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Woke
up to a phone call again today…this time on Kim’s phone. Mike just calling to talk about life and
reminisce about when we were still home and he would call and say “Kim, you got
any coffee going?” and then he’d come over and hang out. He’s been watching the house for us while
we’re gone…sometimes literally. When he
called this morning, he was sitting by our driveway, watching the house. š He’s
also been feeding our cats, Bert, Ernie and Sam, and gets quite concerned when
he can’t find them out in the barn.
Typically he concocts a story about them falling victim to some horrible
fate when they’re usually out hunting or down at the neighbors. But it keeps him occupied and gives him a
reason to call Kim. He says that Kim
(and me by extension) is his only ‘come over, hang out and shoot the shit’ kind
of friend. I’m sure he’s at loose ends
and will be glad when we get back. Until
then, Kim is just a phone call away.
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Morning rock update: There were more
rocks placed around the campground this morning. And I exchanged my sparkly rainbow rock for
one the showed a creative use of the contours of the rock…I don’t want to
appear too selfish. I have my eye on
another one also…if it hangs around for a couple of days, I’ll snag it for my
collection. I tried pointing that one
out to a little boy, who did take it…but I think his parents made him put it
back because it’s back on the post. I
went on a mini treasure hunt around the camp to see if I could find more. Most are up by the clubhouse, which includes
the playground, swimming pool and bathroom areas. All areas of activity so the rocks will be
found…
Afternoon rock update: A couple of the
rocks I found this morning are gone.
Either the kids around camp found them or the person who painted them
decided to take them back. There are
still some rocks around so I’m thinking the missing ones found a new home with
someone. BUT I put a little test out
there…I wrote "Paint me, please!" on a piece of paper, found 3 rocks and then used the rocks to anchor the paper
up on a window ledge by the clubhouse back door. If the person responsible is still around,
then hopefully there will be some more painted rocks…if that person has left,
then the rocks will remain plain rocks.
And if the work crew around here decides that it’s a bunch of nonsense
and throws my rocks/paper away, I guess I’ll never know. However it turns out, I’m having fun with it…š
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Slow
start to a cool day…we did the wash again, hoping the sun would warm the day as
we waited. Then we spiffed up the
bikes…they get dusty quick and yesterday more than a few bugs gave their lives
to make my windshield look nasty. The
whole front of my bike gave Kim the perfect chance to try his new bug remover
product...he was frustrated that he forgot to bring along extra Bug Slide which
is our go-to bug removal product. However,
Wizard’s brand of bug remover is getting two thumbs up from both of us.
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Took
our bicycle ride after lunch. The day
was warming nicely but there was still a good breeze that was making me
hesitate to use pedal power. Oh, come
on…don’t be a wimp. You brought those bikes all the way here to ride them. A little wind is better than snow, so get
your butt out there! Once we started
down the road, the breeze wasn’t as bad as I thought it’d be. We rode against the wind going out so we
decided to go a bit farther since we’d have the wind pushing us on the way
back. It was the longest ride we’ve
taken yet, both in distance and time.
Working up to be able to go a good distance on the bike trail when we
get back home….if the snow ever disappears!
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After
our longest bicycle ride we took one of our shortest motorcycle rides. Decided to ride to Coolidge to see what the
Casa Grande Ruins National Monument was all about….and then we’d be able to get
some groceries for supper also. The old 'two birds with one stone' trick. The
Ruins Monument is right in Coolidge and I’ve see the sign for it many times,
but we just haven’t stopped to check it out.
I actually didn’t expect it to be much because it was a ‘ruins’…but back
in the late 1800s efforts were taken to preserve what was left of it then and I
was pleasantly surprised by how much of the Casa Grande (“Great House”) is
still standing. It was built by the
Ancestral People of the Sonoran Desert who are considered to be desert
farmers. They built little villages
along the Gila and Salt Rivers and then devised a canal system to irrigate
their crops, etc. The Great House is the
one building that remains but it is surrounded by many partial walls of the
compound. By all I saw and read, it was an engineering marvel. The Ancestral
People didn’t have the benefit of modern power tools, wheels, beasts of burden
( horses, oxen, cows) or support frames.
