I know what you're thinking.....another silly owl picture. I can't help it! I just love the little creatures and they make my day when we get a chance to see them.
The gang out on Cottonwood was in a friendly mood this morning as we stopped to say hello. Here they're putting up the wire mesh so they can spray the concrete along that slope.
Cement trucks are a frequent sight out there.
It looks more and more like a street every day.
I don't know the name for this little machine but it sure is cute.
WOW.....look at the green grass coming up at the ballfield after only 5 days!
Looks like they're spreading the infield mix today.
The new sprinkler system in action! I'm getting excited to watch the first ball game. I shall be there with camera in hand!!
***************
This email came from Marilyn Roemer:
Walk
With Me As I
Age
A
BEAUTIFUL POEM ABOUT GROWING OLDER:
oh crud......
I can't remember the words!
****************
I've had several people email me this list of facts about Arizona. Thought I'd post it here since this is Arizona's centennial year. Very interesting stuff. It's rather long to post on the blog but you can skip through it to find the fun stuff.
Happy 100th Birthday Arizona! 2012.
If you think
Arizona is just a desert, well think again!
1. Arizona has 3,928 mountain peaks and summits—more mountains than any one
of the other Mountain States- Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah
or Wyoming.
2. All New England, plus the state of Pennsylvania would fit
inside Arizona.
3. Arizona became the 48th state and last of the contiguous states on
February 14, 1912.
4. Arizona’s disparate climate can yield both the
highest temperature across the nation and the lowest temperature across the
nation in the same day.
5. There are more wilderness areas in Arizona than in the entire Midwest.
Arizona alone has 90 wilderness areas, while the Midwest has 50.
6.
Arizona has 26 peaks that are more than 10,000 feet in elevation.
7.
Arizona has the largest contiguous stand of ponderosa pines in the world
stretching from near Flagstaff along the Mogollon Rim to the White Mountains
region.
8. Yuma, Arizona is the country’s highest producer of winter
vegetables, especially lettuce.
9. Arizona is the 6th largest state in
the nation, covering 113,909 square miles.
10. Out of all the states in
the U.S., Arizona has the largest percentage of its land designated as Indian
lands.
11. The “Five C’s” of Arizona’s economy are: Cattle, Copper,
Citrus, Cotton, and Climate.
12. More copper is mined in Arizona than all the other states combined, and
the Morenci Mine is the largest copper producer in all of North
America.
13. Clark Gable and Carole Lombard, two of the most prominent
movie stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age, were married on March 18, 1939 in
Kingman, Arizona.
14. Covering 18,608 sq. miles, Coconino County is the second largest county
by land area in the 48 contiguous United States.
15. The world’s largest
solar telescope is located at Kitt Peak National Observatory in Sells,
Arizona.
16. Bisbee, Arizona is known as the Queen of the Copper Mines
because during its mining heyday it produced nearly 25 percent of the world’s
copper and was the largest city in the Southwest between Saint Louis and San
Francisco.
17. Billy the Kid killed his first man, Windy Cahill, in
Bonita, Arizona.
18. Arizona grows enough cotton each year to make more
than one pair of jeans for every person in the United States.
19. Famous
labor leader and activist Cesar Chavez was born in Yuma.
20. In 1912,
President William Howard Taft was ready to make Arizona a state on February 12,
but it was Lincoln’s birthday. The next day, the 13th, was considered bad luck
so they waited until the following day. That’s how Arizona became known as the
“Valentine State.”
21. When England’s famous London Bridge was replaced
in the 1960s, the original was purchased, dismantled, shipped stone by stone and
reconstructed in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where it still stands
today.
22. Mount Lemmon, in the Santa Catalina Mountains, is the
southernmost ski resort in the United States.
23. Rooster Cogburn Ostrich
Ranch in Picacho, Arizona is the largest privately-owned ostrich ranch in the
world outside South Africa.
24. If you cut down a protected species of
cactus in Arizona, you could spend more than a year in prison.
25. The
world’s largest to-scale collection of miniature airplane models is housed at
the library at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott,
Arizona.
26. The only place in the country where mail is delivered by
mule is the village of Supai, located at the bottom of the Grand
Canyon.
