16 MAR.. to Green Valley

16 MAR We left Weavers Needle around 10 AM and headed for Green Valley. This was a 3 hour drive which took us thru several small town until we reached Tucson. At this point we had to take I-10 for a few miles until we reached hwy 19 which headed south to Mexico. Thiry miles out of Tucson we reached Green Valley and our trusty GPS took us right to the RV park. the park has 300 very nice sites, which is small by most standards but the people are real friendly. While I was setting up I seen 3 guys looking at my truck which was parked in another driveway so it was out of my way. I told them I would move it shortly and they said it was OK, as we were just looking at your licence plate; so where are you from. When I said, AB , Canada, they said we love you guys coming here for the winter because these RV camps could not not survive without you. This RV park has all the facilities with more than enough activities. They even have a computer course which I will attend on Friday.
Green Valley which is an area not a city. It is not an Incorporated town or city; it has not area council, hence it does not pass By-Law; it is governed by the County.
The area is noted for growing Peacan Nuts as the Green valley Pecan Co. produces 368 million pounds of Pecan nuts every year from there 7000 acres farms. They ship 30% to Europe, and rest are sold in the USA, mostly to Costco under the Kirkland name.
For a little insight into the Peacan nut; the trees grow to about 30 feet high and they prune 25 percent of the trees each year to keep them at their maximun production. The trees, which were planted in 1965 but can live for a thousand years, are planted in precise rows 20 ft apart with 60 feet between the rows for ease of harvesting them. The harvesting is done in 3 phases: a machines shakes the Peacans from the trees: the Pecans are swepted into a windrow: and the windrow are picked up with a harvester. Pecans take alot of water and these farms have 34 deep wells , 1000 ft deep with a 20 inch casing. They have to irrigate about 12 or 13 times a year and most farms are " Flood " irrigated.
The other large employer is Freeport MacMoran Mining company, and these huge open mines are viewed for miles. We intend to take a tour of the mines so they will be more to come on this subject.