Grand Canyon, Northern Arizona
November 19, 2004
While I was living in Sedona, Arizona, my nephew Brian came down to look at a few colleges in Arizona to possibly attend. During his visit we drove up to the Grand Canyon. This was just before Thanksgiving, so to spend time with family after, we drove to Santa Rosa, California for the holiday that year.
Oregon, California, Arizona
September and October, 2012
On to Uruguay
Moving from the USA to Uruguay…
Some photos of leaving Ashland, Oregon. Driving down south through California, to Phoenix, Arizona. Back west over to Los Angeles then on the flight to Uruguay!
My Picture Summary Of 2005
Sedona, AZ and Portland, Ore
As of the beginning of the year still in the 5th house since 2000, there was a lot of mess to clean up from the flood on 12/29/04. The chickens had to live in the garage while the coop was repaired, and every night for 2 weeks there were warnings that another flood may occur at 2 or 3 AM so it was very crazy. A dusting of snow around Sedona on January 7th covered up the sand, trash, and muck for a few hours which made it relaxing for a short while.
On the day before the flood when were getting firewood together, the youngest hen ‘bang’ ran at a tarantula and bit one of its legs off, after she began getting real sick. We took her to a vet that give antibiotics that had to be injected. During one of these, is where I found it true that a chicken well go to sleep when held upside down. After giving the shot she laid there with no movement. Then after feeling totally freaked out that I gave the shot wrong, she all of a sudden sprang up. double freak.
She really never recovered completely and would lay eggs that were not solid shell. A few months later when re-staining the house, she saw a pile of battery acid on the lift and ran over and ate it, killing herself very quickly. It wasn’t that the acid was a draw to any of the other chickens, it had been arounds for days and they all avoided it. She was not in good physical shape and I think she knew what she was doing.
To take a break, drove over to New Mexico to check out Santa Fe and Taos for Cinco de mayo. There didn’t seem to be too much big event about, since its more indian than mexican. We went up to taos and took a tour of the taos pueblo.
On the drive back to sedona, on mothers day I was able to get through to my mother on my sisters cellphone while she was visiting her at the nursing home. It was the last time she talked to me on the phone, her sentences were really bad. After that when I visited it was more of just one word or two. Later in the year when I visited I asked her if she wanted anything, and she said ‘sketti’ so I went to my dads, made some homemade and even though he didn’t want to I made him take it over and feed her that instead of the prunes that they would give her. She ate the whole plate which she enjoyed for the 4th of july.
After that, she wouldn’t eat hard food again. Must of been her choice because she didn’t want to be there, but all she got was the blended everything. But she at least had the last food food that she wanted.
Brian Graduated High School!
Getting tired of the cleanup and painting, and working on the deck boards in sedona, we needed a break and decided to go to canada. One of my employees of the past had moved to Portland, Oregon and I had always wanted to go there, so we jumped on a plane and rented a car to go to canada which I had not been to, then back.
Portland was in its phase. The phase I call the seduction. Those few days a year when portland has the most perfect of weather, people eating on the streets, smiling, laughing. Being the kindest, most amazing people in the entire country. Nothing I had seen anywhere else in the country. The boom is going clean streets and no trash cans, how can this utopia exist and never know that it really exists!
A drive over to Mount Saint Helens for a view of the aftermath, then a drive to Seattle to visit friends, then to Victoria Island, BC. What a beautiful place.
After getting back to Portland, the full seduction is in swing. Why does not everyone live here, why isn’t everywhere like this. Must live here where there is not the possibility of the house floating away in a torrent of water. We must sell the house. Find a rental and start the perfect life in this incredible place.
A nice big house is being restored on SE Clinton Street, everything is sanded down, the wood is gonna be nice, new furnace, new water heater. Internet lines, all new kitchen, this will be great, must rent it, go back and pack! What a glorious summer!
In Sedona, put the house on the market, got the pro-painters, bought new carpet for the whole house, the carpet guys are going to retile also. Mormons. Install day, no show. No calls. Won’t install in a house that has 2 men living in it. Found someone else to install the carpet and tiles that were paid for at the last minute. Hired someone to finish all the decks.. When will he finish?
Portland allows 3 city chickens, so some have to go, but the ones to keep were not too hard a choice, orange, psycho and biscuit. Taken the others away to a new coop was difficult as they have been through a lot.
The move day, the deck is not done. He says he will finish, he’s sad were going, we drive off and he disappears from the face of the earth, even unpaid.
The drive is Long with 3 chickens and 2 cars, by the 3rd day still just going north in southern oregon and get a call the the furniture is 2 days early and going to be delivered at 8 AM… had emergency mcdonald’s, and then drove ahead at a higher speed to be there and get some sleep at the new place that I hadn’t seen for 3 months. Can’t wait.
Arrival at the house at 2:30 AM. Since last seeing the house, painters have come in and sprayed over all the wood. The house is covered in dirt. There are people living in the basement and there is no insulation. There are tools and saws everywhere. A call to the owner, says he will be there at 7. I rent a motel 6 room nearby, get in the room with food poisoning. So sick, zero sleep. Have to call friends that live in portland to deal with the owner and movers til I can make it back. The movers waited at the house was slightly cleaned enough to move stuff in, nowhere else to put it all. Fixing the house problem would have to wait.
