1st post

This year Yaqui Hideout has seen its lavender field grow bigger, the lambs, Uno and Dos, turn one year
old and some additions to farm equipment. Additionally, in between weaving baskets and work travel
Bob painted a new sign at the back gate to let guests and visitors know we are Yaqui Hideout (near the
infamous Blue Bench).
A couple of big events stood out this year: the second annual Lavender Festival at Rumb Line Vineyard
and the World Wicker and Weaving Festival in Poland. The Lavender Festival was a wild success and
drew people from all over Arizona. All of us that had booths or volunteered at the festival were stunned
with the tsunami of visitors that came to buy lavender stuff; we think about 1,500 attended this year!
Several months later Bob and Patrick took an exciting, mid-year excursion to Poland and Bob competed
in his second World Wicker and Weaving Festival. This time he brought several other US weavers and all
had a great time eating traditional Polish food, site-seeing and weaving fabulous baskets among super-
talented weavers from 70 countries. Pomp and circumstance galore! One of Patrick’s favorite parts of
the trip was the train from Berlin to Poznan.
Weather-wise the summer monsoon was practically non-existent, but somehow everything still looks
beautiful; probably due to the very wet winter of early 2023. It was so wet that Turkey Creek was
flowing behind the property and even flooded Kansas Settlement Road just north of us. Lots of guests
staying at the Yaqui Hideout “bunkhouse” reported perfect hiking in the Chiricahua Monument as well
as the Cochise Stronghold. We saw more guests with children and pets this year and Patrick gave a lot
more Gator rides with guests taking the sheep in and out of the front fields each day. Speaking of sheep,
this year we “introduced” our ram, Roger Ramjet, to the five mature ewes and hope to have lambs in
early 2024.
We are looking forward to fantastic 2024 and wish you all a Happy New Year!