Nomads2

“In selecting men for office, let principle be your guide….It is alleged by men of loose principles, or defective views of the subject, that religion and morality are not necessary or important qualifications for political stations. But the Scriptures teach a different doctrine. They direct that rulers should be men who rule in the fear of God, able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness. But if we had no divine instruction on the subject, our own interest would demand of us a strict observance of the principle of these injunctions. And it is to the neglect of this rule of conduct in our citizens, that we must ascribe the multiplied frauds, breeches of trust, peculations and embezzlements of public property which astonish even ourselves; which tarnish the character of our country; which disgrace a republican government; and which will tend to reconcile men to monarchs in other countries and even our own…When a citizen gives his suffrage [vote] to a man of known immorality, he abuses his trust; he sacrifices not only his own interest, but that of his neighbor, and he betrays the interest of his country.” Noah Webster

 

I don’t want to call us professionals, but we have quite a few dog-sitting gigs under our belts. This was the cruel and unusual conditions we had to tolerate recently at our daughter Julie’s residence. Other than a few things on a ‘Mom and Dad to-do list” and feeding these hounds, we lounged around enjoying things we don’t normally have access to. These items, in no particular order of fun, a dishwasher, a neighborhood where no one knows us (we can be wild and crazy), satellite TV, trees to climb and hang from, and a full sized oven. And, if the weather had been warmer we would have enjoyed the pool the dogs were lounging around. In other words, dog-sitting for our grand-dogs is like staying at a five star resort! Thanks Julie!!!

 

A.A. Hodge (July 18, 1823-November 11, 1886) an American author, lecturer, and theologian at Princeton University stated, “A Christian is just as much under the obligation to obey God’s will in the most secular of his daily business as he is in his closet or at the communion table. He has no right to separate his life into two realms, and acknowledge different moral codes in each…The kingdom of God includes all sides of human life, and it is a kingdom of absolute righteousness. You are either a loyal subject or a traitor. When the king comes, how will he find you doing?

 

On most Sunday’s this is where we can be found, awaiting the recreation time for our AWANA’s program. Norm is now working with the puggles group so I have to rely on my friend Thomas (on the left) to keep me in line.

Norm is showing off her latest creation! Norm’s Dad is on her right and Bill, her neighbor is to her left.

Nail polish and chain saws, just don’t seem to go together.

Our grandson Leo, is a Cubbie!

Leo is working at his Grandfather’s rope factory in Kiowa Kansas. It is never too early to get that good work ethic into kids.

From this shot it is obvious that he gets his good looks from this grandfather.

He is a flashy dresser thanks to his grandparents in Kiowa.

We drove from Yuma to Pinetop or from near sea level to above 7,000 feet elevation in around 8 hours. The temperature here in the daytime is not as warm as the over night low in Yuma. From ficus to pines, I am getting ready to scramble up this tree.

I climbed above my top rope and sat on a flip line to cut a large branch above my head.

Norm had expressed to me that there were no women “sawyers” and I mentioned it to Chris and he had two words for Norm, “Norm, chap up!”

Things are tough in the volunteer world of disaster relief, so Chris likes to start training new volunteers early!

This is where we called home for the last 10 days in Yuma.

The house belonged to Morningside Baptist Church and they were all so great to us. If you find yourself in Yuma, this church is a good place to worship.

Our last tree to cut on. Norm is trimming some low branches while I prepared to cut those broken limbs out of the tree.

The lady that owned this house went to work before we got there, but she left a cooler with drinks in it for us.

http://www.yumasun.com/sections/article/gallery/?pic=1&id=64471 Here is a newspaper article about our team.

This was one gnarly tree to cut. Martin and I got the ‘Big Boy’ Stihl 660 chain saw with a 36 inch bar to whack it up. Using this saw is like wrestling with a gorilla!

Here is Martin and his wife Betty sharpening a chain. Betty has been a real trooper and jumped into chain saw work with both feet.

This log appears much larger when cutting than it does in this photo.

Here I am trying to make some sort of decent cut while Martin looks on. The four of us have made a great team and have been working hard. Especially since the weather has crept back to very hot and sunny high nineties.

This house belonged to an 87 year young lady. She told me she woke up one day and was 87! The before and after shots are quite dramatic. We tried to get the next door neighbor to sign a release form so we could go on his property and remove his trees also, but we could not make contact with him. So, we found a way to remove them anyway.

Norm saw me with the camera, and said wait, ran to the trailer and grabbed the loppers so it would look like she cleared it all by herself.

