Most wonderful time of the year!

It is also the busiest time of the year! I spent 4 days last week taking care of my 5 year old granddaughter Holly while her parents were out of town on business. She was a very good girl and I got much closer to her during my stay there. I managed to stay busy while she was at school. Although I miss her, I was glad to get back to my own home and spend some time with Gary and our sweet little Kittymous.
We had to move a few miles to another park (at the same lake) due to a deer hunt at the other park. It was uneventful and we got a good spot surrounded by cedars and other trees. Our friends are two spots away and we've been enjoying spending time with them.
We finally put up our little Christmas tree yesterday and are doing some decorating.
We had to work on Sundays while we were at Seminole Canyon and were unable to attend church there. We miss our work there but it's nice not to have to work on Sundays. This Sunday, we decided to go to the First Presbyterian Church in Georgetown. We were surprised to see there was no sermon but there was a small orchestra and choir for Vivaldi's Gloria. Gary had never been in a concert with an orchestra and he was wowed by the experience. There are many talented musicians here in the G-town area. We thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated the performance. After we got home, granddaughter Caitlin came to visit, and then Gary's daughter Lesley and her son came for a visit...bearing CHRISTMAS COOKIES!!! mmmmm, are they ever GOOD! After everyone left, our friends Dave and Sally came over and we had fun watching football and gabbing with them. So it was a happy and busy day. Gary's grandson came back in the evening and brought his girl, Christa, to see our motor home.
I'm so proud of Caitlin. She's graduating from Texas A&M with a double major, Animal Science and Ag/business, on the 18th of December. Also, she's only 20 years old! She's been accepted at Texas Tech for grad school majoring in Ag Education. She's also engaged. So lots happening in her life and we are very, very happy for her and wish her the best in life. She's worked hard and managed her time and money in a wise and prudent way.
We never made it down to get the RV serviced at Freightliner. Shortly after we arrived here on Dec. 1, we discovered that the entire basement of the motor home was wet! (Did I already tell you this????) Since we drove in the rain to get up here, we figure we have some leaks. We have plans to fix it, though. Gary spent a couple of days with a ShamWow sopping up water, etc. None of our possessions were ruined, as everything is in rubbermaid boxes. We did have to remove everything from under the RV and put it out on the picnic table while the sopping-up-water thing was going on.
Just wanted to keep in touch...sorry I haven't written more but seems time is whizzing by. Check back...I will try to take some pictures of our campsite and make another post!

Arrival in Georgetown, TX

We left Seminole Canyon yesterday at 8:40 am and drove straight through to Georgetown. It was raining when we left and rained on us all day. We got soaked a couple of times, breaking everything down and then setting up when we got here.
Our friends Dave and Sally had dinner waiting for us, and it was such a treat to go to their warm RV and eat a hot meal. Such a blessing to have dear friends like that.
The lake has lots of water, not like when we left. It was down very low at the end of July. We're glad to see the water levels back up.
Our campsite is pretty and we have lots of trees around. The trees are mostly cedar and live oak so greenery abounds. A few oak trees are changing color and they make a pretty contrast to the green of the live oaks and cedars. All these campsites have a large covered picnic table, which is really nice.
We have to break down our campsite again tomorrow and take the RV down to Freightliner to get some routine maintenance work done. What!!! We just got here! I need to learn to be more "mobile". Guess I'm getting set in my ways.
Gotta go out and do some shopping! It's nice to be in the boonies, but I do enjoy hopping in the car and going to various stores whenever I feel like it, especially this time of year. We're looking for some more Christmas decorations and Gary wants a small nativity scene. We'll set up our Christmas tree and decorate when we get the RV back home tomorrow.
Sorry I don't have any interesting news to report...wait a minute, what am I saying! I'm GLAD nothing out of the ordinary is happening. I'll add some pictures of our campsite if this program will let me.
Stay warm and safe!

