World's Largest Rosebush - Tombstone

The rosebush is a white Lady Banksia and is located in Tombstone, Arizona. The root originally came from Scotland in 1885. It now spreads over an arbor that covers more than 9,000 square feet.

This is a picture from underneath the rosebush. To view as much of the top as you can see, you go to the top of a viewing platform.

We were lucky enough to see the rosebush in bloom. The rosebush is behind a small museum where artifacts from the 1800's are displayed. One of the most interesting was this clock and calendar. This device displayed the day, month and year, including leap year.

I also thought these old measuring cups were very interesting. I could not include the entire set of Gill measurements, so I took a picture showing the size of one Gill compared to 1/2 pint.

Olive Mill

At the Queen Creek Olive Mill you can purchase a variety of products produced from olives. There web site is http://www.queencreekolivemill.com.

There is a garden, outdoor and indoor seating area, small restaurant and rows and rows of oils, dips, sauces and wines available for purchase.

I brought home Spinach Basil Garlic Linguine, Artichoke and Roasted Garlic Tapenade and Gourmet Dipping Olive Oil for us to try. As you want down the rows of products, the large signs on the walls explain how the products are made and you can sample most of the sauces and dips.

Yum!

Casa Grande Ruins National Monument

The monument includes a museum, a gift shop, archaeological film and the ruins themselves.

The Casa Grande Ruins National Monument is one of about 360 areas managed by the National Park Service and was preserved due to its outstanding archaeological values. The first farmers of the American Southwest are referred to as the Hohokam by archaeologists. The Hohokam mixed ground-up caliche with water to produce a sticky mud that was used as a multi-purpose construction material.

Click on the next two images to enlarge them enough to read about the largest structure in the ruins. Click on your browsers back arrow to return to the blog.

The opening in the top left corner of this image matches the lunar alignment marked on the above diagram.

Arizona Trip

I decided to take two weeks off from school and go down to Arizona to visit Mom and Dad.One of the most exciting things I saw while on this trip was a hummingbird in its nest.

Even more exciting was the fact that the bird stayed in the next while I went down the block and retrieved my camera and came back to take this picture. The wind chimes are hanging from the patio roof of a part model on the same block where Mom and Dad live. As you can see, the birds made the nest right on the wind chimes. The owner told me that the birds have used the same nest for the last three years.

April and May are good months for seeing the flowers in bloom and these pictures are just a few of the cactus we saw on our travels.

Toby Keith's - I Love This Bar

One of Toby's restaurants is located in Mesa. The napkins are white and decorated with the logo you see above the door. The inside is large enough for line dancing and includes a store where you can buy clothing, sauces, etc.

Similar to the Hard Rock Cafe and Planet Hollywood, albums, clothing and posters from Toby's career adorn the walls. There are numerous television screens, most with different channels playing all at the same time and of course, country music is playing through the speakers.

We were there at lunchtime so the mechanical bull was not in operation. I bet it gets extremely noisy in this place at night.

What a fun place. There are very interesting things on the menu like fried macaroni and cheese and deep fried brownies with raspberry sauce and ice cream. We did not have any trouble eating our meal, especially the sweet potato fries.

Wetlands Work

While we do still have a few construction type projects to complete, most of the focus from now on will be cleaning up the wetlands and the area surrounding the house. We have had an extensive amount of clean up in the actual wetlands. This picture is what the area looked like after the winter.

When the workers raked away all the dead grass and pulled out all the dead weeds, this is what was left.

Next, our landscaper will be planting the first rows of trees and shrubs required as part of our agreement with the county that allowed us to build on property designated as wetlands.
Closer to the house, we have this slope that extends from the fence around the backyard down about 10 feet to the level of the wetlands. This is what the area looked like a few weeks ago.

Now, most of it looks like this. Next up for this area is a watering system, weedcloth, bark, plants and steps leading from the gate down to the wetlands.

I will post more pictures when things are being planted.

Black Bean Brownies

Susan was watching Melissa D'Arabian on the Food Network a few weeks back when Melissa made Black Bean Brownies. On the show Melissa stated that her family likes these brownies and will request them over other brownie recipes. Susan and I have a lot of fun trying interesting recipes and this one is definitely different. The brownies are very good. We are going to make them again and use instant coffee instead of espresso powder so the coffee favor is not as strong. You would never know that there are black beans in the recipe unless someone told you. It is unfortunate that she does not provide the nutritional information on her recipes. You can go online and download the recipe from the Food Network.

St. Patrick's Day

Susan took these cupcakes to work today to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. I found the cute little chocolates at a local cake decorator shop.


Before leaving for work this morning, Susan put a brisket in the crockpot for dinner. Yum!

Drain field, continued....

This is a continuation of the post I started yesterday. The pipe is now hooked up to the downspout and connected to the pipe under the sidewalk.

In the photo below you can see them digging the trench for the drain field and the pipe is visible extending out from under the sidewalk.

Today they are filling in the drain field and putting new barriers around the septic tank lids.

And yes, we still have dump trucks bringing in loads of rock and gravel.

Under the Sidewalk

In my last post I mentioned that our contractor needed to connect a pipe to the downspout on the front of the house. Today they started the process of getting a hole dug under the sidewalk that they can place a pipe through to connect to the downspout. Mike is in the Bobcat just starting to dig out the trench for the pipe.

Another guy is digging by hand on the house side. With any luck the holes will match up.

Ben laid a pipe down in the trench that Mike just made with the Bobcat.

Then, Mike started nudging the pipe forward with the Bobcat. I though this was a very clever way to get under the sidewalk. Well, it did not take long before the end of the pipe broke into several small pieces. The guys just cut off the broken end and kept right on going. I think they have done this a time or two.

I'm not sure what is happening now because I came into the house, but I can still hear them working. The dogs are not impressed with the banging taking place while the guys try to get a hold dug under the sidewalk.

Spring 2011 Construction

Now that spring has arrived, we have two major projects going on around the house. Our contractor is working on changing the slope of the ground in front of the house. The picture below shows the area of the most difficult work. You can see the downspout on the side of the house. We had purchased a rain barrel to use over the winter to catch the water from the roof. Unfortunately, there was way too much water for the barrel to collect. The ground flooded and the sidewalk down at the end next to the heat pump was under water for several weeks. Now, our contractor has to dig under the sidewalk and connect a pipe to the downspout so the water can travel under the sidewalk and get awayfrom the house.

Once the pipe is under the sidewalk, it will extend out to the middle of the front area and drain into these plastic pipes that slowly diffuse the water into the soil.

Just this last week several dump truck loads of soil and rock have been hauled in. The first truck that tried to make a delivery got stuck in the mud, just like the moving van did last year. There are also several pieces of heavy equipment sitting by the shop.

On the other side of the front sidewalk, the slope of the ground will be changed so that water runs away from the sidewalk and any water running off our neighbors property will run down to the length of the fence and collect where it does not cause any damage. This is what the rock will look like around the sidewalk and front of the house.

Any plants or flowers we want out front will be in raised beds so we will not need to get down on the ground, or disturb the rock. This should also help keep the weeds under control. The large dirt area in the next picture is above the septic drain field. We will have the same thing done here just in case we want raised beds in this area in the future. The rock will really help keep the dust down this summer.

Before we had gutters installed last fall, we had gravel placed around the base of the shed. You can see the difference in that gravel and the rock being placed around the house. Right now, the ground is so wet that stepping on the smaller grey gravel feels like you are stepping on a wet sponge, while the larger rock is solid under your feet.
The other major project involves the wetlands. This is the year for planting the trees and shrubs required as part of the wetlands agreement. In order to do that all the dead vegetation and noxious plants need to be removed. This involves a large portion of our 2.5 acres and right now we are getting estimates from people just for cleaning out the property. I will take pictures and post them when the clean up starts. More to follow........