Crown King community fire north of Phoenix

"A signal fire started by a lost hiker June 28, 2008, erupted into a 500 acre wildfire about a mile from the Crown King community north of the Valley, Yavapai County Sheriff's Office officials said."
Yesterday afternoon while DH & DW watched the Nascar race, DH walked past the back patio door and noticed what he thought was a monsoon storm brewing. He told DW to grab the camera and come take a look at the AWESOME storm. Upon further watching of the storm brewing both DW & DH noticed something actually building up from the ground below. Both wondered, was it a fire?
DH hopped on the Internet only to read of a fire that had started north of Phoenix.
Here are a couple of photos of what we could see from our backyard. The fire is approximately 50 miles to the north of us. It's truly amazing how much and how far one can see here when a fire starts.



Just before bed, we looked out our upstairs window and could actually see the red glow from the fire!

DH got home from work tonight and walked out to the backyard to see DW had filled a little blue plastic pool with water to allow the dogs to cool off. It was so cute to see them huddled together enjoying the cool water.
The most impressive part was DW had her bathing suit on in anticipation to our up-coming move. She is so excited at the fact that when it gets hot here in the valley that we can FINALLY jump in some water and refresh ourselves. I wish we had a photo of her standing ankle deep in the pool when I walked out on the patio. She seemed a little surprised...........

A "Wildfire Adventure"

After doing the yardwork (aka watering 4 potted plants) and wanting to take a break from packing for our upcoming move, we decided to check out the Ethan Wildfire that was still burning in south Phoenix.

We could still see the smoke plume from our house and it seemed so close. We drove south to see how close we could get to it, knowing full well we wouldn't be able to drive next to the flames but sometimes you just have to see how far you can go!
We drove down 67th Ave and watched the changing smoke. And we were amazed to see that this area is agricultural! Here's a pic of some corn that looks a little different than MN corn.

We were just amazed at how the wildfire smoke plume changed from white to black and seemed to grow in size!

We found a gravel area to pull off the road, of course there were "No Trespassing, Private Property" signs all over, but that didn't stop us or the other 10 people from stopping there for a few minutes.





And we debated about picking up the couch, but decided it would clash with our current furniture!! LOL!
The police had the intersection blocked so we could go no further south.
We spotted a casino sign and decided to check it out because it was just up the hill from the barricade.
Once we entered the parking lot, we spotted many local news vans and reporters holding a press conference of sorts with an amazing view of the wildfires burning below.




There's DW hanging out next to the reporters!

While we were standing there, one of the wildfire hotspots flared up and you can actually see the flames! We were amazed that this was happening so close to us!


We decided to take a break from the heat and went to check out the casino. The smoke in the background is probably 2 miles away, but appears MUCH closer!

DW's brother will be glad to know that this casino doesn't hold a candle to his!!
We made our $20 deposit rather quickly and decided to head for home. As of 9:00 p.m. tonight, a local news website stated this wildfire is 30% contained and 16 homes have now been evacuated.
We are 35 miles away so the only evacuation we face is the self-imposed one in 2 weeks into a great new home with a pool!!

"Current wildfire in Phoenix, AZ named the Ethan Fire."

A fire has been burning here in Phoenix now for the last couple days. It was started by a lightning strike in the first storm of the "MONSOON" season on Wednesday.
Some of you have inquired if we've seen the fire and smoke.

Here are a few photos showing what we can see from our house.

Photo "BY DW" showing the smoke plume rising towards the night sky


Photo "BY DW" showing the smoke in the sky. The smoke is actually causing it's own atmospheric conditions. If you click on the photo you will notice in the middle of the photo, a UFO was checking out the fire as well. We have EVERYTHING here in Phoenix!!

The fire is located near Avondale, AZ. In relationship to where we are located, it's roughly 25 miles due South from our home.
Tonight on the news they are reporting that the fire is approaching a neighborhood in Avondale and that the residents may have to be evacuated. Avondale is where DH and DW spent their honeymoon. This is the area we initially wanted to live in. Now after being here for close to a year, we are certainly glad that we aren't in that city!

The photos below were taken off a local news website. They give you a better perspective of what it's like.

This photo better shows the amount of smoke the fire is causing.

This photo shows the smoke in the air and a HUGE "MONSOON" brewing in the background. This is such a GREAT shot. We wish we would have been the ones to take it.

Do to the low housing market - Hunting has ended.

We've decided with the still down-turning housing market that we will lease one more year. Home values continue to fall here in the valley and we're taking a chance that they haven't hit the bottom yet. So we have rented a home that is closer for DH to work but still puts him on the interstate for commuting. DW has about the same commute as she had before.
We are excited for our move and to actually have a pool. "FINALLY"!!
As those who've come to visit over the last year will understand, it will feel SOOOO good to be in another location. Here are a few photos showing the place.
We will send out new change of address to everyone in the near future.

"Front"

"Pool"

"Entrance"

ALL CRACKED UP - COOKING AN EGG IN A FRYING PAN USING THE SUN

Harnessing the Arizona sun to actually cook food.

Well we tried our experiment today.
We cracked an egg in a frying pan and put it in direct sunlight in the heat of the afternoon. The temp was 124 degrees on our glass table top. We weren't surprised that it actually did cook. DW was able to pick the whole egg up out of the frying pan yoke and all. It was fun seeing how it changed.
It was in the direct sunlight a total of three hours.



