Don Lancaster's What's New?       2009 Blog Excerpts

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These files provide excerpts from our Guru's Lair Blogs
mostly to provide a historic time line and discovery record
for our Prehistoric Bajada Hanging Canals. Some other
outdoor stuff has also been included.

Closed out this 2009 blog archive and started a
new 2010 one.

The problem with Captain Video is simply this: They
are "for real" our goodwill ambassadors to outer space!
Along with Roller Derby and Kukla, Fran, and Ollie.

In 1949, our sun suddenly became a radio star, blasting
out vast quantities of new VHF energy. In 60 years, this
has swept out one million cubic light years of space and
has been sent to roughly 2700 candidate star systems.

And still at a sensitivity level detectable with our
current technology. And new candidate star systems are
being contacted at a cube law rate, while the energy
levels are only dropping square law.

What if...

What if a candidate star system receives a perfectly
lucid twelve second clip of "Roller Derby" as the
sum total of all that is known about Earth culture?

Updated, expanded, and improved our Gila Day Hikes
library pages.

I'll be presenting an ARA paper on this at U/A Tucson
Saturday January 23rd at 11:15 AM. More details here
as they get posted. All are welcome to attend at no charge.

I'll also be doing some eBay papers at Discovery Park
on February 13th. Based on this paper and this one.
In the Jupiter room at 6:30 PM. More details as they

Two freely downloadable episodes of Captain Video
appear here and here.

Which conclusively proves that the concept of
"mesmerizingly awful" appears to be time invariant.

Apparently several dozen episodes exist but are not
readily availalbe. Most of the others were apparently
destroyed shortly after Dumont went belly up.

When they marionate shrimp, how do they tie all of
those little strings on?

I thought I might catalog some of the prehistoric ag
items you might find while wandering around our
local bajadas...

LITHICS - most any rock that appears to
have been purposely broken. Especially
if distinct from all the other local rocks.

REWORKED LITHICS - Similar rocks that
appear to have secondary chipping. Typically
flakes are knocked off a core. The flakes are
then reworked into tools.

POTSHERDS - Broken pieces of pottery.
Differ from rock by their uniform thickness
and grainy interior. Very rare in ag sites.

TRADEWARE - Fancier potsherds that are
decorated by paint or slip. Often dateable
and strong indicators of trade patterns .

MULCH RINGS - Circular rock groupings
typically three feet in diameter. Often found
as a dozen or so in a spaced group. Likely
used to retain moisture for a single agave.
Sometimes wrongly called a "cairn".

ROASTING PIT - Similar rock groupings
somewhat larger in diameter but always with a
distinct internal depression.

CHECK DAM - Small semicircular rock
arrangement across a drainage. Forms a
small upstream "field", often five feet square.

APRON - Secondary rock structure below
a check dam, apparently to prevent erosion
by slowing water overflow .

CANAL - Often looks like a very smooth
hiking trail. Always flat with a very slight
slope. Very long. Purpose oriented.

LINEAR FEATURE - Rather long and
rather straight low rock wall across a
gentle slope. Forms an upslope field.

TRINCHERA - Definition varies.
May be a longer and not as straight
low rock wall used for water control.
Often associated with steeper slopes.
Easily confused with CCC boondoggles!

GRID ELEMENT - A rectanglar low
rock border, typically twelve by twenty
feet across a usually gentle slope. May
rarely have a single mulch ring in the middle.

GRIDS - A grouping of grid elements.
aranged side by side or sequentially
up slope. Tens of thousands (!) of these
appear to be locally present.

FIELD HOUSE - Single rectangular
group of higher rock walls, typically six feet
square. Always at an ag site when present.

HABITATION  SITE- Multiple rectangular
grouping of higher rock walls. Often associated
with potsherds and trash dumps. Almost
always destroyed by extensive pothunting.
Normally somewhat distant from ag sites.

Outside of that Missus Lincoln, how was the play?

The number and stunning variety of "off the bajada"
prehistoric ag sites here in our Gila Valley continues to
amaze me. It is enormously difficult to wander around
outside without finding a new and unexpected one.

Virtually all of our mountain fed streams seem to have
elaborate canal systems whose 13th century engineering
appears well beyond stunning. Some of these exceed
ten miles in length; others are hung on a mesa side
90 feet above the local terrain; and others include
aquaducts that are well above grade. One appers to
have a "three way switch" that routes water to a
triad of wildly different drainages. And flows to this day.

It is not unreasonable to conclude that the 13th century
population may have exceeded the present day one.
Yet an enigma remains: The number of ag sites vastly
exceeds the number of known habitation sites.

As best as is known, the entire system was a giant
booze factory, converting agave into mescal.

Or, alternately the related ag grids were the first
instance of  prototypical Dilbert cubicals. The Alice
PMS Revolt of 1385  would clearly explain the latter
decline in population.

The folks at Wesrch have recently posted their
2000th paper and are rapidly approaching their
one millionth paper view.

This site is a superb way to instantly publish your
technical paper. To date, the average quality of the
presentations appears to consistently remain well
above that of many peer reviewed journals.

I do have some sixty or so of my "best" papers
cross posted there.

To become definitive though, they do seem to have a
long way to go. I'd estimate "critical mass" to be
50,000 downloads with 100 new papers per day.

At that point, the stupid arrogance of the traditional
scholarly journals would clearly become moot.

ALL technical papers over five years old should be
freely available from multiple web sources!

Another recent surprise is that many older issues
of Desert Magazine issues are now readily available
online.

Bee had three travel stories in them here, here, and
here.

What drought? Very old maps here show an "artesian
hot well" in, of all places, Hot Well Wash. Newer maps
show it as a "hot well".

If you go to this bone dry site, you will find a large water
channel, ruins of a small,  a medium, and a large windmill
of progressively newer age, and derelict pieces of even
newer medium, larger, and humongous pumps.

Meanwhile, BLM is having to add solar boosted pumps
to their Hot Well Dunes artesian souces. These are
likely related to the same aquifier.

More on similar topics here.

A slowdown in your comm speeds over time can usually
be traced to Ethernet Tokens that are either corroded or
grime covered.

The usual treatment is to use Brasso. But a better long
term solution is to gold plate the tokens and then flash
overplate them with a few microinches of rhodium.

Expanded and improved our Gila Day Hikes library page.

.

A well executed web hoax is a joy to behold, and this
one seems to have amazing staying power even after
several years.

Naturally, most any rancher or farmer would immediately
note that the musical instrument was really built from
Case International tractor parts and not those from John
Deere. Even a beginning FFA student could instantly spot this.

Among other things, the instrument was not even green.

More here and here. And, of course, here.

Many years ago, a certain New York editor who had
never been off the block at Lawn Guiland visited a
Texas ranch. He was amazed at how greasy the sheep
were and asked why they greased their sheep.

The ranch hands had a big laugh over this and tried
to explain lanolin. Then they moseyed up the draw to
the cow oiler.

The ancient oriental art of TI WUN ON consists
of getting totally snockered but always doing so
in a professional and workman like manner.

A useful directory of free online courses appears here.

The MIT offerings are found here.

Just found out that nearly all of the New Mexico
subastas are going to be sold at auction!

Sales and shipping to New Mexico aren't quite as
bad as they used to be. Yeah, there's still the language
barrier and the hassles at customs.

One main problem was that all the New Mexico truck
tires are all a different size and spacing, so everything
needed  reloaded at the border crossings.

Fortunately, there are now REVERSIBLE truck tires that
can simply be insided out at the New Mexico ports of
entry.

More details at your nearest New Mexico embassy .

Someone was questioning why their eBay sales seemed
to be dropping. Well, it is just that little dip between the
fall slack period and the winter slump.

Useful eBay strategy and tactics are newly found here.

Dr. James Neely, professor emeritus of the University
of Texas at Austin will be presenting a rare and major
free lecture on Prehistoric canals of the Safford Basin this
Saturday October 17th at 6:30 PM in the Jupiter Room
of the EAC Discovery Park Campus.

