Counting Cactus, or The Day I Was An Environmental Consultant

(Here I am with Robert Frye)

Have your ever volunteered to do something totally off the wall, just for the experience? I had the opportunity to do just that on Sunday. Ok, I was not exactly a volunteer because I got paid to do it. But I did volunteer for the job. I was hired as an Environmental Consultant for one day. And what a day it was!

I got up really early on my day off to drive the 43 miles down to Jacob Lake, where I met Robert J. Frye, a retired professor from the University of Arizona; Sarah, who is a biologist from Bryce Canyon, and Courtney, one of my co-workers. Robert has been tracking this rare cactus for several years. After the introductions were out of the way, Robert he told us a little bit about what we would actually be doing.

(This is a different species of cactus, a little bigger and rounder than the pediocactus)

We drove about half way down the Kaibab Plateau on Hwy 89A towards Page, then parked on the side of the road and walked a short distance through the woods to the first plot.

A plot is an area that is 10 meters in diameter, where pediocactus have been found in the past. If you are wondering at this point just exactly what a pediocactus is, click here for more information. This particular pediocactus only grows on the Colorado Plateau in Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah.

(That's Courtney placing flags in the last section of the plot)

So, here is what we did. When we first arrived at the plot, we had to look for a metal rod sticking out of the ground, which marked the center of the plot. Next, we looked for another metal rod, which marked the north side of the plot. Then, we laid out measuring tapes in an “X”, with one going north and south, and the other one going east and west, measuring 5 meters in each direction from the center of the plot. Then the real fun began.

We crawled around on our hands and knees, looking for either the cute little cacti or a tag or a nail to indicate where a cacti used to be. At every location where something was found, we placed a little flag, somewhat like those used to mark utilities before digging.

After all the flags were in place and we were fairly certain there were no more to be found, we started collecting data. One person sat in a folding chair with a notebook and pen, while the other three people crawled from one flag to the next, calling out the angle of the location from the center of the circle, the distance from the center, the nail or tag number. If there was only a tag or nail, it was simply “nail found”. But, if one of the cacti was there, we used calipers to measure the size of it. These are little bitty cacti.

(This is a pic of two tiny pediocactus with a flag marking their location)

The measurements were in millimeters. We did find a few, but, sadly, the numbers are declining.

(Out in the desert near Vermillion Cliffs. Isn't it just beautiful?)

After we finished collecting all the data, we picked up all the little flags and the tape measures, and drove to the next plot site.

(This is a different kind of cactus. It was huge and looked dangerous.)

The second place we went was out in the desert. It was fun to go in the four wheel drive vehicle out across the desert to find the plot.

(Notice that you see no road in this picture.)

I even had to crawl under a barbed wire fence, twice. (Sorry, no picture to prove that interesting fact.) I had a lot of fun, and learned a little bit about how scientific data is collected. And, if I get the chance to work on another study, I’ll be out there in the desert—you can count on it.

Sizzlin Summer Vacations

If you want to find out where some of my bloggy friends around the internet went on vacation this summer, go on over the We Are THAT Family. There you can read about where Kristin and her family went, but scroll down to the bottom of her post there, too, to see where everyone else went. There are some interesting looking vacations going on over there!

Western Legends Days In Kanab

I had four hours of "comp" time, so I decided to combine it with four hours of annual leave, and go to Kanab last Saturday morning. My neighbor, Sue, and I headed out early.

I had read in the newspaper a month or so ago that they have a farmer’s market in town every Saturday morning, and that there was a lady there who bakes gluten free breads, cakes, and cookies. I have really been wanting to check it out.

But, when we got to town, we discovered that Western Legend Roundup was going on, and because of the festival they did not have the farmer’s market.

The Western Legends Roundup a big festival where they celebrate the history of the town and some of the old western stars who made movies in the area way back when, where in town for the celebration. The only one I saw was Clint Walker, but he looked old. I mean really old, and nothing at all like the picture of him from his movie making days. I didn’t even take his picture because I was so disappointed.

There was a vendor row, where Sue and I ran into our neighbor, John, who works with the Grand Canyon Association at the Visitor Center book store. He had some things from the book store on display there.

At noon, there was a parade, with the old cowboy stars riding in horse drawn wagons. There were several beautiful halflinger horse teams with beautiful wagons.

One wagon was drawn by a two ox team. Those animals were awesome! It was the first time I had ever seen oxen in real life. Each one had a young boy riding it bareback.

