An excellent day for campsite birds

I woke up to rain on the roof this morning.  I love being in The Palms when it's raining.  Flocks of Black-Throated Sparrows filled the site for a while, then flew off to more seedy pastures. It will be cooler today.

Wednesday Katie and I went into Holtville to do some laundry.  I totally stripped the bed, mattress covers and all, and turned and flipped my little memory foam mattress that is in the bunk we sleep in.

After hearing terrible things all the time from full timers about laundromats, I finally encountered a bad one.  I put my clothes into two of the working washers.  About half were broken, unplugged, had dirty water sitting in the bottom, gross! (which I realized after my laundry had already started) and then put my mattress pad in another larger one.   All the washers in the front row except this one larger one were not working.  I was using the back row, along with two other customers, for my clothes.  Everything was fine until the wash was done, ready to dry. The clothes were fine, but the mattress pad, bright white when it went in, was now covered with dirty patches.  It was disgusting.  I took it out, put in another washer, added a bunch of Clorox, which thankfully I had in The Palms, and washed it again.  It came out almost white again, but hopefully the Clorox did it's job.  Yuk.

This is the only laundromat in Holtville, but I talked to a local who was also using the machines, and he said most of the town goes into El Centro, 11 miles away, or Brawley, 20 miles from Holtville.  Next time I'm in town to dump and get water/propane, I think I'll continue on to El Centro to the Walmart to do my shopping and any laundry I need to do.  So, use the Holtville laundromat, there's only one, at your own risk.

Anyway, I was there longer than I should have been, then I picked up a few things at the local grocery, dumped the tanks and got water, and came home right before dark.  I was pooped.  And I still had to do all the bed stuff.  There's a cover that zips on the mattress, very hard to get back on, then I put a large, thick mattress pad on that to give us more height and softness, then the sheet.  It's impossible to do that on the bed, so I always have to pull out my couch for a larger surface and do it on the couch.  God, what a pain!  Then heft the mattress back up on the overhead and position it.  Then put the duvet cover on the down comforter, again on the pulled out couch.  Finally the bed was done. :)  But I was exhausted.  Just changing the bottom sheet and washing the duvet isn't a big deal; thankfully I don't wash all the bed linens very often.

Yesterday was a day of total rest and enjoying the view out the windows.  It was overcast all day, looked like rain, but it never came.  Still warm and breezy.

This jackrabbit comes through the campsite from time to time, usually Katie sees him before I do and she barks like crazy.  The rabbit runs into the bushes.  Today I saw him first and got some pics.  He was loping down a little trail right under the branch upon which was sitting a Cooper's Hawk.  I was watching the hawk and here comes the rabbit.  Later I wondered why the hawk didn't try to get him.  Maybe the rabbit was too big?

I think he is so cute.  He doesn't stop,  just hops along through the site.

The fat little bunnies stop in our site, looking for seeds and they stay around a while.  The jack rabbit just continues on through.

Below is the hawk.  Isn't he beautiful?  And stern looking?  He sat on this branch for quite a while, just turning his head back and forth.  Then it suddenly he took off, must have found something for dinner.

Thank you, Judy, for your comment.  I love it when you guys give me corrections and/or new information on birds.  According to Judy, this is a juvenile Cooper's Hawk, and one way of telling is because of his eyes.  They are yellow.  I totally missed that.

Cooper's Hawk

I got out my field guides to identify the birds.  One of the things it said is that Cooper's Hawks eat small birds, and I realized this is the first time there were NONE of the little birds around that are usually chirping up a storm.  They are either on the ground searching for food, or in the surrounding trees.  I can almost always hear them.  But I guess they saw the hawk before I did, and scrammed!

Earlier I saw this female Costa's Hummingbird sitting on another tree branch, right by the humming bird feeder.  

Costa's Hummingbird

Then a bit later I noticed this bird. When I looked him up, I thought he was one bird, but Judy suggested another.  These Birders with a capital B see things I miss. He does have a pink/salmon cast to his upper chest and under feathers that I missed, and I think Judy is correct that he is an Albert's Towhee.

