Sheep Drive

JWise Photo of the Day

Sunrise in the east valley of Arizona

We arrived just before sunrise in the east valley on the far side of Mesa for a special event that once it gets going, there’s no stopping it.

Out in the far east valley of Mesa, Arizona following a sheep drive as a heard of 2000 sheep are taken north for the summer

This is a scene from the old west and one that may not play much longer. The Dobson family are ranchers whose name is familiar to almost everyone living in the Mesa area – think Dobson Road. Sheepherding has been going on here in the desert southwest since the 1870s. The Dobson family arrived in the 1880s but it wasn’t until 1929 that their sheep company would get started.

Out in the far east valley of Mesa, Arizona following a sheep drive as a heard of 2000 sheep are taken north for the summer

The trail they are using today to drive the sheep north into the cooler high-country has been in use since 1916, it is called the Heber-Reno Sheep Trail Driveway. Dwayne Dobson, now 72 and grandson of the man who established this family tradition, will soon be retiring from organizing the sheep drive, and without a family member interested in continuing the practice, this could very well have been the last of the sheep drives.

Caroline Wise out in the far east valley of Mesa, Arizona following a sheep drive as a heard of 2000 sheep are taken north for the summer

A tradition is coming to an end and we had the opportunity to have witnessed it at least once in our lifetimes.

Winner!

JWise Photo of the Day

Caroline Wise at the Maricopa County Fair in Arizona where she won three ribbons in crafting for 2 skeins of yarn she spun and a shawl she knitted.

Two first-place blue ribbons and a second-place red ribbon, that is what Caroline won this week at the Maricopa County Fair. She had entered three pieces with the crafting competition, a knitted lace shawl and two skeins of handspun yarn. In the photo she is standing next to the two skeins, just right of her left arm is the blue first place and the red second place ribbon. The shawl won first place too. This was the first time Caroline participated at a county fair and the first time she put up some of her handicrafts for judging. Now she’s trying to get me to submit a couple of photos at next year’s event, if only I could take a nice photo.

Werner Herzog!

JWise Photo of the Day

Caroline Wise and Werner Herzog in Tempe, Arizona with Cormac McCarthy in the background following a talk by Stephen Hawking

What a day. Tonight Caroline and I went to a performance of Gustav Holst’s The Planets with narration by Professor Lawrence Krauss, but the big draw was a talk following the symphony by Professor Stephen Hawking titled My Brief History. As we were walking out we spotted Werner Herzog, whose latest film Cave of Forgotten Dreams we will be watching tomorrow at Tempe Center for the Arts. After this Arizona Premiere, he will be giving a talk about the movie. Behind Mr. Herzog and Caroline is Cormac McCarthy, author of All The Pretty Horses and No Country for Old Men. What a truly amazing day.

Art and Influence

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

John Wise in front of the Ensor House and Museum in Oostende, Belgium

One of Caroline and my first trips together was to the Belgian coast, a place I often thought I would like to live. In the small town of Oostende, I brought Caroline to the James Ensor House and Museum. I had been here once before and now wish I might once more have the opportunity to visit again someday. The dearth of interesting museums dedicated to the work of evocative artists here in America leaves a lot to be desired. For example, we visited the Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and it’s just a big old office building commandeered as a drab resting place for some of his work.

Caroline at the enterance of the Paul Delvaux Museum in Koksijde, Belgium

The next stop on this trip was my third visit to the Paul Delvaux Museum. Along with Otto Dix and Francis Bacon, Delvaux was one of my favorite artists. On my first visit, a visitor who was also enamored with the work of one of Belgium’s greatest artists told me that the man himself had been at the museum just the day before. He described the most piercing blue eyes and fragile, lithe fingers that impressed this visitor with the idea that those hands had created such beautiful works of art. This stranger was back for a second visit with the hopes that Delvaux might make another appearance. Delvaux was already 90 back then on my first visit; he would live another seven years before passing on in 1994.

Zeebrugge, Belgium

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

John Wise and Caroline Engelhardt on the North Sea at Zeebrugge, Belgium

From that old black and white film we had developed, these photos of Caroline and I were taken while walking along the North Sea in Zeebrugge, Belgium – a favorite place of mine in winter. During the summers on the coast of Belgium, the crowds are heavy, the cafes full. But in the winter, the beach is empty, cold, and windy. The cafes that stay open year-round are mostly empty at this time. Black and white photography accurately captures the wintery gray feeling while strolling next to the dark black sea.

Caroline Engelhardt

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Caroline Engelhardt in her bathtub having a cigarette. Frankfurt, Germany 1989

Recently, we decided to take over a dozen old point-and-shoot film cameras that we no longer had any idea what might be on them. We had considered dumping them, figuring that at over a dozen years old, and some may be more than 20 years since photos were put onto their film, what could possibly come out of them besides an expensive bill? Well, there were a few priceless photos of Caroline and me. Including this one taken in what was likely 1989. Caroline long ago quit smoking; the same can’t be said about bathing.

Our apartment back then was on Gluckstrasse 8 in Frankfurt, Germany. For the six years we lived together there, we never had heating. The landlord wanted to split the cost, and we didn’t want to afford it; that’s technically illegal as we were renters, and as such, we are not supposed to pay for things we cannot take when we move. Our bathtub was not part of the bathroom; it was in what would qualify as a doorless closet that was part of the living room. The toilet was in the hallway, while the tub had a great view of the TV, nice for watching a movie. Back then, if we were watching a movie, it was something along the lines of Desperate Living by John Waters – we could relate.