August 2010, plenty of rain, even saw a few mushrooms popping up.
Bing map of Walker
Dan Pace's on the upper left
http://bing.com/maps They're blurry, but they have all the roads labeled, but they don't go where the map shows them going. You'll have to download some stuff beforehand, they'll try to make msn.com your home page, etc, have to really study what you're clicking on. I only run Microsoft stuff in Internet Explorer, don't want to pollute Firefox with it.
Lion attacks June 9 2010
I found this fairly fresh dead deer covered in leaves.
I read mountain lions cover their kills with leaves, etc. There was a guy attacked not far from here last week, and a young lion was sighted a few hundred yards from here. I'm arming myself with a machete. If confronted, yell and wave your arms at it. (pretend it's your spouse).
Quote from 'Mountain Lions of Texas'- If you are in a park or other area where lions are known to be present, hike with others, not alone. If small children are present, keep them close to you and within sight at all times. Carry a sturdy walking stick, it can be used to ward off a lion. 2. DO NOT APPROACH A LION, especially one that is feeding or has cubs. Leave the lion an avenue of escape. 3. STAY CALM, when you encounter a lion. Talk calmly and move slowly. 4. STOP, back away slowly only if you can do so safely. DO NOT RUN AWAY OR TURN YOUR BACK. 5. DO ALL YOU CAN TO APPEAR LARGER by raising your arms. Pick up children to prevent them from running and possibly triggering an attack. 6. IF THE LION IS AGGRESSIVE, throw rocks, sticks or whatever you can get your hands on easily. Wave your arms, brandish a stick, speak firmly and loudly. DO NOT BEND OVER OR TURN YOUR BACK. 7. FIGHT BACK, if a lion attacks you. Lions can be driven off by fighting back with whatever you can get your hands on. Remain standing. If the lion knocks you down, try to get back on your feet.
IF YOU LIVE IN AN AREA KNOWN TO BE INHABITED BY LIONS, THERE ARE SEVERAL PRECAUTIONS YOU CAN TAKE. THESE PREVENTIVE ACTIONS WILL HELP YOU AVOID A POSSIBLE LION ATTACK: 1. Install outdoor lighting in areas where you walk after dark so you can see a lion, if present. 2. Landscape or remove any vegetation a lion could hide in around children’s play areas. Make it difficult for a lion to approach unseen. 3. DO NOT FEED WILDLIFE and do not plant palatable shrubs since this will also attract deer. Remember, predators follow prey. 4. Keep pets under control. Roaming pets are easy prey and can attract lions. If you leave pets outside, confine them to kennels with tops. Store all garbage securely. 5. Children should be closely supervised while playing outside if lions have been seen in the area
Copied from http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3AcNg0B4oehkUJ%3Awww.tpwmagazine.com%2Fnature%2Fmedia%2FMountain-lion-guide.pdf+coyotes+lions+cover+kills+in+leaves&hl=en&gl=us A field guide to Texas Mountain Lions, by Billy Pat Mckinney
A local resident measured 8 feet of snowfall at his place this Winter.
Update June 2010, 3 of the 5 'reform' candidates were elected to the board, John Horvat, Bill Loughridge, Terry Piske. The other ones were Paul Nies and Mark Keegan, who had favorable reviews from 'someone who goes to the meetings.' The fire chief hiring fell through, I heard.
Verda Mae and John Horvat, who's the new board President
Update April 2010, dmherrin-at-gmail.com writes about the April Walker Fire Department's hiring of a new Fire Cheif:
We had several candidates come forward, including several who were offered salaries for their participation and at least one who VOLUNTEERED for the position. This volunteer has been a member of the Walker Fire Department for many years and has held multiple positions, including Assistant Chief. His schooling in fire management is at least equal to the present Chief. He did not have her medical qualifications, but with other volunteers in our community who do, he would not need to have them. This committee, after interviewing the candidates, chose an out-of-town person for the position, and offered him a salary of $45,000, based upon $20 per hour, to come to work for Walker on a 60% time basis.(I'm not sure how their figures actually added up) Add Work Comp, Taxes, and matching withholding, and that would commit about 40% of our available funds we have donated to actually run the department.
End Mark Herrin quote
Also Tim and Kristi McFarland, tkmcfarlan-at-wildblue.net,- Tim's President of the Fire Department -on the Fire District Survey-Overall, one can only conclude that going forward with the District in its current form would result in another failed attempt to achieve over 50% of the needed votes for the District to pass.
