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By Mom Unplugged, October 23, 2008 11:13 am

Fall is here in the Arizona mountains. The cool morning air smells faintly of piñon smoke left over from evening fires.

The chili roaster is tumbling down at the little local grocery, producing baskets of lovely, soft charred green chilis.

Ponderosa Pines are beginning to shed some brown needles and fields are brimming with bright yellow wildflowers.

Maximilian Sunflowers line the roadways. They are tall this year which means, according to local legend, that our snow piles will be tall too.

Squirrels are getting busier as they rush off with peanuts and sunflower seeds to hide away for the winter.

The Humming Birds have left, and the Robins. Even the golfers are leaving, along with the thousands of people who spend their summers here in our mountain paradise to escape the scorching desert heat.

Peaceful silence will descend upon our town as we hardy year-round residents retreat from our porches, gardens, and decks and take to our homes in preparation for winter snow.

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By Mom Unplugged, August 13, 2008 7:45 am

Last week I just flew our new plane from Denver to my Arizona hometown and thought I’d share a few photos of the spectacular scenery over the Rockies. Enjoy!

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By Mom Unplugged, March 30, 2008 7:29 pm

It has been a week full of rocks during Spring Break at our house in Albuquerque: a trip to Petroglyph National Monument, climbing over big rocks on a mountain hike, choosing pretty tumbled rocks to buy at the Natural History Museum gift shop, collecting rocks in the courtyard.

So, although I didn’t realize that we would be so into rocks this week when I chose the Unplugged Project theme last Sunday, it has been an excellent week for a rock project.

My son was too busy with his new Legos this week to care much about projects, but my oldest daughter wanted to make her own petroglyph. The children have both recently studied petroglyphs at school and I think that Petroglyph National Monument made a big impression on them.

We found what we thought would be a suitable flat rock (note: if you try this, make sure you choose as soft a rock as possible), and used a hammer to break a piece of it off to use as a chisel. We were trying to be authentic!

My daughter drew her design on the rock with a pencil. She was trying to reproduce one that we had seen at the Monument.

She then scraped the rock with the other rock to engrave the design.

Well, this proved to be slow going (the rock was not soft enough), so she got fed up and moved on to authentic Native American method number two: the Dremel Tool! My husband supervised this step and the petroglyph was quickly completed.

In case anyone is interested, here’s another fun rock idea that we once did: cracking open a geode!

Other petroglyph resources:

+ Draw your own rock art printable

+ Hawaiian petroglyphs to print and color

+ Info about petroglyphs: Petroglyphs.us

+ Fun art project: Sandpaper Petroglyphs

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If you joined us for the Unplugged Project this week, please leave a link in Mr. Linky, as well as a comment in case Mr. Linky fails at his job. If you didn’t join in, please consider taking part next week!

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Next week’s Unplugged Project theme will be:

Books

Hope to see you then!

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By Mom Unplugged, December 9, 2007 10:54 am

Most people don’t associate Arizona with snow, but here in Arizona’s mountains, we have “real winters.” Yesterday we got our promised snow (about 6 inches with a chance for more today), and here it is!

(I took these photos this morning in our yard)

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By Mom Unplugged, December 7, 2007 10:55 am

…a 60% chance this weekend. Hooray!