Lee Harps

I received an email from a friend this week who happened to mention that he has not seen any entries to my blog recently! Well, I guess it is time for me to explain why.

First of all, there’s this matter of the local temperature:

I’ve purchased a new digital thermometer for the kitchen window. It didn’t focus well, but in the photo it is reading 101.8 F! (Okay, so what if the sun was shining on it and, if you will look above that figure, it says the maximum temp for the day was 115.9. Shucks, it wasn’t anywhere near that. It was only about 99.6 in reality!). SO, with temps like that, there isn’t a lot being done by this person who would prefer to find a cool place and wait for cooler weather. ALSO, wife and I have been enjoying cooler parts, having just returned from a couple of week drive thru Canada, more specifically, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. There, the weather was GORGEOUS!

I took hundreds of photos on our trip (and will not bore you with ALL of them), but for this entry will simply give you an overview with a few photos, hoping to revisit the various stops in detail at a later date.

Our trek began with a drive to Kingston, Ontario, where we revisited some old haunts we learned to love when we used to take our children there for a music camp. Beginning with Kingston and continuing throughout the trip, we were awed by the beautiful flowers everywhere.

In Kingston, Ontario, we joined up with good friends from Bermuda and enjoyed the remainder of the trip with them as a foursome. We enjoyed some excellent eating and shopping in Kingston, I managed a trip out to old Ft. Henry, where I got to see the goat:

lots of “toy” soldiers

a bagpiper

and some kite flying.

After spending two nights in Kingston, we proceeded on to Quebec City, Quebec. We spent three nights in the old city of Quebec, staying at the Alberge du Tresor hotel.

There we saw many wonderful sights, ate more delicious food, saw more “toy” soldiers at the Citadel, and enjoyed the craftspeople, musicians, actors, artists and performers who graced the streets of this fine city.

Here is a photo of the changing of the guard at the Citadel:

Here is a photo of the Hotel du Frontenac which was located just across the green from our hotel:

Up the hill from the hotel, there was a flattened area where street performers do their thing. This photo was taken, I would guess, on a Wednesday evening and, as you can see, this is quite the tourist mecca.

While in Quebec, there was again much good eating to be enjoyed, and one of our most enjoyable meals there was at the Restaurant aux Ancient Canada.

You’ll hear more about this later as well.

I have many more photos I could share with you, but will do so at a later date. From Quebec, we drove to Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia, which is a lovely little fishing village sort of area, very quaint and picturesque.

Here is the famous Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse, famous because it houses a real live post office in the first floor and people send postcards to their friends postmarked “Peggy’s Cove”.

We spent two nights in Peggy’s Cove, then continued on to Baddeck, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Here we stayed at a very lovely bed and breakfast called “Duffus House”, located right on the water in Baddeck, Cape Breton.

Cape Breton is a wonderful get-away island with the St. Lawrence Seaway to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the south. Here we enjoyed many more wondrous sights, more delicious eating (surprise, surprise), and some really unique experiences. This was the summer home of Alexander Graham Bell and we not only were able to visit the museum in his honor (hardly anything about the telephone exhibited there…) where I enjoyed seeing his huge, propeller driven hydrofoil boat:

Also, via connections of our Bermuda travelling partners, we had the honor of receiving a private tour of the Bell estates which are still used by the family and which are not generally open to the public. Our tour began with Bell’s first home, “The Lodge”,

and I will have much more to show of the tour later. We also drove the 180+ mile “Cabot Trail” which goes around the perimeter of Cape Breton and saw sights such as this:

From Cape Breton, we headed west once again, returning our friends to Ottawa where they planned to remain an additional week, spending time with friends there. In Ottawa we enjoyed seeing the Rideau Canal.

Along the way, we enjoyed some very good food, and some that was a bit more marginal. This, for one, tasted good, but was a bit lacking in quality and nourishment. Having heard about it from our son who recently “enjoyed” it in Montreal, I ordered a hot dog with POUTIN.

French fries with gravy and CURD? Sounds awful, but it really is edible. We had much better food at a lovely new restaurant in Peggy’s Cove called “Rhubarb”.

