Entertainment and other things from the desert

Living in the desert brings a ton of wildlife to the backyard because we have desert behind us and no neighbors.  Our lawn has died long ago.  We’ll replace it with rock once the weather cools off.  You don’t have to water rock and it won’t be a constant struggle to keep it alive.  This summer has been very hard on all the plants and trees.

 Quail and other birds

A quail family

But the birds are having a blast in the dirt that was once home to our lawn.  They peck away out there and take dirt baths.  I have no idea why they like to roll in it while flapping their wings.  We’ve also seen lots of baby quail this month.  Everything seems to be off schedule.  This is also true for us, as work has become a full time job this month.  Usually August is slower for us.  At least it’s cooled off to the low 100’s, or the upper 90’s, so this is a good thing.

 Here's a baby roadrunner

As you can see the baby roadrunners are still alive so they must be catching enough food to survive.  I don’t know if you can tell this is a young one or not, but he’s about half grown.  The day I took this we had four roadrunners in the yard.  I’m not sure if the parents were here with the “kids,” but I think that must have been the case.  Unfortunately, I was unable to get all four of them in one picture.  In years past we’ve never seen this many at one time.

 Laser cat toy

Koki and Raven waiting for the laser

About a month or so ago, I bought a laser for the cats at Walmart.  It was the best $1.98 I’ve ever spent on them.  But I suspect it’ll cost me a lot in batteries to keep this thing going.  It did come with a spare set, which I had to install already.  Raven cries waiting for me to get it going.  He and Koki will chase it all over the place.  My hands seem to wear out before they do, but I play with them about fifteen minutes a night with this thing.  Raven will bat it all over the place, or knock it off the counter trying to tell us it’s time for laser play.  I imagine he’d turn it on if he knew how.

I want to apologize for my erratic posting.  I’m so beat when I get home from work that getting on the computer is the last thing on my mind.  I do good to get dinner ready and the kitchen cleaned up.  There isn’t a lot of time left before bed.  I still have to soak my feet every night and put on my ointment.  I go back to the foot doctor next Wednesday.  By then my orthopedic shoes should be here.  People sure do have to put up with a lot of crap when they get older.  I never think I’m that old, but it seems to be one ailment after another.  Thank goodness I have a positive outlook and try to keep a happy attitude about all this stuff.

 Beautiful clouds we've had lately with thunderstorms at night

On another note, I’m excited for the solar eclipse that’s coming on Monday.  I imagine I’ll be inside working though, so won’t even get to see it.  That’s a bummer.  This is the first time in 99 years that it will be seen by all of the US.  This probably won’t happen again in our lifetimes.  Total darkness will envelop a path throughout the US while the rest of us will see a dusky sunlight for a full two minutes.  When this happened centuries ago, it’s no wonder people used to think the world was ending.

I still have some vacation posts to write and pictures to share from my time in Texas in May.  Hopefully, I’ll be able to do that soon.

Hot, hot, hot here

How much hotter can it get?  All the plants and animals are suffering from this heat.  Our yard is shriveling up before our eyes, even though we water and water some more.  It does little good.  I imagine we’ll have to replace almost everything in the fall.  The triple digits started a month early this year and you can sure tell it too.

The baby roadrunner appeared in the yard about three days ago.  He perched on the table out back and looked around a great while.  I hope he found some dinner in the desert.  He’s on his own now.  I imagine it must be rough trying to hunt in the beginning.  I almost wanted to go out and try to catch a lizard to give him.  Poor thing.  He’s the carbon copy of his parents and I would post a picture, but you can’t tell he’s about half their size unless you see him in person.

Work is never ending with lots of hours and food slinging going on to all the hungry shoppers.  It makes me question if I want to do this job the rest of my life.

I guess that’s it for now.  I’m already posting this a day late.  But work and the heat is wearing me out.  This beautiful sunset is sure a nice sight at the end of a long day.

Sunset in the desert

Lots of wildlife and beautiful sunsets in the desert this week

I thought I’d share some nice sights with you this time and not delve into the chaos going on at work right now.  I’m trying to keep a happy mind and stay in a happy place.  I might fill you in next week, but we’ll see.  I know one thing – I’ve been working way too much and am so tired all the time.  But that’s enough about work.

