Another Ten Days of Mostly at Home due to Covid 19, October 15 - 24, 2020

 I have started volunteering at Walnut Canyon National Monument.  Much to my surprise, they provide uniforms.  So far this has included two shirts, a jacket, a summer hat and a winter hat.  There are three national monuments that are administered as the Flagstaff Area National Monuments: Walnut Canyon, Wupatki and Sunset Crater Volcano.  This is the winter hat I received on the 15th.

The lead interpretive ranger publishes a weekly schedule of what we are doing, hour by hour, on the days that we are there - this is for both the paid staff and the volunteers.  This was my schedule on Saturday the 17th.

Unlike my experience at the Desert Botanical Garden where there are hundreds of volunteers and regular classes (including mandatory continuing education), we are left to our own devices to read materials and to explore the monument.  On item I was given to read is the publication from the Museum of Northern Arizona in 2016 on the 100th anniversary of the creation of Walnut Canyon National Monument.

 

During my assigned time for reading, I walked out to the historic Ranger Cabin and took pictures of some of the informational signs along the way - this helps me remember some of the information about the cabin that was started in 1906 when the first US Forest Service Ranger was stationed at Walnut Canyon, before it was designated as a National Monument and was transferred from the US Forest Service (part of the US Dept. of Agriculture) to the National Park Service (part of the US Dept. of the Interior).

They have done and are continuing to do renovations of the cabin.  Because of the remote location, they have placed tanks of water to use in case of fire.

On one of my morning walks, I liked how the early sunlight made the top of the tree a different color from the rest of tree.

We have been taking Paulie to rehab on Thursday mornings.  One of the things she needs to do is use her back legs to improve their strength and climbing stairs is one exercise the vet recommends.  So several times each day, I get her to climb the six stairs up to the landing by the front door.  Since she is so motivated by food, I now bring her meals up to where I sit on the stairs up to the bedrooms and she eagerly climbs the six stairs.

Patty noted that there was a streetlight that was out on the street behind our house and I noticed one a couple of blocks further down the same street.  So one evening, I took pictures of the identifying numbers and reported them to the city to get them repaired.

Some mornings, we have beautiful and unusual colors in the sky.

On one of my walks on the Sinclair Wash FUTS, I nearly tripped over this northern flicker.  I stood no more than 18 inches away and took both this still photo and the following video - she was not at all bothered by my presence.

Like the rest of the USA, Arizona numbers are rising again.  This includes total numbers of people who test positive, percentage of positive tests and numbers of hospitalizations but not numbers of deaths.  We are not as bad yet as the mountain west states like North and South Dakota, Wyoming and Idaho where they are running out of hospital spaces, but we are not far behind.  We have a long way to go in dealing with Covid 19.