Desert People

We have been settling into a routine during the last few weeks--at least, I have.  Julia went back to Wisconsin for ten days for previously scheduled girlfriends' events.  I've been walking the nature preserve early in the morning and sometimes at sunset.  

Also playing pickleball nearly every day.

A new friend’s private residential court

In Julia's absence, I sampled local Mexican restaurants with good reviews on Reddit.  My favorite was St. Mary's Mexican Food, a humble takeout place where you can get meat, beans, rice and fresh tortillas for less than $8.  I ate it in the parking lot, and it was delicious.  

This past weekend, we entertained our first guests--friends from Wisconsin who I've known since college but haven't kept in close contact with.  It turns out that they have been coming to Tucson every winter for about twenty years.  Mike and Kathy were here for a funeral for a few days, but will be back again in February during which time we will no doubt be hanging out again.  

Kathy was amazed at our transition to Tucson.  She said, "Wow, you are desert people now."  I guess we are.  

I'm still scorpion hunting on most nights, but I haven't been finding very many lately.  Julia thinks that's a good sign.  The packrats have continued to visit, and I've been feeding the desert about once a week with the bounty from my rather large rat trap.  Nothing is wasted here, and anything thrown over the wall into the desert is gone by morning.  

We've had rain several times since we arrived, but it's very different than Wisconsin.  Rains have been furious but short--usually over in 10-20 minutes.  Most late afternoons cloud over, and we see frequent lightning. However black clouds and lightning do not mean certain precipitation like it did back home. 

It's still all very new and interesting to us.  

We've been checking out the local music scene.  This was a blues band at the Landing.

Next week, I should have an outing to blog about.  I think we will head down to Bisbee and enjoy a little higher elevation/cooler temps.  This week, it will likely stay below 100 here in Oro Valley--but just barely. Still too hot to open up the windows at night. That's all the news from the Sonoran Desert.

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.