Discovery Park is located at 20th Avenue and Discovery
Park Blvd ( aka 32nd street ) in Safford, Arizona.
Telescope access. muiseum tours, and simulator rides
may also be available.

More info by contacting Harry Swanson at
(928) 428-6260 or <harry.swanson@eac.edu>

Made yet another trip to the Montes Toll road.

It appears to cross the diused southern extension
of the Back Country Byway halfway between the
low water crossing and the corral by the cliff.
Just north of the fence crossing.

At that point, the route consists of a twelve foot
cleared area with continuous low borders both to the
north and south.

The route becomes extremely indistinct for a quarter
mile to the east. It is easily followed to the west to
where it crosses modern route 191. Across 191, the
route seems to paralle the old and largely abandoned
US 70. But is easily confused with earlier road
alignments and apparent CCC projects.

Turns out the OTHER new Safford water tank is also an
equal opportunity demolisher. Totally trashing unique prehistoric
habitation and agricultural sites.

So far, it plowed right on through the twin boobs canal. I've yet
to determine further damage. It does seem to only be trashing
prehistory, compared to the other water tank which has taken out
both prehistoric as well as totally unique CCC depression projects .

"Shovel ready" strikes again.

What is really sad about all this is that a little bit of forethought
and a slight rearrangement could have bypassed most of the
damage. At a negligible change in total cost.

Did a major overhaul, update, and reverification of our
Pseudoscience library page.

Found a little more of the Montes toll road.

Nearly a mile west of the topo site callout is fairly
easily and obviously followed on foot. It is typically
characterized by a 12 foot wide cleared area with
a rock wall to the South. The wall is typically a foot
high and eighteen inches wide.

Things become wildly indistinct and confused as the
Back Country Byway disuesed extension is approached.
Possibly because of storm or flood damage.

The route seems to go midway between the large dirt tank
and the corral by the cliff. It would appear to line up
with the original sudden turn of the byway.

The alignment is barely discernable on Acme Mapper.

Apparently there is a brand new CSI Gila Bend.  To go with
the existing CSI Tulsa, CSI Omaha and their knockoffs.

Even after a dozen trips, I've yet to find exact route
info for the Montez toll road. What follows remains
mostly speculation, backed up with only weak evidence.

The route likely went from San Jose to Guthrie. There
was superb train service from Guthrie to Cliffton, Morenci,
and even Metcalf. There is one and only one credible and gentle
route up onto Tollgate Mesa from Guthrie. Acme Mapper
shows hints of a route which eventually becomes a modern
ranch road. All of which gets confusing at the corral near the
modern highway.

The northern modern highway cuts just west of the corral show
rockworks at their upper limits. These rockworks have unbroken
ancient desert varnish and may in fact be the toll road. The
positioning of the modern road cuts suggest an attempt was made
at historical preservation.

Things get confusing well before the summit. A ranch road to the south
shows an initial east-west portion that may be the original toll
road. Continuing west along the modern highway, there is little
evidence of the toll road. It is possibly buried under modern construction
or flood damaged. On the other hand, it is fairly obvious where the
route had to go along the bottom of the draw..

The "Tollgate Site" marking on the topo map probably is accurate,
and a fairly obvious stretch of the route can be found further west.
This typically is a twelve foot wide path whose rocks were cleared
to a running wall to the south. The wall was typically a foot high
and a foot and a half wide. Newer water pipes confuse the issue.

The route "had" to intercept the largely disused sothern extension
of the Back Country byway, but it is not yet obvious to me just
where. Probably near the wash "low water crossing". The rest
of the route probably followed old US 70 past what I call
the Unnamed Tank in our Gila Dayhikes library.

This is the only historical record I've been able to find, and
it is an undocumented popularization. Please email me if
you have any better info or field verification.

A reminder that MIT has course materials freely available
either online or as dowmloads for hundreds of their offerings.
As do many other major institutions. There's no credit nor any
instructor contact, but pretty near everything else is there.

One slight gotcha on your first downloads. All the first pages
are nondescript and suggest a near empty file. Simply go to
page two or scroll down to get to useful content.

One of the more curious features just added to our
Gila Dayhikes library page is the Deadman Canal.

This canal is routed along the HIGHEST point
on a bajada ridge and then gets "switched" in
three different ways to support three dirt tanks in
three wildly different canyons.

There is some suggestion that the original canal
is in fact prehistoric and dates from the thirteenth
century. Which makes its engineering even
more stunningly impressive.

Expanded and updated our Gila Dayhikes library page.

Added several upgrades and improvements to our
Gila DayHikes library page.

We are now up to 241 main entries and almost 365
mentions!

Managed to get back to the Nancy's Rockpiles enigma.

Some evidence is accumulating that this is really a CCC
boondoggle of one sort or another. There are a few classic
punched oilcans present and some markings on at least a
few rocks that suggest steel tools. The desert varnish and
lichen contrast appears too high for prehistoric. As does the
utter pointlessness and lack of windblown fill.

And the fact that the irregular structures are along drainages
rather than across them.

The local evidence is overwhelming that the CCC had a scant few
good and useful projects intersperced with great heaping
bunches of utterly worthless money-down-the-drain busywork.

Local new stimulus packages seem to be following an identical
throw-the-money-away path.

Sometimes unexpected detail can be extracted from
a tri-color bitmap by selectively boosting or cutting
each color plane with a color balance utility such as
free Imageview32 or Photoshop.

Further enhancement can be done by bumping the
contrast and/or gamma. Ferinstance, is this a copper
exploration or a prehistoric ruin?

Sadly, Acme Mapper seems to resist bitmap conversion.
There is an otherwise superb Firefox screen grabber
plug in here that does not work. But a free demo utility
called FastStone Capture 6.5 seems to work just fine.

Elaborate bitmap plane manipulations are easily done using
my Gonzo Utilities. Examples include single color to grayscale
conversion. Or blending a high detail color plane with a
lower one.

Hoffschnagles nefarious cave entrance theorem:

Cave entrances invariably occur in groups of two or
more, except when then occur singly.

In a stunning genetics breakthrough, they have discovered
that socks are the larval form of the coat hanger.

A dark closet is apparently required for metamorphisis.

More on similar topics here.

A certain town which shall remain unnamed ( despite
their sharing their western boundary with Thatcher, AZ )
decided to build a new water tower.

Apparently nobody noticed that all those funny rocks
everybody kept tripping over at the site was a
thirteenth century indian ruin of high cultural
significance and major scope.

The new pipeline itself also qualifies as an equal
opportunity demolisher as it took out a CCC
historical water diversion project.

This was apparently railroaded thru after another
site location got NIMBYed.

Your tax dollars at work.

The concept of "Lets keep the Cave / Fossil / Ruin / Hike a
secret so the bad guys can't find it" never was a very
good idea. These days, web and other developments make
the concept wildly less than utterly useless.

The first hints that all was not well emerged many decades
ago when the stunning discovery was made that the secret
dirty hippy insider underground publication for everybody
ripping off the phone company was ----> The Bell System
Technical Journal! And that the key component needed
was included free in every box of Captain Crunch cereal.

Long before the Streisand Effect.

Back then, you actually had to know what a technical library
was and where to find one. And going to a remote physical
location involved several trips and a lot of luck. Rather than
simply saying N 33.16482 W 110.70876. GPS, of course.

Many thousands of people are now routinely into orienteering
and especially geochaching. Making finding any location trivial.
And freely publishing it world wide even less so.

Having the location instantly gives you a topo map and detailed
satellite imagry via Acme Mapper. Or land ownership via
GIS sites such as this one or tax roll sites such as this one.

And most everybody now has ready access to the insider'e
papers and publications. Or shortly will have. Such seemingly
innocuous inclusions as including two foot contour lines on
a ruin site sketch can tell you exactly where the ruin is in a few
minutes of topo searches. As can fitting two bends in a stream.

Doing your own low cost aerial photography has become
trivial, and shortly should approach super cheap.

As with such stupities as DRM or copy protection or draconian
NDA's, there always will be more bad guys than perceived good
ones. And they always will be smarter than you and always will
have accesss to more research materials and more time to
patiently explore nonobvious links and obscure source materials.

Yet another approach involves the Freedom of Information act.
But this route instantly brands you as a bad guy and draws
attention to yourself.

So, excessive secrecy is almost always totally pointless.
Besides usually having the exact opposite of its intended
effect.

One possible solution is not drawing attention to something
"secret". By not being that way in the first place. A second
is to actually trust people who, on the average, are likely to
benefit your research rather than hurt it.

A third is one both cavers and Apple computer has used --
put nonspecific but unique names on stuff that does not hint
on their location, but exactly tell you how "they" found it.

BTW, there's an outstanding Master's Thesis topic
waiting for somebody at N 33.16482 W 110.70876.
Especially if things turn out to be not what they seem.

A fascinating series of reprints to Desert Magzine
can be found here.

The "yellow boxes" that appear to be blatant
censorship are really just OCR screwups. More
often than not, you can second guess the missing
content.

More on similar topics here.

Did yet another update on our Gila Valley Day Hikes.

We are now up to 232 main listings, and nearly 365 mentions!
Enough to keep you busy for the next year.

Once again, I have personally verified almost all of the
entries. And tried to indicate where I have not.

I suspect that a few really glaring omissions remain, so
please email me with your experiences and suggestions.

The Russians have just invented synthetic caviar.

It is absolutely indistinguishable from the original,
except by taste.

Further expanded our Gila Day Hikes library page.

One working definition of "engineering" that I prefer
is "A sense of the fitness of things".

One REALLY BAD IDEA that needs immediately
stomped upon is supersizing solar power towers.

This is an engineering rathole of the first order
that is CERTAIN to far exceed costs and CERTAIN to
NEVER deliver net energy.

Conventional solar power towers are marginally useful
and clearly about to be blown out of the water by
stunning new pv developments. pv with advantages of
negligible water needs, incremental expandability,
compatibility with other land uses, minimum approval
hassles, little labor, upcoming true net energy at
competitive rates, low termperatures, future
dramatic learning curve cost reductions, simple
structures, few moving parts that are both low tech and
nonprecise, minimal land disruptions, etc... etc...

The supersize towers would demand a federal land grab
of mind numbing acerage for exclusive use. They will need
water resources far above and beyond what is sanely available.
They demand new strucutres MANY HUNDREDS of feet higher
than any existing Arizona building! I feel that convection
currents could easily create perpetual hurricane force winds and
conceviably disrupt both regional and global climate. Not
to mention military, bird, and general avaition hassles.

Alarmingly, the feds have been placed on "fast track
approval" for such stupidities.

It seems to me what happened is that a megacorporation spent
way too much money developing an unneeded and useless heat
transfer technology and is desparately trying to trump up uses for
it that would bail them out.

Fortunately, the concept has been thrown out of Nevada.
But certain areas in Arizona remain endangered.

Such "unfit" thinking, of course, could only have come from
spending long hours in the outhouse alone.

Continuing our expansion and enhancement of our
Gila Valley Day Hikes library page.

We are now up to 222 main entries and nearly 300 mentions!

It is becoming obvious that very few places in the country
can give you so much close in variety of neatly unique things to do.

Nonetheless, I strongly suspect I have overlooked some
glaring omissions. Please email me with your suggestions.

BLM has a number of interesting and free
web download papers..

#1 -- Sonoran Desert Prehistory
#2 -- Southeast Arizona Archaeology
#4 -- Pinenut Kaibab Anasazi Site
#5 -- Patayan Country Peoples
#6 -- Lower Colorado River Resources
#7 -- Aravapia Ecology & History
#8 -- Bonita Creek Ecology & History
#9 -- Harquahala Solar Observatory

One of the more minor skirmishes in the "indian
wars" was our local "Battle Mountain". More
correctly called the Battle of K-H Butte.

The injuns won this one 4-0 in double overtime.

The actual battle ranged from Cedar Springs, thru
two other locations, and ended up at K-H Butte.
Very little remains in the area today.

The best info is available is in an expensive and
hard to find book. Titled, of all things, The
Battle at K-H Butte.

Local copies can be found in the EAC Library or
the Pima Museum.

More on similar topics on our Gila Dayhikes page.

Only in Thatcher...

The new construction project is a combination feed
store and beauty salon.

One of the leading indicator species of overgrazing
is -------------> cows.

Expanded and improved our Gila Hikes library page.

We are now up to TWO HUNDRED main entries!

Yet another extremeophile is found here. This
one is ultra small, super cold and amazingly
persistent.

The best guess to answering "are we alone" is
called the Drake Equation. One convenient
calculator of which is found here.

Several things have recently happened to
dramatically raise the odds on the Drake
Equation. First, we are discovering one new
exoplanet a week and it seems that planetary
systems are much more common than were
even recently believed.

Second, we are finding more and more of the
extremeophiles here that can dramatically
extend what life is and where it can be found.

Admittedly, the snottites may not be into high tech.

Third, we are learning from our own
stupid mistakes. The frequency most searched
for SETI hints is the one in which worldwide
transmission is specifically forbidden!

Other civilizations are equally likely to stay
out of the waterhole.

Fourth, we are learning that watts on a satellite
or milliwatts on a fiber or cable beats kilowatts
blown out a broadcast tower.

More intelligent species are unlikely to be blasting
rf energy all over hell and gone. Especially if
there is a "come eat us" message attached.

But one negative is this: An earth-moon combination
might be essential for climatic stability. And may in
fact end up quite rare.

My own feelings remain that we are not alone.

I'm still curious what "they" are going to do when
they receive their first clip of Roller Derby as
the sum total of our civilization.

Yeah, right.

One of the many enigmatic mysteries of the 1898
Safford to Morenci toll road is "Why is there a
PVC pipe inside the shoulder rockpiles?

My guess is this:

The original road construction consisted of removing
rocks and piling them on the ( usually southern ) edge
of the ten foot wide pathway. These rocks were then
loose and formed a continuous bunker some three feet
or so wide and two feet or less high.

Ranchers like to bury their stock tank PVC to keep
the water cooler, minimize damage, and prevent
ultraviolet lifetime trashing. Digging a "real" trench
through extremely rocky soil is both expensive
and time consuming. Not to mention painful.

So, my guess is that they simply laid the
pipe BESIDE the shouldder rockpile and then
MOVED the loose rocks over to cover.

I've combined two earlier files here to make them
more linkable and accessible....
====================================

I am mystified why the State of California would blow eight
billion dollars (plus admin and transfer costs that likely
triple this figure) paying people to put gasoline destroying
net energy sinks on inappropriate rooftops.

By how many DECADES will the California 8 billion
dollar rathole fiasco SET BACK the development of
renewable and sustainable pv solar electricity?

Clearly, conventional silicon PV panels will never reach
sustainability and renewability. And every cent poured into
this particular rathole can only set back the time when
true renewability/sustainability can emerge.

Let's instead postulate a "pioneer panel", the very first
real world sustainable and renewable pv solar energy
system. What would its characteristics have to be to
allow pv solar energy to be anything but a monumental
"feel good" energy sink and net destroyer of gasoline?

A nominal pioneer panel size would be one square meter
delivering internally synchronously inverted "plug and go"
110 volt 60 Hertz consumer ac power with utility buyback
and storage option.

The at-the-terminals efficiency would have to be in the
forty percent range, brought about by an absolute minimal
material use and ultra low cost processing that involves
spread or multiple workfunctions probably combined with
MEMS nanotechnology techniques using nanoantennas.
Plus possible photonic lattice techniques.

CIGS may also help.

Let's see. Such a panel would generate something like 400
peak watts at appropriate sites, or about 2.5 kilowatt hours
per day. Naturally, only a tiny fraction of the delivered energy
could be renewable and sustainable, owing to materials cost
and amortization. Let's assume the fully burdened panel can
deliver ten cent per kilowatt hour energy at an infrastructure
cost of eight cents per kilowatt hour for two cents per KWH
of genuine net honest renewable and sustainable energy.

The "old energy" breakeven pay for itself would then be
about twenty cents per day. Assuming a ten year lifetime and
a ten percent interest rate, the retail cost of the zero-installation
hassle panel at Home Depot would have to be under $454.00
total. Or more like $378 in an area with 300 days of available
sunshine. Per this amortization calculator.

I very strongly feel that such a pioneer panel is definitely
acheivable within a one decade time frame. Provided that all
of the ludicrous sideshows are immediately flushed.

Naturally, if you build these pioneer panels, they WILL sell.
"Beating your customers away with a stick" comes to mind.
And absolutely ZERO in ludicrously counterproductive and
pointlessly "not even wrong" subsidies would be needed.

The key point is that NOTHING ELSE MATTERS long term
but acheiving pv renewability and sustainability. Clearly, dollars
blown on anything but this specific goal simply set back the
time when solar electricity ever becomes viable.

More in our Energy Fundamentals tutorial.

So let's do some numbers...

Let's assume the 8 bil only costs 8 bil, rather than its
true triple cost after transfers and admin. And that
there are ten million of our pioneer panels per the
above in fact installed and working.

Our projected panel returns two cents of genuinely
renewable and sustatinable pv solar electricity per
kilowatt hour for eight cents of "old energy" gasoline-
in-disguise invested. A 400 watt panel would generate
about 2.5 kilowatt hours per day, or around five cents
worth of renewable and sustainable net pv solar electricity.

At 300 effective days per year, each panel year would
generate $15 worth of renewable and sustainable
electricity per year. Ten million panels would thus
generate 150 million worth of renewable and sustainable
electricity per year.

8 billion divided by 150 million leaves 53.3 and change.
Thus, the California pv fiasco will likely set back the
development of renewable and sustainable net pv electricity
by a grand total of 5.3 DECADES!

Assuming a zero interest rate, of course.

More in our pv solar summary tutorial.

Certainly one of the most extreme of extremeophiles
are the snottites. Little known is their increbible acidity
comparable to concentrated sulphuric acid. Their
ph is sometimes less than unity!

Stuff like this makes extraterrestal life a virtual certainty.

No, I am not making this up.

Got back to the tollgate area. Turns out that
Tollgate Tank has several rather impressive
dams associated with it. And that there are
several layers of historic interest.

So far, I've been unable to find any vetted
historical documentation of the toll road. But
I think I convinced myself that such docs
do exist somewhere.

A popularization and extraction for the December
1953 issue of Desert Magazine has these possibly
accurate facts..

     The main honcho was one Francisco
     Montes, aided by Vicrtoriano Corrasco,
     Andres Serna, and Emilo Lopera. And
     later by a Luther Green who was involved
     in a stage route over the toll road.

    The toll road was apparently built in 1899
    and used through 1917. Toll charges were
   originally fifty cents, later dropped to thirty.

Please email me if you have any more credible docs
on this.

I find it apalling that most classic technical papers remain
utterly unavailable on the web. Especially if they
involve electronics, history, or archaeology.

I very much favor revision of the copyright laws. For an
individual 36 months with one-time negotiable renewable.
For a corporation, heir, or other non-originator, 18 months
with no possibility of renewal.

Plus, of course, REQUIRED and AUTOMATIC posting
to appropriate websites at the end of the copyright.

For several years now, cavers have known about a
serious and dramatic decline of bat populations known
as the white nose syndrome.

Apparently it is finally getting the media attention that
it sorely deserves.

Many cavers have sharply cut back on their cave visits.
Some going to the extreme of buying all new gear anytime
they visit out of area.

More on caving here, here, and here and here..

Meanwhile, the colony disorder that was decimating commercial
beehives may have been solved.

The recently improved Gila Valley Satellite
Imagery has revealed bunches of new stuff.
But remains frustratingly ambiguious when
it comes to prehistoric artifacts and such.

There appear to be a dozen or so what we
might call thumper loops. These are circular
"roads to nowhere" that are always on a flat
mesa, always close on themselves, and
always remain within a few feet of a steep
mesa edge.

Some hint at internal evidence of CCC
water projects or prehistoric ag structures.

My best guess is that they are "post GPS" roads
for geophysics access, such as seismic exploration
or core drilling.

More on similar topics on our Gila Hikes page.

A series of spectacular Hubble astronomy
photos can be downloaded from any of a
number of online sources, including this one.

A Powerpoint reader is required.

Added some more entries to our Gila Day Hikes library.

As a general rule, any topo map feature named
"cave" or anything remotely suggestive has long
ago been checked by Southwestern cavers.

Cavers use binary geology: There are two kinds
of rock, limestone and shit. Except for some
minor lava and gypsum examples, juat about
all decent caves demand limestone. Not just
limestone, but a karst topography where water
can create sinkholes and such.

One intriguing area I have yet to explore is the
"Pothole Country" six miles north of Mule
Creek. There's also a "Cave Canyon" and
a "Pothole Canyon" in the immediate area.

"Pothole" can have several meanings. No
telling exactly what they had in mind.

The geology is almost certainly a useless
volcanic mudstone, and the area seems little
known to cavers. While on Gila National
Forest, a long ago exploration attempt
met with distinctly unfriendly local ranchers.

There's new high resolution imagry on
Acme Mapper. But, as usual, the best
is suggestive but not good enough.

Real cavers can be found here, here, and
here and here. Although somewhat out
of range, I've added this site to our
Gila Hikes library page.

A fantastic number of original Life Magazine photos
can now be freely downloaded from this site.

Texan, bragging about the size of his spread --
"Why, I could drive all morning and not get half
  way across my place"

"Yeah? I had a truck like that once, too."

Added new trips to our Gila Dayhikes library page.

Should have at least TWO HUNDRED sometime soon.

Found the original documents for the McEniry Tunnel!

This was a scam ( then called a swindle ) to tunnel
clear thru Mount Graham for a total distance of
twelve miles, revealing untold riches in gold and
silver, besides $300,000 worth of timber and 45,000
horsepower worth of hydro. The leftover water
would irrigate at least 25,000 acres by using 30
miles of canals.

The total known mineralization of Mount Graham,
of course, is approximately zero. There are only
the tiniest mineral explorations of no consequence
at the extreme range ends. The rock is all intrusive
precambrian gniess or granite. Neither PD nor FM
has expressed the slightest interest in this range.

Getting info on this "somewhat optimistic" proposal
has been tricky. First because it originally was
called the Triumph Tunnel, and later referred
by locals as the Mammoth Graham tunnel.

Over the years, a number of misspellings of
"McEniry" confused the issue. The spelling
here comes from his signature on the above
document. Many credible sources ( including
Arizona Place Names ) have gotten it wrong.

The tunnel was only driven a few hundred feet
and remains of interest today. It is just a plain
old empty horizontal mineshaft. Easily visited.

More on similar topics in our Gila Dayhikes library.

It is interesting to compare personal computing against
personal aircraft use and ownership. The latter is
clearly an abysmal failure. Part of which was caused
by lawyers eating the entire industry for lunch.

Some thoughts on our local airport situations...

    The FAA identifier of "SAD" for Safford Regional
    pretty much sums it up.

    The Flying J sometimes is a good choice
    for aerial surveys or local photography.

     The High Mesa Airpark is a private homeowners
     association and sees little traffic. Greenlee
     sees even less.

     Sharp eyed pilots flying into Thatcher International may
     note minor debris on the runway, such as refrigerators or
     evaporative coolers. Nightly DC3 flights to Columbia.

More on our Gila Dayhikes library page.

Then there was the dyslexic agnostic insommniac
who stayed up all night wondering if there was a dog.

A reminder that several dozen of my "best" papers
and stories are also now available on Wesrch.

Who have recently posted their 1500th paper. While
not yet a definitive resource, they are certainly backing
up for a good start.

Wesrch, or a similar service, is the solution to outrageously
overpriced scientific journals. To date, their quality
remains outstanding.

Chemistry 101: If you are not part of the solution,
than you are part of the precipitate.

Expanded and updated our Gila Valley Dayhikes page.
We are now up to 172 main entries.

Some mineral links are newly added.

A U-Haul truck rental can be an incredibly good deal.
Provided you only use it locally for less than a day.
Rates start at $19. Which can be much less than
renting a car instead!

But there are some gotchas. There is a mileage charge
of 59 cents a mile. Which racks up alarmingly on longer
distances. And U-Haul is a master at nickel and diming
you over insurance, mats, and other add-ons. Their $169
trailer hitch can easily cost you $400+ out the door.

But their real secret is their one way charge adjustments.
It costs a lot more to go one way from a location with
scarce equipment to one with lots of equipment than
vice versa. This varies from day to day and time of
week as well.

Ferinstance, San Diego to Thatcher might cost you
$442 plus fuel, while Thatcher to San Diego might
be $724 plus fuel!

In general, the one way and round trip rates will often
end up around the same if both locations have
a "normal"inventory. Total time and "second
driver" considerations may shade points one way
or the other for you.

Two of their lesser known ( and somewhat rarer )
offerings are their 5x8 or 6x12 open trailers.
Weather permitting, these are easier to load
and unload and may travel easier. U-Haul
does not like these going out of area.

A general tip: four wheel trailers back much
easier than two wheel ones. The larger size
might be less of an overall hassle. Also, their
trailers do not unhitch worth a damn for
intermittent use when loaded.

I never could justify owning my own trailer.
For occasional trips, the insurance and road
service alone is worth any cost difference.
Especially if your needs vary per trip.

An interesting mineral site appears here with
some local references found here.

Apparently Arizona Highways magazine failed to
make even the most cursory fact finding check on
their latest issue. In which they recommend a
dangerous and highly sensitive cave as being ideal
for casual family trips with small children.

And not even checking the contact info in the story
itself. Yes, magazines in general are in deep shit,
but this is clearly excessive and unacceptable.

The cave in question is arguably the second or third
"finest" in the state. Exploration is quite difficult,
rather strenuous, and demands advance rope
techniques and extreme physically fitness and
endurance for virtually all participants.

There has been one fatality involving a fall down a
90 foot pit. Plus numerous high tech rescues of supposedly
experienced and highly skilled long term members of
the cave community.

Worse, the story implied that there was a commercial
adventure-for-hire service that routinely would take
anyone on this cave tour. In reality, this group is an all
volunteer organization whose foremost goal is preserving
the cave and tightly restricting its access. Even public
knowledge of the cave or its location is strongly discouraged.

Well, maybe a hint. At least some of the better known portions
of the cave are located south of the Mackenzie River.

Here's a "click to expand" image of the cliffhanger
canal...

Many thanks to Harry Swanson for this photo.

Made two more trips to the cliffhanging canal. And
the engineering remains orders of magnitude beyond
stunning.

What we have here is a thirteenth century canal system
literally hung on the TOP edge of a steep mesa. Often as
much as NINETY FEET above the valley floor. As part
of a system that is at least 12.5 kilometers  (or eight
miles ) long. Not to mention several hundred feet of
above grade aquaduct!

Major portions of the system are still amazingly well
preserved and undisturbed.

Besides the obvious question of "WHY?", many
questions remain. Was water hand carried to the mesa
top? What happens at the East End of the mesa where
the terrain simply quits? After miles of carefully controlled
slope, are steep drops inevitable? What leveling instruments
were used for such precision? Why is much of the canal
brim full of fine sand?

Watch out for the cliff. "What Clliiiiffffffffffffff.... ?"

Google Maps has just upgraded all of the really bad
satellite photos of the Gila Valley. And possibly other areas
as well.

Resolution is still not good enough to resolve many prehistoric
artifacts. Although the more blatant CCC projects and the
main Safford grids are now quite apparent.

Further improvements are supposedly in the works.

Particularly improved are the Fort Thomas area, Morenci,
the Haekel portion of the San Simon, and the Lower Blue.

Acme Mapper is often the better choice because it includes
scrollable topo maps, USGS DOQ B/W imagry. and more.

Updated and expanded our Gila Dayhikes page.

We are now up to 165 entries in the main listing
and well more than 200 total.

Several other cavers have been wondering if it
is possible to make microtemperature measurements.
Accurate enough to track airflow through unexplored
breakdown leads.

Doing so would probably involve measurement to
microdegrees. And almost certainly, the presence of
people or instruments would trash the results. Not
to mention hunidity and other side effects.

I was recently playing with a Keithley 196 precision
standards DMM that had beyond a 6-1/2 digit
capability. It had a RTD temperature accessory that
clearly allowed measurements to one tenth of a millidegree.

The system easily detects a human hand at a range of
two or more feet. It is fascinating to watch a room's
temperature change on a second by second basis. And
should have all sorts of heat flow and insulation
experimental properties.

Sadly, it is probably too klutzy for serious cave use.
And probably misses by several orders of magnitude
for what would be needed in a cave instrument.

We have this item up on eBay.

Mysterious artifacts abound in the desert southwest
and especially here in the Gila Valley.

One of the more obviously intriguing examples are
the "hotdog formations" 5 miles SxSSE of Swift
Trail Junction. AKA SW quarter of section 9 or
somewhere near N 32 39' 45" W 109 41' 39"

These are three foot high dirt "bunkers" with rock
buttressing that are several dozens of feet long.
Also nearby are ( apparently useless ) rock check
dams piled much higher than usual. Use is, to say the
least, nonobvious.

They do not seem prehistoric in that there is no
association with potsherds, lithics, fields, or habitation sites.
The rocks also seem to have been moved a significant
distance, most likely by wheeled transport. They also
look "too new".

The nearest 4WD track is 900 feet south and the
property is BLM Rangeland. Expanations of rifle
range backdrops, scouting projects, erosion control,
cattleguards, hoaxes, movies or vid commercials, kids
pissing around, drug dealers, UFO landing sites, or
rancher improvements all seem unlikely. There are
no obvious trash artifacts, modern or otherwise.

I am at a loss to explain these. The simplest thing
is to blame them on the CCC. Who have proven
adept at doing totally useless stuff in strange ways.

Nearest CCC camp was 8 miles away at Noon Creek.
The artifacts do not show on available images.

A tiny bit of supporting evidence is that some of
the rock arrangements show "Italian stone masonry"
careful arrangement and placement quite similar to
those of other known CCC sites. No concrete is used.
The motif is distinctly unsouthwest.

Your comments welcome.

Some similar projects are found here.

The absolute limit is apparently 59.3 percent.

The law is also fairly intuitively obvious. A 100%
efficient windmill would require zero exit velocity
and thus no air flow through the device.

Amazingly, the original Aermotor Windmills are
still availalble. They remain outrageously expensive
and their top secret efficiency is best described as
mesmerizingly awful.

Dead Pool is a new book by James Powell that
traces the history and predicts the future of his
namesake lake. Plus water in general in the
mountain west.

This highly readable history of reclamation stupidities
and boondoggles gives us a choice: You can keep
Lake Powell or Lake Mead, but not both.

I, of course, vote to keep Mead and Restore the place
no one knew.

Few people realize that the word "gullible"
does  not appear in any major dictionary or
spell checker.

An extremely interesting history of Southwestern fire
lookout towers and trees appears here.

I personally worked Gentry, Barfoot, Monte Vista, and
Miller Peak. And climbed many more. Besides using the
names of many others in our Marcia Swampfelder spoofs.

One day an untrained relief lookout worked a neighboring
tower. "Dispatcher Dispatcher there's a fire!". Showing
extreme restraint over blatant radio protocol violations,
Dispatch asks where the fire is.

"Right over there in those trees!".

With some recent discoveries, I guess I want to revise
my list of high technology in the Gila Valley. Presented
here in order of cubic wonderment....

1. The safford grids
2. The AD 1300 cliff hanging canal and aquaduct
3. Mount Grahm International Observatory
4. Morenci solvent extraction and electrowinning.
5. The Mount Graham Aerial Tramway
6. The five Morenci Southern Railway Loops
7. CCC infiltrating water spreaders.
8. Ubiquitious WiFi webb comm
9. The Ash Creek flumes
10. The Emigrant Canyon Marble Quarry
11. The tomato factory
12. Cotton drip Irrigation and real time GPS

More on similar discoveries here.

Found the cliffhanging canal! This is part of a AD 1300
era canal system that was at least eight miles long and
included above-grade aquaduct features.

The engineering on this is orders of magnitude beyond
stunning. At places, the canal is EIGHTY to NINETY
feet above valley floor. Not yet sure exactly why they
did this.

Professional papers by others are in process. I will post
links to them when and as preprints become available.

Recent advances in amateur astronomy have been
utterly amazing. Particularly in the areas of cost
effective auto tracking and computer control. In
addition to ( literally ) quantum leaps in CCD and
silicon imaging technology. Not to mention new
"stitching" postproc techniques that allow hour long
exposures over hundreds of images.

You can now rent telescope time world wide 24/7
from Global Rent a Scope at rates as low as $25
per hour. Remotely web controlled from anywhere.
And allowing absolutely professional astrophotography.

Meanwhile, larger instruments ( up to 32 inch! )
are available for your rental access from Tenegra.

The old Skywatcher's Inn is now the Astronomer's
Inn Bed and Breakfast in Benson AZ. And less
formal astronomy up to 10 inch instruments is
a hallmark of Casitas De Gila. Check out the
real time planetarium simulator above their hot tub.

There's also this twenty inch telecope literally
in my front yard. Whose only tiny problem is
some pretty bad light pollution. You can gain
free access through the Desert Skygazers
astronomy club or volunteering as a docent
to Discovery Park. Operator courses are offered
by EAC. As are seasonal tours to the real
telescopes up on the hill.

The Tyndall scope includes a CCC camera capability and
a companion 5" instrument on the same mount.
The latter includes special filters for solar
observations.

The Gila Valley is littered with hundreds ( and possibly
thousands ) of CCC project remanants. To me, the
overwhelming majority of these appear to be utterly
pointless busy work boondoogles.

The definitive source for CCC anything is the National
Archives. All 725 cubic feet of it.

Two useful free books that are easily downloaded
appear here and here. A national support orginizition
appears here with an Arizona chapter here. And more
Arizona stuff here. Direct appeals for research help
can be made here.

Local camps included Sanchez, Noon Creek, Treasure
Park, and Colombine. Plus possible subsites at Guthrie, Eden
( Aravapia Road ), Pima , and Fort Thomas.

Useful local projects included the Noon Creek campground,
the Jacobson Canyon bridge, Heliograph, Webb Peak, and
West Peak Lookouts, and the Colombine Ranger Station.
Larger spillways in Fort Thomas and Eden appear to have
long been breached or rendered useless.

Projects that appear worthless to me do include
the entire rock city at Sanchez and many hundreds of
serpentine check dams that seem to me to be of no use
whatsoever. Supposedly, these were "water spreaders
for water infiltration". I'd guess that virtually all of the
water simply evaporated. Some of these exhibit exceptional
quality stone masonry work.

For some strange reason, landfills remediated
in the 1970's seem associated with certain CCC projects.

A very real problem is effectively separating the CCC
constructs from legitimate prehistoric water control
projects. Some guidelines appeared here.

In general, if it was larger, more obvious, "newer", more anal,
and pointless,  chances are it was CCC rather than prehistoric.
Especially if it clearly shows up on satellite photos.

More on local Gila Valley adventures here.

The resolution of the DOQ Digital Orthophoto Quadrangles
on the Acme Mapper is one meter. These are digitally
corrected aerial photography that the USGS uses
to generate their topo maps. They are often black
and white only.

For certain areas, DOQ may be the best resolution that is
freely available to you.

Google color satellite photography varies with location and
age. Resolutions of remote portions of the southwest remain
pathetic at approximately 20 meters or worse. Resolution
for typical areas is often around one meter, and the best of
their city imagry is half that.

The latest satellites offer sixteen inch resolution to the feds
that is downgraded to twenty five inch resolution to future
Google updates.

Google street views are done from roving vehicles and
can offer exceptional resolution. Depending on range,
signs on buildings can often be read.

As we saw a few weeks ago, street views dating from
April of 2008 are newly available for the Greater
Bonita-Eden-Sanchez metropolitan area.

Now if we can only get Craig's List attention...

Updated and improved our Gila Day Hikes page.
Some new links to useful resources such as topo
maps, food guides, and place names have been added.

Along with several new hikes and updates on others.

A useful website for Arizona land ownership appears
here.

The generic name for this sort of thing is GIS. As in
geographic information systems. A tutorial site appears
here.

And pictures of nearly every house in an entire county here.
Usefuleness elsewhere depends on who is offering what
for why.

The handiest way I have found to email a location of most
anything to anybody is to use Acme Mapper.

Usually, you will select satellite and an appropriate scale.
Center the item on the crosshair and click mark. Then link
to this page.

Since the email link may end up over one line long, be sure
to prefix and postfix any link with "<" and ">".

Three areial resolutions are typical: Really bad ( such as
aound Fort Thomas AZ ), about a meter ( such as around
Safford, AZ ), or better than half a meter ( such as downtown
Phoenix ). Sadly, prehistoric structures are hard to spot
even with the finest resolution offered today.

The highest resolution is sometimes available using
Acme's DOQ feature. But this is black and white and
at best only marginally better.

Decimeter resolution everywhere sure would be nice.
In stereo with uv and ir options, of course.

A church in Gila Bend has decided not to get a
chandelier. Turns out nobody in the congregation
knew how to play one.

Can't put one over on her. Nosiree.

Little old lady at an auction to her friend "Why, that
man has been talking all morning!"

There are many rock structures here in the Gila valley.
Some of these are prehistoric indian agricultural work,
and some are CCC busywork projects from the 1930's.

Telling which from what can create problems. Here are
a few guidelines...

      CCC projects tend to be anal. Prehistoric projects tend
      towards zen and in harmony with the land..

      CCC projects are often obvious on satellite photos.
      Prehistoric projects are usually subtle or invisible.

      CCC projects are usually linear. Prehistoric projects are
      often associated with grids, fieldhouses, cairns,
      or roasting pits..

     CCC projects may have obvious modern features
     such as survey markers, railroad rails, concrete,
     wire grids, or integrated wide farm roads.

    Prehistoric projects may have lithics, trincheras, or
    checkdams with aprons associated with them.
    But potsherds are often rare at an ag site.

    CCC projects tend to be wider, with three to
    four feet being typical. Stones are often
    precisely fit "masonry style" with tight
    tolerances and well defined project edges.

    Some CCC projects tend to be crisp and
    pristine. Prehistoric projects tend to show their
    age and are often partial or ill defined. Or
    show flood damage.

   Prehistoric projects usually use nearby rocks. CCC
   projects may truck or otherwise import different
   rock styles from remote areas.

More on similar topics on our Gila Dayhikes library page.

The USGS has a website with fascinating and
highly useful minerals info you can find here.

Added several more entries to our Gila Day Hikes
library page. Including amygdaloids and the Twin
Boobs canal.

Here's my selection of the better places to go and
eat locally. In rank order...

  1. Toni's Kitchen
  2. Bricks
  3. Gabi's
  4. Casa Manana
  5. Branding Iron
  6. China Taste
  7. Golden Corral
  8. Super Wok
  9. Nathan's Ribs
10. Meechi's

Things get downright grim when you try nearby
towns instead. The 'best" is probably Coronado
Vinyards in Willcox. Who also has Rodney's BBQ
place ( ask Rodney about his Rex Allen painting )
and a newly reopened Saxon House.

Solomon, of course, has La Paloma. Surprisingly
good is Gimees in York. Take the loop thruway
between the theater and industrial districts. Try
to avoid the rush hour traffic. Which is tricky,
because you are the rush hour traffic.

Pima gives you the choice of the new Sunrise
Cafe, very good burgers at Pima Freeze, and
Bush & Shurtz. You are not allowed in the latter
unless you clearly know the difference between
"hunker" and "mosey". Besides, only Pima natives
can find it. It has been their since 1880. Valet parking
is strictly limited to John Deere tractors only.

The custom sammiches from the Mt Graham Market
deli are superb for any mountain trip. When and if they
are open, the Morenci Hotel also has decent food at
reasonable prices.

Just in case you have not met them yet, the
Acme Mapper website is an incredibly useful
resource. This combines Google streets with
aerial photos with topo maps and bunches more.

Particulaly useful is their center crosshairs that
instantly gives you latitude and longitude. You
can also dial in lat lon to reach any referenced
location. An Options link gives you a choice
of lat lon formats.

Their "DOQ" gives you the original BW aerial
photography on which topo maps were based.
This often is the highest resolution you can get
but is limited to black and white.

It sure would be nice to have better resolution,
especially of the lower res areas. Stereo would
sure be handy, as would two more planes of
IR and UV imagry.

I thought I was fairly familiar with our local Marijilda Canal
system. Which I had wrongly been crediting to early farm
pioneers in the 1800's. Turns out it was a small part of a much larger
and more complex native american system dating from the 1300's.

Apparently they simply stole the plans.

I just received a portion of a yet to be published paper and map
of this original system. It is clearly one of the more stunning of
many early Gila Valley water projects.

Firstoff, the origional system was at least 12.5 kilometers
( or nearly eight miles ) long! It was designed with cutoffs
so that any catastrophic flood would completely miss nearly
all of the system except for an easily repaired head end.

Amazingly, there was an aqueduct or "above grade" portion
where the canal crossed a drainage. And a fairly long
"cliff hanger" portion where the canal was literally stuck
high on the side of a steep mesa.

Finally, the far end of the canal ended in a large loop.
Exactly why it does so is a mystery, since any canal
( especially a prehistoric one ) has to have a gradient
to deliver useful amounts of water.

Portions of the canal system remain remarkably well
preserved. I'll try to post a better reference when the
paper becomes available.

All a desert rat has to know about boats: The
binnacle goes on top and the barnacle goes on the
bottom.

Interchanging the two is a serious breach of
maritime etiquette.

One of the more intriguing entries in our Gila Day
Hikes library page are the "Old Tunnels" of the
Morenci Southern Railway.

This long abandoned route ran from Guthrie,
crossed the San Francisco River, then went on up
Morenci Wash to the original town of Morenci.

Which long ago was eaten by the open pit mine.

Easiest access is off the Back Country Byway
about half a mile or so north of the Gila River
Bridge.

If you look at the entire history of all US railways,
there were a total of fifteen well documented
loops in which a train crossed itself in attempting
to gain altitude. Amazingly, FIVE of these loops
were on the Morenci Southern Railway.

Today, the four trestle based loops are long gone,
but the lowest and tunnel based loop remains and
can be visited.

The best documentaion I know of for the Morenci
Southern Railway appears in Myrick's Railroads
of Arizona, volume III. This book is pricey and
hard to find, but remains readily available in
appropriate libraries and museums.

Added some new sites to our Gila Day Hikes
library page. Depending on how you count them,
somewhere between 155 and 214 trips are now
listed.

A reminder that I will be presenting a pair
of lectures on Alternate Energy tomorrow, Saturday
at 6:30 PM in the Discovery Park Jupiter Room.

Admission is free. Access to telescopes and flight
simulators may also be free. Discovery park is
located at 20th avenue and Discovery Park Blvd
( aka 32nd street ) in Safford, AZ.

Safford lies within the greater Bonita - Eden -
Sanchez metropolitan area.

See you there.

Our ancient grid systems here in the Gila Valley
are much more extensive than most people even imagine.

Besides highly concentrated northern grids, there are
many isolated and smaller examples to the south. Typically
these are gently sloping near mesa tops in areas with
bunches of loose rocks in the 2 to 10 pound class. The
rocks are typically rounded river cobbles and are not
worth a damn as higher wall construction materials.

Several classes of rockwork are apparent...

     Rectangular grids, often 12 x 25 feet or so,
     singly or in groups. In a somewhat erratic
     architecture.

     Round rockpiles perhaps three feet in
     diameter. Some with internal depressions.

     Arc shaped check dams across small
     drainages, some with distinct downstream
     aprons.

These tend to be well away from habitation sites of
multi room ruins. Potsherds are almost entirely
absent, and lithics are somewhat scarce.

Some of these are masked by more modern
structures such as early Mormon irrigation canals,
CCC projects and even modern rock walls and
rearrangements. In general, the CCC projects are
far more anal and precise. But proper attribution of
simpler structures remains a problem.

Our local "Southern Grids" area has an incredible
variety of prehistoric grids, roasting pits, ruins,
trincheras, and such. Some of which are covered
here.

Trouble is that the same area has great heaping
bunches of CCC water control projects. And the
two can easily be confused. More to the point,
it is difficult to accuratly guarantee any particular
simpler construct is in fact prehistoric.

In general the prehistory folks had more potsherds
and lithics. And were much more in tune with nature.
The CCC was far more anal and rectangular. Plus
may have included obvious survey markers or
chunks of railroad rails. Some structures obviously
had an Italian stone mason as a foreman. With
transit accuracy and one inch tolerance.

Sometimes deciding whether you are looking at one
or eight centuries worth of erosion can help. On
lesser features, the distinction is far from obvious.

A further confusion is that depressions attributed to
Mescal roasing pits could in fact have been natural
and caused by the hugely trunked mesguite trees once
in the area. Almost always, though, a depression in
any non-karst area is man caused.

Enigmatic are the check dams with downsteam
aprons. At present, these appear in use by both cultures.
one possible explanation is that the CCC liked what they
saw and simply stole the plans.

I will be presening a pair of alternate energy related
lectures on Saturday February 7th in the Jupiter Room
of Discovery Park at  6:30 PM.

This is part of Discovery Park’s continuing series of
weekly lectures and talks of interest to the general public.

The first lecture is on "Energy Fundamentals" while the
second is "An Intro to pv Solar Panels".

There is a huge amount of wildly wrong material circulating
on these two topics; the lectures are aimed at focusing on
accurate and verifiable fundamentals. And doing so at a
popular audience level.

Material covered will largely be based on web tutorials
https://www.tinaja.com/glib/energfun.pdf and
https://www.tinaja.com/glib/morenrgf.pdf .
Reprints will be provided to those interested.

Admission is free. For more info, contact Discovery Park
at (928) 428-6260 or harry.swanson@eac.edu . Discovery
Park is located at 20th Avenue and Discovery Park Blvd.

As any geologist will tell you, there are three
kinds of rocks: Ingeneous, Sedentary, and Metaphoric.

While Black Range Lodge remains my favorite
bed and breakfast because of long term friendships,
I can also highly recommend Casitas De Gila.

Casita's highlights include remote hot tubbing under
the stars in one of the finest dark sky locations in
the country, a bunch of easy new riparian stream trails,
a superb mini art gallery, free WiFi, panhandling horses,
and acess to a group of telescopes and terrestrial optics.

The two B&B's are an easy two hour trip apart. Both are
in the parts of New Mexico you can't get to. With superb
stuff in between to visit. Stop off and buy our wilderness
property while you are on the way.

For years, I've been creating what, for a better name, we might
call Lancasterisms. These are intentional but apparent
typographical errors intended to reveal a higher or greater truth.

Such as a groundswill of popular demand. Or what those French
Veternarians call a "four paw". Or being overly enameled on some
idea. Or winning an election by acrimination.

Or seeming a few bricks shy of a full deck. Frosting the lily or
guilding the cake. Or not being able to hit the barn side of a broad.
Or sources close to an associate of the barber of a usually reliable
spokesperson. Or anything mesmerizingly awful.

Many of the web perpetual motion schemes and those electrolysis
fantasies clearly involve electrocity. Geological rocks are often
ingenious, sedentary, or metaphoric.

Perpetual motion nuts and desciples of the Church of the Latter
Day Crackpots ( Tesla is their patron saint ) often get their physics
and thermodynamics"not even wrong". Their usual problem is
confusing useful adjuncts to porcine whole body cleanliness with
total hogwash.

The best source for eBay drop ship items is Norfolk & Waay.

Curiously, rectocranial inversion can be both chronic and
acute at the same time.

All in one swell foop. Provided there's no oint in the flyment.
Thuzzy finking fer sure.

These are somehow related to the Stengleisms of others, such as
"Nobody goes there because it is too crowded", "Deja Vu all over
again", or "Let's keep the Status Quo right where it is. Or "When
you come to a fork in the road, take it".

Or Ed Abbey's classic "Androgynous Ammonia". Or the eBay
classic "All fright arrangements to be made by the buyer."
Which presumably also applied to their WWII swash stickers.

I have a hollow feeling I've lost some of the better ones of these
somewhere along the way. As you go through some of my older
books and stories, please report any that may be missing in
action. Or let's hear those of your own.

Because Opporknockity tunes but once

Farm and ranch maintenence 101:

If it does not move and is supposed to, use WD-40.
If it moves and is not supposed to, use Duck Tape
or bailing wire .

But the foremost secret to successful farming or
ranching is knowing the difference between
"hunker" and "mosey".

Added several more entries to our Gila Hikes
page, along with some corrections and expansions.

Actual hike total is now 151, not counting the CNF
and BLM trail lists and the don't-gos.

Additional entries are getting progressively more
difficult, so we seem to be approaching a definitive
collection. Please email me with anything obvious
I have missed or any new suggestions.

One of the real dangers of attempting humor in any
public or semi-public form is "them" not getting the joke.

I was recently appalled at a failed humor attempt when nobody
in the audience had the slightest idea who Dilbert was!

One glance at our local rock grids dating from the 1300's
and their astonishing similarity to the Dilbert cubicals jumps
right out at you.

In fact, If I took my Marcia Swampfelder skills and
combined them with a one time ability to sling the shit
on anthro papers, I bet I could come up with a credible
peer reviewed paper that these were in fact the prehistoric
Dilbert originals.

This would take no more of a leap of faith than most
other archaeological papers routinely make.

Meanwhile, free Dilbert movies are offered here.

If ghee is a form of clarified yak butter, would
ghee whiz be a form of clarified yak piss?

Also, a more politically correct term for "Hunky
Dory" would be a "mideastern European rowboat".

The Direktor of the Ministry of Propaganda for a
major government bureaucracy sends this along:
=======================================
            “Gila Valley Day Hikes” Topic of  
                  First 2009 Brown Bag Talk
=======================================
Author and researcher Don Lancaster of Thatcher
will present the first talk of 2009 in the Bureau of
Land Management’s (BLM) popular Brown Bag Lunch
seminar series. “150 Gila Valley Day Hikes” will be the
topic of Lancaster’s talk on Tuesday, January 13, at
noon in the BLM conference room.

The public is both welcome and encouraged to attend.
Bring a lunch or snack and a drink and enjoy the talk
and accompanying audio-visual presentation.

Hikes to be discussed vary in difficulty from easy
walks for families with small children to extreme
canyoneering. Most hikes have recently been verified
for access and conditions.

Anyone that has attended one of Lancaster’s evening talks
at Discovery Park can attest to his knowledge and sense
of humor. When asked what locations will be discussed,
he said “Most hikes are less than an hour’s drive from
the Greater Bonita-Eden-Sanchez Metropolitan Area.”

Lancaster has posted brief descriptions of many of trips on
his website at https://www.tinaja.com/gilahike.shtml.

Places to avoid will also be briefly covered.

The BLM office is located at 711 14th Avenue, at the
intersection with 8th Street, in Safford. For more information,
contact Diane Drobka at 348-4403 or Dave Arthun at 348-4428.

Was looking for come cost effective way to
photograph the Safford Grids, as well as search
for newer ones. Not to mention cave exploration.

Apparently there have been some stunning
improvements in radio controlled model helicopters
recently.

One leader in the field appears to be Draganfly.

Their best units appear to be a triangular platform
with six electrical motors, two at each apex. A
complex gyro and computer system makes the
sysstem easily flyable and quite stable.

These remain pricey, but there should be some
lower cost systems evolving from them. GPS
tagging is also newly included.

As you may have already guessed, I closed out
our WHTNU08.SHTML blog file and started a new one
as WHTNU09.SHTML.

( Please see our latest blog for property offer updates. )

Never store carbide in a non-locking carabiner.

Expanded and improved our Gilia Hikes library page.

Not sure how many hikes total we will end up with,
but anything beyond 150 is proving difficult. At
least within our guidelines of "mostly easy drives"
from the Greater Bonita-Eden-Sanchez metropolitan
area and in fact a one day project.

BLM is actually working on a pair of new trails,
A Cottonwood Trail to loop the flying "W" with
the watchable wildlife platform and Bonita Creek.
And Arizona's first Water Trail providing a short
intro swimming, kayaking and whitewater route.
These are not quite listable yet.

BTW -- The "Flying W" has nothing to do with
ranch brands. That is the shape of the steel
supporting roof structure on the group picnic site.
And is far beyond instantantly obvious.

Please email me with any suggested further hikes.
No, not that one.

Once you have your grazing permit, you do have
have to actually eat the grass.

Such despicable stunts as land stewardship,
allotment retirement, or range improvement are,
of course, specifically forbidden by admin decree.

Your tax dollars at work.

Many ranches appear to be for sale on or near
Mount Graham. Some for as little as $45,000.
Here are some typical listings.

Only it is not clear to me exactly what you are
buying. Very often, there is no deeded land. The
fences and corrals may need major repairs, the wells
and springs might range from low to dry, and the
tanks and windmills often need major work.

You do, of course, gain the right to steal grass off
of the state or feds with grazing fees whose rates
are utterly, obscenely, and unconscionably low. And
basically comparable to outright theft. These are
typically only valid for a few months out of the year.

Grazing fees are approaching one tenth of their
admin costs. And have recently been slashed.
And half of that is routinely rebated.

What you do with your cows ( the few dozen that are
supportable ) the rest of the year is up to you.

There is, of course, no grass because of the drought.

Thus, the payoff these days on both stock markets is
about the same.

I've been revisiting some of our local indian
ruin sites. Despite competent researchers,
the Gila Valley has lacked an obvious champion.
Yet its population and influence apparently
were among the highest in the American
Southwest.

The area is confusing to say the least, as
pottery styles represented Hohokam,
Salado, Ancient Pueblo Peoples, Mogollon, and
Mimbres, among others. Clearly complex trading
routes went through the area.

There were elaborate irrigation systems.
Both from the Gila River and riparian
side canyons. Not to mention many thousands
of water enhancing grids that may have been part of
an elaborate aguave to mescal booze factory.

Or possibly the world's very first prehistoric Dilbert
cubicals.

Many of the sites have been outrageously
pothunted. Others have been obliterated by
anglo constuction.

Modern agriculture has also  trashed the tops
of many sites. But they may lie pristinely buried,
awaiting subsurface radar techniques for modern
excavations. When all is said and done, plows do
not normally go all that deep.

Some interesting reading appears here, here, and here.
More on our Gila Hikes library page.

The four "R's" of Arizona politics: Rightwing,
Racist, Reactionary, and Redneck.

In Arizona, a "political moderate" is anyone
who is moderately to the right of Atilla the Hun.

The rescheduled date for our BLM brown bag
lecture on 150 Gila Day Hikes is Tuesday
January 13th from 12 to 1 pm.

Much of the talk will be based on our Gila
Hikes library page.

The program is free and you are certainly
welcome to attend. Bring your own lunch or
snack and a drink. Location in Safford is
in the BLM conference room at 711 14th
Avenue. This is the corner of 14th Avenue
and 8th Street.

( More on the canals https://www.tinaja.com/hang02.pdf.
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