All American 4th of July

The Fourth of July--the quintessential American holiday. Should be celebrated by barbecues, baseball games and fireworks.We started by putting up bunting and small flags.

 

  

Then we decorated the door 

       

and finally we hung the large flag.

While we were eating breakfast I read the Declaration of Independence. The first time I have read it in years. What a marvelous document. Thomas Jefferson was truly inspired. Then we got food ready and eventually the old man hit the barbecue.

                            Chicken with Sweet Baby Ray's barbecue sauce. Umm, ummm, good!

          Finished chicken, mesquite flavored beans, and a copy of the Declaration of Independence.

The guests all gathered to eat. My wife Roberta, my son Dean and his wife Laura, and grand kids Maren, Easton, Henry, Amelia.       And-----

                Thomas Charles Clement, born June 28, 2012 who slept through the whole affair.

                     Desert was American flag cookies and red, white and blue jello. Whoooeee!

There's a Church about 2 miles up the street that does fireworks every year so after dark we went out on the front lawn for a look see.There's weren't so hot this year, but a neighbor about half a block away fired off some good skyrockets. The only thing missing was a baseball game. Oh, well. The Diamondbacks played last night and lost, so we didn't miss much. Below are some photos of the fireworks seen from the front yard..
                                                                Happy Birthday, America!

Guest Bloger: Darius Salem Clement

Me: Darius Salem Clement is my great-grandfather. He was born in Dryden, New York in 1834. His family joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints(Mormons) about that time. His father died in 1842, and in 1844 his mother relocated to Nauvoo. She and Darius' older brother and sister died in Nauvoo or winter quarters, leaving Darius and two younger siblings in the care of an aunt and uncle. They then walked across the plains to Salt Lake City in 1847. Darius homesteaded in Mesa in 1906, and died here in 1917. He has been agitating me to allow him to tell some of his story. Go ahead, Grandpa.

 Darius: Thanks, Mike. Don't know where that name came from—no Clement's or Kelsey's are Michael. Oh, wait. I remember now. Your grandmother's father was Mike Fairless. Sorry—got side tracked. Happens at my age. As soon as I could get away from the uncle I traveled with, I went up to Fort Union to my uncle Warren Foote. After a bit I worked a place of my own and married Louisa Kelsey. The Church had a program of sending wagons, pulled by oxen, with supplies to store along the trail and experienced teamsters and guides to the trail head at Florence, Nebraska to bring emigrants to Utah. In 1862 I was one of those “down and back” boys. Took us from the 15th of May until the first day of October. I think I had about 500 pounds of flour in my wagon to stash along the trail so we could eat on the way back. There was still a lot of snow in the mountains and the rivers and streams were very full. Rather than me trying to pull it out of memory, here are some excerpts from the journal I kept.

 June
           “Wednesday, 4th of June. Weather more favorable. Finished crossing about 2 hours by sun, My wagon was the last but one taken over. This has been the hardest job we have had. Ham's Fork is quite a passable stream in low water time. One can hardly tell now where the main channel is. The water spreads all over the bottom, about a ¼ of a mile wide. Had to swim our cattle and wagons, and our loads were taken over in a small boat. Grass very scarce.”

Note: Ham's Fork is about 20 miles from Green River, Wyoming. They arrived at Ham's Fork on May 31st, and didn't complete the crossing until June 4th.

           “Thursday, 5th. Camped at the ferry on Green River, 20 miles from Ham's Fork"

         . “Friday, 6th. We were busy at an early hour getting the wagons over, 2 in the boat at a time. The cattle were made to swim over by being driven in above the ferry. The water being very high, and the river from 15 to 20 rods wide, many of the cattle would turn and come back out on the same side. Some had to be drove back and started in 3 or 4 times. The most of us had to get ourselves wet for the cattle and rolled out and camped on Sunday. 8 miles. Rain enough to lay the dust.”

      “Monday, 9th. Started on before breakfast and stopt at Pacific Creek about 3 hours. Went over the Divide, and camped near the Sweetwater on the new road. We meet immigrants and gold diggers every day. They are eager to buy feed for their animals, flour, bacon, vegetables etc.”

                                              Oregon/Mormon Trail Near Continental Divide

 Note: Pacific Creek was so named because it was the first or one of the first streams the pioneers came to after crossing the Continental Divide heading west, and thus it flowed towards the Pacific ocean.

      “Tuesday, 10th. Traveled a few miles and stopt for noon. Camped in a hilly, rough, rocky country. Plenty of antelope. Some killed.”

