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In fact, you can hike over to our orchard before breakfast and pick a delicious, sweet pink grapefruit to liven up your morning. (Our oranges and lemons aren't quite ready this month.)

Around dusk is a perfect time to bring some wieners and marshmallows out to roast at our campfire pit. S'mores, anyone?

Land of the Sun Endurance Ride -- one of the friendliest and well-provisioned endurance rides in the country! Top riders conquer 25 to 50 miles of desert at a trot in under 5 hours, finishing up at an all-star BBQ. "To finish is to win!" In 2011: January 23.

Fine weather for hiking as well. Try Box Canyon, Vulture Peak, or just head out to the Wickenburg Mountains right in our own back yard. For a cultural experience, check out the ancient petroglyphs on the White Tanks hiking trail.

A short trip down the road to the Hassayampa River Wildlife Preserve is just the ticket this time of year. It's one of two places that this underground river consistently runs above ground, and served in territorial times as the local "beach." Now it is a haven for birds, desert plants, and other local wildlife. Guides and organized programs are available. The Preserve is open Wednesdays through Sundays, mid-September to mid-May.

About now our oranges and lemons are ripe, and there are still plenty of grapefruit (providing the January guests didn't overindulge)!

Speaking of indulging, we're likely to have a litter of retriever puppies around this time of year. Oodles of fun to cuddle and play with, and they will love you right back.

Wickenburg's annual Gun Show takes place February 27-28, 2011 in the Community Center. Go just to look at the displays and exhibits -- or if you're interested in buying, we can acquaint you with the applicable state and federal laws to make your transaction difficulty-free.

Wickenburg Ranch Rodeo is scheduled for January 30, 2011, with Double Mugging, Team Branding, Trailer Relay, and Wild Horse Riding. Yee-hah!

Our landscaper tells us that our citrus must be completely harvested by the end of the month in order for the new crop to be healthy, so enjoy!

Check out the evening roping and racing contests at Horse World in Wickenburg. Area horsemen and horsewomen compete for prize money on a community basis. Bleachers and snack bar; no charge for spectators. See some surprisingly professional performances from local ranchers, businesspeople, homemakers, and even youngsters. If you're boarding your horse with us, feel free to show the local folks how they do it where you come from. (These events are actually held year 'round.)

The Desert Caballeros Museum will launch their 2011 Cowgirl UP! exhibition on March 26 (runs through May 2) with an authentic Trail Ride and BBQ on the morning of March 25. Bedroll and long-johns optional!

The desert comes into bloom. The beavertail cactus (fuschia) heads off the procession, followed by prickly pear (pale yellow / orange / red), ocotillo (bright red paintbrushes), palo verde tree (saffron yellow), chollas (orange), and even the lowly creosote bush (yellow). Depending on recent precipitation, the desert may actually be sporting green grass! You can hike among the wild specimens, or just enjoy the abundant varieties we groom inside our residential fence.

If you'd rather take your entertainment indoors this month, check out the Del E. Webb Center for the Performing Arts. Each year's professionally-produced live entertainment program includes musicals, comedy, ballet, acrobatics, Hispanic cultural events, and concerts from country chic to symphony orchestras. The Center's program season runs from October through May.

While the menfolk are out camping, the girls get a night out at the 2011 Desert Caballeros Museum's Cowgirl's Night Out party on April 13 (5-7PM).

Free admission to the Hassayampa River Wildlife Preserve on Earth Day (April 22, 2011), followed by a Dutch Oven Cooking Workshop on April 23 (Coffinger Park), and a beautiful cowboy Easter Sunrise Service at Robson's Ranch and Mining Camp on Sunday, the 24th.

In bloom during May is the mighty saguaro, the king of cactus. Giant creamy white blossoms appear on the crowns, which will ripen into striking magenta fruit. Joining them are their cousins, the barrels, which display lovely blossoms of yellow with red highlights; and the cereus, with huge white trumpets.

Trail riding is still pleasant as long as you avoid the midday hours. If nature has been kind, we may see a new Harris Hawk chick in the nest just off the short loop.

For a western experience a little lower on the dust scale, check out the Annual Out Wickenburg Way Street Dance & BBQ, also held early in the month. Our townspeople bid farewell to the "snowbirds" (and celebrate our hardy year-round residents) with a real Western BBQ and boot-scoot outdoors right in downtown Wickenburg, across from the library. In 2011: May 7.

May 8 is your last chance to catch the 2011 Cowgirl UP! exhibition at the Desert Caballeros Museum which closes that day. However, if you wear your cowboy boots on May 18 (International Museum Day), you can get two admissions for the price of one!

For some cooler outdoor exercise, drive up the hill to Yarnell, where you can take the Unique Mountain Home Tour. In 2011: TBA.

By the end of the month, our night-blooming daturas -- a relative of the deadly nightshade -- are sporting aromatic, tubular white flowers that wither in the heat of the morning.

Sweet figs as large as golf balls are now ripe along our north fence. Pick one and try it. Rinse it at the BBQ pavilion, just to get the desert dust off -- we never need to spray our trees.

You won't find a shop like Ben's Saddlery in Honolulu or Orlando. When you step into Ben's, you step back a hundred years to when gold mining was au courant here. Just the aroma of fine-quality leather saddles and other goods takes you back to when the only "malls" in America were public plazas. Ben's handmade saddles, chaps, and tack are second to none. If you're not a horse owner, you can check out his boots, handbags, decorations, and other leather treasures; get your shoes repaired; and pick up a free copy of "Bridle & Bit" to impress the folks back home.

All through the summer, the Hassayampa River Preserve holds migratory and local birding and bird-banding classes, summer camp sessions for kids, and "Birds & Breakfast" sessions. They will even teach you (or your kids) all about the local bats!

