Katie spots two coyotes

Katie just let out a little bark and I glanced out the window, and guess what I saw?  Right behind our chairs? Can you see him?

It was 5:20 pm, so now I know about when he's out for the night and I'll keep Katie on a really short leash if we're taking a walk between 5:00 and 5:30.

I've heard them pretty much every night - usually around3:00 or 4:00 am, barking and yipping and howling, calling to each other.   It sounds like they are close by, then they move away and the sounds get fainter, until it's quiet again.  Katie has a different, very loud bark when there are coyotes nearby during the night.  I can tell she is agitated.

I knew they were around the area, but this is our first sighting.  Just walking along, looking for his dinner.   I'll make sure I've got my walking stick when we go out after 5:00 from now on. 

After I took some pictures and the coyote was out of sight, I sat down again and Katie was sitting on the back of the dinette seat looking out the front windshield. 

I wondered if she was looking for another coyote, and I looked out toward where she was looking, and there was another one, walking right past someones campsite.   So there was one walking along the side of The Palms, and a second one across the road a ways in front of us.

As usual, Katie is quite a watchdog.

From me and Katie, have a nice Sunday evening, everyone!  :)

LET THE SEASON BEGIN!

The Shutdown is over!  The Quartzsite Winter Season has begun.

We stayed at the Hi Jolly BLM 14-day area for 11 days and yesterday ventured into town to visit a friend who has been camping for a while at la Posa West.  She has a Class A motor home and a toad.  She drove in, right around the Closed sign and, along with many others, just ignored the Shutdown.

When I first got here on the 5th, there were only a few rigs in the LTVA areas, but yesterday, before the Shutdown was over, there were quite a few.  So...   After our visit Katie and I went into town to get groceries and then headed on down to la Posa South, where we were last year, and drove right around the Closed sign and went back to one of our favorite campsites.

I set up our site with chairs and a table and our American Flag, put out birdseed and my hummingbird feeder, and today after we get fresh water and dump the tanks I'll put the tire covers on my sun-side tires and put our solar lights around the site.  We're home.

Yesterday we already had Mourning Doves in the site.  One came by itself and spent quite a bit of time here, eating seed and walking around - checking things out.  I figured he was doing reconnaissance.

"You looking at me, Bub?"

Later more doves came walking up alongside The Palms, heading to the birdseed.  They ate some seed and walked around for a while, then wandered off.  This morning they were back.

And guess who just showed up?  Our first Gambel's Quail of the year.  :)

I also had a hummingbird at the feeder yesterday and this morning I got a photo of him.  Not the greatest photo, but still, it's the first.

And finally, here are some photos of views out our windows and behind our site.

My new front yard and backyard.  Beautiful, gorgeous, spectactular!

You know, as much as I was happy to be in Quartzsite the last 11 days, I'm just not a 14-day BLM person.  I want to be in a site I love and not have to move every 14 days.  That's the only problem with New Mexico State Parks - it's hard to move that often and to me, it's not worth setting up a campsite just to move on in a couple of weeks, so I never "set up" my site at NM state parks. (Last year New Mexico had a 21-day limit, and that was much better. This year they went back to 14 days.)

Here in the LTVA areas of Arizona and California, you've got from September 15 to April 15 the next year.  You can stay the whole time in one campsite, or if you get Hitch Itch, move to another site or another LTVA area in a month or two months, whatever suits you.  I like that stability and security.

I'm sure I'll move eventually down to the Imperial Dam LTVA and then on to Hot Springs LTVA.  But I've got six months left on the LTVA permit (that I guess I'll be buying soon).  

It's so good to be back!

I wrote a post a while ago about changing the settings on my camera to get good clear photos of hummingbird wings instead of the blur I usually get with a normal setting.  I posted the photos and they were really nice, showing the whole bird, not just a head and body and faint, blurred wings.

I've had some really nice hummer shots, but the wings were always blurred (like the photo of the hummer above - I've got to re-set my camera).  Then I read something Judy, of Travels with Emma,  wrote about changing to a certain lens setting to get the wings clearly.  I followed her instructions and ended up with beautiful photos of hummingbirds.  I had some comments asking me what setting I used, but I had changed them again and couldn't remember.  So I e-mailed Judy and asked for the settings she uses for action shots.  I told her was going to post it to answer your comment questions:

"I either set the shutter speed to 1/1000 sec. or sometimes use the sports/action setting on my camera. I believe the shutter speed on the sports setting may be 1/1800 sec."

So there you have it, (and so do I when I next forget which settings to use for my action shots). Thank you, Judy, you take such gorgeous photos, and hopefully this information will help some of us improve our shots, too!  

It's a beautiful day in Quartzsite - from me and Katie, have a great Thursday, everyone!  :)

Wordless Wednesday - Did you know that...

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

Quartzsite landscapes and sunsets

I wore my MP3 player yesterday during our afternoon and evening walks and we walked at least twice as long as we usually do.  What a difference it makes.  I'm listening to The Silver Linings Playbook.  So far its really good, kind of sad, kind of funny.  It's the type of book that makes you wonder, as you go through it, what happened in the past and what will happen in the future.  I'm only on Part 3, so I have a lot to listen to still and maybe those questions will be answered.

