Today's news from Quartzsite

Not a lot going on - I snapped some photos of Denise driving past us on her motorcycle a few days ago.  She was on her way to Parker.  Notice the little box on the back fender?  That's Benny in his carrier.  How cute is that?

Denise and I were talking yesterday about moving our campsites to a new area.  We have a new neighbor who has one of those industrial strength generators and runs it all evening.  What we can't figure out is that they have three solar panels - I wonder why they need to run their generator so much...  Anyway, I finally decided I'm staying.  I always have something on - an audio tape, playing a computer game that makes a lot of noise, my Sirius radio, the TV - something.  Even when I walk with Katie I have my MP3 player on with another audio book playing in my ears.  So other people's noise doesn't usually bother me.  Denise likes to enjoy the quiet of the desert, so it bothers her more.

Plus, when he's running his LOUD generator, no one will notice that I'm running mine to top off my batteries. I always worry that I'm disturbing my neighbors' peace and quiet when I run my generator, but this new neighbor is definitely covering my noise.  And he's a little ways away, so it's not like he's right next door.  Oh, the tough life I have...  the things I have to worry about.  (Snicker, snicker)   :)

We've been discussing my solar/battery/generator set-up a lot.  I have two 135 solar panels and two 6V golf cart batteries, wired in series.  In most places I'm good with that, but when I come to Arizona, the sun doesn't go overhead - it rises, goes across the side of the sky and sets.  I don't get direct overhead sun on my panels, and my panels don't tilt.  Both Denise and Andy think I need more battery power, or maybe I need to replace my batteries.  They are only about two years old, though, and should be fine, so I might be needing to add two more.

I'm going to check with Discount Solar in town to see what they say, and what it would cost me to add two more batteries.  They would need to be on the driver's side of The Palms, weight-wise (I'm underweight for the rating on this motor home, so I don't have to worry about the extra battery weight), and I'd need to have a box built for them that would go in the bottom of my clothes closet and have them vented to the outside.  I have no idea what that would cost.  Sure would be nice to get through the whole day without having to run the generator to top off my batteries.  At least I want to find out what's going on and what it would cost me.  Then it would probably be something I'd do next year when I get to Quartzsite again.

Katie and I visited Denise and Benny and while we were outside sitting in the shade, Katie went into Denise's motor home and sat there in the doorway. We couldn't figure out why she just sat there looking out instead of joining us.  When I went to get her, she was sitting next to one of Benny's chew toys - that's why she was there.  Hoping?  Waiting for permission to chew it up?  I love this photo of her:

Later Denise gave Katie a new chew toy, and Katie walked back to our campsite with it in her mouth.  As soon as we got home, Katie started in on it.

She chewed on it until it was gone.  Thanks Denise and Benny, Katie loved her chew toy!

This is the coyote we saw last night at sunset as he was running along the next wash.  He then turned and scooted away from us into the trees and bushes. 

This evening we all took a walk to the dumpsters and on the way back Katie started barking furiously - her LOUD bark.  Then I heard a woman yelling.  Of course - it was a coyote nearby.  When we spotted him, the coyote ran across the desert to the next wash.  He seemed afraid of us and Katie's barking and ran away from us.  Katie was hard to quiet down, that coyote really got her going.  I don't know whether Katie saw it or smelled it, but she knew it was there before we were able to spot it.  Especially in the darkening evening.   I'll tell you, you've got to keep your eyes open, but so far they seem to want to be far from humans and their dogs.  I hope it stays that way.

This is the best photo I could get - it was getting dark and he was running!  Never a dull moment here at Quartzsite, even when nothing is going on.  :)

I hooked up my Wii and WiiFit yesterday morning.  I've been wanting to have it set up for a while, and finally did it.  Now I can get some exercise inside The Palms as well as walking out in the desert.  Katie and I have been walking a lot, but sometimes she isn't as willing to keep going and I want to supplement our walks with some inside exercise.  

