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Yep! It’s a crazy woodpecker! Just be glad it wasn’t something he could penetrate like a vinyl roof! Probably why manufacturers require a yearly roof inspection and regular cleanings because you are likely to see the damage.
 
Southern Arizona ... I keep hearing a noise that sounds like a woodpecker trying really hard to peck on something metal. Could that really be? I've never heard that sound in other places with woodpeckers. Wouldn't they hurt their little beaks and stop? Whatever it is just took a crack at my air conditioner. It didn't stay long but I've heard this go on for quite a while other times ...
Ravens? Water?
 
There REALLY is a “Southern Arizona Woodpecker”. They peck on metal to create a “drumming” sound. It is partly a mating call ritual activity. They are also found in New Mexico and their natural range goes far down into Mexico.
 
I was getting low on drinking water so I went into Flagstaff today to get some and a few groceries as well. As I was driving into town I was approaching an intersection that I knew led to the maker space in Flagstaff. I had been wanting to your it for the past 3 summers and today was the right day to make that happen! Sunday is their open house day from 2 to 4 where you can tour the facility if you are interested in joining it or even just seeing it. I was a bit early for that so I ran my other errands and went back at 2. The people who were hanging out were busy with another couple so I did a self guided tour. It is not as if I did not already know what all the tools in the workshop are for and how to use them. But I eventually grabbed a stool and sat down and had a long chat with one of the senior members.

Membership at the COC0-OP maker space is $50 a month and you can sign up for just one month but if you do not know how to use the various tools you will not be just turned loosee in the shop. You will have to take classes with safety instructions. Plus even if you do know what you are doing you will have to attend the rules, regulations, proper behavior for cleaning up snd putting stuff away.

There is a wood shop, a metal shop area and that includes welding equipment. There is room with lots of sewing machines including a powerful Juki that has a walking pressure foot and can be used for leather or canvas work.

There are also the digital fabrication tools, a laser cutter, vinyl cutter and a couple of 3D printers. Unfortunately no CNC milling machines or lathes but they do have manual mills and lathes.

That maker space does allow snowbirds in and sometimes has a few people who join up come do things like fabricating, repaying or modifying cabinets. There is also a “lending library” of tools members can check out such as circular saws, routers, jigsaws, drill motors. I did not see any battery tools on the shelf or a generator. But it could be since it was a weekend they had already been checked out. The parking lot is small so you are not going to be able to pull in and do a complete build while staying there. It is not setup for that. There is a Home Depot literally just a couple of blocks away! Plus one of the most popular activities, pottery with wheels and kilns.
 
I hear the wind howling up in the tree tops but fortunately those tall trees are blocking it from buffeting my travel trailer in its full force. 40mph gust are predicted for this afternoon during the hottest hours of the day. As I knew today was hoping to bring strong gust I ran my essential errand yesterday. But if I get stir crazy, cabin fever there is a truckstop with McDonalds close by. An iced beverage buys the right to sit at a table for slow sipping and free Wi-Fi in the air conditioning.
I will deploy my shade cloth around my trailer tomorrow. I might even put up my screen room under the trees the day after that …if I feel energetic.
 
A bit of excitement today. I saw some flashing emergency lights on several forest service vehicles including one that had a trailer behind a pickup with “Fire”on the door. They were all parked very close by to my campsite. Of course I did go out to see if I needed to prepare to evacuate but was assured it was unlikely I would need to do so. There was indeed a small wild fire about a mile to the east but the wind was coming from the southwest so it was not heading my way. The fire crews caught it while it was still small and got it put out by sunset. That was fantastic especially considering the high wind gust today!
The fire was likely created by an arsonist who appears to have be active in this region setting a number of fires in the forest around Flagstaff. It is not being caused by lighting or people’s campfires during this current burn ban. I am looking forward to heading back to camping in the Kaibab forest areas away from the city of Flagstaff. Do not get me wrong, I really do like the town and the forest areas around it. But this situation will have me keeping things tidy and ready for a very fast departure time. That means I won’t be setting up my screen room/workshop space tomorrow after all.
 
We have people near Ruidoso, don't we? Stay safe, y'all!
 
Southern Arizona ... I keep hearing a noise that sounds like a woodpecker trying really hard to peck on something metal. Could that really be? I've never heard that sound in other places with woodpeckers. Wouldn't they hurt their little beaks and stop? Whatever it is just took a crack at my air conditioner. It didn't stay long but I've heard this go on for quite a while other times ...
This time of year the male woodpeckers will find the loudest thing to bang on because, as a bird expert here told me, The loudest male gets the most females to choose from... The D#$% things like to wake us up around here by banging on the metal wheelbarrow under our window. We move the wheelbarrow but still they find something metal to bang on. Last year we had one banging on the metal rain gutters can't really move those.
 
Until now I always thought they just did it to find bugs. I guess I've only lived around more retiring woodpeckers. Glad to know there's some heavy-metal woodpecker romance going on around here!
 
Tomorrow the monsoon rainy season begins! There is a chance of precipitation all this next 7 days! There is also a stage 2 burn ban in effect which means if I do use a generator it has to ge in a 3 foot diameter bare dirt area per stage 2 rules. I can arrange that however I have not yet changed my little generator over to the high altitude jet. Procrastination might catch up with me!