We were lucky to have a few afternoon sprinkles here the last few days.  It didn’t last near long enough because all the plants are really suffering this year, but a few sprinkles are better than none and the winds did cool it down even if it didn’t last long.

Between all of this we were lucky to see all the wildlife we did, as everything seems to be scarce this year.  The roadrunners are out of the nest.  I did see one running around by our back gate not knowing what to do.  There was an adult in the yard; perhaps, trying to guide it to the water pans we keep filled here.  I didn’t get a pic of this because things happen so fast most of the time.  I haven’t seen the young one since.  Hubby says there are two of them. 

But we did get lots of other pics.  Please enjoy the following ones.

We haven't seen the usual big families of quail so this was wonderful to see.  This family has about seven babies.

 

This coyote was hunting with two others on the bluff in back of the house about three days ago.  We don't see many coyotes in the summer at all.  In the winters we can hear them howling in the desert at night.

 

We found this unusual green lizard in one of the water boxes in the backyard.  We've never seen one like this.

 

 The squirrel paid us another visit

And we've had some magnificent sunsets that are a nice feast for the eyes after a long day.  I didn't know which pic to post here.  I always have to take a dozen.  Can you blame me?  Isn't this a gorgeous sight?

 

 

 

Why can’t we just go naked?

 Clipart

Wouldn’t that be nice in the summer when temps are over a hundred for day and days?  I have to confess that I do go naked around my house on my days off.  Why not?  It seems I’m not alone either as my coworkers and I have talked about this very thing at the end of the workday. 

Now we may not all be in tip-top shape, but who really cares when it’s this hot around here?  Our pets don’t care what we look like, or what we have on.  The only danger I can see is when it comes to working in the kitchen and then perhaps being naked could be a hazard.

I know I probably sound a bit wacky about now, but the heat is getting to all of us this year.  It was 113 today.  Yikes!  That’s too hot for anybody, don’t you think?  We have at least another six weeks of this in store too and probably a bit more than that.

Clipart

I washed my HOT white shirts for work today and hung them outside.  They dried in about thirty minutes.  Naturally a breeze came up and one fell on the patio.  So it has to be washed again since it’s full of red sand and it would be the lightest weight one of the bunch.  But you can always figure on this as it’s just Murphy’s Law, or whatever they call it.  Of course a heavy shirt would never fall off the rack and land in the dirt.

Today was my only day off for a week and supposedly I’m working part-time.  Hmmm.  What’s wrong with this picture?  I tried to take it easy because I have “ouchies” from head to toe.  I swear old age is a bitch.  I have a stye in my eye again; the deep bite wound from my cat on my forearm, a bad bruise on my shin bone from a flatbed cart at work and my constant athlete’s foot problem from wearing so many clothes and footwear at work in the summers.  I’m seriously thinking about looking for another job.  We’ll see.  All the clothes are too much, but paired with the hat, apron, gloves and hairnet it’s almost impossible to be comfortable during working hours.  I’m getting too old to have to put up with all this, although having the extra money is a nice benefit, but it’s probably the only one except for meeting new people.  Other than that we are abused by the customers all day long.  I really struggle to fathom how some of my coworkers have been there ten years or more.  I can’t see myself in that spot.

Maybe something else jobwise will turn up.  

A little of this and that

It’s been a crazy, hot week so this has a variety of things in it today.  I didn’t have the time or energy to write up something to post earlier today.  Generally, I like to schedule ahead, if I can, but lately this hasn’t been possible.

Costco

For starters, I’m working way too many hours and between that and the heat it’s taken its toll on me.  Our big boss came in this past Tuesday to make his monthly visit.  Naturally, he had to find something wrong with each of our demos because he has to stay secure in his job.  (That’s my thoughts on it anyway.) 

