Thursday, February 29…Water Fountain (Tune-Yards)

 OMGoodness, the hummers were crazy busy at the feeders this morning!  We were out and about in the yard, and they showed no fear of us, to the point of hovering above and beside us…one was as close as 2 feet to Kim. He was wearing a red shirt, and I was wearing a royal blue shirt at the time.  It happened again later when I was laying on the yoga mat, except I had changed into a muted lime green shirt. This time a hummingbird darted toward me and then retreated several times.  Then it  just gave up and went to the feeder. Maybe all the hummers thought we were the weirdest type of giant flowers they’d ever seen.  

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   Kim did more than his usual walk of 3 miles; he walked down Nutt Road a bit to see if we could set up a cell cam in the same location as we did last year.  While last year’s spot probably won’t work, he did find another one. The batteries are charged so the cameras are ready to be put to use.  Just need to figure out where the wild things are. 😎

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   Today was sunny all day; after sitting in a closed-in dark camper all day yesterday, it was good to open the back ramp to let the fresh air and sunshine in. Midday a cardinal landed on the fence next to the open ramp…I called to Kim, the bird flew away!   Maybe an hour later I saw it approaching the feeder by jumping around in the bushes beyond the tree, then jumping onto an outlying limb on the tree, and slowly hopping its way to the feeder which is hanging on the tree.  He made another visit later, so it seems safe to say that we’ll have the cardinals coming to our yard.

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   We discovered that the lizards that hang out on our tree are leaping lizards. Two of them were on the tree this afternoon and several times we watched as they leaped from one trunk to the other. The distance was maybe 8 to 12 inches, but that seems like it’d be a sizeable amount when you’re maybe 1 ½ inches from snout to vent. 

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   Last summer, Kim saw a video on YouTube on how to make a solar powered hummingbird fountain.  The lady who made the video had hummers galore doing whatever it is that birds do in fountains.  So, he did the research, ordered the solar powered motors, and scoured the local Dollar General for the rest of the supplies. Then we had fun making fountains.  Gave a couple of them away and put one out front by the feeders. Never saw a hummingbird use our fountain but the chickadees and other small birds eventually enjoyed it. 

   Since we put up the extra feeders out here, we’ve had an uptick in the number of hummingbirds zooming around the tree. Because Kim loves tinkering, he wanted to make a fountain for our Arizona birds, except he thought he had a better way of doing it.  (It’s a Bakker thing.)  The motor was delivered yesterday; so, a trip into town was necessary.  I went to the grocery store for my weekly purchase of piggy cookies; Kim went to the Family Dollar to get what he needed.

   There was not enough sun yesterday for the solar panel to power the fountain…wasn’t able to tell if his better idea was going to work or not.  Sun was out this morning and as soon as he was dressed, he was out the door and tinkering with the fountain. I heard laughter and then, “Karen, just look out the window and check this thing out.”  The fountain was working alright but it was shooting water three feet into the air.  Not exactly what he was looking for. Back to the tinkering table for an adjustment, then it was reassembled to try it again. This time it worked just as expected.  The solar panel will have to be moved throughout the day to keep the water flowing because even a partial or slight shadow will cause it to stop. 

   Birds, lizards and now the fountain…our form of daytime television.

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   In September 2022, we took a bike trip to South Dakota with our friend Larry.  On the way home, we got caught in steady rain for most of one day.  Some days later I discovered there was condensation in the speedometer casing and that one of the numbers in the digital odometer read-out was missing.  Well, a couple of lines would be visible depending on what number was being displayed but for all intents and purposes, it was gone. Couldn’t tell how many miles I’d ridden, how many miles were remaining on the tank of gas, or what the total mileage was on the bike.  Annoying as all get out!  It took months for the condensation to clear up and I was hopeful the number would magically reappear at that time, too.  No such luck.  Since it didn’t affect the bike’s operation, I put up with the annoyance of it.

   Today, we rode to the Tucson Harley dealership to see if it was fixable; find out how much it would cost; find out how much time it would take; and whether they’d have the time to do it before we left.  I wasn’t interested in spending a fortune to make it right (Silly girl, you know there’s no such thing as a cheap repair on a Harley) nor did I want to be without my bike for an extended period. It's a matter of wanting it fixed, not needing it fixed.

   Unfortunately, it’s not fixable by just replacing a small part.  Nope, the whole speedometer unit has to be replaced which is not in stock at Tucson, so it would have to be ordered.  But the time to do it would be less than an hour.  Thought about it and ordered the part.  In a couple of weeks, all should be right in my world because all the numbers will be displayed on my odometer.  😎

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   Kim has been excited all day because tonight is supposed to be clear!  It’s galaxy time!!  

Wednesday, February 28…Please Help Me Buy Some Tupperware (Jana Stanfield)

   Woke up to sunlight steaming in on me, which has never happened before.  The way the camper is situated, the bedroom is on the west end of the camper, and I sleep on the north side of the bed. The most I’ve ever seen of the morning sun is a faint glow from behind the curtain. Turns out a window shade had been left up last night and the angle was just right for the sun to peek through the window at the far end of the camper.  With the bathroom and bedroom doors both open, that shaft of sunlight had a direct path to my side of the bed, and it was saying, “Time to get up, girl!”  Shortly after I got up and dressed, the sky clouded over. (The sun did show up again later in the morning).