From me and Katie, loving our life here at Quartzsite, have a great Monday night, everyone! :)

So far, so good

This morning is the second morning in the new site and so far, no critters in the engine.

The glue trap is still untouched, as is the dCon.  This was really good news this morning!  :)

Some photos from our first site:

I don't think I'm going to have as many critter visitors to this site - it's smaller and doesn't have as many trees and bushes or rocks.  A previous camper who used to camp in my first site took a lot of time and really worked on it, organizing the "living room" with rocks and walls and boundaries.  It was really pretty.   As great as it looked, and I loved it, the rocks are good cover for critters.  This site doesn't have that kind of decoration, so we probably won't be seeing a lot of squirrels here.  Unfortunately, that's a good thing.

Above are the two squirrels that were living around the old site, and this was such a cute photo, I wanted to post it. Sometimes when they would meet, they would look like they're kissing.  Obviously they aren't, but it was pretty cute.

And here are the last photos of the Gila Woodpeckers - I was able to get photos of both the male and female at the same time and here they are:

The male is the one who usually came around, and then the female started hanging around, too, watching him.  Before I knew it, she was trying to get the nectar too:

 

This next guy is in our new site.  Katie has a perfect view out the window from her car seat right into some rocks that were lining bushes (that are now dead and gone, but the rock ring is still there).  She saw this guy and got all excited. I always know when there is a lizard in the yard.  LOL  This guy is a small lizard - much smaller than the last one I posted.  Pretty coloring - he has some turquoise if you look close.  He seems to be aware of me watching him.

Hazel, this last photo is for you:

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

We've been DRIVEN OUT!

I'm going to spare you all and not post the ugly photo. Or at least the ugly half, which I've cropped out.

I'm having critter issues again.  Andy Baird wrote me that putting out all the seed for the birds and squirrels might not be such a good idea, considering all the problems I've had with rodents in the rig.  Good thought.  I brought in the seed feeder and water bowl, in fact, I put them in a bag and threw them in the dumpster.  THEN...

Having been so ridiculously proud of my engine's LED lighting each night when I plugged them in, I was appropriately devastated Tuesday morning when I went outside to check the engine and saw they had been chewed.  Just like old Christmas tree light strings, I had light for the first two feet or so until the break, and the entire line past that was dark.

At first I thought it was the squirrels that had gotten into my engine since I took away their seed, but last Tuesday night I found out otherwise. Rats!  Literally.

Tuesday night Katie heard something and let me know and I went out in the dark with a flashlight.  I lifted the engine hood and saw a huge rodent trying to get away.  All I could see was his tail stuck to the glue trap and his huge back feet bracing against the engine trying to get loose.  The rest of his body was down in the engine trying to jump to the ground.  This was not a mouse.

I ran to the door to get my "grabber," and ran back to the engine.  I was going to grab that glue trap and toss it away.  Unfortunately, when I got back the rat was gone, but left me part of his tail as a gift.  Yuk!  (That's the cropped part of the next two photos.  I figured you wouldn't want to see the piece of tail, no pun intended.  Again, Yuk!)  He had also eaten most of the dCon that I had attached to the engine with double-sided tape.  I was hoping he would just go away and die, but no, I'm figuring it was the same one, just not dead yet.

I went on-line and ordered two new rodent deterrents.  One is animal urine soaked crystals that are spread around and the rodents will smell the urine of their predator and stay away. The other is a kind of spray.  

Then last night he was back.  This is what I found this morning.

He totally ripped open the dCon package to get all the pellets out.  GOOD!

So, I'm sitting here thinking about it, and wondering why I'm spending all this money on rodent stuff and waiting until it gets here.  The Palms must be as sweet to rodents as it is to me.  They just keep coming... but I don't think this is a war I'm going to win.   I decided to move.

