Waiting for rain

Thunder rumbled lazily for hours this afternoon but not until after dark did any activity look promising. Since a cool front is moving in, I'm optimistic about getting rain, but if nothing else, cooler weather will be most welcome. It almost made it to 100° again today.

Here at the oasis a couple of Blue-winged Teal are hanging around the above tank. I love ducks on my water even though it keeps me from getting close to the tanks to look for dragonflies.

Since there'll be a lot of birders here during the next week I did some last minute chores, like painting a fresh white edge on all the courtyard steps. Just in case...   The Ft Davis hummingbird festival this weekend is followed by a bander's convention so it's going to be busy and interesting.

Also, visitors use the bathroom in the guesthouse, so I put a bed on that planter box so it won't look so ugly. The bed is still not usable until we get the steps made. 

There are a few little glitches, but all in all, things are going smoothly. One of the glitches (probably not the right word) is that there will no longer be a phone at the oasis. My late husband buried a phone cable to there about 20 yrs ago and somewhere the line is messed up so the phone company had to disconnect it so my house phone would work. I'm going to try to get some kind of booster so my cell phone will work there, if possible.

Another glitch is that I sprayed Malathion-- liberally--- in that wall I renovated that was full of termites. The odor is not diminishing. It's bad. Hope it goes away. It doesn't seem to bother the insects though, at least not the spiders. I found one of those inside the guesthouse today. But no evidence of mice.