But I try to see my cup half full. I'm grateful to be alive. What I call the "infrastructure of the ranch" (CMO) goes downhill more and more. A couple of months ago the well stopped working. I asked the well service to come by when they're working in the area so I could save on a full trip fee. Well, they came twice and I didn't get the message they were coming. My plan was to find out how much it would cost to fix it and decide if it was worth it, or if I should just use rain water for the house. (I'm really frugal with water.) But by the time I found out they had been here, they had already fixed the pump and put new wiring in the well and said it wouldn't last long without being cased all the way down, like 380 feet. I would have said forget it, but they'd already done a couple thousand dollars of work. (They're very expensive.) My late husband spent $30,000 with them just to end up with this puny seep well. Probably makes 20 gallons a day, when it's working. Now that I have to pay that much money anyway, I'm waiting on an estimate of how much it'll cost to case it. We're looking at four grand here. My husband will pay part of it, but I was saving to get the big hill concreted and now that'll have to be put on hold.... not that I've been successful in getting anyone down here to see what they could do with the hill.
And other things keep deteriorating too. The stucco tank pump still doesn't work right. And my body!!! All my joints hurt and I get short of breath just moving the water hose. OK, enough whining.
Recently an Aoudad expert made two trips up our mountain to assess the Aoudad situation. He assured me there were none there. I was ever so hopeful that the Aoudad herd had moved to greener pastures (they say they're very nomadic) and my vegetation might recover. But today I scanned the top of the mountain and saw two Aoudad gorging themselves. Bummer! Very difficult shot with my little Lumix, but you get the idea.
I'm hoping it's just those two and not the whole herd, but not optimistic on that.
I saw a hummingbird when I got here this morning and got excited thinking it might be a Lucifer, but it was a selasphorus. I'd guess it was the selasphorus I had a week ago, the one with the white gorget, but it hawked insects above the water and hardly perched, so I didn't get a photo. Didn't see it again this afternoon. Maybe tomorrow.
It's really heartening to know that I have my new tank full of water. Without that tank I'd have 65,000 less gallons than I have now because that water would have been in the stucco tank and be gone by now.
The wind blew off some of the wind shields from around the Tree Tobaccos while I was languishing in town. One of the newly planted ones didn't survive. I replaced it with one of the spares. The others I think will recover. Soon the protection won't be needed. Once it warms up and they get more established. One of those I planted earliest lost its shield and did fine.
I saw this raptor today. I thought it was a Harrier but Kelly says it's a Cooper's Hawk. I'm not good on raptors.
I don't have one big verbena patch this year, more like lots of little ones everywhere. Some are starting to bloom, but still too cold for good butterfly activity.
On Feb. 14th a birder visited and got a couple of photos of that not-quite-mature Rufous/Allen's Hummingbird. (Not the same one I saw today). He said I could share his photo here so it's my pleasure to do so. Thank you, Pat Dwyer!
UPDATE: I told my sister about seeing the Aoudad on the mountain and she said she sees them all the time on her game camera on the mountain. So much for the expert!
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