For my wife and I, it was a rather pleasant, however long drive from Ottawa to Pennsylvania. It took nearly 10 hours and, having been away for 16 days, it became immediately evident that my work was cut out for me on the home front, what with the grass being very tall and the weeds having had a real heyday growing while my back was turned. We did have some rains in our absence, so the corn was tall:

The tomatoes had gotten some size, however NONE were yet ripe:

My soy beans were ready to yield some delicious edamame:

The zucchini had grown a bit larger than it should have:

The cantaloupes were really looking good:

and the potatoes were overdue for digging:

Other activities that awaited our return were a lovely wedding:

Repair of a friend’s harp:

repair of a hammered dulcimer:

And repair of, yes, a didgeridoo! I was shopping in Kingston, Ontario, found this item standing upright , in a basket, saw that it was badly broken and, before I knew it, I was being told by a sales clerk that I was welcome to take it if I wanted it. I was not anxious to drag it along for the whole trip, but decided the price was right.

This week I used a bit of epoxy and some plastic wraps and, here it is, all ready for some Austrailian aborigine to play:

Remember the French Repro Harp? Well, there hasn’t been a lot of progress, but there has been SOME! I am attempting to give myself some feel for the perspective of the 3-D carvings by using modeling clay (a first attempt with chisels and wood helped me realize I have a few things to learn before wasting more expensive wood). Here’s my initial feeble attempt; I feel there may be hope.

I guess one of the nice things about being on vacation is that one has more time to play with one’s computer and make blog entries. I have also found time to take many, many photos — I will only bore you with some of my favorites.
Today’s entry is fairly large, but will not have a lot of “story” as I often like to include with my entries. The desert has offered so many wonderful “photo-ops” and I’d like to share some of my photos with you.

The desert destination for the day was what are called the “High Tanks”. This area, as you will see in the photos, are places that one would be hard pressed to get to see unless they knew someone familiar with the land and who had the proper vehicles available to take you there. Fortunately, I have spent the week in just such a situation.

Today’s “caravan” consisted of three Jeeps and 10 people. In addition to the group that went on the previous outings, a lady named Gerri and two Canadian friends joined us with her blue Jeep.

A real plus for today’s journey was that it was I who was given the wheel of the yellow Jeep. Really great fun. With 5 gears forward, doubled to 10 with “grandma” gear, one could traverse nearly anywhere with this vehicle! Don and Nancy shared my vehicle and I’m sure Don would have loved to have been the driver instead of generously giving it to me. Don, I do appreciate your letting me drive!

Heading off into the desert, many varied scenes are there to be seen. (To see larger versions of the photos, just double click on it.)

As driver of the Jeep, I had the prerogative to make as many photo stops as I liked; I did so frequently, probably to the chagrin of my passengers and the others in our group.

This is some of the foilage that lives in the desert, although the level of GREEN was quite different from one part of the desert to another. Similar plants were unusually green in one area, and dry and pale in other areas.

For some unknown reason, I tended to only photograph the more colorful areas….

Frequently, while driving along on very sandy, sometimes bumpy trails, one would see a particular bush or tree that seemed to appear photo-worthy.

Sometimes, even things that appeared to be dead seemed picturesque.

Here was a particularly lush, green stand of this ocotillo plant just coming into full bloom that I felt deserved to be recorded.

Plant species seem to have their own assigned places in the desert. Here is a single saguaro cactus standing alone amidst other foilage.

Here is another nicely blooming ocotillo of just waiting to be photographed.

It was interesting seeing how the sunlight constantly varied the shadows of the mountains in the distance.

In a desolate area such as this, what an array of natural beauty!

People who traverse the desert are frequently on the lookout for natural “treasures” they might use to decorate their homes and camp sites. Here, Don has found and interesting cactus skeleton and is busily freeing the interior of sand, getting it ready to stash in the Jeep to be taken home.

Here is more desert beauty.

Our visiting Pennsylvania friends, Dick and Marcia, posed beside a mammoth saguaro cactus for this photo.

Some of the desert mountains looked a lot like slag piles near the coal mines in the mining areas of Pennsylvania, other are, like the photo below, made up of the most interesting rock formations.

