Author Archives: Joe

Our first grandchild, Jude Hezekiah Lester, was born on January 16, 2023, and baptized on Feb 11, 2023, which is also the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. This post has some pictures from his baptism. It was a beautiful …

Mary Ann and I went to the Desert Botanical Garden (DBG) on December 13, 2022. We hadn’t been there for quite a while. We got there at about 9:00 AM, and left at about 11:30. It was a cold morning, …

Dave and I went to the Pinal Mountains on October 31. Dave wanted to get some drone footage of the fall colors. I was happy to go along. I hadn’t been to the Pinals since the Telegraph fire last year. …

Mary Ann and I went to the Verde River on October 18. We stopped at three recreation sites, which are all close together: Needle Rock Recreation Site, Verde River Recreation Site, and Box Bar Recreation Site. Needle Rock is about …

Mary Ann and I went to the Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch (RPWR) on Wednesday, October 5. We got there at 7 and left at about 10. It was really nice weather in the morning, but by 10:00 it was …

Dave, Fr. Charlie, and I went to Mingus Mountain on August 11, 2022. It’s a 2 hr drive from Fr. Charlie’s place, and we got there at about 8:30 AM. It was my first trip to Mingus Mountain. We wanted …

Fr. Charlie and I went to Woods Canyon Lake on July 7, 2022. The lake is on the Mogollon Rim at an elevation of 7,500 ft, so it’s a nice place to get some cool weather on an unusually hot …

I’ve been asked about our fig tree, and pruning it, so I thought I would do a post. If you’re not interested in fig trees, then you won’t be interested in this post.…

Mary Ann, Fr. Charlie, and I went to Mt. Ord on June 16. We got to FR1688 (Forest Road 1688) at about 8:20 AM. We met Ann Leight there, who is a prolific birder and posts a lot on ebird.org. …

Mary Ann, Fr. Charlie, and I, went to Boyce Thompson Arboretum (BTA) on May 23, 2022. We got there at around 8:00 AM, and left at about 11:30, and then had lunch at Los Hermanos in Superior. I dropped off …