$20K

Two +/- densely wooded acres in Wisconsin's Northwoods. Bounded by residences on acreage, zoned commercial on primary road. Paved. Rural character, walk to Conover amenities. Electricity to lot line. Pound or drill well, put in septic. Taxes: $169.57.

Email questions:

Noltze@PropertyPurveyor.com

What's this guy doing in Arizona if

he's a California Kingsnake?

Tip of Century Cactus stalk, about 15 feet

in the air. This one is not quite ready to

bloom. It will bloom for months, then die.  Each bud can be planted for a new cactus, which will bloom a century from now.

 May 7, 2012

Big moon, May 5, 2012

As seen from the Sonoran Desert at 3:45a.m.

You don't need a telescope to explore the vista from Lowell Observatory. Through the woods one can see downtown Flagstaff.

Little Colorado River Gorge

Sunset Crater Volcano

Lava flow from Sunset Crater

Wupatki

This is one of several parks I toured this week in celebration of National Parks Week. It puts my moment in time in perspective.

April 21 to April 29, 2012

(Shouldn't that be "National Parks 8 Days"?)

Prickly Pear Cactus

Earth Day

Cave Creek's Green Man chats with a Creeker at the Holland Center, April 21, 2012.

Sauntering Javelina     –4/19/2012 Kathy Noltze

4/19/2012

Politicians are the only truly American criminal class.    –Will Rogers

After the storm

Cactus buds ready to pop

Lake Pleasant

Scorpion Bay Marina and Harbor

New Waddell Dam

It's part of the Central Arizona Project that provides water for Tucson and Phoenix.

Photo by Kathy Noltze 3/24/12

Juxtaposition: palm trees and snow.

From my office window this morning, I caught this interesting shot of snowy mountains and sunlight on palm trees. Today, Green Bay, WI  is 20° warmer than most of Arizona.

 –Kathy Noltze

March 19, 2012

©2012 by Kathy Noltze

3/7/12 Wildflowers in the desert.

Bartlett Lake

Boyce Thompson Arboretum

Picket Post House

Ayer Lake, 2/18/2012

Arizona, February 2012

Yavapai County Courthouse, 2/11/12

I caught this guy on the courthouse square inspecting decor.  Arizona prepares for the Centennial this week. We are #48.

February 8, 2012

Clouds scurry past the moon over

Arizona's desert early this morning.

I can't hang onto time, but I can

 appreciate the fleeting moment.

–Kathy Noltze

Why do they always leave a broom behind, I often wondered when I inspect a newly-vacated house in order to return the security deposit. Tenants leave floors spic-and-span clean but forget the broom.

     This might be due to a moving day super-stition. It is bad luck to sweep a house clean after all the furnishings have been removed. The bad luck can be off-set, though, if you leave something behind. Also, taking an old broom into new quarters is foreboding. Thus, you kill two birds with one stone by leaving the broom behind with the swept floor. (And you get your deposit back.)

Arizona is the youngest of the lower 48 states. We celebrate our 100th anniversary of statehood on February 14, 2012. Century-old time capsules will be opened to reveal what was important to our predecessors.

     Some current residents were school children here when mid-century time capsules were embedded in walls in 1962; they plan to celebrate the good life of Arizona when the capsules are opened.

     A few of the saguaros in my yard are older than the state of Arizona. Those have not changed much since 1912.

     Air-conditioning and water are likely two items that enabled the biggest changes.

     When I arrived, everyone I met was from somewhere else. I quickly learned that the habits of my tribe back home are not laws of nature. Nowadays, there are many Arizona natives with youngsters who've never seen snow or mosquitoes.

     Some Zonies do not know where food comes from, except citrus. You gotta love it.

     But I digress.  Now is the time to make your hotel reservations if you intend to join the festivities on February 14.   –Kathy Noltze

January 6, 2012    

Our practice of toasting on New Year's Eve is  Anglo-Saxon in origin: they drank to good health in the New Year. Making resolutions, however, is from the Romans who believed that good conduct in the new January will please the gods. Noise on New Year's Eve chases away evil spirits to clear the air for the fresh New Year.

I followed him into a cactus patch at

the Desert Botanical Garden, this

California Kingsnake.

Trifle Not, Thy Time is Short

–Clock Tower, Folkestone

Another desert dawn this week.

Desert Dawn  5-7-12

Part of the view: NAU's skydome stands out on Flagstaff's skyline.

–Kathy Noltze

May 4, 2012

Oak Creek Canyon

Wukoki

This is the base of the house, which

appears to be part of the land.

Kudos to architects of 1000 years ago.

Double walls of stones and mortar shielded the dwelling from harsh winters of the high altitude and scorching sun of the desert summers. Space between the walls was filled with debris to further insulate the quarters.

Arises from the earth:

Wukoki Pueblo

Don't call me Squirrely.

This fellow posed for me in Flagstaff.

–Kathy Noltze

April 25, 2012

Another Blooming Prickly Pear

Pygmy Bottlebrush

Desert Bird of Paradise

Good day for water sports.

Fountain Hills, AZ

On some days you're the statue,

on some days you're the pigeon.

Landlocked Arizona has waterways fit for ocean kayaks. It was a sunny day with a cool breeze, ducks splashing, couples paddling their canoes...I caught this shot of colorful kayaks and, on the deck beyond, ardent mariners talking on their cell phones.

