Welcome back! Last month I promised you something shiny to start with and here it is.... Copper. The town of Clarkdale has a nice copper museum in the old high school. The area around here was a very active copper mining area. They have a very nice timeline that tells about the history of copper. The displays are set up in the old classrooms and there is a sign by each door that tells what subject was taught in each class room, so you are getting two history lessons in one.
It was interesting that many objects that were on display came from Michigan, including the one in the top picture.
Copper has many uses, one is for artillery shells. During World War One many solders made objects from artillery shells. They made everything from vases and ash trays to toys. They have one room filled with all different objects made from artillery shell casings. These next two pictures show some of these.
Did you know that copper is used in dark chocolate? I didn't but I do now. Just shows how educational our blog can be. Another thing copper is used for is jewelry. It's said copper is helpful for arthritis suffers. I don't know if this has been a proven medical fact but I can say from my own experience that it has helped me.
Copper has been used for cooking and for decoration. For years they made embossed tiles out of copper for ceiling tiles. How would you like to have to polish your ceiling?
Early kitchens had an open hearth with hooks to hang pots and kettles. Then there were wood fired stoves, some with copper embellishments. Even today many cooks love to cook with copper due to the fact that it heats quickly and evenly.
How about a kitchen like this. Very beautiful. You could even throw in the copper pots and pans.
They even have a BIG beautiful still. How's that for home brewing?
The old style diving helmets were made from brass and copper.
Adding different metals to glass produces different colored glass.
They even have shelves full of candy molds, many a lot older then I am even though my grandchildren don't believe there is much around that is older then me.
For breakfast we often go to the town of Cottonwood which is 17 miles from us. On one of our Saturday trips we found ourselves with a Santa parade for entertainment. Not quite the traditional parade we see back in Michigan. A lot of horses and wagons.
Notice anything missing? That's right, no snow. It was a sunny but chilly day.
There were mountainmen on horseback and mules.
A lot of tractors and wagons and more tractors and wagons.
There was even my favorite, Snoopy on a tractor pulling a wagon.
They even had a couple of fire trucks like back home, but I don't ever remember seeing the mounted calvary in a parade back home.
Of course there was Santa, on a wagon, being pulled by a truck from the fire department. We were told by a local gentleman that the same person has been the parade Santa for 40 years...now that's a career Santa.
We took a trip to Sedona which is only about 15 miles from us. What a beautiful place to live. The red rocks around the area are wonderful. The first four pictures were taken right in town.
As we wandered around town Holly thought it would be a good idea to stop and get a good word in with the man. I didn't have the heart to tell her that her request probably wouldn't make it to the right person.
We took the scenic drive out of Sedona and it was very scenic indeed. Think back to the days of watching westerns in black and white; this picture reminds me of this. There are some of you who don't remember watching anything in black and white so believe me, you've missed out.
We drove to Prescott Valley again this year to visit the drive through light display. Here are just a few pictures I took this year. If you would like to see more pictures of the displays you can see them in the December post from 2015.
We take turns opening presents so everyone can see what everyone receives. Here is Brutus trying to guess what he got before opening his. Ruby is telling him to hurry up so she can open hers.
Here they are with their Christmas treats. I have to help them with bags that have zip locks...no thumbs!
That's it for December. We had a good Christmas and hope you all did too. As you can see we had a dusting of snow Christmas Eve. It was gone by morning down in the valley but the mountains around us were covered and quite the sight to wake up to. The new year has began and that means we should be looking for a summer job but we are not. That is due to the fact that we already have one. Where you ask are we going this summer? Let me say that it's about 2000 miles from where we are now and it has four distinct seasons. Stop by next month and I'll tell you then. Bye for now.