The best thing I saw in the parade were little girls from the Kaibab Paiute Reservation dancing down the street in their native costumes. They were so cute!

This wagon had the entire class of 1958 from Kanab High School riding in it!

After the parade, we walked across the street to the food vendors. I had a corn on the cob on a stick, with butter and salt, and a peach iced tea. A little pricey at $6.00 for the two of them, but boy was that cold iced tea good!

Yeah, that was worth the trip!

Monday Stuff

MMMM, Peppers, Onions, and Celery for the roast.

This morning I got up and checked the thermometer we have in the freezer section of our refrigerator. Not the new one, but the one that has been on the blink. The freezer part had been getting down to around 40 degrees, so we had some things in there while we tried to use it all up, you know, meats, frozen veggies, and some frozen fruits. So, this morning, the temp on the thermometer was 59!!!

I took everything out, and had to throw a little bit away, but there were several things that I could save IF I cooked it today. So, I put some chicken thighs and some pork country style ribs in the oven and baked them. I just put some meat tenderizer and some seasoned salt on them. After they were cooked, I packaged them up in meal size portions and put them in the little freezer compartment of the new fridge.

I had a small beef roast in there, too. I had been saving it for a special meal, because I don't cook beef very often. FabGrandpa's doctor back in Georgia told me not to let him eat very much beef. So, most of the time, he only gets beef if we eat out, which is not very often. But last time we went to Page, this roast was on sale for a good price. I used about a 1/4 of it to make beef stew last week and put the rest of in the freezer.

Starting down the grade into Hurricane, Utah

So, today, I sprinkled the rest of it with tenderizer and seasoned salt, then seared it in a skillet with olive oil and then put it in the crock pot. I cut up some celery, onions, and a red bell pepper and sauteed those for a few minutes in the skillet, then dumped them in on top of the roast in the crock pot. I left it on high for about an hour while I got dressed, cleaned up the kitchen, and made up the bed. We decided to run down to Hurricane, Utah (about 100 miles away) to pick up a part we had ordered at the RV place there, so I turned the crock pot down on "warm" while we were gone.

Sunset when we were coming back home this evening.

When I got home, that roast was just right! MMMMMMMM.

Cabbage and Smoked Sausage

I was tired today so I wanted something I could cook really fast for dinner. I cut up some cabbage and some potatoes, and threw them together in a skillet with some butter, salt, pepper and water. I simmered them until they were tender, then added some smoked sausage, cut up into bite sized pieces. It was really good, and ready in about 30 minutes.

Now I have to tell you about something that made me laugh today. When I was walking around the campground this morning doing the rounds, I passed by a site where there was a tent camper. No one was up yet. I could hear someone inside the tent snoring so loudly that I could almost see the sided of the tent moving in and out. I walked a few sites on down the road, and again, there was a tent camper, with no one up and about yet. As I was walking by, I heard a very loud faarrrrtttt! and then a guy said, "Boy did that ever feel good!" I have laughed about that all day!

Pictures From Page Arizona

The other day when we were in Page, we went to some scenic viewpoints. I promised to put some pictures here, so here they are:

This was the beginning of the trail to Horseshoe Bend Canyon. It was uphill, yeah. About 1/4 mile to the edge of this canyon, but.....

If you click on this picture to make it bigger, and look very very closely, you will see some people standing on the edge of the canyon. That is where we were going to go. But, if you also look at the center of this picture, just beyond the canyon, you will see a huge thunderstorm. And there was huge lightening coming out of that cloud and going down to the ground. Nope, not me, I don't do thunderstorms.

After we walked back to the truck, we went over to the scenic viewpoint with a nice view of the Glen Canyon Dam. We went on the tour of the dam a few weeks ago when we were in Page last time, but this is a different view of the area. See that railing? It was on the way back UP. Yeah, uphill again. We went all the way up because we had to--we went all the way down. Now try to imagine walking up that trail, wearing new prescription sunglasses with bifocals in them. Not an easy task. I didn't let go of the rail once!

The Glen Canyon Dam from the scenic viewpoint. Isn't this just awesome?

Here I am standing by those weird rock formations. And yeah, that is the same orange shirt I wore last time I was here. Maybe I'm trying to blend in...

Here is FabGrandpa posing for me. He may just be getting used to it after 16 years.

The Star of the Show, the fabulous Colorado River below the dam. What a beautiful sight!


Sunset in Page. Try to ignore the antenna in the picture. I do.

