The Desert in Bloom II

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Though the bright colors of the desert are fading fast, May brought another rush of pigmentation. Along with the yellow blooms of the palo verde, mesquite and acacia came the arrival of even more bees. The hills are alive with their buzz right now.

The most exciting discovery, though, was the arrival of western tanagers! I’ve wanted to see this tropical bird (Costa Rica) for years, and finally had the opportunity when I was running one morning. For four days, that very speedy bird and his comrades eluded me. But I finally got a photo before they headed north for summer.

Enjoy photos taken during hikes on the ranch, in Mammoth, Tucson, Oracle and Peppersauce (my new favorite hiking destination)! My apologies for not identifying all of the wildflowers. Enjoy them in their anonymity, and let me know if you can ID any of them.

The Desert in Bloom

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Who says nothing grows in the desert? I’ve got proof to the contrary, as you’ll see from the photos taken during my various spring hikes. It has been an incredible wildflower season here in Mammoth’s slice of the Sonoran Desert. Some of my local friends say that some of the flowers we saw this year haven’t popped up in more than 15 years!

It’s quite amazing what you’ll see when you actually look around. On my morning jogs – and during hikes with my buddies – it’s become somewhat of a scavenger hunt, trying to locate a ‘new’ or ‘different’ flower every day. And I haven’t been disappointed yet! In fact, I found two more today. Most photos were taken right on our property. Those that were taken in nearby hiking destinations include a location name after the flower name. And forgive me … I wasn’t able to ID them all. Feel free to help if you know some of them or if I’ve misidentified any (highly probable).

Stay tuned. Part II of “The Desert in Bloom” will include the next burst of color that will arise from the flowering cacti, palo verde trees and mesquite trees. Can you tell how much fun I’m having living this “close” to nature?

Whooo goes there?

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I love this time of year! Not only is the Sonoran Desert teeming with wildflowers, but also a host of local desert dwellers. On April 14, during a hike up Mammoth Wash with neighbor friend, Roxanne, we saw the elusive great horned owl that I had seen a few weeks earlier (that time, I had scared him away on the four-wheeler, unfortunately).

We walked slowly and quietly, and he only flew from one tree to the next, allowing me to get some great shots. It was on our way back down the wash that I got the really good photos. It was almost as if he were posing for us.

Then on April 16, after returning from a fabulous hike with Kathy and Mary (my hiking buddies) along the Arizona Trail in Oracle, I was delighted to find that our resident barn owl had returned to nest next to our entry gate. We’d seen her – and her two gorgeous babies – back in 2004, when we first bought the property. But the cliff side where she first nested had caved in from all the rain. I was very surprised, when driving past our house, to see big eyes staring back at me from a much smaller hole to the right of the original. Maybe we’ll have baby owls this summer?

And finally … also during the Arizona Trail hike, as Kathy was taking us through the Tucson Wash in her 4-wheel-drive, we came across a gorgeous Gila Monster! Enjoy our owl photos and Gila monster photos. Gila monsters, by the way, are one of only two venomous lizards in North America (though so slow as to pose no threat to humans. You’ll witness this fact in the video I took)! When we first bought our property, Steve found a juvenile Gila monster trapped in an old tin tar bucket, whom we successfully freed.

P.S. This is Steve. I personally thought this video really captured the rare Gila monster in its true environment.

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Disappearing Downspouts

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Mother Nature was not cooperating with us on March 27, when we tried to tape off the downspouts for painting… Lots of wind that whipped our protective paper away. Once Steve decided to make a cardboard shield (instead of paper), we were in business! We took on this endeavor since we decided that the south-facing downspouts in the light tan stuck out too much (Steve thought they looked like racing stripes). So, we decided to color-match them to the stucco. Now they blend in a bit better from the road.

Check out our progress in the photos section. And check out our updated photos of the babies, Macho and Niña, who are growing quickly! They’re already 4.5 months old and into everything (hampers, included! Visit our Macho & Niña videos to witness their mischief).

We’re Seeing Spots!

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Hi Dad! (Niña - back)

It was a happy Valentine’s Day for us, as we drove the four-plus hours to Cottonwood, Ariz., on Feb. 13 to pick up our bundles of joy: two beautiful Bengal kittens. A mix between a wild Asian Leopard cat and a domestic cat, Bengals have gorgeous, exotic spots. They retain some wild traits from their Asian Leopard Cat ancestors: their love of water, their fascination with perching in high places, their raspy meows, and their spots, of course. They can get to anywhere between 15 and 20 lbs when they’re fully-grown.

Our boy, Macho (the reddish-colored beauty) is a bundle of energy. He was the biggest in the litter (of six) and makes our beauty queen, Niña, look very small. They are both so incredibly affectionate and soooo soft. I need to get a bigger chair for my desk, as the two of them love to crawl up behind me and fall asleep.

A bit about their names: Macho is named after Macho B, the only known jaguar living in the United States that was tragically euthanized after a botched examination/illegal trap was set in southern Arizona in 2009. And, as anyone who speaks Spanish (which excludes me) knows, Niña is the Spanish word for “girl.”

Enjoy the photos of our new kitties. It’s great to have furry little feet in the house again, though I have NO idea where they get all the energy. And, anyone who knows me will “get” why I wanted Bengals; I’m still obsessed with “big cats” and exotic, wild cats. These guys are our mini-versions, though very, very tame and loving!

Water, Water … Nowhere

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On Feb. 5, it looked like the Tasmanian Devil had whirled around the new house, given the freshly dug three-to five-foot deep trenches. But within eight hours, Steve had all the drainage pipes installed, and our backhoe operator, Rocky, had backfilled all the pits.

