Thursday, January 31, 2008

Away from Big Bug Station Mayer, AZ


I am on the rockhound road for a bit and not hanging out at Big Bug Station but got access to a computer and found this western jewel. See the connection? Desert Rats hang out at Big Bug Station in Mayer, AZ and this old publication celebrates desert rats and the desert!

Go to google and type in Desert Rat Scrap Book. What a wondrous defunct old publication.
For more on Big Bug Station go to http://www.bigbugstation.com/

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Mayer, Arizona Mining Certificate 1910



Scroll lower down its page and see the history of the stock and its issuing company which sounds somewhat nefarious according to the Copper Handbook, 1910, p.640-41 info written on this website. Includes a fellow in jail, and other unseemly allegations.....goodness is this possible in the mining investment game of the early 1900s? (said with tongue in cheek)


A popular gathering place in Mayer, AZ http://www.bigbugstation.com/

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Zen Cowboy Coming to Mayer, AZ?


check him out at


Chuck is coming to Mayer to perform on February 9th 2008!
Big Bug Station is hosting. See http://www.bigbugstation.com/

I Miss the Hangings in Mayer, AZ


No not Old West hanging by the neck till dead but "hanging around" the local antique old west dance hall that is now a gathering place for characters interested in western history, mining, gold, antiques, western art, animal sculpture, antiquue knives, wild west ephemera, commeraderie and a good cup of complimentary coffee.


I was at Quartzsite, AZ doing the rockhound rounds at their annual shows and haven't moseyed into Big Bug Staion to catch up with what new and interesting western art has been added.


I see at the http://www.bigbugstation/ site under Musical Events that the Zen Cowboy is coming to town to perform at Big Bug Station on Feburary 9th 2008. Check the site out.


Monday, January 28, 2008

Mayer, AZ www.bigbugstation.com

On the site, click on Musical Events to see great show coming up Feb. 9th at Big Bug Station. The website keeps changing. Watch for more to come. Wis I had a pretty picture to put with this, maybe you can imagine one.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Wyatt Earp in Mayer, Arizona


Virgil Earp, Wyatt's brother, lived in Prescott for awhile. The Earp family was closeknit so Wyatt had ocassion to pass through Mayer. Indeed, Joe Mayer, town founder and owner of the commercial area there claimed a friendship with Earp. I like to think that he might have had his hair cut in the barber shop that my apartment once was. Maybe this is equal to the "Washington slept here" claims of the East? Just more of western history, Mayer history, I need to investigate. This is going to be fun. Something else to talk about over the complimentary coffee in Big Bug Station a gathering place in Old Town Mayer.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Authors and Artists Hang Around Big Bug Station



This writer has her book behind the coffee bar at Big Bug Station. It speaks of crazy full moon nights and opal fever driven days on the opal fields of Australia where I have spent 25 years mining opals. The recipes of campfire tucker (Aussie slang for chow) is a bonus.

Mike Connors invites other local authors in for a cuppa.

Check out local Mayer artist's website

http://www.jdcampbellart.com/ One of her paintings is hanging in Big Bug Station and for sale.

Check out http://www.bigbugstation.com/ Mike's new website.

Mayer, Arizona Onyx Slabs Photos

Check out this site for some views and prices of a vendor selling onyx from Mayer, Arizona


http://www.greatslabs.com/slabs_onyx.shtml

While you are at it, check out www.bigbugstation.com

Friday, January 18, 2008

Raspberry Sound Today in Mayer, Arizona

I have no enthusiasm for Mayer today as just doing mundane old drs. checkup, prescription renewal.... old people thing. But in searching for a good raspberry image I found a heap of them at this site featuring today the fellow's info on pictures of the raspberry sound! Check it out!!!

http://www.thesneeze.com/mt-archives/000339.php

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Antiques for Sale History for Free at Mayer, AZ Gathering Place

Only one block off highway 69 toward Prescott is Central Ave. where Mayer's "Old Town" is located. It is well worth a looksee as a tourist, antique collector, historian, or as an all round just nosey individual out for the day or weekend. It's a pity that there are not signs along the highway pointing out that buildings built in 1902 are still standing and in use today along Central Ave. AND some of those historical buildings are free to those walking within to have a look. Complimentary coffee, free historical conversation, and antiques for sale.

Yesterday's blog shows Monique, the Neiman Marcus mannequin, in Big Bug Station's front window reaching out her arm in supplication to invite passerbys in. I think I got a dirty look from Monique today because yesterday I referred to her as a department store dummy! And I even got her origins wrong. Not Saks or I. Magnin. So I apologize to Monique and any other department store dummies I may have offended.

For more info see www.bigbugstation.com

Monday, January 14, 2008

Mayer, Arizona Welcomes You to Big Bug Station

This is Monique. She is a classy department store dummy from Saks Fifth Avenue or was it I Magnin? Come in and find out at Big Bug Station over a complimentary coffee. Monique is in the localgathering place's storefront window beconing to Mayer's visitors. One of the many heart warming images and stories to be found inside.

