Tag Archives: Traveling

Not Too Bad

Posted on Tuesday April 22nd, 2014 by | 1 comment

Wow…it has gotten a bit chillier, at least when the wind picks up….bbrrr

I’ve been doing good on getting my work and lists done. Overall, I’ve been staying pretty focus. I do like it when that happens, means my life is where it should be at. =)

I need to figure out how I want to start getting my exercise. The last few times I went roller skating I wiped out. So not cool. =( And it has been when others are around. Now I’m wondering if they are getting in my head and without having wrist guards, I don’t want to be wiping out and break my wrist. I have the knee, elbow pads and mouth guard….but no wrist guards. When you fall that is one the spots easy to break because you instinctively put your hands down even though logically you know better.

Either way, I need to do something….butt is getting too big. I really do miss the routine and discipline of the gym…..we did that for 4yrs, normally 5days a week.

Taking the 4/5hr drive down to Oregon this week to clean out one of our storage units. Looking forward to Oregon, not looking forward to the long drive there and back. Also need to put a few things in the other unit and take a few things out….like unburying my bowling ball….even if I haven’t bowled in years….lol…at least I’ll have it when we do.

Been seeing a lot of immature eagles, which is so totally cool! Never get tired of them. We saw a river otter the other day. And next week, we are meeting up with birders we meet in AZ to learn more about the local birds around here. I do miss other birders for learning.

We had our close friends come out this weekend with their dog. =) We had a lot of good smoke, wine, chili and talk. A lot of inside jokes about our dysfunctional untrustworthy morally wrong relationships…..grin At one time or another, we each had been told one of those things….so with the four of us, it works…lol Love the selfie hubby got of all of us….even got their dog in the back ground. Love that we are going to be closer to them this summer. Hoping to pop over for visits more often.

Right now, I’m in a weird place mood wise….nothing to that is making me unhappy or stressed more then usually, think it is just my hormones. I was fine mood wise until today, I ended up with heartburn the night before and it SUCKS!! I just wanted to die…..blah. That is what happens when your tums is buried in the meds cabinet so you forgot to take it before bed. That is not happening tonight. So that just totally tired me out since I should’ve been sleeping and the hormones….not a good combo…blah!

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A Month of Catching Up!

Posted on Friday July 5th, 2013 by | Comments Off on A Month of Catching Up!

I didn’t realize it has been almost a month since I last did a post. I know I’ve been working on the blog, but that has been all in the backend so I totally lost track of time. I’ve had to go find my last post just to get a sense of what is has happen since.

I should be doing work voice mails, but we just had a storm cloud move through…no rain, unfortunately…..and it has finally cooled down from 91.4 to 79 and the humidity has dropped nicely…in fact the breeze can give a chill. Most pleasant it has been mid day in a long while, so I’m sitting outside and enjoying it. ToRn is trying to get some good shots of hummingbirds and I’m typing this up….grin

I know ToRn has done some blogging about this, but it helps me to figure out the timeline and what I’m going to say…so bear with me and my repeats.

We went to the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson in June. That was really cool and we highly recommend it. It is a combination museum, zoo and botanical garden. 85% of it is outside, so make sure you take water, wear a hat and lots of sunscreen. Saw the fattest black bear we have ever seen….no black bear in the wild gets that big….lol Saw the cutest gray fox and very cool ocelot. ToRn posted pictures here: <a href=”http://wherethehellarewe.com/2013/06/13/arizona-sonora-desert-museum/” target=”_blank”>http://wherethehellarewe.com/2013/06/13/arizona-sonora-desert-museum/</a>

It was much bigger then we thought and spent more time there then planned. But we still got to the Saguaro National Park, the west unit, just much later and much hotter….lol…..triple digits according to the Jeep. We went and saw the petroglyphs and got ourselves new sun hats at the visitor center. Now we look like typical birders…..LOL….but the hats are much lighter and covers the back of your neck and we got them in our favorite colors, I got my purple and ToRn got his green.

Found our first fresh kill on June 15th. It looked like it was a fawn. Since it was out in the open, we believe it was from a pack of coyotes, mountain lions would drag it back to the treeline and try to bury some of it to keep for later. We found it in the morning and I didn’t see any vultures the evening before when I did my walk that we think it was killed over night. The bones were still “juicy” but everything picked cleaned or on it’s way to clean. Now it looks like it has been there for several months it is so bleached and dried.