Nov. 30, 2009

Wow, I can't believe it's been so long since I've written in my blog. Sorry, guys! We haven't really had much news...just been working and doing our duties here at Seminole Canyon. We are due to leave tomorrow but the weather may interfere. Snow is predicted for Comstock, about 9 miles from here, on Tuesday night, but we should be in G-town by then.
I am sad to leave Seminole Canyon, but at the same time, I'm looking forward to seeing our collective children and their families, and our friends around Austin.
I have enjoyed every single day we've been here, and we feel that nothing's too good for our favorite park. The park staff are close friends, and we will miss them sorely.
I put in a few pictures that I took recently. I thought I'd show you some fall color...see, the northeast doesn't have anything on us. We have ONE tree with some color! It's an oak tree by the restroom. We saw the cactus along the road, and I believe it's a pincushion cactus. The bird is a golden fronted woodpecker. It was right outside our dining room window a few days ago.
We did see something interesting yesterday morning, but didn't have the camera. We saw a hog nosed skunk rummaging around some rocks. He looked like any other skunk, except he had a wide white stripe all the way down his back and fluffy tail. Never fails...when you see something good you never have a camera.
We are packing things up and almost ready to go. We should be pulling out tomorrow morning about 8:30 am, after saying goodbye to the staff here.
We'll keep you posted! Thanks for reading our blog.

Planets, Stars and Airs of Space

This picture is looking southwest, toward Mexico, from our motor home. Tonight was a perfect night for sitting outside beside a campfire. You can see the firepit, slightly to the left center of the picture. The wooden structure on the far left is a picnic shelter. The wind was very light, out of the southeast, and blew the smoke away from us. We sat around the fire and watched the western sky turn pink and orange, and as the darkness deepened, the stars began to show. In Seminole Canyon, there is little light pollution, and the Milky Way was visible from southwest to northeast. Also, this is one of the few places we've been where the Little Dipper is visible. As I watched the fire and listened to the crickets and tree frogs, I thought of the ancient peoples who lived in the canyons here and wondered if they, too, saw the beauty in their surroundings and appreciated the velvet black heavens with twinkling stars and planets. They were probably hungry and preoccupied with obtaining enough food and water to keep body and soul together, though.
The Taurid meteor shower is supposed to happen soon, and I did see one bright shooting star as we were sitting there. However, soon the eastern sky began to glow like it was on fire, and the slightly lopsided bright orange moon began to rise. Oh well, the fire was dying and we headed for the warmth of our home.
I was reminded of being in high school, singing a song by J. S. Bach, called "Planets, Stars, and Airs of Space". I think I can still remember all the words. Isn't it odd that we can remember songs we learned 50 years ago but can't remember the name of someone we met five minutes ago!
It's been a nice couple of days, as we were off duty and able to relax. Tomorrow, it's back to work!

November 1, 2009

Our friends Dave and Sally had to leave a day early and we have really been missing them. Here are a few more pictures taken when we were down in the canyon. The first two pictures are in the Fate Bell Shelter. You can see how large it is. Imagine living there! It's sheltered from the heat and the wind, but you'd be sharing your living quarters with every wild animal,serpent, and insect in this area. Scary! And no sleeping bags, either. There is evidence of human habitation for many years in this shelter. It is estimated that the paintings in the shelter are at least 4000 years old, I believe. The third picture is Sally and me beside one of the huge boulders in the canyon. On this rock, we found several fossils like the one in the picture.
The weather has been utterly beautiful. The humidity is low so the days warm up to mid 70's, and at night it gets down to the 40's. Very good sleeping weather. We had some 20-30 mph winds a few days ago, but the wind has died down a lot.
We continue to do our work here and enjoy it. It's hard to believe we've been here two whole months, and are starting on our last month here. I am, however, looking forward to seeing our children, grandchildren and friends around Austin come December 1!

Busy Day

)

Our friends Dave and Sally are here to visit, and yesterday we visited Langtry, TX, about 10 miles west of here, and went to the Judge Roy Bean Visitors Center. We also stopped along Route 90 to see the "Buffalo Jump", a high bluff with a sudden drop-off into a steep gorge, where ancient people, on foot (prior to the Spanish bringing horses to North America), chased buffalo to their death, and then killed them for meat, hides, etc. We returned to Seminole Canyon and went down to see Fate Bell shelter, which is the third picture you see. The second picture is an example of the rock art in Fate Bell, typical of the lower Pecos area. The first picture is viewing Fate Bell from further down the canyon. After spending a good while looking at the rock art, we then walked a little way down the canyon and took some more pictures. It was so quiet, with a few birds calling, and no evidence that we were in the 21st century. After climbing back out of the canyon, we then went down to Panther Cave. It is accessible only by boat, but we went down to the end of the trail at the Rio Grande and took pictures #4 and 5. You can see the 23 foot panther behind the chain link fence. This fence is necessary to keep idiots out and try to stop defacement of the rock art. To your left of the panther are many more paintings. This shelter is located where Seminole Canyon ends at the Rio Grande. Due to the amount of water in Lake Amistad, water has backed up into Seminole Canyon (but not to the point where we went into Fate Bell Shelter.

