montezuma, two months, and me

This Montezuma quail is awesome. There is a pair that has visited a few times. As you can probably guess, the female is kinda drab in comparison. Why is that so often the case with birds?

There are nowhere near the amount of turkeys around the area this year as opposed to last. When I got here in March one could hear what sounded like quite a few, off in different directions. Since then no families, and just a group of five gobblers that come by every few days, no hens. One day a single hen with this single chick stopped by to feed, well, at least the hen fed. In the past I’ve always seen Mom, Pop and a dozen or so little ones, never a single hen and chick. I wonder what the story is with these two.

I had my furnace fixed. I found out there is someone up here who used to work as a RV technician. He stopped by one day, took the furnace back to his shop, ordered parts (circuit board and sail switch), and re-installed it the following weekend. Not bad.
I also finally got around to cleaning and applying a sealant coat on the roof. I used two applications of Protect All Rubber Roof Treatment. I’m pleased with the results and will be applying more coats twice a year.

Wish the Ram 1500 worked out as easily. The shop where the truck was towed, provided me with a courtesy car. The pickup was in the shop for five weeks and I got a bill for over $5,500. Bummer. And during that time I had to get to 7 medical appointments and one surgery, so I definitely needed their car.
It felt so good to be back in my truck. I stopped at the PO when I got up to Timberon, before going home. I put the truck in what I thought was Park. When I came back out and went to start it, the truck would not shift into Park or Neutral. Yep, no way to start it. The shop sent up a tow truck, a courtesy car, and the truck went back into the shop. First they tried a new transmission solenoid pack. Same problem. Seems the re-built trans was no good. My Dodge is still there, and has been since May 22—nine weeks and counting. Guano.
At least I had the courtesy car for my last drive down to the retinal specialist in El Paso. Unfortunately (this word is almost becoming a given), the doctor wanted to touch up one area with the laser. I already told you how much I dislike the procedure. At least he said this should do it unless something develops. I’ve had better summers.

And, while in the PO parking lot, I learned about a wildfire that was over the ridge to the east. It had started with a lightning strike a couple days before, and the smoke was easily seen. I’m thinkin’, I’m up here with my home and no way to tow it out if it came down to it. At least M&M and I could get out with what little would fit in the Renegade.

Really wanted to be finished with the digging before the rains so I could have planted grass seed. I don’t so much want the grass, as the roots. I certainly do not want a lawn; I’m not going to be watering grass. Good grief. There are about 345 square yards of dirt that has been shoveled, moved and raked, on a slope. It needs to be held in place. Maybe next year.

This small patch is from the scratch grain I throw out for the birds. It started sprouting shortly after the first rains. Actually, the only rains, so far, a week at the beginning of the month. Hopefully, we’ll get a lot more in August. The grass only lasted three weeks, due to the lack of further rain and turkeys scratching the ground for grain.

Antlers are getting longer.
I observed another wildlife occurrence out the back window one evening. A small buck was eating some cracked corn and a slightly larger doe came up behind him and nudged him in the hindquarter (Hey, move, I want that). It’s more a stomp than a kick. The foreleg is raised up high, and contact is made as the hoof is coming down. Anyway, the feisty little guy turned around, reared up, and kicked out his forelegs a few times, pawing the air, right in front of the does face. As if to say, Enough already, back off. The doe did not even flinch. This surprised me as much as the little boxer. There is so much entertainment in simple things.

I recently met the owner of the property next to mine. She lives in Texas and has no intention of building on the lot. Yes! They will just occasionally be tent camping. They were putting up two no trespassing signs. There is nothing there, not even an access road, so I wondered why. A friend of hers has a lot in Timberon and the last time he visited it, there were squatters on it. It took a while to get them to move off his property. Have not heard of this up here, but there are hundreds of secluded lots. Sure wouldn’t want to deal with squatters. I learned at a Neighborhood Watch meeting that this is not unheard of. Bummer.

On the Timberon II page, last year, I made a mistake stating my taxes. They are only $35.

Human health might be the ultimate crapshoot. We have 20,000 genes in every chromosome in each cell in our bodies. Some of us get high-cholesterol and nearsightedness, while others get clear arteries and 20/20 vision, etc. But it’s always a good thing to take what responsibility we can with the dice we’re rolled.

Rob, I don’t have an email for you but I want to see photos of your Nash cabinets after you paint them.

Are there a lot of first-person singular objective pronouns, or is it just me?

Mind how you go.

To paraphrase something Winston Churchill said,
If you are going through a rough time, keep going.

RVwest article ‘Following a Free Spirit’

RVwest article ‘The Spaces Between the Places’

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