Coyote Not-So-Ugly…

The coyote is without a doubt the most famous desert animal, the very symbol of the west. He is prominently figured as the Trickster as well as the Wise One in Native American myths and legends. The coyote fascinates us with its intelligence and adapability. Coyotes are omnivores, which means they will eat or try to eat just about anything. In the Sonoran Desert coyotes vary their diet with the seasons. Cactus fruit, mesquite beans, flowers, insects, rodents, lizards, rabbits, birds, and snakes make up some of their dietary choices. It can survive eating anything from saguaro fruit to roadkills, and is able to live in any habitat from cactus forest to the city.
The coyote is not only intelligent, curious and playful, it has very keen senses that adapt it for survival—acute hearing, excellent vision, and an extremely sensitive sense of smell.
Coyotes are often mistaken for small to medium sized domestic dogs. They have a long, bushy black-tipped tail, pointed ears and a narrow pointed face. Their fur varies in color, from light brown to grayish. The fur on their belly is usually white.
A desert coyote usually weighs between 15 to 25 pounds. They stand about 25 inches tall and are 4 feet in length.
Coyotes “sing” as a way to communicate with other coyote families and as a way to keep track of their own family members.
Because coyotes are not picky eaters, they have even been known to eat domestic cats and small dogs.
(This is not my photo)

You REALLY know you’re in the wilds when you spot a coyote not 50 feet away from you.

We’ve started taking Winston out really early on a morning (between 4:30 and 5 AM) to beat the heat that starts as soon as the sun comes up. He’d been really starting to suffer the heat when we were taking him out at the usual time and was pulling towards any small amount of shade. Poor thing was panting up a storm and it usually made him rather out-of-sorts the rest of the day.

So I take him out this morning and it’s just getting light at 4:30 and I wonder why there were absolutely no rabbits around. I know it’s not too early for them because they’re out in the middle of the night and most mornings when we’re out and about… and they’re usually out in droves. But this morning there were absolutely none.

Then I get down to the doggie park which is right next to the goat pen and the goats were all out of their little house there and were standing right up at the fence looking outward past the doggie park. They usually do this when they’ve spotted Jack and are waiting for him to come let them out. But when they do that, they usually make quite a bit of a ruckus calling to him. This morning, they were dead silent and locked in place.

I was just about to let Winston off his leash when I saw the coyote right there… just about 50 feet away from me.

I decided to keep Winston on his leash because I didn’t want him to start going crazy barking and not sure if this coyote had seen me and/or if there was any danger there – rabid coyotes could attack I’ve been told.

So with nothing but a chain link fence and about 50 feet between us, I made myself quite known to this guy who was solely interested in the chicken coop. By “quite known”, I mean that I went and stood right in the open in the middle of the doggie park, and didn’t move. I was wearing all black from head-to-toe… The one time I wish I wasn’t looking so much like a ninja in stealth-mode.

The coyote kept looking over at me, then back at the coop but I reckon he knew with my being there, any attempt at a chook breakky was out of the question and finally took off. He was a bit skittish, and before he decided there was absolutely no way he was getting any breakfast at this place, stopped one more time just past the chicken coop and gave one last ditch look to see how he could get at the chooks. He looked at me one last time to make sure I hadn’t moved, and then trotted off down the lane.

After we were done at the park, I thought it would probably be best to not walk around the site as normal but to come right back home, but I did walk part way further past where we’d normally turn up to get home, where I have a good vantage point of the entry road, just to make sure he wasn’t still lingering around… all was clear. Just as I turned to walk up the way home, there was a rabbit sitting right there on the path ahead of me, and all was well in the world again. I figured that he must be gone as it was safe again for the rabbits to come out.

So I know you must be wondering what was the thought that ran through my head as I put myself between the goats and held Winston’s leash taut, and him behind me in a protective stance…? Nope, it was not “OMG! I hope I don’t look good enough to eat” but rather “SHIT! Why didn’t I bring my camera out with me?!” Urgh… this lady is never going on a walk again without her camera!

What…? But You Said You Were Vegan…

Yep… I BBQ too…

Why is it that people think that when you’re vegan, you don’t BBQ? Obviously from this blog, it’s evident that I absolutely love BBQ-ing! So, tonight, what did we have for dinner? Yup BBQ. 🙂

What was on the menu tonight? Oh my goodness gracious me, it was super yummy! Ooops I digress… mouth was having a quick flash-back to dinner… 

Ooops… Was so hungry I almost forgot to take a photo for you all!