   There was a chill in the air when I got up and the heater had come on during the night.  Not a weather change as manic as what’s happening in Michigan right now (in the 60’s yesterday, in the high teens today with snow, rain and wind…school cancelled), but still a change from the warmth of the last 4 or 5 days.  When I checked the weather radar this morning, it showed a big green cloud developing and heading our way in the afternoon, so I decided to be grateful for that little sunbeam that disturbed my sleep this morning.

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   Saw a bunch of quail on my walk today, although the technical term would be ‘bevy’ instead of bunch.  They are such a joy to watch, running as a group but each doing their own thing in a nilly-willy sort of way.  Not only does it make it difficult for prey to catch them but it also makes it difficult to get a picture.  However, this morning I was lucky.  Their movement in a field across the road caught my attention and then they just stopped, dead still. I was able to slowly cross the road and get my camera in position before they took off again. Managed to get a picture of one or two.

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   While out on my walk today, I listened to an episode of History This Week, which was the story of the rise of Brownie Wise, the mastermind behind the Tupperware home party.  It was a little about Earl Tupper, the founder of ‘the Wonder Bowl’ (Tupperware) and a lot about Brownie, the woman who figured out how to successfully market the product. Her success eventually led to her involvement in the Tupperware Company as Vice President of Home Parties.  When she suggested taking it out of stores and selling it exclusively using the home party plan, sales rose and so did her fame. By some accounts, Earl Tupper was jealous when Brownie became more important than either him or the product she was supposed to be promoting.  In 1958, after an event celebrating top sellers of Tupperware ended in near disaster, Brownie was fired from the multi-million-dollar company she had helped build; she didn’t have a formal contract or company stock; she was given a year’s salary as severance pay. An interesting side note for me was realizing that Tupperware was invented in the late 1940s.  I had no idea it’s been around for well over 70 years.

   I remember attending Tupperware parties as a young wife/mother. Learning that it was important to ‘burp’ the bowls and seeing all the fun products. Mostly what I remember is that reusing margarine bowls to store leftovers was far cheaper than Tupperware; but there were some products that I had to have: a Velveeta Cheese container, a Pick-a-Deli container (for relish or pickles), a pitcher with a fun lid, and bell Tumblers.  All these products are still in use in my house to this day. 

  Trying to get five boys to sit around an oval dinner table without bickering proved to be a challenge for Jeff and me, especially when the far seat by the window was the most coveted…it was near the floor heating vent. Warmest seat at the table. We tried various methods over time including using a set seating arrangement according to age (no fair, because Tick always gets to sit by the window)…letting whoever set the table  determine the seating arrangement (no fair, because he doesn’t like me so I got the crummy seat)…and having each kid pick a color of Tupperware cup, meaning that they had to sit wherever their color of cup was placed. (no fair, because I didn’t get to pick a color, I just have to have what’s left). Tupperware cups came in four colors, and we had five boys. Bought two sets of cups, the oldest four picked their color and Ezra picked whatever color he wanted that evening. Don’t remember what color Zac or Levi picked but Tick picked green, and Marshal ended up with yellow.  And there came a time when we realized that total harmony at the dinner table just wasn’t going to happen with our crew.

   I have probably three and a half sets of tumblers at the house for the kiddos to use.  Three and a half because we can’t seem to keep track of the blue ones.  And when we got out here, I felt a small unexplainable thrill at opening the camper cupboard and seeing a set of those Tupperware tumblers stacked in the corner. 

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   Sky got very dark and foreboding over in the Picacho Peak area about 1:30 on our way home from Eloy.  The wind picked up, the air cooled down, the thunder boomers got louder, then the rain started at about 2:15 which was a little ahead of schedule.  Thankfully we were snug in the camper when it started. It was coming from the southeast, so the noise was loudest right where we were sitting at the table.  Big drops, which sounded like hail, were smacking right into the back of the camper.  I could see it blowing sideways through the window behind Kim. Temperature cooled down in the low 50s as the storm reached us. A drop of over twenty degrees.

   Kim kept an eye on his scope to make sure the wind didn’t knock it over.  He realized that he could see it standing at the front of the camper, no need to go scurrying down there. 

    Rain dribbled off at about 4 o’clock, so we decided to go to Coolidge.  What we hadn’t factored into that decision was that the storm was still on its way to Coolidge, so we were right back into it.  Back at camp, the hummers were going crazy at the feeders.  It was difficult to count because they were zooming around but I saw at least eight of them either sitting in the tree, hovering by a feeder, or sitting on a feeder.  We thought maybe they were trying to make up for the nectar they’d missed out on during the downpour.  We pulled into the yard and just sat in the truck, watching the fun.

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   I’ve been working on felting a monkey for my menagerie for the past couple of days.  The face I’d drawn to give me an idea of what I was working toward looked more like a bear…it was Kim that mentioned I had a real model sitting out on my bike. Why, yes, I do.  Don’t know why I didn’t think of that.  Moxie was more than happy to let me use her face as a reference.  Looking at her, I realized I had the placement of the ears wrong on my drawing, which is why it looked more like bear. 

   Since it was raining and I couldn’t go outside, I spent the afternoon and evening in the camper stabbing needles into wool, which is the only way to describe the art of needle felting.  Finished the body, attached the head, and then set to work on a bunch of bananas. The first attempt was a joke and went in the garbage; the second attempt was correct in theory, but I didn’t execute it very well. I’ve not been going for realism with my felting projects, but stupid looking isn’t my goal either.  Thankfully, the third attempt resulted in passable bananas. 