When I'm flabergasted that my friend Hazel can tell which bird we're looking at just from the way it's flying, wing shape or span, or something like that, she says it's experience.  After a while you notice things, then more things, and after a while you automatically see things that a novice birder misses.
 

Dark-Eyed Junco (or probably Albert's Towhee, per Judy)

He is rather plain in comparison to the other birds around, and a little bigger.  I watched him for a bit, then he flew down to the ground where I had my little container of bird seed.  It used to have cashews in it, but I put some of the seed from my big bag into this container.  I can leave it out and throw a little seed around each morning.

Poor thing, he kept pecking at the container, walking around it, pecking again. He would jump back, cock his head, and jump back up to the container and try again. He couldn't understand what was going on.  He could see the seeds, but couldn't get to them.  He put on quite a show for me. :)

Later he, or one of his buddies, hopped around scratching and kicking up dust.  Look at the dust around his little feet!  I just read in my Field Guide about some birds taking dust baths.  It was in the Gambel's Quail section, and that is something the Quail do.  They make dirt depressions and kick the dust up over their bodies to get rid of small insects.  I saw the quail taking a dust bath on the other side of the site a few times, and after kicking up enough dust to make the depression in the dirt, they sat in it.  I wondered what they were doing.

Taking a dust bath?

Pretty eastern desert sky at sunset.  So soft looking.

All in all, a great day for bird watching and jack rabbit photos.  Still no Roadrunner, maybe today.

From me and Katie, have a great Friday, everyone!  :)

Hot Springs LTVA

Katie and I walked over to the springs the other day and I got some photos.  Because there were people in the pools, I didn't get any close-ups, but I will in the future.

I posted some photos last year when we were here, but at that time I didn't realize there was a body of water behind the wall of palm trees.  I knew there was some water, but I thought it was a narrow stream or creek.  It's an actual pool, and when we walked around it,  I saw a man swimming there.  It was just beautiful!

I peeked through the wall of trees last time, but this time I walked further to go around the trees, and saw this through the first opening:

And further around the small area was this opening, and a man having a swim.  It's not deep, at least not along the sides where I was talking to him, but he said the water is lower than it has been in the past.

This is shot from the other side of what I call "the grotto."  (There is a sign that says no swimming, but this man said he has been using this pool for years and years.  Probably because he is very quiet and leaves the area the way he found it.)

See the green palm trees in the rear of the pool?  Those are the trees in the front that block the view of the pool.

This is the wall of trees along one side:

These are the palms along the front side of the grotto that line the pool in the photo above. They are next to the two pools that are the "hot springs."

Some people ride their bikes over to the springs and just lean them against the fence or a tree.

Below is one of the pools that wasn't being used.  I talked to a couple of women who were there, and asked them why the water was going into the pool.  They said it was a little too hot, and when the water goes through the air, it cools down and therefore cools down the pool. The shower can be turned back and forth, into the pool or into the shower area.

Then they moved the shower bar back to the shower area and stood under it.

Isn't that a great way to take a shower???  You are not allowed to use soap or shampoo or any other products, I'm sure, but a good warm shower in that beautiful little area must be pretty refreshing.

All this, right in the middle of a desert, and alongside a major freeway.  But when you're in that area, it is the only thing you see and hear.

I always have Katie with me, and she isn't allowed in the area, so we just walk down and enjoy the ambiance.  One of these days I'll go without her and have a nice soak.

From Katie and me, have a great Monday, everyone!  :)

Huge new campsite :)

 Katie and I have moved to a new campsite.  The site below is the old one, tucked away right next to a side road.  Our site was between the lights you see and the bushes immediately next to us on three sides.  I liked it very much, it was cozy, but I kept my dinette curtains closed all the time for a little privacy.

On Tuesday we went into town (Holtville) six miles from Hot Springs.  It's a nice little old town with everything I needed, even free wi-fi while we were parked outside the library.  I have wi-fi of my own, but couldn't get a couple of apps downloaded to my phone, and as soon as I connected to the library's, my apps immediately downloaded.

The propane is right across the street from the dump/water place.  I paid $7 to dump and $2 for a tank full of water.  I thought the price was good.  Happily, I had no problems taking the sewer cap off when I dumped the tanks.  That was a relief.  (I'm still applying heat and taking Ibuprofen, and every day my wrist and thumbs feel better.)