On the other hand, the data suggests there is an opportunity to redefine the District boundary to a smaller size that would leverage the yes votes in a manner that would allow a District to pass.
End Tim McFarland QUOTE
Write these people if you want more details. For the record, it's a great idea to pay people to train and fight fires.
Oh, they're only paying the Chief?
In that case, I suggest Walker residents build an incinerator- for pine needles and slash- out of 2nd hand concrete blocks from Yavapai Block, get fire block if possible, otherwise you have to keep the blocks wet during burning. Cover it with old roofing steel, I'll donate a few sheets. No you don't need a burn permit, it's inside a building, but note the wet blocks requirement. Phone 778-7363. My other strategy is throwing them in a hole and putting dirt on top of that.
Update March 2010, the drought is over! I think we had 6 feet of snow this winter, 2nd most in history. Flagstaff, 75 miles away, got 11.5 feet.
Update May 2010, drought is back, high winds have dried out the forest.
This tree had grown into 2 parts at about 15 feet, why it snapped off I guess, damaged a wood box
You can tell Angela loved every minute of it
These 2 broke off at 20 feet
And hit this powerline
About 8 fell on Falks, amazingly only this one hit anything expensive. They are at the end of a long narrow gulch that goes way up the mountain, must have been a funnel effect.
As soon as Shelley and I buried our food the power came back on
Props to Bud Mellor and Dan Pace who cleared some roads, and Dave Pollock who told me an easy way to put on chains, jack up the wheels with a hydraulic jack. I carry one in the Toyota, it's the only way to change a tire. I can see why people slept 10 hours a night before electricity, it's dark. The only 'must-have' electricity we needed was power to the heat tape in the pump house, I had a 12-volt battery and inverter that lasted a few hours. I want to get a solar battery charger, they're about $25 I think. One of those bicycle pedal generators, too. Or a 12-volt/solar powered heat tape, and some Yak Trax, you put them on your boots for traction on ice.
Remember when Walker had a Fire Department? This article got me all misty-eyed...
I ran all this by Howard Norman, here's his take:
"That proposed fire district tax rate is 0.59 per $100 of valuation. Still gives you $129 on your place. As I understand it that rate was calculated by taking the amount raised for WFDA last year and spreading it over the proposed tax base. I may have that wrong but that is what I understood. That would provide the same income that WFDA has now. The trouble with using that number is that it is not sustainable. You gain the ability to sign mutual aid agreements with Prescott but that is about all. I have analyzed the tax rates of the nineteen fire districts in Yavapai County. By adding the bond service costs to the stated tax rates you get the effective tax rate to a home owner/landowner. The median of that numbers is $1.97/100 valuation. That translates into $430 for your place if I did the math correct. In my opinion the median tax rate is a much more realistic number to use for any proposed Walker tax rate than any other number you can come up with. The other thing that comes out of my analysis is that there are 2/19 YCFD with tax rates of $3.25 which is the max allowed by state law. As well there are 2/19 with a tax rate <$1. In other words from a statistical stand point you have the same probability of have the max tax rate as you do of having one less than a dollar."
At the highest maximum of 3.25 it would be $650 per year for me. I don't think the Fire District would lower my fire danger. What lowered my fire danger was cutting down 20 trees around my house and building an incinerator to burn pine needles. The Fire District idea looks like some paper shuffling deal involving homeowners' insurance, which I don't have anyway. I favor selling all the WFD assets to a private entity, who could then sell subscriptions by the year, just like homeowners' insurance. Downside is you couldn't know from year to year what your budget would be. Upside, the fire protection would be non-governmental and (presumably) professional. I could have used a cherry picker to cut those trees safely instead of climbing a ladder with an electric chain saw and no ambulance driver.
Now a ROAD District, that I'd be interested in.
Bill Loughridge's Walker blog, it has all you could ask for re District, Fire Department, Insurance ISO ratings, etc. Hey, my post got deleted!
Looking south
Old Walker Mines
May 2009
I made about 15 of these around the pines to catch water.
Google has updated its maps
Here's a photo from June 2008, Google's looks like 2003 or 2004 when there were many dead trees with the needles still on them. If you cruise around, you'll see that there are TOO MANY PEOPLE! Also the google
3d view is flattened, real Walker is steeper.
June, 2007
Walker
Here's one I made using the Sheriff's Posse GPS file, you can see it yourself with easy_gps, download the gpx files here
The one with all the roads is 'Walker_all_rds.gpx'.