   Moxie wanted to name the monkey Jackson…I hope Charlie doesn’t mind.

Tuesday, February 27…Pizza Socks (DannyCan the Mix Medic…feat. Elliana, Brynleigh, Brielle, Myla & Boston

    The day dawned cloudy, and it was cool enough at 8 a.m. to wear a fleece while I was outside being still and watching the birds. Many times, I’ve gone outside with the intent to read but instead get distracted by the chatter of the hummers. Since I’m on the lookout for the orange-colored Rufous hummingbird, I always grab the camera when leaving the camper; the birds plus the camera prove to be a hindrance to serious reading.    I’ve learned that reading for comprehension is best done inside the camper.

   By the time I went for a walk, it had warmed enough that I felt it might be tolerable walking without the fleece. Not cold by any means; the air felt like it was trying to be warm, but the cloud cover was holding it back from fully realizing its full potential. Decided to be bold…I left the fleece at the camper.  I can do hard things.

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 It was a quiet, yet productive day.  We had plans to be in Scottsdale at 5 p.m., which meant leaving here about 3:30 to allow for rush hour traffic on the way there.  Talked on the phone a bit and by the time I finished with that, there was only a few hours left until we had to leave. So, I worked on needle felting the monkey, the latest member of my menagerie. Got the body structure figured out and covered in core wool a couple of days ago, then set it aside while I worked on the head. Got the head totally finished last night, so today I started covering the body in colored wool. Good way to pass the time until we had to leave. Like I said, it was a quiet but productive day. There are two arms and a leg left to do on the monkey…oh, and possibly a bunch of bananas.  

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Received a text from Zac the other day saying he was going to be in Scottsdale for work this week, arriving Monday and leaving Thursday.  I’m always conscious of how far away we are from family when we’re in Arizona, so it was unexpected treat to find that he going to be just an hour away. Tuesday night he was open if we wanted to have dinner together.  Of course, we would!!  Turns out Organ Stop Pizza, home of the world’s largest Wurlitzer organ and maker of some darn good pizza, is just under 20 minutes from his hotel, so we picked him up at about five o’clock and dropped him back off about seven-thirty. Zac had homework to do, and we had an hour and a half drive back to camp.  Wish we’d had more time; I’m not complaining, just stating a fact.  Oh, and the organist was in fine form tonight and one we’d seen several times.  I know, because he always wears such colorful socks.  

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   The clouds are just not being very cooperative with Kim.  All he's asking for is a bit of clear sky to the north so he can focus and possibly do a polar alignment on the big scope so its ready when the clouds move on.  Tomorrow's forecast is partly cloudy with a chance of rain in the afternoon, but Thursday and Friday are both forecasted for clear days and nights. If he's frustrated at all this cloudiness, he's hiding it well...but then ther's nothing he can do about the weather. It is what it is.  
   

Monday, February 26…It’s All In The Movies (Merle Haggard)

   The days have been at least into the 70s, sometimes hitting the 80s. Very pleasant daytime temps…shorts and t-shirt weather, for sure. The first week we were here the evenings cooled down into the low 50s, high 40s…it cooled down enough for the heater, set at 68^o, to come on.  The last couple of evenings nights haven’ t been as cool; therefore, the heater hasn’t been needed.  As is typical, the evenings are cooler than the days, even though the evening temps out here are higher than Michigan daytime temps. I prefer to be inside when the sun disappears behind the trees because, well, for one thing, I’m not a fan of being out in the dark, but also because I’ve been wearing shorts since we got here and my legs feel the chill.   The camper retains the heat that builds up throughout the day, making it just right come evening time, keeping my legs warm. I do have jeans with me but they are designated for bike riding purposes only.

   Yesterday the temperature got into the 80’s with partial clouds; it was still very hot, even though the sun was in and out.  Last evening, after dark, the sky was socked in with clouds and the evening air remained warm.  It was very cloudy again this morning and the air was silky warm. Stepped outside to hear the chatter of the hummingbirds. Didn’t see them but I sure heard ‘em. Then we got a 12-inch rain…the kind where you get hit with a raindrop every 12 inches, the definition we were given by Sam Elliott, a.k.a. Dean. It sprinkled intermittently throughout the day…nothing too obnoxious but enough that putting the ramp down was probably not a good idea.  However, we did get out for a walk between the raindrops. 

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   We usually send family members a video of us singing Happy Birthday to them on their special day; I usually don’t even preview what we’ve done…sing it and send it is my motto.  Today was the twins' ninth birthday.  Yesterday when we were in the store, we found some accessories that we thought would jazz up our video.  What started out as a little idea, grew into a bigger idea and, before I knew it, it involved video editing.  All this because maybe we have too much time on our hands. 😎

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  On my return walk, a man was out trying to weed whack his lawn or more like knee-high weeds. The smell of freshly cut grass overrode the exhaust smell of his weed whacker.  It was a treat for my nose.

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   Listened to History This Week on my walk this morning.  It was less than 30 minutes, perfect for a short walk.  This episode was about the sinking of the USS Indianapolis on July 30, 1945, due to two Japanese torpedo hits.  Of the 1,195 crewmen, only 316 survived.  Approximately 300 were killed when the torpedos hit; the rest of the crew found themselves plunged into the ocean when the ship sank.  Exposure, thirst, hunger and shark attacks were responsible for the deaths of about 600 more crew members. The sinking of the Indy, as it was called, took place two weeks before Japan surrendered, effectively ending U.S. involvement in World War II. 

