Chocolate Milk and Quail

When I stopped in Albuquerque last week, Michael gave me four stouts.  Two of the stouts were from Michigan and made by New Holland Brewing, one of my favorite breweries.   Two of the stouts were from Albuquerque by Boxing Bear Brewing and have earned assorted awards including a 2024 Silver Medal at the American Beer Festival.  It's called Chocolate Milk Stout and actually does contain cocoa nibs added to the brewing process.  I wasn't sure that I was going to like that, but the effect is quite subtle.  The milk part is from added lactose which adds both sweetness and mouthfeel.  All in all, an excellent stout.  

Tonight, as we were eating grilled burgers and asparagus, we had visitors performing the balance beam on our rear fence.

Planes, Buses and Pick-up Truck

When we moved to Arizona a few weeks ago, I drove the U-haul truck, and Julia drove her Subaru.  That left my Dodge Ram back in Wisconsin at a friend's place.  I could have towed it behind the 20' U-haul, but I just didn't feel comfortable doing so.  Plus, it gave me an excuse to take a solo travel trip to retrieve my beloved truck and see some of the country. Spoiler Alert:  there are no photos from this trip.

On Monday, I drove to Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix (Julia drove the Suburu back home) and boarded a cheap flight ($120) for Chicago.  It was about $300 more to fly directly into Madison.  I maneuvered my way through O'hare until I found the regional buses.  Eventually, I boarded a Van Gelder bus that made stops in Rockford, Beloit and Janesville before burping me out on the outskirts of Madison, Wisconsin.  My step-mother-in-law picked me up and dropped me off at my truck in Lodi.

I finished emptying and cleaning out our storage unit, made a stop at the bank, and was headed to Iowa.  In Cedar Rapids, I helped my mom with some business, and then she joined me on the road to Omaha, where she planned to spend several days with her cousin.  I continued on and spent the night at a cheap motel in Kearney, Nebraska.  On the next morning, I rolled through the rest of Nebraska, a desolate stretch of eastern Colorado, and ended up at an even cheaper motel in Albuquerque.

On the next morning, I had breakfast with Michael where we exchanged stout beers for future consumption and ate some delicious New Mexican food.  It was the first time that I've met MFH.  While it was a short visit, I hope we get to hang out again sometime.  

Then I was back on the road for probably the most scenic part of the trip, driving through the El Malpais National Monument.  I made mental notes of trails and campgrounds that I want to take time exploring.  After that it was down, down, down from above 7000 feet to the Sonoran Desert of my new home.  I was back at home with Julia and Callie by late afternoon.  

This morning, with no other remembered entanglements to Wisconsin, we are settling into our house.  On this morning's walk through the nature preserve, we encountered a new animal that was kind enough to pose with Mount Lemmon in the background.

Encounters with Nature

 Arizona is decidedly different than Wisconsin.

Our home is in the Sonoran Desert--literally.  During the past week, we've had encounters with scorpions, packrats and javelinas.  

First, I'll show the "cute" picture of the pack of javelinas that blocked our path during our morning stroll through the nature preserve.  

These javelinas were the second encounter that we had this morning.  They very lazily walked across our path and into the brush.   Didn't really give us even a glance.

Our first encounter about twenty minutes earlier was less fun.  There were two javelinas off the trail about 10 yards.  A male javelina left the female and joined us on the concrete path, staring at us from less than ten yards.  Okay, no problem.  We'll just back away.  Nope, he started trotting towards us.  Apparently they can run over 35 mph if inclined.   We decided to go off trail and circle around both animals.  As soon as we turned our backs, the male began to run faster at us.  I  turned around and started yelling loudly and waving my arm.  The other arm was attached to Callie, and javelinas don't like dogs.  Fortunately, the javelina was puzzled by my behavior and stopped following us.  No pics of that guy; I was a little busy. 

We discovered the packrats when I went to open the built-in gas grill on the back patio.  The packrat was just as surprised as me, given that no one had been living in our house for six months.  That resulted in another trip to Home Depot where I bought a couple of rat traps that were much, much bigger than the mouse traps that I'm used to.  The first night brought success.  The second night--not so much.  This will likely be an ongoing battle.  We covered up the grill openings as much as we could with heavy duty wire fencing, and aluminum plating, where possible.  

The final matter to be addressed was with the scorpions.  I bought a black light and have been venturing around the house after dark, discovering several of the little buggers each night.  Those that I found "went away."  I bought some spray that I will apply around the exterior foundation to discourage entry into our home.  

That's all the news from this corner of the Sonoran Desert.

First Monsoon Storm

 

Late afternoon yesterday, the clouds started to gather in the southwest.

 

 In the middle of the night, we heard thunder, saw flashes of lightning, and then it rained for about 30 minutes.  That wouldn't be any big deal in Wisconsin, but it felt pretty special here in the desert.  

On our morning walk, without breaking stride, Callie lapped from the occasional puddle of water.