I want some coffee!

  Freight cars moving thru the San Pedro Valley toward he Dragoon Mountains East of Benson Benson, Arizona has been home base since December, 2010. More specifically the RV park named SKP Sagauaro Co-op on the Southeast side of town. The San Pedro Valley - and the San Pedro River that gives it it's name - runs from Mexico to a location just East of Saguaro National Park. It is perhaps 135 miles from the border to its terminus to the north of Benson. The San Pedro River runs thru the valley and is kind of special: it's the only North-flowing river in the US originating in Mexico. Not a lot going on here other than winter RV tourists... that's when the local population swells from 5,000 to about 10,000. There are ranches and small farms in the valley; they make gun powder and explosives just to the South of Benson at Apache Powder; there's some mining; significantly there is Fort Huachuca to the Southwest in Sierra Vista; and there's the railroad.  Southeast of Benso...

The Admiral and I checked out Santa Fe, NM in about Sep 2003. We liked it, found a house and bought it, returned to San Francisco, packed everything, sold her house, then moved to Santa Fe in Dec 2003.  I had reason to be reminded of that time in Santa Fe in a WhatsApp conversation with a friend who is traveling way-far South of the USA in the most Southern part of Chile. I saw a photo on Michael's blog of a restaurant owner (below) wearing a unique vest. The owner's vest caught my eye immediately. That little vignette centers around what I take to be a vest assembled from hand woven wool fabric triggered a recollection of times gone by. Over 20 years earlier... The Admiral has been a knitter a very long time before we met. When we were new to Santa Fe she was on the hunt for wool for a knitting project. One of the places we visited in that search was Miriam's Well in Santa Fe. Miriam had a pretty good selection of yarn but off to the side was a loom for weaving. I as...

This string of pre-dawn shots will stop once sunrise slides out to 0530 cuz I just don't do early ! Plus the weather seems to be on the brink of morphing into too-damned-hot. We have 80°+ coming in the next week. If the weather follows the usual pattern this could well be winter disappearing into the storage locker where it will recover its annoying habits and come visit again this coming November-thru-January.

 ... so I'm keeping a low profile. Leaseholders here are strongly encouraged to attend the annual meeting in early February. Amazing how we usually have a doctor's appointment on the appointed day! Board meetings aside, I notice that my occasional peek outside frequently includes sunrise. So a few more opportunistic shots pre-dawn here in Benson, AZ. In another month sunrise will be so early I'll be hiding in my bed pretending it can't possibly be as late as the clock says it is! Rise and shine (or not!) Even earlier... ugh! Bloody cold out there! Here's a peek across the San Pedro Valley as a freight train labors through on its way to point East. I-10 crosses the Dragoon Mountains via Texas Canyon. This route requires a very steep climb to get to the other side near Willcox. Not that anyone cares, the train follows a route across pretty-much level ground through San Pedro Valley and the town of Dragoon to a notch in the Dragoon Mountains. This route avoids the v...

The nice part about winter is that I roll out of bed before dawn. "Dude! Get a grip! There's nothing great about getting up before dawn!!" Yeah, my basic mantra.  I must admit, however, that I do see some pretty nice sunrise photo-ops pop up. So I'll post a few here to remember the event. Remember? Yeah, remember. Come summer I'll be inclined to hug the AC and look neither right nor left as I make a bee line from air conditioned space to air conditioned space! Here's a few of what greeted me as I trundled off these past few days...   Yeah... a little late getting up this day! The park (SKP Saguaro Co-op) is getting pretty crowded as snowbirds arrive from their respective warm weather domiciles.  Occupancy on 5 Jan 2025 here at SKP Saguaro Co-op Things will max-out about early February when the annual meeting is scheduled. All leaseholders are strongly encouraged to be here for that event. There are about 300 Leaseholders. 'Guests' are folks that rent a...

About to start the day... How can we complain about cold winter temps when this pre-dawn sight greets us to start the day?! And yes, what we (I!) complain about for cold temps here in southeast Arizona are the basis for a balmy day in Minnesota. When I'm kinda' bumbling around getting to the casita for the morning call (an old fart in a hurry must be a scarey thing to see!) you would think I'd miss something like sunrise imagery. Even when in a rush I try to pay attention to what the day is going to offer and this is what I saw on Christmas Eve morning at 06:28.  It's just after Christmas, so dawn doesn't break here in the San Pedro Valley of southeast Arizona till after 07:30 this time of year. Oddly the National Weather Service says dawn was at 07:20 that day. On the ground, however, it happens later than that. Must have to do with Benson being in a valley which obscures the first light... ?? The sun has to rise above the Dragoon Mountain range which forms the ea...

... I just realized I haven't talked at all about coffee roasting in months (maybe longer!). And that was supposed to be the theme of this eternal essay. So it's still happening. Every Wednesday (or thereabouts) I roast anywhere from 1 to 7 pounds of coffee using the now 6 yr old Bullet R1 roaster. The Bullet moved in here in January 2019. Close enough to say that over the last 6 years this handy appliance has roasted something like 1,500 lbs of green coffee. About 683 kg of greens have gone thru the Bullet R1 roaster... about 1,506 lbs of greens. And no, the Admiral and I did not consume all 1,200 lbs of roasted coffee. Yikes!! That would be a lot of caffeine! I roast for us plus as many as 4 other people that live here in SKP Saguaro Co-op. Works out well: I get to play 'roast master' and they get to enjoy what I like to think is some really good coffee. I've mentioned this in the past: I started out with a tiny electric hot air roaster (roasted enough beans for...