Its just nuts.....................

We have been keeping busy with activities here at "summer camp for old people". Hahaha. That's how many of the guests here fondly refer to this campground. There are so many activities its sometimes hard to chose how to spend your time. I'm pretty consistent with "morning stretch" and ceramics. They are my favorites:) Well, before I get too boring, lets move on....

The White Tank Mountain Regional Park is fairly close to us, and we were so impressed with it the first time we visited, we decided to go back. The White Tanks have lots of trails to explore, but we only had time for a short hike. The hikes give us such different views of the desert environment, and its really beautiful!

the "sunset show"

White Tank Mountain Park

heading out on a short hike

the light was so great on these cacti

hiking in the desert-amazing

another view

the light made these cacti glow

the photo is not capturing it completely

really cool

petroglyphs

This particular hike was really short and it was very flat. The cacti were great here. So many saguaros, and they are all different. Some of them "talk" to you. Really! Hahahah. And some of them remind us of people. Its fascinating and fun to walk among the saguaros.

got my handy dandy dorky hat...life is good

nice views

more

ouch!

wild looking, huh?

hiking in the desert

cairn close-up

which way to go?

check out that cactus...lots of arms

doesn't he look great?

they are all different!

looking for crested saguaros?

lots of arms on this one too!

pretty

the desert is so interesting

This is going to sound nutty, but...we discovered a "new to us" pick your own farm, thanks to one of my ceramics classmates. Did you know that pecans grow on trees? Some of the orchards around here let you pick your own, but the timing is pretty tight. Seems you must do this early in January or you are out of luck. Who knew? In early January, the pecan trees are shaken (we did not see this, but the owner explained what we missed-they use a machine to shake the nuts out of the trees). The nuts fall to the ground, and you can pick them up. We were the only ones there at the time, so we were lucky to get a guided tour and personal training from the owner on the art of picking pecans. She showed us which ones were good, which ones had a vitamin deficiency, etc. The owner was explaining that the season is pretty short and we almost missed it because so many people come out in early January and gather all the nuts. There is only a finite amount of pecans, so you can miss the window very easily. We were lucky with the timing, as there were still plenty of pecans to fill our bucket. Of course, the owner guided us to a spot she knew still had some nuts. Apparently it is a very popular activity-and  I'm thinking the reason is the cost. For $10 you can pick 5 pounds of pecans. There is a special machine that cracks them for you if you like, at an additional cost of 20 cents per pound. Then, you can easily shell the pecans at home. I have to tell you it took me about 2 hours to shell all those!! Also, I have to tell you that 5 pounds of pecans is a lot of nuts! The good news...they can be frozen for up to 5 years. Who knew? Anyway, we explored this scene for the experience, not the savings. I guess we are just a couple of nuts:) 

picking pecans...that's right....off the ground!

there is an outer shell to be peeled away

lots of shelling involved

peel back the outer shell to get to the next shell before the pecan :)

here we go....a clear picture of the outer shell, then the pecan shell, and once you break through that you are rewarded with the pecan 

our bucket of 5 pounds of pecans-ready to be cracked

the shell needs to be cracked and peeled off to get to the pecan

there's another one on the ground

the high tech "cracking" machine

where are your safety glasses?

here's a pecan now

delicious!

We are still amazed by the sunrises and sunsets here in Arizona. The colors are spectacular, especially when the sky is cloudy. You know its coming when you see the glow all around you....and then you just look up and enjoy. It just never gets old.

another glorious sunset show

the entire sky lights up,especially when its cloudy

such a pretty sky

the show only lasts a few minutes

but we enjoy it every night!

are you watching football again??

I guess we are still decorating our new "home"....what with the ceramic creations every week. I do have to pace myself though. We don't have that much room-hahah. I am now concentrating on very small holiday decorations to brighten up the place on those special holidays like Halloween and Valentines Day.

my new ceramic masterpiece

a work of art!

pecan?............ anyone?

the sunrises are amazing as well!! 

okay...another ceramic project.....now we are ready for Halloween! Have to keep the decos small in the RV!

Estrella Mountain.......

Estrella Mountain Regional Park is another park in the Maricopa County system. For more information, click here.  It is not too far from the campground. On the way to the park, we passed Luke Air Force Base.  Normally, during the week, we hear and see the fighter jets flying over the campground. We are on the flight path for these planes, and they seem to come in pairs. They are loud, I will say that, but they are also very fast and I  enjoy watching them fly over us, sometimes going sideways. The servicemen and women are training, so these planes can come anytime from 7am to 9pm, excluding holidays and weekends. No matter, I feel safe knowing this training is going on, and what these guys are doing for all of us for our freedom. So no complaints out of me!!

lots of palm trees here

we see lots of fast fighter jets whizzing by

this is a regular commercial airport (in Goodyear)-just thought that looked cool-the pod of airplanes against the mountains

 Estrella Mountain Park has a visitor center, camping and picnicing areas, and several trails within the park. The trails are very well maintained. We did not have too much time, so we hiked the Quail Trail - a short trail, about a mile each way. The views were very nice and we enjoyed the desert flora and fauna. The trail we really were interested in, which goes around the base of the mountains and has great views, was closed due to bees. I'm assuming they are the African bees, that can be deadly. We hope to get back to the park and explore that trail, and some of the other trails there as well.

Maricopa County Park Systems 

Bee's?????  Thanks for the heads up!

walking up the wash a bit

pretty desert environment

pretty cacti 

flowering at this time of year?

 The trail was fun, gentle up and down through the desert. We had a good view of the golf course too...which is the only golf course we've seen that did not have bright green grass, which looks so unnatural in this area! Ha! Golf courses really stand out here in the desert.

I spy a golf course AND a crested saguaro!

check that out!

love this trail....it meanders through the desert and among the hills

very well maintained trails

pretty rocks here in this segment of the trail

atypical rock for this area (at least we haven't seen any like this around here)

continuing on the trail

now isn't that pretty? A little hiking treat!

desert environment

more

warming up now! And soooo glad I have this dorky hat!!

I still want to do the beaded band thingy around this hat...hahahha

 We haven't seen too many quails here in Arizona...just a few at our campground. Until we came here! We stumbled upon a whole bunch of quails, and they were very shy. They literally ran away, with their feather heads bopping along. Its was comical to watch. I'm not sure when they fly, but they seemed perfectly content running away from us, instead of flying.

A little internet search revealed that these are Gambel's Quail. As with a lot of birds and ducks, the males have the more striking plumage and coloring. These birds are found exclusively in the southwest U.S., mainly in Arizona. To learn more about them, click here.

isn't this just the cutest?

there were about 20 of them, all running into the brush

hard to see

and hard to catch up to them for a good photo!

put the camera down and keep walking.....come on!

more desert flora

this is so much fun....you never know what you will see

posing for the camera

another trail...very short and informative

another pretty hiking area!

doesn't he just look great?

The weather has been a little chilly here, most days not getting out of the 50's.  The nights have been freezing, literally. Actually, below freezing. I woke up one morning (okay, it was early....like 6:00 before the sun comes up) and there was no water!!!! My big nightmare, being here in the desert with millions of other people!! Well, turns out the water pressure thingy we have attached to the water hookup froze. No problem-haha. The campground had water. The "well did not go dry" yet.

Lots of things going on here in "summer camp" - we are keeping pretty busy. We hope to be doing more exploring in the area soon too. We'll see!!