I couldn’t resist the cowboy turn of phrase (or Aerosmith tune, if that’s what sprang to your mind), but we’re back in the saddle again, folks with regard to our house building.

On my birthday, May 13, we took the first construction step in more than a year: we now have electric from the pole to the new house! You won’t see it, though, since we chose to bury the cables. So while we had our trencher extraordinaire here (Rocky), Steve decided to lay water and telephone wire conduit as well.

Check out the digging progress, the breaker panel and the approved meter box! Next step on the electrical to-do list is to wire the entire house, but we think we will first lay some subflooring and/or maybe do some gluelam beam sanding and staining. Or pour some concrete in the garage so we can finally close it off. Or do the pavers in the courtyard … Or … Or… There are so many places to begin (again), it’s hard to know where to start.

But, of course, before anything can happen inside the house – with temperatures soaring in the 100s – Steve decided we really needed some cool air out there. So yesterday, he successfully installed an evaporative cooler that amazingly is cooling the entire space (check out the photos!). The house went from 94 degrees to 78 in a matter of hours. I suppose, now, there is no excuse for me not to get out there and finish varnishing the thresholds to the sliding glass doors (or use up the extra boxes of GreatStuff spray foam that we have lying around).

We aren’t sure if the evap cooler will be ‘temporary,’ in the sense that we’ll take it out when we move in, or if we may decide to keep a swamp cooler to complement an AC unit as well. One thing is certain, though: we’ll have plenty of time to decide as we inch, inch, inch along on our progress.

Happy holidays to our family and friends! This year, we’ve taken the time to slow down and enjoy the important things: family, friends, the two furry adoptees in our lives, new hobbies and the outdoors.

Macho and Niña: We welcomed our new babies home on Feb. 13. These two high-energy furballs never fail to entertain us. Bengal cats (a mix between the wild Asian Leopard Cat and a domestic cat) are high-energy and inquisitive. They love to take showers, “cover up” their food like wild “big cats” when they’re ‘done,’ prefer the tops of the eight-foot divider walls to floors, follow us around like dogs, and have the most incredible musculature I’ve ever seen on a feline. You should see them jump! In fact, check out videos of them on the right of the home page, or visit our Macho & Niña gallery of photos. You have to look at their baby pictures to see how small they really were! Oh – and did I mention that they have gorgeous, exotic spots (rosettes)?

Steve’s Ham Shack: When Steve isn’t busy working as radio communications engineer for Pinal County, he’s generally found in his new “Ham Shack” – which is essentially the camper that is now converted into what I call his “geek laboratory.” For those who don’t know much about ham radio (like me, before Steve’s obsession), it’s known as amateur radio, using various types of radio communications – in Steve’s case (a.k.a. MacGyver) a spool of wire, PVC, and clothesline – to talk to other “hams” around the world. Steve’s greatest accomplishments: making contact with Antarctica, South Africa, Reunion Island (off the coast of Madagascar). Check out his ham activity on his website. He also has been dabbling in some website design for clients on the side.

Melissa’s Writing, Nature & Fitness Hobbies: My slow to nonexistent writing business (caused by the continued economic decline), while unfortunate and a showstopper for house-building progress, has given me the opportunity to focus on two of my passions: nature and fiction writing. I’ve decided, unequivocally, that I’d rather be sitting around creating make-believe worlds as a novelist than writing business communiqués. And I much prefer hikes in the local area with friends/morning jogs among the desert critters to a boring gym or treadmill. (I will be running an 8K “trail run” near the Superstition Mountains in February!). Check out the incredible wildflower photos part 1 and part 2 from spring hikes). And don’t miss my new blog – a combination of my love for the outdoors and my love of writing: http://melissacrytzerfry.com. You’ll get glimpses of my newfound geology knowledge as well, gleaned from the class I’m taking for fun. (P.S. I was named 2010 Big Sister of the Year for the state of Arizona, for my role in Big Brothers Big Sisters. Shelly is a freshman at Northern Arizona University this year!).

Other Notable 2010 Events:

·     Steve’s 40th birthday bash (and subsequent declining vision and thinning hair). View at own risk.

·     Apache Lake boat ride with friends & neighbors Mark and Roxanne (scroll to bottom)

·     Aravaipa Canyon hike with friends & neighbors Kathy, Don, Mark, Roxanne

·     Melissa’s return to PA – saw best buds Deb, Tuesday, Sandy – as well Mom/Dad/Sis/Nephew, Thiel buddies, Mount Union pals, and the old high school crew at a mini-20-year-reunion. (Gulp… 20 years?).

