Simply Belle

While browsing my old pictures tonight, I chanced upon this picture taken 10 years ago in Hawaii. I looked so much like native here, more like Tahitian with long curly black hair and brown complexion, don’t you think?

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A week ago, we had an excursion at Walnut Canyon with my daughters. It was our first ever visit here. The Walnut Canyon is located about 10 miles southeast of Flagstaff. The canyon rim is at 6,690 feet; the canyon floor at 350 ft lower. A 0.9 mile long loop trail descends quite a ways down into the canyon passing the cliff dwellings.

The exposed canyon rocks have eroded over time creating shallow caves. During the 12th or 13th centuries, the Sinagua Indians spotted this area, constructed cliff dwellings, and lived here for several centuries.

Because of the presence of water, this place was rich in flora and fauna- perfect place for farming community. Though, now, the walnut creek as you can see in the picture is dry because it is held back in Lake Mary which provides water for the city of Flagstaff. The creek rarely ever flows anymore except when it rains hard.

Can you see those shallow caves along the cliffs? The Sinagua people built a single-story cliff dwellings there from about 12th century AD.

Cliff dwellings up close.

No excavation was needed to build this shelter as nature provided the back wall, floor, and leak-proof ceiling. All the builders did was simply laid up the unshaped blocks of limestones for side walls, enclosed the front, leaving a teeny weeny doorway to the canyon. (I presume that Sinagua people were as small as I or even smaller judging from the size of the door.)

Overhanging ledges protected their rooms from snow and rain, and shaded them during hot summer days. Thick walls of stone and mud insulated their dwellings from harsh winter weather and retained the much needed heat in the cold winter days.

Not much left in this dwelling after such a long time or someone could have ruined this on purpose long time ago, looking for artifacts. Now, visitors are only allowed to take pictures.

This is how the rocks look like before walls are erected.

In response to Annamanila’s question as to why it’s called Walnut Canyon, I added this photo.

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We had a great Thanksgiving lunch at friends’ home. E cooked two medium-sized turkey, and so we had plenty of leftover. I made sure I grabbed one of the wings while E took the other one. For E and I, wings are the best part of the turkey. What is your favorite part of the turkey?

B, the host, was meticulously carving the turkey.

Home-made jala bread that E bakes only twice a year on special occasion.

I snuck in to get a piece of meat while the host was preoccupied with other matter. Bad!

Before lunch:

As I said earlier, I will fill up more on greens and healthy stuff…which I did.  I skipped the pumpkin pie but I was not able to resist the icecream with caramel topping.

After lunch:

That orange yam dish was exceptionally good. It was cooked with brown sugar, butter, and topped with marshmallows.

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We’re all set for the next trip. To solve our bathroom problem, my husband bought a sanitary tent designed for bath and toilet needs. One day without a bath is bearable but two days are uncomfortable. We will just have to haul extra supply of water for bathing – the tabo (ladle) way. My husband learned the art of tabo bathing in my friend’s house in the province, and is pretty good at doing it now, I must say. He was telling a friend of his, one time, on how to go about it. He said, he lathers himself down with little water and soap, and rinses it off with a tabo, and does his head and back last because wetting the back of his neck makes him cold. It is the other way around for me. I shampoo and wash my hair first, then soap my arms, legs, and private parts, and the body comes last accompanied with jumping up and down if the air temperature is cold. Stumping the feet usually helps combat the cold.

For the shower, we need to use a special kind of soap – a biodegradable one so it will not harm our environment.

With this porta-potty, we don’t have to worry about going quite a ways, and hiding behind the bushes…hehehe. I am pretty lucky that I haven’t felt the urge to do it this way, so far. The concept is similar to a child’s training potty, only with a pouch below to hold it. After you finish doing the potty, you secure the pouch and deposit it in the trash can. It has some kind of chemicals that congeal the contents inside so it will not run or smell. Get the drift? Ahh, I am not sure if I will be able to sit on it and do the thing. It is a matter of getting used to it but, if push comes to shove, I have to use it no matter what.

Next thing he plans to buy in the future is a shower head. It has a battery pump that pumps the water from the bucket to the small tank which then gets heated with a propane heater, and once the water is heated to a comfortable temperature, gets transported to the shower head. Neat idea, I thought, which makes camping easy and more pleasant.

Wait! Where will I hook my blow dryer to make my hair pretty and straight? My husband said to forget it. He suggested that I stick my head out of the window when the car is moving. Tsk tsk, men are clueless when it comes to women’s grooming.

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I had to delete the post of my daughter singing, “Hard to Say I’m Sorry” after it messed up my site in an attempt to upload some recent pictures of her. This whole thing is too technical for me. I have to get lessons from my daughters when they come home this Thanksgiving.

You can find the song here, or you can listen to her original music at My Space.
You Are Not There and Poker Face are my favorites.

Recent pictures taken after the show:

She is the one on the left.