      “Wednesday, 11th. Unloaded 600 of flour out of our 2 wagons, which was sent to a station off the road., with a quantity from the whole company. Camped early p.m. At next mail Station. Some rain today.”

                                                                    Devil's Gate

   “Saturday, 14th. Heavy rainstorm while traveling. Passed the Devil's Gate, and crossed Sweetwater about ½ a mile below. Wagons taken over on a log raft, which the soldier boys from the Valley had made, and where they were building a bridge. Stream 70 feet wide. Wind blew rather hard and cold.”  

                                                                     Sweetwater River
July

      “Friday, July 18th.Rained in the night. Crossed the bridge and traveled over a hilly country thinly settled all the way. Camped back from Florence about 3 miles.”

      “Wednesday, 23rd. Took my team to town and got 570 lbs. for the Bishop, and then loaded with passengers, and drove to camp.”

      “Sunday 27th. Started for home. Weather very warm. Made short drives for a few days, the captain staying back. I walked nearly 200 miles on the way back, and finding it rather too hard I had to ride some.”  

September

      “14th. Crossed (Sweetwater River) and went up and nooned at Rocky Ridge Station. Got the flour left here. Started on and while going up on to the....it began raining with a cold wind which continued till dark when we made camp and chained cattle to wagons. Could make no fires, no wood, no water. Got our clothes wet through.”

      “15th. This morning no rain but foggy. Hitched up first thing and went to next old station place affording plenty wood for breakfast. Again went on and cold wind and rain came on us before got to camp, getting wet to our skin again. Crossed river and camped in rain. We suffered with being wet and cold.”

      “16th. Thin snow lay on the ground this morning, and snowed some while at breakfast. Made one drive and camped on Pacific Creek. Some of the cattle gave out today, in the company. Weather moderated.”

     “29th. Parley's Canyon.”

 I would like to tell more at a later time, if Mike will let me. D.S.C.

 Me: I'm sure we can work something out. Darius went to the Big Muddy settlements near present day Las Vegas for awhile, and then went to Fairview, Utah in the early 1870's, where he established a farm and apparently a commercial orchard and nursery. In 1906 he and Louisa sold out, packed up and moved to Mesa, AZ.

Mesa Verde

Mesa Verde is a National Park in Southwestern Colorado, in the Four Corners area near Cortez. It is high mesa country criss-crossed by canyons. It contains about 600 cliff dwellings and several thousand surface ruins, dating from about 750 AD to 1300 AD. It's claim to fame is the cliff dwellings, built and occupied by the Anasazi, also called the Ancient Puebloans. These same people were also responsible for Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, Betatakin and Keet Seel in Arizona and other ruins. Below is a photograph of the Mesa Verde country showing some of the mesa tops and canyons.

Some time around 1100 the Anasazi began building their dwellings in caves in the cliff walls of the canyons, continuing to farm on the mesas. Several of these ruins are reasonably accessible, either as a guided tour or on your own. Balcony House, shown in photos below is one that is accessible only as part of a ranger guided tour.

The two photos above show the ladder by which one gets into Balcony House--not for the faint of heart. The photo below is of a small kiva, roofless. There is evidence that when the Anasazi left these sites they took the roofs off the kivas.

The next two photos show structures at Balcony House and the narrow space between structures and the edge of the canyon. A hell of a place for an Anasazi mother to try and keep track of a toddler.

The photo below shows the exit from Balcony House. You have to get down on hands and knees and hope you aren't too wide. An excellent defensive spot.

The next stop is Spruce Tree House, which you can tour on your own. It can be viewed from the museum and a trail leads from the museum to the ruin. The photo below is taken from the museum.

The photo below shows some structures and a kiva with a ladder sticking out. This is the way most kivas were entered. I believe that this one at Spruce Tree House is a restoration.

The next photo is of manos(small stones held in the hand) and metates(the large stones) which were used for grinding corn.

The next ruin, shown below, is Square Tower House. This is a small ruin, I don't believe open to the general public.

Cliff Palace is the largest of the ruins, accessible only by means of a ranger guided tour. The first photo below is from across the canyon in the late afternoon. The second one is structures within Cliff Palace up close and personal during an evening guided tour. The third photo is of our guide, a professor from the University of New Mexico. He took the part of Richard Wetherill, dressed like him and would tell you anything about the area that was known to Richard Wetherill in about 1900. Very interesting.

