XMAS GIFTS

One of the friends we made when we worked at the Imperial Wildlife Refuge is a woodcarver.  He takes tree and bush limbs and carves them into walking sticks.  He personalizes them with small carvings to match things you love.  Jim got a stick with a walleye chasing some little fishes.  He also carved an eagle a bear and a plane on the stick.  He adds little bits of shiny rocks in some of the little holes in the wood.  My stick had a hummingbird carved into it and on the very bottom he carved a boot.  He even adds a little cushion to the bottom and a wrap where your hand holds onto it.  

We have received other gifts in the mail with Christmas cards and always are very grateful for those.  I love Christmas cards because it is the only time of year I keep in touch with a lot of friends and family.  Love the pictures, the emailed Christmas greetings and now the texts from friends wishing us a Merry Christmas.    It makes life on the road a little more cheerful around the holidays when we still can feel connected to everyone.   MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Gold Nugget

Our first gold nugget found digging for gold.  It was very exciting to actually find a nugget laying in the top of our drywasher.  It was actually lying in the "nugget trap" just like its supposed to if your come across one.  This one weighed a gram which is worth about $40.  When your running the drywasher the rock is so dirty and there is a lot of dust flying but the nugget actually stood out and caught your eye.  It didn't quite shine but when you picked it up and looked at it closely you knew it was gold.

Of course, we haven't found anything else like it or even close to it since we found this piece.  We go out several days a week now digging.  We are trying to get as much digging in as we can because it will rain soon and then we will be done for quite awhile. 

Its starting to look a lot like Christmas with everyone decorating their RV or home.  There are several streets where every place on the street has an abundance of decorations.  Its quite pretty and sure brightens up these dark days.  I kind of miss the tumbleweed snowmen they had in New Mexico.  No tumbleweeds here just cactus and dust. 

Rock Club Outing

I went with a girl friend to a rock club outing in Wickenburg.  We made it a girls weekend spending three days in the cowboy town of Wickenburg.  We are members of the Yuma Gem and Mineral club and they put together the outing to find Apache Tears, Pastelite and quartz crystals.   The scenery was beautiful with a forest of Joshua Trees like the one in the picture.  The weather couldn't have been nicer and we found some nice specimens.  I have them soaking in acid to clean them up.  I will try to take some pictures once they look like something. 

We had a great time in Wickenburg.  It ended up being the same weekend all the cowboys come through on their way to  Las Vegas for the  National Rodeo Championships.  It seemed like there were more horses than people in town.  Everywhere you looked were big trucks pulling horse trailers.  We also got to enjoy the annual Christmas parade through downtown Friday night.  It was a very cute small town parade.   Even though Wickenburg is a cute town with lots going on we still prefer Yuma because it is warmer.

Still no camera

I still have no camera just the one on the phone.  The phone camera is alright but I really miss a good camera.  Hopefully Santa will bring me a new one.  Our friends went to a ghost town east of of Parker, AZ.  Parker is about two hours or more north of Yuma.  The Swansea Ghost Town is known for the Nellie E Saloon close by it.  The saloon was started back in the 80's in the middle of nowhere and that's why people like going there.  The five miles of very rough, primitive road make it a challenge to get to the place. 

I'm hoping to check it out sometime.  We are thinking about investing in a sidebyside 4 wheeler so we can explore places off the beaten path.  It sounds like the bar is an interesting place to get a cold one and some pretty good food.  The ghost town is from the copper mining days back in the early 1900s