It was a great day, and we returned home to our RV and shared a meal of shredded beef enchiladas with Dave and Sally. We are so thankful to be able to live here and see the beauty of this remote land.

It's off to Del Rio today for grocery shopping, and sadly, Dave and Sally are going back to Georgetown tomorrow.

Love to all our dear friends and family,

Gary and Judy

I've been trying to wait until I got some good pictures before I posted again, so here are some bird pix, plus a fox. I took all these pictures from our dining room window. We have tinted windows, so I have to manual-focus my camera for these. There is a tall shrub (tree?) right outside our window, and we put a seed bell up for the birds.

The first picture is a brown towhee (pronounced toe-hee). The second is a fox who thought he was being pretty sneaky trotting across the road, just right outside our RV. There were very few campers in the park that day. Check out the broken tail!

The third picture is a pyrrhuloxia, in the cardinal family and occasionally seen in this part of the country. The fourth picture is a white-crowned sparrow, a small bird with lots of kinfolk. They gorged themselves on the seed bell.

I've been trying to get the last bird's picture for a long time. He is a cactus wren and a very busy, quick little bird. They're the ones who build the round nests down in cactus plants here.

We've had our friends Dave and Sally here for the past few days and have been enjoying them very much. Last night we talked Gary and Dave into playing Sequence, and we stopped at 2 games, tied. We then went outside and sat around watching the beautiful sunset and stars coming out. As soon as we got out to the picnic shelter, Dave spotted a skunk. Fortunately the skunk went the other way. It was a lovely evening, temperature perfect with a slight breeze.

However, around 3 am this morning, the cold front came through with a vengeance. We got a little rain along with the high winds (up to 31 mph) during the morning. All windows had to be closed as the rain was blowing. It's cold, damp, and windy outside now. Hmmm, just the kind of day to bake snickerdoodles!

Our friends and co-workers (volunteers) Pat and Marshall are leaving Wednesday. We are sorry to see them go. They have worked very hard for this park, always going the extra mile and doing more than necessary. Like I said in the past, RV'ing can be tough because it seems you are always saying goodbye to someone. Hopefully we'll see them again; they volunteer at some neat places, and we hope to visit them early this summer as we go through Wisconsin, their home base.

That's about all for now! I hope to have some more pictures soon. Thanks for checking on us!

Forgotten treasures

We have a beautiful day here in southwest Texas. The south wind is blowing but it is cool, about 75 degrees outside.

Don't you love finding forgotten pictures on your camera ? Gary took all these on his Nikon, so I can't take credit for any of them.

You may recall that we stopped in Marathon, TX, on the way here to Seminole Canyon. Gary took the first three pictures there shortly after sundown. I think they're beautiful and didn't do any editing of them at all. These were taken at the Marathon Motel, which also has RV parking.

The final two pictures are ocotillo plants which are blooming now. This land is semi-arid, and pretty flowers are few and far between.

About the continuing refrigerator saga...we took the RV in last Wednesday and the people at Norcold had finally authorized the cooling unit to be shipped. The guys at DelTex RV in Del Rio did a great job, and the refrigerator has been working perfectly. They also put in a new ice maker and it's working great, too. We're keeping our fingers crossed that this was really the problem, and not some other intermittent problem. We're also thankful to the great folks at Tiffin RV, manufacturer of our coach, who put pressure on Norcold to fix our refrigerator speedily. We hope not to move this RV again until December.

This is a very busy week and weekend for us. We had students from a Montessori school in Austin for 4 days this week. There were kids everywhere! They were well-behaved, though, and didn't leave as much mess as some adults. They all left yesterday and we cleaned every campsite plus spiffed up the grounds around here. This weekend is the Rock Art Foundation Rendezvous, so we have lots of campers who are attending the festivities over across Hwy. 90 at the White Shaman preserve. We've been trying to keep on top of reservations plus folks coming in wanting a campsite. So far, we've managed to please everyone.

Tonight we're going over to the White Shaman preserve to eat dinner. We get to go because we're volunteers here. It'll be a good Texas meal of barbeque and beans.

Until I can think of more to post...thanks for joining me here!

Special photos

Now before you go "Eek!" and get all disgusted, first let me tell you that this lil' critter doesn't sting. This is a vinegaroon, or a whip-tailed scorpion. He, or she, is a pet, believe it or not (not our pet, though).

