Just when I thought we’d have only one
sighting of Sam Elliott this year, I saw him out on his bike again this morning
during my walk. He stopped to chat as
usual. I told him that we were leaving to head home in a couple of days and he
wanted to know where home was. When I
told him Michigan he simply shook his head and with a smile asked, “Why would
you go now?” He wanted to know where in Michigan,
if it was the Upper Peninsula. I put up my hand to show him and said that we
were near the top of the Mitten, not far from the Mackinac Bridge which
connects the peninsulas. Said he’s
familiar with the Straits of Mackinac, with the Great Lakes area. He lived in Ohio at one time in his life…not
a fan of winter which is why he can’t understand leaving Arizona to purposely head
back into the cold. Because it’s time to get back to our lives.
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When Kim was on his walk he had an opportunity to talk to an irrigation guy…one of the guys who drives a white truck around the water canals. I thought they were farm workers but instead are employees of the county run Central Arizona Irrigation Authority. These are the guys who come around to check the flow rate of the pumps, make sure the oil level is good, etc. The information we were given by Jeremy, who used to work on a farm somewhere around here, wasn’t quite accurate to the specific irrigation system on Picacho Hwy.
There are five pumps in this area and each draws water directly from the ground and not the bigger canal as Jeremy told us. The irrigation guy said that these farmers pay crazy money to the CAIA…these five pumps all belong to the same pecan farm and the owner writes a million dollar check to the authority every year. Now I don’t know if that’s an exaggeration but what I do know is that these pumps draw water 24/7 for weeks while we’re out here. Remember one pump can pump 1350 gals/minute or 81,000 gals/hour. Don’t know how many times a year the groves get watered but given that that amount of water is pumped for weeks on end would mean a million dollars total is probably within range. He went on to say that if it were his farm he might be tempted to put in his own pumps and wells. But these pumps are huge and wouldn’t be cheap either. Plus this way the CAIA maintains the pumps and will re-drill the well if the water vein runs out. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that pecans are expensive.
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I’ve been enjoying the
Facebook Birding page...these people know so much about birds! Today I took a picture of what I was sure was
a sparrow or possibly a wren. I looked
online to identify it and quickly realized it wasn’t a wren but couldn’t get
anywhere beyond that. Posted the picture
on the Birding page, saying ‘Help me!’ and just that quick I was told it was a white crowned sparrow. So I looked up
white crowned sparrow and sure enough that’s my bird. What I also found is that there are 43
species of New World sparrows. And what does New World mean? Easiest
explanation to understand is that Old World birds are generally from Europe,
Africa or Asia and New World birds are common the North and South America. Here are two fun facts: Sparrows
can be found on every continent except Antarctica and Sparrows are some of the most familiar and most common birds in the world.
Also connected with a couple of people on the Birding page that have connections to Michigan. One gave me directions to a location where Burrowing Owls are located. We hope to go check that out tomorrow.
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Rode the Tom Mix Loop today. When I think about it I’ve ridden that route a lot this year…not exclusively but a lot. Since I’m riding solo I try to stick to routes that Kim knows so if I’m not home in a certain time frame he can send out the troops. I’ve been out to the reservation just once this year on the bike. It’s a longer ride just to get over there and I usually don’t leave myself enough time to do it. I’ve been squeezing in rides later in the day because we’ve been doing more hiking. But it’s all good…I’ve been able to ride and that’s the important thing.
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When Kim was on his walk he had an opportunity to talk to an irrigation guy…one of the guys who drives a white truck around the water canals. I thought they were farm workers but instead are employees of the county run Central Arizona Irrigation Authority. These are the guys who come around to check the flow rate of the pumps, make sure the oil level is good, etc. The information we were given by Jeremy, who used to work on a farm somewhere around here, wasn’t quite accurate to the specific irrigation system on Picacho Hwy.
There are five pumps in this area and each draws water directly from the ground and not the bigger canal as Jeremy told us. The irrigation guy said that these farmers pay crazy money to the CAIA…these five pumps all belong to the same pecan farm and the owner writes a million dollar check to the authority every year. Now I don’t know if that’s an exaggeration but what I do know is that these pumps draw water 24/7 for weeks while we’re out here. Remember one pump can pump 1350 gals/minute or 81,000 gals/hour. Don’t know how many times a year the groves get watered but given that that amount of water is pumped for weeks on end would mean a million dollars total is probably within range. He went on to say that if it were his farm he might be tempted to put in his own pumps and wells. But these pumps are huge and wouldn’t be cheap either. Plus this way the CAIA maintains the pumps and will re-drill the well if the water vein runs out. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that pecans are expensive.
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Also connected with a couple of people on the Birding page that have connections to Michigan. One gave me directions to a location where Burrowing Owls are located. We hope to go check that out tomorrow.
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Rode the Tom Mix Loop today. When I think about it I’ve ridden that route a lot this year…not exclusively but a lot. Since I’m riding solo I try to stick to routes that Kim knows so if I’m not home in a certain time frame he can send out the troops. I’ve been out to the reservation just once this year on the bike. It’s a longer ride just to get over there and I usually don’t leave myself enough time to do it. I’ve been squeezing in rides later in the day because we’ve been doing more hiking. But it’s all good…I’ve been able to ride and that’s the important thing.
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We had a squadron of
javelinas on the trail cam today. There were six adults in there and OMGoodness!
I about squealed with delight when I saw a little one crowding in with the
adults. Seven javelina in one 15 second
video. Yippee skippe!!
Haven’t seen anything about Arizona’s plan in light of the upcoming permanent Daylight Saving Time. Arizona and Hawaii don’t observe DST. So will AZ be required to jump ahead permanently despite not having changed their clocks since 1968 or will it be able to opt out? Arizona is in the Mountain Time Zone which means during the months that the rest of the country is observing Standard Time it is one hour ahead of California. But when the rest of the country springs ahead, Arizona stays put throwing it out of sync with MST and making it the same time as California. We know it as Arizona time.
Personally I didn’t mind the time changes…for me it just means a couple of days of adjustment and life goes on. But going permanent DST means that those in the back edge of their time zone (Michigan) will have some really dark mornings in the winter…like dark-ish still at 9 a.m. Kids will be walking to the school bus in some form of darkness for a large part of the school year. But those at the leading edge of their time zone (for example, Tennessee) will get more daylight into the early evening. Right now my kids in TN experience darkness at 4:00 p.m. during the winter hours…one more hour of daylight would be such a blessing. No easy answer on this one but I’m curious to know how Arizona will proceed.
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Kim is out imaging for the last time during this trip. Tomorrow he’ll pack up his scopes while I do as much packing and cleaning up in the trailer as possible so Friday morning it’ll be easy peasy. Since the ramp is backed up to a fence right now the very last thing to be loaded will be Zeus. Needless to say we won’t be those people who sneak out at 6:30 a.m.
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Today’s 40 Days of Lent challenge: Pray and make a plan about serving somewhere with your gifts and talents. My talents and gifts are of a creative nature. Months ago I told someone that I would put that creativity to use by joining a team at church but just haven’t followed through on that yet. I’m ‘out of integrity’ on this matter but as of today it’s my plan to carry through on that commitment when I get home.
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Bike miles today: 97
Total miles: 1267