I was told we were approaching the High Tanks, but that one cannot see them from afar and would only find them if told where they were located. The High Tanks are a series of 5 or 6 natural, hollowed out formations in the rocks which, after rains, serve as reservoirs (“tanks”) in which water collects and which have, for centuries, meant the difference between life and death on the desert for both man and beast alike. Historically, people crossing the desert would need to find the tanks to supply their water needs. Many deaths occurred for those who were unsuccessful doing so.

As we approached the area, I was told that the tanks were “over there”.

As we became closer, my attention was drawn to this particular part of the hill.

If you look at the very center of the photo where the dark, vertical line appears on the rocks, you are looking at the high tanks. Rain water comes rushing down over the rock face, filling the various tanks that exist down that slope, pouring over from the upper ones to the ones below.

Because much rock climbing is necessary to see the upper tanks, we chose to limit our visit to the very lowest one. Here is my brother, Marlin, chatting with others about this particular tank phenomenon.

Marlin told us that, on previous visits here, they happened upon a ranger whose job it was to periodically measure and record the water depth in each tank.

The tanks have obviously been here for centuries, as was man’s relying on them for water. Within a stone’s throw of the tanks are to be seen indentations in what are known as ‘grinding rocks’ which were used by Native Americans to grind meal. Here is one of several such rocks at this location.

A feature that I found fascinating in this area was the presence of the most unusually hollowed out boulders I’ve ever seen. This hollow boulder looked like it was defying gravity and sat on the precipice of the cliff, just waiting to fall into the gourge below.

Here is the unusual rock formation at the end of the high tanks mountain.

Looking down the same direction, here is a photo of Dick and Marcia just below this photo which gives one some idea of the magnitude and perspective of this area.

Elsewhere, huge boulders lay lazily in the crevasses of the rocks, looking as if they could come crashing down at any time.

This is another fascinating example of the more unusual, hollowed-out rock formations.

Then, walking along the paths, there was the tranquility of desert blooms. I believe these lovelies (the yellow blooms) are what is known as the “brittle bush”.

Walking along the trails, over rocks, and up hills has a tendency to make one hungry and thirsty, so it was declared LUNCH TIME!

Lunch consisted of fried chicken, veggies, cheese and crackers, fresh fruit and various snack foods. Food always tastes so good after a vigorous trek thru the desert! With the tables and chairs set up, I was reminded of the English gentry who, with their servants, would drive to the country for a formal dinner on the green. Very little green here, no servants and very little formality.

Leaving the high tanks, our return trip took us past more interesting rocky peaks,

desert plant life,

and more rocks.

Driving thru the desert is so unexpectedly scenic.

Heading back to Yuma, the desert flattened out a bit and, while a bit dusty and tired, we returned home, having spent at least 6 hours enjoying the beauty of God’s earth. It’s clear that one does not need trees and green grass to make up the beauty of the earth.

Still vacationing in Arizona, I was struck by the fact that my OLDER brothers share my own love of toys! In this case, the toys are JEEPS, but we’ll get to that in a minute.

First, let me show you how much I’m roughing it here on the Arizona desert. I’m staying in a “compound” at an RV Park near Yuma which both my brothers are currently calling “home”. Marlin is a “Snowbird”, Don is not (which means, Marlin, like myself, will eventually be coming back to Pennsylvania for the summer).

This is command central — Don’s home:

There is a “park model” (permanent) RV next door, and next to that is Marlin’s home-away-from-home:

Then, there is my own personal RV (actually Don’s rental unit) located somewhat down the street from command central. It is the RV located immediately ahead at the end of the street.

That is not me walking toward it. For me, I have adopted one of Marlin’s “toys” and travel at somewhat less than breakneck speed on this:

Yep, that’s me. It’s a small electric scooter that occasionally needs a charge. Very handy indeed.

The Yuma desert has, with the help of some very sophisticated technology, become a huge truck farm, producing vegetable that, I would suspect, we find in our restaurants and grocery stores in Pennsylvania. Expanses of green fields, such as this, seem to contrast so sharply with the brown, arid deserts that surround the fields.

I’m told that, in order to adequately water the crops with water from the mighty Colorado river, the fields must be perfectly level. This is accomplished using ground movers and lasers to be sure that the entire field is perfectly flat. The water is then brought from aquaducts like this, then pumped into the fields where it runs down the rows to make the veggies grow as we like to find them in the stores.