2nd day, the rain started.
It won’t be fixed, we have to find a new place. Someone that will allow the 3 hens. Finally found a nice place in the NE section of town on the Alemeda rise. Where was that utopia that was in july? Where did that place go? This was one of the worst decisions ever to move to this drizzle, grey place. Why do we feel horrible physically here?
A trip on Christmas up to Mt Hood, we felt better in the snow. All the land around is under a blanket of white. There is skiing all around, haven’t done that in years.
Back to Portland. New Years eve sitting on the couch, watching Tivo. No reason to celebrate with the floor cold from the air leaking through the windows and settle down for complete discomfort.
My Picture Summary Of 2004
Sedona, Arizona also trip to Montana drive
The first months of cold were not so bad, and there is nothing more beautiful than a blanket of snow topping the red rocks around Sedona, Arizona.
As spring came, what better to do while Tim was away? Get some baby chicks, because, um, they grow up and make eggs…. right! The chicks were said to have been born April 1st. They had 5 kinds, so well, 2 of each! The first night one of the chicks died, but the other nine were happy. The house came with a Chicken coop, so no problem other than we needed to move it because it would be better in the corner of the bigger sized property instead of what used to be the edge.
The coop was not build well, it was big, moving it made it fall to pieces. So then begins the construction of the western style chicken saloon, a real hen house, with a chicken porch!
As the new coop was getting closer to completion, one of the aricanas was killed by the neighbors dog, not like the dog that would hang out with the chickens, but an evil mormon dog. While I was in california, Tim went and picked up another aricana chick. The chick was so lonely that is screeched the entire night, so he went back the next day and got another one. Well it turned out that it was half something and half Guinea hen. Once they were older we also learned how difficult it is to put young hens in with older, the pecking order. They actually ended up being growing up inside and became house trained, mostly. We finally split the coop with some fencing till they all got happier. Then found out that the first aricana was a rooster.
It was beautiful. It would crow. It had to go.
The store I bought feed from said she knew an older Indian guy the lived in the middle of who knows where that would take it not for fighting, but to keep the snakes away. Good enough. There was peace in the coop, and I could sleep.
Had great fun with the vistors during the year, gary, tim, karen, miranda, mark, and brian came in november after we took a multistate drive in october.
The trip was Montana Steam where a train was to be pulled for three days across Montana by the SP 4449 from Portland Oregon, the Daylight train. We drove north making some stops at the Old Faithful Lodge in Yellowstone on the last night of the season before they started the restoration project on it. Then spent some time in the park before heading up to billings where the train would depart, then a night in Bozeman, then the next in Missoula. The train terminated in Sandpoint, Idaho where they bused us to Spokane for the night.
I woke up with a horrible horrible cold, but we had to pick up a rental car and tim had to drive the whole way back that day to the car in Billings. We headed over to South Dakota to see facerock (rushmore), to wyoming to see close encounter rock (devils tower) and through nebraska to denver to visit my uncle bob and tina, and aunt sharon was there also at the same time. Then back to Sedona through monument valley.
December 28th. A nice day, sunny, completely blue sky. We were doing yard work when the neighbor came over and said there was a major flood warning for the next day. Right. A check on the computer said the same, and the radar show big rain in southern california. We had had some flooding in the middle of summer which wrecked the garden and the lawn, but we knew where it flowed so we covered all the new deck wood. Finished stacking the wood pile to keep it out of the previous flood area. They were giving out sand and empty sandbags up the hill at the school so we went up and got the truck filled, then shoveled them up. It got dark, chickens asleep, went to bed.
December 29th. 3 AM the rain on the roof was unbelievable. I had never heard is raining from inside, It was so loud, could not sleep until sleep finally took over. What felt like moments later at 8:30 was Tim pounding on the door telling me I had to get up. The flood had started. I got up and looked out the back at the “creek” and it was wide and moving. The rain had melted the snow off the mountain in flagstaff and the water had to go somewhere. And that was the back yard.
Within 15 minutes it went up another foot, a foot below the chicken coop but still behind the raised irrigation ditch. The chickens staring at the now river had to be let out to run while throwing as much stuff from the garage that was on the floor into the house. After rounding the chickens into the garage, had to cut to perfectly fitting pieces of plywood to seal into to of the doorways for the room that was not above flood level and put them in place, then finish putting the sandbags stacked in front of the garage, move all the cars up to high ground, and take pictures and film as it first went over the banks.
Not knowing if the garage was safe enough for the chickens, they had to all be put in a bathroom which luckily was tiled half way up the walls. At this point the flood water was all around and under the house flowing at amazing speed. Stepping down into on the cement driveway it came up to the top of the rubber boots and I could only move slowly without falling down from the pressure without falling in. We hung out on the road and watched to torrent of water at 20000 cubic feet per second go by in the back while it still rose in front and under the house which was built on piers.
