All posts by Ben

Arizona, Odds & Ends

A homeless man wandered into Kingman one day, here’s what happened

For years, the white-bearded man in the red Santa Claus outfit has been a familiar sight around this isolated high-desert town, his habits so routine people take notice when he’s not there.In triple-digit August heat and on frosty January mornings, he pushes an overloaded cart along congested Stockton Hill Road, his companion toy rabbit riding shotgun, trundling unsteadily between his haunts at supermarkets, fast-food joints and coffeehouses.Who is this character, this man in scarlet, people once asked. Is he homeless? Does he have substance or emotional issues? He seemed harmless, because not once did anyone see him stick out his hand to beg, bother or steal.Eventually, some stopped to introduce themselves. James Zyla, as he calls himself, greeted them in a charming British accent uncommon to rural Arizona. His last name, he said, rhymed with sarsaparilla, a lovely word he’d once used in a poem and decided to imitate. For starters, he’d say, he didn’t like the terms “homeless” or “living on the streets,” and much preferred “on the road.”

Source: A homeless man wandered in one day, and this Arizona town adopted him – Los Angeles Times

Off Grid Living, Prepping

Tips for Keeping Backyard Chickens – For Beginners

Having a new flock of chickens can be a roller coaster ride of ups and downs, especially for beginners. It takes years to learn the ins and outs of good chicken keeping. If I could go back and start over, there would be a handful of things I wish I would have known as a beginner. These ten tips will help prevent confusion and heartache for the new chicken owner.

Source: 10 Tips for Keeping Backyard Chickens for Beginners

(Thanks to Wirecutter for sharing this one.)

Arizona, Wildlife

Frequent Visitors

Today, we’ll step away from the birds, and look at some other desert creatures that seem to thrive in this ever-changing, and sometimes rather hostile environment.

Coyotes:

We hear them pretty much daily, and sometimes get a glimpse. The leave their scat around the ranch from time to time.

We leave them alone, but the local ranchers here treat them as pests. They do love your pets, so it’s best to be wary. Coyotes are sneaky, they’ll send one to lure your dog, while four more are waiting to trap and corner them. Watch out!

They seem to be fat and happy in the moist years, but scrawny in the drier years, as one would expect. This year, I imagine they are quite happy, as we’re seeing an abundance of rabbits.

Rabbits:

Speaking of rabbits, they really are prolific this year. They’re cute and cuddly when they’re little, but soon they’re eating everything.

The snakes, coyotes, bobcats & Mountain Lions all eat them.

Waiting for a Rabbit snack…

Snakes:

We have a variety here, including some of the deadly kind.

There’s a lot more, but time is short today, so we’ll leave it at that for now.

 

 

Gardening, Prepping

Survival Medicine: Cayenne Pepper

Prescription meds and over-the-counter medications may or may not be available in a given economic collapse, but you can always grow your own medicinal herbs or even source them in the wild. If you could only have one medicinal herb in your survival bag it should be cayenne pepper. It’s an anti-bacterial, anti-viral, and a sterilizer. It’ll warm you up, boost your metabolism, and energize you all at once. Cayenne pepper adds spicy heat to improve the flavor of all foods. It’s even beneficial, not harmful, for your digestive tract. The active ingredient, capsaicin, is what’s responsible for all the benefits. Lately, even the medical world is giving credit to capsaicin. A product called “Sinus Buster” is a popular over-the-counter sinus medication that is capsaicin based. As an aside, Sinus Buster even claims to chase away headaches. But you don’t need to buy Sinus Buster to chase away headaches or clear your sinuses. Grow your own cayenne peppers and make your own medicine!

Source: Grow You Survival Medicine: Cayenne Pepper – The Organic Prepper

Wildlife

Frequent Visitors

Here, where the Grand Mohave Desert meets the blue skies of the Sonoran desert, we find abundant plant life that lives together in a unique ecosystem that has characteristics of three deserts: Mohave, Sonoran, and Great Basin (in Nevada and north.)

We’ll talk about plant life and perhaps consult with our resident botanist, Jan Emming in a later post. Today, it’s all about the birds.

Besides an abundance of resident birds which include quail, jays, sparrows, and even orioles, we have infrequent visits by migrating warblers. Ever elusive, it’s hard to get a good picture, but you can sure hear them sing.

Here’s a few that we’ve caught over the years:

A Quail chick

More birds here: Continue reading Frequent Visitors →

Prepping

25 Prepping Excuses that a SHTF Event Won’t Care About

If disaster was a human named SHTF, it would be that person who takes delight in dropping by unannounced and seeing you at your worst: still in your PJs, out of coffee, and taken utterly by surprise.The kind of person who takes advantage of your unpreparedness to ask to borrow the keys to your new car while you’re still in shock at his arrival. The kind of person who acts surprised that you’re surprised and makes you feel like 12 kinds of an idiot for being surprised. The kind of person you must always plan for like an unpleasant in-law, whether you want them to come by or not.SHTF doesn’t generally drop by at the most convenient of times, nor does SHTF care about your prepping excuses.  In fact, SHTF thrives and grows exponentially under more adverse circumstances.25 Excuses That Won’t Matter When the SHTFSo, suck it up, put on your boots, and power through it – SHTF doesn’t care about your prepping excuses.SHTF doesn’t care about inclement weather – snow, hail, tornadoes, pouring rain, and hurricanes all just add to the party atmosphere for SHTF.

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Source: 25 Prepping Excuses That Won’t Matter – The Organic Prepper

Arizona, Land, Real Estate

Saturday Week Highlights

It was a busy week with a lot of clients and running around. It feels like I’ve been by all of the 130,000 acres at Stagecoach Trails.

Meanwhile, we ended up listing seven different properties in the Yucca area, and there’s some real beauties in the bunch.

There’s something for every price range, and a wide variety of properties either closer to town, or snuggled up by the mountains.

So don’t wait to buy land, buy land and wait…

Today, it’s been a little quieter, and I’m grateful. There are so many ranch chores that need my attention. Little by little I’m finishing those “must do’s” and getting caught up on gardening too.

Today was battery maintenance day where I clean all of the terminals on my 28 golf cart batteries (T-105s,) and check to make sure that every cell (3 to every battery) is full of distilled water. It’s pretty time consuming, but vital to battery life.

The weather is delightful, that time between the chill of winter, and the blazing heat of June. We’re loving it!

 

 

Gardening

The Age of Asparagus

It’s the dawning of the age of asparagus went the old cartoon.

Every year our asparagus patch wakes up and starts to shoot out tasty nutritious sprouts. Our little patch has been producing now for over 7 years, and every year like to return of the warblers, the asparagus returns with the first warm days.

Arizona, Wildlife

Frequent Visitors

It’s the time of year when out here on the ranch we start paying close attention to where we’re putting our feet.

It’s with good reason, as the desert has a host of things that want to bite or sting you, so it’s best to take heed.

A frequent visitor is the Western Diamondback. Usually not a super aggressive snake, you sure don’t want to step on one.

Years ago, I walked down to the garden first thing. On the way back not a few minutes later, in that morning reverie one can have before the coffee kicks in, I came less than 6 inches from stepping on a four footer. I was definitely awake after that, and so was the snake.

Continue reading Frequent Visitors →