   When looking this event up on Google, I came across a site (prologue.blogs.archives.gov/) that showed the scene in the movie Jaws where professional shark hunter Sam Quint reminisced about being a survivor of the attack on the USS Indianapolis. Like every other teenager, I went to see Jaws when it came out in 1975, but I didn’t remember that scene.  I remember other more gruesome moments from the movie and if I recall right, every time the music started, my hands went to my face so my eyes could filter everything through the slits in my fingers.  Like that was going to make any difference.  Anyway, it was interesting to watch that isolated scene today with the podcast as the back story. 

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   We made a plan for the afternoon: do the wash and then go to the movies, then hit a food truck for supper.  We chose the 4:30 showing of The Boys in the Boat.  Neither Kim nor I are up on the latest movies and unless we’re going to the theater with grandkiddos, prefer to stream movies at home.  The Boys in the Boat is based on a true story, had been heartily recommended by a customer and it wasn’t a horror flick, so we took a chance on it.  So glad we did. It had all the feels and I cheered at the end; the movie was over so who cared?

   It was dark by the time we got out of the theater, so the food truck idea was all dependent on whether Hot Dog Alvarado would still be open.  If they weren’t, we had hot dogs at camp, but no way would they be as tasty.  Saw the lights of the food truck shining as we approached Sunshine Blvd. Yay! “Three dogs with the works, please!”

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   We were treated to some dramatic lightning on the way back from Casa Grande but it didn’t amount to anything. No rain, no thunder, just a light show.

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   No imaging tonight…clouds have ruled the day and now are ruling the night sky.  Sometime in the future, Kim will be able to get the big scope focused and aligned, and then get some images of galaxies.  But not tonight.

Sunday, February 25…Ducks Dance, Too (Angela Eggelston)

   We arrived here on February 15^th  this year, the earliest we’ve ever been out in Arizona.    In the past we’ve spent maybe 5 weeks out here, not including driving time.  This year, it’ll be a solid 8 weeks.  Kim would come out for three months if I would agree but I feel this is a good compromise.  Maybe sometime in the future we’ll be here longer but I’m not ready for that yet.

   In 2023, we set-up camp on Feb. 20^th and left for Hawaii on Feb. 22^nd.  So, we were out here but not really here.  In fact, it was a year ago today, that we got our tattoos while in Hawaii commemorating riding in all 50 states.  Facebook has been kind enough to remind me by sharing my memories with me. 

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  Both of us did our normal walk routine.  Kim going much farther than me but I’m okay with that. Getting my knee back in the habit of walking farther than from my sewing room to the kitchen.  I think Kim would like to attempt one or both 5K walks we’ve done the last couple of years. I’ll be happy to be his cheerleader. 

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    Today we decided to check out El Rio Preserve which was listed on a site for birding opportunities.  The Preserve is in a neighborhood either at the eastern end of Marana or the western end of Tucson.  It’s like Detroit…Detroit is at the center with all the suburbs radiating around it.  This area is the same. Tucson is the hub; Marana is one of the communities on the outskirts.

   It was forecasted to be in the 80’s but cloudy the entire day. So, we left at about 11 a.m., thinking the clouds would be our friend.  Didn’t exactly turn out that way.  It was partly cloudy which means it was sometimes sunny.

Made for a very sweaty walk around the reservoir.  An interesting thing about the reservoir: there was maybe a 4-foot-high stone berm around half of it and the water was near the top of the berm.  This put the water at almost shoulder level to me as I walked around it on the path; made for a nice view for me but anyone much shorter than me wouldn’t see much of what was in the water.  If the berm wasn’t there, it looked like there would be no walking path…it’d be underwater.

   Not too many birds; a gila woodpecker, male and female cinnamon teals, a couple of male green-winged teals, and a hummingbird.  I don’t recognize the calls of many of the birds out here, but I do know the sound of a hummer…and when I hear it at one of these preserves, I've learned to look at the tops of nearby trees.  Sure, enough, that’s where it was.

   One particular duck kept drawing attention to itself by splashing, preening its feathers and then finishing by almost dancing up on the water.  It almost seemed to be a mating ritual, but I didn’t see any nearby ducks paying any attention to it.  I know that David Attenborough would be able to help me out on this.  I put the word out on the Arizona Birding FB page for help in identifying it. 

Update: Someone identified the dancing duck as a Northern Pintail hen, which, if true, blows my mating ritual theory right out of the water. (No pun intended)

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   The air conditioning in the truck felt so good after our walk around the Preserve BUT a stop at the Picacho Dairy Queen was the tastiest way to cool off.  “Peanut Buster Parfait with extra peanuts and extra chocolate, please. I know I'll pay extra but the extra peanuts are the important part. Thank you.”

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   We bought three more hummingbird feeders, bringing our total to six but we only have five of them up in the tree.  We have two feeders that don’t have a perch around the bottom; I only put one of those up and stored the other one away. All the new feeders we bought have perches on them because they seem to prefer that style. It seems like it’d be nice to sit down while eating.  Non-perch feeder wasn’t getting very much action; we’ve had to fill the perch feeder twice already. Hummers were checking out the new ones within 10 minutes of Kim putting them up.