Oh, yeah, the reason we went to Page. To get a fridge. Yeah, big enough. That teeny tiny freezer holds enough meats for two weeks of meals. Wine, eggs, gluten free beer. What more do you need?

Just To Let You All Know:

I got an email from my cousin, Brenda, asking if I was ok, and I had no idea what she was talking about. She said she heard about a dam breaking at the Grand Canyon, and wondered if we had been evacuated.

So, I googled and found this. The dam that broke was near the village of Supai, where members of the Havasupai Indian Tribe live. It is about 30 miles northwest of the Grand Canyon Village at the South Rim. FabGrandpa and I are on the North Rim, and are in no danger of flooding, even though it did rain quite a bit on Friday night and then again on Saturday.

We are in Page, Arizona right now, spending the night so we can have the truck serviced at the Ford Dealership in the morning and buy a refrigerator. We went to a couple of scenic viewpoints today and got some great pictures, some of which I will be posting here later. But, there was a thunderstorm in the area so we didn't stay long.

So, thanks to all of you who were worried about us, we really appreciate the love.

You Never Know What You Might See

While working at the gate this week I have seen some things....

I saw a very young guy, who was traveling with some friends of his, who was knitting a scarf! I found that to be quite interesting as 1. he was actually knitting in front of his friends, and 2. he said he learned how to knit so he would have something to do to pass the time while he was on this long road trip. When I asked him about it, all of the guys in the car were telling me how they loved to knit!

I saw a VERY COOL Volkswagen Karmann Ghia. It was very obviously loved by its owner. Yellow, convertible, and occupied by an old hippie. I didn't think there were any of them on the road anymore. (the car or the hippie, ha ha)

I saw a little girl, with blonde curly hair, sitting in the back seat of a car. She was watching everything I did, and when they pulled away from the gate, she smiled a big smile and waved at me.

There was a Japanese family, who when I asked how many people where in the vehicle, the father said 5, and a very cute little boy in the back seat shouted "Five! I'm five!"

I saw a raven land in a tree top across the road from my station. He was very vocal that day, and cawed in count (it seemed) for each car that came by during his stay there.

Then there was the lady who cried when she asked me where she could find a certain hotel, and I had to tell her it was 220 miles away on the other side of the world. I felt so bad, but there was nothing I could do. She really thought she was on the right side.

A little boy who showed me his Jr. Ranger badge with pride, asking me if it would get his family in for free. His dad had a pass, so I told him it would. He was grinning ear to ear.

And on the way home, a deer family, a doe and two fawns. It was dark, but lightening lit up the sky. It was raining, and smelled so good out there. I just love my job.

Crap, Crap and more Crap!!!

You know how I told you that I cooked all day on my day off so we could just come home, heat something up for dinner and all that? Well, damn it, my refrigerator has quit working, just like that! So, I called Norcold, the manufacturer, and talked to them yesterday, and found out it is still under warranty, until December 20, and they gave me about 6 phone numbers for authorized repair places in Page (125 miles away) and Flagstaff (220 miles away).

But guess what? NONE OF THOSE PLACES "are working on refrigerators at this time". WTF??? What that means is "Lady, do you know we are located in the DESERT of ARIZONA and there are people, little old ladies, who have no AIR CONDITIONING, and they are by far more important (read more lucrative, more $$$) than whether or not you and your husband have food?"

Ok, so we what we have decided to do is to go to Page and get a small refrigerator at Wal-Mart, and put it where we now have a chair in the living area of our trailer, and put the chair in the bedroom of our trailer where we now have the laundry basket, and use the real refrigerator as a bookshelf until we get to Phoenix in October. And maybe someone at an "Authorized Repair" place in Phoenix will actually have the time to make the repair before the warranty runs out. And if they don't, then I will call Norcold again and ask them what they suggest we do.

OK, so maybe I feel better now that I have gotten this off my chest. Thanks for listening.

Not Much Going On

Yes, we had days off, three of them, but we didn't go anywhere. Well, I didn't go anywhere. FabGrandpa went to Kanab, to have some more work done on the truck. This time, it got a new starter. And I think this is the last thing we will need to do for a while. At least I hope so.

(Kathy and Zach)

He got up and was ready to go around 5:00 a.m. yesterday. I got up just about the time he left, took a shower, and went back to bed. I finally got up for the day around 9:30, just in time to have a cup of coffee before he came back home.

