Sunday October 18, 2026

Church and lunch at Culver’s. This afternoon I went walking off-road by Sandy Wash. I walked across a canyon or two. It was cloudy and around 60 so I didn’t overheat at all.  I had a few raindrops fall on me. I had fun shooting lots of video and just rambling in nature. This is the first time I’ve seen anyone in the first canyon south of Sandy Wash. A guy hurried out of the brush…kind of weird. I said howdy when I spotted him and he did saw hi back. But he seemed in a hurry. It’s hard doing nice video around here as there’s nearly constant jet noise, small plane noise and lots of shooting. That little shooting area seems to always have someone there. Oh well, there’s no way to lessen it. The jet noise is the worst. Nikon Z50 II

Lots of neat old trees and drift wood.

A few flowers still blooming.

I was surprised that green leaves were still popping up after all the rain.  Unusual for this time of year.

 Thursday October 15, 2026

Today we headed north. We first went up by Hart’s Basin. It is nearly dry…the driest I’ve seen it. Then we went up on Cedar Mesa. We saw a bald eagle in a dead tree. That’s the first I’ve seen this fall. We’ve had a few Woodhouse Scrub Jays hanging around our house and the bird feeder. It’s the earliest I’ve seen them too.  Last year I saw very few of them around and that was almost in the spring.  Also many Dark Eyed Juncos are already here too. Are these early sightings a sign of an early hard winter?  Maybe but who knows. Anyway, we next wandered up Laroux Creek. We went until it got too muddy and turned around. There was some fresh snow up there. Then it was on over to the Smith Fork and into Crawford. We saw several deer on our journey. It was a nice day. Panasonic G97 & Nikon Z50II (landscape)

 Tuesday October 13, 2026

The mountains are finally fairly white.  It's been kind of drippy this morning, but began to clear off a bit.  So I thought I'd go walk up on Dave Wood at the forest boundary.  As I headed up there I could see that it was already starting to rain in that area.  I wanted some photos of the snowy mountains, so I turned off and headed over to Sims.  I went to the top of the hill and could see the wall of rain coming, so I took a few quick shots at a turn around spot and headed down.  Lights immediately came on showing the passenger rear tire was going flat fast.  I had to go on down the hill and got to a pullout at the bottom as the air was down to 5psi.  It was already spitting rain when I dug the jack out from behind the seat and got it underneath and the lug nuts partially loosened.  It then began to dump rain, so I jumped in the truck to see if I could wait it out.  The pullout area was a bit muddy, but had some gravel.  It rained pretty hard for probably twenty minutes or so.  As it eased up I went to the back of the truck to lower the spare.  I couldn't get the rod in right spot for anything.  I tried the flashlight on my phone, but to get enough light in there to see what I was doing I had to cover the tiny hole I had to look through.  I worked on it for several minutes and here the rain came again.  I called Joann and asked her to come up and bring my headlamp and rain gear.  As she was on the way the rain let up again and I finally could get my phone light in a position to see what I was doing.  I quickly got the tire changed and everything thrown in the back of the truck and called Joann and told her to turn around as I had got it changed.  I got back out to the pavement and it was dry.  Naturally it had to rain just where I was.  haha  Anyway, the photos weren't worth the flat tire.  I really get aggravated at trashy people.  Where I turned around I noticed some glass, but it was too late.  It seems that many pull off places around the mountains here have broke glass and beer bottles and trash around them.  Come on folks - only trashy people dump their trash in God's great outdoors!!!!  Panasonic G97