There is a personality that grows at a work place among the machinery, the light streaming in through windows, the dust accumulated and each piece of machinery as though they are each a piece of the whole of the body. Your description tells of skills and knowledge seldom continued in this modern world. That personality is a friend that welcomed those that spent so much of their time there. So glad for you to have the opportunity to visit a place of such personal memory and connect with the spirit of those that dwell there. We all leave a piece of ourselves in the places we occupy and listening we can detect the ones that went before us. I hope I have the privileged to see this part of you and your family's history. Thank you for the mental images.

8/5--Had my best snake day of the trip. Saw a nice adult Black-Tailed Rattlesnake crossing a road at 1:35PM at 5800 feet elevation. It had ten buttons and was a good 3 feet long. We followed it into the woods and continued snapping pictures of it. Two female rangers happened upon our vehicle blocking the road and saw that we were taking pictures of a snake. They were very friendly and said they had seen another one of similar size and color about ten minutes up the road. At 5:05PM we came across a Sonoran Mountain Kingsnake at 7800 feet elevation. It was a gorgeous snake. I t was unusually fiesty too. It bit me repeatedly in rapid succession and musked me in my brief attempts to keep it in range for pictures. I was amazed at the speed in which it struck and its personality seemed more like that of a arcer or coachwhip. Possibly my favorite snake of the trip. Believe it or not, I've only been bitten by 3 snakes in my life and so any snake that bites me gets special recognition. That night I roadcruised from 7:30-9:30 and found two nice Western Diamondbacks. The first was an impressive 43 inch specimen at 8:20PM. The second was a 31 inch Western Diamondback at 8:50PM. The lengths are approximate. I didn't hold them out to a tape measure. Both snakes were unaggressive and merely went about their foraging as though we weren't even there. 8/6-Spotted a modest sized adult Black-Tailed Rattlesnake under a rock 3 minutes into a hiking trail in the mountains. Also saw several Yarrow's Spiny Lizards. The snake was still basking under the rock when we returned from our hike at 10:45AM. We brought Keith out that afternoon and the snake was still there. He learned that its hard to get a good snake picture with a disposable camera. As he leaned to get up close to the snake eye to eye it zipped under a rock and rattled its tail in retreat. We saw a cool mountain short horned lizard on our hike. It did let me lay down for some eye to eye shots with a point and click digital. The snakes were on the move that night. I spotted a Mojave and a Western Diamondback from the car and missed seeing a Western Diamondback that moved across the road swiftly while I was looking for a road sign. Also saw a DOR Mojave. 8/7--Didn't do much herping in the day because Rachel wanted to see Bisbee. We drove there and at one point watched the temp drop 30 degrees in 15 miles. Decided to road cruise the mountains at evening and early night but the rains had made things very cool and nothing was stirring. Cruised the flats for half an hour as a consolation and saw two juvie Mojaves back to back at 8:30 and 8:33PM.

On August 6th my wife, my parents and I took a morning hike to look for Banded Rock Rattlesnakes. 3 minutes into the trail I spotted this nice Blacktail Rattlesnake resting under a rock. Also on the hike: THIS ROCK IS ALL MINE!! What would you rate this Yarrow's Spiny Lizard on a scale of 1 to 10? If you rated it a 6 your tastes might be in line with the graduate students studying Yarrow's in the area ;-). We found this Yarrow's along a hike and assume it is being studied by herpetologists at the SW Research Station. My brother had never seen a Blacktail Rattlesnake in the wild so we returned to the same hike in the afternoon. The snake was near the same rock and further out in the open. On the same hike we found this cool Mountain Short-Horned Lizard That night the snakes (Diamondbacks and Mojaves) were on the move. In fact the rest of the trip was characterized by rain in the afternoon and evening and Diamondbacks and Mojaves on the move. Here's a picture taken on August 7th as we moved out of a midday thunderstorm in 69 degree weather. Seventeen minutes earlier we were driving in 99 degree weather. 30 degree change in temp in just over 15 minutes. And that night we saw two baby mojaves back to back at 8:30 and 8:33 A baby mojave: Trip Report Part 3 coming soon.

Thanks, Everyone. Its such fun to share with all of you! Jeanne, afraid the phone has to stay there, LOL. Don't worry about bunny falling off tho, he's held on tight with sticky stuff. Tho I'll be removing him soon since he's not exactly Fall or Christmas looking. And those witch boots definitely AREN'T made for walking... LOL. They are resin or ceramic, and together as one piece. I don't know what's going on with my photos tonight. I resized everything properly in Photobucket, but only some of the pictures came out right in my posts. Weird. Anyway, sorry for the BIG ones as I know its tough on the dial-up folks. Looking at the turkey candle-holder, I'm think I need to do a bit of cosmetic work on his eyes. He looks pretty mad to me. The big turkey is resin, but sure looks like wood which I like a lot. Pheasant too. Their painting has a "grain" look to it like wood. OA, the orange balls sound neat to decorate with. I've not seen any either. Tho I didn't look in that area of Hobby Lobby yesterday. I made myself stay away from Christmas ornaments this time. LOL. hugs, Karen