(Shirley, John, Bob, and Gary)

Later, in the late afternoon, we had a dinner party across the street. Kathy and Ace had been gone to the South Rim for three weeks. I had been watering her plants, and a couple of others had been feeding her Kitty, so to thank us all, they made dinner. MMMM, they had potato salad, baked beans, and pork ribs. All of it was very good, and all gluten free I might add. After we all ate, we went out to the fire ring and just visited around the campfire. What a nice, relaxing, day.

(Gary and Sue)

So, since I will be on the late shift when I go back to work tomorrow, I have been cooking all day so we will be able to eat at a halfway decent hour all the rest of the week. I have baked chicken thighs, country style pork ribs, potato salad, rice, jello salad, pinto bean soup and tuna salad. for tonight, it will be stir fried chicken with garlic, french cut green beans, corn and the last of my sweet red Italian peppers. I'll serve it with some rice and a pear salad, then we'll eat the last of that chocolate cake. (John and Zach)

And while all that cooking was going on, we also defrosted the refrigerator, cleaned the bathroom, vacuumed all the carpet and shook all the rugs, and just generally cleaned everything. Yeah, how exciting! But now it is done and next time we have time off, we will go somewhere and I will come back with some fabulous pictures to share. But, for now, just know we are living the good life up here on the Kaibab Plateau.

(Ace and FabGrandpa)

Dreaming of Chocolate Cake

When you find out that you can't eat things with gluten in them anymore, each day that goes by brings another thing that you suddenly remember that you can no longer have. Things like good old fashioned southern style chicken and dumplings. Fried chicken. Strawberry Shortcake. French Toast. And Chocolate Cake. You know, the yellow layer cake and the gritty fudgy chocolate frosting like your mama used to make?

I was sitting here today wishing for a piece of chocolate cake, so I did a Google search for recipes. The one I chose is from Allrecipes, a website that has recipes for just about anything you could want. This one had 5 star ratings from everyone who had tried it. Click on the link for the recipe.

I do not have any round layer pans, so I used a sheet cake pan. There was just a little too much batter for the size pan I used. This batter was the consistency of other "regular" cake batters I have made in the past and poured into the pan easily. The recipe said to bake for 25 minutes. I don't know if it is because I am currently living at a high altitude, or if it very dry here, or if it was the odd shape of the pan, or if my RV oven is "off" on the temperature, or a combination of all of the above, but I wound up baking it for 34 minutes.

The frosting recipe came from my mother. I like it because it is sugary and gritty, just like I remember from when I was a little girl.

Chocolate Fudge Frosting

1 1/2 cups sugar
3/8 cup cocoa powder
3/8 cup evaporated milk (no water added)
5/8 cup of margarine or butter

Mix all ingredients in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and let cool.

Beat until thick enough to spread but not too thick or it will turn to fudge. Spread on cake.

This was delish! FabGrandpa said it was really good. I cut us each a piece, then refrosted the edge so I can take it to a party tomorrow night.

Some More Wildflowers

I didn't have time to upload all these yesterday, so here are:

Indian Paintbrush on the Cape Royal Road

Another view of the meadow with the aspen trees:

I don't know what this one is called but it looks like a coreopsis:

And this one most people would say is a weed, but I still think it's pretty:

Wildflower Paradise

I love wildflowers. I go on driving trips just to see them and take pictures of them. I had no idea that the North Rim of the Grand Canyon would be a wildflower paradise, but they are everywhere up here. If you drive slower than the speed limit you will be able to see tons of them. Whenever I drive anywhere it makes me think of easter, with all the pastel colors on the roadsides and in the meadows. Here are just a few of them:

Asters

Daisies

Thistle

Don't know what this one is called but it is pretty.


A pastel meadow with aspens in the background.

My Uniform Faux Pas!!!

About halfway through my day today, I went to the restroom and discovered that I was wearing this hat:

Instead of this hat:

I guess all those people who saw me pulling weeds at the entrance station thought I took a really wrong turn on the way to work this morning. OOPS!

What I Want To Be When I Grow Up...

I know if I refused to participate in these Meme's that 1. people would stop tagging me, and 2. people would stop reading me. So what are you gonna do? I was tagged by Witchypoo over at Psychicgeek, who really makes me laugh, so I have to do this.

The tag is for a Meme, in which I have to list eight things I want to do before I die. Once upon a time, there was a lot of things I wanted to do, and places I wanted to go, so it would have been really easy to this several years ago. But now? It has taken me days to think about this. I have most of what I want, and have been to or have plans in the works for going to most of the places I want to go. So, yeah, this one has been hard for me.

