Fire Wise

We are in a drought period in AZ. Many fires get started from lightning strikes. Our local fire department wants everyone to be fire wise. We need to cut and rake out the dry grass.

Randy weed whipped the front portion of our lot. It looked so much better but we needed to do more.

The back section of the lot is difficult as one has to climb over and through lots of rocks.

We got a permit from the fire department so we could burn the brush instead of hauling it all to the dump.

Weed whipping definitely helped but we needed to hire someone to prune the trees up 13 feet from the ground and take out some of the manzanita.

Guess who supervised?

The next photos were taken after the pruning was done and manzanita was taken out.

You can see the rocks now and our lot is more clearly defined.

This shot is in the front of the house, facing the street, to the left of the driveway.

We also got a cord of nice oak to burn this winter......half the price of a cord of wood in CA.

Cooking Class.....En Papillote

The focus for Judy's Cooking Class this month was En Papillote (In Paper/Parchment). Twelve women gathered in her kitchen for a demonstration lesson. She has a class every Wednesday and repeats the "theme" for the month. (iPhone photos)

We assembled Salmon En Papillote and Lamb Shanks en Papillote with Leeks, Carrots, Rosemary and Orange.

The lamb was cooked in individual foil packets with vegetables, herbs, vermouth, and a silver of butter then roasted until luscious and fork-tender. Foil was needed as this dish bakes for 2 1/2 hours.

The salmon was cooked in parchment as it only took 12 minutes to cook. It was cooked with sautéed mushrooms and herb butter.

The lamb was so yummy and the carrots were incredible.

The cool thing about this dish is that you can cook the lamb the day before and prepare the bags 1-2 hours ahead of cooking. Judy served both the lamb and salmon with polenta with parmesan cheese. Mashed potatoes would also be a nice side dish.

Truly elegant dishes for company.......and easy to prepare!

Cemetery Tour and Fall Color

The Northern Gila County Historical Society sponsored a tour of the Payson Pioneer Cemetery one Saturday this month. I am now on the Board of the Historical Society.....a great bunch of volunteers who maintain the Rim Country Museum and the Zane Grey Cabin.

Jinx Pyle, local historian, led the tour. Jinx has so many stories about the folks that are buried in the cemetery. The Payson's Women's Club maintains the cemetery. You have to be an important person in Payson in order to be buried there.

John Meadows moved his family to AZ from CA in 1877 to homestead an area called Diamond Valley Ranch. In 1882 a band of renegade Apaches raided the Meadows ranch, killing John and his brother, Henry. John was the first person to be buried in what would become the Payson Pioneer Cemetery. The raid ended at the Battle of Big Dry Wash, where the Apaches were defeated by General Crook and his troops. John's son, Charlie, better known as Arizona Charlie, was the co-founder of the Payson Rodeo. Charlie also spend some time with Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and met folks like Annie Oakley, Zane Grey, and Will Rogers.

Our photography class was searching for fall color this past week. We ended up in See Canyon in the "town" of Christopher Creek. (About 25 minutes east of Payson.)

Christopher Creek is a beautiful spot. There is a creek running through town which includes a general store, restaurants and campgrounds.

There are maple, aspen and oak growing along the creek which is lined with mint, ferns and grasses.

Our fall color has not been great this year but we are managing to find a bit. We will probably be headed to Sedona next week.

A Wedding at Leonard Lake

Family and friends gathered at Leonard Lake Reserve (between Ukiah and Willits) for five days of fun, food, togetherness and celebration.
Son-in-law Stuart, and grandsons Wren and Dakota enjoyed rowing on the lake....and also fishing. Wren ate a small mouth bass that he caught for breakfast!

Randy enjoyed canoeing. He tried to coax Cooper into getting into the canoe....no dice.
We drove to the lake from AZ so that we could visit my son Jake in Sacramento and take Cooper.

We were surrounded by beautiful redwoods.

We relaxed, ate wonderful food and enjoyed badminton, ping pong, swimming, fishing and hiking.

Dakota found a fort in one of the redwood trees.

The water was cool but still a lot of fun for the kids.

Jake got his seven month old puppy, Roscoe, into the kayak.

Such a picturesque spot. We rented all 5 houses on the property. The houses had beautiful antique furniture in all of the rooms. We stayed in the "Big House" with a kitchen that could seat over 30 people and sleep about 20.

Wren enjoyed climbing trees and exploring.

Tents were set up on the deck of the "Barn House" and places were set for the wedding feast.

Jake and Kirsten are all dressed up and ready to enjoy the wedding festivities.

Emily and Alex after the "I dos." We blew bubbles to celebrate. Alex is from Wales and that's where they are living.

A family shot........it was a wonderful time!

Willow Springs Lake—Photography Class

We're taking an intermediate photography class at Gila Community College. This class has a field trip followed by a sharing and critiquing of photos class. On our first field trip we headed to Willow Springs Lake near the top of the Rim at about 7000 ft. and 35 minutes from Payson.

Randy caught me trying to take a picture of this rather odd looking mushroom....bright orange.

There were folks fishing in boats on the lake and a kayak or two, but it was a rather uninspiring landscape.......at least from my point of view. I don't like any of my photos so I am going to have a hard time coming up with some to share in class.

September Cooking Class

September's cooking class was a yummy one! We made escarole salad with olives and garlic croutons, fresh pasta for two kinds of lasagna—butternut squash lasagna with goat cheese, sage and breadcrumbs, and short rib and dried porcini lasagna.

Short rib lasagna seemed odd to me but boy, is it delicious. The homemade noodles just melted in your mouth. They are quite a bit of work as you almost need two people—one to crank and one to hold on to the dough as it comes out of the machine. (Sorry for the bad iPhone photos.)

I am still having foot issues.....same foot, different issue. I now have a hematoma on the top of my left foot. I have no idea how it happened. I am putting moist heat and ice on it several times a day in hopes that it will dissipate. I am SO missing hiking. I haven't been on a decent hike since the middle of June. My exercise classes at the local college don't seem to be bothering my foot which is good as I need the exercise. Pilates is a killer, physioball not quite as bad and yoga is calming and restful.

Evening Under the Rim and Elk

What a view! We were enjoying a glass of wine and looking out over the Tonto National Forest.

Every year in September a family who owns a beautiful piece of property near the top of the Rim opens up their home to 70 guests for a fundraiser for the Rim Country Museum. The family supplies the food and drink and the museum benefits from the sales of the tickets. We enjoyed beef, barley salad, fruit salad, croissants, and apple pie and ice cream.

The original Zane Grey cabin used to be located on their land. The cabin burned down in the 1990 Dude Fire. A look-alike cabin was constructed at Green Valley Park right next to the Rim Country Museum. We give tours to both the museum and the cabin.

The State Historian, Marshall Trimball, attended and we enjoyed listening to his singing and storytelling. He knows so many tales about Rim Country.

Yesterday morning there were elk beside our driveway. This guy is not too worried about Cooper. And Cooper doesn't bark at them like he does with the coyotes or javelina.

Beautiful creatures that stand 6-9 ft. tall.

They move up into the hills at day break. The rut will start soon....then it's going to get noisy around here.