All they really had were their hands and sticks. This is what the Casa Grande Ruins brochure
has to say about building the Great House, which expert consider was completed
about 1350:
Builders found building material underfoot:
caliche (cuh-LEE-chee), a concrete-like mix of sand, clay, and calcium
carbonate (limestone). It took 3,000
tons to build the Great House. Caliche
mud was layered to form walls four feet thick at the base, tapering toward the
top. Hundreds of juniper, pine, and fir
tree were carried or floated 60 miles down the Gila River to the village. Anchored in the walls, the timbers formed
ceiling or floor supports.
How the roof was
made: Saguaro ribs were land across the
beams, covered with reeds, and topped with a final caliche mud layer.
Despite centuries of weathering and neglect,
today the Great House stands as the most prominent example of the Ancestral
People’s society.
The
brochure also included this information:
After a long battle with the desert, this
ancient building still commands respect.
Four stories high and 60 feet long, with a platform mound filling the
first floor, it is the largest known structure of the Ancestral People of the
Sonoran Desert. The early Spanish
explorers named it well---Casa Grande (“Great House”)---and to them it was a mystery. Its walls face the four cardinal point of the
compass. A circular hole in the upper
west wall aligns with the setting sun at the summer solstice. Other openings align with the sun and moon at
specific times. Perhaps people would
gather here to study how the positions of celestial objects related to times
for planting, harvesting, and celebrations.
Who were these people who watched the sky so
purposefully? In 1694 Spanish
missionaries were the first European Americans to ask this question.
Before
the Great House became protected, people could wander around inside and as
people will do, their carved their names into the hardened caliche…J.W.Ward, who
identified himself as a Sergeant, wrote his name inside the Ruins in 1871. Today the most a person can do is peer into
the building through doorways and windows. In the late 1800s a roof was erected over the ruins to protect it from the weather...in 1932, it was replaced with the roof structure that is still in place today.
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A
bonus to visiting the Casa Grande Ruins today was being able to watch the
craftsmanship of Nelson Lewis, a Native American sandpainter. Not only was he selling his art, but he was
demonstrating his craft also. It was interesting
to watch him use glue and sand to put the finishing decorating touches on a
picture of a turtle, but talking to him was the best. He explained his craft: He uses finely textured colored sand which is
produced by pulverizing various types of rock.
He does that himself with a hammer. He had the rocks on display and told
me which rocks produced which color…and also added what area/region/city of the
state each type of rock comes from. He paints on sandstone, also from different
regions. To detail the turtle he was
using a paintbrush to dab on the glue then sprinkled the colored sand onto the
glue, blowing the excess away with a quick exhale. I watched him paint several different colors
of sand using that process…the glue must set up quickly because a particular
color of sand was sticking only to the spot intended for it. Once totally dried the sand will not flake
off unless submerged in water, which is the process he uses if he makes a
mistake…puts the piece of sandstone in water, waits for the glue to soften,
then wipes it clean and he’s ready to start over. It’s a very time intensive art but he made it
look simple. Years of practice! 
After
all that he shared with me/us about his art, I thought the perfect way to
remember this experience was to buy one of his sand paintings. There is a very securely wrapped piece of sandstone carefully snuggled in the trunk of
Kim’s bike...it's maybe 4" x 7" with a Kokopelli sandpainted on it. A very fine indulgence
indeed. š
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In the bag with
my purchase was a paper detailing a little history of Mr. Lewis. The beginning of it is as follows:
To All
Interested,
In a reply to your request for a
biography about myself. I am a member of
the Native American tribe call “Dine” which means “The People”. The common name we are recognized by is the
“Navajo”.
I was born on a road about fifteen miles
north of Winslow, AZ., while my mom was being transported on the way to the
hospital in Winslow. That was in 1946.
The elders say that a person comes to the
Mother Earth for a reason, so I believe that is the reason why I’m sandpainting
today.
The closest reason that I could come out
with is the maybe it’s because I was born on the ground. (Mother Earth)
I went to school for twelve years. I started school when I was six years old on
the reservation. While I was attending
school at Brigham City, Utah in 1963, I met my wife Judy Joe. I met my father-in-law James C. Joe in
1965. He was a well-known sandpainter at
the time I met him. He encouraged me to
learn the art of sandpainting. In 1967,
he started teaching me about sand art, and it took me two years to learn a
little about it. Four years later, my
wife got interest, so I taught her how to sandpaint. We still use the natural sand to paint with.
It goes on to
detail some of the awards he’s won and magazine covers on which his art has
been featured. He also does silver
smithing when he needs to take a break from sandpainting. Meeting him was truly an enjoyable
experience. š
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Bicycle miles today: 8.1
Bike miles today: 43
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