The weather is finally starting to cool off at night so that we can open the window screens and turn off the AC. With the modest change in the weather, we have noticed some wildlife changes in our area. The migratory bats have mostly moved on. They were dive bombing us at sunset at the community pool.
This week, we made a road trip to Wilcox. Julia and I had been there once before, and I was unimpressed. She heard from friends that the farms and orchards in the area were worth the visit. The apples were past season. There were still a few Granny Smiths, but that was pretty. much it. For twenty cents off full retail, you could pick your own vegetables in the fields.
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Tirrito Farm |
There may have been a milk stout involved in providing an incentive for the trip.
I can say that it was interesting how Wilcox farms can turn irrigated desert into vegetables, nut trees, and fruit trees. There is no free lunch, however. It will be interesting to see how agricultural interests compete with homeowners' desire to drink water and bathe, as ground water levels drop each year with more and more reports of dry wells.
One of the locals was telling me that Arizona farms export a certain variety of pecans to China, while China imports a different variety of pecans back to the United States. I asked what the difference was in the taste, and he said he couldn't tell the difference. We humans do strange things for a buck.
We have seen bobcats in our community before. Julia saw one on the sidewalk in our neighborhood. However, we had a first today when a juvenile bobcat quietly walked through the back patio only a few steps from our sliding glass doors--before squeezing through the back fence to hunt packrats on the other side. Good bobcat!