#11-3 Civil War re-enactment–Yuma Battery

The Yuma Sun newspaper has a section every day that tells what is going on around the area. We read about the Civil War battles and battle field re-enactment being held in Old Town Yuma over the weekend, so we went one afternoon. It was very well done, with tents and supply stores, an old time vaudeville show and even a battlefield hospital.

The tents that the Confederate soldiers slept in and the operating tent are pictured above.

Civil War battle re-enactment VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Above is the Gatling gun that the Union soldiers used against the Confederates. One battle we saw, the Confederate’s won, the next the Union soldiers won. It was a nice day, and we had a nice time.

#11-6 Feb 14 and 17, Martha’s Garden and Jazz on the green.

Valentines Day found us with the Cactus Wrens HR club again on an outing to Martha’s Garden, a fairly new Date Grove. Their oldest trees are 20 years old. The son of the owner was our guide. They only take out 20 people at a time and we all ride on the tram with various stops along the way where we learned about date farming.

Above our guide is telling us how the dates grow, are pollinated, and harvested. This is a year round job, with the bulk of the work done during the pollination (all by hand) and then the harvesting, again all by hand.

The flower stem is just beginning to grow up through the fronds. It will be pollinated and continue to ripen throughout the summer. Dates need hot dry weather to produce. They are harvested in late fall or early winter. It all depends on the summer weather as to when they ripen.

Above is a newly planted field of date palms. They grow about 5 to 7 years before they produce any fruit. Sure looks hot and dry to me. The palms have to have water during the year and all the irrigation is under ground. This particular farm is not on the irrigation canal so has eight wells drilled and pumping water to each of the 3,500 acres of trees.

Below is the view looking down from the mesa that the palm trees are on and into the valley where the canal is used for irrigation. Acres and acres of “food.” It is the lettuce capital of the world.

The evening of 2-17 we attended the Jazz series concert at the Yuma Palms Mall. It is held outside, and again when the sun went down we got cold and returned to the RV. We stayed for the first half and were nicely entertained.

#11-5 - Feb 11, 2011 Rodeo at Fairgrounds in Yuma

We went to the Rodeo in the late afternoon, and by the time the sun set we were cold and came back to the RV. But what we saw was well worth the price of admission.

We dressed up in our cowboy outfits to go to the Rodeo. Yee Haw!

The Rodeo Clown was also part time M.C.

Above is the bronco rider. He stayed on the full 8 seconds.

We watched the little kids try and ride the sheep. It’s called Mutton Riding. A 5 year old boy stayed on the longest and he won a nice belt buckle.

Below is a video of the calf roping we saw while at the Rodeo.

#11-4 Feb 3, 2011 in El Centro, CA

Experimental Farm near El Centro, CA. This was a tour with our Holiday Rambler friends, The Cactus Wrens HR Club.

We sit on straw bales and the wagons are pulled by tractors to the different parts of the “farm.”

There were four wagon loads of people, not all from our group, and we would stop at interesting spots where the guide would tell us what they were growing and testing. They test fertilizers, insecticides and different

hybrid varieties of plants.

Above some of the people tried to siphon water out of the irrigation ditch, which was how it was done before the pipes were put underground.

After the wagon tour we were all fed a great lunch from vegetables grown on the farm. Good salad!

Then we went to the class room for our final learning experience. It was only about an hour and then we were treated to ice cream and fiddle music.

El Centro is about 60 miles west of Yuma, AZ and it took us a good hour to drive. After the tour most of us headed to Costco to stock up on supplies. Yuma doesn’t have a Costco. Then back to Yuma. A very full and enjoyable day. We even had perfect weather. Not too hot and the wind wasn’t blowing at all.