Acorn squash, round zucchini, onion wedges, sweet corn on the cob, potatoes (lightly spiced and cooked in aluminium foil with a bit of vegan butter), and vegan burgers. I flavoured the acorn squash with salt, pepper, garlic and onion powder with butter and started off with cooking it in the aluminium foil – but the foil kept opening so thought “sod this” and took them out the foil and put them direct on the grill – best thing about that was the butter had almost all melted so poured it over the squash ummmm. I did pretty much the same with everything else (spice-wise) except adding paprika to the potatoes, onions and zucchini with the addition of smoked paprika to the onions. With the burgers, I did the same spice (omitting the smoked paprika) and then added chipotle BBQ sauce over top. Oh yaah… 

But alas… what would our blog post be without at least one “issue”? Today we picked up a bag of charcoal and Ben doused the coals in lighter fluid, but not everything took! So it took another good dousing before we had a good fireball and the coals finally took. Even Jack had a chuckle as I explained the “issues” we’ve been having with this BBQ! BUT… it finally caught and we got to cooking – although Ben was fretful that we’d not be having dinner tonight. 

One of the highlights was when I came out the vardo and spotted Billy the goat up round our neighbour Ron’s rig and said “Hello Billy” and he came trotting over to me at rather high speed. First thought “Oh shit! Is he going to attack?!!” With a picnic table and BBQ between us, I had a quick thought of backtracking at a relative high speed back up the steps into the vardo. But no, he was just happy to see me and eager to come for his scratch. I guess I’ve felt a bit comforted having a natter with them all while they’re in their pens with a fence between us. But a goat on the loose high trotting it over for a visit…

Vegan candy being sold at Walmart – and only $1!!!

He’s a damn smart cookie though as he realised that he was not able to get round to me with a table and BBQ in between us, so I told him to walk round the table and BBQ and he totally listened to me! Came for a quick scratch behind the ears and then proceeded to munch on the Nopales cactus right behind the picnic table.  Jack came over for a quick visit with Cleo (who I’d been erroneously Chloe) and I told him about Billy’s rushing over to visit and he told me that he only does that with people he knows and likes. Yep… I beamed. Billy the goat likes me! 😀

Even says “VEGAN” right there on the packet! It’s kind of like Starburst candy, but not quite.

Popped up to Anthem today to hit-up Walmart and while we’re checking out, Ben picks up a packet of sweets and gets all excited and exclaims “WOW! These are vegan – even say’s it right there on the packet…!” That’s a pretty big thing for Walmart! Noticed it first with the new packet of Earth Balance (butter), but it’s still a novelty.

If I thought simply wearing hijab to Walmart out here brought out people staring, wearing full abaya (long dress) and hijab brings people to a literal mouth-gaping-open standstill… C’mon, I wore my nicest abaya today and all – they must have been mesmerized by the beautiful designs over it… 😉

It was a rather uneventful day all-in-all other than getting up to “the big smoke”, an incredibly delicious BBQ dinner, and Billy the goat near making me pee my pants with momentary thoughts of being mauled by a goat… But while I love it out here, and Billy the goat is a huge anchor (ha!), I’ve been feeling my feet itching… Ready to move on to the next destination and adventure… Could be the heat getting to me or has the wind changed direction and it’s calling deep within my soul…?

Just Call Me “Plumber Leyla”

Time for dishes again, it seems to be an endless daily routine over here – with only two of us making dishes too! As I filled the sink with water, I noticed that suddenly the water level was getting lower and lower. Surely this was my imagination yes? No! I tried the plug and it was in pretty securely. So I opened up the cabinet door and near pitched a fit. The pipe was streaming out water, not a steady drip… Oh no, that would never be the situation in the Hur household… Nope, this water was streaming out in a sort of a fountain.

I grabbed the closest bowl handy and sat there staring, as if my magic Romani stare would instantly plug it up, right. Wrong… Contrary to popular myth, Gypsies don’t come complete with magic. *rolls eyes*

Ben moved over on the sofa so that he could see what was happening, and was as lost as I was. He asked me if something was “loose” – how the hell do I know if something is “loose”, you think I’m some handy woman or something? But alas, he wasn’t too far off. I began tightening every and anything that was loose – actually, just one part (shown with the red arrow in the photos) was loose, so I screwed it as tight as I could possibly get it with my bare hands… Maybe Romani have super human strength after all… 😉

Right-side sink drain doo-hickey thingie-majig needed tightening too

I asked Ben if the water level was still dropping in the sink and Hallelujah it was not, and no water was leaking underneath either. WOO HOO Leyla! *pats self on the back*

Ben then congratulated me for fixing my very first sink… I am now ready to tackle anything… except that damn high powered hose thingy down the toilet to flush all the gross bits further into the black tank. Let me rephrase this… I am now ready to tackle anything not gross or nasty. 🙂

After fixing the leak – had to also tighten the same part on the right hand side sink – I then had a literal soapy lake to sop up. That presented another challenge for me… But it was easily figured out (yes, you have it right, I am not the most domestically Goddess blessed) and while I was down there, rearranged things and made it look quite neat and tidy underneath, plus I can now get more stuff in there… hehehe

Two loads of dishes later and the basin I eventually found and placed underneath to make sure there were no more leaks, gave me the big thumbs up by being bone dry.

