Too tunnel-visioned here

Decided to go to CMO after I got things caught up in town. There was no reason to rush because it had only been two days since I serviced the feeders and watered. Nevertheless, I sped down the highway, not stopping for several great photo ops. Then when I got to CMO there was absolutely nothing to photograph. Disgusted with myself.

I photographed a male Lucifer Hummingbird for no other reason than I just had to photograph something, anything. I should have used my monopod. I think it would have been sharper if I had. Don't know.

In my courtyard I have a small lily pond. The lilies grow enormous roots and dirt accumulates on the roots. Then stuff grows there. I haven't cleaned the pond out for years. Just too much maintenance anymore for me to keep up with. Here is an oleander and ruellia growing in the pond. I was surprised that the oleander is white because the only oleanders I have on my property are pink. Oh well.

My son flew his plane to Colorado this weekend and I was very nervous. Didn't head south until I knew he had landed safely.

Collared Mountain Lion

I've posted cam video clips of this mountain lion before, so hadn't planned on posting anymore, but this recent batch of videos is pretty startling to me. Therefore, gonna post a couple of them.

The first one was taken at night mid-July. I posting it because it shows him blind in the right eye, as do many of the other clips that I'm not posting.



The next one is during daylight hours and shows how beat up he is. I can't help but wonder if the collar inhibits his ability to make cleaner kills. He only eats javelina, if you recall.

Surprise critter cam capture

You've probably seen the mountain lion video clips from my sister's cam in a cave atop our mountain, but none of us expected her to capture footage (22 clips) of a raptor. How cool is that?  My sister thought Peregrine and listening to it call on one of the clips, I agreed, a juvenile Peregrine. Since then however, I've been told it's a buteo, possibly a Swainson's, but not a Red-tailed. Will update when I get confirmation.

I think the extender helps my photography. And possibly the reason my photos were overexposed might be because some spot focus lighting function was turned off. Not sure. Gotta study more on the manual. Here are a few ode pics from today. This Great Pondhawk was quite a distance from me, so I credit the extender that you can see the leg hairs on this photo.

And this is only the second time I've seen a Smoky Rubyspot at CMO, so that was a surprise, especially considering the wildlife pond with the reeds in is still dry. Both of these odes were hidden back in some brush near the back water feature, making it hard to get clear shots.

I'm ready for the big one! Cleared out around the suction intake in the upper dirt tank. Had to deal with hordes of mosquitoes there. I raised that pan up about 6" out of the mud so the pump will work good for at least the next deluge. After that I may need to clean it out again. My husband is going to clean that tank out eventually. Meantime, I can just keep raising things up out of the mud.

And the other big pump has been repaired. My sister had to help me load it for town the other day and re-install it today. There was a broken wire on the on-off switch.

Moving along

Still moving, anyway. Finished the peaches and heading to CMO in the morning to water. Practiced some with my camera today. Having the problem of photos being overexposed. I darken them on photoshop, but they need to be properly exposed in the camera. Working on it. These photos were taken with my extender. I can't really tell the difference with or without it. More practice will tell more, I guess.

Plateau Spreadwing

Common Pondhawk

Trying to catch up

That's the story of my life, of course. Like "I'm dancing as fast as I can." Just about through with the peaches.

 I didn't have the desire or energy to deal with the grapes (I never do) so I offered them for free on Brewster County Exchange's Facebook site. However, I'm going to buy a juicer, and in the future I'm going to keep more of our produce. I gave the whole tree full of apples away the last couple of years.

I feel guilty about that, but if I dry them, they're concentrated sugar and I need to keep my blood sugar down, as much as I love dried fruit. And I'm drying peaches right now. At least with a juicer the fruit will be closer to fresh fruit. But I'll probably consume more of it and end up with the same result. Life is tough.

Quick CMO trip

I drove down today to service feeders and a couple of other things. The stucco tank leaked 2" in two days, so allowing half an inch per day for evaporation, it's borderline bad. Because it was 3' down to begin with. Had it been brim full it would have leaked worse. Now would be a good time to pump it out because the big concrete tank has room for the water in it. Once a big rain comes, there'll be no place to store it. But I needed to get back to town.* Going back Friday. Will consider pumping it out then. I can do it with electricity but still a long process. Pumping it out all at once is the only way to find the leaks because the water trickles back into the tank through the leaks.

In a hurry to wash feeders and no water pressure so I re-invented the old fashioned way. Filled another pan with clean water and dipped them in that. Actually faster than running the faucet on them. I may do it that way from now on.

