P.S. Wildlife Sightings Today -- Fri., June 1

Fuller Ranch, Cotulla, Texas:

Wildlife I saw today: On my drive to town, I saw the Sable antelope herd on the ranch across the road. Coming home, I saw a hen turkey in a field about a mile from our site.

This evening, the roadrunner was back, again being chased by the mockingbirds. Mr. Roadrunner had something in his mouth. Out came the binoculars. A great big katydid was hanging out of the roadrunner's mouth. Pretty cool. Once again I wished for a more powerful camera. I could have had a wonderful, nature-moment shot. Sigh...one of these days.

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa (as Jimmy Buffett sings). I have a major correction. What we thought were blackbuck antelope are NOT. What we see at Rancho de la Tierra Roja across the road are:

Springbok Antelope

kaybruce.wordpress.com

The springbok is a medium-sized brown and white gazelle that stands about 70 to 90 cm high. Springbok males weigh between 33 and 50 kg and the females between 25 and 40 kg. Wikipedia

Scientific name: Antidorcas marsupialis

Travel Bug out.

Oh, except for a kitty pic (please stop reading if you don't want to see a kitty pic):

Bowie in "my" chair. (Ha! Don't fool yourself, Susan.)

This is what happens when I get up from the computer to check someone in at the gate...one of the two cats usurps my chair. (Bowie in this instance, but it's just as likely to be Sunnie. Notice Sunnie's head sticking out from under the chair. Under the chair is the second most prized takeover area when I'm in the vicinity. When I jump up from my chair to go outside I have to check first for a cat tail, paw, head or body under my feet. Sheesh, what we do for our animals!)

Unusual Creatures -- Thurs., May 24

Cotulla, Texas:

Looks like our gate is about to get busy again. One of the job foreman told me to expect a bunch of semis tonight to haul away the big water tanks. Then in the morning, we will see a line of tanker trucks come in. Our days of one-to-three log pages are over.

Bob is up in San Antonio this afternoon and evening. He is doing a Costco and Office Max run. I took over for him about 1:30 p.m., but the gate hasn't been too busy up to this point. We are just finishing up page two on the log.

The temperature is 102 today and a hot breeze is blowing which alleviates the black biting flies. We've had dust devils come ripping through our site (and believe me there's plenty of dust and wind). I try not to be outside in the path of one.

Last night one of the Springbok antelope was visible on the ranch across the road. 

Springbok Antelope

kaybruce.wordpress.com

The springbok is a medium-sized brown and white gazelle that stands about 70 to 90 cm high. Springbok males weigh between 33 and 50 kg and the females between 25 and 40 kg. Wikipedia

Scientific name: Antidorcas marsupialis

I am a nature girl. Love to be out in it, exploring, discovering, communing with benevolent wildlife. For some reason the wildlife like to live with us. You heard about the Bewick's wren we had to dissuade from nesting under our slide out. ( A Little Bird and A Little Bird, Part 2 )

Today we had a walking stick living with us on our entry door. Isn't it cool! I love walking sticks. They're designed to camouflage in bushes by looking exactly like a twig. Bob pointed out that this one wasn't doing a very good job. Our fifth wheel trailer door is white.

In the photo, I put my hand next to it so you can see how big it is. I would have picked it up and put it on my arm, but I didn't want to disturb it. (Again, my apologies for all the dust inside my camera. I don't know how to get it out. Compressed air says not to use it on camera mirrors.)

That is the biggest walking stick I have seen. We had walking sticks and praying mantis at our house in Hawaii, but nothing like this. (Everything's bigger in Texas, right?)

Other unusual creatures: 

• Bob and one of the workers spotted what looked like a scorpion without a tail. They didn't know what it was so they squashed it...said it was real juicy. (Just like a man to say that.) Looking on Google it may have been a vinegaroon (alt. spelling vinegarone), sunspider [also called wind scorpion] or a whip scorpion, none of which are harmful to people.
• I saw quite a few 2" long, shiny black, wasp-like flying insects. One of them had picked up a cricket as big as it was and carried it away. Sounds kind of like the new "warrior wasps" from Indonesia.
• Numerous types of beetles

The trailer is shakin' like a leaf on a tree as the winds are picking up. Weather forecast says gusts as high as 21 mph. I think the gusts may be a bit stronger than that. We have massive clouds of blowing dust. The dust sets off the motion detector at the gate and rings the bell in our trailer. Think of a continuously dinging doorbell.  It's making me a little ringy dingy.  : (


Darkness is descending. According to our log, there are still two people at Pad A. I wonder if they're still back there or if they exited through the "cow gate." Hmmmm.