I don't want to be too far from the trash dumpsters because Katie and I have to walk there every day with our trash bag, so I packed everything up, filled the fresh water tank, dumped the other two and then drove around looking for a new site.  I drove all over the place on both sides of the main road and ended up just one "block" over from my old site.  I'm alongside the next wash right on the same road.  I really like our new site, maybe even more than the other one.

We have a little "living room" again.

It gets great shade until late in the afternoon.  And I've hung my hummingbird feeders on that tree, great line of site out my dinette window for photos. Even a little Saguaro Cactus!

I need to rake the area, there is some black stuff on the dirt that's probably been blown over from the firepit.  Don't need to be tracking that inside.  Then, assuming no rodents, we'll be settled again.

I can see my old site across the desert to the next wash and through it's trees and hope the critters don't follow me here.  I put out a new sticky trap and dCon this evening and left my hood open a bit so I can look in quickly if Katie and I hear noises, but I'm thinking positively.  :)

This was our eastern sky this evening as the sun was setting:

The photo below is what I see out my front window - until someone parks in that spot.  It's just to the left of the setting sun - the bushes, trees and cactus are in the next wash over in front of us.  So pretty here in the desert at sunset.



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

I have the nicest neighbors, and it just got better

It's been very nice and quiet lately.  Not a lot to post about, which is a good thing sometimes.

I've already met Betty and her son, Rick, who are camped behind The Palms - she couldn't be nicer, and we've had a few great conversations.  She is camping with her adult son and also has a little Yorkie, Candy, who is darling.  Rick was a very good neighbor last evening - when Katie and I were out for a walk, I heard him yell, "Coyote!"  I yelled, "Where???"  and he pointed at a very healthy coyote trotting along across the way from us.  Check out Denise's blog - she got a photo when she was standing on her roof, hopefully she will post it.

We have lots of little lizards here, but this guy was really big and meaty looking.  I think he is a Great Basin Collared Lizard, Crotaphytus bicinctores.  Thanks, Hazel!  He is a Sceloporus bimaculosus  -  Twin-Spotted Spiny Lizard.  He was beautiful.

Then the other day the neighbor across the road from us came over.  I was checking my generator oil, putting on my tire covers, etc. after coming home from town.  I guess her husband thought he saw me with my head in my hands, and sent her over to see if I needed help.  How nice was that?  Actually, I was fine. It was windy and since my hair is getting longer, I was probably just trying to tuck the flying hair into a headband.

Yesterday I was in the kitchen making potato salad, fixing shrimp for dinner, cleaning up, etc. and Katie kept barking.  I didn't see anyone outside and my couch shades were down due to the sun shining in.  I went outside, and what did I see?

A big Class A right alongside The Palms with Denise sitting in the shade on her step, and Bennie right there with her.  Her motor home's engine must really be quiet, because I didn't hear a thing.  I snapped this photo as they were driving away to their new site.

Katie likes to sleep with her head on her toys - here she is sleeping on her ball:

Or... she tucks her face in under a pillow - that's what she did during this nap:

Watching critters out the screen door:

Katie and Bennie got along just fine, both got a cookie, and I'm looking forward to Katie having a dog in the area that she likes.   Not that she doesn't like Candy the Yorkie, but Bennie is calmer and I think Candy is a little too friendly and scares her a bit.

We chatted for a little bit, then Denise moved on to find a good site in the area.  Denise, I'm glad you made it down here, and I hope you have a fun, very uneventful stay this season.  :)

Katie and I walked over later in the day during our evening walk to say hi, and I got to help Denise get her motorcycle out of the motorhome.  She has a custom made 3-piece ramp that attaches to the garage door when it's down.  It's quite a setup.

Katie and I want to thank our readers who are using our Amazon.com links.  Every time I make my on-line purchases I try to remember  to give a blogger a little boost to their income.  We all appreciate it!   

And remember Christmas is coming - buy your gifts at Amazon.com and have them delivered to your loved one's address.

From me and Katie, have a great Sunday, everyone!  n

No butts about it...

From Me and Katie, have a great Halloween, everyone!  :)