New Life / Alpine trip / Coffee / Deer

About the only thing I can tell that the recent 3/4 inch of rain has done so far is to bring life back to the ocotillo around here. A few days ago this still looked like the skeleton of its self, but now its covered with leaves. The most it has done this year is put out two puny blooms and that was while there was no other growth on it. Those were probably because I have dumper ice melt around it a few times. Those blossoms lingered for a long time and finally disappeared. Unfortunately they probably won't bloom again and also unfortunately they seem to be the only plants that benefited from the rain at all. I'm hoping the Yuccas, other cactus and desert grass will follow. Its probably too late for the Yucca to bloom and put on fruit this year though because they did that near Alpine months ago. Looks like no Strawberry cactus fruit and for that matter no Prickly Pear fruit either.

I took Frann and Jicky to Alpine with me yesterday and talk about a couple of shopaholics!  They shopped until I dropped. They made me go in each place and buy stuff I didn't even want. ;) well I guess I wanted what I bought or I probably wouldn't have bought it. Anyway one of the stops was the Family Outreach thrift store there and we usually go there when we're up that way. I'd seen the below part to a coffee pot there each time I went in there and yesterday I actually picked it up and looked at it.

I'm sure its the pot part of an old high end coffee maker, but that was all that was there. After taking the lid off I noticed that it was actually a thermos so for $2 I jumped on it. (Stainless steel bladder inside) It will hold about twice as much coffee as I'll drink in a morning so I'll make enough coffee to fill it and have coffee for two mornings by just heating it the second morning. That's how I usually do it, but the damn moths keep drowning in it and I've had to throw out several pots because of that. Now I won't have to worry about that anymore because of the lid.

The way I make coffee here is to use an old Mr Coffee type coffee maker, but I don't plug it in. I put the filter and coffee in the basket and then slowly pour heated water from a pan off the stove through the filter/coffee. It works well, but without the heat element working on the maker the coffee cools off real fast with the low humidity and cool mornings. By the time I finish a cup I either have to pour the coffee back in the pan and warm it up or pour it in the pan and keep the burner going real low to keep the coffee hot. This morning I used my new prize and poured the coffee in it and didn't have to reheat the coffee at all. I checked about an hour ago and it was still warm enough to drink, but in the mornings now I won't have to keep heating it I can drink the whole pot without bothering.

 Well maybe the rain has done more. I was sitting out by the trailer in the shade about 30 minutes ago and saw something moving across the road from here. Maybe 100 yards. It was a mule deer doe foraging. I was as quiet and slow as I could be to go inside and get the camera. When I got back out side it had dropped off the hill so I started walking down the road and startled it when it came back in to view. It was cutting a high speed trail by the time I could snap this photo. This is by far the closest I've seen a deer to here so far. I have seen their droppings around here before though.

Grub Shack update / Stores or Not?

I talked to Jerry at the legion a couple of days ago and asked about the GS. He said they are still trying to cut through the bureaucratic BS, but he thinks they will be open again within the next two weeks. Sure hope so and so does most of the other people out here (other than maybe a few of the big TR supporters)

On another note I talked to the guy that Nick, Dave and myself heard say they were going to build a store almost directly across from my place on 118 the other day. He said that some time back, but now he says that was a rumor? I wonder who started it??? I didn't!

I also talked to the guy that was thinking about putting in a store across from the GS and he said they are still thinking about it, but after all the BS the GS has been going through they are having second thoughts. I'm hoping that once the GS reopens he will decide to go ahead and build the store, but that's yet to be seen.

Final Plea (Pups)

Hello, I am David Secor. Many of you are familiar with the Great Dane problem from David's (Tffnguy's) previous post. These are NOT my dogs, yet I have been doing my best to take care of them since the owner has left the area. Originally, there were 17 dogs, but some have been adopted now, with the owner's permission. In spite of that, there are still many dogs left. In order to properly feed the pack, it requires about $100 in food a week. Unfortunately, neither I, nor my family, can take on that extra burden much longer. I was approached by the Sheriff's department today, and within a few days I need to get rid of these dogs. If anyone wants to adopt one, the time is now. I am contacting the humane society in Alpine, and if they have room, they will be placed there. Otherwise they will have to be put down, which is the worst possible outcome, in my mind. These dogs deserve a good home, and I simply cannot be there 24/7 to provide that, with my other obligations.

Thank You,
David Secor

07/04/11 Parade

Dan and Gypsy Jess picking up candy along the road.

Frann on her scooter. Beat out of the winnings by the canoes going down the road.

Note the Budweiser 4th of July addition cans being dragged along. What we have here is a seriously crazy woman. ;)

Your Tax dollars at work.

The following are Sunni and her dad Chris (Owner of the Cow Head Ranch). They did this last year on a higher hill further to the east, but had a blowout on the horse trailer and missed the parade yesterday. They did this at the hill next to the EMS complex where all of the festivities were going on after the parade. Pretty cool even though they weren't on a much higher and narrower hill this time.

My first ever car was a 57 Ford Fairlane 500 pretty muck like the one below, but it was a hardtop instead. Mine was coco brown and cream in the same paint scheme with a coco top. Boy do I wish I still had that car!!! Of course there are a lot of other cars I wish I still had though, but the 57 was my all time favorite.

I failed to catch the legion vehicle going by because I got distracted by other things going on.

Pups Need A Home!

What more can be said?

They are cross between a Bluetick Hound male and two different Great Dane females. They will all be very large dogs. There are two litters to choose from. The last litter are smaller (from a black female) and are more black dominant. The first litter are mainly brown with black spots and markings.

RAIN!

Yep! Its really coming down and this trailer is Rock'in and Roll'in!

 A good 25 minutes of Hard Rain and its still raining lightly! :)

 I think its over. Called Frann ans she said no rain there. :(

Final rain tally was 3/4 inch.

No One Recognizes Me!

Now that I'm usually driving Frann's old ride no one recognizes me or thinks I'm Frann one. Her dogs still think its their ride to and jump through the windows when I pull up to her place (If I don't have the windows up too far for them to jump through. ) They are also hell to get out of it once they get in. I wonder if the below solution would cure both problems?

What Ya Think?

And on another Note...

It got pretty cloudy around here yesterday afternoon and I didn't want to be without the Swampy last night so I left it off all afternoon and just opened the two windows with screens on them and left the door open with the screen door closed. It was windy enough and the humidity was low enough that it wasn't bad in here. Cloudy days sure do cut down on solar power!

Looks like we may have some cloud cover off and on for the next several days so I guess I better get used to going with out the Swampy for a while.