It has a bunch of numbers on it, where they took GPS readings, when you look at it in Easy GPS. They didn't get
North star mine road because the Forest Service put up a 'Dead End' sign about 500 yards before the road ended,
and the Posse believed it. Just another of the FS's little tricks. Also, Morning Star connects with it, not updated yet. Below is a flash movie, you can right-click and zoom in and pan,
it has some of the street addresses, although I heard the county has changed some.
You can also load it into Google Earth by going /file/open:
walker_all_rds.gpx
to
get rid
of the pushpins and numbers uncheck 'waypoints' in the
topografix.kml
Here's the one Dwight G. Bennett made in 1956. Download a big one here (573K)
Walker fly-around
With this program (walker.zip) you can fly around Walker and environs. It uses the Ogre engine, see ogre3d.org for details, (Included in Walker.zip) You'll need free 7-zip, get it here. Or see below for the built-in Windows XP unzipper.
Download Walker.zip (6.4 MB) right-click and 'save file as' Mirrored here7-zip instructions:
Right-click on 'my computer' go 'explore', go '/file/new folder'
Here I've made a folder on C: called 'walker'
If you're using 7-zip, you can navigate to where you 'save file as' walker.zip, in the exampe, it's d:\grafprog\terrain\walker,make sure you hit CTRL-A (select all) in 7-zip,
all the files will turn blue.
Then you can 'EXTRACT' (see the pink box?) to c:\walker.
or if you have Windows XP, there's an unzipper built-in. Make sure that 'use folder names' is checked when you hit the 'extract' button for the Windows XP unzipper and Direct X 8, get that at http://www.microsoft.com/windows/directx/default.asp The latest is Direct X 9, that will work, too.(also included with Windows XP). You might just try running it and see if it works without DL'ing Direct X, many newer machines have Direct X 8 already. Click on Walker.exe in the C:/Walker directory.
Update September 21, 2007-The Walker.zip link works now!
Walker.exe keys
W, forward
Knapp Gulch
Update January 29, 2005: replaced the textures with non-blurry ones. When the demo starts, you'll find yourself deep underground, (maybe in a mine?). Press 'w' and point your mouse up 'til you are above ground, it'll be near Smith Ravine, head for the middle.
Click Here to download a 325K topo map of the area the demo covers.
Looking Southwest.
View looking south from Spruce Mtn.
Looking North from Big Bug road.
.
Comparison of reality and virtual reality looking from Big Bug Road to Spruce Mountain.
Here's a couple from the new Ogre, the satellite map is way off, but you can get some idea of where stuff is.
Optional: below is terrain.cfg, in C:\walker ,open it up in
Wordpad or Notepad and change walkertex5.jpg to walkertex4.jpg to see
Walker without
the map lines.
WorldTexture=walkertex5.jpg
#DetailTexture=terrain_detail.jpg
#number of times the detail texture will tile in a terrain tile
DetailTile=3
Terrain=walkerelev.png
TileSize=17
MaxPixelError=5
ScaleX=1
ScaleY=.15
ScaleZ=1
MaxMipMapLevel=5
#VertexNormals=yes
#VertexColors=yes
Here's a small version of the 'walkphotos.jpg', large is 1600x1400,
get it here
Here's another one, it's in color
There's a service called http://earth.google.com,
Download a 10MB program, see the earth in color satellite, here's one
of Walker from the Mount Union area
Give it time to load if your connection is slow.
satellitesmall.jpgsatellitesmall.jpgsatellitesmall.jpg
(6MB) , new August 2005:
walkernewcolor.jpg (6.5MB), (3100x2600). Red dot at center right is fire station, pink writing at center is 100 mailboxes, pink writing at upper right is turnoff to Big bug. You can see your house if you know where to look, someday I'll upload the 23MB one, it's pretty amazing. About 45 minutes at 26,400.
(Old Satellite maps)Large Walker Satellite Map -(5MB) 2600x2600, takes about 30 min at 26,400.Small Walker Satellite Map- (1.2MB) 1300x1300.
Walker Fire District Map-now you can see what shape your neighbor's property is. I was surprised to see all that subdividing between Walker and Potato Patch, someone's been busy.
wfdlarge.jpg (3.3MB) 5000x5300
wfdsmall.jpg (1.0MB) 1200x1300
Here's Groom Creek (left) and Poland Junction (right) topo maps with 3d mountains from
3dem. Get the large version (groom_poland_topo.jpg) here 2.3MB
© 2008 by Terry Morgan
