What a difference a week can make

Last week this time we were putting the final frenzied touches on the "get out of Dodge rig."  A week later, we're completely unpacked, settled in and by day's end we will even have the whole property weed whacked and looking good again.  Meanwhile, here's our periodic "Tale of Two Places" weather comparison.  A really big storm is smacking Idaho today.  There are blizzard warnings posted here and there and some areas might get as low as 30 below.  Idaho Falls is progged to endure a balmy minus 12. (Note: Balmy is relative to -30.)

This morning's low here at Montezuma Well is a chilly 21 degrees.  There's a heavy frost outside.  That's great as it will make weed whacking even easier today.  Weeds go down a lot faster when their stem fibers have been frozen solid.

We lucked out with our campfire wood.  Two nights ago marked ignition of our last scraps of shaggy bark juniper.  One of the many reasons we light up an evening campfire is for the signature aroma of burning juniper.  It's a true Southwest icon and an olfactory pleasure of the highest level.  What to do without any more juniper?  Sure, we can burn mesquite but it's just not the same.  Luckily, one of the neighbors had a pile of fresh cut, aged juniper and sold us all of it for a mere $100.  We could barely fit it into the truck.  It's a little more than a half cord, actually, so our neighbor probably cut us a $25 discount over what he could have received on the open market.  Meanwhile, it was a real gift for us and last night's fire was once again a juniper-scented delight.
 The temps were in the upper to mid-30's during campfire time.  However, the sky was crystal clear and there was no wind.  We've put up a large format view of The Mogollon Rim taken last evening.  If you click on the small version, you will get a very large version so that you can pan back and forth and maybe see some detail in this view out across Montezuma Well Nat'l Monument.

We spoke earlier about the "afterlight."  The orb of the sun disappears below the horizon at 5:05 pm.  The sunlight on The Rim is gone at 5:17 pm.  However, The Rim displays a variety of differing pastels for about another 45 minutes.  This scene was taken from the campfire ring about 5 pm.

It's great to be unpacked.  Today, we're going to wait until the frost thaws and then attack the remaining weeds.  Hopefully, we will get the firewood stowed and stacked, too. The Goatherder and Son Josh might pay us a visit today.  Gary W. stopped by for a great visit last night.  Gary's been known as "Lizard" for at least 40 years.  We might stop calling him Gary W. and switch to Lizard.  If the shoe fits....

That's about all the chatter we have this morning.  Enjoy yet another day of Hearty Cheers!  jp