I also visited the pharmacy and got some Icy/Hot cream for my wrist, and went to the local grocery store for a few things, including some new Ibuprofen to replace my out-of-date bottle.

Sometimes when I'm doing these chores, I'll drive around the campground a little, to see if there's a better site available.  When we got back we did just that - and in the process found Bea and Peter at home.  They are fellow bloggers who I found through Denise's blog.  They had left a message for Denise, saying they were at Hot Springs, so I knew they were here but I didn't know who they were.  Bea sent me a message and we finally met on Tuesday.  They are a beautiful couple from Canada with a big, beautiful dog who was very friendly.

Peter told me about a campsite near them, right around some bushes, that is very private.  Katie and I walked over to see it, and unfortunately it would have put us in the wrong direction for optimal solar collection, but we walked a little further to check out the area.  A man named Fred came up to me and asked if I was looking for a campsite - he was leaving the next morning.  So I went over to his site, which is huge, private, surrounded by bushes and trees, and actually has two driveways leading into it.

This photo is taken from the main road, you can see the left driveway, the other comes in behind The Palms.

I told him I'd like the site after he leaves, and he said to pull in my motor home that day and I'd be there and settled when he left.  And that's what I did.

Fred invited me to a campfire that the people across from my old site, right down the road a bit, were having, so we walked over and enjoyed the company of three couples who are camped near each other.  The people who were having the campfire have a HUGE dog, and he was so distressed by having Katie nearby but he couldn't get to her because he was tied up outside the campfire area.  I finally took pity on him and Katie and I left.

When I woke up at 7:15 the next morning, Fred was gone.  He had a truck pulling his 5er, and a car behind that.  He's a solo traveler, too, but in addition to the truck and car, he also had a motorcycle that he stows inside his RV when traveling.  Quite a lot of machinery there!  I couldn't believe he got everything hooked up and drove away without making enough noise to wake me up.

This is part of the site, with lots of room in front and back of The Palms.  It would be a perfect site for two or three RVs if they were friends.  Fred needed the space for the vehicles he had, but I don't think I'd take this site with just my little motor home at the beginning of the season.  People are starting leave now and there are more spaces available, so I don't feel bad taking this large site.

So, here were are in a beautiful huge site, where I've seen lots of little birds, so far. 

White-crowned Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

House Finch

Note:  Hazel of  Class A Greyhounds, RVing with the Big Dogs is a Birder and left  a message with the names of these birds.  Thanks, Hazel! 

Fred said the Roadrunner has come through this site, so I'm watching out for him.

This morning I was putting out some seed under the bushes these birds are resting on, and heard a loud humming.  Right there in front of me was a beautiful humming bird, so he found my feeders and now I hope to see more hummers.   No bunnies yet in this site, but I know they are around.

It's very quiet here, and I'm really enjoying my stay.   

WELCOME to our newest follower, Hobbea!  Hobbea is Bea of Bea and Peter mentioned above, who I met here at Hot Springs.  Husband Peter has an RV blog, and Bea posts a Dinner for Two blog about quick, easy meals she prepares on the road.  Bea, I enjoyed meeting you and Peter, and your meals look very good and easy to prepare.  I'm going to follow your blog, too, and see what's cooking!  Welcome aboard and thanks for following along with us!! 

From me and Katie, have a great Thursday, everyone!  :)

We have a Roadrunner. :)

Yesterday I saw a Roadrunner.  I was so excited, I grabbed my camera, opened the curtain and started snapping.  I got a few good shots, and was so happy to have a Roadrunner in the vicinity.

Roadrunners look so funny when they run - it's like their little legs and hips are so far apart on their bodies, as in the second photo. I have other pictures of Roadrunners I've taken while they were running, and they look the same.

Thank you all for the space bag recommendations.  I'm going to check with Walmart and Target and see what I can get. I want the kind you sit on to deflate, instead of having a vacuum cleaner hose.  My vacuum is too small.