Deb Gessner of D-Squared fame was inside today with her "camera obscura" taking images of Big Bug Station's interior for one of her wondrous art creations she is always giving birth to. Deb captures images in ways that are alot of fun to watch. Can hardly wait to see what she does with them. I will keep you posted. OR you can find out for yourself with a drop in to Mayer's Oldtown part of town. Just pull in to the old red brick 1902 building and check the local patrons out. It 's live entertainment of the human kind, either down home or way out, historical, arty, and warm and comfortable. I'm glad that I live nearby.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Cold Pressed Coffee Served at Big Bug Station in Mayer, Arizona


Big Bug Station serves complimentary coffee made using the “cold pressed” method. Cold pressed coffee makes for coffee without acidity or bitterness that is totally smooth and reminiscent of perhaps the Hawaiian Kona Coffee. Coffee gets most of its acidity from the hot brew cycle. Instead of using heat, cold pressed coffee soaks in cold water for about 14 hours and creates a concentrate that after being drained off and with the addition then of boiling water makes a great smooth coffee. It has the flavor without the acid bite. Some of the well known coffee houses use this method to make their iced coffee drinks.


Tuesday, January 08, 2008

Mayer, AZ Big Bug Station has a New Website!

Check it out. http://www.bigbugstation.com/

We are adding new stuff each day or so.

Don Pablo was a character in the desert near Rialto Pass on Scottsdale Road in Phx, AZ when the road was washboard dirt. My dad used to hang out with him in the late 1950s. Don Pablo had lots of antiques and wondrous prospecting stories to tell and a big as ole feud going on with his nearest neighbor for miles who was just across the road from him. I only remember that gentleman as Curry and his place was Curry's Corner. Curry looked just like Wild Bill Hickok or Colonel Custer. the two of them made a real pair. So of course I would run into Don Pablo's nurse, Margaret( now retired, and a local) from when he was in Good Samaritan Hospital in Phx. in the 1970s. She was sitting right next to me sipping on that great "cold pressed" coffee that Mike Connors offers complimentary in our Mayer hangout and antique haven. I about fell over off my wooden stool (yup we sit there like the cowpokes did long ago at the old wooden back bar) when she asked Mike if he ever knew Don Pablo. We then exchanged some memories of ole Don Pablo. He used to be seen walking around downtown Scottsdale with a parrot on his shoulder. My dad Ray Yurcik used to hang out with Don Pablo in the early 50s and traded his Louisiana dueling pistols complete in their case with molds to our bullets and all for Don Pablo's square wooden box which came from a shooting gallery in the early 1900s. If you hit the metal button in the middle, the doors popped open to reveal a Victorian bedroom scene with a porcelain headed doll family. Ma was in bed nodding her head while looking into an hand held glass mirror while son was holding up his nite shirt peeing into a pee pot (the stream was bent glass tubing) and pa was rocking in his rocking chair reading the paper all while a music box played. don Pablo came to my father's home in Maryvale once driving an old car with a HUGE set of longhorn steer horns mounted on the hood. He was followed in by a Native American squaw. I say squaw cause she was dressed in the old style of Native Americans on the reservation of the late 1940s early 50s. (You can see where I got my penchant for collecting characters in my life) You never know who you will meet at Big Bug Station. I am loving it.

Thursday, January 03, 2008

D-Squared in Big Bug Station Just Jawing


For get a bout the opal trip. Never happened cause I am going deaf and never heard the knock and we forgot to exchange phone numbers...DUH. Next time...

I got to have a good visit with Deb, one part of the couple that is D-Squared. Dan is the other so of course the two Ds make D- Squared I am guessing. Photo to left is by Bart Nagel, anyway Deb is a great sculpter, her work is at the Glendale, AZ Library. Don told me the other day that the butt part of the sculpture is his very own sweet cheeks. I noticed Deb in all sortsof odd ball positions with her camera taking close up shots of some of the unusual items always on display and for sale at Big Bug Station. She is having great fun playing with the images graphically and seeing amazing art in the upclose and partial pix of the most unusal things. She is a study in an "Artist at Work." I wish I had my camera to take shots of her taking shots. Fun to watch. Today we spoke of her art and my opal mining.

Two days ago I was talking to a "killer killer,' another Don who frequents Big Bug Station in Mayer, AZ, about his hunting predators. And today the conversation was of hunting Deb's images.

Then Mike, our host, slapped some Mayer onyx slabs down next to my coffee cup on the old western bar. Good looking onyx. But then I never saw a rock I didn't like.Always something wild and wonderful goin' on in sleepy little Mayer, AZ. my new hometown.

Tuesday, January 01, 2008

Happy New Year from Big Bug Creek Mayer, AZ

Happy new Year from Big Bug Station Mayer, Az I'm going to start off the new year right and go prospect for opal in the Arizona hills for a change instead of Australia!