St. Anthony's Greek Orthodox Monastery

  On March 27th we drove to St. Anthony's Monastery near Florence, AZ to view the beautiful church, chapels, and gardens that make up the Monastery.  Jen was visiting  for a few days the end of March, so she was able to go on this trip with us.
   In the summer of 1995 six monks arrived in the Arizona desert. Under the direction of Elder Ephraim, a disciple of Mt. Athos monastery in Greece, the building began. They constructed a main church, living quarters for the monks, a  dining hall, and guest facilities.  As the monastery expanded they added more chapels, a vegetable garden, citrus orchards, and an olive grove.
 
  The brotherhood of over 40 monks and novices living here follow a daily schedule of prayer and work...tending the gardens, orchards, and buildings; preparing food; and offering hospitality to visitors. Everyone is welcome to visit, but are asked to dress appropriately: men wear long sleeve shirts and long pants; women wear long sleeve blouses, long skirts, and head scarves.  A supply of clothing is kept at the visitor entrance for those needing it...Jen and I were given long skirts and head scarves to put on as we entered, as neither of us had those garments in our travel wardrobe...

    Beautiful woodwork, icons, and candles are plentiful. The rounded Byzantine dome (Russian dome) architecture and Russian Orthodox crosses are present on the church and chapels. The churches are open, with no pews or chairs, only benches surrounding the perimeter where those attending stand during the services.

 It is a beautiful hidden, desert surprise...

Biosphere 2

On March 14 we went on a tag-a-long tour from Val Vista Park to see Biosphere 2.  The drive to Biosphere was scenic, with changes in variety of cactus and other landscape as we ascended elevation to the site location in Oracle, AZ.  The mountains behind Biosphere 2 actually had some snow on the upper peaks.
  Original construction began in 1986 by Space Biospheres Ventures to construct a facility to study self-sustaining space-colonization technology.  Two missions were completed between 1991 and 1994, with human subjects sealed in  Biosphere 2 to analyze survivability in a created environment.  The outcomes were considered successful, but no further missions were planned.
   In 2007 University of Arizona took over management of the facility.  The enclosure is now used to support research for large scale ecology projects, such as the consequences of global climate change.  Ecosystems within Biosphere 2 include ocean with coral reef; mangrove wetlands; tropical rainforest; savannah grassland, and fog desert.  Huge air-handlers can adjust environmental conditions in each of these areas...e.g. if they want to study impact of less rain and cooler temperatures in the rainforest, this can be accomplished by settings made within the energy center.
   The most frequent visitor question...where is Biosphere 1?  Answer...Biosphere 1 is our natural planet Earth!

Copper Mine Tour

On March 9th we drove south of Tucson to the ASARCO Mineral Discovery Center in Sahuarita, AZ to tour an open pit copper mine.  The guided tour took us to the edge of the open mine pit, then back to the plant to see how the ore is processed and copper removed from the waste rock. At this mine, every ton of ore produces about 13 pounds of copper.  But, for every ton of ore approximately 3 ton of rock has to be processed.
 Rock is first blasted to fracture it into material that can be loaded onto the huge trucks and hauled to a crusher.  The primary crusher reduces the rock to about 8 inch size pieces. A secondary gyratory crusher breaks those pieces even smaller.  From there the rock travels through large rotating mills that contain 8 inch diameter steel balls which pulverize the rock into a powder. The powder is mixed with water, lime, and other chemicals to create a slurry which goes to a flotation tank. Air is bubbled in, the extracted copper attaches to the air bubbles and is separated, dried and forms a fine powder which is now 28% copper.  At this point the powder is shipped to another site for smelting and refining.
   Huge amounts of electricity and water are needed for this process.  Much of the water is reclaimed and reused, which helps in this state with so little water resources.  Some byproducts of the copper separation process, small amounts of silver and gold, can be sold to help pay for electricity.  Some mines like this are evaluating the use of solar panels to help supplement the energy requirement.  The open pits are very controversial due to the environmental impact they have.  There are some efforts being made to reclaim the damaged earth and initiate native plants and animals to come back.  One way of doing this is to introduce grazing cattle into the area, hoping as they feed they will spread grasses and seeds over the earth.

Saguaro Lake Cruise

On Feb 28th we viewed Saguaro Lake via a 90 minute narrated cruise aboard the Desert Belle Tour Boat.  Saguaro Lake is the 4th lake in a series formed by dams installed along the Salt River. Most well known is the first, Theodore Roosevelt Dam, which forms Theodore Roosevelt Lake. Following that is Horse Mesa Dam (Apache Lake), Morman Flat Dam (Canyon Lake), and finally Stewart Mountain Dam (Saguaro Lake).

   Saguaro Lake is a long, narrow lake that covers 1100 acres.  It is stocked with walleye, bass, trout, bluegills, crappies, and catfish by the Arizona Fish & Game Department.
    Located within the Tonto National Forest, rustic campsites are available by boat access only; hiking, biking, horse-back riding, and ATV trails wind their way through the desert areas surrounding Saguaro Lake.  A few RV campsites are available along the highway leading to the lake.
    Water from these lake reservoirs can be diverted for irrigation purposes.  According to the cruise narrator, some campers using boat access have awaken in the morning to find the water table has dropped by 4 feet or more, and their boat is now on dry land!
    Before driving home, we had lunch at Lake Shore Restaurant, located near the cruise departure area.

Casa Grande Cowboy and Indians Days

Cowboy and Indians Days was a week long rodeo event held in Casa Grande in February.  Different events were held each day; participants included cowboys from both the US and Canada, and Indians from various Native American tribes.  The day we went was "Ranch Rodeo" day, where the riders were teams of individuals from actual working ranches around the area.

   The day started with shooting, where riders on horseback rode through a prepared course and had to shoot balloons mounted on posts along the way. These were timed events, and points earned or lost depending on how many balloons broke and whether the course was followed correctly.

   After this event, the rodeo "zamboni" (little blue tractor with a drag behind) smoothed the field.  Other events that afternoon included catching a wild horse, putting a saddle on and riding it to a finish line; roping calves from a herd and pretending to brand them; catching two calves and loading them in a trailer; wild bronco riding, and finally, roping a wild cow and milking it.

    Lunch was served from a circle of "chuck wagons"...each wagon had a slightly different menu but all had to include beef, beans,and biscuits.
 
 This was a different sort of rodeo to watch, but the events were entertaining.