These creatures are in the spider family and are nocturnal. This particular species is found mostly in west Texas, usually in desert areas. They have very poor eyesight but the front legs serve as feelers, and they sense vibration and movement to catch their prey. The two thick pincers are used to grasp prey and hold it while they eat (they like crickets and grasshoppers). The vinegaroon also uses the pincers to drink water and to dig in the sand. They can also pinch with these protuberances.

When startled or threatened, the vinegaroon sprays a substance comparable to 85% acetic acid from scent glands at the base of the tail. (Regular vinegar is usually 5% acetic acid).

I used to hear of vinegaroons when I was a kid, and people thought they were very dangerous. Now I learn they were wrong. Of course, that was a lot of years ago!

Oh, the vinegaroon's name is Dale. Of course, he could be a she, and then we'd have to call him Dale Evans, right?

Lovely fall weather

We have beautiful weather today. The cold front came through, and although we didn't get any rain, it's cooler and drier, 74 degrees at 2 pm. This is my favorite time of the year in Seminole Canyon.

We are in the midst of the Monarch butterfly migration. The first two pictures are of a tiny butterly. The third picture is a ragged Monarch. They come tumbling through this part of Texas every year and some of them unfortunately bite the dust as they meet with cars and trucks.

The next picture was taken in front of the headquarters building. The sign is flanked by sotol plants and in the center is the century plant, or agave. The agave is not native to this area but is easily grown here.

The next picture is an ocotillo (pronounced oh-coh-TEE-yoh) plant which is blooming in front of the campground restroom. The plant is tall and spindly, with thorns hidden under its small green leaves. The leaves die easily in dry weather but come back with just a little rain. In the next picture, you can see the entire plant. Some cut the ocotillo spines and make fences with them, and they are also thatched together and used to make a roof.

The building is the campground restroom. It has a nice desert garden in the front with ocotillo, century plant, spanish dagger, and several other species of cacti. We are responsible for keeping the restroom clean and the grass trimmed and mowed, in addition to mowing grass in the campground and cutting brush. We just mowed the grass today in preparation for the weekend.

Monday is Columbus Day and we should have an increase in campers for the weekend.

Have a great one and keep looking for more posts!

We are, unfortunately, still on hold getting our refrigerator fixed. The cooling unit which was SUPPOSED to be in today was only shipped today from somewhere in Indiana. It will take yet another week for the part to arrive. We are very disappointed and want to get this issue settled. It has been frustrating, to say the least, dealing with the Norcold company. I hope to never ever have another product made by them.

This is our day off, so we did laundry and then decided to go out to Langtry, TX, twenty miles west, to the Judge Roy Bean Center, where our friend Miguel now works. In addition to the bar in the picture, which also served as Judge Roy Bean's courtroom, we toured the newly added Opera House, which also served as his home. It is still being finished and was an adobe house covered with stucco, inside and out. We also toured the garden of desert plants and saw all the improvements that Miguel has made since he transferred there. The lizard in the picture didn't seem too upset at the humans in his world, and I was able to get a couple of snapshots of him before he scampered off.

After a good visit with Miguel, we drove south down a little dirt road toward the Rio Grande. I couldn't resist taking pictures of the bluffs and also the scenery toward the west, as seen in the second picture. I really wish there was some way to capture the beauty of this country in a photograph, but I think a painting is about the only way to do that. Unfortunately, I can't even draw a straight line, so it couldn't be me that does the painting!

On the way back, I took the picture of the Pecos River, looking south toward the Rio Grande. The bridge is under construction-repair, and currently is a one lane bridge, high above the Pecos. There is a stoplight at either side of the bridge and a sign warns that there may be up to a 4 minute wait. The other side of the bridge is still under construction. It's a little bit scary going over that bridge.

It has been extremely humid here today. It's really not that hot (only 83 degrees), but when you step outside, your glasses fog up and you feel like you're in a sauna. I'm ready for a cool-off! We did get some rain the other night. We're happy because the burn ban has been lifted in Val Verde County, so the campers can have campfires.

Tomorrow is our weekly trip to Del Rio for groceries. We had hoped to be taking the RV in for the final repair on the fridge! Hope to have more pictures for you soon.

Sleepy Sunday

It's a sleepy day today. We haven't had much news to report here lately. Yesterday we had a little rain, and this morning it was misty and cloudy, but the clouds are now gone and the heat is back...again.

Gary took these pictures of a cardinal right outside our dining room window. The white birds are probably cattle egrets that he saw sitting atop one of the picnic shelters while making rounds. I have seen a few of them at a time, but never such a big flock as this.

