Power boats on the lake :) and mice in The Palms :(

The other day there was quite a racket coming from down on the lake and I looked out the window to see this speed boat racing around.  It was fun to watch it.  It would sit in the water, then the front would rise up in the air, and then take off, leaving a huge water tail in the air.  I'm not sure what that's called, a rooster tail?

I have no idea what kind of boat this is, but I'll bet a lot of you know.  :)

And you know what?  "Camping" outside of Camping World on the street you can see lots of nature going by, too.  Here are a few critters I snapped while we were waiting for our part to come in.  This first one is one of those black beetles that walk slowly along the pavement, and when they see you coming close, they stick their butt in the air and their head down near the street.  I've tried to get a photo before at Storrie Lake, but couldn't get a clear shot.  This one isn't bad.  They just stay in that position, head down/tail up, until you're far enough away that they feel safe.

Do they think they're hiding?  News flash, beetle: We can see you.

Bunnies!  I haven't seen any for a while.  This little guy was near Camping World's road:

Cute little Mourning Dove sitting on a block fence along the road by Camping World:

And yes, we had another mouse last night.  Katie was sleeping up in the bunk with me and all of a sudden I find myself holding her back.  In the dark, she was going to jump down onto the couch.  Oh, no you don't!  I turned on the light and made her stay and got down, then lifted her down.  She went wild, tail wagging furiously, pointing her nose into the cab of the truck.  Bummer.

I got dressed, turned on all the lights, got the keys and flashlight and headlamp and unlocked both cab doors.  Took out the camp chairs I was storing in the passenger area and checked out the traps under the seat, then checked the driver's seat floor area.  Nothing.  I have baited traps under both seats, and sticky traps, but no sign of mice. I re-baited the traps with fresh peanut butter, closed things up and went back inside.  Katie was lying in her bed on the couch and wouldn't come up with me, so I left her there for the night.

About a half hour later, she's barking like crazy, running into the kitchen, and sticking her nose right on the lower cupboard under the sink, again tail wagging like crazy.   Obviously the mouse was in the cab of the truck, or under the couch, and had just run to the kitchen and slipped under the kick board and into the area behind it. 

There wasn't much I could do at that point, so I just went to sleep.  This morning I emptied all the lower cabinets and drawers, and look what I found under the oven, behind the drawer that holds my pots:

You can see the dryer sheets I put under there, and some cotton balls that I put up in the right hand corner of the photo with Peppermint oil on them.  Also, at the top of the photo is some steel wool that I used to fill a hole where the grey dried foam had a little opening.

And right in the center of this picture - "someone" has gotten a whole bunch of cotton balls from throughout The Palms - I guess the peppermint oil doesn't smell anymore - carried them to this area, fluffed them up and made a nest of them.  There is a nice little hole in the middle that is hard to see in the photo, but it would be perfect to give birth to lots and lots of  baby mice.  RIGHT THERE UNDER MY STOVE.  Geez, thank goodness I found it before it was put to use.  It was still nice and clean and white.  Anyway, I poured a lot of fresh peppermint oil into the nest and covered the whole thing with a plastic strainer I had.  They won't be able to get the cotton balls, but the odor is sure coming through.

Then I went around The Palms and renewed all the peanut butter in the traps, put the flashing solar lights in the engine again, and I'm on guard now for sure.  I guess I'm going to have to set a task alert every week or so to check all these areas.  What a pain!  I haven't heard the mouse today, but if it appears he's present again tonight, I'm going to move The Palms.  That usually works for me.  I guess the mice go out during the daytime. 

I had nice visits from two other solo female travelers yesterday afternoon.  Vermont Chris came by for a visit and brought her dog Edna, of course.  Edna is the cutest little dog, she has just gotten a haircut and her face wasn't covered with fur - she just looked darling, and Katie loved her!  I haven't seen Chris and Edna for - probably - two years.  It's been a while, but they both looked great and it was so nice to catch up.  I wish I had remembered to take a photo.  We were sitting outside overlooking the lake, when a car pulled up, and out comes Patti - remember Patti and her dogs from Storrie lake?   She's been up in Bluewater and just arrived here at Elephant Butte Lake State Park.  We all talked for a while, then Patti drove back to her campsite and Katie and I needed a walk, so we walked Chris and Edna part way home.  I couldn't believe how much fun Katie was having.  She and Edna were running, romping, sniffing, rubbing faces, I've never seen her do all that before. 

