Wednesday, March 27…The S’more Song (Sonny Salsbury)

    Finished the needle felted hedgehog last night.  Sent a picture to Clayton this morning so he could name it; Pokie the Hedgehog has taken his place with the Critter Crew. 

   My next project was going to be a burrowing owl.  Started it while watching one of the documentaries last night and didn’t use a picture as a reference. I was just going from memory, which was a big mistake.  It looked like a pill with hairy black legs…but it gave us all a good laugh.  However, this morning, I decided to salvage my epic owl failure by giving it a face, hair, arms and at Kim’s suggestion, armpit hair. That last detail made it look like a chicken because the arms now stick out like wings.  Added a beak-ish nose and voila! I have an unidentified critter waiting to hang with the others.  The critter is waiting for a name and I’m in the process of rethinking how to do the burrowing owl.

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   My mom knows that Wednesday is delivery day for Piggy cookies and she wants to take some home.  But before we went to the grocery store, we needed to go down to Nutt Rd. to see what was up with the cell camera. I had watched the four videos of the cows investigating it…two of them were caught licking it. Maybe they thought it was a salt lick?  And they didn’t knock it over as I initially thought…it was simply turned backward. So, maybe the licking loosened it, and the cow sideswiped it as it walked by, turning it around as it did so. Anyway, it has been turned back around so we won’t be getting 70 pictures of the rising sun tomorrow.

   Then it was on to the store where we bought plenty of Piggy cookies to make the trip back to Michigan with us. 

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   If Mom felt it was doable, I wanted to go to the Arizona-Sonoran Desert Museum, which is in the vicinity of Saguaro National Park. It’s not a building museum; the website says that 85% of the museum is outdoors and it’s primarily a walking experience.  It was highly recommended by several friends; when I mentioned that my mom was 88 and not really fond of the heat, I was told there are plenty of places to sit and rest. And indeed, there were.

   It was a sunny day but since it was only in the 70s, we decided to go for it.  It was a lot of walking but nothing too strenuous. Plenty of shade opportunities and as expected, there were plenty of benches for sitting.  There was a small aquarium and a zoo with native animals.  Lizards/iguanas don’t let fences keep them out or in; and while the hummingbird exhibit probably had a wider variety, it certainly didn’t have as many hummers as are flitting around our yard. We decided to skip the Desert Trail due to the time of day and the uphill return trip, but otherwise we followed the map and spent almost 2 hours enjoying the sights. 

   Highlights of the day for me: finding Mexican Spiny-tailed Iguanas hanging out in the bear enclosure (bear was not on display). There were two females and one male, who was flexing his muscles by doing some head bobbing…almost looked like push-ups. Then as one female moved higher up the rocks, the male took off after it in what looked like a mating pursuit.  When nature calls, you gotta answer.

   Saw and learned some new things at the museum. But most importantly, what we learned is that Mom needs to eat a better breakfast and possibly pack a cookie in her purse if we’re going to be out in the heat and gone over lunchtime. 

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   I found an active hawk nest on Park Link Rd., inhabited by a Harris’ hawk currently.  It’s too high to get a peek inside which is probably a good thing as that hawk didn’t look too excited that I was taking her picture. Near mile marker 10.

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  Found a crested saguaro on Sandario Rd. that I don’t ever remember seeing before.  We are rarely that far down on Sandario. Kim was kind enough to turn around so I could get a picture.

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   We have wood to burn up and have been talking about having a fire when my mom came out.  Earlier today, Kim asked the neighbors if they wanted to come over for s’mores.  Made a date for 7 o’clock and right on time they all came over with their chairs and marshmallows. We had the graham crackers and chocolate bars.  Finally learned the mom’s name; it’s Casey. Tomas is a lineman and is in the process of interviewing for a job at Duke Energy in Indiana.  They’ve been doing camper living since November but had only arrived at this campground about a week before us. Tomas works out of a union hall but would prefer to get employment with a utility company for a shot at a more normal life; that’s why he’s interviewing in Indiana.  Casey got her nursing degree right before COVID hit in 2020; mentioned that working in the ICU was brutal during that time because none of the patients survived.

   It was a fun time for us, and it seemed like the same for them.  The kids were bummed to find out that we’re leaving on Monday. I know the kids enjoyed the s’mores…each had two.  

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   The night is clear and Kim uncovered the scope.  He’s aiming for the Tadpole Nebula, a first for him. 

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