Now, I don’t know how to repost your comments. I am truly sorry, but I saved them for my daughter to read.

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Yesterday, my husband and I went to check out trailers. He has been wanting a pop-up trailer to take on trips. He likes small one, real light, easy to store, and easy to tow. We had 24-foot trailer before and it wasn’t easy to haul especially on a busy freeway. When we moved to a different place, the trailer was left idled for a while, so my husband thought that it was best to sell it. Now, he prefers a smaller pop up that has two fold-out beds, sink, refrigerator, stove, table and chairs, and heater. And also the kind that has a built-in outside gas stove for cooking and barbecuing. But, the downside of the little pop up is, it doesn’t have toilet and shower. The next size up with toilet and shower is way too heavy for our little truck to pull. So, big trailers are out of the question. We just have to get a porta-potty to take with us. As for taking baths, we can do the filipino style, with a bucket and a ladle (tabo) or we can buy the porta-shower and set it up from atop. Camping is more fun this way, right?

Here is the little pop-up trailer. Price ranges from $4,000 to $6,000. The ones complete with bathroom and toilet climb up to $11,000.

I also took pictures of the high end trailer which will require a heavy duty truck. Price ranges from $17,000 to $24,000.

Of course, there are trailers fancier than these but we’ll just be as happy with the inexpensive one, beside we don’t want to sell the farm to buy the fancy one (he he). Just like inexpensive car, it will take me any place that an expensive car will take me.

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Last Monday when I came home from work, I was greeted with this sight in my living room. My husband hauled all these stuff from the garage to the living room for me to pack to send to the province. I am also packing my not so old PC to give to my nephew who is going to be a freshman in high school next year. Huh? When will I ever have a chance to rest or have time to catch up with my blogging even? My last entry was from over a week ago and I am way overdue for a new post.

These are, by the way, the school supplies that my daughter, Lexie, had collected during the Key Club’s Donation for Education drive at school. This is supposed to be done last summer but I have been extremely busy entertaining so it has been neglected for a while in the garage. My husband thought that by bringing it to the living room, it would prompt me to pack it in the box. Gosh, I hate clutter so I guess his strategy works. Don’t you just love husbands? He thought that it would make me happy if he hauled it to the living room, where it is nice and cool as opposed in the garage, where it is uncomfortably warm. I suppose, it makes sense. But you know the real reason behind all these? Those stuff have been in his side of the garage for quite some time and he wants to claim his space back. But, right now, blogging comes first. As long as I started the packing today, even if I don’t quite finish it, it should make my hubby happy. Geeesshh, I still have to go to the post office to mail some cookies to my darling daughter, and ohh, I just remember, I have yoga class this afternoon. Oooppss! I better get going….

Remember the days of beanie babies? I got hooked on it for a while. I call it my beanie baby fever days. I wouldn’t let a week pass without buying 2 or 3 of these babies to add to my collection. They said that the price of some of them would go up in value over time so I got addicted even more. I also bought it to reward my daughters for getting good grades at school. My eldest daughter enjoyed receiving them. She consistently got straight A’s as a result.

Recently though, when she cleaned her room this summer, she got rid of these babies and shoved it off in the garage. She doesn’t hang on to her stuff forever unless it has sentimental value. Her room is very organized and clutter-free. I don’t want to take those babies to the Thrift store because I spent money on them. I believe I paid $5 or more on each. I thought I would send it to my nephews but what will they do with it? Will they appreciate it? I wonder if I should hang on to it hoping that it will go up in value??? Hehehe, I am dreaming again. Who wants one?

It is now 10:40 AM, and I better get on with the packing.

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Today, my husband and I went to a Rodeo in town. Payson Rodeo is the oldest continuous rodeo in the United States. People from neighboring states like Colorado, Nevada, Idaho, Texas, California, and New Mexico come to Payson to compete.

We had to sit in open bleachers and it was scorching hot. I sat in Steve’s shadow but not enough to cover my whole body. I survived though because once in a while the sun went behind the clouds.

When we got there, I noticed that someone got hurt. Immediately, the paramedics appeared on the scene. It took a while for the paramedics to transport the victim to the nearest hospital so while waiting for the next event, my husband and I wandered off in the concession area. As we were checking out each stall, the rock climbing wall caught my attention. I immediately approached the guy and asked him the cost to climb the wall. He said $6.

Without hesitation, I said, “I will do it,” even though I haven’t done it in my lifetime. It is about time that I should go for reckless abandon. Right amiga, Eden? Why not? I didn’t feel nervous at all. Here are some pictures to prove it.

The guy was giving me instructions.

When I reached the half-way point, I almost gave up. I couldn’t reach the next stone for my hand to grab on. My husband urged me to keep going. The guy said that if I stepped on the next rock on the right, I should be able to gain the ground to hang on to the next rock. It worked! And suddenly, I was at the top. I have never felt so good. Who says 40 something is going downhill?

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