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   Getting on toward sunset, Kim was doing some research on his computer, so I took the truck over toToltec Rd. to look for the traveling sheep. Haven’t seen them yet and last year the first sighting was in a field between Picacho Hwy and Toltec.  Didn’t see the sheep but did see a couple of burrowing owls on Toltec Rd. on my return trip.  Burrowing owls 10 miles away from camp?  Yahoo! Every time we drive along the canals around here, I look for owls but haven’t seen any until tonight.

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   Kim has been out several times checking the sky but the clouds have a firm hold on it.  He thought if there was a big enough open spot, he’d at least be able to get the big scope focused.  But no chance of that tonight.

Saturday, February 24…Cloudy (Simon and Garfunkel)

    Last night, I emailed Wild At Heart, a raptor rescue organization which operates in Arizona; I discovered them in my online search for owl sanctuaries. Wild At Heart is responsible for the Burrowing Owl Project, which is designed to relocate burrowing owls that are being displaced mainly due to construction projects. Looking at some pictures on their site, I was fairly certain that we had found one of their rescue locations. 

   Today, I received responses to my inquiry. First, Eric replied that Wild At Heart had previously done some owl releases in Marana, but since he’s not worked in the Marana area, he couldn’t be sure.  He forwarded my inquiry to someone who might know more about the project in Marana. He did mention that there are no other organizations that he knows of that build artificial burrows; these were definitely artificial burrows.

   Within an hour, I received a response from Jenohn, the person to whom Eric had forwarded my message. She verified that we did, indeed, find one of their owl relocation fields.  There are a couple of volunteer weekends coming up in March that she invited us to participate in.  She gave me the email address of Steve, the man in charge of  volunteers.

   I reached out to Steve, who responded ever so quickly with answers to my questions.  We are definitely thinking about pursuing this awesome opportunity.

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     No walking for either of us today.  Really wasn’t any good reason, except that we didn’t.

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   I love the phrase ‘hurkle-durkle’, which first came to my attention as a meme on Facebook.  Being skeptical of most of what I read on FB, I looked it up and it appears to be a real thing. The website Scotsman.com verifies it:  Does this phrase sound made up? Absolutely. However, it is a real word which appears to have first been used in 19th century Scotland. While it has fallen out of use, to hurkle-durkle is "to lie in bed or lounge about past the point when one should be up and about".

   I am a hurkle-durkler at heart. Staying in bed, wallowing in the warmth of the blankets is such a grand indulgence. It's being called a form of self-care these days; I’ve been practicing it for years  without knowing that it had a name.  Thought it was just considered getting a lazy start to my day.  Not so. However, some of the hurkle-durkle sites I found mention that it’s important to distinguish between choosing to stay in bed and not being able to get out of bed.  There’s a big difference.

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   I have lots of time out here to observe and think about hummingbirds.  We’ve had three species coming to our feeders this year:  Anna’s Hummingbird, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (male and female) and the Black-chinned Hummingbird.  Hoping the orange Rufous Hummer shows up again, too.

  In all the reading I’ve been doing about hummingbirds, I’ve come across some interesting facts about them:

*While resting, the average 4-inch hummingbird takes about 150 breaths per minute.

*Hummingbirds have weak feet (how do ‘they’ know this?)

*When they’re sitting, their feet automatically clamp down, but on a smooth perch, they may slip and wind up    hanging upside down.

*The average weight of a hummingbird is less than a nickel.

*Their tiny legs are only used for perching and moving sideways while perched. They can’t walk or hop.

*Hummingbirds have no sense of smell. While they can’t sniff out feeders, they do have good color vision. (Again, how do ‘they’ know that hummers have no sense of smell?)

And these two facts, found on the same website, seem to be contradictory:

*A flock of hummingbirds can be referred to as a bouquet, a glittering, a hover, a shimmer, or a tune.

*They are the smallest migrating bird. They don’t migrate in flocks like other species, and they typically travel alone for up to 500 miles at a time

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  So, I finished the hippo last night and sent Charlie a picture of it today, so she could bestow a name on it. She came up with Starbright…I’m sensing a theme here. I added a star tattoo to Starbright’s hip also. I’m thinking a monkey will be the next critter that I attempt to make. Maybe Moxie will get the opportunity to name it. 😎

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  Read today that the feet/cleats left behind when the Jackie Robinson statue was stolen from McAdams Park in Wichita, KS are being donated to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.  We had stopped to see the cleats when driving through Wichita on our way out here, but they’d been removed.  The Museum is located in Kansas City, Missouri.

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   Went for a bike ride to Coolidge then made the loop that I intended us to make the other day.  I got confused on which way to turn the other day, which had us riding into Casa Grande instead of past the fairgrounds to Eloy.

   Today we turned the other way and it worked out just as I thought it would the other day.

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   Kim swapped out his little scope for the big one.  The bigger scope is good for galaxies and apparently there are numerous galaxies at this time of year just begging to be imaged.

   A cloudy, cloudy day turned into a cloudy evening/night.  No imaging tonight.  In fact, if the clear sky chart is accurate, Tuesday will be the next clear night.  If we wanted cloudy nights, we could have stayed in Michigan.  Just sayin'.....

Friday, February 23…Little Burrowing Owl (Mr. Elephant and Del La Torre)

    Trivia that’s guaranteed to impress when the topic comes up: Today’s song title ‘Little Burrowing Owl’ is the 2023 Children’s Category Grand Prize Winner of the John Lennon Songwriting Contest.   

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   Walked only to the tractor tire today…did a yoga session yesterday that made some muscles sore.  Kim got his three miles in.  I did another yoga session this afternoon, being very glad that the truck is parked in a manner that hides the yard from other campers passing by.  I like doing yoga; I don’t like being watched doing yoga.

