THANKFUL THURSDAY

It is funny the other day I was hashing over difficulties of something going on in my life when I blurted out “I can’t wait for Thankful Thursday to get here”.  I then thought to myself  “ummm…  I can find something to be thankful for today, right?”   Right at that very moment everything lifted from my shoulders and whatever it was that was plaguing me (I can’t remember what it was now), melted away and my day continued along smoothly.

What a great tool!

I actually had to sit here and think about what I was grateful for today. Everything is moving along in my life so nicely right now that no one thing was flashing any beakons at me.  So I am going to just be thankful for what I have.  I’m thankful every morning when I go out to feed my horses or when I have time to spend with them.  I am thankful for the absolutely devine weather we are having.  The windows are open all the time letting the air freshen the entire house.  It is just such a beautiful time of year in Arizona and I am thankful that I am here today, this month to enjoy it one last time. I am thankful for every glorious February and March that I have spent in Arizona. All 22 years of them. 

 I have been having trouble with my knee since end of October and basically have had to “crip” myself to work.  Working with horses has been limited and the few times I rode nearly put me out of work for a few days.  Its a soft tissue injury that will heal, but has been hanging on because I have to keep it moving.  Well I finally found the solution for it and it’s beginning to show signs of healing.  For that I am so thankful.  I need to exercise and lose some weight and get out with my horses, poor Pai is miserable right now, which weighs heavily on me.  So thank you, thank you, thank you  that light is at the end of the tunnel and it seems to be getting closer!!

 I’m reading a book right now written by a friend and old neighbor of mine Susan Yarina.  She is an author of mild romance  and time travel novels set around the old west in the desert, Apache people, and the Superstition Mountains.  The very same mountains that have been my home for these past 22 years.  The very same mountains that I rode my horses in and hiked in and embraced in awe.

The Peralta Trail Head.  You come to this trail just a couple miles before you enter into the Peralta Canyon where the Quater Circle U Ranch is located.  The book I am reading is “Best Man For The Job” and is set on the Silver Rock Ranch based on the Quater Circle and it’s rugged Superstition back country. I’ve been on the Quarter Circle Ranch and many of the places in the book are very familiar.  Susan and her husband Joe help work the Ranch and are very good friends with the owner.  (A note of interest is Joe Yarina bred his palomino ranch bred QH mare to my Cerbat stallion Chemhuevi, for a filly named Sedona who became a favorite ranch horse on the Quarter Circle, thus making the Cerbat cross desireable to the hired help.)

Here enjoy a few moments strolling through my back yard.  A place I am so thankful to have spent many years of my life exploring on horse back and on foot.

The face 10,000 feet above sea level at the very top (Ship Rock). The second level down (Flat Iron) was 7,000 feet.

In the snow with Flat Iron emerging sharply from the clouds.

From the top.

(Siphon Draw – front, and Flat Iron - right, with the bow of Ship Rock pointing at us  – center) From the North and Goldfield Ghost Town.

My back yard the trail I rode Asad on across the face of the mountain many times. I could ride a 1/2 mile down the road to the trail head and be lost in rugged desert AWESOME country.  It was a great training ground for some of the best trail horses I have ever known.  My horses could run at breakneck speed throught that stuff and never pick up a thorn or bruise a hoof.

When I talk about rocky trails, this is what I am talking about.  A trail like this may last two miles before you come to nice sandy washes, or fine granit, or Slick Rock like below.

Slick or Slide Rock.

And no exploration of the Superstition Mountains would be complete without visiting Weavers Needle.  Named after the famous Arizona mountain man, Pauline Weaver.  Legend has it that Jacob Waltz, a German gold digger, found a rich gold mine near Weaver’s Needle which was aptly named the “Lost Dutchman’s Goldmine”.  Many people have died in this wilderness trying to find the ‘Lost Gold”.

Other stories include Apache people having taken a last stand,  jumped to their death off a 5,000 foot cliff at Hell’s Canyon switchback between Tortilla Flat and Apache lake..  Geronimo took  his most famous stand in the Sups (our affectionate name for this unforgiving mountain range) as well.

Okay I got carried away.  So I guess we all can tell what I am grateful for today!  I look out my window and see this majestic and mystical mountain range and it brings tears to my eyes and takes me on wondrous journeys.  I’ll miss this mountain, but I am saddened by the onslaught of housing and smog that are eroding at her beauty and trying to smother her.  I am powerless to stop it and I can’t watch it anymore,  so it’s time to move on and find new majestic wonders that are waiting discovery.  I will never forget this mountain nor forget how honored I have been to live in her shadows.  Thank you Superstition! For everything!

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