For anyone out there who doesn't check Andy Baird's website from time to time, you've got to check out his digital watercolor paintings.  I absolutely love what he's done, and can't wait to try it myself.  I swear, this man is going to make me buy an Apple laptop!  I just love all the bells and whistles he uses with his music, and now his paintings, using programs on his Apple computer.  At the end of his photo gallery, Andy explains how he did it.  I have a PC laptop, but I'm going to search around and see if I can find a program that will help me produce watercolors from my digital photos.  If you know of any, please pass on the info?  (NOTE: I've found a free program that is for PCs - FotoSketcher. I'm downloading it and will let you know.)   I'll post any worthwhile artwork I come up with.  BTW, I think Picasa has something that will do this, but I don't want to load that on my laptop.  I'd rather have a specific stand-alone program.   :)

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

A Gorgeous Osprey

Here's another large bird sitting on top of one of the light poles.  He's a Hawk, I think, but I'm not even sure about that an OSPREY (Thanks Sharon, of The Odd Essay!).  There are two different kinds that I found in my birder book, and I'm not sure which he is.  Look at those big eyes.  After reading Sharon's comment that I should check my book for "Osprey," I could see he's exactly like the photos in my book.  I'm even more excited about seeing this beautiful Osprey up close!

OMG I love getting good clear photos of these powerful birds!  If you're a birder and know what this bird is, please leave a comment.  Maybe it's not even a hawk.  He looks like a great hunter.

On a more delicate note, there are also a lot of beautiful flowering bushes here - the flowers below are pretty subtle and I walked past this bush many times without noticing it.  Then I was looking through it the other day when I was following the Roadrunner around, and noticed the tiny flowers on this delicate bush:

There are so many good bird sightings here. I can see this Great Blue Heron right down from my site - he's usually there in the morning,and then later in the afternoon if there are no people in that area.  He's very intent on the water, looking for his next meal, I'm sure.

One of our newest Followers, Motorhomes N Muttskeys, let me know through a comment that she has a brand new blog - the first post shows her trip home after picking up her new motorhome - a 2000 24' Gulf Stream Conquest with a rear kitchen (sounds like The Palms).   I enjoyed your first post!  Check out her new blog - it's so nice to start following a blogger right from the beginning.

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

More cool bird photos

Isn't he beautiful?

I just happened to look out my window and saw this Turkey Buzzard sitting atop a light pole with his wings spread - you might remember that I love these guys.  So beautiful, except their really ugly heads - well none of us is perfect, right?  He sat there for a while, looking back and forth:

He turned a little and brought in his wings:

Then opened his wings again, even wider.  He must have been cooling off with the nice breezes:

This pose is not his most beautiful, but it's how I usually see Turkey Buzzards perched:

Then a little bird landed on the wire behind him.  He sat there looking at the bird until it flew away.  Probably a good move, little bird, but I don't think he was in any danger.  Buzzards don't eat live animals, do they?

And here he is, soaring away overhead:

Here's another big guy - a Chihuahuan Raven sitting on top of a pole.  These large birds seem to like perching up high and watching what's going on - looking for dinner, maybe.  The Raven and Buzzard are such powerful looking birds.

And here's our current campsite - it's not really a site, just a flat area over the lake.  We have good views, nice breezes, a dumpster close by, and a short walk to the showers. It's my "go-to" spot when the few dry camping sites are all occupied.

I've set up a little fenced area for Katie where she can watch all the little lizards running in the bushes.  She's really in her element here - lots of the little critters:

Not a lot going on - and that makes me very happy right now.  Katie and I are just enjoying our stay here.  The weather has been good and we're in a pretty quiet spot.  I'm starting to take my camera everywhere again.  For a while I stopped taking it on walks because there just wasn't much to snap, but I'm enjoying all the birds here.

WELCOME to our newest Follower, Connie!  Hi, Connie - Katie and I are happy to have you following along with us.  I don't see any information about you or a blog, please let me know if you have one so I can pass along the link.  :)

Also, I just noticed that I missed one of our new Followers - Cheeseheads4theRoad.  They have been married for 43 years and have a beautiful family of  kids, grand kids, and two dogs.  They also have two motor homes - a 35-foot Class A and they just bought a 22-foot Winnebago Class C, which she calls the Granny Mobile.  I like it!  She says, "I love to travel and see new places. My husband just goes along with my dreams because he likes to see me happy (I think)."  They have a Blogger profile, but there isn't a blog listed, so let me know if you do have one and I'll post the link.  Welcome aboard!

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

Alive and Well - at LAST! ...and more Roadrunners!

We are back to normal.  As far as I know everything related to my death has been corrected, reversed, re-instated and re-deposited.  What a mess that was!  Hopefully nothing else will pop up from now on.

Our part finally came in from Forrest River, and Camping World told me to be in their parking lot at 8:00 am Tuesday morning and they would take me first thing, and that's just what they did.  An hour later we were on the road.  They greatly reduced my labor charge and didn't charge me for any shipping, so they were very generous as far as my bill went.  Really, really nice people there in the service department.  I wouldn't hesitate to go back for service in the future. 