·     House progress – See our month-by-month photo progress that includes installation of downspouts and scuppers, trenching for drain pipes, installation of water collection tanks, our new drainage ditch and planting shelves. (See great sunset photo below).

If you haven’t stopped by our website before (or if it’s been awhile), feel free to browse the PHOTO, VIDEO, CONSTRUCTION TIMELINE links at the top of  the page for more images and video.

Even though we have put house-building projects on hold as the heat continues to soar, the Fry Ranch has been active. Not only are the kids getting bigger (see our recent Macho & Niña photos. They’ll be a year old on Nov. 19!), but we’ve had loads of wild visitors (see our Latest video and recent Fauna photos on the home page).

This time of the year is fun, because the javelina seem to be out in full force – especially the babies, which we captured in photos and on video when they came to the French doors. The only not-so-fun part was the morning I was jogging and came right up on a mama, two babies and a ‘bucking,’ crazy male. Fortunately they all ran away from me.

We also believe that a pair of Harris’s hawks are now full-time residents, as we see them nearly daily. This would be the first time we’ve seen them here (red-tail hawks are their predators, and we have plenty of them). Coming home one evening, the Harris family perched right on the horse stable posts and watched us intently. We didn’t get the camera out of the bag in time, but I did photograph them one other morning after my jog.

Every night, around 7 p.m., we can also hear our new barn owls screeching and talking up a storm up near the gate. Plus we had a resident jackrabbit that hung out around the house every night for the month of August. And, finally …  we got very close to a bald eagle while boating on Apache Lake with friends Mark and Roxanne. Spectacular! Again – take a look at our Fauna photos!

Aside from that, it’s the usual: the summer exodus of long-nosed, nectar-eating bats that clean out my hummingbird feeder every single night (and leave poop on all the porches on the new house), lots of coyotes, a mule deer here and there … and some spotted cats IN the house. Typical desert living!

It’s not every day you turn 40, so we celebrated Steve’s birthday in style (well … not sure if beer bongs, sloppy joes and tractor rides equate to style). But we had all of that going on, and a little more with approximately 50 in attendance (including a guest who passed out on the oh-so-soft roof of the new house. Glad we put that spiral staircase in!)

One big surprise was the arrival of Steve’s brother, Michael, from New Jersey. He and brother James managed to keep it a secret until the very end. Steve was fortunate to have had his entire wedding party present: James, Karl, Kory and Tom.

Enjoy the photos of Steve’s “old man” gifts (including adult diapers, enemas, bed pans – complements of Roxanne), and good times with friends.

The summer heat is here, but with the unexpected “cool front” over the weekend (93 degrees) – Steve was able to place some of our water collection tanks. Should be ready to harvest some water for monsoon season, which officially begins June 15. It will be nice to have the tanks filled and waiting for the first two planting shelves I’m going to work on in the fall (along the back wall).

But, back to Steve. Most of his time, these days, has been spent in his new “ham shack” – i.e. the camper. He’s now an amateur radio dude, making connections all across the U.S. with his radio. He’s most proud of the way he MacGyver’ed  $10 worth of PVC and wire together to build his antenna. And he’s giving himself a special pat on the back that those materials allowed him to reach the USS Missouri in Hawaii. He’s also made contact with hams in Michigan, Florida, Texas and Maryland.

So, if you’re ever out for a visit and wonder what the heck is jutting 20 feet off the roof of the house, now you know! It’s just Steve’s new hobby.

Take a peek at photos of the water collection tank install, and the four new videos on the home page, featuring our showering “dog” Macho, and our pouncing girl, Niña.

Though the bright colors of the desert are fading fast, May brought another rush of pigmentation. Along with the yellow blooms of the palo verde, mesquite and acacia came the arrival of even more bees. The hills are alive with their buzz right now.

The most exciting discovery, though, was the arrival of western tanagers! I’ve wanted to see this tropical bird (Costa Rica) for years, and finally had the opportunity when I was running one morning. For four days, that very speedy bird and his comrades eluded me. But I finally got a photo before they headed north for summer.

Enjoy photos taken during hikes on the ranch, in Mammoth, Tucson, Oracle and Peppersauce (my new favorite hiking destination)! My apologies for not identifying all of the wildflowers. Enjoy them in their anonymity, and let me know if you can ID any of them.

