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.