When getting nearing to watch, the wire fences began to snap and fly so had to get away and get a hotel. There was no way of getting in to the house or even know if was going to be there the next day.
The house survived, everything was covered in sand, the garage got a foot of water which was an inch below the doors to more of the house. The Chickens stunk up the bathroom something bad. The coop hadn’t got washed away but was unusable til cleanup since the it was now filled with part of the wood pile, and 1 1/2 feet of sand. the water had been up 3 feet at the coop from the ground, which was now and would stay at that 1 1/2 feet higher. They would be spending time in the garage since it now had a dirt floor also. The sandbags did save it.
New Years eve was a bit, disturbed.
My Picture Summary Of 2003
Sedona, Arizona
Figuring out that there were too many things to be allergic too in Hawaii, we headed to the mainland in January, destination Sedona, Arizona.
The idea that it is dry part of the year compared to having some rain almost every day would be good. On the trip there we found a really nice Sedona-esq house near town, but still mostly private on a street called Juniper Trail. The ironic part about this in later years was finding that one of tim’s major allergies are, yes, juniper/cedar.
After setting up to buy the new house, we flew back to hawaii to finish up, pack up and ship. The furniture went into shipping crates and the jeep was sold and the Prius and my pickup got shipped to Oakland, California. We moved back to the Mainland on 3/3/3.
The cars arrived before the furniture, so I flew up to Oakland, to take a personal road-trip back down to Sedona. It was the week of the start of the Iraq war, and as leaving San Francisco, the police were lined up near the bay bridge because there was going to be a protest.
I drove extra miles and headed somewhat in the wrong direction across nevada on HWY 50, where is was a lonely highway. I was on a pill that the was prescribed to help me to relax that I started when I quit drinking in October and I was getting pretty zoney. I decided to cut back across from ely nevada to vegas to visit Randy Rowland, then continued to the new home in Sedona.
The furniture arrived, some broken up by the movers in hawaii so it would fit into crates, and others covered with exhaust soot from the truck that was first transporting it that had broken down and delayed it. The new house was fine, we were getting unpacked but I wasn’t settling well. I was feeling very out of body, not really knowing where I was even though I could see where I was.
I was preparing to go back to my mainland doctor I hadn’t seen in two years and getting the prescription bottles together with all the after shingles pills and all, and when I read the ‘relaxer’ bottle, something finally clicked in my head. It was the wrong medicine. I looked it up and it was for seizure control. instead of Loraza… it was cLonaza… the pharmacist when filling it couldn’t read the doctors writing correctly, which he had said, because he though the milligrams were written wrong because it didn’t come in that dose… so back at my pre-hawaii doctor, I told him of the pill I was taking and he said, “you must feel horrible, if you feel anything at all”…. it took a few weeks to get it out of my system.
Back in Sedona, there was an ad in the paper for a vacant land for sale on Oak Creek! We always wanted to be on a creek, so we had to check it out. What a beautiful setting, this lot, in between a log cabin on one lot, and bigger house on the other with mature trees in between. A woman came out of the cabin and said she and her husband owned the old cabin and the house, and they wanted to buy the lot but the owner of it was refusing to sell it to them.
We looked at the their big house (they were mormon and build it themselves, the decor showed but it was build extremely well, on oversized piers in case of flood) and then looked at the old cabin. We came up with a deal with them that we would by the lot, then we would split it and buy the cabin, making both lots bigger instead of having to build a house. It closed at the beginning of the 4th of july weekend, and they were away. When they returned, they had decided that they didn’t want to sell the cabin, but they would sell the bigger house. We didn’t want the trouble of it, but we ended up getting it anyways.
The rest of the year was trying to get the house in shape since it had bad wallpaper to take down and deck nails popping up. The heat pump had giving out so we put in a Geothermal system in a way it had never been done, water cooled in the irrigation ditch.
In November, we decided to take an Amtrak to California to be there for thanks giving, but we could only catch it in the middle of Utah at Green River at 5 pm, we left early that morning and drove, toured around arches national park near moab, utah. then got to green river where there was nothing but a closed amtrak shed with a phone. We called and the train was delayed due to a walmart truck rolled down a hill and dumped over on the tracks a few states east, and the train would be in about 1 AM. There is nothing in green river, so we said we’d get on in colorado, and we back tracked the train route to grand junction, where we could actually get food. The train came in there about midnight, and didn’t even get to green river til 3 AM. The sierras that would have been best viewed from the train ended up being in the dark, and they supposedly ran out of food and only served beef stew from the can instead of restaurant service. The train got into Oakland at 4 am instead of the 5pm the day before. It was an awful trip, other that getting to visit friends in San Fran.
It got really cold in December back in sedona, but finally the GeoTermal system went in and worked great, and at the end of the year, family from pheonix and new found family from the mid west came to visit to end the year off!
Broken Arrow Trail
Sedona, Arizona, USA
April 20, 2003
Went on the broken arrow trail in Sedona, Arizona for the first jeep road in the new jeep rubicon, well it was new that day!
The broken arrow trail was normally used for the Tourist pink jeep tours, but its public land that they kept in good shape for 4×4