Wandering the hills

This was a sunny yet cool day, topping out at 55° by late afternoon.  We took a hike in the hills around camp, just to look around.  We’ve done this several times, but the direction we usually go is now burned.  Last month I mentioned the fire last October, burned 1400 acres to the south of us.  So we went north for a couple miles.  Skye always likes to scout ahead and today was typical of that.  Except that being out in the tall yellow grass she blends in, perfect camo.  And she ran out further than usual.  We hung out for several minutes and then began calling.  Carlene has worked on training her for a whistle, so she was whistling away.  Skye came back when she got around to it, all tuckered out, panting heavily, laying down in the shade of a mesquite.  I had gone across the draw to look over the next hilltop when she returned.  Then I heard voices over my right shoulder.  Three people came walking up to us.  It was the AZ Game & Fish Dept. checking to see if we were OK!  They were doing some prairie dog work just up from camp and heard the whistle so came to see if anyone was calling for help.  They had also considered that someone was just calling a dog but had to be sure.  Four of them had come checking.  They were happy it was just a dog and they just had a nice little hike and break from work.

We knew from our previous visits that there are prairie dogs here.  They were doing some survey work, catching some to assess their condition, gathering data and releasing them.  They’d wait an hour and see if they had trapped any more to do it all again.  When we came down the hills to the camp road we happened to come out right where they were parked so we talked some more.  A very nice group of 6 people.

We had some time to sit in the sun in the shelter of the trailer this afternoon until the sun shifted around so there was no more wind shelter except for the shaded areas.  Oh well.  By then it was time to go over to Rune winery for some wine & live music.  We had been there a year or two ago and had followed them on FaceBook, so I saw this event a couple days ago.  It was a good time!  A good glass of wine, some good music and we had a nice fire pit too.  The first 4 people sharing the fire stuck very much to themselves.  A couple from Manitoba came by and chatted for a bit.  When they all left another group of 8 came along.  They were fun.  The women had known each other since Middle School and, as one said, they eventually added men to the group.  Now most (all?) of them live in Flagstaff and are down here celebrating one’s birthday.

This little cactus has a long way to go.

Our AGFD “rescuers”

Lunch time

Mutual support

Rune Winery

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