All for now. I'm going to attempt to latch the front gate (in the wind, no less.)


Got the gate closed. While I was out closing the gate, I saw four deer crossing by Pad A.

Exotic Animals -- Sun., May 20

Cotulla, Texas:

Susan: 2; Gate: 1. I have conquered the gate! Tonight I successfully closed it twice even with a light wind blowing and the distraction of new (to me) exotic animals across the road.

That's right, as the gate was closing, across the road was a herd of about 15 large, dark-brown exotic animals with horns that curved over their backs. These were much bigger than the Springbok antelope I normally see. Into the 5er I went to check my exotic animal brochure. (Yes there really is such a thing, published by the Kerrville, Texas Convention & Visitors Bureau.)

There it was on the second to the last page: Sable antelope (Hippotragus niger). Introduced from Africa. Chestnut brown to brownish-black. Mane from neck to shoulders. Underside of body and narrow thigh band white. Mask pattern. Female: 190-230 lbs.  Male: 200-270 lbs.

Excitement courses through my body whenever I see majestic animals. Tonight was a great gate-closing moment!

For those of you not familiar with why there are exotic animals in Texas, I refer you to a 60 Minutes news story from January 2012: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7396832n on the exotic game ranches of Texas. The video is about 14 minutes long.

The brochure "Exotic & Native Animals of the Texas Hill Country" by the Kerrville Convention and Visitors Bureau states:

Exotic game animals were introduced to the Texas Hill Country over sixty years ago. Due to the efforts of the Hill Country game ranchers and their diligent wildlife management practices, the Texas Hill Country has vast herds of some species that are now endangered and even extinct in their country of origin. Today in this area, there are more than 100,000 exotic game animals from over 45 different species.

Also see my previous post RV + River + Ranch = Roaming about our tour at YO Ranch.

There are SO MANY mosquitoes here. At night, whenever we open the door to outside, about 10 mosquitoes come in. I spend a lot of my awake time tracking them down and smashing them to smithereens.

Time for sleep. Getting up early to go to Carrizo Springs to do laundry and investigate the town. Bob will hold down the fort gate. Today was really slow and we didn't fill one whole page of the log. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Good night.

Never a Dull Moment -- Fri., May 11

 Cotulla, Texas:

Compared to rainy yesterday, today was gorgeous and about 84 degrees, 70% humidity (tolerable).

Bob's shift was pretty routine. Normal amount of traffic. Oh, except there was a big mud hole just past where they had been grading and putting rock down into the caliche. Trucks were nosediving into it. A grader came out and many truckloads of gravel were put down which the grader then smoothed into the roadbed of caliche dust.

I came on duty at 3:00 p.m. Bob went to the post office to pick up our mail. On the way back he stopped to visit Kit and Jerry. He had a wonderful time picking their brains about internet reception, gate guarding, past history...just a good, old-fashioned visit.

About 45 minutes after Bob left for town, I witnessed an accident inside our gate between two sand trucks. I won't bother you with the details. I did get some pictures of the damage, though.

Tire removed already. Damaged wheel.

Crunched license plate, damaged grill, hood crunched upward.

Assessing the damage.

That was the first incident on my shift. 

Next thing I know, trucks that had exited the gate onto Harvey Smith Rd south were all backing up into our gate to turn around, even the rock trucks that were supposed to put more rock down. When the grader guy got off shift around 10:40 p.m., he brought the grader in and parked it across from our rig (which is where he left his pick-up truck). I asked him what was going on down the road. 

He replied, "An inexperienced trucker got stuck in the hole, broke the axle and ruined the transmission. I tried to pull him out, but couldn't. Two other trucks combined tried to pull him out, but couldn't. The road is blocked. I've been sending everyone I can around another way. There's nothing more we can do tonight. A semi tow truck will be here in the morning. I'll be back first thing."

While the second incident wasn't exactly at our gate, it impacted where our truckers had to go to get here. And some who left had to back up 1/2 mile to turn around at our gate.

Oh, I forgot to mention, we have an excellent bird feeder. Our night lights attract all manner of moths, beetles, termites, lightning bugs, and who knows what else. There are no bats! During the day, all kinds of birds come to the generator/light stand and have easy pickin's of whatever ever bug buffet suits them. We have Bewick's wrens, mockingbirds, a male and female cardinal, and other birds I haven't identified yet. Today the Bewick's wren came within a few inches of my shoe. My nature moment for the day.

