The Map Room

Some people haven't been able to visualize where we are.

This is a map of the western half of the United States.

The pencil at the top points to where we live in Montana.

The pen at the bottom points to where we are in southern Nevada.

This is a map of Nevada. The pen points to where we are. East of us, fairly close, is Arizona and the Grand Canyon. The big city below and to the left (not the up-close map of a city) is Las Vegas. Up closer still, the pen points to where we are, near the top of Lake Mead.

The pen points to where we camped for the first four weeks.

Follow the nearby highway north (up) and you'll come to Overton.

Below Overton, on that first sharp curve, is the wildlife area we camped at for a week.

The pencil shows where we camped next, across the lake and southwest of Mesquite.

Mesquite is the town above and to the right, on the Arizona state line.

I think this is the same picture?

Man...I am SO sleepy!

I'll delete this picture next time.

We're outta here!

Thinking of you all, and missing you!

Mon. 3/28 Pumpkins

Usually it's the internet messing up.

Today, it's the blogspot website or something on it.

My posts keep coming up with random spaces between sentences and pictures.

I've gone back and fixed that, line by line, just to have it do it again when I hit "post".

Sigh...

Sorry some of these posts look messy.

Sunset.

Sunset. I thought we'd work backwards today! Just kidding. I uploaded the pictures in the wrong order. Steven took his rifle and rode down near the river to do some coyote calling.

There he goes!

While he was gone I cut up the pumpkins I brought from home.

They're the ones I grew in the garden and picked when we were getting a killing frost.

They ripened in the house, something I didn't know until this year could be done!

It's amazing they kept this long.

A couple of the seeds were sprouting inside the pumpkin!

I cut them up and put them in the solar cooker to bake.

The seeds and pulp are in the bucket, but I sorted the seeds out later.

In the afternoon I went for a short bicycle ride.

Those tall plants back there are Yucca.

The bush in the bottom left corner is Greasewood (Creosote).

Greasewood and Yucca.

We had tacos for dinner, using home-canned venison, home-canned cheese, home-dried tomatoes and onions, (store-bought taco seasoning), and lettuce grown in a bucket!

I was going to sleep on the roof and admire the stars, so I got my bed ready before it got dark.

After dark, the wind suddenly blasted us, and blew my sleeping bags off the uhaul!

The wind blew sand and dirt against the uhaul all night.

This was earlier, before dark and the wind.

Steven lit the campfire.

Behind the campfire, to the left, is the solar panel, the solar cooker, and working this way toward the fire, a pile of Beavertail cactus pads.

We roasted marshmallows.

Not your average s'more!

Peanut butter cups instead of Hershey bars!

Delicious!

I tried to imagine what this burning wood looked like.

A fish? A snake?

Steven's pictures from his ride this morning.

He took the right fork.

This is the plains on the edge of the Virgin River, which is to the right, out of picture.

From hill above river valley

Looking west across river valley.

You can see the red rocks of Valley of Fire.

Lake Mead, the very north end.

Rest break.

I singed the "glochids" (small spines) off the Beavertail Cactus pads.

Sun. 3-27 Solo hike

This morning I went on an expedition by myself!

Just a short walk through the wash behind the uhaul, mostly to take pictures

of flowers, which I'll be putting on a separate post and naming "the flower garden"!

Here, I'm looking up at some barrel cactus.

Clear blue sky.

Odie went in all the cracks and crevases looking for mice to dig up!

Scenery in the wash.

Looking back toward the mountains.

I climbed out of the wash and walked back to the uhaul, which you can see in the distance. The cat came to meet me. Though I wondered if it missed me or the dog?

I made grilled ham and cheese sandwiches for lunch. Disgustingly, we were eating store-bought bread, because when we moved from the lake over to here, we bought a loaf, since I didn't have time to bake. Well, okay, I had time. I didn't make it a priority. Anyway, back to the sandwiches... I used canned butter, canned cheese, and canned ham! That redeems me a bit for using "boughten" bread?

Well, this picture is out of order. This is after dinner was done and ready to eat!

It's black beans, corn, onions, tomatoes, and cornbread, cooked in the solar cooker!

I found a great flat stone on my walk and carried it home to use for grinding corn.

I started off grinding outside but it was too windy, so I came inside.

Steven was watching me and taking pictures, so I told him he should try grinding, too, so he knows what he's talking about when he writes about it!

Here's the cornbread ready to be put on the bean mixture.

"All this work around me has me exhausted!"

This is a self photo. I went up on the roof of the uhaul to lay in the sunshine and read.

I dedicate this picture to Randy, who reminded me via internet comment, to be careful not to roll off the roof!

It would have been good for me if God had seen fit to install a bit of 'fear of heights' in me.

I've had some interesting mishaps involving roofs, ladders, cliffs, etc.!

" Do my thunder-thighs make my butt look fat?"

Dedicated to the 3 people who always email me after I post pictures of the cat worrying about having a fatt butt! lol! Glad you enjoy them!

Sunset

More pictures out of order!

The dog is in the way of a great picture of random rocks on the ground!

lol

To all our friends and family in Montana and other northern places, I give you "the cat", who dedicates this song to you:

"I'm....dreaming of a white.....Easter...."

This picture is REALLY out of order!

Dinner is long over, and we're still looking at pictures of me grinding corn?

It moved! It moved!

This looks like the same picture as above, and I thought I goofed again!

But the paw is hanging down this time!

I wonder if the cat is still dreaming of a white Easter in Montana?

*snicker, snicker!*

Hah! This isn't corn, it's Barley!

Barley is hard to grind with stones. The grain is harder than corn.

Corn was pretty easy, and I'd do it again.

Sat. 3/26 Ninja cat

The "wop wop wop" of helicopter blades sent us outside to gawk.

This flew over so fast I didn't have time to "telephoto" it, so that's the real image as we saw it.

Steven said it was military, with lots of firepower!

Nellis Air Force base isn't very far west of here.

In fact, sometimes the ground shakes and we can hear the rumble coming from

their bombing grounds.

We did camp chores today. Steven washed dishes at the folding picnic table.

I washed laundry in the 5-gallon bucket and rinsed in the 2-gallon bucket.

The dog supervised, since the cat was hiding somewhere!

The cat sweeps itself under the rug!

Odie decided to chew on some of the driftwood we brought from Stewart's point, while laying on the dead yucca leaves we gathered for fibers! Steven, watching for the dust trail indicating the pizza delivery guy was on the way! (One can dream... ha ha!) Evening shadows on the Virgin Mountains.

Ninja cat

The cat was batting at mosquitos!

One of the funny things about that is...who would've thought there are mosquitos

in the desert???

Sunset

Night falls over the desert.

I should put all these sunset pictures on one post!

Ninja cat was at it again.

The pictures just don't capture how hilarious it was to watch this!

The cat was whipping it's paws and jumping about like some old kung-fu movie!

Slowing down?

Now we're back-tracking, more than I thought!

These are from Steven's camera and I meant to put them on the post from yesterday!

This was out walk north of the uhaul!

That's me!

Me.

Inspecting a critter hole in the hill.

Me, on our walk.

"Where's my chew-toy...er, I mean, the dog?"

At it again!

The dog looks like it's laughing!

"I'll get you next time, you rascally dog!"

Texting Tristan.

The cell tower for Las Vegas is high on the ridge to our west, on the other side of Lake Mead.

It does a pretty good job covering way out here in the desert the other direction, too!

We went a whole week without direct human contact, out there 26 miles from other people.

But we still had phone and text contact with the kids!

Drats...is there no place to get away from them??? (Just kidding...the phone does have an "off" switch!)