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!

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

Settling In…

Today I finally got around to unpacking and finding a home for the things that were on and around the dining room table. Boy it was hard and tedious work and I’m SO ready for bed… Maybe I’ll swap beds with Ben tonight and opt for his comfy bed up in back and he can sleep on the painfully uncomfortable sofa/futon bed that is my bed…

There are only three things left to be sorted through, unpacked, and homes found for them; and the belong to Ben, so he’s got a job ahead of him this weekend.

Soon, I’ll be able to start looking at decorating. I need to get giving some readings for that to take place… And the toilet fixed… and the kitchen sink… and… and… and…

This morning,  I went into the bathroom and it stank like a skunk had crawled up and in and sprayed in there. Ben was convinced it was the sewer since we can’t flush right now, I was convinced it was him (HA)… in actual fact, I think that there was a skunk in the area and the smell wafted in and stuck… It was gone an hour later. The joys of living in the semi-wilds.

I didn’t get a chance to go out once today. I volunteered Ben to take Winston out as I really wanted to get this area sorted and tidied up, but I’ll take him out for his last walk.

Oh… we had a rain drop fall this evening. The weather said there might be chance of a storm… we’ve been told that here in the desert, we get about 2-3% humidity and that the rains dry up before they reach anything. We had a big gust of wind which swayed the whole vardo, and then a sound that sounded like a few rain drops… I looked out the window, and there was literally one splat of water rolling down the window… and then… it dried up. Out here, I can wet a dish rag, do some cleaning and then hang it to dry, and it’s dry in 15-20 minutes! It’s almost freaky.

Dinner tonight… I made a pot roast again. Enough for leftovers tomorrow and on Sunday, I think I’m going to make (Romani) sodmay *cabbage rolls*

About sums up the entire day… I’m seriously exhausted and think maybe I should have laid down for siesta when the rest of the household did this afternoon… now everyone is up and wide awake and I’m about ready to crash…

Afternoon siesta… Ainey and Ezmi finding unpacking and sorting terribly exhausting and time to set the tone for the rest of the family to have afternoon siesta…

Winston joins the family in afternoon siesta time.

Ezmi is woken up by the arrival of a new RV to the park – could be here a few days, or just overnight…

There! The corner with the dining table is all cleared up and looking very nice. Ezmi thinks this was done for her and her alone so that she has a new place to sleep.

Thank you Mummy for making a place for me to sleep on

Ezmi chillin

Baby girl Ezmi’s 1st birthday tomorrow – Saturday May 11th 2013

 

Winston the “Bobble-head” Pug

Winston discovered the dashboard two-days after we moved in.

Bobble-head dog… Shall we see if his head really bobbles when we drive…? 😉