04-01-11

Wednesday;

I saw Roy and Suzanne heading out on their Rhino towing a small trailer. I figured they were going after rocks.

We went to Blythe to buy a garbage can. When we got back we saw Suzanne, Roy, Debbie and Mike standing in front of Debbie and Mike’s place, admiring something so we drove up there to see what was going on. Debbie was very proud to show us the enormous rock in her yard. While we were there Debbie decided that she needed another big rock to put in the corner of the front yard. We told them that we would go along to help with the rock collecting and maybe get a rock or two for ourselves. We followed Suzanne and Roy on their Rhino, and Debbie and Mike on a quad runner, out to the desert just west of town to a big hole with a few very large rocks in it.

We hooked the Rhino to the largest rock and after a couple of tries , dragged it out of the hole.

Roy maneuvered the Rhino so that the trailer was on the down hill side of the trail and we rolled the rock into it. Once we got the big rock loaded Mike and I picked up two more smaller rocks and loaded them into the trailer.

On the way back we stopped at our place and unloaded the smaller two rocks then went to Debbie and Mike’s and unloaded the big rock.

It didn’t take long for the birds to accept the new perching rocks.

Thursday;

The exodus has begun. Our friends are leaving to go home for the summer. Missy and Junior left to go back to Canada this morning. They have a seven day trip to get to Quebec. Jo Ann and Dave are leaving next week to go back to Idaho, Suzanne and Roy are leaving for Alberta around the 21st. Becky and Dennis will probably leave in a week or two for Northern California.

Around 10:00 We decided to go look for some cactus for our yard and start collecting rocks to enlarge the pond. We asked the rest of the gang if they wanted to go but they were all busy so we went on our own. I wanted to go out to the west side of the north Plomosa Mountains to check out some shale that I noticed in a wash a while ago. The trail went over several sand dunes. On one of them the trail was pretty steep but I had gone over these dunes with no trouble before so I thought little of it. Along the way we collected a bunch of medium sized rocks for the pond expansion project, a Brittle bush, a small Beaver Tail cactus

and a pincushion.

Eventually we came to the wash with the shale

and loaded the back of the jeep with a bunch of shale slabs. Now the jeep was pretty heavily loaded. We headed back the way we had come. We got through the first dune with no problem; the second dune was a snap. Then we came to the dune with the steep climb up the sand trail. The approach to the dune was through a steep rocky gully. I wasn’t paying proper attention and started up the dune in third gear.

Bad mistake!

We got about three quarters of the way up when the jeep ran out of power. I tried to shift into second but as soon as I put in the clutch we stopped and could go no further. I figured I would back down to the rocky side of the gully and take a run at the hill but some how I ended up crossways at the bottom of the hill in the sand.

The right front wheel was in the air and the left rear wheel was in soft sand. The jeep would not move forward or backward. We tried putting some of our slabs under the front and rear wheels but still could get no traction. Fortunately there was a large Ironwood Tree down the gully within reach of the winch cable so I hooked the cable to it and in a few minutes had pulled the jeep free of the sand.

That is the first time that I have used the winch to un-stick the jeep. From there it was just a matter of a little jockeying around to drive Clifford up the side of the wash to the trail. After all that work we decided not to attempt to go over the sand hill and retraced our trail. We went through the pass by the Four Peaks to Plomosa Road and came home that way. It is probably what I should have done in the first place.

Here are a couple more of Patti’s bird pictures.

The neighbors to our right have a couple of gazing balls in there yard and the Road runner likes to try and perch on the silver one

The ball is kind of slick and he has to do a little dance to stay on top. Maybe we can get a video of it later.

Here is a nice shot of a Gambel’s quail.

I finally got some pictures of one of the humming birds that are coming around to feed on the Aloe’s.

Today is another hot one. It is supposed to get to 100 so we will probably lay low until this evening. Patti did some laundry earlier this morning and hung it on the community cloths line. I will probably arrange some rocks later on.