So let’s see… what else can I fix in here…? Oh the fridge…

The “FridgeCool Fan with On/Off Switch” what we ordered. Now waiting anxiously for it to arrive. Hmmmmm wonder if it comes with instructions and best place to actually put the thing…

The back vents are icing over and only the top two shelves are nicely cold. Had to break down and order a fridge fan from Camping World, while we were at it, ordered a reflective dashboard window shade, let’s hope that’ll cut down on the heat that’s being generated in the vardo in this high heat – and to think, we’re only at the beginning of summer… SO have to get things fixed up so we can move on to some place else… some place cooler…

After a fair bit of research… on Pinterest… I learned that fridge fans are a basic necessity in RV fridges. But I wonder if I still have to defrost everything… It seems that freaky day where the freezer and fridge decided to defrost itself was a one-off. With veggies starting to go off in the bottom of the fridge, I think that we need to do something… Eat them all fast…? Maybe the fridge fan will work? Still have to wait for it to get here though – great getting internet sales, not-so-great having to wait 2 weeks (or more) for it to get here – anywhere else in the country and summer’ll be over by the time it arrives.

Anyone have any knowledge of these things and can give a bit of advise?

Losing a Trusted Friend…

Obituary…

It is with great sorrow and profound sadness (especially after cognition that there shall be no more water boiled for tea [and less painfully, for dishes] or mug cakes made), that we report to you that after 8 1/2 years of dedicated and devoted service, offered with only love to please in his mechanical heart, our dear microwave died suddenly, and without cause or provocation this afternoon after his final act of service… boiling noodles for spaghetti. Several attempts at resuscitation were made but were in vain.

In lieu of flowers, and proficient disposal of dear microwave, donations are being accepted in order to replace said microwave…

RIP dear friend…

DIY Day

A minor emergency started our day off this morning when Ben went to get something from the freezer and nonchalantly tells me that the popsicles in the freezer have melted. WHAT??!!! He’s all calm and composed telling me that the popsicles have melted and so that means that the freezer has packed in! Battle stations people, I launch into full-fledged def-con 1 mode and begin pulling stuff out the freezer and then remember that the fridge is cooled by the freezer, so I check it… yup… warm.

How the heck did this happen? I mean, the vents in the back of the fridge were all frozen and iced over yesterday, and in discussing with one of the resident workers here, he told me that when that happens to make sure that we do a defrost – but obviously I am not going to be able to defrost the darn fridge/freezer, as it’s gone kaput.

We start a frantic search for some way to get this thing cooling again, and finally Ben gets online and starts to look up user manuals. Turns out, the fridge/freezer does an automatic defrost when it starts freezing up the vents. You’d think it would be polite enough to inform US that this was the case. In the meanwhile, the bloody popsicles have leaked out of their individual baggies and big bag and so everything has to come out of the freezer so it can be washed down. Oh and did I mention I am 5’4″ tall and the freezer is at least 5’4 off the ground?! That means that for me to clean, I’m up on tippy-toes and still can’t see or reach the back of the freezer – so yep, it became a job for Ben to do.

A couple of hours later, I checked on the freezer, after deciding to give it a rest and see if it magically decided to work again, and noticed that there was condensation on the back top of the freezer – several more hours later, I was able to just reach enough to feel the condensation which turned out to be ice. WOO HOO!!! Major catastrophe averted!

Before we ripped these horrid blinds and valance out

Well, this experience spurned us on to a couple of DIY’s. First item on the immediate list to be taken care of, the horrid broken blinds over the kitchen sink. No matter how much I would clean the area around the sink, each time I would lift the blinds – securing them open with clothes pegs (or close the silly things), it would still be filthy with a layer of dirt. These things HAD to go. The fact that they were broken amplified the fact that they were the first to be replaced.

Before we moved into the vardo, we picked up a really inexpensive set of blinds from Walmart – less than $4 for them, but they look really swanky and nice and Ben even “custom-fit” them. Now THAT impressed me… except that I had to hold the bloody thing up while he was “customizing” it – that was agonizing for me. I think I need to spend the next week with my feet up just to recover… 😉

So when you’re doing a fix-up, you can do it relatively inexpensively. There are tons of free things you can pick up from design centers too – they always get rid of their previous season materials and you can pick them up for free. While you won’t get reams of materials and such, and sometimes not even identical pieces, but you could make throw pillows (or pillow cases) from what you do pick up to create a whole new design. And you can change the designs each year if you like. You can even make “handkerchief” curtains from the material to create a larger piece. Like these… BTW I didn’t make these, but I am thinking of doing something similar with the material I have on hand. 🙂

Ben needed a couple of things which were kind of necessities for this job – a screwdriver and a measuring tape. Both of which we have… Where? We’ll stumble upon them somewhere… sometime… But today? For this job… Nope. So… we did what I am very good at doing, gerry-rigging and estimating. The difference is, Ben was working this job and not me, so it wasn’t a matter of simple estimations and attempt after attempt before it was half-arsed done. He is so much a perfectionist – so when he told me to get out of the way, I complied… and grabbed my camera instead.

He managed to borrow a screwdriver and drill from Jack (the owner here), so we were good to go, right…? I mean, how difficult is putting up blinds yeah? But then, this is us and there wouldn’t be a blog if it were… We are two of the most inept individuals, but hey, we try and when we do, we actually do a good job.

 

While we had these tools, Ben took advantage of the fact that we had them and took the old microwave out. Good thing we’d brought a shelf (from one of our old cabinets) with us because we had to put it into the hole for our microwave to fit in. Went to plug in the microwave and remembered that we only had two prongs on the plug as we’d had to pull out the grounding third prong as our last place only had a 2 pronged plug. We put the microwave in and… the shelf moved… Well, Ben got to use the drill as he screwed it into place. Now we were secure and good to go… put the microwave back in again and… it doesn’t work. I think there is something wrong with the outlet – which means the ancient microwave that was in there might actually work, it’s just the outlet broken. So… gerry-rigging to the rescue, we plugged it into the extension cord and basically use it the exact same way we had done when it was on the stove, only now it is high up. Oh and did I mention that it’s on about the same height as the freezer… grrrrrr being short sucks!

Microwave after

We started the blind DIY just after 3PM, it was finally finished just after 8PM. Yep… it took it’s time for sure, but it was so worth it. I cleaned the whole area up, cleaned the windows and the “sills”, fixed the stove top, and oh gosh it’s gorgeous.

   

After it’s all done, how gorgeous it looks

So… we plan on putting in a tile back-splash, and I think we’re going to put it right behind the stove itself, while the small area around the window, we’ll paint. I removed some of the wall paper which was peeling and bubbled. As money comes in, we’ll have to redo all the walls and get insulation put in to ensure it’s winterized as it’s just a wooden panel on the walls. I’m now wondering about painting as I think the undercoat will more than likely get soaked up into the wood, might need a fair few coats just to hold the top coat(s).

The area behind the stove is where we’ll put the tile backsplash

Well… now that the kitchen window is done, I’m eager to get the rest of the windows done. The rest of them, I’m also going to get curtain dowels and put up curtains over the blinds – extra privacy and pretty it up for us in here too.

So what do you think? My very own DIY! HA

While Ben was sweating it up in the over 10o°F temperature, I did my own “DIY” (HA) project… tell me, what do you think…? 😉

Winston had another very hot day today. Poor lil guy, he was panting most of the day, but he was very happy when he got to sit up on the sofa right in front of the floor fan and cooled down. As you can see from this photo, he’s smiling. 🙂

And of course, can’t not share with you how relaxed and at home the girls are… here they are chillin – although I think Ezmi really was the one lounging the most today…

Ezmi

Ainey

Nari

Ezmi’s perfect spot to bird-watch

Tips For Having Cats in an RV… Cover the Steering Wheel!

The culprit

It’s 3:30 am, I’m starting to wind down for the night, Ezmi (our youngest cat) is in one of her “funky-lets-run-around-the-whole-house-like-a-mad-cat” stages. Suddenly, the silence of the night is disturbed by a pathetic blast. In the shock that arises from a sudden blast in the middle of the night, I try to decipher what that sound is and where it is coming from, when to my horror I discover that Ezmi has discovered the steering wheel and is standing on the steering wheel horn!

I am absolutely horrified and aghast and try to get her attention to get her down and off of the steering wheel, when all I am met with is a look of “What’s your problem mother…?!” Ornery little  s**t!

Let’s hope the TV tray folded down and placed over the steering wheel will prevent any further “issues” of like situations, and hope that none of the other campers woke up to it… or if they did, didn’t know it came from us.

Well… one question was answered, I’ve wondered what kind of sound the horn on this big rig made, and my joking around about it probably having a pathetic weak honk, rang true. At this moment, I’ve never been more grateful that we’ve a pathetic weak-sounding horn than a bloody train horn that Ben is always wanting for our car.

Cheeky

Red-faced and really hoping that minimal people were disturbed by this faux pas, one thing is for sure… it’s my birthday, I’m spending the whole day out!!!