I have failed to mention that the city of Yuma Fire Department has given us lunch everyday we have been here and also have provided us with back up chain saws and repair help. We even got home made cookies delivered to our work site this morning (thanks Kayla). Kneeling in front is Martin on the right and Les on the left, back row right to left is Mark, Don (our man for everything we need, even a plumber) Norm and me in front of city hall after enjoying a good meal.

We all really enjoyed helping this man, a retired fire fighter, a real hero in a world that needs hero’s.

This tree is much bigger than it appears!

Don working on one of the saws. There never seems to be an end to some task that is required of these saws. They are like a bunch of toddlers, they require constant attention and supervision.

Like I said, the pucker factor was real high, so I really am more comfortable sitting there and cutting. It looks like I am all tied up in my work.

We could not figure out how to drop some large limbs without crushing this chicken coop, so we used a dolly and moved it. Mark came in real handy for this job! Funny thing about this chicken coop, the lady had a handful of chickens running around, freaking Norm out, but not a one came to the coop.

This is Martin, an all around expert on everything that has to do with trees, chain saws, and is a good example of how every Christian should live and conduct himself here on this earth. We have trained a lot together we enjoy him and his wife greatly.

This is the biggest job I have ever had to climb without Chris and the pucker factor was real high!

The final product, cut as far down as we could.

Here is how we accomplished the removal.

Mark is on the right and Les is to the left. Mark is good with a saw and very knowledgeable with the mechanical side. We used him when we needed lots of strength to move something heavy. Les cuts like a specialist, very precise and always knows what the tree is going to do.

This is Chris, our fearless leader. We refer to Chris, with all affection, as “The Tree Whisperer.” As you can see from this photo, an expert rope climber and rigger along with the ability to use a chain saw with surgical procession. The photo below, is well, the exact opposite.

“Uh, which way does the rabbit go, or no, he comes up through the hole?” Yeah, right.

Chris used five ropes, one rope was an inch thick! One of those ropes on the ground was tied to my truck and I put all 650 foot pounds of torque to the pavement. As my tires finally broke traction and started to smoke, the tree came away from the house. We did all that just to have Chris cut it off and make it fall right where he wanted, the Tree Whisperer.

The finished product.

We started Monday looking over about 15 tree jobs in Yuma from a storm they suffered in August. Talk about being timely! No one knows that the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief teams in Arizona have the capability to remove and cut large trees with surgical procession. As you can see in these before and after pictures and this was in a small backyard, gone, just like magic.

This is just one part of a large debris pile that four of us built.

A house with a large tree leaning against it. Actually there are three trees involved. The one large one in the front fell and took the other two next door down.

Have you ever said something a while back and then kind of forgot about it or thought that since no one took you up on your offer, it was probably for the best because if you did do it, you would stink it up? Well this happened to me a few weeks ago. Norm and I were sitting around, enjoying a fruit snack after dinner, when my phone rang. It was Mike, our praise band leader from church, reminding me of my long ago, ill-fated offer to play drums for the band, if needed. I said that, really? After mumbling, uh, sure and hanging up, I told Norm. She started counting the days from the last time I played. After finishing falling off her chair, uncontrollable seizure like laughter, tears running down her face, the math began. It has been 35 days, no, 35 months, no, I got it, 35 years since you last played! And, of course, never on electric drums. I said, I have to practice! A lot! So after about 5 hours total of solo, embarrassing practice, 2 short actual practice sessions with the praise team, I played, or something like it. Most people said I did good, but only after believing I was on the verge of tears. Now I am a member of the First Southern Baptist Church praise band and the number 4 drummer. Wow! Remember kids, never say never.

A few years back, Norm and I thought we were finished working with youth. We did that and were really looking forward to working with seniors (old people), the normal progression, we figured. Of course, we did all this planning without consulting the Lord. He had other things in mind and here we are working with a great group of young people. We are blessed to spend a few minutes with them every Tuesday and Thursday morning before they go off to school. Thier faith in the Lord Jesus Christ lifts us and always makes for a great day. They are faithful and determined in their own faith and a witness to our entire church.

This is a former climbing rope. We have had this rope for quite some time now. I was sitting in the climbing office at Devil’s Tower a few years back when Michael, one of our climbing rangers, asked if I wanted to go with him and find an abandoned rope that some visitor reported? “You bet!” So we scouted around the area for a while and found it. I’m not sure why anyone would leave a rope, as they are pretty pricey, but their loss turned into our rug. Michael told me never to use it for climbing, so I cut about a twenty foot length off to use for practice in tying knots ( which I need a lot of practice on). The rope hung in our shed till now. When we got back from our trip, Norm had enough of this rope hanging around and promptly turned it into a rug. She used a large amount of duct tape and some Elmer’s glue. I think it turned out real well.