Richard Wetherill, a member of a Colorado ranching family, is generally given credit for putting Mesa Verde on the map, although there were a couple of Anglos before him, including the pioneer photographer William Henry Jackson in 1874 and Virginia McClurg in 1882-1885. On December 18, 1888 Richard and Charlie Mason saw and entered Cliff Palace, the largest of the cliff dwellings, the first Anglos to do so. He explored and excavated, doing some damage in the process. At that time most people including archaeologists were not interested in preservation but rather more interested in collecting artifacts. For a number of years the Wetherills maintained a guest house on their ranch for visitors who wished to see the Mesa Verde ruins. In 1906 President Theodore Roosevelt made Mesa Verde a National Park. Richard Wetherill named the people who built these ruins “Anasazi", a Navajo name meaning “ancient enemies”. Richard Wetherill also discovered Keet Seel ruin and homesteaded and built a trading post at Chaco Canyon. He did excavating and artifact finding for the American Museum of Natural History at Chaco. He was killed at Chaco in 1910 and his body is buried just west of Pueblo Bonito. President Roosevelt declared Chaco Canyon a National Monument in 1907, and Richard Wetherill gave up his homestead claim. Richard Wetherill's grave along with his wife's grave is shown below.

The last photo and my particular favorite shows a half moon rising over Cliff Palace. I wish I could get the sun and moon to cooperate like this all the time. Oh, well. When they do it's great!

San Xavier Redux

The San Xavier Mission,just south of Tucson, continues to be one of my favorite places to visit and photograph(see blog entries of 1/22/10 San Xavier del Bac--”The White Dove of the Desert” and 1/7/12, A Perfect Day). A couple of days ago the Old White Haired Guy and I drove to San Xavier for a photo shoot. I had wanted to photograph mostly interior details, and had not wanted crowds. The wind was awful, probably about 40 miles per hour, but that didn't matter since we were going to do interior shots anyway. It was after Easter so I figured all the snow birds and other tourists would have headed back to Iowa, Wisconsin, Canada, etc. Wrong! They all went to San Xavier for one last look on their way to wherever. Including tours. We did get a few shots inside and a few detail shots outside before we gave up. Anyway, here are some more of San Xavier.

The shots below were taken from the same point, a hill to the east of the mission where they hold Easter sunrise services. The camera was on a tripod and not moved. They were taken between about 0700 and 0750. The top left is the first one and the bottom right the last. Time wise they go left to right first row, then left to right second row and finally left to right last row.



I managed to get a few interior shots before the hordes arrived but nowhere near what I wanted. Below is a shot from the front of the church looking towards the altar with the side door open. The front door is behind me, closed and locked because of the wind.



This little angel is on a pillar near the front door.



That ended the inside shots. The milling herd came in and made tripod photography impossible. We went outside only to be greeted by 40 mph wind, limiting what we could shoot. It was virtually impossible to mount a telephoto lens and keep it steady, even on a good tripod. We did get a few nice shots, though, by playing with the sun.

The photo below is of where the crossing is and the dome above the altar seen from the west side near the side door.



The next two photos are of the west bell tower, taken from the west side.





The photo below is of the front door. This door is made of mesquite, and as far as I know, is the original. The next photo is of the door handle; the part of the handle that you grasp is a rattlesnake.





We packed up and guess what? Right! Just in time for lunch at Molina's Midway. Carne seca gorditas and green corn tamales! Mahvelous, simply mahvelous!

First Commercial Photograph

Some time around 1977-78 I acquired a young quarter horse stud named Sassy Bar Doc. He had impeccable blood lines for a cutting horse, being a grandson of one of the greatest sires of cutting horses ever, Doc Bar. He was in training with Mike Mowery, a good cutting horse trainer, at that time located in the Phoenix area. We were going to enter him in two big cutting futurities, the California Futurity and the Pacific Coast Cutting Horse Futurity. Since he was a stud we ran at least one ad in some horse magazine, although I can't remember what magazine it was. The idea of course was to offer him for breeding.

I needed a photo for the ad, so I drove from Sierra Vista to Phoenix(200+ miles) and spent at least one day photographing Sassy in action. I used a Pentax ME probably with a standard 50 or 55mm lens. The camera became roundly disliked by me because it had no manual setting, only aperture priority.That is to say the operator selects the aperture and the camera takes a light reading and selects a shutter speed to give proper exposure. Manual focus. I had a motor drive for it so I could shoot rapid sequences, 1.5 frames per second, very necessary in shooting action where I was trying to capture the horse looking his best while cutting a cow. With 36 exposure rolls of film, if you aren't careful you can burn through a lot of film in short order. I chose Kodak TriX because of its relatively high speed, ASA(ISO) 400, necessary to allow a high enough shutter speed to stop the action.

