Crown King, Arizona

Yesterday, me and my husband went to Crown King with my mom and dad in my brother's truck.
First off, the drive there is only a dirt road. No paved roads. When you finally reach the "town" of 80-100 year round residents, the first thing you'll see is The Mill. They had great food and lots of wonderful old antiques from that era as well as the mill parts they salvaged from the original mill about 2 miles away.

The Mill's retired juke box:

Which president started the fireside chats over the radio? I remember seeing a picture of a family way back then sitting around a radio just like this...

The gold presses in the mill.

They had tons of scales all around the building. Many of them I wonder if they were used to weigh their gold.

There were so many hummingbirds visiting their (at least) 6 hummingbird feeders. Here's one that wasn't scared of my husband who was waiting patiently for it to land in his hand (which it didn't).

Here is the outside of The Mill. It was closed as we were leaving. We got there just in time.

Outside the General store, they had these marvelous things you stick your head in and someone takes your picture. There was also one of a fat old prospector. I'm not letting you see my face though... Just imagine the top (she was lovely).

This was taken inside the guest ranch. It is someone's garden all in pots and old wheelbarrows with old tools laying everywhere. Quite the pile! But very nice and healthy!

OK. We shall start the tour of the entire town. Just scroll up to see The mill first, Then imagine driving over a little bridge, then The Chapel is next:

Literally right next to it, The Guest Ranch/Realtors office:

Then next, I didn't take a picture of it, but it was a bunch of tables with umbrellas to sit at, the welcome center or something,

And next,(and these all connect to each other with no room between,) The General Store. It's for sale if anyone's interested. They sell the best fudge many different flavors. The mint chocolate was almost gone, and I swiped the last of it HA HA HA HA if you go there, you'll have to wait for them to make more! MMMMM it was so good! You can buy all kinds of tourist trap knick knacks and see really old antiques, as well as purchase all you need to make a meal, as well as the fudge. Lets lot forget the fudge. You can order it and they'll mail it to you!

There is a small driveway to get to the back, partially pictured, then The Volunteer Fire Station.

Here it is:

And just beyond that, Yup, the end of town.

Crown King Curio was closed for good it looked, and The Saloon was next to it with a tiny cafe behind it. All locals and their dogs there it seemed. They welcomed us and said they loved tourists.

Just after the saloon, there was a patch of trees and the road curved a little ways, and the last building. Doozy's Bakery. We didn't go there. The tree on the left side is the tree you see in the picture of the fire station/curio shop/saloon end of town second picture above, just so you can see it really is very close to the saloon.

If you go back up to the start of town, there's a road by the bridge. If you drive up a short ways, there's The School House which has 2-18 students a year. Here's the colorful half:

And the other half: In a fenced area connected to the building on the other side, there was a playground with 2 swings, a free standing slide, a basket ball court, and a small jungle gym.

The road back the way we came:

I took most of these while we were driving: The burned areas from the Gladiator Fire. It just missed Crown King.

Pockets of burned scotched places in the green.

I took many great pictures:

And true hair pin-turns:

Very pretty views.

Burned:

EEEEK! Check out the tiny crickety bridge we just drove over!

Same area: Gees Bro! You should really wash your back window! Sorry about the blurry picture guys!

The end. I hope you enjoyed the trip and hope to have you join us again soon!

I can officially say I've survived the ride to Crown King and back and lived to tell the tale!

Trisha.

Owch

I have a hitch in my get-along.

You can't really see it, but my right foot is a little swollen. It's bruised inside. (look at my toes) And the horrible thing about it is I can't see it, and I have no idea how it became hurt. About half a week of limping made one of the resident's at work tell me:

"You have a hitch in your get-along."

And yup. I do. And still do.

Been putting it off getting it seen because it's not swollen so it must not be broken right? Dislocated? Doesn't appear so. So I'll have a hitch in my get-along until it goes away.

No swelling makes it difficult to convince others at work that it really does hurt. And the absence of bruising doesn't help either. But I never swell or bruise except on rare occasions.

I took some time off work this week to try heal it, and feel exhausted from it. Why I don't know. It should be restful to sit at home with our foot up with ice on it, or in a hot Epsom salt bath all day. But I'm not feeling rested. It consumes excess energy to limp to the point of exhaustion.

Anyways, that's your update for the last week. Hope yours didn't have a hitch in your get-along!

Have a fun day!

Trisha.

Happy Memorial Day!

I decorated!

 The first thing you see now when you walk into my house is this on the coffee table! No longer a home, but a buisness!

 Happy Birthday to me from my husband. These remind me so much of the flowers at the hotel we stayed in in Oahu:

 Happy Birthday to me from my boss: She said she loves pink azaeleas. They are pretty too. 

So I now have new plants to figure out how to keep alive! 

Have a perfect Memorial Day!

Remember it's not for getting drunk, but for remembering the soldiers. (It's patriotic, not a party.)

Trisha.

Plants in my backyard

I think these expired: And I don't even know what they were because I lost the paper I wrote down all the plants I planted on. Oh well. It shall be a mystery garden to see what pops up where.

But guess what all came up?!!!! My 4 date palms and all my agave cactus' are doing well!

And anyone know what these seedlings are popping up? I think they might be zinnias, but I didn't plant them...

See? There are zinnias popping up around my green beans: I didn't plant these either.

And my asparagus is sending up new shoots:

And where shall I next hook this 1 branch from this vine to next? All of a sudden it decided it was going to live and flourish! And grow long branches. That don't have any place to go. That I don't want to cut off... But it's touching the ground again.

And my bell peppers are turning color!!!!!!

My garden brings happiness to go out and wander around and just look.

Even though it's still mostly dirt.

See you later!

Happy Birthday to me!

Trisha.

Tinted Gysers

From Geysers erupting as powerful as Old Faithful from my backyard to freshly tinted windows, yesterday was a busy day!

This gyser sprayed me in the face, my boob, my arms, and my ankle before I finally got it under control. It went way up there in the air! Over the back fence to who knows where!

 Before:

 After:

I'm officially tinted and fit in with the cool people. And we also each bought a pair of pants for work.
Yesterday cost $$$$$$$.
Have a fun day!
Trisha.

Cactus, candle holder, garden and bricks.

Our Open House went well yesterday. We had 6 people come look at it, and one couple was interested. 7 people if you count the weirdo guy who claimed he was a home inspector looking for business and stayed for an hour after we left!!! We had to wait until our Realtor showed up before we could leave. Instead of she, she sent her husband and instead of coming at 11:30 like we agreed on, he showed up 12:07. 7 minutes after the open house started! Then he left to put up the signs. While he was gone, we had to entertain the "home inspector" who showed up right after he left! I think someone was running a little late! His wife, our realtor had a baby shower to attend until 12:30. which is when we left to my parent's house to sit and wait with the dog.

Anyways, check out my Saguaro! It's been busy bloomin' for about a week now!

And busy growin' arms and prickles and housin' baby birds.

And my living room is finished!

My mom gave me this!

I think it ties everything together well.

And my garden. I planted it and put the irrigation line in it yesterday, pulled out lots of grass, and TA-DA! Set it to water for 10 hours instead of 10 minutes by accident. So it still looked watered this morning! But the timer turned it on anyways... Oh well. It got off to a great start.

All of that was made possible by me moving all the bricks into the garage which only resulted in exhausting me and scraping off a part of my finger I use on a daily basis! But I'll survive!

Whew! I'm glad all that rush is over! I can sit back now and put all my trust in a battery to water my garden for me from now on.

And that is a great feeling!

See you around!

Trisha.