My Little Christmas Vacation

I know that these aren't the most Christmas-y of images but we took a couple of day trips in the area that was a nice break and a peaceful pastime away from busy town activities and parties.

 David's son was down visiting from college before he heads north to see his mom and our two other sons are back in Alaska enduring forty below zero F temperatures (minus 40 C) so these little day trips are the closest thing to holiday family time that we'll be enjoying.

The Slaughter Ranch is quite close to the border of Mexico in Arizona. It was established in the late 1880's and now is a museum of sorts.  After a long drive down a dirt road that we shared only with border patrol, we were so surprised to find a literal oasis in the desert with towering cottonwoods and green grass. It felt almost New England-y to me.

We hiked around observing bits of old barbed wire and broken glass and found evidence of artifacts that were flakes of knapped chert from old Indian sites. My husband is an archaeologist with a good eye for these things.

Slaughter Ranch

Beautiful Wings

The Mexican Arizona border fence

( it's much more formidable in the populated areas)

Art in Nature

I can get lost in this!

A mighty cottonwood

 The next day we went on another road trip on Rt. 191 through Double Adobe and Elfrida to Ghost Town Road to Pearce. 

Lots of cool signs to photograph there

A pistachio farm

These must be the same cranes that fly over our place in Alaska

Our area is also the land of gray-haired ponytail sightings.

Our friend Julio looking dapper at almost 70 years old.

We stopped at a couple of little shops in Pearce with a few good junking finds and pottery.

We continued on to the Amerind Museum in Dragoon for a wonderful display of Indian artifacts and artwork.

I was particularly fascinated by the weaving weight bundles that were used in the loom weaving. Since photography wasn't allowed and I didn't have a sketchbook on me I'm going to have to rely on my impressions for inspiration. They were amazing bundles of hand spun cording around dried corn cobs or whatever was handy that would add some weight.

The homemade cording that I saw at the museum showed all sorts of fibers including human hair.  It was a rare find as it had only been preserved in caves.

We were clued in to a wonderful eclectic bookstore off of the beaten path on a ranch in Benson called Singing Wind. We could have spent a few hours there but our tummies were calling for food by then and we had some Christmas ham waiting for us at home.

 All the best of the season's celebrations to you and thank you all for visiting my blog and sharing your impressions and friendships this past year.

XOXO Kim