Today I woke early and had great aspirations to go to yoga class and get more walking in.

Unfortunately, my knee was swollen and I was sore and went back to sleep. Turns out yoga is only on Mondays and Thursdays anyway. I’m so glad I didn’t rush down! I finally awoke for the third time around 8:20, got up after stretching a bit and had applied some pain balm the first time I woke up around 3:30. I’d had a nightmare about Dad. I woke again around 5:30 and read a little when then fell back asleep.

Since making 10,000 steps wasn’t in the cards today, I decided to go visit Karl (the rock guy) and see what I could learn from him about tumbling rocks. Oh my goodness, what a great visit we had. He is a super nice and so is his wife, Donna. They have the gift of creativity and their house is decorated on the outside with every variety of cactus, hundreds of rocks, and artwork created from things they find in nature. Hummingbirds practically swarm their patio because they installed those tiny feeders everywhere.

This cabinet he repurposed for his grilling and smoking supplies and spices. What a resourceful dude!

He sat with me on the patio where the smell of ribs smoking on the smoker was making my mouth water and talked to me for over an our about so many different things! First though, it was all about the rocks. We share the same passion for finding rocks to tumble and he has a professional-sized tumbler and years of experience. We discussed the places we’ve been and where we can go in our search for rocks and cactus. He showed my how the bird holes come out of the dead saguaro 🌵 and are called “boots”. He uses spray lacquer on them and makes decorative pieces for the wall on the side of his house. I should have taken more pictures because his house is fascinating, and all I saw was the patio!!

They don’t look like much now, but after the varnish and possibly some decorations, they will look awesome. His wife put eyeballs and some mossy stuff in one of hers, it looks so cute! When you enter the patio, it is flanked by saguaro carcasses that have fake birds nesting in the hollows. They are huge and the couple has such an artistic eye. I must go back and take more pictures of all the cool things they’ve made. He also gifted me some more rocks to tumble and told me not to be afraid of doing anything wrong. Just do the steps like the class and instructions say to and be patient.

They have a dog and two cats who have a door that leads to a cage built for them that sits where the steps used to be from the house to the patio. I thought at first it was a bird cage, but no. The cats can go from the house to the outside and be enclosed in their own playground! Ingenious idea! Again, sorrry. No pics. Next time!

He also fashioned a long, skinny cactus garden from the trunk of a hollowed out saguaro. Remember in a previous blog post I spoke about how the ancients used the saguaro like wood to built structures and tools? One can find many uses for this industrial-sized cactus. They have cactus in the beds, and in pots all over the property and inside the pots are some of the rocks he and his mom and wife have collected and tumbled through the years. I could go on and on, but let me finish with the most exciting news. He is going to take a group of us Monday to the other side of our mountain to go see the mine back there. In this area, I can gather all the geodes I want!! I am beyond stoked about it! I didn’t know geodes could be found in this area! Apache tears too, although probably not here. He found his in a place a bit north of here.

I thoroughly enjoyed the visit and can’t wait for our “date” to the old mine. Stay tuned for what we might find on that excursion ☺️