Pearls Before Swine

Got to meet Stephan Pastis at Changing Hands Book Store tonite.  He gave a power point presentation which was pretty fun.  Then the lines for the signing - I was group D, so pretty much waited a long while.  No one was pushy or upset, and he is a super nice guy.

He doesn't look as old as he draws himself, but he does like to wear his cap backwards.

I guess he pretty much drew Rat in everyone's copies. (*Click* on the scan above and it will go to the daily strip)

And he took time to pose with everyone.

What does Pastis think of AZGronseth.blogspot.com?

ha, ha, this came out of today's strip!

Summit Hike

I hiked up an unnammed summit today. Met a lot of people on this unofficial, unnamed, unsustainable (steep) trail, so it is no secret.

After heading up the old dirt road scar, the trail starts and heads up between these two giants. Unfortunately, one is already dead.

Not too far up (it is quite steep) the view is already spectacular.

Barrel cacti do not generally clump like this one right on the edge of the trail.

 Don't know the cause of all this damage, but it shows how tenacious these cacti are.

Side-blotched lizard scampered across and stood still long enough for me to get this quick shot.

The view from the top is very nice. I can see my house from here. Or I could see it if it weren't for the dust in the air.  I would guess our house is just right of center - maybe just left of Camelback.

Another great view. The Superstitions are lit up by the setting sun.

Dust in the air does make for some better sunsset shots.

This tiger rattlesnake is just uncoiling (after I passed him in the trail) and heading for cover.  I heard a couple small rattles turned and thought I saw a very small rattler.  This one is well over 2 and a half feet long and I must have passed within a foot or so of where it was coiled up!  Tigers are very thin, and their heads aren't a large when compared to other rattlers.  Apparently frequently sighted in PMP, but it was my first tiger rattler.

 This one didn't like my taking pictures too well.  It did continue moving away from the trail, so I felt better about leaving it alone.

 Part of my job is naming trails, so if this one becomes an official trail, I am thinking of going for Vulture Peak Trail.  There was a vulture crying as it flew around the summit as I approached - thought that might be a good name.

Saguaro Down

I am certain that this saguaro was standing upright on Wednesday evening. By Friday it had fallen over. Fortunately, no one was messing around under it when it fell.

Pretty much rotted at the base. Quite possibly a transplanted saguaro which was buried too deep, although it seemed healthy enough until recently.

 Several arms on one side - perhaps they may be salvagable.

Here's a saguaro cross-section.  It is high up near the end, so the circle of ribs is hardly noticable. In case you ever wondered what a saguaro looks like on the inside, here it is...

 Four arms - the very top had a hole so close to the top that it wasn't worth trying to save.

 They are planted in a lightly shaded structure in order to try to get them to root out.

We'll know if they made it in about 6 months to a year.

Scampi Growing Quickly

He was 1.1 pounds when we picked him up from the shelter.  One week later he was 2.4 pounds, and a couple weeks after that he was 4.1 pounds and growing. 

 Trying to sleep here.

Enough with the flash already! 

Maybe if I try a different posititon... 

Oh yeah, this is it! 

Wake me up when it's snack time. 

Or maybe I'll skip snack and sleep straight through to dinner.



Hyena from the Lion King

Complete with tail! Spirit Week at school and Erik's group did a number from the Lion King.  Erik has decided that acting will not be his future profession.

Agave Roast

This is an horno, or river rock-lined cooking pit. 

 

Step one, clear the rock cover.

Step 2 dig out the dirt and coals from last baking session.

Step 3 light the fire!

 

And burn until there is a very large bed of coals to do the cooking.

Start in the afternoon and finish after dark. Set down a layer of greens (agave leaves work fine) before wrapping the agave in wet burlap and setting on the bed of coals.

Cover with more greens and dirt to keep in the heat.   THEN start up another fire over top of all that and build up a smaller bed of coals over the agave before covering it with dirt.

Wait a couple days and we'll see how it looks...

Kit-O-Lantern

Boo!