Thanks also for all your advice on my wrist.  My left wrist and thumb are still AWOL, but I think I'll be able to use them soon.  One of our followers, Tammy, suggested putting heat on my wrist, and I started it right away.  I have a lavender filled neck warmer, a spa type thing that my daughter gave me years ago, and I heat it up in the microwave.  I've been laying it on the table and wrapping it around my wrist.  I felt some relief that first evening, and every day it's getting better.  Along with Ibuprofen a few times a day.

Works like a charm!

I got a call back from the bone specialist, and she agreed - tendinitis.  She said what I was doing was fine, and it might take a couple more weeks to recover.  She said if I was having a reaction to the pills, I would have overall pain, not localized in one area.

I know that some people have a terrible time with these bone meds and have to stop using them, but most people do fine, and if I am one of those lucky ones, it will benefit my bones for the future.  The specialist felt that my chances of breaking a bone are far greater than having any difficulties with this medicine.  I don't have Osteoporosis, just normal bone loss for a woman my age, and taking the medicine now stops any bone loss and starts rebuilding.  As long as I seem to be doing fine, I think it's worth taking the chance.

In answer to one of the comments, I wasn't able to stop anywhere because it was over a mountain, or mountains, and there wasn't anywhere to pull off, except the side of the road.  In that wind I was afraid someone might blow into me if I was parked there. Not enough room, but I sure would have loved a Walmart, that's for sure.  I was surprised that other RVs and big rigs continued driving like I was.  I didn't see anyone stopping.  Next time I'll wait it out on the side of the road.  You know, live and learn!

I'm going to need to dump my tanks and get water soon.  The most urgent thing is propane, I'm down to a little less than an eighth of a tank, or a little less than one gallon, and of course I need the propane to run my fridge.  Also my Wave 3 heater, but I don't have the strength in my left thumb to push the Piezo button to get it started while my other hand holds in the other button, so I haven't been using that heater since I hurt my wrist.

I've been watching the propane, trying to put off my trip into Holtville to get these things done because I'm not sure I have the strength to get the grey/black tank sewer cap off.  It's on there pretty snug, and I have to manhandle it off.  Not something you want to ask a stranger to help you with, but I may have to.  And then to get it back on.

I think tomorrow is the day.  I'm hoping my wrist will be able to handle that job by tomorrow.  Positive thinking... 

I am still downloading programs onto this new laptop - my digital scrap booking program was lost, as well as all the free "digikits" that are free to download, so I sent off an e-mail to them.  They allowed me to re-install the programs and the ones I've purchased - and all the free kits are still on their website.  I went on the site and was surprised at the new free kits they have added.  :)

If any of you are interested in digital scrap booking (this is the program I use to do most of my graphics, digital card making, logos, etc.), the one I have is no longer available, but they have an upgraded program and you can download it for free.  I originally downloaded a free Digital Scrapbook Artist 2, and then bought the full version.  The current program available is CraftArtist and you can download the free version plus a lot of free digikits by clicking on that link.  There are 48 free kits.

The link will take you to this website:

Serif is the parent company, I think, and CraftArtist Compact is the free program that uses the free kits.

I also downloaded the current free one because the free digikits are now only made for CraftArtist.  There are also many kits you can purchase. I'm not an affiliate for them, so this information is just that - information.  I was so happy they let me download the programs again, I thought they were gone, and I thought I'd give them a shout out.  :)

WELCOME to our newest Followers, Julie and Tom! Their blog, RV and Outdoor Adventures of Julie and Tom have lots of outdoor photos taken during their many hikes. They've been on Blogger since January 2013, but have a few posts going back to 2011.  Check them out.  Thanks for following with us, Julie and Tom - Welcome aboard!

From Me and My Dog, have a great Tuesday, everyone!  :)

Back in Hot Springs LTVA

Hello!  I'm back in the desert!

Katie and I spent Christmas in San Diego, a month in Vacaville, and back to San Diego for a week of annual medical/vision/dental appointments and everything is A-okay.  We're now in Hot Springs LTVA, and it sure is nice to be back!

I spent some time overlooking one of the beaches in San Diego between appointments.  They are re-doing this one, and had planted a huge palm tree in the sand.  I wonder how deep they had to dig the hole to anchor it, and keep it from falling in future windstorms and sand erosion. 