This is where we go on our walks - unless we take the road in the other direction. 

Here is a photo at sunset the other evening when we had a cloudy day.  The sun came out as it was setting, and lit up the mountains in the east.   I remember this from last year.  Sometimes the east is prettier than the west when the sun is setting.

I had forgotten about the pink sky we get during Quartzsite's sunsets.  The other evening, I swear, even the air around me felt pink.  All over the desert as far as the eye could see it was pink.  Look at these colors looking eastward!

I added this one below to my desktop slide show photos.  I think it looks like a watercolor painting.

 
Here's another beautiful evening sunset with a waxing crescent moon:

And one more - look at all the colors.

Little Katie has again discovered the lizards.  We call them "critters."  Now that she knows the critters run to the bushes and fire pit rocks, she always wants to stop at every one on our walks.  Do you know how many bushes and fire pits there are in Quartzsite?  I read somewhere that "Leave It!" is a good general command when you want your dog to leave something alone.  We're working on that and she's doing pretty well.

I know, I know, rattlesnakes.  That's why I don't let her do this anymore. 

This was a huge fire pit that a lizard ran into.

I have a quick question:  Katie has started hesitating when trying to jump from the couch seat to the top of the seat back when she wants to lie up there in the sun and often just gives up without trying.  Also occasionally just jumping on the couch or dinette seat from the floor.  She's only 6 years old, which seems too young for arthritis, and she just had her yearly exam and the vet said she was doing fine.  This has been going on for three or four weeks now.  Any ideas or suggestions?

And one more:  What do you guys do with your garbage when you're staying in the 14-day BLM campgrounds here in Quartzsite????   Katie and I always take a daily walk to the campground dumpster to get rid of our garbage, but there aren't any here.  I've been accumulating my little Wal-Mart garbage bags and putting them in a large black trash bag, but it started smelling, so now it's sitting on top of the hood on my entry rug.  I'm going to town soon for water and some supplies and can't exactly drive up to someones dumpster and throw in my large black plastic bag.  What's your trash removal routine?  Help!

Welcome to our newest Follower, Anne Henderson!  Hey Anne, do you have a blog?  If so let me know so I can check it out.  Thanks for following along with me and Katie, and Welcome Aboard!

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

Final photos

I have a few final photos from Bluewater Lake State Park in New Mexico that I wanted to post - here they are, and then we're done with New Mexico until the Spring of 2014.  That sounds so far away, doesn't it?

The first one is a double rainbow that was the prettiest I've seen.  Really bright, you could see the whole range of colors.  I had to use a program to bring out the colors because the untouched photo didn't POP the colors like Nature did:

Here's Katie walking in a field of flowers.  She really liked walking in the fields.

These horses were running along the lake, just having fun.  They would run, stop and stand there a while, then turn around and run again.  There aren't many things more beautiful or fun to watch than horses running.  The white horse is so cute.

This fuzzy white butterfly was different than most of the others, which were yellow.  When I left the park there were lots of butterflies flitting from place to place.  Look at his body underneath - very fuzzy. (Click on the photo to enlarge it, then click on it again to make it really BIG.)

This is one of the yellow butterflies.  Maybe a moth?  He's small, and was very fast.  I have this picture as one of my desktop slide show photos and the colors are so pretty.  (Click on this one, too.)

And finally, I took this photo thinking there was something wrong with this bird.  Turns out he is a Yellow Rumped Warbler.  Yup, that's a yellow patch on his rump, very aptly named.

Traveling from Northwestern New Mexico to Quartzsite Arizona was not only a long drive, but it also brought us into warmer weather, drier air, and a much lower altitude.  Katie and I are walking a lot more.  When I take her out to go potty, we end up walking down the road and just keep going.  Not super long walks because I tend to get bored just walking, but I'd bet we've tripled our steps.

I'm thinking I'm going to start wearing my MP3 player, which is full of audio books.  I want to get more exercise and since I find it easier to walk more in this lower altitude, getting involved in an audio book should help me walk further.

WELCOME to three new followers:

Trainman, who is traveling full time after retiring.  As he says in his profile, "I do this minus an RV. I have a Haulmark 6 X 12 Cargo Trailer and a Kodiak 9 X 12 Cabin Tent."  I went through most of his blog posts, and found it very interesting.  Thanks for following along with us, Trainman, Welcome Aboard!  :)

Tony in Vegas, who doesn't have a blog or an RV yet, but he's thinking about RVing when he retires and is doing all the pre-planning now. He joined as a Follower and is also following other blogs to get as much information as he can.  That's what I did when I first decided I wanted to have an RV and maybe be a full-timer.  I hope it works out for you, Tony in Vegas, and that you love full-timing as much as I do. Katie and I are glad to have you along with us.

Welcome also to pandachickenmama, who doesn't show any information.  That's quite a name - wonder where it came from....    If you have a blog, pandachickenmama, let me know so I can check it out!  Welcome to you!

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