1. I want to lose 50 pounds. And somehow, I often think that I will die much too early if I don't lose 50 pounds. I really need to do this one because I want to be around to still be FabGrandma for my gran chilluns.

2. I want to learn how to speak Spanish fluently. I want to do this because I will need to know how to do it if I get to:

3. Spend the winter in La Paz, Mexico, down at the end of the Baja. I want to loll on the beach, eat fish tacos til I pop, and take a ferry ride over to that island where the Blue Footed Boobies live.

4. I want to add Blue Footed Boobies to my lifetime list. For those of you who are not birdwatchers, a lifetime list is "just" a list of the different birds you have seen whilst birdwatching.

5. I want to publish a cookbook. Yeah, Me. I have one in the works, but have not gotten very far with it. A few years ago, all the members of my family--sister, sisters-in-love, nieces, some nephews, mother, etc., all wrote down our recipes and made up a family cookbook. All the new brides in our family get a copy of it, and let me tell you, it has probably saved a couple of marriages on that side of the family. But this new cookbook I have in mind is solely my creation, and will remain secret until I get further down the road with it.

6. I want to own a really good digital camera. Not a cheap one. I want one with multiple lenses, that will take excellent pictures of Blue Footed Boobies and Gluten Free Cherry Pie. One that will cost a month's pay, but that will let me take pictures worthy of selling and suitable for framing.

7. A short term goal I have is to have to buy new pants before this season is over in mid-October. I ain't telling what size I wear, just suffice it to say it is way too big. And even one size smaller would be one small step for womankind, and make this old lady very happy. Oh, and this is probably almost the same as #1, but because it is so important, I have put it in here twice, and because if I accomplish this one, it will help me to accomplish #8:

8. I want to be able to hike the Grand Canyon on the Kaibab Trail, from the North Rim to the South Rim. I want to stay overnight at Phantom Ranch at the bottom of the canyon. I want to drench myself in the Colorado River, and see for myself the waterfalls at Havasu Falls, Ribbon Falls, and Roaring Springs. Even seeing one of them would make it for me.

So, there you have it. I am not tagging anyone to do this, but if you decide on your own to list your eight things you want to do before you die, please come back here and leave a comment so I will know you have done it and I can come over and read what you want to do, OK?

Breakfast Indigestion, Anyone?

I know my name is FabGrandma, and grandma's should like little kids, but I have to tell you, the one I was in close proximity to this morning was a monster child!

FabGrandpa and I don't go out to eat very often, because we don't go to town very often, but we were at a buffet style place for breakfast this morning. The place was packed, as it was right off of I-15. There were several families there with small children, and I would have been glad to sit by any of the other families, instead of the one two tables over from us.

Just after we were seated, this family came in. Before they could even sit down, the child, who was about 5 years old, started SCREAMING at the top of his lungs. Awful, earsplitting screams. Because he wanted juice. They hadn't even been there two minutes yet. And what did the father of this child do? He DEMANDED to see the manager, because the server had not brought juice as soon as the child started screaming for it. I could not believe my ears!!!

As my breakfast wore on and my stomach tied in knots from the continued shrills from this child, the mother got up and said to the father, "I'm taking him to the car to straighten him out." I didn't mean to hear her say it, but she was so close I couldn't help it. When she got up, the child got up too, and started running around the table, trying to get away from her, screaming all the while. And the father laughed!!!

So, by this time I was finished choking down my meal, and FabGrandpa and I were leaving. I had to go to the restroom, and when I came out of the restroom, guess what I saw? There was Mom and Godzilla Jr, in the game room, with him playing games!!! No wonder he rules their world.

Red Canyon and Bryce Canyon in Utah

I know you can tell from my last few posts that there is nothing, and I do mean nothing, going on here. We go to work, come home, eat dinner, then veg out on the sofa, doing nothing. Maybe go across the road to the campfire sometimes and have a beer, but not often. Because we haven't been anywhere much lately, I decided to show you some pictures from Red Canyon and Bryce Canyon for last month. I hope you enjoy seeing the pictures as much as we enjoyed seeing the real things:

This is in Red Canyon, on the way to Bryce Canyon, north of Kanab in Utah:
You have to click on the pics to make them bigger, they are awesome!

Also in Red Canyon:

A tunnel in Red Canyon

Bryce Canyon. Nice but I like the Grand Canyon better:

Another view of Bryce. You can see the hoo doos better in this one: