Joe and Mary Ann's personal web site

Father Charlie and I hiked the Tres Rios Wetlands between the trailhead on the east side (91st Ave; a permit is required) and the park on the west side (the Base & Meridian Wildlife Area near ISR Raceway on Avondale Avenue). It’s about a 3 mile hike. I also threw in two pictures I took when Mary Ann and I went to Kansas in March.

On the second day of our trip to SE Arizona, we went to the Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area (NCA). The highlight was the Bighorn Sheep! We went to Aravaipa Canyon the first day (see here), and decided to spend another night and explore the area around Safford a little bit the next day. There are a lot of options e.g. Roper Lake and Mt. Graham. But we decided on Gila Box.

Mary Ann and I went to Aravaipa Canyon, east trailhead, on March 27. The canyon was gorgeous! It’s Mary Ann’s favorite place on the planet.

Fr. Charlie, Dave, and I went to southern Arizona on March 18. We left early (about 6:30) for the 2 hour drive to the town of Tubac, where we stopped at Ron Morriss County Park, and De Anza Trail. We stopped for lunch in Tubac, and then headed to Patagonia Lake State Park (about a 45 min drive).

UPDATE 14 Nov 2021: I haven’t been using this recipe lately, and am using the one posted here instead.

This is the ‘new and improved’ version of my yogurt recipe. My old recipe used gelatin for the thickener. This one uses pectin, which gives a better texture to the yogurt (in my opinion). It took a lot of trial and error to get the pectin recipe right (as described in the ‘Yogurt Thickness’ section of this post). Rather than delete or modify the old recipe, I left it there, and added this new one. A link to the old recipe is here.

This post has some pictures from the past that I’m finally getting around to processing. Dave and I went on a hike in the Sonoran Desert last month, and there are some flowers and butterflies from that trip. I also included some photos of the Anna’s Hummingbird from our yard.

Dave and I went to Peridot Mesa, east of Globe, to photograph the wild California Poppies. This is expected to be a good year for wildflowers in the Arizona desert. We had some nice winter rains that came at a perfect time. The poppies were fantastic on Peridot Mesa, and they still weren’t at their peak. We plan on going back out in a week or two. On this trip, there was still snow on the mountains, which made a nice contrast with the blooming poppies.

Mary Ann and I went to the Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch (RPWR) in Gilbert on Monday morning, Feb 25. Read More »

The 8th and final photography stop on our Florida trip (see here) was Bunche Beach. This post describes that stop, my visit with in-laws in Port Richey, and an epilogue of our trip. Read More »

The next stop on our Florida trip (see here) was Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. Read More »