Yesterday's Post

Sorry for not posting yesterday; the Mister and I are in Colorado visiting our daughter who has been a camp counselor all summer, and I had trouble getting connected to the internet.

This is a picture looking east at Highland Groves. The Mister has labeled the streets, but the thing that I find most interesting are the two lakes. A little imagination is required, but you can now see the outlines, as well as the rest of the streets. It's pretty exciting to me.

Higley Estates Update From the Air

The Mister took a look from the air at Higley Estates, and he said he almost couldn't find it, because everything seems filled in. This is a view looking north; the field at the bottom of the picture is the future Warner Groves; just north of that is Circle G, and then north of that is Higley Estates.


The noticeable feature is the dirt backyards along the southernmost edge; but other than that, the community is indeed filled in. I'm sure the residents will be happy to say goodbye to the construction crews at the end of the year. Of course, then there will be the cement trucks for the pool installations for a while. But it is truly astonishing that the first Higley Estates houses were sold in October 2004; and just over a year later, the community will be completed!

Working in the Heat

I mentioned earlier that I don’t really mind the Valley’s heat, but it is a constant topic for conversation for Arizonans. We’ve even been in the national news lately because of our record temperatures. Our favorite waitress at Nando’s mentioned yesterday that she drives a vehicle that is not air conditioned, and we all murmured sympathetically at the very thought. I’ve had several people ask me how the farmers survived the heat back in the day, so I thought I’d share a few stories from The Mister’s memory of farming in the heat.

The time frame I’m detailing is the 60’s, when The Mister was a kid, but very involved in daily farming during the summer. Today’s construction crews start around 5 am and quit about 3 pm; the farmer’s schedule was a 6am to 6pm day, every day except Sunday. They would concentrate on the labor-intensive chores early in the morning and hope to do the less strenuous jobs as the day grew hotter.

Have you ever wondered why farmers wear long sleeve shirts in the summer? (My kids have teased their dad for years because of this propensity.) Cotton crops are irrigated in Arizona by the siphon pipe method. Cotton is planted in rows, and when it’s time to add water, hundreds of slightly curved pipes about 5 feet long and 2 inches in diameter are draped over the banks of the ditches and into the individual rows. Getting the water to run through these tubes is accomplished using the siphon principle; and no, that doesn’t mean the farmer bends down and sucks on the pipe to get the water started. Rather, they grab the pipe and cover one end with the palm of their hand and then force the other end into the water; when they throw the pipe down into the cotton row and release the stopped up end, the water begins to flow. It’s amazing to watch how quickly they can get all those pipes started and the water flowing out to the crop. (I have a memory of my own, as a newlywed farmer’s wife getting the call that the water was here – in the ditch – and there was no irrigator to start the field. The Mister and his older brother and the 2 wives raced to the field to start the water, because nothing is so embarrassing to a farmer as mishandling water. The Mister started about 5 tubes for every 1 that I started, but I like to think that I was helpful in averting disaster.) So when you mix metal siphon tubes with 115 degrees, what do you get? Scorched forearms, of course. The heat can still go through the thin cotton long sleeves, but it is muted a little. Add a cowboy hat to keep the sun off the face and back of the neck, and you have the daily uniform. (Notice that the subject of wearing shorts isn’t even considered; that would be preposterous.)

Water, specifically hydration, is the other key to farming in the heat. Each worker is responsible to bring his own water, and various methods were employed over the years to ensure that the water was at least cool (no igloos filled with ice water, I asked, incredulously? None, came the reply). The Mister remembers the canvas bags filled with water that they would hang from the tractor’s radiator; the bags were designed to leak, and the air going through miraculously kept the water cooler than the ambient temperature. Later on, they used a different system yielding colder water. A gallon milk jug filled three quarters full of water and frozen, then topped off on the way to the field, would provide enough cool water throughout the day.

The tractors did not have cabs at this time; and if they did, it would have killed the driver by bottling up the heat, because the only air conditioned vehicles were the family sedans, and even that was considered a luxury. The Mister’s father welded pipes onto the frame of the tractors and stretched canvas over the driver’s head to provide about 6 feet of shade – far superior to the small umbrellas that only shaded the driver part of the time.

Driving a swather was one of the more uncomfortable jobs, other than getting to sit while working. A swather is a vehicle that cuts the hay and forms it into a wind row. During these days, the family was cubing the hay, so it would sit in these rows, then get turned over by another machine, and eventually be compressed into cubes. The moisture from the dew was necessary for successful swathing, so those drivers started at 5 am and drove until about 10am when it got too dry to continue. The hay was extremely dusty and filled with every type of bug known to man, according to The Mister, and all that dust and all those bugs would fly up into the face of the driver as he proceeded through the field. I stopped him when he started telling about the effect on the nasal passages by asking if they didn’t wear bandannas or something. Some did, he acknowledged, but the heat made that even more uncomfortable than breathing bugs.

