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

Signs you’ve been living in the desert too long

When you start to worry about the critters who call this place home. 

 Roadrunner at the birdbath

Roadrunner waiting for a lizard who lives behind the shed

 

I’m very guilty here because I’m keeping a constant check on the roadrunner nest in the vacant lot next door.  The parents come to hunt and get water at our house.  When I went to check the nest tonight, there was no one there.  I’m very worried about the chicks.  I don’t know if they’ve hatched and both parents are out hunting for food, or what’s going on.  I have no idea why I’m worried about these critters as they hunt all the other critters in the yard and have been existing this way long before we came to live here and will still be doing this long after we’re gone.  We actually cut a small slice off a steak we barbecued last night for the roadrunner.  He wasn’t having any luck so we thought we’d help out.  Of course he wouldn’t touch it, so maybe they prefer to hunt their food alive, or at least aren’t hungry enough to eat that.  I’ll have to Google it and see.

 Roadrunner nest

 

When I was over at the nest twice tonight I didn’t hear a peep from any baby birds.  I don’t know if they’ve hatched, or if the parents feel it’s safe to leave the eggs alone for a short time.  I was scolding them under my breath.  It was beginning to rain and I figured the babies would be alarmed, but I imagine birth into the desert would be trial by fire.  Better to get used to it now, I suppose.  Life isn’t very kind here, especially for the animals that have to endure the elements.  I would truly miss all the critters we get to see here.

I also don’t mind sitting in my car at 100 degrees for about ten minutes before I turn the A/C on. 

I know that’s crazy!  I must be acclimated to the heat because sometimes it feels so good to me.  That is unless I’m dressed in my penguin suit for work when I can sweat buckets because of the collar and sleeves required for the job.  That’s probably the number one thing about working as a demo person that I don’t like.  That and having to “lose” the jewelry for work.  And of course, there’s no flip flops for work, so I have a constant athlete’s foot problem going on.

I look forward to the hundred degree days instead of the 30 degree ones. 

I hate to admit it, but this is so true for me.  I could almost cry when we hit October because I know by Halloween it’ll be cold for several months.  I really can’t stand the cold as much as 115 degrees bothers me.

I’m used to seeing rocks and dirt everywhere I go.

One of the many rocky mountains we have here.

 

Yes, you can get used to this.  Grass or anything else green is rare here, except for trees and there aren’t a lot of those.  I can find so much beauty in the carved rocks and mountains around me.  They’re stripped bare of any vegetation, so you can see the whole surface sculpted by nature.  There’s something magical about that.

The hot desert wind doesn’t bother me

In fact, I can find any kind of breeze refreshing even if it’s a hundred degrees outside.  It’s just so nice to have a stir of a wind once in a while to cool down the 115 we endure here in the summer.  It reminds me of the Santa Ana winds we had in CA, but they always were around in September and October and, of course, we never hit 115 there either.

Very high electric bills

Oh my!  Now this is hard to get used to, but it’s a part of living in the desert.  I can just figure one paycheck a month goes to pay the A/C bill.  And we don’t keep our house cool.  Most people come in here and remark on how hot it is.  Thank goodness for fans or we’d never make it.  Sleeping is the biggest issue.  You can always go naked around the house, if you have to, although tank tops and shorts usually work out fine even if you’re still sweating.  My office is the situation because it’s upstairs so it’s normal to be at least 95 up there in the summer months.  That’s hard to do if I sweated at work all day.   Sometimes I do turn the A/C on up there a couple of hours to take the extreme heat off.

So there you have it.  A brief synopsis of desert living.  Will I live here forever – no.  But I have no plans to move in the near future.  Slowly, we’re getting there though.

 A young chipmunk learns early how to find water

 

Be thankful for what you have because, as bad as it may be, it’s still doable and probably not all that awful when you think about it. 

Lizard Love

We have loads of lizards around here this year.  They are everywhere and love this heat.  It never seems to get too hot for them.  Hanging out by the plants is usually how they spend their days.  I imagine there are plenty of bugs to catch there. 

