All your comments about Arizona are making me a little homesick. I lived in Phoenix for 20 years before moving over here to Fresno. My dad grew up here and always bragged that you could grow anything in this valley. It’s true! It’s like living in a gigantic garden with all the vineyards and orchards. Even Fresno State U has a full square mile of farms right in the middle of town, and you can buy school-grown food over at the farm store. They have the best sausage, “slim-jim” wannabes and ice cream!
We’re soon going to be moving back to our mobile home in the foothills where it’s so dark you can see every star in the sky and you can hear the coyotes and owls, and watch the bluebirds and scrub jays flit from tree to ground. And the gambrel quails will run across the ground and in the spring their adorable babies will follow them in a queue. And Fresno is just down the hill.
I can’t wait to move back. The park owner has rules about growing stuff but we are hoping he’ll give us a small waiver if we don’t use any more water than we normally do. If not, we can do container gardening and grow herbs. Let me know if you want to see pictures of the park.
I am on dial up and a lot of photos will jam me up, often to a crash point, but one I would like to see.
Isn’t life odd?
My first memories of California, is at Aunt Corene’s place on a Firebaugh farm..
I remember her feeding us pheasants, from the crops, they were a pest to the plants, and frog legs, this was in the 1930’s.
She was married to Jim Matthews, their children are still in the area.
Arizona, now that was where you drove through, late at night, to escape the heat.
And then the doctor told Bill to move to Arizona and we did.
I would not be able to live in a town, have tried once in the past 38 years and I lasted 3 months and went back to my mountain.
I have had a family of quail, for the 30 years that I have owned this place, they sleep in the big Mulberry tree, that is about 15 or 20 foot from the mobile.
They will even go to bed, if you are sitting in its shade.
Papa sits on the fence post, till the babies and ladies are bedded down, then he joins them....and you hear the babies all murmuring “daddy is home”. Then silence, until morning and Papa leaves to make sure all is safe.
Guinea Hens and Quail are fun, the males raise the babies and teach them the ways of the world.
You can sit your watch, by watching them, they will follow the same route, eating the bugs, on a timed and routed plan.