Took a field trip with the second graders today. Our first stop was Montezuma's Castle, a Sinaguan Indian cliff dwelling. It was thought to be Aztecan when it was first discovered, hence the name.

The kids had fun reading the info plaques. We had a worksheet with questions to answer.

Overlooking the banks of Beaver Creek, the inhabitants were farmers, and built elaborate irrigation systems to water their crops.

It was a cloudy day, and we even got sprinkled on a tiny bit. Looks like fall!

After lunch, the kids got some play time. Good climbing tree. Doug is in the red shirt.

The view from the top of Montezuma's Well, a limestone sinkhole that pumps a ton(IDK the gals per hr) of water into Beaver Creek.

Waterfront property!

We hiked down to the bottom of the well first and saw where the water leaves the well to feed into the creek. Then we hiked down the outside to see where the water comes out.

This is the outside where the water exits the well, and feeds into Beaver Creek. the water stays a constant 78 degrees. I'm sure I read about why the last time we were there, but can't remember :) Google!

A nice field trip, and a short bus ride!! The castle is about five minutes from school and the well is another fifteen or so. A good time was had by all, and it was nice to be out on a cloudy day!

Rain is supposed to show up tomorrow, and storms are in the forecast through the weekend-yippee!

I brought my forge and anvil to the Village Gallery for a little demo on Saturday for the grand opening. It was a little like being in a fishbowl, but whatever. The gallery is right on highway 179, the main road going into Sedona from interstate 17, so there is a good amount of traffic driving by.
I hammered for a few hours, until the daylight ran out. i had to let the forge cool down too, so i could pack it back into my car. It wasn't that big a deal to move it, so I would probably do it again. Maybe up in Jerome too!

The boys came with me, and stayed for a couple hours. After a couple trips to the convenience store across the street, they were pretty much done.

boys forging

Yesterday, Max wanted to try out the forge. I was all over that. Of course when Doug found out what was going on, he had to join the party. They started out making spirals.

Here are the finished products!! Max's is on the left. Pretty darn good for first tries. I'm so proud :)

The sun is setting...

I wanted to post yesterday, right after the election, but I think the site was too busy-couldn't get the pics to upload.
Anyway, the sun is setting on the Bush administration and it's a beautiful thing!

Obama almost took AZ-What a slap in the face that would have been!!! The future looks promising my friends....

This picture has nothing to do with anything. It rained the other day-yippee! This was about as much as we got, and it was dried up in ten minutes. Hopefully the clouds will start rolling in soon. Last year the rain startd early in dec. We're hoping for lots of snow up in Flagstaff!

Field Trip

Max is taking a field trip with school today to the Grand Canyon. they will take a bus to Williams, then hop on the train to the Canyon. Lots of travel time, but I'm sure he will have a blast. The kids don't know it, but the train is going to get 'robbed'.