Snake on Site with Photos -- May 30

Today laundry lurked waiting to be cleaned. I got up at the crack of 9:00 a.m., ate breakfast, and Bob loaded the dirty laundry into the Escape pod. We also put in five books we've finished reading. The books will be dropped off at Kit & Jerry's on the way home from town. One thing about gate guarding, we have plenty of time to read.

Before I left for town Bob said, "Look at the pictures in your camera." Earlier in the morning, Bob saw a snake and pointed it out to some of the workers. The snake didn't have a rattle so it wasn't a rattlesnake. That didn't seem to matter to the workers, they killed it anyway. Turns out it was a bull snake, one of the good snakes that eats rattlesnakes. I don't understand why some guys think they have to kill everything. Here are some photos of the snake, estimates are it was about 4'-5' long.

Worker holding dead bull snake.

Dead bull snake -- the workers coiled it up to try to scare their buddy.

Today's laundry experience was much better than the last time I went to Garcia's laundromat in Cotulla. The laundry room was clean, there were no ants inside, the equipment worked and it was all local women doing their laundry.  Garcia's Grocery wasn't open today, so I went to the bank to buy some quarters. Wednesday morning seems to be a good time to do laundry here.

Upon finishing the laundry, the pharmacy was next on the list for some personal items. Super S grocery store was my next stop where I stocked up on apricots, yellow squash, red potatoes, mushrooms, cauliflower, bananas, limes, and mothballs. Yep, more mothballs. Last night we started seeing black ants in the kitchen. We heard ants don't like mothballs, so I'll put more under the rig around the supports and the tires. 

On the way out of town, I had lunch at Dairy Queen; then headed off to see Kit & Jerry to give them the books.

Jerry was busy checking trucks out of their gate. After they went through, I told him I had some books for them and he said, "Go on in and see Kit." Grabbed the books, met Kit at the door, we went inside where it was cool, and chatted for a bit. Their gate is cranking up and they're busier. I told Kit I bought some corn on the cob and she told me on TV she saw a different way to prepare it. Put the corn--husk, silk and all--into the microwave. Cook the corn four minutes per ear (so if you put two ears of corn in the microwave, cook them for eight minutes). When they're done cooking, cut off the bottom end, hold the silk and shake the corn out. I told her I would try this.

For dinner we had salmon burgers on whole wheat buns and corn on the cob. I cooked the corn as directed, but when we cut the end off the corn and tried to shake out the cob, it didn't work. So we peeled off the husks carefully as they were HOT. Once the husks were gone, it was EASY to shake the corn out and no silk stuck to it. (OK, I take that back, two pieces of silk stuck, but they came right off.) It was easy to do. The corn was wonderful.

Last night, I had one semi with trailer come through at 1:45 a.m.

This evening we had a delivery and that guy told us to expect a lot of tanker trucks tonight. Then we will be cranking up tomorrow morning. It is 2:10 a.m. and no tanker trucks yet. I have a feeling Bob is going to be busy in the morning.

I told Kit as I was going into Cotulla I saw a monstrous piece of equipment heading out of town, it looked like an oil tower. She said a big piece of equipment came in to their site, but we ascertained the timing wasn't right for what I saw to be what had been delivered to them.

Coming back to our site, I noticed something big had knocked over half the tree at the end of our road. Said half of tree was blocking half of the road off Hwy 469, I had to dodge around it to get back to the 5er. First thought I had was, "Oh, the big rig was going to OUR site." Turns out I was right. Here's a photo of it installed.

Tonight I had a good glimpse of the Springbok antelope and was able to get nice photos. They are beautiful creatures! Click on photos to enlarge them. You can see their beautiful corkscrew-like antlers.

Springbok antelope

At night all kinds of interesting critters come around: armadillo, deer, cottontails, skunk, house cat. House cat? What? There's no houses around here. Yet about 1:30 a.m. I looked out the window and saw a cat, house cat sized, house cat coloration, long tail. I don't know where it came from. I went outside and did the "Here kitty, kitty" call. It looked at me, didn't run at first, but changed its mind and ran back into the trees and scrub brush. First time I've seen a cat out here other than our own in the 5er.

Revision to a previous blog (Snakes on a Plain): In the twilight one evening, Bob thought he saw eland on the ranch across the road. We have seen the animals in question again and are sure they're Axis deer, three of them are albino (as they are white) and hang out with the normally colored (tan with white spots) Axis deer. If you look up "albino axis deer" on Google, you'll find photos of them. They are shy and run away when I try to photograph them.

It is now 3:10 a.m. and I just checked in seven trucks, one of them was a semi cab towing huge equipment. All of it went to Pad B. We heard Pad A will start working again in the a.m. Bob is going to be a busy guy. He just woke up to start his shift.

Good night all.