Camp site # 14 in Flagstaff Arizona. We had a great time walking around down town and swallowed down some good grub.

This is the burn area where we worked in July helping clean up. We took the time to drive through some of the harder hit areas. Some houses showed dramatic improvement and sadly, some looked the same or worse.

This is what being a good sport and having a good sense of humor looks like (see the photo below).

After driving over 3,000 miles on some of the worse road conditions this truck has ever seen, we have a catastrophic tire failure on a very nice highway not far from our house on our way to our daughter, Julie’s house. Sadly, we had to limp back home and leave the next day.

This random plant was growing in the middle of no where, with nothing else around it.

After completing our last hike, we were driving back to camp and Norm looked to her right and asked me ‘Is that someone on top of that truck?’ and of course I agreed with her. It turned out to be two young couples that were camping and accidentally left their truck lights on and their battery was dead. Being sure I had jumper cables and tearing everything from the back of the truck, I realized the cables were in the trunk of the Model T back in Arizona. So we gave one of the guys a lift to the visitor center to borrow a set. On the way we passed this vehicle stuck in the muck. It was not there when Norm and I drove in and she could not stop laughing about it for some reason. I guess it has something to do with mud, which she never seems to pass up when hiking or riding. Well, we just got to the top of the next hill and there were the owners of the truck walking toward the V.C. all sunburned and hot. So we stopped and gave them a ride the rest of the way and when we got there, Norm apologized for making fun of their truck, in between more laughter. It is not often that you get a chance to help another person, let alone two in one day! It was a great way to wrap up our time in Goblin Valley.

Many people wonder how we can stay in the cargo trailer. As you can see, it is very cosy. There is a place for everything. This looking in through the two rear doors. I tell everyone that it is a work in progress.

It may look like chaos and cluttered, but we had a good system going after a few days.

We are not sure if someone actually put the pine tree in the compost toilet as a joke or hoping beyond hope that it would actually improve the smell. We can tell you from first person experience, it did not!

We do not know for sure, but someone told us that the movie “Galaxy Quest” was filmed on location here.

After this much thinking, studying, and contemplating, I should be much wiser.

It almost seemed that we had to hike through tight spaces on every hike. This is really down in the drainage on the trail to goblin valley.

This was our last hike, so we sat on a big rock with a big drop off, basking in the Sun.

I think I was looking for something to eat.

If we look like we are having a good time, your right!

These goblins were so much fun, Norm could not help pointing out how the goblins all looked like some item or animal.

This goblin looked just like a throne. So, my Queen took her place on it!

A lot of people are curious about what we eat while travelling. Some people think we eat at restaurants all the time. Nothing could be further from the truth, as you can see. We cooked our own meals for almost three weeks before giving in to one of Ray’ s burgers.

I think we picked this melon up while travelling through the southeastern corner of Colorado. Lots of good produce are grown there.

This looks strange in the photograph, but it is solid rock we found in the canyon.

This is a lot higher than it looks, and deep also. We had to climb over with some effort.

If you look real close, you can see Norm has to put one foot in front of the other. Stepping wise, this is the narrowest part of the canyon.

Self portrait.

As you travel through the canyon, you come in and out of the slots, with some few wide areas. You are still surrounded by canyon walls, just wider.

Occasionally, you had to climb over rocks to keep moving forward.

When there were no big rocks to climb over, the trail was good gravel.

Yikes! You can never be sure who you might run into in these canyons.

Norm spent much of her time saying ‘Wow’ and laughing. It was an incredible experience that we will never forget. It made for a long day, about 8 miles round trip (loop). We liked the first canyon so much, we hiked it twice.

Norm is way up near the front of the shot. The Lord created some great designs with water. Very pretty!

Just some of the debris from former flash floods. We were told that in the narrower parts of the canyon, the water would be twenty feet high.

Campsite#12 proved to be quite expensive. We had to pay top dollar for a site, nine dollars to wash the truck and trailer (okay, it was really a rinse, I hate to pay), $9.50 to do laundry and two hours of our time cleaning the inside of the trailer and every piece of equipment we had.

Besides being well known for their melons, and they have good ones, Green River is also the home of Ray’s Tavern. When someone tells you that people come from all over for Ray’s burgers and fries, you have to go and have some burgers and fries! We did and we can tell you that Ray’s is a must eat place. We had not had a meal out since leaving Oklahoma City, but more on our food and eating in a later blog.

We had no idea how we found this place, but after spending three days in it, we sure were glad we did.

Campsite #13, and they had showers, slot canyons (our first time), no electric and no night lights closer than 15 miles (made for great star gazing) and goblins.

