Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Retirement

Snake Season

uninvited serpent

My first chore when I got home after yesterday’s medical procedure was to roust an uninvited serpent from the garage. Damsel noticed that a curve-billed thrasher had chased a gopher snake into the garage while the door was open. The bird flew off, but the snake hid itself behind the shop-vac along the garage wall.

I fetched a non-lethal corn broom from the back of the garage and proceeded to move the shop vac out of the way and to firmly but gently sweep the snake in the direction of the vacant property to the east. Damsel took this photo while the snake was still hissing at us before retreating over the rocks to the desert habitat on the unimproved land. I shooed it in that direction because I know that the curve billed thrasher that was chasing it has a nest with probable chicks or eggs on the west side of our property.

I seem to be doing a lot of good deeds for the thrasher population recently.

28 May 2016 by Arizona Critters Photography Retirement

First Saguaro Flowers of 2016

First Saguaro FlowersAs of last Wednesday, we have been on the road, visiting friends and enjoying the scenery. Just before leaving Arizona for points west, I saw this saguaro in Parker. I believe this is the first one that we have seen with open flowers this year. Click on the image to enlarge.

We are currently in Palm Desert, California where we meet our son and his wife and our grandson who will be nine months old in a few days. The other set of grandparents, who live near here, are away in Mexico and the kids are watching their house while they’re gone.

We stayed the first two nights along the Colorado River on the California side visiting our good friends that live there. We had a pleasant visit with them and some of their family where we played cards Wednesday evening and went to dinner at the BPOE across the river in Parker on Thursday for Mexican Food Night.

Image: First Saguaro Flowers

Yesterday, on the drive from the river, we took the scenic route across the desert and through Joshua Tree National Park. It is always a beautiful drive through there; we entered the park near Twentynine Palms and exited near Yucca Valley. I took a lot of pictures in there and may post some of them here later.

23 Apr 2016 by Arizona Flowers Photography Retirement Wanderlust

Spring in the Outback

Hedgehog Buds

By the term “Outback,” I mean neither the vast wilderness in Australia nor the not-so-well-known Arizona Outback, but the part of our little plot here in town up on the hill behind the house. Our outback is mostly still virgin desert with flora and fauna indigenous to the wild areas of this region.

I took a hike up there this morning to see if some of the flowering cacti were sporting spring buds – sure enough, this hedgehog cactus (Echinocereus) near the north property line has quite a few flower buds getting ready to open.

We seem to have several varieties of hedgehog cactus around the property. Two of the hedgehog depicted are in the outback and several that were either natural or transplanted to the lower part of the lot among the landscaping rocks. Most have pink flowers but some have flowers that are darker pink or purple. The Damsel will be sure and photograph the ones on the lower property and I plan to venture into the outback to capture photos of the ones up there. Click on the image to enlarge.

19 Mar 2016 by Arizona Home & Garden Photography Retirement

Creek Bed Bank Line Reinforcement

Creek Bed

This is one of the projects that Damsel and I have undertaken to modify her rock and cactus garden on the west side of the property. This is to account for the effects of having built a retention wall adjacent to the RV drive that now diverts runoff from the hills to the north. After we built the wall last year, water now flows to the west of the property rather than across the RV drive as it has in the past.

In the image above, the west end of the wall can be seen at the right edge. We have started lining the edge of the little creek that formed last summer when we had a great monsoon rainfall last summer. The idea is to line the banks with rocks to confine the flow to within the creek bed near where the water comes out from behind the wall.

Further down the creek, the banks are less defined. We decided to use some very large boulders (seen at the left of the photo) to keep the flow going down the natural creek wash that was there before, rather than spilling toward the west where there are some decorations and the trash bins are over there too.

As you can see in the photo, we have partially completed the bank lining up near the end of the wall. Next, we will continue to bring more of the rocks and complete the lining from where the rocks end upstream to the boulders that are on the left. After that, we will dig down to where the original landscapers put the creek rocks five years ago.

We hope that we can complete this project a little at a time (rocks are heavy!) over the spring before the next monsoon season. Click on the image to enlarge.

Bed ProgressUPDATE: March 04, 2016 – Damsel and I spent an hour or so finishing the west bank of our little runoff creek today. We gathered small boulders and round rocks from other areas on the property and continued to line the far side of the creek with reinforcements for the runoff that we expect this coming monsoon season.

The top panel is the work we completed when we posted the picture above; the bottom panel is the work we completed this afternoon. Click on the image to enlarge.

01 Mar 2016 by Arizona Environment Home & Garden Retirement

Another Beautiful Desert Sunset

Desert Sunset

We have had a couple of beautiful days camping here in the Coachella Valley. The temperatures and the weather in general have been very acceptable. This evening, we enjoyed this beautiful sunset. Tomorrow, we will be breaking up camp and headed to the Colorado River to visit with our friends who live there.

While we were here in Palm Desert, we enjoyed visiting with our six-month old grandson, his parents and his other grandpa was here, too. We had a cookout yesterday, when Bob grilled some steaks and I fixed the side dishes which we fed to everyone. It was our first mobile dinner party!

We are planning to prepare another steak dinner for our friends at the river tomorrow. After we spend the night there, we will be driving the Roadrunner RV back to Wickenburg.

14 Feb 2016 by California Photography Retirement Wanderlust

Wet Weather Coming Followed by Cold

pacific-storm.jpg

The Pacific storm system currently going through California should be here in a couple of hours. All of the west needs the rain, but the colder nights are of little use to those of us with osteoarthritis and other cold-sensitive ailments (or just plain old hate the f@^&ing cold syndrome). The lows after the system moves through will be below freezing and the daily high temperatures are scarcely enough to thaw out the achy pains of old age.

The rain just started as I am typing this. I started the first paragraph of this post an hour ago while there was still some blue in the sky. Now, it is completely overcast and the rain and wind are apparent even from inside our secure little home.

We were going to watch a pass of the International Space Station this evening, but the clouds and rain (not to mention wind gusts to 30kts) preclude any stellar observations. If it clears up, there is another ISS pass tomorrow and a couple more evening passes early this week. We will bundle up and attempt to watch the flyovers in the cold.

31 Jan 2016 by Arizona Environment Retirement

Five Years in the New House

2011.jpg 2016.jpg

The Damsel and I moved in to our desert house in early January of 2011, just a few days more than five years ago. Since the move in date, we have made a few improvements over time. I took both photos above, one back then and the other today. Comparing the two, one can see the result of planned improvements to our rustic desert homesite. Click on either image to enlarge.

Almost immediately after we moved in, our contractor began construction on the courtyard wall. That was followed by the landscape contractor who installed irrigation and the shrubs, then finished with the river and red rocks covering the ground all around the house. Somewhere in the middle there, we had the sunscreens and security doors installed.

After experiencing several minor RV drive washouts from monsoons, we decided to have our contractor put in retention walls last February. We also asked them to pave the RV drive with concrete all the way around. Last summer, we had what the Maricopa County Flood Control District referred to as a “millennium” rainfall event, dumping up to five inches on us in less than two hours. The walls did their job of diverting the runoff and the pavement drained properly.

We now consider our home in a maintenance mode. We still have some minor improvements to make to the rock and cactus garden west of the house. We have taken it upon ourselves to spread some of the rock ground cover and to reinforce the runoff creek with large rocks and boulders already available on the property. All in good time, of course.

21 Jan 2016 by Arizona Home & Garden Retirement

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