Where we are

Our 26.5 acres are located 15 miles from Sanders, AZ. Our "driveway" (how long it takes us to get to paved road) is 3 miles long. We live on a mesa, above some cliffs overlooking the Painted Desert National Park. Our nearest neighbor lives just on the northeast corner above our property. She is a 59 year old lady that lives in a small camper with her two dogs. Our next closest neighbors are an couple in their lower 80's, they live about a mile down the "driveway". We are lucky to have great neighbors! Our area is at an altitude of about 6000 feet, thus we don't have the extreme heat of the lower desert areas, such as Phoenix. Our high temps are said to be 96 or so, for the summer, and nights are below 75, often in the 60s. It is very dry, humidity is usually at less than 15%. The ground consists of a light clay colored sand, very fine and smooth, and gradually the sand turns to clay about 6 to 8 inches down. We don't have a lot of cactus, but there are some, and wild sage. Our trees are junipers, they provide great shade, but aren't close together. Our wildlife consists of coyotes, bunnies (jackrabbits & smaller rabbits), ravens, hawks, golden eagles, lizards and horned toads. I love the horned toads, they are soooo amazing in their natural habitat, for some reason, absolutely adorable. We do, of course, have the undesirable inhabitants of the desert, and I will share some of our experiences with them in my next blog. The coyotes are scary to hear at night at first, but that quickly fades. They are reputed to be quite cowardly. At night, we have a clear view of the sky, and can see stars in all directions. It is like being under a huge bowl filled with lights. We see lots of meteors and falling stars. The only unnatural sounds we normally hear are trains(abundant here, but in the distance, for us), and the jets flying overhead. At night it is extremely quiet. Our days are divided into 4 parts: cool morning, hotter to hot midday, sundown, and evening. Morning work is heavier, we don't do much at midday, and sundown is the time we take a quiet walk and then prepare for bed. By the time night falls, we are usually tucked into our tents, getting a last bit of reading in before we go to sleep. We literally go to bed with the chickens...or would, if we had some. We will, just not yet. I have pictures, but not a way to post them yet. Will work on getting some up as I can. I believe I posted in my last post about the pottery we are finding...research shows some of the pieces date back to 500-700 AD, and later pieces from 900-1700 AD. Amazing! We are working on our cabin, a little wood one to start, to get a shelter over our head. I have learned to hammer and handsaw! I love hammering, sawing is a bit more difficult for me but I am getting there. I can't wait to have a floor and walls and roof again, here it is mostly for shade and to prevent the wind from dusting your food and everything else. May was quite a month, lots of wind, but June is much quieter, it just seems it is unseasonably hot this year (wouldn't you know), and we have already hit 96 degrees. OK, next blog will be the rogues of the desert..stay tuned!