Desert Nomad

I have learned to live alongside the rattlesnakes, but I actually enjoy seeing the javelina. Javelina are peccaries who are said to be vicious if cornered or if they feel you threaten their young. But the ones that come on our property have been even tempered whenever I have been close to them. We have had up to ten or twelve of them at a time. I have actually been close enough to one to touch him. I did. :) They usually come around when it is hot and dry. The other critter we enjoy regularly is the tarantula. The entrance to his home is in front of our front porch steps. We have to be careful not to step on him. He's a strange creature. Unlike us, he leaves his door open when he's away, and closes it when he's home! He spins a web across the entrance, so all he has is a screen door.

Let me tell you about our more recent visitor. One night, my husband went down to the other building, and suddenly I got a frantic phone call, "Pat, come down here! There is a SKUNK in the house!" So I went down, but by that time he was gone. Happened again a day or two later. So we started to put objects in various places to block where he was probably getting in. A few nights later, we were both there, and I went into the room where the cat sleeps, and there he was! A spotted skunk. Cute little feller! We had been shutting the cat up in that room when we weren't around to keep her from getting sprayed, and lo and behold, the skunk could get UNDER the door. So we were trapping her with the skunk and didn't know it. So then my husband used his flashlight beam to scare the skunk into leaving the room, and he ran into the next room and got into the dresser and hid. Finally got him out of there, and he ran for the bathroom, and disappeared. So we put some more heavy objects over that hole. Next night he was back in the cat's room. So again, we chased him with the flashlight, and again, he disappeared into a hole we hadn't seen. So I went and got another brick, and while I was rearranging things, the darn thing kept popping his nose out! We blocked that one, and then I began to do some serious research to figure out what to do about it. We finally hit on the solution of spreading mothballs over the ground and putting them in the cabinet. That seemed to work. No more skunk for several months. And then several weeks ago, I saw him coming out of yet a new hole (which of course I then blocked), so I went and got some more mothballs and scattered them; the others had all evaporated. We know something fairly large was getting into the kitchen every night, and I suppose it was our "friend". But I have been making sure no food, not even scraps, are available. I have a can I keep grease in that I pour grease into from food, and I keep that shut up in the microwave. Keep your fingers crossed! He hasn't sprayed yet!

Besides these critters, we sometimes see coyotes and deer. Twice we have seen large cats. There are also many kinds of insects, and a few kinds of birds. We usually see a lot of Gambel's quail, an occasional roadrunner, sparrows, several kinds of doves, and verdins. We could get hummingbirds if I put out a feeder. We also see hawks occasionally, and nightjars on the road at night. We had a huge forest fire last summer, and I think it drove the birds down out of the mountains. We got pyrrholoxia, cardinals, and orioles. There was one bird that took me the longest time to identify. He had a very distinctive and noisy call (actually a couple of them), and he liked to flit around when it was not very bright outside; he just wouldn't sit still. That made it difficult to take his picture, but I finally got some good ones this summer. They're not online yet.Turns out this was a canyon wren. He's not on the list of birds for the area! I also see butterflies, but if I want to photograph them, I have to go to a butterfly garden.

But I don't want to dwell on the desert critters too long. I have a lot of other stuff to say. Suffice it to say that if you can't handle the critters, you don't belong in the desert!

Besides the critters who live here naturally, we have had a few pets. At one time, we had a herd of goats, many chickens, up to 35 cats, and up to 5 dogs. Most of these have died or have been sold. We had a peacock but a coyote got him, a rooster, but he was old and died, and two cats, one of whom finally died of old age. She was a sweetheart! At one point, a pigeon invited himself to stay with us. The pets are a metaphor for socialism: they get a free lunch, but in exchange, they are captives. :) A hawk got in and got the pigeon. Beware depending on government handouts. You're a sitting duck for any predator who wants to come along!

We have ten acres, an unfinished house, a small barn, and a mobile home that is going away as soon as the house is finished enough. When I'm not wandering around the desert, I hang out in the computer room.

Some of the things you will find on this web site will include my weblog, and some of the material from my other three web sites. Until I get something of substance created, you'll have to be satisfied looking at those web sites. You can access them here:

Seghea
Extraplicity
Antelope Art

Seghea is my first web site. It literally has thousands of pages. On these pages you will find: