Ajo, early 2026

Ajo was waiting for me when I arrived on October 20^th. The sky was fair and the temperature was in the low 70s. Yes, this is the reason that I abandon Medford in the winter time.

This year I drove to Ajo solo. Anne had several appointments and was going to fly to Phoenix in a couple of weeks. The highway route that I drove was familiar. Listening to a selected mystery story on the radio was a great mental benefit but driving alone was still very tiring. I did a walk-about at every rest stop. The road trip takes two overnights and a half of a day before and after. I could force myself to drive more hours each day but I have had it after 300 – 400 miles.

The home at 565 W Guest House Road had weathered our absence well. The door unlocked, the lights turned on and no creatures scurried in alarm. The limited amount of cold goods that had joined me while riding in the rear seat refrigerator were quickly transferred to the house fridge. I turned water taps back on and went straight to bed.

The first order of business the next morning was to drive to Olsen’s super market, Until Anne arrived I would be cooking for myself and there was nothing in the refrigerator. I embarrassingly admit that I have never solo shopped to stock the fridge and the pantry. I did have a bit of help. The store manager, Maribeth, is also our neighbor on Guest House Road. She was handy with answers each time I interrupted her shelf-stock inventory counting. Her “happy to help” spirit was no doubt stressed by my interruptions.

My shopping cart was occupied, but it was by no means full. I shopped with care and with price awareness. Nothing in the cart was exorbitant. When I pushed the cart with its bagged goods out of Olsen’s front door, I had felt proud of the accomplishment but I felt lighter by over $200.

When we left Ajo last spring brother Dave and I had seen to the finishing of the inside of Anne’s she shed, now to be called by the title of Quilt Studio. The approach to the studio’s door was cement block set in dirt and gravel. Opening the door and stepping in, and the reverse opening and exiting were awkward movements, from and to the block step. The quilt studio needed a front deck. This would make the transitions more comfortable.

The closest full-service hardware/lumber supply store was Lowe’s in Buckeye. Lowe’s, in Buckeye, shared the same I-10 exit as did all of the main “time to stock-up” shopping stores. At Lowe’s I purchased the deck’s foundation timber and hardware. The deck cover was Pergo Decking. I didn’t have the capacity in my GMC Canyon pickup to truck the load home. Within the next couple of days, Lowe’s would deliver the goods to Ajo.

An afternoon measuring and an evening at the dining table sketching had produced the materials list for the quilt studio deck. Dave loaned me his chop-saw and when Lowe’s delivered I was ready. I think that Anne will appreciate the convenience of her new deck.

The Fat Cactus is a restaurant that Anne and I enjoyed visiting. Their main food is pizza, sliders and salads. Once a week, Doug, the owner, would conduct a trivia night. Being a former history teacher, this seemed a comfortable niche. The first time that we played we won and we left $100 to the good.

During the summer the Fat Cactus had moved. A restaurant space had become available at the Ajo Central Plaza. One evening I stopped at the restaurant for dinner. The building had a formal dining side and an adjoining full service pub. That evening there were many guest involve in visiting, eating dinners; and several were sitting on stools at the bar, enjoying a draft while engrossed in one of the big screens presenting a ball game or the trots.

At the rear end of the pub was a pool table. I asked at the bar what the table commitment was to play. “If no one else was using the table, go for it.” So I did. I played against myself a game of 8-ball, more commonly known as stars and stripes.  Well, there can only be one winner, and I was it.

Everything about the Fat Cactus was new and professionally presented. Well everything except the pool table’s amenities. Cues leaned against the wall, there being no cue stand, and the cues were old and in ragged states.  As I said my goodnights, I was thinking that there may be something I could do that would lend to the ambiance of the pub.

I had not yet published my Curley Woodshop Steward commitment time and date. I didn’t feel that I was settled in yet. I was, however, going to use the shop. Over the years the shop has collected a myriad of odd wood pieces; dining table inserts, bed head and foot boards, and just odd stuff. I located a matched pair of large diameter, turned table legs. An idea formed. If the legs were the end pieces, and if there was a top plank and a bottom plank, the legs could make a beefy poolhall cue rack.

After a few minutes doing some dimensional drafting, I set out to collect wood that would be needed. Two short lengths of 1 x 6 inch oak would form the top plate and the bottom plate. I planed and sanded each board and then I drilled six holes in the top board through which cues could be inserted. On the bottom board six holes were also drilled to accept the cue handle tips. The bottom holes were offset a bit towards the front of the future rack so that cues would slant a bit away from the walk path. 

The table legs were not damaged but they had lost a lot of original finish. I had learned long ago that sanding round pieces of wood was easiest done while the wood was turning on the lathe. It took but a couple of minutes to clean each leg down to bare wood. While still on the lathe, each leg was sanded to 400 grit to form a near shiny surface. A walnut stain was applied to each leg and to the two oak pieces.

The project was coming together. I had only one worry. I didn’t know for sure what the diameter of the cue handle was. I selected 1-1/2” and I kept my fingers crossed. When it was completed, I loaded it onto the Club Car and rode to the Fat Cactus restaurant. When there was no management staff present, I carried the new rack to the wall by the pool table. I inserted the daggy old cues into the rack and then I went to the dining room for a meal.

Doug, the owner, stopped to great me. We visited a bit and then I told him that he had a Business Warming gift near the pool table. When Doug returned he was all grin. I hadn’t known it but he had ordered new cues that were due to arrive any day. With his new cues, the rack looked perfect.

The Sonoran Desert is native home to many specie of cacti. Perhaps the most memorable cactus specie is the Saguaro cactus. This plant often grows for a few hundred years and it may form many limbs. The Saguaro stately forms dense populations on the desert floor. On distant hillsides the cactus stands out singularly as the reigning ruler of the neighboring plant kingdom.

Like all other living organisms, the Saguaro has at infant stage. It begins as a seed that has been spread by birds, primarily. As one might expect when in the desert, there many bad places to begin life, and there are a few good places. The best place for a Saguaro to start out is under the shade umbrella of a tree. A common shade opportunity is provided by the Creosote bushes; another may be a Palo Verde tree. These trees are often called nursery trees. Their shade and soil coolness assist in the cactus’ earliest growth

Anne’s airplane finally arrived and the meals got better. Last year, Anne was elected President of the Ajo Piece Makers, the quilting club. Every Wednesday morning the club meets in the old Ajo Lions Club building. At the meetings there are demonstrations, show and tells, and sometimes there is sewing for charitable donations.

For the past few decades the Piece Makers have hosted a Quilt Show in the Curley School Auditorium. The show is two days long. Members of the club present quilts to be hung for show and sometimes quilts that they wish to sell. Each year there is a raffle quilt that all members have participated in its creation. Contributions from the raffle benefit the Ajo community.

Each year the quilters challenge themselves to create a quilted table runner, place mat, etc., that follows a specific theme. The member’s finished work is hung with others at the quilt show. The winner of the last year’s contest gets to define the theme for the next year’s contest. This year’s theme was “Stars”. Last year’s contest winner had been Joy Duncan. This year Joy won second place.

The success of the Quilt Show forms the basis for the Piece Makers’ ability to monetarily contribute to the Ajo community. It would seem that Anne had inherited with the year’s leadership position a mountain of information about the quilt show that had never been logically organized.

The quilt club has been a club for a few decades. Past presidents had been long termers in the club, they had participated in many quilt shows. They had learned form exposure what it took to put together the annual show. Anne was a relative newbie. Order of procedures and their documentation are very important for Anne to be comfortable with such a task. She found that that just wasn’t in the files. After many hours of many days, Anne had organized the quilt show files in a manner that she was comfortable passing on to next year’s leader.

Another source of stress for this year’s president was the dwindling population of the Piece Makers club. Without sufficient club members, putting on activities such as the Quilt Show wouldn’t be possible. Recruitment of new club members is important. Anne put together a weekly Copper Newspaper ad aimed at generating interest in the craft. She is also looking at ways to introduce sewing skills to the Ajo High School.

While all of this Piece Makers activity seemed to fill her days, Anne enjoyed her quilting studio. She would disappear for hours while she completed old projects, or while she created new and wonderful gifts for the family, friends or for the community. During one of her periods of studio hibernation, Anne finished a quilt that she titled Twirl.

Twirl is indeed a magnificent, detail oriented work of art. Many hours went into creating its craftmanship. Anne proudly entered Twirl in the quilt show. Each guest to the quilt show is given a ballet that on which they are asked to select their favorite work, and others by rank order. This year’s show was successful. Anne can now relax at her winter home. While she is doing that, she can reflect upon the degree of satisfaction that Twirl brought to her when it was voted “Best of Show”.

You can’t by a used lawn mower in Ajo. Homes in this neighborhood don’t have lawns. A tour down a street will present front yards with some form of growth, however. The most frequent yard motif will be that of native Sonoran Desert. This scene, to a newcomer will resemble the unkept weed patch that the neighbor, four doors down, had in their front yard.

