I wonder how delightful it will be when we have no pets to wake us before daybreak. Somehow I’ve become the defacto pre-dawn SpotDog letter-outter. I turned on the awning lights to check for wild critters. Smelled a skunk yesterday. We don’t want to share an RV with that. The coast is clear. SpotDog steps out, does her business, and is back in in a flash. Very similar to the speed I returned to bed. At first light GrayCat stepped on Margo. Not a light “Good morning Momma I hope you slept well” tip, tip. More like stomp, stomp, “Hey Minion. My food bowl isn’t brim full”. Margo sipped on coffee for an hour while I got more sleep. Slept even better the second night.
Made HappyDog comfortable and we walked on the county road which runs alongside the irrigation canal going south. We passed the house usually housing state park personnel. It’s deserted. The grass and weeds were high. A digital box was hanging off kilter. The exterior is covered in stucco wire and it’s been that way for a while. I wonder why they quit the stucco process. The hot water heater door was laying in the yard. What is it about hot water heater doors? Seems like the first thing that always falls off. A nice double wide going to waste.
After the state park property is a field. A fellow is plowing almost perfect rows. What’s odd is he is plowing almost identical to what is there. Tall rows with three tiny furrows at the top of each. In the next field, water is shooting out of a 12″ diameter steel pipe and running down the concrete canal to the pecan orchard we stopped at yesterday. Field #3 was disked flat a bit ago. Across the road is a small pecan orchard that perhaps has been left to ruin. Trees missing. Standing dead. Untrimmed. Weeds under. The remaining trees are still producing big green husks. At $9 a pound there’s still a lot of money in the branches.
At one mile we turned back. Whew, it’s hot out in the open with no shade. A truck turned into the dying orchard and soon a glob of smoke popped up. We walked back to the dam. A fellow came to fish but had no idea how to fish lures in the fast, muddy water. Live bait or power bait held slightly outside the fast moving water are the only way I’ve seen fish taken here. We told him of the slower water, and he drove down to the other end.
Some more time was spent watching the birds at the dam. I continue to be amazed at the clarity of my 8x binoculars. I could see red dragonflies on the other side of the dam.
We’re hungry. Leftovers, the heroes of the refrigerator, come to our aid. Pulled out the eggs, bacon, onions, mushroom and cheese scramble Margo cooked for me. And slow pan fried yellow squash and cauliflower I cooked at home.
Much to the delight of a stranger, Margo walked GrayCat on her halter. He stopped and asked her about how to teach a cat as he’d like to teach his. It’s easy. Start when the cat is young and don’t let it outside without a halter. We did see his cat on a halter under his RV. I guess the issue is getting the cat to move instead of bucking and rolling around. One thing GrayCat does quite well is move on leash.
I’ve had it with the sun determining where I sit. The last couple of sunlight hours our entire picnic table area is in sun. So I got out a 10’x10′ camp tarp of a quality far surpassing those blue ones from the super and hardware stores. Has never been out of the bag. Sewn gusseted corner straps with three more ties along the perimeter. The gap between shed and rock wall is four feet, so I leave the tarp folded at 5’x10′ and tie it to the shelter roof frame. Not possible without two-step stepladder. The mid line has gussets also. I tie the corners to big rocks and a tree to stop it from rubbing against the rock wall. What a nice big swath of shade. I just wish I had another to put on the southern side to get rid of a three foot wide beam of sunlight that hits the concrete pad and rock wall all day. If I could cover them, I’d never have to go inside during the day. Downside is it limits what we can see.
The dusk walk presents me with a new bird. A black head, wings and tail and a bring orange-red body.
A cool evening after a napless afternoon caused me to abed myself at 10 pm instead of my midnight. I cringed when I thought of the effect it would have. I’d be up at dawn.
Trekking Tess 