 A lizard crawling across the patio

 

Watching them is fascinating.  They are really aggressive when it comes to hunting for food.  But I’ve noticed a lot of animals in the desert are that way.  I imagine food is in short supply sometimes so you have to make sure you get a meal if you spot one. 

Two lizards hanging out on our block wall

The lizards will actually chase competitors away from their hunting spot.  They can really run if they want to.  They have to stop and “pump” themselves up every-so-often, but then they take off at a fast run again.

 A lizard on the house

 

It’s not uncommon to go out and count ten of them around the house, on the house, or the wall that surrounds our property.  Hubby caught these two getting snuggly so I imagine we’ll have more lizards added to the group pretty soon. 

 You can hardly see them in the rocks in the second photo

There’s a lot of mating going on.  Raven wanted outside the door the other day when he spied two lizards chasing each other around in a courtship ritual.  I didn’t get a pic of that because I would have scared them off if I went out on the patio.

Here's one hanging out on the storage shed on the patio

Such is life in the desert.  It keeps the cats amused to watch all the creatures passing by, or hanging out under the patio shade.  I guess 110 in the shade is better than being out in the sun.  Besides what choice do these poor creatures have?  I feel sorry for them having to put up with the extreme conditions of desert living.

Could you live without your basic amenities?

How much do we all take certain things in life for granted?  I think the answer to that is most of us.  We expect the lights to come on when we flip a switch or the water to come out of a faucet when we turn it on.  But…what if this changed?

 My water meter

 

If you suddenly found yourself out of luck with the usual things like water or electricity, would you go into crisis mode and flip out, or simply adjust and deal with the situation until things are resolved? 

Right now, I’m dealing with this condition at my house.  I had to turn my water off on Saturday morning and we’ve been living with no water service in the house since then.  It’s now late Monday afternoon and I’ve yet to see the plumber show up to assess the situation.

 After the towel mop up, I used the wet and dry vac

 

To make a long story short, I discovered the carpet in the master closet was soaking wet on Saturday morning.  I grabbed towels to start soaking up what I could.  They were wet enough to wring out.  I called my husband who freaks out when things like this happen and he insisted I turn the water off at the street.  What really threw both of us off is there’s no water supply near this closet.  Our first thoughts were a ruptured pipe in the slab. 

 This is my mechanical room.  I didn't think to take a pic of the standing water.

 

Luckily, my neighbor works for the city and was home, so he came over to help me.  I couldn’t get the valve turned using a wrench.  I might mention it was 110 outside.  Both of us had sweat dripping down our noses and splattering onto the ground.  My neighbor has a handy tool just for this purpose.  He got the valve turned in two seconds.  Then he came in to look at my water heater, which he thinks is the problem.  My mechanical room had water standing in it.  He turned the main valve back on and just cut the water coming into the house until we could call a plumber.  Naturally, it was the weekend.  Of course, things this major always happen on weekends and holidays.

 Then I brought in this super-duper fan from the garage and an extension cord and blew it on the carpet all weekend.

 

The last time it was a power outage in July a few years ago when it was 114 and the power to the entire city was out for five hours!  Can you imagine that?  But I think this water issue is almost worse.

With this heat, I had to break down and go to a girlfriend’s on Sunday to take a shower.  One can only use so many wet wipes.  the next stop was the dollar store for lots of bottled gallons of water.

Supposedly, hearing my desperation, the plumber is working me in somehow so I can at least get cold water into the house until he can properly fix the problem.  We’ll see if he shows up later today.  I’m not holding my breath.

In times like these, it makes you appreciate running water.

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.

The importance of water in the desert

One of the first things we learned when moving here, almost eleven years ago, is the importance of water to stay hydrated.  Everyone here never leaves the house to go anywhere without a bottle of water.  You never know when you could have a flat tire or some other catastrophe, so it’s best to be smart and prepared.

When temperatures reach the nineties and the triple digits here in the summers, every creature must stay hydrated.  This includes all the critters too and not just people.