Katie and I are back at Elephant Butte Lake State Park - it's been really nice for the last few days, just unloading the chairs and stroller and dog fence gives us more room in The Palms, and makes things seem homier.  And knowing we can stay here for two whole weeks, that's really nice.  We've had three solid weeks of moving around from parking lot to parking lot, and it was getting a little tiring.  So, it feels like we're home!

And the great bird photos I've gotten since we've been here!  In the last few days I've gotten some nice photos without really even trying, except for the Roadrunner.  I did kind of follow him around for a while and talked to him.  Whenever I made little clicking sounds, he talked to me. 

And Mellow Mike?  I finally have a contender for the next Roadrunner Photo Contest.  I love this first photo - it looks like he's saying, "Dear God, please make her stop following me around?"

This little guy was really talking back to me!  I have some other good photos of other birds that I'll post over the next few days.  It's so nice to get back to normal, that's for sure.

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

Still hanging in there...

Just a brief update.  Things are slowly moving along with my various issues.  Nothing is solved yet, repaired yet, healed yet, or well yet, but we're getting there.

My California bank has taken the flag off my accounts, but I can't get into them on-line, should be up and running again soon.

I opened a B of A checking account and debit card so I have access to those.  The B of A here at Coors Blvd has wonderful people who were so helpful.  They also have two notaries and one of them notarized six copies of a letter I wrote that explained what happened and that I'm not deceased in case I need them.

Social Security has my account back in order now, but my monthly check was pulled and sent back to the Treasury.  It had to be re-issued and I'm told it will be in my account on Friday, only two days late.  If it's there, then that issue is solved. 

American Express wanted a letter from the Social Security Administration to re-open my account, and I told them two different reps from SSA said they just don't do that.  So I faxed them multiple documents and we'll see what happens with that.  If they won't re-open it, I'll just tell them to keep it closed.  I'm not going to fight with them, there are too many other credit card companies out there that I can access.

I'm still hanging around Albuquerque waiting for Camping World to get my part.  I guess Forrest River doesn't have these parts in stock.  I thought I needed a small part, but I need the entire Convenience Center (the Systems Monitor is a part of it).  The unit has all the switches that turn on the generator, lights, hot water, water for the faucets, heater, and Arctic Pac.  And everything is working except for the systems monitoring part, but the whole unit has to be replaced. I would think Forrest River would keep a few on hand, but they have to have them fabricated, so we are waiting for that, then Camping World is having it overnighted here.  They are not charging me for the shipping and have reduced the labor charge a bit because of the inconvenience for me.  They have been really great, very good customer service.  I think they feel worse than I do about me having to wait.  We're hoping the part will arrive on Monday and they will install it when it gets here. I can't complain - everything is being done that can be done.

Either Katie is still not feeling well or she's getting used to pooping on the kitchen floor overnight.  (Sorry if that's TMI.)  We had a good stern talk this morning, ;)  and I'm thinking it won't happen again.  Eternal optimist. Other than that she is acting normally.

Yesterday she fell asleep in her little bed with her head hanging down.  I was worried she wouldn't be able to breathe, so I stuck her elephant under her chin to prop it up.  She didn't move, just opened her eyes...

 and went right back to sleep:

So, things are moving along slowly.  I'm hoping that by Monday my SS check will be in my account, my new Convenience Center will be installed, Katie will be pooping outside, and we'll be in Elephant Butte. The toe is going to take a while to heal - been through this before and it took time, so I'm just keeping it taped and being careful.

I have to show you what I do when my toe/foot hurts at night, which has happened a couple of times.  I put on an ice pack then wrap it up to hold it in place, and put my foot up.  Quite an arrangement for a little sore toe, huh?

But it works.  The next day that poor toe always feels better for a while.  :)

And that's life as we know it right now.   Really nothing at all going on, but I didn't want anyone to worry since I haven't posted in a while.  I'll be back when there is any news, or anything new to post about - next week, probably.

Welcome to our new Followers:

Ellen Shingleton who has a blog,  WhereRVat.  She and her husband have recently been traveling in Nova Scotia and have some gorgeous photos of their travels.  I especially like the Prince Edward Island pictures.  Glad to have you with us, Ellen!

Donna E. Ehlbeck, and also Marian.  Neither shows any information, but if you have a blogs, let me know and I'll share the blog addresses.  Katie and I are happy to have you both following along with us!

And also Hong Long, who has blogs and other media links shown, but they are in another language and since I can't read them I can't really share them with you. Sorry about that, but thanks for following Me and My Dog!

Welcome aboard to you all...  :)

And from me and Katie, have a great Thursday, everybody.  :)