Since I don't have a copy of the magazine in which the ad appeared I don't know for sure which photo was used. I can guess because I have the negs and contact sheets, found in a store room a little while ago. On the contact sheets are some crop marks for three photos, one of which was the one finally selected. I scanned the negs with my Minolta film scanner. Below are the three, with the most likely one shown first.
Sassy is being ridden by Mike Mowery.







In cutting the objective is to keep the cow from re-entering the herd from which you have just pushed him out. The horse is supposed to do this without help from the rider. As you might imagine it can be pretty wild action. The horse has to be quick starting, stopping and turning as well as have a good burst of speed if needed. In general quarter horses make the best cutting horses. In a contest once the cow has cleared the herd the rider cannot rein or spur in front of the cinch. Usually the rider hangs on for dear life with both hands on the saddle horn.

Below are some shots of a good friend of mine, BJ Johnson and his wife Melissa on a couple of good cutting horses, taken in 2007 at their place. Camera was a Sony a100 digital; lens was the Carl Zeiss 16-80mm zoom.





Cutting started and is still a good cattle ranch activity, used to separate cattle. I was asked to help separate a bunch of cattle once by some guys who didn't know anything about cutting horses. They told me where to meet and that it would take most of the day. When I got there the cattle where all together in a corral. They needed to be separated in different groups and put in adjoining pens. They were going to do this on foot. I saddled up my cutting horse, Dude Magoo, told them to put a man on each gate and open/close them at the appropriate time. 15 minutes later I was unsaddling Dude, cooling him off and getting ready to go home.

Sassy ran with mares until he was about two years old. When he got old enough to start feeling studily the mares beat the crap out of him, which sounds mean but made a well behaved horse out of him. I wonder if there is a lesson here for young teenage boys. The first time I bred him he didn't want any part of it. He seemed to say “Boss, she's gonna kick my head in if I come up behind her!” We put the mare in a breeding chute so she couldn't kick him, then took him to the mare and after a little persuasion got the job done.

Sassy foundered and did not make the futurities. I got one filly out of him, who won a cutting futurity in Wyoming or Colorado. I sold him to a man in Colorado or Wyoming after we moved to Mesa and I gave up cowboying.

Mike Mowery went on to win both a National Cutting Horse Association Open championship and the National Cutting Horse Futurity, one of only a handful of riders to win both, and became President of the National Cutting Horse Association.

BJ "borrowed" Melissa's horse and won all kinds of stuff with it. I haven't heard, but I think BJ may still be sleeping in the barn.

Blast From the Past

My wife was cleaning out the store room in the carport and found some photographs that we didn't realize were not stored inside the house, either in the office or some other storage place. I thought I would share some of them.

The first ones are from Brown Canyon, southeast of Tucson where I ran cattle with my friend Kip Ripley(see blog entry of 7 April 2011). The photo below shows the ranch loading chute and pens. Baboquivari mountain is framed by the chute. My chaps and bridle are hanging on the chute; my saddle is resting on a log. I had wanted to use this photo when I wrote about chaps(see blog of 26 November 2011), but thought it was a slide and couldn't find it or anything like it anywhere. I told you us cowboys aint too bright.



The next one shows the gate into the middle part of the ranch. There were three parts to the ranch --the first was to the east, next to the highway, the second in the middle where the house was, and the third or upper part furthest west and had the top of Baboquivari as the western border.



The next photo shows the wash that runs from up the canyon below Baboquivari down through the middle portion of the ranch. This photo was taken in November, so there is some color present.



This windmill is near the loading chute shown in the first photo. It provided a good supply of water.



This is the house that came with the place. It looks comfy but I never spent any time in it so I don't really know.



This grave is on the place in the middle part as I remember. I have no idea who John was. I assume it is a real grave, because it would be a helluva lot of work for a joke.



These photos were on a single roll of color print film, Kodacolor X. They were shot in 1973; Kodacolor X was discontinued in 1974. Fortunately the negatives were with the small prints that had been made by the processing lab. Those prints were so faded as to be almost unrecognizable. The photos shown here were made by scanning the negatives on a 35mm film scanner, a Konica Minolta Dimage Elite 5400II.
The camera was my first 35mm SLR, a Mamiya Sekor 1000 DTL. I very rarely used color print film, and why I did for this trip I have no clue. I guess it seemed like a good idea at the time.

I will share the others we found in another blog entry. Thanks!