Whats Up and a Surprise

Hi all,
We didn't get much work in last week, rain through Sunday night then cold and wind pretty much kept us from doing any maintenance work outside. That only left our two days in the gate house as our work week. Oh well they didn't mind and don't require us to make up the time.
 On Tuesday we gathered with the other volunteers and staff to celebrate Wendy's birthday.

 Weather did improve toward the weekend so a drive was in order. Black Hills Byway was the destination. The byway is a 21 mile dirt road between Safford and Morenci. Along the route is a area that is rock hounding friendly so Wendy and I gave it a short go. We found a few fire agates mostly small, but we are really not schooled in rock hounding so on we went.
 It is a pretty rough road but there are some great views.

Mt Graham

View of Morenci mine

Signage about the mine

 On Saturday Tim and Renee had invited us down to Sierra Vista for the 24th annual Cowboy Poetry and Music Gathering. Not totally sure what to expect we thought why not?
 Sierra Vista is a good two hour drive so we opted to attend the Saturday afternoon 10 to 4 pm event. It was held in the high school with different programs going on in nine different class rooms or auditoriums. They blended the entertainment well with poets and musicians taking turns doing their things along with some insightful storytelling mixed in.
 It was pretty cool how it was set up and giving us a good chance to hear many different performers. It was nice meeting up with Tim and Renee again and we really enjoyed the shows.
 We also got a big surprise this week our oldest (Mandi) is coming in for a visit. She has multiple work meetings and thought instead of being flown home for a weekend she could come here. How cool, we can hardly wait. She hasn't seen much of Arizona and we can't wait to show her around.
 Mandi is a busy girl, she is the head accountant at Pilgrims Pride in Live Oak Fla. She also bought a small farmette that we stayed by last winter helping her get settled in. Well things on the farm are a growing, she now has 17 goats, 2 donkeys, and soon 3 dogs( a new puppy on the way). Her husband Pat who had spent the last 10 years working on the Nascar circuit has now taken a job at Pilgrims so having him home more will help.

Latest additions to the family Thelma and Louise, Nigerian pygmy.