We are waiting until Tuesday to see if our cooling unit will be in for the RV refrigerator. We keep wondering how long this thing will drag on. Tomorrow will be our "Friday". The weeks fly by because we're usually busy.

I'd better do some practicing on my banjo to keep my fingers limber. I'm learning a couple of new songs and trying to memorize them. Have you ever seen a banjo player using music? Nope, neither have I! Practice makes perfect. I hope.

Hot, tired and grumpy!

It's another hot day in southwest Texas. The cool front fizzled that was supposed to get here.
We had to go to Del Rio to take the motor home back in for some MORE tests on the refrigerator. The people at Norcold finally agreed that yes, we need a new cooling unit. A new one was ordered and will be in Del Rio in 1 week. So...one more week of living out of an ice chest (we hope). After frazzled nerves, we finally got back to the park and set up the motor home again. We're trying to get cooled out and bought a bag of ice at the HQ building so we could have a cold coke.
Oh, we also got our flu shots today (the influenza A shots). We've never had a problem with them. We're glad to get that out of the way. Of course, we are firmly convinced that we had the H1N1 variety this summer, but we'll still try to get the shots (if we're eligible) when they come out in November.
I drove the car in and Gary drove the MH in to Del Rio. On the way home, my mind went back to the first time I saw this country, about 12 years ago, and how I fell in love with it. I had to calm down a little and remember to be appreciative of the sights again. This area of southwest Texas has many paintings on the canyon walls which are mysterious and defy explanation. The early people who lived here eked out a difficult existence, and it's hard to imagine how they were even able to survive. There are some who think the Huichol tribe in Mexico are the descendants of the people who painted on these walls.
Tomorrow is another day off for us, so maybe we'll have some productive pictures for you!

Oops! Wasn't fall after all!

Cool weather's gone, rain's gone, back to the heat! It's supposed to get up to 94 degrees here today. Guess I was premature in saying I'm glad it's fall. A/c's working well, though.

This morning, we went down the trail to the Rio Grande to empty trash cans. That's always a pleasant part of our week, because really, I am going there to take pictures. I'm always looking for photo ops. We love going down the trail because when we stop the mule engine, all we hear is the wind and a few birds. We usually just sit for a few minutes and soak up the silence and the beauty of the country.

The first two pictures are some fossil imprints in the rocks on the rocky cliff above the Rio Grande (or Amistad Lake). At one time, this entire area was a shallow, warm water sea, and fossils abound.

We scared up a large buck and I tried to get my camera ready to take pictures of him, but by the time I could get him in focus he was already far away. We had taken a little road that splits off the trail and goes on down toward the river. Border Patrol uses this road to ostensibly see or capture illegals crossing in that area. Just as we were leaving, Gary spotted a ring of rocks by the road. As you can see, someone had tried to protect this beautiful, small white cactus. I tried to find the name on the internet but had no luck. I didn't touch it to see if it was soft! Doubt if it was.

The view of the lake, or river, that you see is looking east from the confluence of Seminole Canyon and the Rio Grande (or Amistad) where the river takes a large swing to the south. The land you see at the right of the picture is Mexico. The spiny green plants in the foreground are ocotillo (oh-ko-TEE-yo). We keep waiting for them to bloom so we can show you some pictures.

We're still having refrigerator woes. The temperature continues to climb and fall erratically (well, mostly climb). We are hoping that Bob Tiffin, the owner of the company that manufactured our motor home, will be able to get something done for us. It will be a whole month next Wednesday that we have been struggling with the Norcold company to get our refrigerator fixed. Well so much for "made in America"! Norcold fridges are made in Ohio. They've got lousy customer service. I'm glad we have the refrigerator up in the maintenance barn (about 2 miles away) to keep our frozen food, otherwise we'd have lost it all again.

But that's minor...we have our health and eyes to see and ears to hear, and a beautiful land to enjoy. What more can you want?

Fall has Fallen!

What a nice surprise. It turned cool yesterday and was 59 degrees outside this morning when we woke up. It started lightly raining about 2:30 am this morning and rained on and off until about 2 pm. Love the sound of rain on this roof.

Just got word that my Zune is over at the Comstock post office. I won it playing Club Bing games, such as Chicktionary and the crossword puzzle game on the site. It cost 38,500 points. I usually get 18-20 points for each game I play. I can't play chicktionary or Lexicon any more because I've played all the games. Anyway, we will pick up the Zune tomorrow. I'm excited to get it because I don't have an Ipod. I don't even know if there will be software to install the Zune or any accessories with it.

