OUR GATE IS COMPLETE & AS YET AN UNSEEN GOPHER SNAKE IS IN OUR FRONT YARD

The bird in my Sunday post has been identified by DONNA W & GORDON W (no relation) as an AMERICAN KESTREL.  I think it is the first time I have ever seen one.  Photo was taken near the Date Creek Ranch west of the Date Creek Mountains.

 

Readers may have noticed I have been slowly re-building my ‘Fellow Bloggers’ list on our sidebar.  A lot of blogs slipped through the cracks over the last few years.  Some mysteriously disappeared, some I removed when they went dormant, & others I removed one time in an attempt to shorten the list & keep it more current.  As I come across blogs I remember I have been re-adding them to my list again.  This morning’s example is LADY DYNA RIDER who I think I had on my list at one time.  I recognized the name.  Check out her post about a Steel Building Home.  Kelly & I have thought of this concept many times over the past years.

I am soooooo glad it is not last year at this time.  Not only were we headed for a cold snowy & rainy stretch of weather but it was the time we drove over to Quartzsite on January 25th & got ourselves tangled up buying a 2012 Class C Sunseeker.  That was the beginning of some highly stressful days for us that would last for months.  It is still stressful to this very day just thinking of it all.  Worst day was January 31rst when we drove the Damon to Quartzsite for the trade-in.  Now there’s a miserable memory still too fresh in my mind to even write about.  And that’s the end of that.

 

<<< LITTLE MISS HAPPY FACE

Dally was back to more of her old self this morning.  Quicker coming over to the fence & jumping up for some scruffles.  Someone asked if she was fixed & yes she is.  Several folks have wondered about us adopting Dally.  This is a tough question.  After 3 dogs we are very comfortable right now with one dog.  Everything is much easier for us.  Pheebe is our top priority & we do not want to do anything that disrupts or changes things for her.  We already know Dally totally overpowers Pheebs while playing & we can tell Pheebs is uncomfortable with that.  Dally might settle down after awhile or she might not.  It’s a big chance to take.  Dally requires training & I don’t know if I have the patience for that anymore.  It would be pretty crowded in the Jeep with 2 dogs in the back etc.  Adopting Dally is not out of the question but it is a very, very, difficult decision requiring not only clear thoughts from the head but clear feelings from the heart as well…………………

The flower pics I had in my post a couple days ago are a type of Daisy.  Shirley gave me a coffee can of seeds awhile back & I scattered them in a bare spot along our fence north of our front gate.  Maybe just need some rain now to get them started.  If we can just get a few growing they will soon take off covering our front yard.

Marteen & his boys showed up this afternoon & completed our south gate.  Good job & glad to have that project done & out of the way.  They also made a few adjustments on our front gate to even things up as well.  Waiting for Les now to drop over with our new shed doors

 

WE NOW HAVE 2 ENTRANCES TO THE PROPERTY MAKING IT EASIER ENTER & EXIT OUR PLACE

We noticed a white pick-up truck stopped on the road in front of our house this afternoon.  We recognized the truck from the Congress Water Department & one of the fellas was out shoosing something off the road with his hat.  Turns out it was a 3’ GOPHER SNAKE.  Gopher snakes are good snakes & not harmful.  We didn’t see it but Lloyd from the waterworks said he last saw it slipping under our fence heading for a Prickly Pear Cactus patch we have in the corner of our front yard.  With camera in hand Kelly & went looking for him but he may have gone down one of the holes under the Prickly Pears.  This Gopher snake sighting along with a commenter having a Rattlesnake in their breezeway in south Congress a week ago prompted Kelly to call a Vet in Wickenburg.  Pheebs is going in for an anti-venom Rattlesnake shot Tuesday at 4 just to be on the safe side.  She will get a booster in about a month & it will be good until next January.  With our mild temperatures lately some of the crawly things are beginning to come out of the ground.  Those Cactus Wrens gathering nesting materials Sunday may be a sign of an early Spring in these parts.

Three o’clock this afternoon found us over at North Ranch with a group of folks in the activity center listening to Bob Cardwell giving a talk & showing slides on Crested Saguaros of Arizona.  To date he has documented 2,081 Crested Saguaro Cacti.  Bob is connected with the TUCSON CACTUS & SUCCULENT SOCIETY.  Kelly & I have found close to a dozen so far in our travels.  Typing ‘Saguaro Cactus’ in our search bar will take you to my posts over the years about us finding them.  Recent finds are listed first.

 

Noticed a few fellow RV Bloggers over in Quartzsite made it out to Crystal Hill a day or two ago.  Rough washboard road to get there but it’s a nice hike up a rocky hill where crystals can still be found.

 

WE FOUND SOME ON CRYSTAL HILL

KELLY & I ON CRYSTAL HILL SOUTH OF QUARTZSITE AZ ON FEBRUARY 08 IN 2010

GROANER’S CORNER:((  Did you know the very first doctor of dermatology had to start from scratch.

Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.

This dog, is dog, a dog, good dog, way dog, to dog, keep dog, a dog, dummy dog, busy dog, for dog, 20 dog, seconds dog! ... Now read without the word dog.

Farmer Evans was driving his John Deere tractor along the road with a trailer load of fertilizer.  Tim a little boy of eight was playing in his yard when he saw the farmer and asked, 'What've you got in your trailer?'  'Manure,' Farmer Evans replied. 'What are you going to do with it?' asked Tim. 'Put it on my strawberries,' answered the farmer. Tim replied, 'You ought to come and eat with us, we put ice-cream on our strawberries.'