Learning the hard way

 A few days ago I stumbled upon a comment by a birder in an unrelated ebird checklist that he had a flat tire visiting CMO. I dread hearing things like that! I worried that I may not have raked up enough sharp rocks after the recent roadwork. So I contacted the birder to get the details. Thought I'd post it here in case it might help some future visitor.

The birder came in a rental car. Unbeknownst to him, rental cars don't come with spares anymore. Here's his description of the event. I added some clarification in brackets [ ].

"My problems began when I unwisely elected to use navigation to get to your place, went up about 1.5 miles after the Terlingua Ranch Rd. pavement ends and later realized it was fruitless.

I then followed your directions & map, but evidently ended up passing your house [my earth-sheltered cabin] (just as you warn against up top of p. 2) and then climbed a hill, I ended up reaching the end of the road at the CMO [house I gave my son].  I backtracked and reached the absolute end of the road on your map at the boarded-up house [my late sister's house way down a washed out, never used, lane. Can't hardly make it in my pickup. Don't know how a rental car could].

Instead of coming straight back downhill on return, I got lost; for some odd reason I kept wanting to turn left (west) prior to your house, ending up descending quickly, passing an arroyo, and then coming immediately to a gate.  Just beyond this gate, and very slightly uphill of it, is Andy's place [my neighbour just outside my east gate].  I nearly got stuck on the now-flat tire in this little arroyo [Almost impossible to turn around in that arroyo without getting stuck. You may recall a UPS truck getting stuck there a few years ago.]

The car, astonishingly, had no spare.  It had a pump-up kit (you can add air on the spot), but it was useless because the tire was very quickly destroyed (shredded).  Andy managed to get the vehicle's tire off, while I hunted in vain for the spare (in the place in the back where one would expect the spare, there was instead a hybrid propulsion system!).  So we put the tire back on and I limped (now riding on the wheel) down to the paved road [Terlingua Ranch Road blacktop]."

There's more, but you get the idea. All the wrong turns originated within easy sight of the oasis. I'm sorry that happened. It's rare something like that happens, but I'd like to prevent it from ever happening. Also take note, he said the tires were "nearly bald" on the rental car.

On a brighter note, fall migrants are starting to trickle in. I had this Dickcissel today.

My favorite find of the day was this Zebra Heliconian butterfly. Had only seen that species at the oasis once before (July 2018).

I watered today, so plan on focusing tomorrow on birds and butterflies.

Life is like a whirlwind!

Second day group

Every single afternoon of the festival the oasis got a big rain. The groups came to the oasis in the mornings, so the rain didn't affect the first day's group, but the roads were a mess for the second and third day groups.

Third day group

Then this afternoon, after the third and final group left, I was packed and ready to head to town. It started to sprinkle, so I decided to cover the bear-proof ground feeder with plastic since rain fills the ports and clogs them up with wet seed. I did it successfully as yesterday's rain started, so rushed to do it again today. Like yesterday, the deluge came quick and hard as I was covering the feeder. Yesterday, I made a dash for the cover of the viewing blind. Same today, only this time I accidentally stepped on the bear unwelcome mat in my haste. Normally, that wouldn't be so bad, but today I was just wearing thin crocs because my broken navicular bone seemed to hurt less in them than regular shoes. It hurt bad and my sock got bloody. Soon my feet were soaked with water and I focused on setting up a pump in the broken tank. Water was gushing into it and I knew it wouldn't hold water for long. 

I waded out into the tank and hooked up the pump and began pumping. Before long, my punctured toe swelled and was unbearably painful. Walking was an ordeal, between the injured toe and the broken bone that had already had me limping. I started worrying that going into the tank mud and all might have been a stupid thing to do with an open wound. We shall see. Meanwhile, I unpacked my pickup and prepared to spend another night. I estimated the stucco tank will be topped off around midnight.

Everyone watched a pair of Curve-billed Thrashers relentlessly carrying food to this nest. The bottom of the box has fallen out and I worry the nest will fall before the nestlings can fledge. I simply am not able to climb a ladder to fix it.

A nice species during the festival was this Common Ground Dove. 

Too bad it's feast or famine with rains.

___________________________________

UPDATE: Toe less painful Monday morning.

One hurdle behind me

Finally got someone out to work on the road. It's still a rough road, but not as scary, in my opinion.

I killed myself raking and picking up rocks for two days, so back in town to rest. I would never rest at the oasis with so much to do. The road needs a lot more raking, etc, but for now it should be ok. I'm hoping we'll get some rain to settle the dust, but likely won't. Once it rains, it's too late for me to rake anymore, as it packs hard. I still recommend visitors have decent clearance because of the steep rough big hill.

We're a week away from the hummingbird festival, so I'm hoping to rest up for a week. For some reason the road looks better in photos than it actually is to drive on. Frustrating!

I had to water before coming back to town today. Since I had to do raking in the morning, with a little help from a dear neighbor friend, I had to water in the heat of the day this afternoon. It was 103° but that doesn't bother me, it was just the no-nap exhaustion that did me in. When I'm watering in heat I sprinkle myself down with the hose frequently, and shivver through it. LOL