I remember going to Palm Springs years ago during the summer.  We were sitting outside under a patio with a mister.  The lunch was wonderful and the mist system sure helped but it was still very hot.  The poor birds gathered on the decorative stucco walls surrounding the place, holding their wings out from their bodies and panting in an effort to stay cool.  I tried to find anything that would hold water so I could set some out for them.  Sadly, there was nothing available.  I felt terrible and never forgot that experience.

Today we keep pans of water all over the yard for the birds and other creatures that venture by.  We have to put rocks in all the pans so the wind doesn’t carry them off into the desert.

Our birdbath gets loaded with birds.  They sit in there shoulder-to-shoulder with others lined up waiting for some space to open up so they can get in there and cool off.  All the species get along well here and usually never squabble, although at times a pigeon bully will come by. 

The desert toads venture out late at night, get into the water pans, swim, and hang out.  They can’t come out in the desert heat, so are strictly night visitors and catch moths and other bugs that are active at that time of day.

There are also many lizards (no, not the green ones) and some snakes that come by for a drink and then slither away back into the desert.

Right now, we’re busy watching the baby quail and baby chipmunks passing through with their parents and siblings all day long.  I always keep a camera close by in hopes of getting a great shot.

It definitely takes stamina and skill to survive here and some species thrive.

Update coming soon

Thanks to everyone following this blog.  There’s so much going on in my life right now that it’s been hard to write a post.  I promise I’ll post a longer “what’s going on in the desert” story soon.

In a nutshell, I’ve been neck-deep in boxes in my garage still preparing to move at some point.  This is a long story.  There’s a lot to go through and dispose of – some things I’m not ready to do that with yet, posing another problem.

The house being built two lots down is really progressing at a fast rate now.  I suspect the owners want to move in before school starts in the fall.  The beautiful front door arrived the last time we did a walk through one evening.  We’re going back there again tomorrow, after the workers leave, to take another look before they start locking up the house.

Koki’s favorite lizard was breakfast the other day for a passing roadrunner.  She’s rather down over that.  I’ll write more about this later and post pictures.  This is a story by itself.  We get such a first hand look at nature here and some of it’s brutal.

Tootie’e eye is starting to look normal again, although not quite as bright, but we’re still doctoring it once a day – more on that later.

Raven’s growing fast and is almost eight months old now.  He started choking tonight and my husband calls me to say the cat has asthma.  What?  I would hope not.  That’s all I need to deal with right now.  I administered petromalt and we’ll see if that does the trick.

There are issues to deal with every time you turn around that I have to add to the list of things to do before we can sell this house.  Most things are minor, but it’s still another task and annoyance.

The heat is getting to both of us, although we have had bit of a break the last three days with it being only in the upper 90’s.  By next week, we’ll be around 108.  Running a fan in the garage does help with all that work, but you still sweat like a pig out there all day and come in exhausted and still having to get dinner together and then clean the kitchen up.  I think I could sleep a week.

I’ll post in a couple of days as soon as I can download some pictures.

How Low Will You Stoop For Money?

Free Clipart



On the front page of Thursday’s newspaper, there was an article about a thief cutting off the tail of a local horse. I didn’t know this, but there seems to be a black-market for such items. Apparently, people use them in western wear, and in artwork.


This happened in a small town about twenty minutes north of me and sometime in the afternoon because the owner looked in on the horse earlier in the day. She discovered the tail missing when she went to feed it before dark.

The thief had the gall to do this in the middle of the day. Now the poor horse has issues because it’s embarrassed that its tail is missing. It only has a stub there now, so the vet told the woman to rig up a tail to tie on back there until his grows back. This can be a traumatic experience for horses because take great pride in their tails.

I know times are hard around here, but you would think that people could come up with some other way to make money and not pick on the poor defenseless animals.

Many horse owners don’t take the best care of their animals anyway, in my opinion. A lot of them don’t even provide shelter from the scorching sun we have here in the summers. When there are no trees to get under, you would think they would build a lean-to type structure. Every year there are numerous letters to the editor of the paper about the poor animals left to suffer in the sun.

There isn’t a lot that surprises me anymore. I do think this is animal cruelty, and I hate to see that. Let’s hope this isn’t the start of more episodes of tail cutting around here. What is your opinion on this?