Our experience with this drive was not good. We could not recommend this unless you like bumpy, very dusty conditions.

Campsite #11, somewhere in the seventy mile stretch of road that is Nine Mile Canyon. Must be some sort of new math?

We loved our spot till Norm had to spoil it by pointing out the cow poop that I had conveniently parked the trailer next to. This really did sum up the day of filling our sleeping area and our all gear with silt like powder of dust. The people were really nice, when I went to their house to fill out a card and pay for the night, I had to do it outside because they had not started the generator yet for the lights.

Boy, we were glad to see that area in the rear view mirror.

This is the remains of a chicken coop that belonged to a lady named Josie that lived on or near the monument for more than 50 years. No modern conveniences, she canned her veggies and killed her own beef and wildlife.

The cabin still remains and there is one color photograph of her sitting at her table inside the cabin. She liked living there and would never move. She passed away at 93, with complications from a broken hip. In some ways she reminds me of my Mom-in-Law.

This is a turtle rock. Norm really liked him.

Downtown Jenson and some of the other small towns we passed through, had real flowers lining the streets.

Our attempt at modern art.

Lots of lizards. I thought maybe they drew what they saw the most of. We saw a lot of lizards.

Norm wants to know if you can find the flute player? Please email her and her alone, please.

Norm really liked this park and kept saying the same things about it, until I pointed that out to her. She threw a rock at me. I pointed out to her that as a good citizen of the US, I would have to report her to the proper authorities.

I laughed every time Norm led and left a foot print like this one. After taking the picture, I told her I felt like a CSI guy.

I was downloading photos and heard something coming through the grass and it turned out to be this fellow. He came within about five feet of our trailer door, stopping to dig like crazy. This was the best photo I could get. It is not everyday a guy sees a badger, plus Norm told me that badger’s were mean.

I did not have high hopes when this park came along on our route, but we grabbed a hold of this monument and shook the heck out of it and had a great time doing so! Easy we hiked 15-18 miles and drove many more.

Our campsite in the Green River campground. By my new mathematical calculations, this is base camp #10. I meant to number them all, but as usual, that thought slipped my mind until now. Thank goodness, Norm was wearing her new five-finger’s, so she didn’t have to take her shoes off for counting. Another benefit of these new shoes. They are turning out to be well worth the money.

This is what the middle age, retired hiker looks like nowadays.

This is what our last morning in the Flat Top Wilderness looked like. A great morning and in Yampa, we enjoyed a cup of French press coffee.

We had a great two days and really hated to leave, but clean clothes and a shower (definitely) were needed.

Our camp site in Steamboat Springs. Every Colorado town has a certain feel about it and this one did not disappoint. This site was a bit pricey, but it had everything we had to have and than some.

We made this purchase of a pair of five-fingers for Norm and the very first time she got a chance to hike in them, she did almost 10 miles!

This walkway was a real rush to cross! And we had to do it twice!

There is a lot going on in this shot. In the lower left of the photo you can see the trail switch-backing it’s way up and down. In the far right is a Shepard’s tent, the white object. He had two horses, a sheep dog (a big one) and easy a couple hundred sheep scattered all over.

Yes, parents, children, siblings, and friends, we followed the bear instructions to the letter. When we left early in the morning we noticed that two out of the three other campers did not.

The photo does not show the exposure that well, but there was plenty of it.

The full trail is a 23 mile loop. You can see it in the shot. That is snow is the far distance.

Our camp altitude, according to our GPS, was 10,265 feet. The Devil’s Causeway, our objective is 11,965 feet! We thought the air was thin at our site, we needed supplemental oxygen to climb this trail. It is much steeper then it looks and just kept getting steeper.

That is our destination. The very top of the mountain.

Does this look steep? We had to stop about fifty times to get our breathing back to normal (normal for this altitude anyway).

We made it, it was a real challenge for both of us.

The pond directly behind our site. You could see the bottom every where.

We thought this was where you got water back in the day. Now they have one of those pumps that shoots water out like a fire hose.

This is main street in Yampa. We are going to make a left turn at the end and drive about 35 miles, mostly on dirt roads to the Flat Top Wilderness. After that we dropped off the grid, no cell or Internet, electric or showers for that matter, and we loved it (except for the no shower thing).

This is our site at the Cold Springs campground in the Routt National Forrest. We had the place to ourselves for a while, but it only had about five sites and it never did fill up. Behind us is a pond that was so clear you could see the fish swimming.

We were driving north on hwy 71 and saw a lot of open fields and cows. Norm spotted this place that looked kind of cool.