We went down into the canyon a few days ago and I took a couple of pictures. The water hole is at the confluence of Seminole and Presa Canyon. We saw a hole and I had to wonder what stays in it. Didn't reach in, though. This morning, I was sitting at the kitchen table and saw a Hooded Oriole outside. I wasn't able to get a very good picture of him but you can see how pretty his colors are. Had to take the pic through the screen.

We're having refrig. troubles again. Temperature is going up in the freezer and icebox. RatsRatsRats!

We have to go down and pick up the occupancy sheets for tonight...this is our last day off and it's back to work tomorrow!

Last day of summer(?)

Well, not to complain, but it's 5:30 pm and still 96 degrees! Whew, I wish someone would tell that cold front to hurry up.
We got some WONDERFUL rain last night! Probably between 1/4 and 1/2 inch. We had vivid lightning and the power kept flickering on and off. There were lots of little pools of water when we went down to the HQ building this morning. I'll bet the wild birds and animals loved that.
We did some serious trimming down by the HQ building today. There's an agave plant by HQ that has wicked, sharp points, and it gave birth to many little agave plants underneath its sharp points. I dug many of them out with a sharpshooter shovel. The head ranger really wants to get rid of the agave plants in the park because they're not native to this area. So I didn't feel too bad about digging the babies out. The rain we got last night softened the ground a little bit. Gary came and relieved me. We did some weedeating and used the nippers to cut back some blackbrush acacia (long thorns) that was beginning to grow up again. It doesn't need much water to grow, apparently. We cut mostly weeds which had sprung up. We cleaned the restrooms at the HQ building, then did our trimming, and came up to the campground to clean the sites that were vacated today. We cleaned our restrooms here in the campground, too, all in preparation for our day off tomorrow. Then back to the RV for showers, because a) we were stinky and sweaty, and b), the agave (century) plant gives off some kind of substance which causes an itchy rash. After a cool shower, we sank into the couches under the a/c. We are tired, but it's a good tired!
I see from my computer that there is some rain following the same pattern from yesterday, so we can always hope for a little more rain tonight.
Tomorrow...to Del Rio for grocery shopping and lunch.
I'm thankful that we are able to volunteer in this place that's so beautiful to us. We love the canyons, the scenic vistas, the roughness of the terrain and the vegetation, and the solitude and quiet.

Resurrection Plants and other pictures

Today was a hot day but fun. We took the mule down to the Rio Grande, or Amistad Lake (where it's backed up). The water backs up into Seminole Canyon at that point.

As promised to some of you folks, we took pictures of a curious plant called the Resurrection Plant, which grows in abundance in this particular area of the park. This plant dries up and withers in dry weather and transforms itself into a lush green plant when it gets some rain. In the third picture, you can see the green plant; the fourth picture shows the plant in its dried-up state. The fifth picture is another Resurrection Plant after some rain; the same plant is shown in the next picture. The tiny pink flower you see is at the tip of a very small cactus, which is about 1" tall. I also took a picture looking up Seminole Canyon to give you an idea of where we saw these plants. The rock ledge we were on is about 150 feet above the water's edge.

The first two pictures are the fishhook cactus, after the blooms died off. The blooms left "fruit". If you look at the pictures from Sept. 12, you will see the blooms. I wonder if you can eat the "fruit" after the spines are burned off.

On the way back, we saw the nest of a cactus wren. They build their nests in the most evil of cactus plants, which protects their nests from predators. Who wants to reach into those long, sharp painful spines? The cactus wren is a small bird, speckled, with a slightly curved beak. We saw one today hopping about on the bush which is right outside our dining room window.

I mentioned that we have seen evidence of digging of large holes here in the campground. While we were making our rounds yesterday, one of the campers stopped us and told us that about 8-10 skunks had awakened them about 1 am the morning before. They (the camper) had food in coolers in a zipped-up cabana thing, like a tent with net sides. The skunks were squeaking and making all kinds of noises trying to get to the food. Aha! Mystery solved. Skunks do dig. She wisely decided not to disturb them, as her family was sleeping in a tent. The skunks finally left. I think maybe Pepe LePew and his bunch are wandering around the campground due to the extreme drought we've had here, possibly searching for food or water.

BTW, there's plenty of water in Amistad (Rio Grande), but it has come from upstream. We're still very dry here.

That's all for now!