In order to accommodate fields at differing levels, the water is pumped into higher aquaducts by pumping stations such as this.

Just like back home, the fields must be tilled in preparation for the next crop.

With all the news today about migrant workers and illegal aliens which the government seems to be having perpetual difficulty dealing with, here is an industry, much as our fruit industry in Pennsylvania, that relies very heavily on Mexican workers to harvest their crops. Most of the local citizenry is not interested in this sort of work. Here are some of the harvesting operations in progress.

These are fields that we always pass by as we travel to the subject of this particular entry. Beyond the fields are miles and miles of desolate, uninhabitable desert, mountains, and areas where man does NOT live. It is these areas that have attracted my brothers and their wives and frequently the reason those of us from back East come to visit.

Even desert exploration requires special TOYS, and for my brothers, these toys take the form of JEEPS!

This is Don’s Jeep (he at the wheel, wife Nancy checking the load).

My brother, Marlin, has the red Jeep (here with friend from Pennsylvania, Marcia, posing before going with us).

Some of the things these “Jeep Toys” have in common are 1) a roll bar, 2) chrome grills (don’t ask me why), 3) 4-wheel drive with “grandma” gears, 4) CB radios and 5) owners who LOOOOVE to hack these things around rough terrain! The populated areas of suburban Yuma run immediately up against the untamed desert. One drives out a blacktop street to the edge of the latest housing development, and immediately finds oneself driving on desert sand. It takes only a short time to have left civilization behind and to be faced with the beauty of the desert such as this.

I think the thing that is so surprising is how frequently the lay of the land, the plant life, the color of the soil, the density of the gravel, etc. change as one traverses this area. One would expect it to be monotonous and repetative, when, in fact, each area has lots that are unique to where one has just left. Here is a road we used to reach the day’s objective: Laguna mountain.

If you will compare this photo and the two preceeding, you can see some of the extreme contrasts one will find here.

Along the way, we encountered what was either a large hill or a small mountain. Marlin and I climbed to the top which gave me a good vantage point to photograph our tiny “caravan” in the desert.

We also came across what one would expect were they to come across an oasis in the Sahara: trees!

There was no water, however, only wet when it rains and and we did not have to worry about lions nor tigers! This was simply a grove of trees inside which was a nice little area that would be great for picnicking.

After checking this out, it was on the “road” again, heading for the Laguna mountains. I rode in the rear seat of the yellow lead jeep, so was able to get photos of Marlin bringing up the rear.

Then came the Laguna mountain trail. This has to have been one of the most thrilling auto trips I’ve ever experienced! As you will see in this photo, the road, for much of the way, was carved out of the very peak of the steep, narrow mountain range.

The road was very narrow, very steep at times, never with a guard rail of any sort. Only a vehicle such as our Jeeps would be able to travel this path. Here you can see how narrow the road is and how the drop-off is immediately beside the road.

Here is Marlin negotiating a very steep part of the road.

Note the lack of blacktop, but rather the collection of mother nature’s rocks which hold the potential for rolling.

One more photo of Marlin bringing up the rear….

What a ride! I would guess the trip over Laguna mountain took a couple of hours. When we came out the other side, we happened upon some civilization in the form of a mining operation of some sort.

Large conveyor belts carried the material from the mine back to the processing buildings in the distance.

Immediately below is were other “Toys”, these used by the mining company, that reminded all of us of the Tonka toys our kids used to play with.

It was a thrilling day with much to see and experience, and if you are inclined to ask why anyone would do this sort of thing, I think Don’s Jeep windshield says it all:

It’s been a while since I’ve added a post, but I’ve really been busy. At the moment, however, I am still busy, but am doing so in SUNNY ARIZONA! I am spending the week visiting siblings and today we went to visit a brick maker in Mexico, near Los Algodones.

