New Discoveries

After we trimmed the tree, we went exploring.

Lindsey and Ayden both loved the mica mine.

The boys, of course, loved checking out the wreck of the old Buick truck.

David made some new discoveries. The first was this mine shaft that had collapsed or been purposely filled in.

And another mine shaft that seemed like it was still accessible. David said if he had taken a flashlight and a pistol, he would have crawled inside. I was glad he hadn't.

Oh Christmas Tree

Our next trip was all play and no work, as our son and grandkids came up for a visit.

We picked a little tree by the house that seemed just the right size for little hands.

Ayden, the youngest, carried out the ornaments.

And put the first one on the tree.

David and Lindsey joined in.

Grandpa put the star on the top.

And all posed in front of the finished tree.

A quick trip

It was a quick trip this time.

Mostly, we wanted to install this electric furnace in our garage to protect the pipes. Gerald had found a source for a nearly new Coleman vent-free electric furnace he thought would be perfect for the garage. Apparently they were taken out of houses on one of the Indian reservations where they weren't being used for some reason. The price was right at $130.

We hooked it up, but the air it was blowing didn't seem terribly warm. Gerald figured a filter would help. That it might slow down the air as it passed over the coils giving it time to heat up.

Meanwhile, we had J.C. hook up some ceiling fans on the ridge beam to recirculate warm air back down.

The recent rains had left the driveway on the north side a bog. For a while, it looked like J.C. wouldn't get out. He had to back all the way down the driveway.

Here's the sun warming the barn after a chilly night.

The Big Storm

On Monday, it rained all day. It was the best kind of rain: gentle and steady, and much welcome after months without any moisture to speak of.

In the evening, a fierce wind came up. It howled like we've never heard. Overnight, the temperature dropped and the rain turned to snow.

The storm filled up our stock pond.

And the wind felled a pretty good sized tree near our driveway. It also knocked out our power. We later learned that our outage was just one of many. The storm had created wide-spread outages all over the state.

In Peeples Valley, in front of the historic schoolhouse, the wind had also knocked down this power line. We wondered if that was what affected us.

Yarnell was mostly deserted, with only a few cars on the road. All of the businesses, as far as we could tell, were closed up and dark.

Bewildering the Bovines

When the cows came up the drive in the afternoon, as is their habit, number 17 found the box Gerald had constructed to shelter the water pipes coming out from our well.

It was of great interest to the whole herd.

A conference was held.

In the end, number 17 decided it was a face scratcher, and put it to use.

After about an hour of milling about in the driveway, some cow gave some kind of invisible, silent signal and all the cows headed down the wash single file. It was as mysterious to Bubba as it was to us.

Plans, Interrupted

When we headed back up to the land, we had big plans, mostly concerning countertops. But our efforts were quickly diverted.

First, a cold snap froze the water lines coming from our pipes. So we made a trip into Yarnell for some heat tape.

Gerald also built a temporary box to shelter the pipes from the elements a bit.

We had a list of things for J.C. to do the next day. But our recently installed propane heat stove, which had been working fine, decided to stop working. That meant another trip to Yarnell, and Gerald and J.C. spent most of the rest of the day fixing the heater.

It wasn't until the third day that Gerald finally got to work on the countertops.