04-12-11

On Saturday I was replacing the starter solenoid on the RV and when I opened the engine compartment I noticed a Dove sitting on a nest next to the engine.

 

We are leaving for home on Sunday the 17th. Now we have a problem. How do we move the nest without having the dove abandon it? We have had several suggestions and will try to do it as gently as possible but if we fail we will have at least tried.

The doves have been having trouble getting to the water in the pond because of the height of the sides. We put a large rock in the pond to form an island so they can get closer to the water.

Well, the doves aren’t smart enough to figure it out so I put a piece of Ironwood in the pond to form a bridge to the Island.

So far I have seen only two doves using the bridge.

Roy’s Key-fob camera arrived on Saturday. He built a rig to mount it and we went out to find the deep, deep shaft on the north side of the Plomosa mountains to try it out.

This time Debby and Mike were with us.

It took us a long time to find the correct shaft. Along the way we Checked out some tunnels but they didn’t go in vary far.

This one was to small to easily enter and only went in about 10 feet.

The next one was tall enough to stand up in but again only went into the hill about 30 feet.

This one was full of water the last time we saw it so we couldn’t check it out.

We were disappointed this time because the tunnel only went about 15 feet into the hill.

We stopped at a deep vertical shaft but it was shaped like a funnel and was too wide and dangerous to try lowering the camera into it.

As we traveled along we found another really interesting lizard.

The lizard is called a “Great Basin Collard Lizard”.

We stopped in a wash for lunch. There wasn’t much shade but the sky was a little overcast so it didn’t matter much.

A couple of miles further down the trail we finally came to the shaft we were looking for.

 

We spent a lot of time setting up to lower the Key-fob camera into the hole.

Here is the setup.

The camera on top,

With a five LED clip-on head light underneath

 

The camera rig is tied to a 500 foot long line and lowered into the shaft.

We spent about an hour messing with this setup

but the lights were not bright enough to get any video of the hole. We will try again at some other time. However, we did find out that the hole is about 250 feet deep.

We did however find some neat stuff around the hole. Here is a rodent scull

Debby found a small piece of rock that she thinks has some gold in it.

Who knows?

We continued to travel north and came upon some more old mines. This thing looks like some kind of a rock crusher.

We got back to the parking spot around 3:30 and loaded up the ATV to go home.

 

We stopped at the Gurbstake for dinner and at the restaurant ran into  Iron Jaw and his wife, Blue Eyes, some old buckskinner friends of ours.

This morning I was sitting in the backyard

enjoying the sun and got some pictures of this Humming bird.

04-07-11

Tuesday, we went to Lake Havasu to purchase the liner for the pond. We left home around 10:00, got to Home Depot around 11:45, bought the liner and went to Wal Mart to get a few things. From there we stopped at Panda Express for lunch and arrived home at about 3:00. After a rest, we installed the liner, put some rocks on it to hold it down and filled it with water.

Yesterday, Dianne and Wayne came up for a visit. We had lunch outside under the awning, as the weather was uncertain and it sprinkled a few times. We had a good visit and they left about 3:30. Dianne seams a little better and can stand (with help ) for a few seconds, enough to get in and out of their Bronco.

Today we took a ride with Suzanne, Roy, Becky, and Dennis. The plan was to make our way to the Mailbox Cabin (Apache Chief Mine) and find some rocks to finish the pond. Roy said there was a shale outcrop in a wash near there. We did some exploring along the way checking out a couple of trails that we hadn’t been on before. On one trail we crossed a wash that had an interesting rock formation. It was a conglomerate with many different types of rock in it; shale's, granites, black volcanic rocks, green rocks etc. All pressed together.

Where is a geologist when you need one?

The trail split up into several cul-de-sac’s. We retraced our route to the road along the south side of I-10 and continued our trip to the Apache Chief. We took another side trip through an area that was an old mine. We had passed this road several times but never checked it out before. The place had not been used for a long time and the buildings were very dilapidated.

On the top of a small hill we found a vertical shaft that was very deep. Roy has ordered a “key fob camera that he is going to rig on a fishing pole so we can check out some of these shafts but it hasn’t arrived yet so used the old drop a rock technique to judge how deep the shaft was.

It was Very Deep !

From there we drove around the area a little and checking out some of trails. Eventually we hit on a trail that went into a wash that eventually turned onto one of the roads that goes to the Mailbox Cabin. At the cabin we stopped for lunch sitting at a picnic table.

When we left the cabin we followed the washes back north looking for the shale outcrop. We didn’t find it but we did pick up a lot of flat rocks along the way.

We got home around 3:00, unloaded the jeep and spent about an hour setting the rocks around the pond.

It is cool and windy this evening. I don’t know if that has anything to do with it but there are no toads breeding in the pond. It could be that they are all done breeding for the season or just tired out from all the sex the last several nights.

It is supposed to rain tomorrow so I put the doors and windows on the Jeep.

04-04-11

Yesterday, we took a ride out to the Plomosa mountains again, I was looking for rocks for the pond enlargement project.

 

Jo Ann , Dave, Becky and Dennis. came with us. J&D had never been to the Plomosa’s so this was all new for them. We went in on a trail that passed some really pretty rock hills.

The trail was kind of rough but Dave had no problem negotiating the tough spots.

He is getting used to his new jeep.

For some of the trip Dave and Jo Ann swapped vehicles with Dennis and Becky.

We went by the big hole near the Four Peaks. As usual we tossed a rock in the hole to show Jo and Dave how deep it is. When we dropped the rock in, a beautiful Barn Owl flew out of the hole.

 

We later realized that she was sitting on a nest. We didn’t stay long so she could get back on her eggs.

 

From there we continued north looking for a shady spot to have lunch. There is very little shade in the area so eventually we parked on a flat where there was a good breeze and had lunch in our vehicles.

After lunch we worked our way back to Plomosa road.

On the way out we saw one of the largest lizards that we have seen in this desert. It is called a “Common Chuckwalla”.

For the Last few evenings we have heard a noise that we could not identify. It sounded like some one blowing on a small police whistle. On Friday evening we finally found out what the noise was.

It is called a “Red Spotted Toad”.

They have been having sex in our pond.

The video quality is pretty poor do to the fact that we had only a flash light for elimination.

Patti got some nice sunset pictures Saturday night.

 

and has been busy photographing the local wildlife.

Yesterday afternoon Patti got a good video of the Road Runner with a lizard

and one of it doing its little dance on the gazing ball.

I have been making some good progress on the pond enlargement project. Today I completed stacking the rocks for the perimeter.

The next thing I have to do is get some sand to put on the bottom. Then I have to go to Home Depot to get a liner. That means a trip to Lake Havasu City. a drive of about 75 miles. I will get the pond done this year and next season I will build the mountain and waterfall.

The Cactus in our yard are beginning to bloom,

even the ones that we planted the other day.

Jo Ann and Dave are packing up to leave for the summer we will be sad to see them go. They are real nice folks and we have had a lot of fun with them. Last evening we and the rest of the group went out for a final dinner with them. 

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.