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   Hummingbirds don’t sleep; they enter a state called torpor, which is defined as a state of physical or mental inactivity; lethargy. Torpor is similar to hibernation, but it’s not the same thing.  Like hibernation, torpor is a survival tactic used by animals to survive the winter months. It also involves a lower body temperature, breathing rate, heart rate, and metabolic rate. But unlike hibernation, torpor appears to be an involuntary state that an animal enters into as the conditions dictate.

   Due to this torpor thing, I thought that hummingbirds were slow risers; that they came out of torpor as the day warmed up, maybe mid-morning.  This morning, I went outside to read at 8 a.m.; it felt a bit chilly to me. Even in the chilliness, a couple of hummers were already at the feeders.  My immediate thought was that hummingbirds and humans must have totally different ideas of warmth. 

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   Listened to “It Was Said” on my walk…today’s listening pleasure was the episode about Margaret Chase Smith’s Declaration of Conscience, delivered on the Senate floor during the McCarthy era. She was a Republican senator from Maine, speaking against the actions of a fellow Republican, Joseph McCarthy, without ever mentioning his name.  The full speech is available a government site by googling “Margaret Chase Smith, Declaration of Conscience”.  It eerily speaks to some of the shenanigans and turmoil being perpetrated by some of today’s politicians.  What follows are excerpts of the speech (in red) from the website www.senate.gov:

   When Smith rose to deliver her fifteen-minute speech in the Senate chamber, McCarthy sat two rows behind her. Smith began her brief remarks by denouncing the fact that some members were turning the Senate into "a forum of hate and character assassination." She called for a renewal of "the right to independent thought" and a return to the principles of the Republican party as "the champion of unity and prudence." Her party should base its opposition to the Democrats on "proved cases" rather than "unproved charges." Smith concluded with a five-point "Declaration of Conscience," in which she was joined by six Republican colleagues.

   *Mr. President, I would like to speak briefly and simply about a serious national condition. It is a national feeling of fear and frustration that could result in national suicide and the end of everything that we Americans hold dear. It is a condition that comes from the lack of effective leadership either in the legislative branch or the executive branch of our government.

   *Mr. President, I speak as a Republican. I speak as a woman. I speak as a United States senator. I speak as an American.

   *Surely it is clear that this nation will continue to suffer so long as it is governed by the present ineffective Democratic administration. Yet to displace it with a Republican regime embracing a philosophy that lacks political integrity or intellectual honesty would prove equally disastrous to the nation. The nation sorely needs a Republican victory. But I do not want to see the Republican party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny--Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear. I doubt if the Republican party could do so, simply because I do not believe the American people will uphold any political party that puts political exploitation above national interest. Surely, we Republicans are not that desperate for victory. I do not want to see the Republican party win that way. While it might be a fleeting victory for the Republican party, it would be a more lasting defeat for the American people. Surely it would ultimately be suicide for the Republican party and the two-party system that has protected our American liberties from the dictatorship of a one-party system.

This is the last paragraph, the fifth point in the Declaration of Conscience:

   *It is high time that we stopped thinking politically as Republicans and Democrats about elections and started thinking patriotically as Americans about national security based on individual freedom. It is high time that we all stopped being tools and victims of totalitarian techniques-techniques that, if continued here unchecked, will surely end what we have come to cherish as the American way of life.

   Afterward, Joe McCarthy ridiculed Smith and her cosigners by calling them Snow White and the Six Dwarfs. “But in 1954 she had the satisfaction of casting a vote for McCarthy's censure and effectively ending his campaign of falsehood and intimidation--what she had so effectively denounced as a political attempt to ride "the Four Horsemen of Calumny--Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry and Smear."

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   It clouded over this afternoon, so we decided to take the truck instead of the bikes to check out the burrowing owls. A year or so ago, we discovered an area outside of Marana where the burrowing owls hang out.  There was always an owl or two or six peeking over the edge of the water canals and it was always a thrill to see them.  Today we got skunked on Hardin Rd., but also owned up to the fact that it was probably too early in the day for them to be hanging out above ground.  I’ve read that early morning and pushing dusk are the best times to see them; we were there about mid-afternoon.

   On our way back to Marana, we drove down Stingray Rd., toward the Water Reclamation Facility, because we’d seen the owls standing out on dirt mounds in an open field last year.  Sure enough, there were owls out basking in the sun.  However, when I looked at the pictures I took, I noticed that they were standing by what looked to be man-made burrows.  And eventually, I noticed that each burrow was marked with a signpost, which led to scanning the entire field looking for signpost-marked dirt mounds; there were many.   Hmmmm….

   Now we’re thinking this field has been made into a burrowing owl sanctuary of some kind.  It didn’t take long to come up with an organization that might be involved. I emailed them when we got back to camp…hope they answer. I love doing this kind of thing. 😎

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    Made progress on the hippo…now I have a body and a head. Worked on the head last night with both Kim and I brainstorming as to how to make it look hippo-ish.  I think we did a good job.  Next step is to wrap the body with colored wool and then attach the head to the body.  Then it’ll be up to Charlie to give it a name.    

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   Beautiful clear sky tonight! Kim has several targets that he images every year…they’re his progress benchmarks. Tonight, he’s imaging the Heart Nebula, which is a new target for him.  And for once, it’s appropriately named.

