Short blip about Phoenix then on to the high desert...

A few things I noticed about Phoenix...it was green(especially after leaving still-winter Alaska), the people are very friendly (quite sunny, actually :), it was already getting to 90 degrees the first week of April, and driving around the city is hell!! We bought several road maps but all were already outdated. I am thoroughly glad we did not plan on living there! Most of our time there was getting ready to head north (supplies, etc.), so I am going to fast forward to our arrival in the high desert. We drove 240 miles northeast, and arrived at our friend's place. We stayed with her for a week two years ago. She is a very self-sufficient lady (84 years young). Up until 7 months ago she lived mostly alone, but now has a young couple living on her property and helping her with the goat herd and things she needs done. We stayed in a little camper she owns for a couple of weeks, gathering more supplies and learning where to get water, groceries, hay, building supplies, etc. On May 1st, we went to our own property about 18 miles away (but 45 minute drive on "rustic" country lane roads). The horses would arrive on May 2nd, and we needed to be in residence from that point on. Ah, tent camping...not bad, really...we were fairly well set up with a cookstove complete with oven, coolers to hold food and water, pads for underneath the sleeping bags, even a solar shower! It took the wind about 15 minutes to flatten the solar shower. Two days to rip a hole in the tent. Finally, after some major staking(3 foot long stakes), things were pretty stable. We learned what a rogue wind is...a mini-tornado that pops up out of nowhere. Off in the distance, they look like large dust devils...up close you are too busy closing your eyes to see too much. Sometimes we get wind storms, like thunderstorms but without the rain, they sometimes last all day or all night. What is really fun is when the wind scoops up the sand and dumps it down inside the rainfly on your tent, especially at night. Fortunately that doesn't happen too often... We had prepared a pen for the horses, complete with solar electric fence and water trough. They arrived late afternoon with no problem whatsoever, and we were very excited to see them! We got them all settled in their new home, gave them some of the lovely green hay that is available in the area, and settled down for the evening. And that is when the cows arrived...cows that could care less about an electric fence. Arizona is free-range, which means unless you fence out the cows, they can go wherever they please. And so they did... and then so did the horses,(once the fence was down, which took about five minutes). Two days later we went and purchased barbed wire, and put up our first real fence. Barbed wire is the only thing the cows respect. I hate it for horses, but you do what you have to. So far, six weeks later, we have only had one cow invasion, a houdini cow that wiggled through. Charles has become an expert in chasing cows off of our property, and they hardly every appear anymore, thank goodness! It sounds grim, and yes, we are definitely learning to arise to each occasion, but it is a kind of country that grows on you. We have a 240 awesome view from our mesa, of the Painted Desert. There are mountains that are 200 miles in the distance that we can see. We have discovered that there had to have been Navajo and older Indian tribes living on the mesa, we find pottery fragments everywhere. If we walk down the cliffs, we are on the outskirts of the National Park for the Painted Desert, and it is like a different world that we love to explore. Afternoons can get rather warm, but nights are always cool. We always have cover by early morning. More to come..stay tuned!