For awhile there we had 3 wild turkeys hanging around. If you ever had seen the movie Dark Crystal they reminded me of those 3 mystics, hunched all over…lol Last 2 weeks we’ve only been seeing 2 of them. Not sure if one of them became someone’s dinner.

Finally been seeing an occasional bobcat….and all without going out on a hike. ToRn saw one when I was out on a hike, just walking in front of the rig, about 30ft away. Of course, I had the camera as he looked for it before he remembered and grabbed the video camera. We got it posted : <a href=”http://wherethehellarewe.com/2013/06/21/last-nights-bobcat/” target=”_blank”>http://wherethehellarewe.com/2013/06/21/last-nights-bobcat/</a>

Then a few nights ago, we saw a bobcat bouncing in the grass in the middle of the drive away. The little bugger was hunting. =)

Yesterday, we had a visitor say that they saw a small black bear. About a year old, more chestnut colored, acting like it should and running from people. Then a staffer saw it running across the road after we were just out looking for it this morning…LOL So ToRn went back out later, didn’t find it, but got more critter pictures. =)

Hummingbirds have really picked back up. They are going nuts right now. We have broad-bill, violet crown and black chinned on a regular basis. The rufus showed up a few days ago. Larry at Patons told us that they have 2 magnificents hanging around there. Got the feeling we are going to be taking a trip down there…lol

Finally got the iBird Pro app for our iPhone and iPad. They also have a new one out just for iPad only, called Waite’s Birds…free to download with 50 different birds, the cost of getting them all is normally $49.99 but we got it on sale for $9.99! I LOVE sales. What is really cool about it, is over a month ago we had some of the people from iBird Pro, they all have some of their bird pictures in there and the guy that does support was showing me the new one while it was in beta. Showing all the cool things it does. So I’ve been looking for it, I really wanted to get it while it was on sale….so I’m tickled by that….grin

We went to the small parade Patagonia has for the 4th. Kind of reminds of our small one of Troutdale Summerfest. But with a few differences….like here in Patagonia, you are encouraged to bring your water guns and balloons…lol It is the only day of the year you get to throw water balloons at the town marshal and the parade participants return the favor….grin With the heat and climate here I can full understand that, it was hot. And they “hung” the Grand Marshall…lol

We’ve had one actually thunderstorm and a few rumbles here and there. Boy, our kitties do NOT like them. They totally go into hiding, we feel so bad for them. They didn’t grow up with thunderstorms in our part of Oregon. I’m so hoping they start doing much better with them by the time we leave Arizona.

Wow, this turned out much longer then I expected and I probably missed something. Nothing unusual there….grin

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Cats & Cattle

Posted on Saturday May 25th, 2013 by | Comments Off on Cats & Cattle

We are totally enjoying ourselves here at the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve.

I’ve been going on morning walks about 6:30am, because I really, really want to see a bobcat. I finally got my wish on the 16th. I saw an animal jumping away over the trail in front of me. It didn’t have a long hairy tail and sure didn’t move like a coyote, it moved like a cat! I was so psyched!! But after a few days I felt like I dreamt it because it moved so fast and I just got a glance at it, not a good long look. So I’ve been determined that I was going to see another one, so taking my early morning and sunset walks when critters are the most active.

On the 22nd I got to see two bobcats on my morning walk. I was looking across a clearing and I saw two “short” animals, at first I was thinking of javelina, but then they ran towards each other to greet and circle each other. They didn’t move like either javelina or coyote….it was a cat movement. I got to see two bobcats!!! Of course, I had no camera or binoculars…..lol After they greeted each other one started walking in one direction along the tree line and the other in the opposite way, more in my direction. The one in my direction stopped a few times, looked as if he was sunning himself and looked as if he was rolling around like our kitties do…..LOL

Well…with no camera or binoculars I’ve been more determined to see them again. Not sure if I’ll carry a camera, because it would need to be one the SLRs and on my morning walks, I’m really trying to move fast to get my heart rate up. But I can carry the small binoculars of the preserve (we’ll be getting our own soon). Now with my luck I won’t see them again since I was prepared, but I was lucky today! I saw a critter sitting in the clearing, not too far where I saw them last time. It was kind of hard, even with the binoculars, to see it because the grass is so high. I could see that the nose was short, so not a coyote and the ears weren’t that big, so not a deer. It was a cat!