So the answer to working in the heat is not complex: shade from the direct onslaught of the sun, and hydration. Farmers have done it for many, many, years and lived to tell about it. If I can talk myself into weeding my flower beds, you’ll see me with my long sleeves and hat and frozen water jug by my side. Or maybe not; maybe I’ll just continue to enjoy the blessing of air conditioning.

Highland Groves Progress

The Mister and I took a little 4-wheeling trip around Highland Groves to see what we could see; it's one thing to know what's happening on paper, and quite another to see it up close and personal. The first thing we saw are the models for Morrison Homes. I was thinking these are going to be smaller product, but the Mister reminded me that they are in the range of 1800 square feet to 3600 square feet for the 2 stories. They looked roomy to me.





We drove down past the south lake and were prevented from getting up close to the pump station by an open trench, but we were able to get a long distance shot of the pump station.




I know the question you're asking, which is the same one I asked the Mister: Why are the pump stations so colorful? Judging by the various outlandish answers he gave me, he doesn't have a clue, either. The Water Expert is out of town, but he probably has a reason.

We drove past the ramada (imagination required; all I saw was rebar sticking up out of the ground) overlooking the lake, and I think it will be a lovely view. The Mister says that they hope to fill the lake in September some time, because we are really hoping we won't need to use hydrants for irrigation at all.

We know some folks that are hoping to move in to Highland Groves, and I'm looking forward to visiting them there. It's shaping up to be a great-looking community.

The Tanks Cast in Stone

The Mister received permission from Tami Ryall, the Town Deputy Director, to go past the barricades and look at the panels in the underpass at Recker and freeway 202. Somehow they didn't look as big as they did the first time I saw them, but they are indeed impressive. The Mister says they will be cleaned and painted when the freeway gets closer to being opened. Just a reminder that on the left you can see the representation of an irrigation ditch, with the pipes carrying the water out to the crop; next to that, of course, are the Morrison Ranch grain tanks, and in front of the tanks is a depiction of a round hay bale. To the right are the representations of wheat heads. Not shown, but on the outside of the underpass, are the train wheels, and also some cotton bolls. I'm sure I'm quite biased, but I think it is distinctive and appropriate for Gilbert, as well as artistic.

And In Case You Were Wondering...

Morrison Ranch got .16 inches of rain last night. And the humidity this morning was 70 percent!

This is Worth a Look

I don't usually post on the weekends, but this article in the AZ Republic this morning is worth reading in its entirety. It's about our own Golf, Etc. Store in Lakeview Village. The owner also lives in Morrison Ranch. This is precisely what we mean when we say live, work and (someday when the golf course gets installed) play in Morrison Ranch. Here's the beginning of the article:

Joe Utley's mind was always thinking about the future and scanning for something different while working in the business world.

Some of the business ventures he came up with were unusual, like shrimp farming in Arizona, but after researching the possibility, he would move on to something else.

But Utley, a Gilbert independent retailer since leaving Phillips Petroleum a few years ago, always came back to golf.

Even when his house was filled with fishing line - "He even took over my laundry room with it," wife Celina said - that he was selling on eBay, Utley's thought golf.

"It has always been a dream of mine," Utley, 36, said. "I've golfed all of my life, I've been a businessman and I figured it would be a great way to do business with your passion."

That's why when he came across the Golf Etc. franchise, Utley knew this was finally one he could settle on.

Please read the rest.

This is by no means certain yet...

...but the Mister tells me that talks and lease documents are in the final stages for a furniture store to open in the new (as yet unbuilt) section of Lakeview Village. As I mentioned in yesterday's post, that construction is set to begin as soon as the proper approvals from the Town are in place.

Hmm, he didn't mention the name of the furniture store; I wonder if that was on purpose?

Well, It's Progress

Last night the Mister and I were returning from a movie and he drove us down to the corner of Higley and Elliot; the Water Expert said the lights were on in the southwest corner of palms (the Higley Estates side). We could see the lit bollards along the pathway from quite a distance - especially since they don't yet have the filters over the glass to mute the glare - and one lonely palm tree on Elliot was beautifully illuminated. The adjacent sentinals stood silently in the dark, still waiting for their illumination. Sigh. As the Mister pointed out, it IS progress.

Dog Days Already?