Roof water that isn’t being collected in the local tanks outside the dining room and master bedroom is now being piped down to the pecan grove. Eventually we’ll add more storage tanks there so that the water isn’t wasted. But for now, all water is being directed away from the house – a big milestone for us!

Enjoy our pipe-laying and digging photos – plus the watering hole we asked Rocky to dig for the wild animals.

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Rain Drain, the Alaskan Pipeline and U.S. Customs

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If any of you folks outside of Arizona have been watching the news, you’ve seen that we were bombarded with rain in January. Fortunately for us, we got our gutters, scupper boxes and downspouts installed just before the deluge. We didn’t have time to get our ditches dug for drainage pipe before the rain hit, but we were able to make a temporary drainage system, which Steve refers to as “The Alaskan Pipeline.”

We also didn’t have time to hook up our water harvesting tanks or paint some of the downspouts so that they blend in with the stucco color. Steve did, however, temporarily install our rain chains – in the rain. They’re these neat, decorative metal cups that funnel the rain into collection tanks. In one instance, we’ll have a rain chain go to the ground and empty into some river rock (because that overhang is so small, we wouldn’t collect much water anyway).

The goal is to use harvested roof rainwater from the four tanks around the house – to water plants, clean porches, etc. Any overflow from those tanks will be piped down to larger tanks in the ‘pecan grove,’ which we will use to water our pecan trees. Okay … so we don’t have the larger tanks yet, nor have we planted the pecan trees. Oh – and we haven’t hooked up the underground pipes that connect all the tanks together either. But that’s the future plan!

Enjoy our photos that display all the gadgets that will keep rain away from the house. Next step: trenching and painting some downspouts. And probably some cultured stone to go around our porch posts. And if you missed our spiral staircase install, check it out.

P.S. – During gutter installation, we were standing outside taking photos when we witnessed a U.S. Customs air chase (per one of the sheriffs Steve works with). Apparently the newest thing is to drop drugs low to the ground from planes coming out of Mexico. See our video of two Cessna Citations in hot pursuit – following so closely that they can’t be detected by the first plane’s pilot!

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Happy Holidays

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Merry Christmas

It’s hard to believe another year has flown by, but when we look back through our photos, it becomes a little more real. Especially when we look outside and realize we went from a hole in the ground on Oct. 7, 2008, to a Tvyek-covered structure with porch overhangs exactly a year later. So – as you can imagine, the majority of 2009 was spent working with drill guns, air nailers, spray foam and 2x6s.

We are thrilled to have met our goal of “drying in” the house. That means we have a stucco-covered, fully roofed and windowed house (that is also framed on the interior). Completing the porch overhangs was one step beyond what we hoped to accomplish, and on Dec. 21, our spiral staircase was installed.

While it was an exciting year with building progress, we also enjoyed visits from my mom, dad and nephew, and Steve’s brother and sister-in-law, Mike and Millie, from New Jersey. As usual, we saw our normal host of desert dwellers – javelina, mule deer, hummingbirds and coyotes. But we also had the excitement of baby roadrunners nesting in our new garage, and a large rattlesnake that Steve grazed with the screen door, inadvertently ripping off his rattle (see blog below). We also were fortunate to have the help of wonderful friends and family in Mammoth, Phoenix, Denver – and from Pennsylvania – who helped with our construction efforts.

The year ended, however, on a sad note, as we had to say our final goodbyes to our girl, Chloe. She literally walked into Steve’s life 14 years ago as a stray, so the decision to let her go, after trying to fight her congestive heart failure, was truly devastating. We miss her terribly, but are forever grateful for the years of joy she brought us.

Please feel free to read-up on some of our previous blogs if you weren’t able to keep up during the year. And leave a comment in one of our blogs, use our contact page, watch our videos, or check out our photo gallery. Have a great 2010.

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Rattlesnakes and Rainbows

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Even though we’re taking a short hiatus from construction now that stucco is complete, a lot has happened at the ranch.

On November 13, Steve pushed on the kitchen door in the evening so he could get some fresh air, only to find that it was ‘stuck’ on something. I was right behind him, and when we heard the rattling sound, we both jumped back, knowing what the door had ‘bumped’ against.

A very large rattlesnake (five foot?) was curled up right in front of the screen door. To our surprise, his rattle had gotten stuck under the door, and when Steve pulled it back, the rattle snapped off. Needless to say, the snake was very ticked off. Steve then hung out of the kitchen window taking pictures of the angry fella. We now have his ingeniously engineered rattle in our showcase. But now there’s one desert rattlesnake wandering the ranch that won’t make much noise to alert those near him the next time he’s ticked. (By the way … they usually hibernate beginning in October, but it was in the 100s throughout October, so they were late to go to their hiding holes).

We also experienced our first rainbow behind the house (they’re usually out in front of the mountains).

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“S’mores” Applied to House

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The Dunn Edwards version of the color we chose is called s’mores (and perhaps why I was drawn to it), but the Dryvit color is called burnt oak. No matter what you call it, it is done! Our house no longer sports the ghostly white Tyvek wrap, the striped lath, or the boring gray scratch and brown coat colors.

The Dryvit material, a synthetic alternative to traditional stucco, is incredible – and our stucco crew was meticulous. We absolutely love it! This material is not supposed to crack like real stucco mud.

So … Nov. 17, the first day of Dryvit, was a big day, since we’d been working toward our Step 1 goal for 13 months: to have the house “dried in” with stucco, windows, etc. We have also been fortunate enough to complete a few other steps that we thought would have to wait: overhangs, concrete stoops, in particular.

Visit our November 2009 Construction photos to see our stucco progress. And feel free to leave us a comment by clicking the “Comments” links below each blog. Next step: rain gutters/scupper boxes – and, money allowing – the spiral staircase to the star-gazing deck.

Scroll for sample images below.

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