August is half over and I'm once again playing catch up with my blog. We've been enjoying an active monsoon, but the rain hasn't been falling in the mountains where it can replenish the springs and streams. Cave Creek has run a few times, but is quite dry in South Fork and through Portal.
The grass is growing like, you guessed it, weeds. The hills and mountains are green and full of bugs, critters and now migrating birds. Our yard is a constant surprise. We never know what we may see or hear out our windows. Could be a Northern Beardless Tyrannulet or a Thick billed Kingbird. How about a Montezuma Quail? We've had a pair of them feeding in our yard daily for the past month. They either come at 8am or 5pm. Haven't figured out their timing, but maybe they are in the Vincas all the time, but just happen to come out at 8am and 5pm and we see them because we are in the kitchen at that time.
Matty is all healed up after her close encounter with a Western Diamondback on July 6th. She has a cute scar above her left eye, but no other ill effects.
We had Barney remove another rattler from our yard on July 19th, making 3 for the summer so far.......We hope that's all we'll see. When you feed birds you attract rodents and rodents attract snakes, so it's not a surprise to see snakes, but it is unnerving to have rattlers so close to the house.
Brother Skip & Nona spent a couple of days with us when they sold their house in Tucson. Sadly it didn't work out for them to move to Arizona. We did take a little hike up Cima Creek along Herb Martyr road and found a nice little waterfall that Skip just about ended up in when his handhold didn't hold!
Frances and Peter Grill are going to be giving a talk at a Camel Conference in October and Peter will be talking about his book. They showed the book to Jericho, one of their camels, and he seemed quite interested.
We aren't going to Tucson very often this time of year. We went in to play with the Banjo Blasters at the Community Center on Mt. Lemmon last month. That was fun and afterward we jammed at Jerry & Connie Taylors cabin in Summerhaven. Last week we went to Wesleys 5th birthday party. I can't believe he's 5 years old. He's big for his age and can carry on a conversation like a much older kid, but he's still just a little kid. He and Greg are both going to school now....they aren't babies any more.
We have skunks and raccoons in the yard every night and our friend Gloria has a bear visiting again. Hope he stays upcanyon. Nectar feeding bats are feeding from our hummer feeders at night now too so we only leave one or two up overnight.
RSS Feed
