back to Tucson.  I bought a set of tire chains for the van, just to get out of Northern Nevada. but we didn’t need to put them on. 

We spent three nights in Las Vegas, and two whole days in a casino was just too much for me, one day is all that I really needed. 

The wildlife count for the trip is 20 wild horses, and 20 burro’s, all in small groups.
Goldfield Firestation
The town of Goldfield Nevada has a lot of history, there was 20,000 people living here in 1907, and now there are 268.  A fire destroyed most of the town in 1923, but many of the stone structures remain.  This is the Fire Station, with an old fire truck displayed on the Main Street.
Goldfield old vehicles
The downtown area has several places where the residents have placed old trucks and equipment to attract tourist interests.
Snow on Mountains
Anne-Marie was able to take this picture while we were driving.  A rugged mountain range, with the snow highlighting ridges and valleys.
Wrecked plane beatty
This wrecked plane is next to the highway, just outside of Beatty Nevada.  Anne-Marie was able to take this picture through the front window of the van, but being the best picture of the plane, we weren’t aware of the red building in the background, being the Angle Ladies  Brothel.  I only discovered the use of the building after zooming in on the plane to look at the stickers and signs , and I saw that the building has a red neon Open sign in the window.
Roadrunner
The trail camera was working for the week and it caught the normal group of Javelina, and Coyote, as they passed through, but a new visitor was this Roadrunner.  The Roadrunners are hunters like hawks, but primarily stay on the ground.  They sometimes stay in one place for several minutes, but this one  got in just one picture, and then he was gone.