Dust

Wind picked up this morning and our own sort of haboob came with it. Boundary Cone, the peak on the right, was lost from sight. I am trying not to breath... Valley Fever spores are carried in the dust.

Return of the Rat Lady

Is there something about a VW that packrats find irresistible? I haven't even had the car long enough to get license plates and one of the critters has already taken up residence. We parked the car in the shade and hung tea bags in the engine compartment to act as a repellent, as advised by a mechanic, but I've been watching for debris underneath that would indicate rodents just the same. The Eurovan engine insulation was destroyed by packrats and Jason's old pickup before that. So the morning I spotted a dog turd under there I knew something was up. Dogs don't poop under the car but pack rats use poop to build their dens. I opened the hood (top picture) and found the insulated sleeve covering the battery pretty badly chewed.  

I went into Rat Lady mode and took a leisurely drive down to Ace Hardware to pick up supplies. Air temperature was 114 degrees and I figured if the rat was still in there it would be roasted by the extreme heat of the road from one side and engine heat from the other long before I got home, a fate met by the rat that nested in the Eurovan in an episode that made me a legend at the local Ace Hardware. 

Tea bags are now added to the list of useless remedies. I've placed sticky traps on the battery and a stinky pine scented car deodorizer (below) that might be repulsive enough to keep intruders out. Also, no more parking in the shade. The vehicle has to be out in the wide open spaces where it can get ferociously hot. I suppose replacing the battery cover will set us back a hundred or two. Little rat-bastards.

What's Up With That?

The town burros stopped by this morning. Maybe the heat is getting to them. A two year old female had a death grip on the neck of a baby burro. The baby struggled to get away but the older one would not let go. It looked like she wanted to kill the baby so I trying shouting and banging things, hoping to chase her off, hosed them with water and threw rocks at the biter but she was not deterred. After about fifteen horrifying minutes something dislodged her grip and the baby was able to kick free. I've seen males draw blood in ferocious battles but have never seen a baby treated like that.

Burros

They're baaack...

Pink Pretties

What a treat! All the little fishhook cactus in the yard decided to bloom today. I thought they were all the same, but there appears to be two varieties and I don't recall ever seeing the big flowers before. One lucky bee was busy collecting pollen...

Clay

Containers

Clay and dog update

 It's been really hot and there is no cooling in the studio, but I still try to spend a few hours every day doing something. I broke down and bought a hand roller for texture. Used it to make the texture on the mugs in the top photo and added a handle style I learned from a Bill VanGilder video. I like it. The mug in the bottom photo has the VanGilder handle turned upside down. My pulled handles are still clunky and usually too big for mugs when all is said and done so these are a neat option.

Tux: 

The new meds are pretty hard on the poor dog. She developed diarrhea the first day and started vomiting after four days so I reduced the dosage to 150mg a day. This is the second day at the lower dose and she's doing pretty well. No vomiting, thank goodness. She's finally back to eating properly and I don't want anything to mess that up. In fact, I cut back the Tramadol to 50mg 3x/day and have eliminated the Mirtazapine entirely. (Mirt. was for appetite and nausea.) The Itraconazole is going to be hard on her and all the drug interactions worried me so I'm hoping what we've got going now will work. 

Tag:

Going on 14 years this October and still my cutie. He could use an anti-inflammatory for his stiff joints but I'd rather not go there. He gets Tramadol for pain instead.

Hoop:

Eating her K/D food as long as a little liverwurst is mixed in. Better to eat a little bad stuff than nothing at all. Still giving her Tramadol for arthritis pain, too.

Tux and VW

Tux's new med, Itraconazole, arrived today. Will start tomorrow and get another liver function test in one month. I've cut back again on the Tramadol again (one tab 3x a day) and am trying the Mirtazipine every other day to see if she functions well on lower doses. She's been eating so well I would stop the Mirtazipine entirely except that it also helps with the nausea... however, I've been wondering how much of the nausea is caused by the high dosages of Tramadol.

The Cargoliner I ordered to protect the back of the Sportwagen arrived today, too. It's a liner made of heavy duty vinyl used by car manufacturers, custom made for different model vehicles. Looks pretty good. We'll see how well it stands up to my three mutts and the desert heat.

Cargoliner

Power Outage

Storm winds knocked down a power line in northern Golden Valley/Kingman area. Heavy rain is hammering all around us but so far it's totally missed us. Power was out for five hours but we hooked up the generator to run the frig and a fan. Was even able to make dinner on the propane burner on the porch so it wasn't too bad, but I am very happy the power is online again.

Monsoon

The monsoon season has begun.

Desert wildlife

The burros made short work of the mesquite beans. Our yard was cleaned out in two days. This very pregnant lady and last year's baby stopped by to finish up the left overs. Another visitor, the three legged coyote, hoped to get a bean or two but got the evil eye from one of the burros instead and moseyed on. Bob went out to shovel poop before Tag could get a chance to chow down and was sidetracked by the old girl who wanted a good scratching. After that Bob said he wouldn't mind taking care of a couple of horses. Yikes.

Temperature was 90 degrees at 5 am yesterday, dropped to about 85 this morning and is a much more comfortable 97 this afternoon after the blistering heat we've had the last few days. It was so hot a flicker and cactus wren squabbled over a dish of water on the porch. 

The 'Desert Museum' Palo Verde is still blooming with the extra water it's getting this year and hums with bees when I sit outside for morning coffee. There are small digger bees and a few big black carpenter bees, almost the size of bumble bees. They are both solitary species and aren't aggressive but if we start finding nesting holes in the wood around the house I guess we'll have to exterminate the carpenters. What with honeybees being so endangered I hate to hurt any bee, but the carpenters drill holes into wood and can cause quite a bit of damage. Digger bees nest in the ground but I've never found a sign of their nests even though there must be thousands humming in the mesquite during bloom. I don't normally like sting-y things but I enjoy the sound of these bees busy collecting pollen in the cool of morning.