Neat Images for the poet and poetry lover birds journeying to old nesting places smoky mornings silky furred or prickly viscid foliage hills rank with cacti after the pinon harvest-- more wickiups than two make a great number ragged-walled ravine summer paved with parched red earth a woman’s long hair cut for making snares--during famine long-leafed pines, in the purlieus of thickets of scrub oak and manzanita, rife with nests of baby quail? lizards swallowing their skins in safety of prickle-bush in early spring myriad of lizards on the mesas--quick gray darts shaggy, browbeaten ponies game slung across saddle-bows small sailing hawk or lazy crow eagle hanging lazily-- blue tower of silence in the skies buzzards high in thin, translucent air circling as a merry-go-round wattles of huts warped into heaps of desert brush secret store of seeds unearthed by-- to seek and spy then drift down the wind for killing gray hawks beating slow circles about the doors of creature’s exit Indian name-giving, an eye’s grasp, a fashion setting well for the various natures inhabiting within us all a creek with close-locked pines nourished about its borders sodden drifts of pine needles and acorns caught by driftwood picking a blossom of manzanita in a hushed, wondering way flowers keeping up a constant trepidation in time with the hasty water beating at their stems babble of watercourses always approaching articulation or babble of coursing creek making like talk in the afterglow of twilight? Above ideas--thoughts--much inspired by The Land of Little-Rain by Mary Austin with 1903 copyright, reprinted by publishers of Houghton Mufflin Company (discovered in Sedona Library) more images to consider homemade toys, mosquito netting with draw string for bags of hard candy, apple and orange Easter eggs died red with beet, yellow with alfalfa, brown with walnut hull, and blue with bluing Victrola and records--big morning glory horn bobcats killing and eating calves skunks getting the Leghorns woodpeckers getting the persimmons mules having more sense than horses coming down a hill better and faster than a roller coaster, when wagon brakes might give way shoes made from backs of overalls--like moccasins Eva Girdner Stone--the first Miss Arizona 1912? Spelling bees, reciting poems and stories while they worked in the kitchen. Evenings sitting in the porch singing with neighbors singing back to them across the creek          centipedes 13 inches long--living in a tent with wooden floor supported by tin cans with water to keep centipedes away farms from 35-120 acres--cattle on open range--first cash crop of watermelons filaree as high as a horses stirrups? before drought and overgrazing mail between Cottonwood and Indian Gardens in 1890 came by pack mule--one for riding and one for hauling--later the mail carrier got a buggy and team of mules crossing the creek with a cable and box--dead or alive making butter in a Mason jar before they got a churn carrying water from the creek, putting lye in it, boiling it, skimming the mud off and it would be clear--for laundry or bath? wild horses--wide board fences to keep them from kicking them down kerosene lamps, weekly dances, native cottonwoods, willow thickets timber cut from Schnebly hill to Munds Park and trucked to Cottonwood for milling canyons and arroyos filled with live and dead grass abundant game animals, a stockman’s and hunter’s paradise one-roomed homes out of stone, adobe, or logs with nary a window never locking doors sometimes the Verde River would be a half-mile wide, but generally a muddy trickle snuggling in a bedroll, listening to a storm “Worn out in service”--old spades, shovels, picks, etc. small animals snared smelter making it difficult to grow fruit crops the Walter Jordans moved to Sedona in 1880, to plant apple orchards Walter Jordan’s mother moved to the valley in an ox-drawn wagon in 1865 Much of the above is from Cottonwood, Clarkdale and Cornville History copyright 1984 from Cottonwood Chapter 2021, AARP--Sedona Library

Fry Bread: A Common Food in Most Native American homes, but perhaps also common with many Mexican and Caucasian pioneers Fry Bread–the recipe not too different from any other. This one gotten from an Apache school children’s recipe project.   INGREDIENTS 4 cups white flour 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon baking powder Lard or Shortening DIRECTIONS Combine all ingredients. Add about 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water and knead until dough is soft, not sticky. Shape enough into balls the size of a small peach. Shape into patties by hand; dough should be about l/2 inch thick. Fry one at a time in about 1 inch of hot lard or shortening in a heavy pan. Brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels and serve hot with honey or jam. If you want an Indian Taco, add beans, tomatoes, onions, cheese and salsa on top. ---------- ACORN STEW--a popular recipe in Apache homes INGREDIENTS 21/2-3 pounds of round steak (elk or deer meat), cut into bite-size pieces Sweet Acorns (enough to make 3/4 cup of acorn flour) Salt DIRECTIONS Cook beef in about 1 quart of water. Let it simmer for about 3 hours or until meat is well done. Salt to taste. Shell acorns and grind them into very fine flour, until you have approximately 3/4 cup of flour. Strain the broth from the meat (it will be used later). Shred the meat, place it in a wooden bowl, and mix it with the acorn flour. (Note: metal utensils or bowl will discolor the flour). Pour hot broth over the mixture and stir. It is now ready to serve in individual bowls. Usually served with fry bread.