It seems like the Dog Days of Summer are here already, though I usually think of them showing up in mid to late August. What are the Dog Days of Summer? Here's an explanation I found:

Everyone knows that the “dog days of summer” occur during the hottest and muggiest part of the season. Webster defines “dog days” as...

1 : the period between early July and early September when the hot sultry weather of summer usually occurs in the northern hemisphere
2 : a period of stagnation or inactivity

But where does the term come from? Why do we call the hot, sultry days of summer “dog days?”

In ancient times, when the night sky was unobscured by artificial lights and smog, different groups of peoples in different parts of the world drew images in the sky by “connecting the dots” of stars. The images drawn were dependent upon the culture: The Chinese saw different images than the Native Americans, who saw different pictures than the Europeans. These star pictures are now called constellations, and the constellations that are now mapped out in the sky come from our European ancestors.

They saw images of bears, (Ursa Major and Ursa Minor), twins, (Gemini), a bull, (Taurus), and others, including dogs, (Canis Major and Canis Minor).

The brightest of the stars in Canis Major (the big dog) is Sirius, which also happens to be the brightest star in the night sky. In fact, it is so bright that the ancient Romans thought that the earth received heat from it. Look for it in the southern sky (viewed from northern latitudes) during January.

In the summer, however, Sirius, the “dog star,” rises and sets with the sun. During late July Sirius is in conjunction with the sun, and the ancients believed that its heat added to the heat of the sun, creating a stretch of hot and sultry weather. They named this period of time, from 20 days before the conjunction to 20 days after, “dog days” after the dog star.

The conjunction of Sirius with the sun varies somewhat with latitude. And the “precession of the equinoxes” (a gradual drifting of the constellations over time) means that the constellations today are not in exactly the same place in the sky as they were in ancient Rome. Today, dog days occur during the period between July 3 and August 11. Although it is certainly the warmest period of the summer, the heat is not due to the added radiation from a far-away star, regardless of its brightness. No, the heat of summer is a direct result of the earth's tilt.

At Morrison Ranch, the Dog Days feel like nothing is happening in the various communities, but the unseen work really is happening. Almost all the potable water has been installed in Highland Groves, and some of the dry utilities. The plan for Panda Express is at the Town of Gilbert waiting approval and then construction can start. The second phase of Lakeview Village is also waiting for Town approval, but there is a Nitti Construction trailer parked in the parking lot, so they are getting ready. The period of feasibility has passed for Lakeview Trails North, and so the engineering and other paperwork will continue on that community so that when it closes next spring, dirt can begin to fly right away.

So it only LOOKS like "a period of stagnation or inactivity."

Gilbert's Own Wonka

Two of my daughters and I went to see the new Willie Wonka movie starring Johnny Depp. We thought it was a great film, but I don't think I would take my young nieces and nephews to see it; Johnny Depp doesn't feel as tolerant of the naughty children as Gene Wilder does, and much of the humor is aimed at adults (oompa-loompas as the Beatles, for example). However, it does make one want to go eat some chocolate, especially if one is inclined that way anyway. So may I suggest Granny's Chocolate Creations to meet that need, right here in Gilbert? The owners are imitating the movie according to this AZ Republic article:

A Gilbert chocolatier is offering a behind-the-scenes glimpse inside his factory - Willie Wonka-style.

In honor of the new movie Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Colin Redding, co-owner of Granny's Chocolate Creations, has hidden 24 golden tickets in 100 limited-edition candy bars. Each ticket admits two to a journey through his chocolate factory.

Through Aug. 15, with the purchase of any title by children's author Roald Dahl or the Changing Hands Book of Chocolates, customers of Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe will receive one of Redding's custom candy bars with a chance to win.

You have to go to Tempe to get a potentially winning candy bar, but if the chocolate is what interests you, just go to their store. They have wonderful creations, from cacti to golf balls to flowers. We had them "print" up some chocolate medallions for the 50th wedding anniversary of the Mister's parents. Delicious!

Thanks for the Flags

I wanted to say thank you to Erika Madsen, who is responsible for the flags at the entries of Higley Groves on July 4th. She is a real estate agent that lives in Higley Groves, and has an office at Lakeview Village. I know that being a realtor means living in a world of intense competition; I appreciate those realtors who add value to the community. Here's a link to Erika's website.

A Successful Ditch Camp

We had a wonderful time in the White Mountains, with one day of rain, and campfires allowed throughout. The only failure was in the fish not wanting to bite, or be bitten, as the case may be. We had several crack anglers who reported that the fish would lay in the water and allow themselves to be bonked on the head by the bait, but would not take the line. Alas, no fish fry this year. Here is Bias For Action's son trying to get the fish to cooperate.