We arrived in Denver and spent the night at our good friends home, Bruce and Becky, and their dog, Reilly. We spent the entire time catching up and filling each other in since we last got together. This time was very special as their daughter, Hannah and her two kids, Madi and Kenny stopped by. Bruce has them riding dirt bikes and golfing, plus they both love to go camping with Grandpa. Becky loves to have them and like some other Grandma I know, lets them have a lot of leeway. It is always good times when we get together and it seems to get better every year.

This is Safeway in Winter Park. At 9100 feet above sea level, we ate breakfast in their parking lot.

Our camp site in Kremmling was a little congested, but no one showed up to the unit on the left.

This is the Las Animas railroad station.

Las Animas is the county seat.

If you have been a faithful follower of our blog, you know my opinion of KOA campgrounds, ‘For Emergency Use Only.’ But this is the second time we have stayed at the KOA in Lamar and the facility and the people are first rate.

This was our residence for Sunday night in Lamar Colorado. It was a nice park, very dusty with few stones on the spaces. The owners were very nice.

This is in Las Animas, Boggsville, but it was only open weekends. We went there specifically to visit the Kit Carson museum which turned out to be quite the ordeal. First I got two different sets of directions from two different convenience stores that did not pan out. Fortunately at the second store a local fellow felt sorry for me and gave me the straight skinny. It seems that the museum was in poor condition and was broken into and artifacts were stolen. So, they are in the process of moving to a new location.

This is near the railroad tracks.

The views were just outstanding. The photos don’t do them justice.

These are suppose to be dinosaur tracks, but we were dubious. The tracks are not protected in any way and finding them seemed to be only by word of mouth. We thought the state would do a better job of keeping people away from them, but these are the first ones we have ever seen.

Our campsite was really nice, no one near us and very pretty.

This is a large and old prairie rattlesnake taking a morning snooze. That brown area right in front of him is the trail. The same trail Norm was walking on, and at the last moment before stepping right in front of his face, she leaped like a gazelle into my arms. Norm has had countless encounters with venomous reptiles in the last few years, I am thinking about not letting her go hiking anymore. Three other fellow hikers showed up and they were as freaked out as we were. Finally Mr. Snake had all he was going to take and struck out at no one in particular, which I took as our time to move on toward the summit, ASAP. On the way down she got another opportunity to practice her leaping skills as a large green snake was laying all across the trail as she was leading the way.

We saw a large number of these horned toads.

I think Norm is peeking around this nice monument from the Colorado side. Our next destination. You can also see New Mexico and Texas from here.

We travelled to the far northwest panhandle of Oklahoma to hike the highest point in the state. This definitely helped with our bad case of ‘Leo withdrawal.’ Our third and last state park visit was the best. The park is very remote and lots of sites were available to choose from.

Here is the trail cut into the side of the hill. Yes, it was very steep.

Of course, the view made all the sweat worth it. We got an early start and it was a good thing as the temperature soared onto the low nighties with high humidity.

We have never seen grass hoppers this big. Locust on ‘roids!’

Our campsite was very nice. We had this small loop all to ourselves. The weather was very hot, and for once the Oklahoma wind let us down. Every time we are in Oklahoma, the wind is blowing, usually the opposite way I am towing, but not this day.

Leo looks like a Okie in his camo hat. He loves to camp and ride his cycle and swim. We found this little gem of a park with fresh water springs that were really cold.

He loved the water falls, although I think it could have been warmer for him. I don’t know what the temperature was, but it was numbing in a very short period of time.

On our way to Fort Cobb State park, we needed a pit stop in Hinton Oklahoma.

This is our site. We looked for one that would provide us the most shade. The lake is right behind where I am standing. Most of our neighbors had some sort of watercraft.

Leo is a natural camper! He took right to it and did what most of us do when we go camping.

This guy can really enjoy the water! For a three year old with no formal swim lessons, he did really well, for a long time. We had to make him get out.

We had the tree tied to a truck to make sure it fell right where we wanted it to.

Success!

Here I am trying to make a good cut. Holding on with only my legs, but tied to the tree by two separate lines.

Chris is showing me how to make an outstanding cut on a large limb.

Chris has the tree roped to keep from getting something called a ‘barber chair’ which sounded like a good idea to me. He is just starting to make his back cut.

Whenever a guy sees one of these machines sitting around, you know what will happen. A tree must come down!

This is the offending tree, a eucalyptus. It had to come down, and we were the right men for the job.

Here I am trying to explain something to Billy, on the far right, while Martin is thinking, “That will never work.”

I wanted to take a picture of my tree spurs, because it was my first time trying to climb with them. I was so nervous, I put the left leg on backwards with the spike on the outside. Fortunately, no one noticed. It took me two attempts to get up to that branch.