Most of us, aside from some new people, have been there long enough to know what we’re doing.  Of course, this whole visit rubbed about half of us the wrong way and I know of at least a couple of other people besides me who let him have it.  Our displays looked fine to us and we had samples out and our carts were clean.  This time the problem seemed to be too many barriers across our carts to keep the wandering hands at bay.  Most of the people here have no regard for the time it takes to prep things and set up the trays.  This varies by demo, but people are impatient and don’t want to hear about the products as we work in our “kitchen.”  They want free food and they want it now. 

I hate to rock the boat about things at work and usually I don’t say half of what’s going through my mind, but this time I had to stand up for myself because I really thought I was right and that I was doing the best I could at my demo.  I hope I didn’t make things worse for our boss, but I imagine all of us had a part in that when they had their little meeting we weren’t privy to.  Oh well…life goes on and next time the concentration and focus will be on something else entirely.  I feel like it’s impossible to have every single thing running at 100%.  All of us try very hard.

The best part of going to work this past week was getting to work the clothing roadshow we have going on in the store right now.  That was fabulous.  I didn’t have to deal with food, or rude customers, and I got to actually dress like I wanted to for the most part.  At least there was no hairnet, gloves, apron, hat and those hot, collared shirts with sleeves that are required.  I had to wear white or black though, as there isn’t another choice of colors for us at this job, but I could wear my hair down, wear my earrings and other jewelry and I didn’t have to wear a collar.  Yeah!  Naturally, I chose a black, sleeveless blouse with no collar and black linen pants.  White isn’t my color and never will be.  I actually looked forward to going to work that day.  I have two more of these days to do, so I’m really looking forward to those too.  The clothes buyers are so nice and actually quite jolly about shopping.

The heat hasn’t let up around here.  One day of triple digits flows into the next.  I’m sure it’ll be that way now until mid-September.  I about die in all those clothes for work, but it’s part of the job.  I’ve started keeping flip-flops in the car, so I can ditch the socks and sneakers and I bring a tank top in my purse.  Being hot and sweaty isn’t a pleasant thing.

 Raven in our bed

 

Raven’s getting too darn smart and understands us too well when we’re talking, so we’ve started spelling things out in front of him like “food” and “eat”, etc.  Some days he gets into so much mischief around here.  He has to be doing something all the time, if he isn’t sleeping.  His favorite thing is chewing on things and he doesn’t care what it is.  I’ve tried to break him of this habit all his life, but nothing works.  Today he got me good while I was making the bed.  This time my forearm was the target.  I did slap him, which I never do, and then I held him and told him not to hurt me like that.  He didn’t try to get away, so I think he knew what I was doing and that he shouldn’t have attacked me.  I thought the wound would never stop bleeding.  Good grief.  I guess between that and the very, large red bruise on my shin bone I’ll look like a spectacle at work tomorrow.  I sure can hurt myself easy as I age.  The bruise was from moving a ton of clothing on big carts and unpacking and sorting products in a new shipment.  I didn’t realize I had hurt my leg so bad until last night when I could hardly move after getting my shorts on and sitting in the recliner a while.  I’m glad some of that pain is gone today.

But this little boy is so sweet too.  I woke up two nights ago and he was between us with his head on the pillow and under the covers to his neck.  That was adorable.  I wanted to sneak out of bed and get the camera, but thought I might wake hubby up so I didn't.

 Nothing new happening here yet

 

I finally got over to check on the roadrunner nest again.  Hubby said that someone told him you never see any baby roadrunners because they stay in the nest until they’re almost full grown so they must grow very fast because my search on google said they were out of the nest and on their own in two weeks.  I wonder how their parents convey all their knowledge to them in that short time span.

I’m still working on understanding my new smart phone too that I’ve had about two weeks now.  I’m to page 60 in the manual, but have way more to go than that.  Again, there’s the time factor in my life.

I guess that’s about it from here for now.  I hope the rest of you are having a great summer.

Desert life update

I hope everyone had a nice Fourth of July.  We had another hot day here in the desert – 103 – but we grilled hamburgers outside on the patio; however, we ate inside as we contemplated where we could live that it wasn’t too hot in the summer to eat outside.  Sigh…I don’t think such a place exists.  I think a person must endure the elements wherever they live. 

