It's a continuous movie...

...outside my window here at Quartzsite.  And the action changes all the time.  Today I'm only posting photos of the Harris Ground Squirrels here in our site.  These were taken on different days at different times.  So far there are two or three little guys.

Finding the water bowl.

Drinking - the squirrels come back time after time during the day.  They are thirsty little critters.

Larger squirrel waiting for the little guy to finish.

Chattering.

I kept hearing the weirdest screeching bird-like noise and couldn't figure out where the bird was.  I finally realized it was this squirrel.  He was standing there with his little fists out in front of him.

Getting ready - and...

Then he would lean forward a little and stick out his neck and make that screeching sound.  He did this over and over and over.  I wonder what it means?  I didn't see anything going on in the campsite that was out of the ordinary.  I guess he had his reasons.

SCREECHING!

He likes to hang out under my chair in the shade.

Finding seeds.

Two little squirrels snacking on the seeds.

What's that noise over there?

Sharing with a Gambel's Quail.

And NOT sharing with a Mourning Dove

I'm warning you!

And STAY AWAY until I'm done!

Little drink of water - can you see the tip of his little pink tongue?

And a little snack in the shade.  Yup, I've got it made in the shade for sure!

And those are our Squirrel Tales for today.  Or Tails?

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

Wordless Wednesday - Surfing Duck

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

3 ways to get mail at Quartzsite

I received an e-mail the other day from Denise asking me how I get mail while I'm here at Quartzsite, and I thought that might be information other people might be interested in having.   

There are three ways that I know about and here they are:

1.  Some people get a POST OFFICE BOX.  There is a Post Office where you can mail things, get stamps, pick up mail, rent a post office box, etc.  There is also a Post Office Annex that ONLY has P.O. Boxes.  It's located between the Police Department and The Library.  If you rent a P.O. Box, you have to do that from the main Post Office, but I don't think you have a choice where your box will be located.

Main Post Office Address:  80 W Main, Quartzsite, AZ 85346.    
Phone:  (928) 927-6323  
Hours of Operation:  Mon-Fri 9:00am-4:00pm    Sat-Sun closed  
PO Box Access Hours:  Mon-Sat 6:00am-6:00pm    Sun closed

Post Office location

2.  You can have things sent General Delivery to the Post Office.  General Delivery mail is only available for 30 days per person, two hours a day, from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm Monday through Friday.  Once the two hours are up, they close that window and you have to come back another day.  I'm told that sometimes, during the height of the season, lines go around the building.  Too much of a pain for me, but I'd guess most of the time it would be a pretty easy in and out.  Here's the address if you want to have something sent to you by General Delivery:

Your Name 
General Delivery
Quartsite, AZ 85346-9999

Postal Annex location

3.  Quiet Times, Stationery, Office Supply, Printing store.  This is the one I use because it's open Monday through Friday and sometimes on Saturday by appointment.   I just find it easier and the cost is nominal.  It's a little store right on Main Street on the left, before you get to the Roadrunner Market. There is a very small parking lot in front of the store, or you can park in a parking lot in back of the store, reached by going down East Cowell St., the street behind Main Street.  The owner's name is Martine.  I usually call her when I think I have a package and she will let me know if it's arrived yet.  She won't call you, you have to call her or come in.  She has a place behind the counter where she keeps the packages people have delivered there.  You have to sign for any packages you pick up, and show your ID.

UPS GROUND REGULAR TO

Your Name

% Quiet Times

90 E. Main St.  - Box 2813

Quartzsite, AZ  85346

Hours:  Monday through Friday, 10 am to 4 pm
Call  (928) 927-8081 for dates/hours during the Big Tent Event 

Quiet Times location

Please call Martine at Quiet Times - (928) 927-8081 - for current prices to have your items shipped either to her store by UPS/FedEx or to her P.O. Box at the Post Office.

There may be other options here for receiving mail, but these are the three I know about.   

NOTE:  The little map pieces were taken from a 2010 Quartzsite map I bought two years ago, and I hope everything is still in the same place.  :)

Our Full Moon

Here are some photos I took the other night when we had a full moon - it was so pretty.  The moon lights up the desert as it crosses the sky.

 

 

And here is the end of the sunset that night - it starts with lots of pink, then gets darker and darker until right before it gets dark, it looks like this:

Here's a closeup of the reddest part where the sun went down:

It was such a beautiful evening.

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

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!  :)