For years my brother has been building things with what he calls “horse manure bricks”. As it turns out, these bricks do, in fact, have horse manure as part of their ingredients, but the end result is quite colorful. Here is a patio which brother Don has paved with them:

These bricks are hand-made in Mexico and we decided to take a drive to the brick yard to learn how these bricks are actually formed. Not something everyone would aspire to doing, but we decided it might be fun (and fun it was)! As we arrived at the site, we noticed piles of firewood stacked along the entire property — wood used for burning to kiln the finished bricks.

Near the entrance stood a most colorful piece of architecture made of the horse manure bricks – reminiscent of early Egyptian structures. It was actually a kiln made of a stack of new bricks under which is built a wood fire. The heat of the fire traverses the pile, converting the bricks into very hard, clay bricks.

Notice the holes in the end of the pile. It is in here that the wood fire is maintained and the heat passes up thru this SOLID pile of bricks! This pile has already been “kilned” and you can see the gorgeous colors that result.

Moving past the brick kiln, we looked down the road to where the bricks are hand-formed. Note the chicken in the driveway and the pigeon on the wire.

The owner’s house was the first building and, sitting in the front was the owner who had dealt with my brother in the past, selling his bricks. Here are my brother and his wife meeting with him. I say “meeting” with him, since he does not speak English and my brother & wife do not speak Spanish. Lots of head nodding and hand motions resulted in our being welcomed to go watch the brick-making process.

As we walked down the lane past dilapidated buildings, bird cages, rusted old vehicles and more chickens, we came upon a flattened area where, drying in the sun, were rows of formed horse manure bricks.

In the same area, we saw a solitary Mexican with a hooked shovel, up to his calves in a wet, brown substance which, with the shovel and his feet, carefully was mixing up the “mud” that was destined to become bricks. We did not see his mud “recipe” and did not see the quantity of horse manure that was added, but there were piles of fine, dry manure behind him. He was a very hard-working man, periodically wiping the shovel clean with his hands, then washing his hands in a bucket of water standing next to him. (We wondered if he bites his nails…..)

There was some “wagering” as to whether he was wearing shoes of some sort in doing this.

When he finished mixing the pile and made it all neat and tidy like this

he went over to the faucet and cleaned his feet. Guess what: NO SHOES. He makes his living in his BARE FEET!

Having finished the “MUD”, he brought over his wheelbarrow and began to fill it with mud.

When the barrow was full, he proceeded to wheel it down to the area where the mud is formed into blocks of brick-shaped pieces.

The wheelbarrow seemed full to overflowing, but had settled in nicely until he reached the far end of the forming area.

Next, he took a special tool and smoothed the sand over which he would be laying the new bricks for the initial drying in the sun.

He then removed a wooden form that had been soaking in water, took a fresh bucket of clean water and proceeded down to where the wheelbarrow was parked.

Using a rag, he carefully washed down the form with water to be sure it was smooth and clean.

The clean form was then laid in place next to the row of bricks he had, presumably, made yesterday.

Then, with his bare hands, he began to transfer “mud” from the wheelbarrow into the form.

Clearly a man of experience, he had almost the exact amount of mud in the form and proceeded to make sure the forms were full.

Once full, the top was made very smooth with his hands

and the form was removed.

The form was then placed against the new bricks, more mud was added

and in no time,

six more bricks were added to the line.

I took the liberty of “documenting” other parts of the “estate”. The operation is located along a country blacktop road.

I found some of the “things live” interesting, such as the chickens, with this rooster being particularly colorful.

There was a chicken with about 6-8 baby chicks, but my photo of them didn’t turn out well.

Scurrying around the brick piles were tiny lizards.

and in somewhat ramshackle pens were some of the most unusual and beautiful fancy white pigeons who very willingly posed for my camera.

We were pleased to have been able to visit the brick-making operation when they were actually making the bricks, but it was time for us all to depart.

When we returned home, I took some photos of how the bricks had been used by my brother(s).

A special “THANKS” is due to my brother Don for having known where this place was located and for getting us there, and secondly to my brother Marlin for sharing some of his photos with me for this entry. I was most impressed with how hard the brickmaker worked, how precise he was with forming the bricks, and how the boring, dull brown blocks of “mud” could be transformed into something so colorful and useful. Do the bricks smell of horse manure? The answer is “no”, but I’m told that rain on these bricks results in the smell of a burning chimney…. but then, it rarely rains in southern Arizona.