Thursday, February 22…History (One Direction)

    Walked 10 electrical poles past the tractor tire…not all the poles were equidistant from each other, but 10 poles is 10 poles, right?  It’s simply a visual reminder of my progress.  Another reference point would be walking to the first canal past the new grove of pecan trees.  I’m a landmark kind of navigator.

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   My entertainment when I walk is either music or podcasts.  I have listened to audio books in the past, but I find that nature distracts me too easily when I walk out here…which means I have to rewind the book so I don’t miss any relevant information.  Best to leave audiobooks for when I sew.  Today I listened to two episodes of ‘It Was Said’, a podcast narrated by Jon Meacham.  Each episode is 30 to 35 minutes…the fact that I got in two of them today in the mile that I walked…well, that tells me that I’m not walking at any medal winning speed.  Anyway, “It Was Said” looks back on some powerful and timeless speeches in history.  Jon Meacham is an award-winning historian and perhaps, most importantly, has a very listenable voice. The voice is key when listening to podcasts or audio books.  I like historical podcasts and I like Jon Meacham’s voice which makes “It Was Said” a great companion on my walks. I like his “Hope Through History” podcast, also.  All episodes are very repeatable…sort of like re-reading a favorite book.

   The first episode was about a speech Nelson Mandela when he was on trial for sabotage in 1963.  He was a member of the African National Congress, which was opposed to the Apartheid government and after delivering his remarks, was found guilty and incarcerated from 1964 to 1990. These were last lines of his speech: “I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.” Nelson Mandela, Speech from the Dock, 20 April 1964

   The second episode was about Ronald Reagan’s speech on the 40^th anniversary of D-Day, the storming of the beaches of Normandy. The speech was eloquent as he had very good speechwriters and his delivery had all the right touches because he was after all, first and foremost, an actor.

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  Kim uses his walking time to make phone calls when he’s not listening to a podcast. 

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  Need to fix a specific part on your car? Learn about metal detecting, astrophotography or needle felting?  There’s a video for all that and more on youtube.

  Since I finished my penguin, White Flower, yesterday, I’m geeked about expanding my skill. I’ve had a vision of a hippo rolling around in my head…no kit with directions for this one, totally freestyling it.  However, I’m unsure of how to create a critter with legs (have only done a snowlady and a penguin ), so today I watched several videos about building wire armatures for critters. It’s amazing how engrossing those videos were…so much so that I totally lost track of time. I sure hadn’t planned on spending over ninety minutes sitting in the camper on a beautiful day, watching videos about felting but it was a great way to pick up some tips from people who know so much more about it than I do.

   After watching the videos, I don’t think I’ll go the armature route with the hippo. It shouldn’t be too far off the ground so the wire wouldn’t be necessary for strength.

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Update: When we were out on a bike ride, I was thinking over the process of making the hippo and decided to use the wire armature after all. Not only would it be good practice, but it would also help me maintain the scale I have in mind….at least that’s how it works out in my mind.  So, I got to building

the body armature when we got back and then started needling the base wool over it.  Must admit it looked like a headless chicken when I started but when I got the body formed and the legs covered as demonstrated in a video, it was looking more like a foot stool. I’m not going for absolute realism, but a piece of furniture isn’t in my plan either. Since I planned on using a non-traditional color scheme, I think the head is going to be the thing that makes this hippo recognizable as such…and I’m still working out how to do the head.

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   After watching lizards and hummingbirds for about an hour and planning how to expand our feeder capabilities, we went for a bike ride.  Rode through Arizona City to IR 15, then turned right toward Casa Grande. From there we took the Jimmie Kerr Hwy back to Eloy. Short ride but good to get out.

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   No bunny action on the pile of carrots overnight. I know because I took a picture of the pile of carrots last night and they were in the exact same configuration this morning.  In fact, we haven’t seen the bunny at all today and as of this evening the carrots are shriveling up from the heat and sun. Hope the bunny’s okay.

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   Kim has been checking the clear sky chart throughout the day, hoping to get a clear enough timeframe to image. The chart said it should be clear until about 10 p.m…but the sky wasn’t looking too promising when I was outside about 6:30, but clouds have been known to blow over quickly. Can’t do anything about the weather, except maybe pout.

Update: He actually got two imaging sessions tonight because the sky was clear, then cloudy, then clear again.  He wasn’t thrilled with the amount of data from the first session but can add it to the second session. 👍

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   Mike Left was a somewhat tortured soul; I had never met him or knew of him in all my years in Charlevoix until I married Kim.  Mike gravitated to Kim and Kim was willing to be a friend to someone who didn’t have many, so Mike spent a good deal of time at our house. That was always an interesting experience. Mike would feed our cats and watch the house for us when we first started coming out here. In fact, one time he called to say he was watching the house, as in sitting in the driveway at that moment, watching the house.

   Kim was a good steady friend to Mike over the course of 9 or 10 years, but the one thing Kim wouldn’t allow was for Mike to come over to our house when he had been drinking. The last year or so, Mike had unfortunately started drinking again so we didn’t see much of him; but he did call Kim on our way out here, trying to find lodging for a homeless friend.  That was the last we heard from him.  Got a phone call yesterday from his mom, Kate, telling us that Mike had died, either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.  She’s currently in Florida where she received the call, so the details of what happened were a bit fuzzy.  Hadn’t seen him in a while but I always had hope that he could get himself back on track by doing the next right thing.  Farewell, Mike. 