Or, try antiquing. Visit Rustiques, Hank's Antiques, or The Quarter Horse. For an unusual twist, try the Soroptomists' Shop, or Habitat for Humanity's Re-Store.There are good bargains to be had -- we know, because we've had many!

Don't forget to visit the unique Double D Western World. Billed as the largest tack store in Arizona, it has an incredible collection of quality saddles, tack, livestock and pet products, animal salves and pharmaceuticals, archery and hunting equipment, and ranch hardware. (Ever wonder why "Absorbine Junior" was a Junior, and whatever happened to "Absorbine Senior?" You'll find the answer on their horse liniment shelf!) Don't forget to check out the quality western clothes, jewelry, furniture, and accessories on the upper level.

And if you want a real thrill... do it from the pool. Grab a pool noodle, tilt your head back, and float in the warm water while you watch the stars whiz by. There's really nothing like it.

And speaking of winging it, Arizona's early dove season is in early September. Game & Fish says, "Load up on shells! Dove, quail and rabbit outlooks add up to a small game bonanza this year!" Bring your scattergun, pop into The Gun Trader in town for fresh ammo and all the necessary permits, and you're good to go at any of dozens of waterholes and tanks around Wickenburg.

And for more winging it... for hunters, October marks the beginning of Arizona quail season, which runs until February. Game & Fish says our region boasts "the best concentration in the state." Out in back of the Ranch, our own quail population is way above sustainable levels -- plenty for the flushing, out among the jackrabbits, javelina, coyotes, deer, and wild burros. There are miles to be hunted, and while you're our guest, they're all yours. Visit The Gun Trader in Wickenburg for fresh ammo and all the necessary permits and stamps, and you're good to go.

If you'd rather shoot your wildlife with a telephoto lens, don't fail to visit the Hassayampa River Wildlife Preserve just four miles up the road. See our February section for more information.

Get ready for a double-barelled treat on October 8, when Wickenburg's magnificent men (and women) pull out all the stops for their Annual Fly-In and Classic Car Show at Wickenburg Airport. have a tasty pancake breakfast courtesy of our Lions' Club, then stroll leisurely among perfectly restored cars that were old when you were young -- gleaming Hudsons, Edsels, De Sotos -- as well as cars you may have lusted to own yourself when you were young -- classic T-Birds, Vettes, Mustangs, and more.

When you are ready to raise your eyes higher, marvel at the exquisitely-kept, privately-owned biplanes, triplanes, tail-draggers, de-mil'd military aircraft, jets, gliders, copters, and Iron Curtain classics that fly in every year from all over the US for this event. Walk into and through the larger craft. Youngsters can take a bargain-priced "first flight" on a small aircraft, courtesy of the Shriners. Watch the local radio-controlled club put their models through their paces. In 2011: October 8.

You're in town just as the program season at the Del E. Webb Center for the Performing Arts is hitting its stride. See our April entry for more information about this local treasure. The Center's program season runs from October through May.

Hunters: late dove season is November to January. See our September entry.

There'll be significant pickin', plus a whole lot of grinnin' by the winners of the Annual Bluegrass Festival the second week of November. This three-day event features the Four Corners championship contests for fiddle, flatpick guitar, banjo, and mandolin. Thousands come to hear the music and attend the celebration. In 2011: November 11-13. A warning: the Bunkhouse and our RV slots book extremely early for the Bluegrass Festival.

Don't miss the town's annual Gem and Art Fair (in 2011: TBA) at the Community Center. It's a nice opportunity to pick up some rocks -- or some "rocks" -- for someone for Christmas.

November is great for meteor watching, with the spectacular Leonid meteor showers. You can see literally hundreds of meteors streak across our desert skies -- one every two minutes or less near peak. Light and air pollution at Liberty Haven Ranch are practically nonexistent -- you can see the stars as clearly as the ancient Greeks did -- and in November, our view of the Milky Way is magnificent. In 2011: peak time is between midnight and dawn on November 18, though a last-quarter moon will damp some of the show.

If you do want to see a world-class meteor shower in an unspoiled environment, don't put it off too long. Wickenburg installed got its third traffic light in 2004, and its fourth in 2006, and y'know, time marches on...

And you can do it right in time for the giant annual three-day Crossroads of the West Gun Show at the Arizona State Fairgrounds in Phoenix. Five buildings of firearms and firearms accessories, hunting and camping equipment, ammunition, and other sporting supplies. One of America's last guilty pleasures -- you can go to look, or even to buy. (That's right -- non-residents can purchase any item except handguns, as long as that item would be legal for you to buy in your home state.) Military or civilian, antique or modern, hunting or self-defense, stock or customized -- if you can't find it at this show, nobody makes it!

At the Ranch, we can always use an extra hand erecting the tallest Christmas tree in the Wickenburg area. Carefully, we hoist a specially preassembled string of lights up to the top of our Ranch windmill -- a landmark our neighbors look forward to seeing as a familiar sign of the holiday season. Since our windmill doesn't actually pump any water, this is the only honest work it does all year!

The chilly evenings are perfect for roasting marshmallows and franks out at the fire pit. Nothing says holidays like a cheery fire and a cup of something steamy.

Night parades aren't exactly common, but when else would you hold a Christmas Parade of Lights? This fun community event comprises everything from our local electric company's fancy lit float and equestrians sporting rope lights and Duracells to toddlers in strollers waving Cyalume sticks. If you have a Zippo and fancy a short night hike, you can parade, too! Everybody has a fine time and the spectators are properly enthusiastic. Afterwards, you can warm up at any of a number of nearby establishments in town, with anything from a hot cocoa to a frozen margarita. (Arizona physics is funny that way). In 2011: December 9.