The beach was blocked off but we had a nice view from the parking lot above.

It will sure make for some beautiful sunset photos for many years to come.

I haven't posted for a while because I've had some issues.  I was having a lot of problems with my laptop and it finally died.  Luckily I have Carbonite and a Seagate back-up drive. I ended up buying a new computer and have spent a week re-installing programs and documents, photos, etc.

After my last appointment on Friday I took off, driving through the mountains on I-8 headed for Hot Springs.  I've never driven in such wind!  It was so bad I was being blown all over the road and it took all my concentration and strength and constant gripping of the wheel with both hands to stay in my lane.  My fingers were numb and I was having to shake them to stop the numbness.  It was a gruelling drive.

A word of advice:  If this happens to you, get off the road and wait it out.  I'll never drive through a windstorm like that again.  My main concern was keeping The Palms in our lane and somehow I felt I was committed and just kept going.  I didn't think about what was happening to my hands.  I finally made it, and found a nice little site and settled in.  Saturday morning I woke up and started cleaning, arranging, re-arranging... pretty much the whole day was spent getting organized.  I was just a happy little camper!

I woke up on Sunday with such pain in both my thumbs and my left wrist that they were useless.  It's now Friday and so far there's no improvement, maybe my right thumb is a little better.

I did call my doctor.  I'm on a new med for my bones -  I'm at the right place according to my bone density scan to start taking a medicine to keep my bones strong and I thought maybe my thumb and wrist issues were a side effect of this new pill.  The doctor said the medicine had nothing to do with the pain I'm having.

The only thing I can think of is that I strained the tendons with the constant, hard gripping of the steering while driving through the mountains, and have acute tendinitis.  I have some pain meds from my surgery last year that I never used, so I'm taking those now, and they are helping.  I've fashioned a lovely sling from one of the neck scarves I bought in Vacaville and sometimes I'll rest my left hand in it. In the meantime, I'm pretty much left with four fingers on my right hand that I can use with no pain, but no thumbs and no left hand.  Hopefully they will heal soon.  I have been keeping up with your posts, but I can't type without it hurting, so I won't be posting for at least a few days, maybe longer, and that's why. :(

If you have any healing prayers, please send them up for me. It's kind of funny that I completed a week of tests and exams and have excellent health, my teeth are great, my eyes are just fine, and I'm pretty much useless because of a drive through the windy mountains.  I think God punked me.  :)

In the meantime, Katie and I are happily settled in a nice little site with birds and bunnies out the window to watch.  We're quite a ways from from the trash dumpster, so every day or so we take a good walk to take out the trash. We've had nice sunny days, cold cloudy days and some rain and wind so far, so the weather has been interesting.

We are right on a side road, off the main road going through the campground, so I have a nice view of all the people coming and going to the spa and the garbage dump.

I like bushes around The Palms, and have put out some seed for the critters.

The following was written and saved while I was still in Vacaville before my computer died. I'm still interested in these bags if you have any information:

I need to rethink they way I'm storing some of my clothes.  I noticed an ad in the The Costco Connection, a little monthly magazine mailed out by Costco with some articles, some ads, etc.  One of the ads this month is for Ziploc Space Bags.  I want to put some of my out-of-season clothing into vacuum bags and store them under my couch.  I've searched, but can't find them on-line.  According to this ad, they are "New" at Costco.  Do any of you have them?  If so, would you leave a comment and let me know - are they stand-alone bags or do you need a device to suck out the air.  And if they don't need a device, do they work well?

And...A BIG WELCOME to our latest follower, New Age Nomad - Adventure's of a Nomadic,Van-Dwelling, Minimalist, Living Rent Free, Off The Grid.  Sounds good, right???  I've got to go through the posts and see what he's up to, he started this blog in September 2012, so it should be pretty easy to start at the beginning.  So far I've learned he has a beautiful dog, Candy, and takes gorgeous photos of Yuma sunsets - just gorgeous!  Thanks for following along with us, welcome aboard, New Age Nomad! :)

From Me and My Dog, have a great weekend, everyone!  :)