Kitty story: We have discovered what floats our cats' boats...flying insects--moths to be exact. (Beetles are exciting too, but just not as much fun.) A moth enters the 5er, intense hunter cat mode ensues. Both Sunnie and Bowie go nuts, leaping tall furniture in a single bound, climbing upholstered valances, staring down moths on the ceiling as if they can entrance them to fly around some more.

Yesterday Sunnie caught a good-sized moth. He proudly carried it around in his mouth, would let it go and catch it again. If Bowie got too close, Sunnie hissed and growled.

This evening there were plenty of moths to go around and both cats had their own playthings. They don't eat them (probably too fuzzy), just play with them and carry them around.  Apparently Sunnie does eat beetles.

"I see a moth. Yum!"

Two cats hunting.

As I'm sitting here typing the two cats just finished hunting some bug under the dining chairs and I can hear Sunnie's bug crunching noises from where I sit...sounds like a crunchy beetle, not a soft moth.

They wore themselves out. Some moths live on, but the cats are sleeping. By morning, we'll probably discover more dead moths.

More random pictures from the last few days:

These cats love playing in and around boxes! See those little holes...they make good spots for Bowie's paws to attack Sunnie.

Bewick's wren. It's there, really!

Equipment move

Bob doing his job.

Pad B before the flood.

Bowie

Springbok antelope running away from me again.

Grackle

Grackle.

Trailing edge of the front--May 10, 2012.

Trailing edge of the front -- May 10, 2012

Trailing edge of the front.

The storm that passed over us, leaving for the day.

Kitties playing.

Catered lunches -- Fri., May 4

Cotulla, Texas: 

Bob read my blog from yesterday. I asked if I forgot anything. He said, "Yes, you forgot to mention the catered lunch."

How could I forget? Party Express caterer came to Pad A at our gate to cook lunch for the crew on site. On the way out she stopped and handed Bob two plates loaded with food: marinated flank steak, mac and cheese, pork sausages, rolls, beans, and chocolate cake--Texas-size helpings! Bob thanked her and brought the plates in. 

Bowie (our Siamese cat) and I went nuts over the flank steak. Bowie helped me out by eating a good portion of it. That cat loves steak. Sunnie, on the other hand, could take it or leave it. I didn't particularly care for the food on the rest of the plate, so Bob ate my roll, beans and mac & cheese. I got his serving of steak which I will eat another day (and share with the fur-kids).

I went to bed around 5:30 a.m. and got up at 9:30 a.m. I couldn't go back to sleep. Bob was super busy from 4:30 a.m. until almost the end of his shift. 

Again, we got catered lunches: pork chops with gravy, rice, roll and mixed peas and carrots. The pork chop was very good--she gave us five pork chops for the two of us. Bob doesn't eat red meat so four of the pork chops went in the freezer. If this keeps up, we'll run out of freezer space fast.

While Bob worked his shift, I went into town to do errands:

1. Set us up with General Delivery at the post office
2. Bought a 39-gallon trash can and plastic liner bags at Ace Hardware (no dumpster provided for our garbage). Also talked to Ace about receiving FedEx or UPS deliveries for us (no problem).
3. Went grocery shopping at Super S Foods.

Here's a picture of what we're paid to do: check in all visitors to the site.

You got a problem with that?

After Bob finished his shift, he made a salad to go with our catered food and we had dinner. Bob walked when dinner was over, said he saw the three Springbok antelope farther down the ranch property this evening.

While Bob was gone I had some time to bird watch. The woodpecker was out in its usual tree tonight. I studied it for a long time and I'm 99.9% sure it's a Gila woodpecker. The reddish color on top of its head isn't as bright as a Golden-fronted woodpecker and it doesn't have yellow above its beak.

I've been relatively busy checking trucks in and out this evening. Seems like I've been hopping up and down way more than last night. One trucker who was camping overnight at Pad A had to go to the gate to show his friend how to get in. (Remember it's pitch black out here except for our little lights which don't do much.)  

Then another trucker's trucker friend got stuck and this guy went to pull him out. Apparently he borrowed a heavy-duty chain from another one of the trucker's here and told him he'd be back with it in ten minutes. Well, he wasn't back and the lendee trucker had to leave. Long story short, the trucker who loaned the chain wants me to collect it from the borrower as soon as he returns and save it for the him to pick up tomorrow. Alrighty then.

I finished reading "Catching Fire," the second book in "The Hunger Games" trilogy. What an ending! Luckily I have "Mockingjay" here and I've started reading it. The books are an excellent read.