The Mister and I both relaxed much more than in years past, with lots of folks pitching in to help with the setup, cooking and cleaning chores. The Mister tries to improve on various niceties every year, and he seems to have gotten the shower down to a fine art. He built a shower from PVC pipes and plastic sheeting; warming the water over a propane burner and then pumping it up to a higher level (on top of a vehicle this year), so the gravity can provide some water pressure to the hose going into the shower. Here he is manning the hot water, while doing a little pleasure reading.



You might notice that when camping, he carries a full roll of duct tape at the ready, rather than the small flat roll that he has for everyday use. He's a handy guy to have around.

We have declared the week a success, and look forward to the next time. We got back just in time for the hottest day of the year - 116 degrees! - so we didn't miss anything while we were gone.

Back on July 18

No electricity, no phone, no internet, no news about Morrison Ranch... Gone to Ditch Camp.

If you are a new reader, this would be a good time to check out the archives.

Be back in a week!

Details, Details

In one sense it seems so inconsequential and mundane to talk about the details of building a community or going camping, in light of the terror attacks in London this morning. On the other hand, it is just these mundane things that exemplify our life of freedom in this country, and remind us that building relationships in our communities and our families is the very fabric of freedom. With that in mind, I will pass on a couple of mundane details.

Ashton Woods is planning on starting their models at Highland Groves the first week of August. I will remind you that "it always takes longer and costs more", so I wouldn't place any bets on that, but this is the target.

Morrison Homes is in full swing in building their Highland Groves models, as well as starting the first homes already sold. It all looks like footings and dirt right now, but once it gets going, things change pretty quick.

Ditch Camp 2005 preparations are nearly finished. The groceries are purchased, the sleeping bags packed, and the excitement is mounting. I have to mention at this point that electricity and the internet are in short supply at our campsite; so the Front Porch will be going on a one week hiatus for the next week. No bloggers will be around to chat. I hope to get some good blogable stories while we're up there, though, and I will pass them on when I do.

The History of Ditch Camp

Bias For Action relaxing at Ditch Camp 2004

The Mister and I (along with several others) have spent the last couple of weeks preparing for a week-long outing in the White Mountains. We talk about going to “Ditch Camp”, and that name means different things to different people, so I thought I might explain the history just a little bit.

Back in the late 50’s and early 60’s (and most likely even before this, the Mister acknowledges, since it was before his birth), families would head to the mountains to get out of the heat for a bit. The Mister’s family established a tradition of going up to the White Mountains on the Apache Indian Reservation, and spending 10 days or 2 weeks in a very simple camping environment. The Mister’s dad and uncle would drive them up, pulling a small trailer with gear and another small camp trailer, and driving a pickup with a camper shell. The Mister remembers sleeping in the camper with his siblings, cousins and friends, stacked like chord wood; he doesn’t remember ever sleeping in a tent as a kid. Dad and Uncle would spend the weekend, then drive back down to the valley to farm, while Grandma and Aunt rode herd on the 7-12 kids. Grandma cooked over the fire with dutch ovens (no Coleman stoves!), kids’ diapers were washed in the creek (no disposable diapers!), and it produced some of the best memories of the Mister’s life.

The location of this annual adventure was at a place actually named “Ditch Camp”; it had been a camp for the construction workers who had carved a ditch – earthen in some places, using an aquaduct pipe in others – to bring water to the small but bustling logging town of McNary. In those early years, the ditch was still running water, and the test of bravery was to walk along the top of the pipe, which rose as high as 12 feet off the ground.

This summer tradition continued throughout the Mister’s high school years, and the boys were allowed to participate even though they spent the summers farming with their fathers. As they ventured off to college and the military, or to start new families, the makeup of Ditch Camp participants varied, and eventually Grandma was no longer able to lead the charge, and the tradition seemed like it would expire and be replaced by new family traditions. After a hiatus of several years, however, the First Cousin fired up the tradition once again, taking her own children back to Ditch Camp, making biscuits and gravy and green chili (on a Coleman stove, though I know she could do it on the fire if she wanted to) and recreating the experience for the next generation.

As the Mister and I were married and had small children by then, we joined in this tradition, returning to Ditch Camp each summer, and soon Bias for Action and his family were there as well, and before you knew it, Ditch Camp was full of barefoot children (won’t they catch cold?), fish that had been caught by a first-time angler (can we cook it now?), and stories of bears around the campfire (daddy, have you seen any bears?). And then disaster struck. Well, sort of. The Apache Indians closed Ditch Camp to camping. And backpacking. You could hike and have a picnic if you bought a permit; but no camping.

