Catching up

I really had so much I wanted to post lately but yesterday the electricity was off all day and I got behind on everything. It's disgusting how dependent I am on electricity. I couldn't cook anything to eat, and couldn't even make a fire to cook because of the burn ban. To open a can of pork and beans I had to scrounge around in the guesthouse for a manual can opener. So I survived the day, working in the triple-digit heat, on one can of beans. I kept my clothes wet to stay cool.

Turkey Vultures smell the dying gambusias and are hanging around in larger than normal numbers.

I was in the thought process about titling this post, "Another day in the inferno," when, in a freak accident, my right index finger got stabbed deeply with a dinner fork. I'm not superstitious, but still, why tempt fate?  Dinner fork, pitch fork.....

And that, right on the heels of my sister finding a Black Witch moth in her house. I'm serious, I couldn't make this stuff up. My sister, Ann's house is a mile down the arroyo from my oasis. Her daughter, Julia Green, took this photo of it.

Here's some lore about the moth-

"The nocturnal Black Witch - the largest moth in the continental United States, with a wing span of six to seven inches - has been vested with a foreboding aura of darkness and mystery. It bears common names such as Mariposa de la Muerte (Butterfly of Death) in Mexico, Duppy Bat (Lost Soul) in Jamaica, or Sorciére Noire (or Dark Sorcerer) in French-speaking Caribbean islands.

According to folklore, if the Black Witch flies into your field of view, it conveys a curse from an enemy. If it flies over your head, it will cause your hair to fall out. On a happier note, if the Black Witch appears before you after someone has died, it represents the soul of the person returning to bid you farewell. Should one alight on you, you will become rich. Should one land above the door of your home, you will win the lottery.

If it flies into your home when you are sick, you will not get well. You will die."

Copied from http://www.desertusa.com/animals/black-witch-moth.html

Luckily, my sister and her daughter aren't sick, and I didn't go see the moth. LOL

I'm not making much progress cleaning the mud out of the big tank as it dries.

It's not the heat that stops me, but the pain it causes my shoulder carrying the full buckets of dirt out. I've learned from past experience that if I keep going in spite of the pain I end up with a joint that has osteo-arthritis and doesn't work anymore. So I quit when my shoulder doesn't want to cooperate. Getting old sucks!

I should probably be more disturbed by this next photo, but after watching frogs gorge themselves on gambusias, I've become quite inured to these images.

And finally, here's a shot I took of a Verdin that I was pleased with.