* In town the peaches are ripening fast, so I'm in the process of picking and drying them. They make wonderful snacks when hiking or trying to stay awake on the drive to town. Also, since we don't have the rent house leased yet and my husband doesn't know how to do the computer, I need to take care of renting it. Everything is done online these days.

Today a better day

At midnight last night I shut off the pump. It was too dark to see how low the water was getting and I sure didn't want the pump to run dry. Also I was exhausted and HAD to get some sleep. At daybreak I went out and got into the tank. I determined the suction thingee was in mud. I must have forgotten to clear around it after that early June rain. I pulled it out but didn't put weight back on it. After pumping an hour it floated to the top and lost its prime. (I had hoped that the line was mudded in too so wouldn't need the weight.) When the water gets low in the tank it's difficult to prime and it was almost impossible the first time this morning so after that hour of pumping, I knew it was hopeless. Only about a foot of water left in the tank. So I just gave up. Learn from my mistakes. Mistakes I've made before, I might add. Not learning too well. Age and sleep deprivation, I guess. I have lots of water (probably one-third capacity), and it'll surely rain more this summer. Once the tank dries out I'll fix it so it won't silt the pump in during the next deluge. But it needs checked after each big rain.

My stand of soapberries in the arroyo haven't died like I worried they might, although they lost a lot of leaves. More rain should rejuvenate them even better.

Rushed to town midday and finished up the floors in the rent  house. My husband will wax them in the morning and then it's move in ready. Whew! We really had to do a lot of work to it. New fixtures and we even put in a new range. The old one was just too nasty to clean.

My son from Austin is due late tonight. He's staying at Terlingua Ranch Lodge because of all the stuff not working at CMO. I bought the stuff to fix the water heater. Just need to get my Alpine son down there to do it. Maybe he can fix the pressure pump too while he's at it. 

Dragonflies are already showing up so I hope to get some good photos of some in the next several days. I didn't top off the stucco tank because I want to make sure it doesn't leak first. So I put a bunch of my new water into the big tank. Added gambusias (mosquito fish). The frogs and snakes already found their own way there.

And in a few days things will surely start blooming and butterflies will start showing up.

UPDATE: My son got halfway here and a sign he made for my other son blew out of his pickup. Bringing that sign was the main reason for the trip, so he turned around and headed back to Austin and cancelled the trip altogether. I'm very disappointed, but it could be worse. I had worked fast and furious to get caught up by the time he came. So was in readiness. But the main thing is that everyone is safe and well. 

Earning my water

Whew! I pumped all night long but removed very little water from the dirt tank. Less volume is being pumped out than usual. By then I was almost out of gasoline so made a rush trip to Study Butte for what I thought was sure to be enough gas (in my sleep deprived state). En route was the only glimpse of sun I got today.

Next I got my sister to help me uninstall the one big gas pump at the upper dirt tank and replace it with my other big gas pump from the lower dirt tank. A gargantuan task for us. No change. There has to be a blockage somewhere. Either residue from that rat's nest I had back in early June, or mud around the suction hose inside the tank. But the water is over my head so I have to pump it down before I can check that out. What I thought would be an 8 hr job has been 24 hrs and counting.

And another sleep-deprived night to anticipate. While I was working at the tank I observed this strange cloud formation over my mountain. Looks like a tiny funnel cloud reaching out and touching the mountain, but I doubt it was.

My double life

Worked on the rent house all morning. Now my part of the work is almost done. Then it poured this afternoon. All day our land phone was down as well as the internet and TV. So I took a nap and fretted about the no rain situation at the oasis. Later I drove with my laptop to my son's wifi and checked the radar. Called my sister on my cell phone. Seemed hopeless. Then an hour later my sister called and said it was pouring. I came down and found I had nearly half an inch in the rain gauge. None ran at the oasis, but the upper dirt tank came to the rescue once again, so I'm pumping water all night long.

The big empty cleaned out tank caught a nice size puddle. I feel like I'll have enough water to add a little more to it and get a new ecosystem started there for dragonflies, pond-weed, etc.

Work and optimism

Working on the rent house floors. That's ajax I just sprinkled there. (I'm wearing an enormous blue t-shirt I found in the house to save my shirt. It's really comfy.)

Optimistic that my tanks will fill this week. Forecast looking good. Hope it'll come in time to save my dying soapberries in the arroyo beside the oasis.

I went down yesterday real quick to water some things and service the hummingbird feeders. Lots of juveniles at the feeders. One recently hatched male Lucifer amused me by how hard a time he had finding the feeding port. But he prevailed. Just wish I had had my camera on me, but I was rushing around watering.