All homes are sealed off from society by a 4 foot high chain-link fence. This tradition didn’t begin as a territorial display as it may have been in other bergs. The perimeter fencing was the only way that the mid-night herds of Javalinas could be kept from eating your young cactus or from foraging in your garbage storage vault.

Less frequent but more enjoyable to look at are the designer yards. These yards will feature a native bush or tree, and perhaps it may host a giant Saguaro cactus. Regardless of the specific yard features the designer homes would all have unused ground covered with crushed gravel.

The fully graveled yards was a tradition which probably began in the late 1800’s with the earliest settlers. All of the new inhabitants would have come from moister climes and they no doubt suffered from lawn separation anxiety. A spouse may have said, “I don’t care what it is, just cover it all so it looks tidy and well kept.” Gravel was handy.

I am pleased to report that we are a designer yard family. Our yard is chain-link enclosed and it has several native trees and bushes scattered about. The unplanted grounds were once covered with ¾” crushed gravel. Over many years the gravel coverage became thinned out and bare desert dirt was exposed. This picture was not in keeping with the yard’s motif. Repairs were called for.

Over a glass of wine and a can of fruit flavored Bubly, Anne and I discussed our yard options. After twelve minutes two things happened; one, my wine glass was empty, and two, we decided to replace the crushed gravel with small river rock. The ½ - ¾” stones were not bare feet bandage promoters, as was the jagged crushed gravel. We felt that the smooth stone would make the yard look better. Plus, the smaller, smooth orbs could make perfect sling-shot ammo.

The area of all of the uncovered yard was calculated. To provide a lasting coverage, it was considered that a two inch layer of river rock would be sufficient. The math created a volume of nine cubic yards of stone. That translated to 11 tons.

A “river rock near me” google search came up with ABC Sand & Rock, in Phoenix. I made the order and I grinned when I heard that the order was large enough that there would be no additional delivery cost. I was assured that the 8 foot wide truck would be able to back through our 10 foot wide gate opening.

The following Monday morning I received a text message from Johnny, the delivery man, that he would arrive within 15 minutes. I could hear the heavy diesel truck slowly making its way to our address. Johnny pulled the enormous Peterbilt dump truck to a long “pshhhh” stop at the front gate. After visitations and load validation Johnny had me hold the gate open wide as he cautiously herded the behemoth between the gate posts.

I signaled a stop when he reached the dump spot on the cement driveway. Slowly the long bed of the dump truck raised and the tail gate flapped open. As Johnny slowly pulled the truck forward, the full nine yards fell to the pad. I signed for the delivery, thanked Johnny, and as he drove away I pulled the gate shut and gasped at what nine yards of river rock looked like.

Anne had told me earlier that I was to hire helpers to load and wheel-barrow the stones across the yard. After finishing their fulltime workday shift, two helpers came to the gate. Cindy was a heavier set, 30ish woman, who looked like she could handle a shovel. Whisper was a younger, 20ish man, who also looked fit enough to shovel and haul the stones. During our welcoming introductions, Cindy shared that she had come to Ajo some 25 years ago; originally from New Jersey. Whisper told me that he was born and raised in the Tohono O’odham Nation, centered in Sells, AZ, a few miles to the east of Ajo.

Cindy and Whisper loaded, I directed, and Whisper dumped. This took place for a couple of hours over the next three days. During the cool of the next day’s morning I raked out the many piles of river rock. I congratulated Whisper for his shoveling and hauling of 11 tons of stone. To that thought he said, “Wow, that’s 11 thousand pounds”. His eyes got larger when I said that it was actually 22 thousand pounds of stones.

When I walked over the newly dressed yard, I too got impressed. The number of stones might have marveled the number of stars in Carl Sagan’s heaven. What if each stone was valued at $1, what would our new yard be worth? That value could be estimated.

I snuck one of Anne’s plastic mixing bowls and with the aid of her sensitive electronic kitchen scales, I carefully and randomly loaded 5.00 pounds of the stone. Then, with tinny in hand, I sat outside and I counted the number of stones in the 5 pounds. I counted 204 stones. There are 200 x 5 pounds in a thousand pounds or, 200 x 204 = 40,800 stones in a half ton. Multiply that by 22, for 11 tons, and you get ~897,600 stones.

Drats! The yard looks like a million bucks but it is just not worth it.