Who says nothing grows in the desert? I’ve got proof to the contrary, as you’ll see from the photos taken during my various spring hikes. It has been an incredible wildflower season here in Mammoth’s slice of the Sonoran Desert. Some of my local friends say that some of the flowers we saw this year haven’t popped up in more than 15 years!

It’s quite amazing what you’ll see when you actually look around. On my morning jogs – and during hikes with my buddies – it’s become somewhat of a scavenger hunt, trying to locate a ‘new’ or ‘different’ flower every day. And I haven’t been disappointed yet! In fact, I found two more today. Most photos were taken right on our property. Those that were taken in nearby hiking destinations include a location name after the flower name. And forgive me … I wasn’t able to ID them all. Feel free to help if you know some of them or if I’ve misidentified any (highly probable).

Stay tuned. Part II of “The Desert in Bloom” will include the next burst of color that will arise from the flowering cacti, palo verde trees and mesquite trees. Can you tell how much fun I’m having living this “close” to nature?

I love this time of year! Not only is the Sonoran Desert teeming with wildflowers, but also a host of local desert dwellers. On April 14, during a hike up Mammoth Wash with neighbor friend, Roxanne, we saw the elusive great horned owl that I had seen a few weeks earlier (that time, I had scared him away on the four-wheeler, unfortunately).

We walked slowly and quietly, and he only flew from one tree to the next, allowing me to get some great shots. It was on our way back down the wash that I got the really good photos. It was almost as if he were posing for us.

Then on April 16, after returning from a fabulous hike with Kathy and Mary (my hiking buddies) along the Arizona Trail in Oracle, I was delighted to find that our resident barn owl had returned to nest next to our entry gate. We’d seen her – and her two gorgeous babies – back in 2004, when we first bought the property. But the cliff side where she first nested had caved in from all the rain. I was very surprised, when driving past our house, to see big eyes staring back at me from a much smaller hole to the right of the original. Maybe we’ll have baby owls this summer?

And finally … also during the Arizona Trail hike, as Kathy was taking us through the Tucson Wash in her 4-wheel-drive, we came across a gorgeous Gila Monster! Enjoy our owl photos and Gila monster photos. Gila monsters, by the way, are one of only two venomous lizards in North America (though so slow as to pose no threat to humans. You’ll witness this fact in the video I took)! When we first bought our property, Steve found a juvenile Gila monster trapped in an old tin tar bucket, whom we successfully freed.

P.S. This is Steve. I personally thought this video really captured the rare Gila monster in its true environment.

Mother Nature was not cooperating with us on March 27, when we tried to tape off the downspouts for painting… Lots of wind that whipped our protective paper away. Once Steve decided to make a cardboard shield (instead of paper), we were in business! We took on this endeavor since we decided that the south-facing downspouts in the light tan stuck out too much (Steve thought they looked like racing stripes). So, we decided to color-match them to the stucco. Now they blend in a bit better from the road.

Check out our progress in the photos section. And check out our updated photos of the babies, Macho and Niña, who are growing quickly! They’re already 4.5 months old and into everything (hampers, included! Visit our Macho & Niña videos to witness their mischief).

It was a happy Valentine’s Day for us, as we drove the four-plus hours to Cottonwood, Ariz., on Feb. 13 to pick up our bundles of joy: two beautiful Bengal kittens. A mix between a wild Asian Leopard cat and a domestic cat, Bengals have gorgeous, exotic spots. They retain some wild traits from their Asian Leopard Cat ancestors: their love of water, their fascination with perching in high places, their raspy meows, and their spots, of course. They can get to anywhere between 15 and 20 lbs when they’re fully-grown.

Our boy, Macho (the reddish-colored beauty) is a bundle of energy. He was the biggest in the litter (of six) and makes our beauty queen, Niña, look very small. They are both so incredibly affectionate and soooo soft. I need to get a bigger chair for my desk, as the two of them love to crawl up behind me and fall asleep.

A bit about their names: Macho is named after Macho B, the only known jaguar living in the United States that was tragically euthanized after a botched examination/illegal trap was set in southern Arizona in 2009. And, as anyone who speaks Spanish (which excludes me) knows, Niña is the Spanish word for “girl.”

Enjoy the photos of our new kitties. It’s great to have furry little feet in the house again, though I have NO idea where they get all the energy. And, anyone who knows me will “get” why I wanted Bengals; I’m still obsessed with “big cats” and exotic, wild cats. These guys are our mini-versions, though very, very tame and loving!