Photos and comments from Arizona and around the world
This photo will give you a little bit of an idea of the famous Apache Trail between Apache Junction and Roosevelt Dam. This dirt road was built during the construction of the dam to carry freight and materials for the dam construction. It is maintained...
This is a lovely Hedge Hog cactus growing in the Superstition Mountains east of the Salt River Valley. This plant is often used in landscape plantings in the Valley, but it is not too uncommon out in the wild either. The amount of vegetation evident is...
Roosevelt Lake behind Roosevelt Dam is one of the larger artificial reservoirs in the United States. All of the traffic across this section of Arizona used to drive over the top of the Dam, but since 1990 traffic is routed over this graceful bridge. It...
According to a press release from the Brigham Young University (BYU) Conference Center, proposals are now being accepted for the 2013 BYU Conference on Family History and Genealogy which will be held Tuesday, July 30 through Friday, August 2, 2013. The...
Lantana is a weed disguised as an ornamental plant. It is commonly used as a landscape plant in the low desert. Although it has a tendency to freeze in the winter, it invariably grows back in warmer weather. We tolerate it because it has cheerful red,...
I seem to be looking at a lot of yellow flowers lately. I must be attracted to yellow right now for some reason. These flowers are usually bright red, but on this bush, they came out with yellow highlights. I don't think most people associate the desert...
Just when you thought you had everything under control, along comes another level of technological development to put it all out of control again. This new imaging system from DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) has developed a 1.8 billion...
This is a photo taken from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon looking north. Winter storms move from the west or northwest across Arizona so generally clouds will be moving with the prevailing winds from the west. It is very rare at the Canyon to be above...
BlueSkyRC - Multi-Rotor Products
This stairway leads to the interior of one of the most interesting structures in the Southwest, the Desert View Watchtower on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. This building was designed by Mary Colter who was working, at the time, for Fred Harvey. This...
The Desert View Watchtower is an architectural masterpiece located right on the edge of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. The Tower is modeled after ancient ancestral Puebloans watchtowers found in the Four Corners region and was designed by Architect...
I was impressed with the patterns of this melting snow and the lonely little pine cone in the center. In northern Arizona, they use cinders on icy roads instead of salt so all along the roads the snow has volcanic cinders embedded in the snow banks. There...
I read some alarming statements by The Ancestry Insider that intimated that FamilySearch.org may be considering abandoning the unified FamilyTree before it even gets operating. Is it possible that the challenge of fixing the data is too daunting? Going...
As genealogists we talk a lot about "sources" but we do not have a very rigorous definition of the term to support our dialoge. Even though different researchers are using the same word, what is meant by the term covers a pretty large and rather vague...
There is some small controversy about gaining access to FamilySearch.org's Family Tree program. First of all, the program is live and not a Beta test. It is well on its way to replacing New.FamilySearch.org with many features in New.FamilySearch.org being...
These loud and aggressive birds do not fly south or anywhere else for the Winter. They hang around and make squawking noises all Winter long. They are lovely if you look at their feathers closely but they are also ready to snatch anything you leave unattended....
Over the past week, Family History Expos has been transitioning to its new faster and updated website. All of us at Family History Expos are thrilled with the new site. Most of the changes are not visible but will ultimately result in a much faster and...
A few weeks ago, I got an email from my friend Janet Hovorka about a new book she had just finished writing and had some proof copies. She graciously sent me a copy of the book for review. The book turned out to be delightful. What a gem. It does appear...
I like the pastel colors of the Canyon when there is a storm. This photo was taken when it was almost snowing. Within a few minutes, the snow blew in and we had to stop taking pictures. It was freezing cold, but this is the best time to take pictures...
The first thing you learn about oleanders when you grow up in Phoenix is that they are poisonous. I used to think a lot about this when I was sent out to cut the huge oleander hedge that we had around our yard. I always wondered if I was going to die....
I thought you might like to see what the floating rock looks like from a little bit further away. It is still floating.
I found this rock floating over the Grand Canyon. Really. You can see the dark smaller rock floating over the shelf behind the fat person holding a plant. The reason this hasn't been discovered previously is because there was a fog bank behind the rocks....
Over the past hundred years or so, there have been a slew of books written about the William Tanner family which is my direct family line and includes some notable members including John Tanner. But as I have written about in the past, these books are...
Sometimes it isn't easy getting photos, especially when the wind is blowing and the rain is starting to come in. On my recent trip to northern Arizona, I spent a lot of time trying to take pictures under an umbrella. But when the rain is blowing sideways...
I wonder if FamilySearch really understands the potential of FamilySearch.org? They seem to be moving towards putting the pieces together, but I have yet to hear anyone articulate the website's true potential in a coherent fashion. The closest presentation...