As you can see, the yoke was cooked to a "Sunny Side Up" state - crispy-on-the-outside, gooey-on-the-inside!
Not quite the way we would eat our eggs, but definitely a way to use the sun as a cooking resource......

Here's a link to building your own solar oven.
http://www.re-energy.ca/t-i_solarheatbuild-1.shtml

BLACK WIDOW SPIDER

Tonight we ventured out into the heat to hit the local grocery store. We opened our garage door and as DH walked around the back of the car to get to the driver's door, he glanced in the corner of the garage where one of the garage door rails is anchored and noticed a spider.
Further inspection proved it to be a Black Widow spider.
You know it's a Black Widow because of the signature red hourglass on it's abdomen.
This is the first one we've seen since our arrival to Arizona last August.
It's just another example of how you need to be aware of what's around you at all times. It's not that they are everywhere, they tend to come out this time of year.

Here's the link to "Wikipedia" for the break down of the "BLACK WIDOW"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_widow_spider
DW was not too happy to see that "thing" living in our garage, so I took care of it. One quick swipe of my shoe and it is no more!
Also it's our understanding that we broke some temp records here in AZ. We will admit that today it was HOTTTTT!! Our digital thermometer was left out on our back table in full direct sunlight all day. It has a High/Low setting for the day. Here's what it recorded!

Tomorrow for our own fun, we are cracking an egg early in the morning, sticking it in a frying pan and leaving it on the patio table outside. We'll take a photo later in the afternoon and actually see if we can cook an egg in these kind of temps. Stay tuned!!

Where's Waldo? Video of DH during BJ-Florida auction

I'm directly under the Barrett-Jackson logo under the Auctioneer's "SPANKY"

"SCORPION HUNTING"

This morning DW started researching scorpions. She learned that if you shine a black light on them they glow like crazy.

So today we went and purchased some black lights to start checking the property before we let the dogs out after dark. Just in case!!!
We checked the spot where we killed the one from last night and we were amazed at how it had a three dimensional effect to it. It was really cool!
We searched the whole yard hoping we wouldn't and yet hoping we would find a scorpion.
We didn't!!
If you look closely at the image above, you can see the scorpion and the words that state "SEE SCORPIONS GLOW IN THE DARK BEFORE THEY SEE YOU"
They actually make a MAG lite for scorpions.....
We'll take a photo of one glowing if we find one........

While driving around today, the Thermometer on our car read 118 degrees.
Quite mild actually!

"SCORPIONS"

We are in total shock tonight! All the years DH went to college in Tucson he never once saw a scorpion other than the ones they have at the Saguaro National Monument exhibit. Tonight, Muncie, bless his heart, was patrolling our back yard as he and Phoebe do every night, when we saw him doing something we haven't seen before. He was actually on his hind legs, standing upright and looking pretty agitated at our back yard wall. After DH yelled at Muncie to leave the wall alone, DW grabbed a flashlight to check out what Muncie was so focused on.
Low & behold, a scorpion was hanging around.

DH made the dogs go inside and grabbed the camera. As you can see we had a nice sized visitor. We will be more aware of our surroundings in the weeks to come. Mosquitos would feel nice tonight. "NOT"!!

P.S. The scorpion is no longer amongst the living. DH made DW take off one of her thongs and smacked the scorpion into oblivion!

Enjoy!!

House Hunting Continues

Well, this weekend we went and looked at several houses again that are still for sale. We ended up liking one of them......... HOWEVER, it would take lots of elbow grease and some $$$ to get it in tip top shape.

The interior is in dire need of some serious TLC!! We think if we can buy it right & put in some hard work, we could probably have a unique home with LOTS of selling potential.......

The lot is huge and it even has a pool. "YEA!!"

The front landscaping is AWESOME!! The cost of doing the landscaping out front alone leaves one thinking what it cost???
It even comes with a saguaro cactus...... DH has always wanted a place that had a real saguaro. When he attended the University of Arizona, he lived in an apartment complex that had a tree that looked like a saguaro but unfortunately, it died. The apartment complex actually painted the tree green to make it look like a saguaro. DH had to look at that tree every day and vowed he'd have a real one some day.......

One of the drawbacks of this property is the master bathroom. It has a nice tiled shower but it sits about 3 feet below the porcelain stool. DH & DW laughed when we saw it because one could be sitting on the toilet and one could be in the shower and you could have a conversation face to face. This eventually would have to be raised to the main floor......$$$
The other drawback on this property is the kitchen. It's tiny.... The house is very livable at this time and we could chip away at the things we don't like. We have gotten to know lots of people with various skills in construction work. This is a difficult decision for us but we feel it's one we need to consider. Any comments will be greatly appreciated.
Our parents have always said "you can't make a silk purse out of a sows ear", however we feel the purse is complete, we just need to add the silk....... Ahhhhh the joys of house hunting and stress!!

House Hunting! :-(

It's a sad day.............. Our offer wasn't accepted......... Back to square one..... "sigh"!!

House Hunting!

Quick note - We put in a counter offer this evening at 4:30 p.m. We have our fingers crossed!!