Wine Tasting at Vinea on Saturday, February 16

Join the folks at Vinea this Saturday, February 16, for a Chilean treat.

From 2pm-5pm at Corrieri's Formaggeria they will be showcasing - and sharing tastes of - select wines from Santa Rita, one of Chile's most respected producers, and one of the first to plant European grape varieties in Chile.


Santa Rita Reserva
Youthful, fruity wines, perfect for any occasion.
Join us to sample the following varietals.
Cabernet Sauvignon
Enjoy with beef, pork, pasta, and cheeses.
Merlot
Concentrated and balanced - a perfect pairing with casseroles, pasta, and paella.
$13.99


Santa Rita 120
A tribute to 120 soldiers who fought during Chile's 19th century fight for independence from Spanish rule, these wines are an excellent value.
Enjoy tastings of the following varietals.
Cabernet Sauvignon
Smooth, great with winter comfort food.
Merlot
Perfect with burgers, pastas, and pizzas.
Sauvignon Blanc
Great as an aperitif or with seafood.
Carménère Excellent with lamb, chicken, or stews.
$8.99


Banfi Rosa Regale
An Italian sparkling wine that's perfect for Valentine's Day.
Lightly bubbly, with soft hints of raspberry, strawberry, and rose petals.
$14.49 (375ml)
$26.99 (750ml)


Gruet Blanc de Blancs
We still have a few bottles of this elegant, crisp sparkling wine from New Mexico.
When they're gone, they're gone.
Don't miss out!
$25.99

Man Who Lived in Arizona Cave Expelled

Here is a news story from a few years ago. It reminded me of a story that a friend of mine told me once upon a time. He worked on Ted Turner's Vermejo Park Ranch, it is located in New Mexico and it was so huge that they found a guy living on the property and he thought he was living on public land. He had no idea that what seemed like the wide open spaces and wildness was private property. I mean it is 588,000-acres and so they sent him on his way with no trouble but he had a teepee and everything set up and thought he was the mountain man. I felt bad for the guy to think that he wanted to be away from the madness of cities and all and yet he couldn't get away from the control.

Well here is the news brief from a few years ago about another man...


A man was evicted from a cave he had lived in for 11 years after pleading guilty to using a national forest for residential purposes.

Thomas J. Crawford had a bed, books and clothes arranged on hangers, along with pots and cutlery for cooking in his cave in the Coconino National Forest in northern Arizona.
He was arrested Friday after a Flagstaff resident reported a suspicious camp.

Crawford pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court on Monday and was sentenced to one year of probation and banned from the forest.

He told Forest Service officials he would come to Flagstaff every week or so to get supplies and water. Sometimes, he would work here.

Crawford, accompanied by Forest Service officials and a reporter from the Arizona Daily Sun, was allowed to remove his possessions after he was released from jail Tuesday.

"As you can see, I don't have a TV or anything," he said. "I've got the sky, the wind, the rain, the canyon wrens. ... This is a beautiful mountain. You could explore it a lifetime."

Fly like a Sky Gypsy

By Dennis Wagner, USA TODAY

RODEO, N.M. — At sunrise, John McAfee guides his kite-winged aircraft between granite spires in the Chiricahua Mountains of southeast Arizona, then yells to his back-seat passenger: "Hang on now, and don't panic."

The winged tricycle dives into a slalom run through Cave Creek Canyon, skirting the tips of giant Ponderosa pines and dodging rock formations at 85 mph as it reaches the desert floor.

This is aerotrekking, an evolving new sport that brings human aviators almost down to earth, but not quite. The idea is to follow terrain, skimming a few feet above the ground, visiting wild and beautiful places that could never be reached on foot or by car.

To the chagrin of some environmentalists and neighbors, McAfee, founder of McAfee Software, has spent $12 million completing an airfield near Rodeo — midway between Tucson and El Paso — and is developing an 1,100-mile circuit of six more aerotrekking ports in isolated parts of Arizona and New Mexico.

"It's what Icarus dreamed of," McAfee, 62, says after landing. "This is really human flight. You are attached to the wing, and you feel every sensation, every movement, every breath of air that goes by."

Read the rest of this story in the USA Today

Visit the official website of the Sky Gypsies