27. Located on Arizona’s western border, Parker Dam is the deepest dam in
the world at 320 feet.
28. South Mountain Park/Preserve in Phoenix is the
largest municipal park in the country.
29. Palo Verde Nuclear Generating
Station, located about 55 miles west of Phoenix, generates more electricity than
any other U.S. power plant.
30. Oraibi, a Hopi village located in Navajo
County, Arizona, dates back to before A.D. 1200 and is reputed to be the oldest
continuously inhabited community in
America.
31. Built by Del Webb in1960, Sun City, Arizona was
the first 55-plus active adult retirement community in the
country.
32. Petrified wood is the official state fossil. The Petrified Forest in
northeastern Arizona contains America’s largest deposits of petrified
wood.
33. Many of the founders of San Francisco in 1776 were Spanish
colonists from Tubac, Arizona.
34. Phoenix originated in 1866 as a hay
camp to supply military post Camp McDowell.
35. Rainfall averages for
Arizona range from less than three inches in the deserts to more than 30 inches
per year in the mountains.
36. Rising to a height of 12,643 feet, Mount
Humphreys north of Flagstaff is the state’s highest mountain.
37.
Roadrunners are not just in cartoons! In Arizona, you’ll see them running up to
17-mph away from their enemies.
38. The Saguaro cactus is the largest cactus found in the U.S. It can grow
as high as a five-story building and is native to the Sonoran Desert, which
stretches across southern Arizona.
39. Sandra Day O’Connor, the first
woman appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court, grew up on a large family ranch near
Duncan, Arizona.
40. The best-preserved meteor crater in the world is
located near Winslow, Arizona.
41. The average state elevation is 4,000
feet.
42. The Navajo Nation spans 27,000 square miles across the states
of Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, but its capital is seated in Window Rock,
Arizona.
43. The amount of copper utilized to make the copper dome atop
Arizona’s Capitol building is equivalent to the amount used in 4.8 million
pennies.
44. Near Yuma, the Colorado River’s elevation dips to 70 feet
above sea level, making it the lowest point in the state.
45. The
geographic center of Arizona is 55 miles southeast of Prescott near the
community of Mayer.
46. You could pile four 1,300-foot skyscrapers on top
of each other and they still would not reach the rim of the Grand Canyon.
47. The hottest temperature recorded in Arizona was 128 degrees at Lake
Havasu City on June 29, 1994.
48. The coldest temperature recorded in
Arizona was 40 degrees below zero at Hawley Lake on January 7, 1971.
49.
A saguaro cactus can store up to nine tons of water.
50. The state of
Massachusetts could fit inside Maricopa County (9,922 sq. miles).
51. The
westernmost battle of the Civil War was fought at Picacho Pass on April 15, 1862
near Picacho Peak in Pinal County.
52. There are 11.2 million acres of
National Forest in Arizona, and one-fourth of the state forested.
53. Wyatt Earp was neither the town marshal nor the sheriff in Tombstone at
the time of the shoot-out at the O.K. Corral. His brother Virgil was the town
marshal.
54. On June 6, 1936, the first barrel of tequila produced in the
United States rolled off the production line in Nogales, Arizona.
55. The
Sonoran Desert is the most biologically diverse desert in North
America.
56. Bisbee is the Nation’s southernmost mile-high
city.
57. The two largest manmade lakes in the U.S. are Lake Mead and
Lake Powell—both located in Arizona.
58. The longest remaining intact
section of Route 66 can be found in Arizona and runs from Seligman to Topock, a
total of 157 unbroken miles.
59. The 13 stripes on the Arizona flag
represent the 13 original colonies of the United States.
60. The
negotiations for Geronimo’s final surrender took place in Skeleton Canyon, near
present day Douglas, Arizona, in 1886.
61. Prescott, Arizona is home to
the world’s oldest rodeo, and Payson, Arizona is home to the world’s oldest
continuous rodeo—both of which date back to the 1880s.
62. Kartchner
Caverns, near Benson, Arizona, is a massive limestone cave with 13,000 feet of
passages, two rooms as long as football fields, & one of the world’s longest
soda straw stalactites: measuring 21 feet 3 inches.
If you have ever lived in Arizona, you always want to come back.