He has fat little cheeks

 

 All the comforts of home

We were visited by our squirrel that lives nearby.  He was making himself at home gathering nuts and seeds, taking in the shade of the patio and drinking water from the numerous water pans I have scattered all around the yard for the critters that happen by.

 I hope you can make out the two birds through this tree.  One is to the left and the other in the middle of this pic.

 

Around seven, I decided to venture to the lot next door to see what was new in the roadrunner nest.  It was still 101, but I have to do what I have to do.  As far as I can tell, no chicks have hatched yet, but I found both parents on the nest.  I hope you’ll be able to make them out in this picture.  As I stated before, I can’t get any closer because this tamarisk tree is very thick and thorny.

 Koki walking on top of the pots in the entryway

 

Koki was up to her tricks again.  She was trying to figure out how to get into the big pots in the entryway.  She hasn’t done anything like this in a while.  Raven was sleeping stretched out on the bed or he would have joined her I’m sure.  When he was little he got trapped in a pot.  I have it covered with a pizza pan now. 

I’m writing this on the Fourth, so if my fireworks shots turn out decent tonight I may post some of those later.

I did it

This is totally off the beaten path, but it’s nice to change it up once in a while and give you some desert news, other than we’re burning up from the heat here.  LOL.  I’m talking seriously hot here.  It’s been at least 110 every day for the last two weeks.  Somedays it was higher than that and we did hit 116 one day.  Everything is suffering from the heat.  We’ll see if any of the landscaping survives this summer.

Over the last few weeks I’ve watched a pair of roadrunners collecting dead lawn pieces and twigs in our yard.  I knew they were building a nest.  So I kept my eye on them and eventually had a clue that the nest was on the vacant lot next door.  There are some very big tamarisk trees over there. 

I googled roadrunners to find out about their nesting habits.  I’d totally be having withdrawals if google didn’t exist. 

He's proud of his hunting skills

Late this afternoon, the male was over in the yard hunting and drinking water.  He caught a lizard and went straight to the vacant lot, so I decided to go and investigate.  I’ve wanted to do that anyway, but it’s been so blasted hot that it’s like stepping into a furnace to go outdoors.  Today we had lots of clouds, so it only got to 105.  I decided to brave it.

Well I found the nest right away about eight or nine feet up in one of the tamarisk trees.  I took about a dozen pics but it’s so brushy in there that I could only get so close.  I wish I had a ladder and could get in there to see the inside of the nest, but one of the roadrunners was sitting in there.  It’s so brushy I don’t think I could even get a ladder through all the stuff anyway.  And I would hate to scare the parents off, although roadrunners don’t seem to be afraid of much.  However, nesting birds might be different.

 Probably hard to make out, but the bird is there on the nest

 

This isn’t a very good pic but if you look closely you’ll be able to see the head and beak of one of the parents in the nest.  I did what I could with my small camera.

If I have it figured right, the young chicks should hatch between July 4 and the 15^th.  But I read they only stay with the parents for two weeks and then disperse into the desert on their own.  They must grow up quickly.  And I bet you didn’t know that the parents will actually eat the runts of the newly hatched birds.  Roadrunners are brutal birds.  Perhaps calling the young ones chicks is too nice a name for them.

Happy Summer Solstice Everyone

I have a couple of things I want to post but have limited time right now and because today is the first day of summer, I thought this was appropriate.

We’re definitely off to a very hot start here in the desert southwest.  It’s scheduled to reach 115 today.  It was 110 in the shade on my patio yesterday.  I hung laundry out there and it was dry in about thirty minutes.  I hope this isn’t a sign of what’s to come in July and August, which are the hottest months here.  We’ve had to put the outside sunshades on the house already and we never do that in June.

My sister Scherri. This is from a couple of years ago, but I sure did like this hairstyle.

I hope everyone has a great summer.  Happy birthday to my sister, Scherri, today.  I’ll be breaking years of tradition tonight when I’m not up at midnight to wish her happy birthday when it’s hers in Texas and mine here.  We’ve always lived in different time zones since we’ve been adults.  So I do apologize for that, but I have an early morning mandatory meeting at work.  I have to get up at 5 AM and that will be torture.  I hate mornings.

Have a great day everyone.  Stay cool and hydrated and safe.  Until next time…

Sometimes endurance is important

That’s certainly been the case with me the last week.  The A/C went out in my car and I’ve been driving around in 109-degree heat.

The A/C seemed to be working fine and then all of a sudden it was blowing hot air, as if I had the heater on.  I had it recharged but three days later, it was back to the hot air again.  I had several stops to make, so I just rolled down the front windows.  It was hot outside but at least I had more air moving.  I probably should have taken a selfie to post here, but once I arrived home, believe me it wasn’t a pretty sight.  I think I could wring water out of my clothes and my face was beat red, hair all askew.  At one point, I thought I’d pass out, but I made it.

 My car

 

It occurred to me it might be time for a new car, but I’m having the A/C hose fixed.  It turns out it has a leak, an expensive leak, but fixable.  I realize I can’t drive my 1998 Cadillac Seville forever, but maybe a bit longer.  I love this car.

I may actually be getting a job after twenty-five years and my mission was to find black pants, which was a lot harder than it sounds.  But I accomplished my mission.  I guess the stubbornness I inherited from my daddy helped to keep me out roaming about town in those conditions.

I even got a compliment on my car and myself earlier in the day before I became a limp sweaty rag.  That feels good at my age.

I run my own sweatshop

That’s right folks.  It’s my bonus room upstairs that doubles as a sewing and craft room.  I’ve been doing alterations up there in my spare time.  What spare time?  The thing of it is I try to keep the A/C off and use fans only.  I figure it will save on the electric bill and if we could manage as kids in the south with no A/C, I figured I could do it now.  Well, this is tougher than you think.  Usually by the end of the day, I can wring out my clothes.  I have a soaked towel I’ve been mopping my face and neck with and I can’t wait to hit the shower to cool off and take some aspirin for my splitting headache.

Still this is doable, although it takes me longer because I’m delirious from the heat.  Plus, it gives me extra spending money, eventually, once I get the items finished.

Here are some skirts I altered recently.  The polka dot strip is for insertion into a swimsuit top that’s a bit too low for my busty friend.

Occasionally, I sew something from scratch too, but it’s hard to stay up there all day without some kind of break.  The room is definitely more pleasant in the wintertime, but I can get so much more accomplished when hubby is out of town because I don’t have to keep his schedule for eating, sleeping and just hanging out, etc.  It’s hard to disappear upstairs for hours with a man in the house.

Devastating heat

It’s sizzling here in the desert and this is only June.  I hate to think about July and August (our hottest months here).  We’ve had triple digits the last two weeks with no end in sight.  I talked to a girlfriend in CA last night and it was 100 there.  Everything is suffering.

Look at my lawn:

One year we had grubs in it and it got brown like this so we had to put some stuff on it from the nursery to kill the grubs and it perked right up after that.  This year --no grubs -- they say a fungus is affecting many lawns.  So we get another product from the nursery, put that on and then watered it in.  That was at least two weeks ago now.  We’ve given it extra water with this heat too and nothing seems to help.  We wonder if anyone here knows what they’re talking about and this isn’t the first time.  As I’ve said before, an odd bunch of people live in this state.  Now, we’re thinking of pulling the grass out and having rock put in (like most of the rest of the yard).

 Lots of these little guys around

 

However, if we do that, I have a feeling we’re in for a mess of a different kind from the chipmunks around here.  Look what they’ve done here.

They live in this rock wall and have burrowed all over to make escape routes from the predators.  I guess there’s always an issue with something.  Such is life and somehow we’ll deal with it.

On another note, many animals have ventured by in search of water.  I have to fill all the pans and bowls daily.

 Desert toad

 

I feel like I’m living in a cave, as I have to keep the blinds drawn to keep some of the heat out, at least until the sun has moved across the sky.  Once the patio has shade, I can open them and get some light in here.  Then the other side of the house is in the dark until sunset, which is about 9:30 here.  I’m not complaining about that though.  I love the long days and would rather have to deal with the heat when I think about that winter cold.

FWIT, today it’s 110 here.