– Kathy Noltze

♫♪Yellow Ribbon♫

I made a wrong turn when I departed the train station and found myself on a lonely street in Bad Godesberg, Germany. Godesburg ruins (notice spelling difference) was my aim but here I was in an isolated residential area. Suddenly I heard music, an American song, and I followed my ears, which ended up at a bandstand between a lively duck pond and a terrace of tea-drinkers who were startled to see me pop through the hedge. An orchestra on the bandstand played "...tie a yellow ribbon 'round the old oak tree..."

     Such are the memories that a song or smell evokes. The boss of the dials at our house had dialed a mellow-listening station and I was transported across time and distance.

Nearing the end of its bloom: Sweet Acacia

It started shortly after we moved here. One tree from a nursery filled in a bare spot in the yard. The next year, a new one sprouted ten feet away (a tree, not a nursery). Since this one wasn't planted, but grew wild, I suppose it's technically a weed. Another Sweet Acacia appears most years, most likely germinated by birds.  Sweet Acacia color the yard in spring and shade it in summer.  On their own time schedule, Palo Verde and Desert Bird of Paradise add color. Soon cacti will bloom.

In Arizona, it's OK to have a dirt yard.  

Sunset on the high Sonoran Desert

This morning, I saw my first snake of the season, a four-foot rattler. Good choice by the critter, allowing itself to be shooed away rather than disposed of by the Snake Guy. 

–March 27, 2012

Scorpion Bay Marina and Harbor

Dawn in the desert smells.

It smells like spring. Aloe blooms (above).

–Kathy Noltze

March 21, 2012

Time Stands Still

Arizona is always on

Mountain Standard Time.

This was a good way to spend this year's extra day: photo shoot at Bartlett Lake. Notice how low the water is.

Bartlett Lake

Effective method of crowd-control

Picket Post Mountain

Arizona

Arizona 2/19/2012

Yavapai County, Arizona, February 2012

Visiting a museum was a good way to

commemorate Arizona's centennial.

History comes alive. In another century,

will someone wonder about me?

("They're wondering now," says the

 frank one in our family.)

Long and winding road

in mountains of Arizona.

Column of Arizona flags

Jerome

In 1876, a mining camp 2000 feet higher than Tuzigoot sprang up. It was financed by a lawyer named Eugene Jerome; in 1883 a  company formed to mine copper in Jerome, Arizona.

     Soon 15,000 people lived and worked in this town that clings to a hill above the Sinaguan ruins. We know what was critical to these early settlers because the ratio of taverns to churches was 16 to 1.

     Copper mining operations destabilized Jerome's foundations––mining undermined it––and the town slipped down the hill.

     Mining operations went open-pit in the Verde Valley and a new smelter and town were built: Clarkdale.

     Jerome's fortunes waned with depletion of copper ore. After decades of a dwindling number of inhabitants, the town now attracts artists as residents and tourists as a staple industry.

     I believe Jerome's steep, uneven, narrow streets should be explored on foot. Watch your step if you're counting churches or taverns.

–Kathy Noltze    

Jerome has many enjoyable restaurants. Kathy's favorite is The Asylum. It's at the Grand Hotel and serves up fine cuisine and incredible views of the Verde Valley. 

Tuzigoot

A thousand years ago, farmers thrived along the Verde River south of the Grand Canyon. About the year 1000, they occupied and improved a tract of earth which the Hohokam had deserted. Modern pundits call these people Sinaguan.  The neighbor-hood they bequeathed to us is called Tuzigoot.

     Why did they come here? What were their days like? Did they have time for fun? I asked myself these questions as I ambled around the hill on a cool January day in the Verde Valley. 1000 years from now, will somebody wonder about me?

     In 1933, two graduate students from the University of Arizona (yea Alma Mater!) excavated these ruins; in 1939 President Roosevelt proclaimed the grounds a  national monument.

     A park ranger with whom I spoke pointed out the oldest ten rooms unearthed. They're at the highest point. Early architects used materials at hand near the Verde: lime-stones and sandstones packed together with red mortar. Ceilings were constructed of tree parts: beams, rafters, branches woven together. The rooms were doorless: people entered through hatches in the ceilings and descended ladders in each room.

     As centuries passed and population grew, annexes were built at lower levels. All told, about 90 rooms were constructed that housed about 220 humans. Around 1400AD, the Sinaguans departed.

See Western National Parks Association for further research. 

      Kathy Noltze's Tuzigoot pictures.

Vacation in Ruins: Tuzigoot

January 2012

National Parks

Arizona is home to twenty-two national parks and monuments, many of which are disregarded by snow-birds and citizens alike in favor of well-known attractions. 

     Monday is MLK Day and in honor of the Reverend Doctor and the good deeds he did for this country, admission is free to our federal sites on this three-day weekend. Honor, remember, and enjoy.

http://usparks.about.com/cs/usparklocator/l/blpkaz.htm

State Parks

Winter visitors often overlook our state parks in their haste to see the Petrified Forest, Painted Desert, Meteor Crater, and of course, the Grand Canyon.

     When you're in Arizona, make time for Picacho Peak, Slide Rock, or the Riordan Mansion. Boyce Thompson Arboretum, Tombstone Courthouse, and the Yuma Territorial Prison all have self-guided tours. For information about these and our other parks, see AZStateParks.com .