I am hoping that there is enough rain this next few weeks to reduce the fire risks quickly without lightening strike fires or flash flooding. It is bad enough having a “fire bug” at work in this area starting wild fires without “Thor” punishing us nomadic humans from the sky by throwing lightning bolts.

I will get busy today running my cutting machine today while there is lots of solar power input as I had a good sized Etsy order come in.
 
I have to teach my first English classes tomorrow (assuming nothing in this crazy organization blows it up). One for kids and one for adults. I'm so nervous I feel like seven overcaffeinated gerbils are skateboarding inside my skull. There's really nothing to be /that/ nervous about, but tell that to the gerbils lol. I'd feel a lot more comfortable with this if the organization wasn't so crazy but hey, you can only do what you can do, right? I'm sure it will be fine. Afterward I get ice cream. :LOL:
 
I have to teach my first English classes tomorrow (assuming nothing in this crazy organization blows it up). One for kids and one for adults. I'm so nervous I feel like seven overcaffeinated gerbils are skateboarding inside my skull. There's really nothing to be /that/ nervous about, but tell that to the gerbils lol. I'd feel a lot more comfortable with this if the organization wasn't so crazy but hey, you can only do what you can do, right? I'm sure it will be fine. Afterward I get ice cream. :LOL:
You'll be great at it! And if you give those gerbils just a little more caffeine, they will crash and calm down.

hamster-eating-ice-cream-seaside-hamster-eating-ice-cream-seaside-generated-use-ai-280715482.jpg
 
I have been watching some physio therapy videos for persons over 50. They keep saying I should not be reading or watching TV in my bed. Also they areshowing a lot of exercises to do that require laying stretched on the floor or require standing against a wall or sitting in an armless chair or standing behind one with hands on the back of a chair for balance. So far no exercises to do while standing on rocky, uneven ground or while sitting in a relatively weak folding canvas chair. Or exercises that can be done while hunched over in a van or lying on a very cramped floor area you can barely move around in. No mention of isometric exercises either, those must have been a passing fad that went out of fashion 40 years ago while I was still in my 30s 🤪

Let me jump right on that exercise to improve my stability to prevent falls that requires me to put a towel between my back and a wall while stretching out my arms to each side ar shoulder height h while placing my feet a foot away from the wall as I press my head and shoulders back against the wall! There is no such wall in my life🤣
 
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Online advice like that does tend to be pretty one-size-fits-all, which can be annoying if your circumstances are different. Still, I'm sure it wouldn't be the first time you've adapted generic advice to make it work for van life!
For YouTube PT, I like the "Ask Dr. Jo" videos. She is relentlessly cheerful and kind of goofy, which may or may not be any one person's preferred style, but she does it well, and her advice seems solid as far as I can tell.
Here's one video of hers on balance exercises.

I spot-checked the first few and they don't seem to require anything but a place to stand upright and something you can grab for support if necessary. That's probably something all balance exercises will require. If some exercises require more, you can skip those.
I don't know if she gets to the one where you just stand upright and walk heel to toe. I found that both challenging and helpful, also something where you may see relatively rapid progress once your brain figures out what you're asking it to do.
Always have something you can grab onto if you start to fall. If a chair or counter isn't practical, it seems like carrying a walking stick might work (?).
In search of a stable wall or seating, don't rule out outside walls, public buildings, picnic tables, and the like.
 
One exercise I saw for seniors was pretty interesting. It was related to tripping over your own feet which can cause bad falls. Some people call that being clumsy in your old age but it has a real cause beyond simply being uncoordinated. There is a muscle that runs down the front of the calf to the feet. As you take a step forward it automatically lifts up your toe area. When that muscle gets too weak then you can literally trip over your own feet as your toe is not lifted up high enough for clearance as you step forward. Typically this exercise is known as doing toe lifts which strengthens that muscle. Runners do them too to help prevent falls. So it is not just for seniors but you do not always see exercising that muscle on the list of essential senior exercises. But it is very important for fall prevention for dispersed camping seniors as the ground is typically very uneven so our toes truly are in need of very good ground clearance as we walk around campsites or go on nature walks or walk the dogs. This one is very easy to do with more than one technique and it is not just for seniors.
 
One exercise I saw for seniors was pretty interesting. It was related to tripping over your own feet which can cause bad falls. Some people call that being clumsy in your old age but it has a real cause beyond simply being uncoordinated. There is a muscle that runs down the front of the calf to the feet. As you take a step forward it automatically lifts up your toe area. When that muscle gets too weak then you can literally trip over your own feet as your toe is not lifted up high enough for clearance as you step forward. Typically this exercise is known as doing toe lifts which strengthens that muscle. Runners do them too to help prevent falls. So it is not just for seniors but you do not always see exercising that muscle on the list of essential senior exercises. But it is very important for fall prevention for dispersed camping seniors as the ground is typically very uneven so our toes truly are in need of very good ground clearance as we walk around campsites or go on nature walks or walk the dogs. This one is very easy to do with more than one technique and it is not just for seniors.
That was the Bob & Brad program for seniors! They're definitely not one-exercise-suits-all!
 
That was the Bob & Brad program for seniors! They're definitely not one-exercise-suits-all!
I have never heard of or seen anything about the Bob and Brad program. I guess I still not old enough to be attracted to that type of show 🤣
 
Everyone stay cool and dry, depending on location.

Socal, and we're getting 98 degrees today. Temperature, not the singing group.
 
Monsoon season has begun here near Flagstaff so the high temperature has dropped down from the 90s.
 
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