Road work!

Driving in to the oasis Sunday evening was scary. Before going to his accomodations at Terlingua Ranch Lodge, Mike Dory followed me in. Otherwise, I may have opted to go the long way around to my back entrance. It's 10 miles farther, but any birders who wants to come, and are not equiped for my road, are welcome to come in the back way. That road is good. No treacherous steep hill. My whole mile of road is really rough, but this deep ditch was the scariest part. I straddled it very carefully.

Me heading back to town this afternoon after Mike went out the back way to the lodge.

Yesterday, Mike came and did weed eating and shoveled sand in preparation for today's concrete work on the big hill. 

He had a close encounter with a Diamondback, lest he needed reminding of the value in having mowed areas to walk in. I was about 20 feet behind him, and when I heard the rattle at his feet, in that second I couldn't remember how good his hearing was, so I let out a scream he was sure to hear. He said later, he had heard me and the snake at the same time. He jumped back quickly as the snake continued to rattle.

My poor little 2011 Ford Ranger was so weighted down with water, sand, and concrete, that I was afraid to go at more than a snail's pace toward our work area this morning. But we made it. Mike worked and sweated in the heat impressively, let me tell you! I helped what I was able to.

We just put concrete patches here and there in an attempt to either make the rock ledges smoother to ascend, or to keep water from washing under the slab. Tomorrow, my son is going down with a rental bobcat to do what he can on the rest of the road. It'll always be rough and require clearance as good as my pickup, but one can walk the last mile, or go in the back way. To be continued....