Now the question was what kind of cat. I texted ToRn and he stated it he was on his way. I was on one side of the clearing and ToRn ended up on the other. With the camera, ToRn was able to get a few pictures and clean them up enough to get some good looks at him….and it was a bobcat….grin

ToRn headed back to the trail to try and outflank him so he could get a better shot and as he is heading down a trail he looks up and about literally runs into a mountain lion! The lion just looked at him like “I’m not afraid of you” They just looked at each other, ToRn texted me a pic and then took more pictures until the lion decides to walk off.

I’m so jealous! The ironies of this is that I just laminated and posted an article in the visitor center’s office about the last sighting from Dec, the preserves motion camera got a blurred rear-end and tail of one a couple of weeks ago and yesterday a couple saw the lion just walking along the trail yesterday.

The really funny part is later this morning ToRn was doing dishes and Drew decided to jump on his back. He was not wearing his normal hoodie and ended up with a lot of cat scratches. Who knew that he was safer outside with the wild cats? LOL

We really had an exciting beginning of the day today and we are very please by that. To see the pictures that ToRn got you have to check out his post : http://wherethehellarewe.com/2013/05/25/day-of-the-cats/

A few days ago, ToRn looked out the bedroom window and says “We have cows out there” with surprise. We had a small herd of 7 cattle including a big bull just out there eating the grass. They left their ranch through the creek. The preserve manager Matt has a couple of cattle dogs and he came over to herd them out. ToRn and I have never seen dogs work herding in person. That was really cool.

Ever since then we’ve been finding fresh cow pies…rolling eyes. Matt thinks we have a bull that has claimed this as his territory and is pushing his way through the now enforce “T” fence on the creek to make his rounds. We have over 300 wooded acres in this part of the preserve and so far we haven’t found him yet to drive him out. But I keep finding fresh tracks and scat in the morning.

Now I just learned today that in AZ you are responsible for fencing them OUT…the owners are not responsible for fencing them IN! That makes no sense and lets just say I totally DISAGREE with that…ggeezz.

I have a few more critters to talk about, but this post is long enough…..grin

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Our New Life (at least for the next 5 months…lol)

Posted on Saturday May 11th, 2013 by | Comments Off on Our New Life (at least for the next 5 months…lol)

As of this Sunday, May 12th, we have been here 3 weeks at the Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve.

It has been a very interesting experience and time has been flying much faster then expected.

We knew that is was a birder destination, but boy it is huge here. It is a totally different world. The majority of them are very friendly and very happy to share their knowledge. Some are total tunnel vision, with one focus only……I don’t know how to describe it, but it is sometimes funny to see. We’ve had people waiting at the gate long before 6:30…..lol It has slowed down some, but you still get them.

So far, out of all the states, we’ve encounter more coming from Oregon and the Pacific NW in general. It is great to talk to fellow Oregonians….grin For out of country, lots of people from the UK. Those are some of the most fun of the birders, love UK humor. Some joke about how all their birds are so boring, so that is why they come to the states.

Right now, my favorite group of birders came from Belgium. There was four gentlemen and they had never seen humming birds before, they were so delighted and had so much enjoyment. We have three feeders for them at the visitor’s center and that day we had like 20-30 humming birds, they spent hours there before even hitting the trails. When ToRn put the spotter on one of our grey hawks, they about ran to the spotter…grin

We are learning but there is so much. Don’t know if we’ve ever be as good as some of them, but we catching on to some of the birds. ToRn is doing much better then me on that, but he is much more observant and quicker on seeing them. We’ve always been interested in all sorts of wildlife and I’ve enjoyed birds, just never to the extent of serious birders.

When we’ve ID birds, we normally went by the first thing we noticed….colors and markings. Well, we’ve learned you just can’t go by that or even start with that. You have to go by shape of tail, wings, beaks, body and talons…all that, then the markings. Markings may change based on age…juvenile and adult and, of course, male and female.

