Happy holidays to all of you! It’s been an exciting week here, as you’ll see below. Also, we saw a lovely pair of golden eagles this week. What a treat.
If you already saw some of this on FB, skip to the last minute or so, which is new. Also, as usual, if the video is chunky, press pause and wait a couple minutes before resuming playing.
At 3:00am this morning, I was awoken by a kind of constant whiny mewing just outside my window. A kitten? I didn’t think so since there are no feral cats around here that I know of and the sound was too small to be a bobcat. Maybe a baby opossum, some kind of rodent, or even a baby skunk?
I listened to it for awhile becoming more insistent and clearly irritated. I woke up Brad.
We went to the window. It seemed to be almost directly against the house, but we couldn’t see anything. We turned on the outside house lights and got a flashlight. Still nothing. But the mewing continued.
Finally, Brad ventured outside (in his underwear…quite a sight, and it was cold). What he saw was a spade footed toad….being eaten by a much smaller snake.
The snake looks big in this zoomed up picture, but the snake was only the thickness of a fat pencil and less than a foot long. We think it might have been a juvenile nightsnake but we’re not sure.
No sign of either party this morning.
Yes, you guessed it — we now have a bathroom door.
More pictures here (I especially love the slide bolt latch from Wild West Hardware.)
The monsoons have been continuing here. This week, we had at least two downpours that lasted several hours. We were in the truck one afternoon when a bolt of lightning struck within 20 yards or so. (I’ve since learned that cars act as Faraday cages and that it is a good idea to wear shoes and not to lie on the floor during a storm if you have concrete floors.)
The rains have brought a plague of giant grasshoppers. The ground is crawling with them, and they are particularly attracted to concrete.
They are the most unbelievably uncoordinated things. If prompted to jump, they land on their heads or backs at least half the time. While I am preparing for the likely eventuality that they may eat my entire garden, I am hoping for something better. In the meantime, we have enjoyed eating beans and one tomato (more on the way) from the garden. The cucumbers are also finally taking off.
We had our first day with Internet down today. (I am actually writing this offline. Of course, as you read this, you will know that it has been restored.) I guess it’s good that it hasn’t happened until now. When we were in the rental house, we seldom had Internet outages, though the power went off nearly every time it rained. Brad takes great delight in the fact that our (solar) power stays on regardless of the weather. I can’t quite get used to it and still cringe when I’m on the computer and a big bolt of lightning strikes.
We’ve been really getting a lot of rain. Last night, it poured buckets for several hours with dramatic thunder and lightning all around.
With the rain, of course, comes bugs. And after dark, thousands of them gather around our windows and doors, seeking the light. It’s kind of gross.
But now we’ve gotten a new way to combat this. They seem to arrive every evening to sit on our stoop and enjoy the buffet.
The monsoons seem to be bringing out the animals. Yesterday, Brad saw mule deer, the bobcat, and a coyote. Then this morning I saw this beautiful coyote. They are very shy and normally not to be seen, though we sure do hear them yipping at night! It’s lovely.
As much time as we’ve spent in this house over the last year, I would not have thought there would be any surprises when we moved in, but there have been a few.
Temperature – It’s been very hot here this week, over 100 some days. Despite this, the house has stayed very cool. There is generally a 20 degree differential. The only time the house starts to heat up is at about 4:00 when the late afternoon sun streams in the front windows. We will probably get some kind of window coverings for that side of the house to help with this. Also, the air flow in the house is amazing.
Solar – The solar has worked great. I wouldn’t even know we had solar if Brad weren’t so obsessed about checking all the metrics all the time. And it’s worked great before we even had all the panels up (which we are finally completing now).
Birds – There are so many more birds here than I realized. It is especially evident in the early morning when we wake up to a chorus of all kinds of birds. It really sounds like a forest. I thought that when we moved away from the heavily treed place we were living before, we’d leave a lot of birds and other wildlife behind, but this has not been the case.
Kitchen – The kitchen is compact but workable. I have baked and cooked, pretty much as usual. The range is great. I am missing some counter space (especially last night when I made an overly complex grilled flat bread with carmelized onions and goat cheese, which required a lot of “staging”) but it is not bad. I am getting some hanging produce baskets and other things that should help. And we are storing a lot of canned goods and other stores in the storage room for now. It’s weird to think that when we originally designed this house, it didn’t even have a kitchen.
Views – The views out our many windows are just as nice as we’d hoped. Almost every night this week, we’ve taken an hour or so to sit outside and watch the sun set. (Once the sun dips down behind the mountains, it cools off fast. It’s been very pleasant around sunset. By midnight or so, it’s cold enough to use a comforter.) It really is gorgeous here.
The great horned owl that frequents our front oak has been there everyday this week.
No, it’s not talk like a pirate week… I’m just excited to finally see a turtle.
We been hearing about the desert turtles since before we moved here. There are signs warning you not to run them over. There are roads out here are named after them, “Turtle Run”. There are even signs proclaiming love for the turtles. I never see them though… until yesterday.
I was driving back from our property when I saw a rock in the road that looked a lot like a turtle. I stopped to take a look and indeed, it was a turtle. Wow! I have a hard time believing they survive out here. It seems so hostile and they’re so small.
Here’s what one looks like in the road.
And here are a couple of close ups.
(In this picture, I crossed a line and he scrunched up.)
It was another interesting day for wildlife. I got a couple of nice vulture photos.
Apparently, they are at P.D.’s place. P.D. is our neighbor to the west and north. If you look at our place on GoogleEarth, you’ll find P.D.’s place by looking for a large (forty acre) square that is greener than the rest. This is what twenty-five or so years of fencing does out here.
So we ran into P.D. today and he asked if we’d like to see the bob-kittens. I didn’t even know he had bob-kittens-of course! After Karen and I finished the sawing portion of the concrete scoring, we drove over.
P.D. was waiting and helped us park so as not to disturb little guys. More little guys it turned out than just bob-kittens. There were also baby screech owls. Until recently, there were also baby roadrunners. (Best guess is that the momma bobcat got them. Their roost was less then ten feet from the litter of bob-kittens; doomed from the start I’d say.)
The first thing P.D. showed us was the screech owls, mom, dad and three babies. The mom and dad sat in different parts of the tree, but all the babies huddled together. P.D. said that in an hour or so flying lessons would begin. This is serious business with a bobcat living downstairs.
Next we went to the carport–about twenty feet away. The roadrunners are still roosting there despite their loss. P.D. called out to let the bobcat know we were there, but she was no where to be seen. We looked carefully over stacks of stuff to see the kittens. They were pretty well hidden. I took some pictures but none were very good.
All in all, super exciting. That P.D. is a good neighbor to have.
Last is Karen looking dirty and tired after hours of work on the slab, and very very happy.
-brad
Just this afternoon, Brad said he wanted to see a snake. Then look who showed up at our card game on the porch ….
Desert kingsnake