We had a late huge lunch and since it was one of the warmer days, decided to go for a drive. Had to get rid of a dead mouse anyway and to not just waste fuel, we took a few buckets and shovel to bring some cow pies back for the garden.
Along the way to the corral, we saw this fire pit and we got a full bucket of bio char.
At the corral we interrupted the cows’ Thanksgiving snack:
Little Andy (the puppy) bucks like a bull when he sees a cow, he’s hilarious. Got to take a video of him next time.
It just totally sucks that they killed all the coyote melons growing on the fence and the grass??? growing in the water. It was at about 6 ft tall and this was a NICE place to visit. It’s so cool to be in the desert and hear the sound of running water. But they sure butchered this place.
What amazes me most is that they leave this old rusted metal there. If MY horses and cows were drinking there, I sure wouldn’t want to risk injuries. But that’s just typical for Arizona ranchers.
How long does it take to cut that metal off? 30 seconds?
Since it was still warm, we drove out into the desert. Not really the place to take a dually, but at least we had plenty of spare tires in case of a flat.
FREE PLASTIC TUBING:
I took pictures of these pipes years ago. Apparently these are the old pipes taking water from the Smith Ranch (now the Grand Canyon West Ranch) to Gold Basin. I really don’t understand why BLM doesn’t condition grazing leases on CLEAN UP.
It’s truly a disgrace that BLM condones trashing MILES of desert washes and if I had the time, I’d ask BLM what on earth is going on.
We could probably use a couple hundred feet of the plastic tubing, but I don’t know what it takes to piece it together. Some of the longer pieces were probably about 30 ft or so. It was getting late and we didn’t have time to check it out, but it looked like 1.5″ diameter and NOT round. There are also rusted metal pipes (make great flat tires when you drive over one sticking out of the ground) and some broken white PVC for additional desert decoration.
We drove the “pipe-lined” wash up to these boulders with very nice views:
Wish we had planned on this outing and left a lot earlier. It was nice to be out roaming for a few hours and we didn’t just waste fuel, came back with some char, cow pies and a nice rock.
That is my kind of day. Love those exploration trips but don’t do them as much as I used to.
A recent post about using tubes in adobe could be a way to use those old unsightly pipes. I think the piping is used in the buildings a lot like they used cob, kind of a wattle and dob type of building like in Africa, only they use the piping as reinforment.
I loved the wood fencing around the water trough. Thanks for sharing. Those were beautiful pictures. Anna
I like your blog, I look forward to your next post. We went through Wickenburg on the way to Phoenix, and when I got home I looked up Wickenburg on mapquest, arial view and stumbled on what I believe is the Smith Ranch. Is that the same area? You can email me if you’d like.~Laura
Thanks for the comments, been SO busy, I just haven’t had time to update here. No lack of pictures, I constantly take all these pictures and then don’t get around to posting them.
There USED to be the Smith Ranch and it was sold and is now a tourist hot spot — mostly Europeans and Asians flying in or bussed in from Vegas:
http://www.grandcanyonranch.com/
That’s on the way up to the Skywalk and we’re just a few miles away. Until they recently paved the lower part of Diamand Bar road up to Grand Canyon West, we got so much dust from the buses driving up.
Also, here is Laura’s blog: http://gardensindesert.blogspot.com/
Great pics and she’s gardening in the Black Mountains near Las Vegas.