On Friday afternoon all the wildlife were out. Deer, antelope, elk. I saw that big herd of elk that I've seen all summer. This might be the last time I see them as they usually go somewhere else at the start of bow hunting season, which started recently. I'll miss them. I didn’t have my camera with me so this elk picture is an old shot, from Alaska. Hard to shoot wildlife in action. And very hard to shoot while riding a horse.
Friday night there was an art walk in Flagstaff. Monthly evening art walks are very popular in Arizona. The streets and galleries were really crowded- in a good way now that the university students are back in school. I gotta say that after seeing hundreds of landscape photos that night I felt my own pictures are as good- or better- than most that I saw.
Saturday we packed a picnic and did a long ride/hike. Franklin hikes while I ride. We had a destination in mind but hadn’t been up there in a few years and forgot how long that beautiful trail is. We were out for 6 1/2 hours- walking or riding for 6 of them. A long but beautiful day in the forest. You may not know that Franklin is a serious hiker and manages to keep up with me on the horse with no trouble. I keep offering to let him ride for a while but he always refuses.
Then we headed to the county fair. It is small but charming with a lot of livestock. Chickens and rabbits are my favorites. There was a 4H livestock auction and I could not believe the prices these animals were going for! I was told these were meant for food, not breeding but there were 3 chickens for $100 and one turkey went for $1200!! Flagstaff is not a rich town. I can’t really understand it, even if the auction is a charity donation.
Sunday we started to go riding again.... but my horse got sick. Colic, which is a stomach ache from any number of causes. Can be fatal. He got pretty sick while we wanted for the vet. I don’t need to share details except to say that no orifice was left unexplored, and that includes my wallet which was hit for $500.
That night I went out to the ranch to check on him every couple of hours. He had recovered somwhat and seemed very pleased to see me in the dark. Actually it was delightful- just the two of us in the dark under the moonlight, listening to the elk calling out in the distance (this is mating season) and coyotes.
As though the day had not had enough drama, I came way too close to hitting a family of elk in the middle of the night on the dirt road leading to the barn. The one I almost hit was the big bull elk. I was only about 30 feet away which is closer than I need to be to to a 700 pound 5 foot tall animal with antlers. When we lived in Australia we had heavy pipes on the front of the car called kangaroo bars. Who would have expected me to need them here on the Prius?
The next day we let the horse recuperate and went hiking in Walnut Canyon, a very interesting national monument north of Flagstaff full of Indian ruins. There's an excellent one mile trail down the cliffside to the ruins and you can walk through through them and marvel at these resourceful settlers who chose to live on the sides of steep cliffs, as Indians did all over the Southwest. If you've never seen any Southwest Indian ruins I really recommend it.
So we didn't get to BBQ like most families during Labor Day weekend. But we did have a pretty entertaining weekend. Wish I could have shared it with you.
PS. The comment box is finally fixed. I hope. So you can leave comments if you'd like below. Please let me know if you try and it doesn't work. This blog site has pretty layouts and allows you to view without subscibing but it not as easy to use as I'd like.