For example the Summer Tanager male is beautiful bright red, while the female is a pretty bright yellow. Now I’m use to the females usually being darker, more brown or grey from the normally more colorful males, but never such an opposite bright color as the male and female Summer Tanager.

We are the type that notice the more colorful birds, humming birds and raptors. We just love hawks, eagles, falcons, owls….those are so cool to us. The Grey Hawks are here very frequently. I got to see one at 5:30am with a nice size lizard in it’s talons. ToRn saw one warn a Red Tail off the other day…..lol

I do love looking out the bedroom window in the morning and seeing a male and female Northern Cardinal. The female is much prettier then we thought she would be. Just love watching her. Then watching the male Vermillion Flycatcher bounce from piece of grass to piece of grass.

Of the humming birds, we’ve seen the Anna (had a family of them in Oregon at our place), Broad-Billed, Violet Crown, Black Chinned and Broad Tail. The Gila Woodpecker is noisy as heck….lol Also have seen the Ladder Back and Acorn Woodpecker. Even got to see an owl the other day, I’ve never seen one in wild before. The Great Blue Heron is really cool to see fly, reminds me of those big clumsy looking sea planes that once they take off, they are so graceful. That is just some of the birds we’ve seen. I know we’ve seen a lot more and I know ToRn probably could ID more, but those are just the ones that I could ID.

At 4000 ft and a creek that has continuous water, there is a lot of wild life here. We run into javelina all the time, even hear them outside of our RV forging a couple of nights. We see white tail deer all the time. The ones here have bigger ears then the ones farther north. Almost like mules. Saw coyotes the other night at sundown, I’ve never seen any with those markings. They had dark grey/black markings and didn’t look as skinny as the ones I’m use to seeing in the Midwest. Unfortunately we haven’t seen the bobcat yet, others have, but not us. =( I so want to see it. And the mountain lion hasn’t been seen since last Nov. That would be TOTALLY cool and out of this world…..grin

ToRn posted this on his facebook the Friday night, it happened about 9:30 pm, and tells what happen the best :

Well that was different.

Pauline went to the office to reboot the modem, and as usual Drew cried for mommy over and over. Pauline returns after a few minutes and as normal I mimic Drew’s “mommy cries” for her in the same pitch and frequency as Drew. And as normal we both laugh.

Unlike normal was the coyote crying in a loud response about 30′ from us. Over and over.

That took us by much surprise.

This post got longer then I expected….lol Hubby has been working on the pictures, he has a much better eye and unlike me, won’t post them all….only the best. Once he goes through those, he’ll be posting them I’ll close for now and go talk about the town here in my next post.

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A Blow Out Kind of Day

Posted on Sunday April 7th, 2013 by | Comments Off on A Blow Out Kind of Day

It has been a rough day overall. The kind that you have being dreading that was going to happen, did. So close to our destination and then what sounded like an explosion….we had a blow out.

An inside tire on a Sunday…..blah….what the heck is AAA for if there isn’t anyone around to help? So many calls, none of it helped. But at least we are here and are safe. Going to have to deal with it first thing tomorrow.

Buying used and such, you expect things to happen….but is it too much to ask to at least spread it out some?

A 6 hr 39 min trip according to google, we added about 90 more minutes to our estimate because it is an RV with a tow and going over mountains….yeah, you can’t go as fast as other vehicles. With the blow out we got here about 4:48 after hitting the road at 05:45 this morning.

We are suppose to do another 6hr 38min day when we leave here in a few days….I don’t think so. That is way too much especially with going through high population areas. I’m going to divide that up. I’ll be looking into that once I finish this up.

We are here at the very small RV park of the Castle Air Museum, in Atwater, CA. That was created on the Air Force Base that was closed in the ’90s.

I’ll save my first impressions and comments about the RV park part for when we take pictures and post about it.

For the overall feel, if you ever lived on a military post/base….no matter which branch….this still feels like a military post to me. There is obvious stuff like the fuselages they have in a field or the old ordnance they have for collecting dump fees….which bring back MAJOR flashbacks for me, since I grew up on an ordnance post. But even without all that, it still smells/feels like the military to me. I don’t know how to explain it….maybe it is just the Army brat in me that misses it so much.

One of the few positives today, really got to see the beautiful hills coming out of Oregon and a good view of Mt Shasta coming into California. =)

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