New Year's Eve

Well the year has come to an end. And what an end it has turned out to be here at the North Rim. We are down to 1 snowmobile for 4 people as of right now. Come Sunday we will be back up to 4 snowmobiles for 6 people. Upon doing rounds this morning, the Gift Shop's big window was discovered to be broken. Gary & Brian spend most of the day boarding up the hole and taking care of whatever else they had to do for it.

And we have a Ponderosa Pine that has become split and dangerous out by the employee basketball court. Hopefully the next big wind storm we have will knock this tree over and we won't have to wait for the Hotshots to take care of it come spring.

Some of the snow has melted in the last couple of days, which is nice also. We can see part of the work trucks again and the walk-way has been clean for 3 days now!

Hope everyone has a Happy New Year and a very safe one too. Talk to you again in 2009!

Sunday

Yesterday Gary & I went for a ride, a 26 mile snowmobile ride. It was a beautiful, sunny but not that warm of a day. It was great pratice for me-I'm getting better on that machine! We went all the way out to the front gate of the Park and then came back. Got a nice picture of the shack at the Park entrance.

Hope every one had a very Merry Christmas! We finally received our mail Christmas Eve. I received Thank You letters from Brandon's class from when I went there at Thanksgiving time to talk to them about The Petrified Forest and The Grand Canyon. And we got all our Christmas cards from our friends and relatives. (Remember our mail box is 45 miles away so it takes someone going on a snowmobile to get it and bring it to all of us.) What a wonderful way to spend the evening reading!

Of course it has snowed most everyday for awhile and we have quite a build up now. Yesterday-Christmas Day-was very cold,windy and dropped another 6-8 inches of snow. We were quite warm and cozy in our apartments and enjoyed our Christmas dinner together with our other maintenance neighbors Mike, Trish, Brian & Tanya.

Maintenance work trucks on Dec. 17.

The same trucks on the morning of Dec. 26. The walkway was clean Christmas Day when we got up in the morning.

Snowed more today-imagine that! At lunch time we measured 1/2" in a 1/2 hour. In the last 10 days it has snowed 8 days.

Perfect Day!

Gary packing the snow.

Facing East.

Facing West

Facing Bright Angel Point

Gary with the snow up to the seat of the bench.

Edie practicing.

What a beautiful, sunny day today. Perfect for snowmobiling. And the Canyon was just georgious!

Finally......

After 32 years of marriage-guess what? I made corn fritters last night and Gary said "I hate to tell you this but those taste JUST like my mothers." (I did take it as a compliment!) Now keep in mind this is an amazing thing since I don't fry food very often at all. I can not fry chicken to save my life.


It's still snowing!

More snow

Here is the morning after pictures-notice the chunk of wood has disappeared. And here is Gary after cleaning off a snowmobile to go break trail.

Snowed all day!

Well it did snow all day but it doesn't look like much accumulation in the back. Gary said there is alot more out front but I haven't gone out there-that would mean putting on boots.

Snow Day

Looking out our back door.

It's a snow day! Imagine that. Only got to work for 3.45 hrs this morning when Mike decided it was to slippery for us to be out. There is not enough snow for the snowmobiles yet but just to much for driving the trucks. There really is not that much out there concidering I'm from NH and we used to have to drive in a foot of snow while waiting for the snow plow to make it's rounds. I will periodically take more pictures during the day to show how fast it is accumulating. We are suppose to be getting 30 inches or more by the time the storm is done on Wed.

All Alone

How long has it been since I had a day off without Gary?......To long!

We had to take the truck to Jacob Lake this morning and leave it there for the winter. The big winter storm we have been waiting for is suppose to arrive Saturday. I needed to go to town first, get some things and go to the Post Office with all my Christmas cards. When we got back from doing all that I stayed home for the afternoon and Gary went to work. Did I just relax and enjoy the alone time? Well not really. I reorganized my pantry closet with the little frig and freezer. Now I can open the frig door and actually get to things. Most of the canned goods were still in the case box so all that was not bad to move. I discovered some things I forgot I had too. And I got most of these things just over a month ago! I cleaned up the front coat closet space too. That was GREAT! I was so tired of having the boots and winter things just scattered. After 32 years you would think I would realize Gary was not going to put anything away and just do it all myself without putting it off for so long.

Anyways, all that moving and exercise got my achey muscles feeling better. Achey muscles? Yes, I started painting the dorms. Yesterday I did the hall walls of 1 of the dorms. Up, down and sitting on the floor to do the baseboard area with carpeting up the wall instead of baseboard. The painters tape won't stick to the carpet so I ended up doing it all by hand and I must say I did a good job, very few places with paint on the carpet. And you have to get close to even see it. If a really tall ladder can be found for me tomorrow I will finish the walls in that dorm and move everything to another dorm. I've got to find a way to slow down or I will have all the painting done by the end of this year!

Having Fun!

Hurray the Gift Shop is closed and sealed up for the winter. So...we took a 4 day weekend to just enjoy ourselves. Our first stop ended up being Mormon Lake Lodge. We had a great dinner and decided to spend the night there. It is a Forever Resort Property so we got a $125 a night cabin with fireplace for only $19! Yea...well, we first booked a $90 room but it had not been cleaned so they had to give us the next room...the cabin with fireplace for the $90. And then in the morning at check-out they gave us a really great employee discount.

It was a very nice place to visit and we will have to research it more as they have so much there to do and for employment too. http://www.mormonlakelodge.com/



That was Thursday.

Friday morning we decided to go to Camp Verde and check that area out. We had reservations for Saturday at the Verde Canyon Railroad for a 4 hour train ride. We took the back roads and enjoyed seeing new places and taking our time. Our first stop in Camp Verde was going to be Walmart but at the gas station they informed us that was 16 miles away in Cottonwood. So off to Cottonwood to find Walmart. We went past "Out of Africa" and decided we would check that out. So we find Walmart, get the necessary things we need, decide to find a room and get some lunch.

We got to Out of Africa at 3PM and really enjoyed the 2 hours we were there. We hopped on the shuttle to go see the animals get fed. There were lions, tigers and bears! Oh My!! Hyenas, leopards, zebras, giraffes, camels and so many more species that I can't remember the names of them all.







After the feedings we got to go inside part of the sanctuary and see up close some of the animals. We fed Tebo, the 17' giraffe, carrots and the ostriches had to come and get their fare share too. Even some of the zebras came up to get their share.








Saturday morning we get up and go find the train station. Just in time too, since the Christmas Parade with Santa was going to be closing off the road we needed. We got there a bit early so we went over to Tuzigoot National Monument to see some ancient ruins.


Finally, the train ride! It's a 4 hour ride from Clarkdale to Perkinsville and back. We went right up the Verde Canyon.

I really like the differences in the rocks. It just makes one wonder what forces were at work to change the rock so much and just how long did it take to build up the different layers.

For supper we went to the Blazin-M-Ranch for a cowboy dinner and show. We had a great time too. I haven't laughed that hard in years. Three tables in a row where we were sitting happen to have all New Englanders! There was even 6 of us from NH. There was a Jack Edwards from Meredith who worked at the Meredith Center Fire Dept. Small world!!!

On our way home we drove thru Sedona. We were not impressed, to many "rich" homes that look the same and the Red Rock to me is not as pretty as the mixed colors of the Grand Canyon. I guess I'm just spoiled now that I've lived here at the North Rim for so long. :)

Upon reaching home, we get the truck unloaded and guess what? It starts to snow! What timing. Now that we are home, it can snow as much as it wants!!


What a great weekend.