Undaunted by this setback, we kept the tradition, but moved the location to various places. Now this experience was morphing once again, with the ages of the kids, the changes of life situations and locales, and friends of the family eager to join the tradition. Having been taught by the best, the First Cousin, I timidly assumed the biscuits and gravy and green chili duty, and watched as the numbers of participants grew every year. The word was out: this is a good time.

No matter how we tried to re-name every site in which we camped, (how about “Beaver Rapids”?) folks kept calling it Ditch Camp. Eventually, we acquiesced to the obvious and decided that Ditch Camp would now describe the experience, not the location.

Things have changed tremendously since Grandma cooked those biscuits over the fire. Change can be difficult; the experience is just not the same as it used to be, even for me, and I’ve only been involved for about 20 years. I married a change agent, however, and he has taught me much about not just accepting, but embracing, change; it’s a heckuva lot better than fighting it. Ditch Camp, the Experience, continues to be one of the most meaningful weeks of the year for many people.

And the next generation? Will they carry on the tradition of Ditch Camp? They move mountains to be there every year if at all possible. My daughters can put up a tent as fast as their brother, and the Mister and I are coaching them in taking more responsibility every year. Someday that gigantic cast iron skillet will be too heavy for me to lift. I suspect that several in the next generation will pick up the skillet and share the experience with their own children.

Our son and Bias For Action's son playing horseshoes at Ditch Camp 2004

Water Everywhere and No Water Expert

The Mister received a phone call shortly before 6 am this morning to report that the area around our office was flooding and more water was continuing to gush out of the ground. And The Water Expert has not yet returned from an out of town trip.

When we re-landscaped the office a few years ago, we installed a line hoping to connect to reclaimed water someday. This line was the culprit, split somehow, and erupting like a volcano under one of the rose bushes. The proper folks from the Town of Gilbert were called, and they arrived and figured out how to fix the problem. Thankfully the office was spared severe flooding, but it's obvious that Murphy's Law was fully enacted since this line split while The Water Expert was out of town.

Living in the Land of the Free

This is the entrance to Higley Groves West, adorned with several flags. Actually, all the entrances to all of Higley Groves have flags, and I really like it.



Here is the entrance on Prairie off Elliot Road.



Along Park, there were many many flag-adorned houses; here are a couple peeking out from behind the trees.

When the Mister and I were young newlyweds, we lived within 2 miles of what was then Williams Air Force Base. Some friends on base invited our involvement with the Chapel program, and that started about 10 years of hanging out on base, mentoring folks, and making friendships that have endured to this day. So on this Independence Day, I find myself thinking about all the military folk we have encountered along the way, and I am grateful for their service to our country.

Our relationships run the gamut of rank: we just attended the wedding of a young first lieutenant who is a Tank Commander, and will most likely go to Iraq in about 8 months. And of course, since we are mature, we have just learned of a friend currently stationed in Korea who has been selected for Brigadier General. He did his pilot training at Willie, and we have nurtured that friendship through his many assignments. Another friend from Willie, an enlisted fellow, just retired as a Chief Master Sergeant after 30 years in the Air Force.

We love folks from several different branches of the military; obviously, our friendships with Air Force folks have the highest quantity, but the Army and Navy (recall that the Water Expert boasts Navy service, and Diver Chip is also Navy) are also well represented. The missing elements are the Marines (though I think the Mister has a few acquaintances through business) and the Coast Guard (since we are pretty far from any oceans…), but I value their service equally.

In short, my military friends have impacted my view of the 4^th of July. The festivities and fireworks are nice; but the fact that our founding fathers declared independence 229 years ago has new meaning for me. And that independence is guarded and preserved by my friends who are stationed all over the world. God Bless You, good friends; and happy Independence Day!

Aerating the Park

This is a shot of the MMM Landscape Maintenance crew aerating the turf around the Town Center Park. It's a good action picture; you can see the plugs of earth jumping in the air behind the machine. Why do we do this procedure? I found this quote from a turf maintenance company:

All lawns will become compacted over time. This compaction will reduce water penetration and restrict healthy grass growth. Aeration should be carried out in spring or early summer.

To eliminate compaction, the soil will need to be either spiked with a solid tyne aeration machine or cored with a hollow tyne device.

And in Arizona, of course, we want to make the best use of our water, while making the grass look good.

Hey Neighbor, Looks Like Fun!

Our neighbor down the street has undertaken an incredible task: driving thousands of miles with 4 kids in the car and then stopping at various places and making the kids walk for hundreds of miles with packs on their backs! Actually, I think it's a wonderful way to build family memories. The Mister and I used to backpack some in our youth, and the Mister has taken a couple of our kids on several trips; we have tremendous stories. You can follow my neighbor's adventures through Canada by checking out his blog here.