Jan 1st 2013 - Plomosa Road 16.6/1.7

December has moved along, New Year’s Eve has now come and gone; the desert was fairly quiet
with few, if any, distant generator noises (solar makes none) and a good time was had by all until about 11.00 when I went to bed after watching a “Walking Dead” marathon on TV.

Temperatures this week- cool for here at about 50 (10C) by day, plus north winds making the windbreak on the trailer earn it’s money.

The last few nights, temperatures have bottomed out at about 35°outside, 40°indoors, excellent for sleeping but a little frosty for the computer in the mornings.

A few responses noted that I had erred on my duck designations in the last e-mail. To my discredit, I had mentioned mallards and drakes as the males and females of a species. Little did I know, not being very duck-savvy, that drakes are males and female mallards are just ducks, hens or female ducks. I was pleased that only a few of you caught me up on this and trust that everyone actually did know the correct terms.

The Lewises and the Richards camped with me for a while but they have moved elsewhere, Hugh and Christine to Ajo, Dave and Gail, first to an RV Park in Bouse where they could plug in and have heat without using so much propane and today off to Vegas to visit with their son. We had a few campfires and one “chunk”- broil but windy weather made many nights a chilly proposition. To this end, Dave and I went out with the trusty electric chain saw and my new Honda generator to gather a truckload of deadwood. They have gone but much of the firewood remains - reckon, I’ll load it up and cart it to the next destination – likely Why on Jan 7th where I planto meet Ted and some of his friends, plus, possibly, the Obornes and the Richards. With December winds an almost constant factor, the wind break is up and sitting in the lee is usually quite warm.

While Hugh was here, his generator failed due to old gasoline waxing and clogging up the carburetor jets. This was an excellent opportunity for me to have a carb-lesson from Walt who took it apart, flushed it out with carb-cleaner and restored it to its previous glory. I expect that my little Yamaha at home has similar problems and can’t wait to tear it apart next summer, hopefully with the same success that Walt managed to achieve on the Honda – if only I can remember where those bolts went?

Some time ago, I was in touch with Sani-Dental in Algodones by e-mail re: timing and prices for filling the gap in my teeth (info@sanidentalgroup.com – 928 257 1307). I have to wait until 4 months post-extraction to have an implant ($750 + $250 for each crown), so may make a booking for mid-march to do that. A bridge would be the other option, so will wait until I go to get a recommendation. Walt and Susan went to Algodones and visited la Cholla Dental (lacholla@hotmail.com), found it to be very good, clean, modern etc. They had cleanings plus fillings for her and got a price list for other procedures.

In general, work is going to cost about ½ to ⅓ of what things would cost in Canada. Of course, the question of warranty if something goes wrong should be in one’s mind, though, every year, thousands of Canadians and Americans go to Algodones, now humbly advertised as “the dental capital of the world” for dental work, seemingly without problems. To visit Algodones, one drives first to Yuma, then a short hop west and south to Algodones. At the border is a huge paved parking area operated by the local Indian band for $5 per day. People walk across and the hundreds, possibly thousands of dentists, opticians and pharmacies appear within a couple of blocks of the crossing, many with their attendant hawkers exhorting the crowds in from the street.

Some of my idle time has been spent considering purchase of a new TV for the trailer. New LED screens have dropped considerably in price and use about ⅓ the power of older TVs like my present one. However, the more I looked at my old Zenith, the better it seemed to look, plus, I seem to have adequate power, so why rock the boat? That project (and expense) is now on the back burner.

Arizona Snowbowl, located near Flagstaff in the White Mountains, is a ski resort that opens some years and other years not at all, depending on whether there is any snow. Wisely, they installed snowmaking equipment to increase their chances. However, they based their plan on being able to use reclaimed waste water piped in from municipalities 12 miles down the road. Enter the rare-plant-species-issue. This year, and sporadically over the last ten years, the resort is, and has been, embroiled in a lawsuit with the Hopi Indian tribe who have initiated legal action because of uncertainty about the effects of reclaimed water on a particular plant that grows only on nearby peaks at very high elevations. The species in question is a rare form of ragwort known as San Francisco Peaks Groundsel and the courts have to consider whether the reclaimed water, containing “trace amounts of hormones, antibiotics, antidepressants, pharmaceuticals and steroids”will adversely impact the plant ? All that stuff affects me just thinking about it but maybe the ragwort is a hardy beast?

I’m not sure about dumping sewage, even treated sewage, on the mountains, even though far less treated water was used to irrigate Mexican golf courses where I used to play in days of yore. Back in those times, I smoked, so the caddies (mandatory and presumably out of concern about losing a potential tip) would warn me not to place my cigarette on the ground while executing a shot. In any case, the whole disagreement reminds me of the great “Snowmax”difficulty at Lake Louise wherein Parks Canada denied a permit to use irradiated (dead) bacteria to enhance the quality of the existing snowmaking system. I don’t recall any Indians chaining themselves to bulldozer blades back then as has happened in Arizona but our little controversy had its moment in time and was foiled by a perception of bacteria infecting the slopes.

 

 

 

 

One fine day I went for a hike, so retrieved my boots from the closet where they had been resting for a year. Inside was a fossilized, possibly just desiccated, mouse who had enjoyed the gourmet pleasure of a nice sock and then died in comfort. It’s shell was quite intact and one wonders why this one didn’t escape as many others have?