Wednesday, February 21…There’s a Star for Everyone (Aretha Franklin)

    Finally getting better adjusted to the time change.  I think it helps that I’m not as tired as I was on the drive out here.  When I go to bed, I sleep.  That sure wasn’t the case last week. The respiratory shit is down to a somewhat stuffy head and the occasional cough. So thankful that I can breathe when I go to bed and that I’m not waking up with eye goo anymore.  Little things mean a lot.

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   This morning, I had an 11 a.m. Zoom meeting for a committee I’m on at church.  Had plans on getting my walk early enough so I could shower before I got on camera.  Neither the walk nor the shower happened because some Night Light paperwork got in the way, and I had to spend some time attending to it. 

   Kim is the point person for the Night Light shelter, which is an arm of Safe Haven Ministries.  It’s an overnight men’s shelter that operates from beginning of November to the end of March and its purpose is to give homeless men a safe, warm place to sleep, a place to shower, do their wash, and eat a good meal before heading out to wherever it is that they spend the day.  Volunteers make the shelter happen…each night there are two volunteers scheduled to stay at the shelter with the ‘guests’; I do the scheduling of those volunteers. This morning was spent cleaning up a scheduling snag that had me growling like Roy Kent (Ted Lasso).  Only I don’t do it as well as Roy does.  Maybe his growl has so much resonance because he has so much body hair. 😏   

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   Zoom meeting was over by 12:30 Arizona time.  My plan beyond that was to ride Zeus into Coolidge and pick up some more groceries.  We have been incredibly bad at buying groceries so far this year, which has necessitated far too many trips to Coolidge for food items. Just need to get the cupboards and fridge stocked so we have ingredients for a complete meal. The other side of that coin though, is needing to remember that when we’re camper living, we have limited space for storage. Extra trips to town aren’t unreasonable.  We don’t always need to go to Coolidge because there is the IGA store in Eloy; but in general, we know that Eloy is best for piggy cookies and fruit; Coolidge is best for all other food.

   Riding to Coolidge on the bike to get groceries quickly became impractical as the list I was making got longer.  So, we jumped in the truck and about a mile down the road, realized that we made the list but forgot to bring it. We did a quick rundown of the list from memory, then went up and down every aisle at Safeway, trying to remember what we had talked about.  Except the pet food and baby care aisles, no need to go down those.  Walked out of the store a little poorer than when we walked in, but I feel good that now we have food…enough for a couple of days’ worth of complete meals.  And since it’s Wednesday, we made a stop at Eloy for some piggy cookies.  Lots of piggys in the house!  Life is good!!

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   Finally took the time to do the laundry and while the machines were doing their thing with ourclothes, I came back to the camper to work on my felted penguin.  Finished it, sent a picture of my three-inch penguin to 4-year-old Charlie and asked her to name it.  As decreed by Charlie, the penguin’s full name is White Flower…her nickname is Star. So, it shall be.

   Hey, I wonder if I’m skilled enough to put a star tattoo on White Flower’s little penguin butt?  Taking a break right now to give it whirl. Update: Took about a half hour but White Flower now has a star tattoo on her butt. 😎

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   The hummingbirds are going crazy out at the feeders.  Five or six at a time, zooming through the tree in our yard, either drinking in harmony or chasing each other away from the feeders. They fly so fast that I wonder how they can see where they’re going…how do they avoid crashing into the tree branches?  I turned to Google and found that I am not the only person who has pondered this subject. Found a couple of websites that referenced ‘a Canadian study’ and detailed how they went about it.  Each article contained the same information.

   Hummingbirds have a unique collision avoidance system built into their brains that allows them to perform high-speed aerobatics in safety.

   The super-agile birds, whose wings beat up to 70 times a second, can hover, fly backwards, and whizz through dense vegetation at more than 50 kilometres per hour.

   How they manage to avoid potentially fatal crashes has remained a mystery until now. Researchers in Canada conducted a series of experiments which showed that the birds process visual information differently from other animals.

   As they dart and dive at speed, they judge distance from the way looming objects appear to get bigger, and vice versa.

   The study/experiments involved a tunnel with nectar at one end and a perch at the other, cameras, and images projected on the sides of the tunnel.  The researchers changed the images on the tunnels as the hummers flew from end to end. They filmed the birds’ responses and made some conclusions. I read a lot of information about the way humans and insects process the distance of objects in their vision field and how hummingbirds do it differently.  A lot of information to wade through.  This is the best summation of all that I read about how hummingbirds avoid crashing:

   They gauge the size of the objects in front of them and use that information to steer their movements, allowing them to make split-second decisions and avoid collisions.  And they do all this at crazy fast speeds.  Amazing!

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   We have a little desert hare hanging around our yard.  Today at Safeway, Kim came at me carrying a bag of carrots and said that they were for the bunny.  So, there is a little pile of carrots out by the bushes and tomorrow check to see if any have been nibbled on.  If so, I think a cell cam should be located at the corner of the camper to get some bunny action, if possible.

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   No birds on the seed-ring feeder that we’ve seen but doves were underneath it today scarfing up whatever had fallen off it.  I’d rather see the cardinals.

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   Kim had hopes for a clear sky tonight, but the clouds keep rolling in.  He’s gone out several times to check…his mount/scope/camera has the ability to be programmed to take images, park itself back in home position and then shut down. It can even be programmed to start taking images at a certain time, but I don’t think Kim has dabbled in that much.  Anyway, no using the scope tonight because of clouds.