LOCAL MOTHER ABANDONS NEWBORN TRIPLETS!

Today was day two of the Liberty Hill school kids.  We had about 115 energetic fourth and fifth graders descend on Doeskin Ranch  a half hour earlier than scheduled (just like yesterday).  We were ready for them, though.  :)

I need to tell you about a side bar to yesterday's program. (notice the title of the post)  As Peggy and Paul  began unpacking the van, filled with the education supplies, Peggy pulled out the bag of shredded  ash juniper strips, and noticed a mouse run out of the bag, jump out of the van, and head into the surrounding grass.  These strips are from the bark of mature ash juniper trees, and used by the endangered golden-cheeked warblers to build their nests.

One of the stations in this Bridges to Birding Program is nest building, and students must construct a nest out of the bark strippings as if they were a golden-cheeked warbler.

That means they must weave a nest using only the forefinger and thumb of one hand, as their "beak", to build it.  Yesterday, as the teacher was removing more of these strips from the big, plastic, black bag, she pulled out a mouse's nest with three newborn mice in it!  What a surprise that was for everyone!  Just about every child in all the classes had to see that.  The mouse nest was placed under the trees, but I'm sure the mother never found it.  So, the mother mouse abandoned ship, but Peggy thinks she had one newborn in her mouth as she exited.  Such is the law of nature.

When the kids finish their constructions, they put them in a close by bush and the teacher places an egg in each one to see if the nest is viable.  There are four student built nests in this bush....see if you can find them.

We only have about eighteen minutes to present our information to the students before they move on to the next station.  Peggy is in charge of moving people along, and gives us a warning blast on the horn to let us know to quickly rap things up.  It is a lot of material to cover in eighteen minutes, and after two days, and 16 presentations, I've got it pretty well fine tuned.  :)  I must say, though, that my sixteenth presentation wasn't as enthusiastic as the first ten or so.  :(  Having to stand and present for six hour stretches really does a number on my ankles.  By the end of the day, I have trouble stumbling around.  Oh, to be young again!

After I got back to the rig and took Emma out, fellow volunteer, Lynn,  and I headed down to the headquarters building to try to get some pictures of the newly arrived barn swallows.

These pics leave something to be desired, but here's one swallow checking out last year's nest as a red wasp also checks out the territory.

"Hey, Mabel, I think we ought to just use last year's nest.  What do you think?"

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later,  Judy

THEY'RE BACK!!

After about five rodent free days, I added two mice to the ongoing body count.  It's now up to nineteen!  I found one victim under the frig in a snap trap, and the other was caught in the glue trap that I placed inside the motorhome motor.  The glue trap placed in the motor had slipped to the ground once the mouse was stuck.  Emma found that one more than interesting, as it's tail was still swishing around.  I put it out of it's misery and deposited it in the outside garbage can.  I was hoping the warmer temperatures would keep the mice in the fields, but I guess not.

After a long walk with Emma down FR1985, dodging the speeding trucks, I spent the rest of the day just relaxing.  In the afternoon, I got a call from the nursing home where my mother lives.  They were unable to contact my brother, who lives close by, so they called me to let me know that the doctor felt we should begin hospice services for her.  She was not having a good day; increased blood pressure and trouble breathing.  She is on a DNR order, and the prognosis is not good.  Eventually, I spoke to both of my brothers.  It is hard for all of us.

Last night's sunset was pretty nice for Anahuac.

This was the view out the window beside my table.

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later,  Judy

Deep freeze coming!

When I got up this morning, I instantly noticed that I had no water. ;)  I checked the temperature, and it was 25* outside.  It took until 10:30 for the water hose to defrost.  Hmmm, it got a lot colder last night than predicted.  It's supposed to be above freezing for the next two nights, but then we are in for three miserably freezing nights and days.  Normally I would just unhook the hose and use my fresh water tank.  The problem is that I have very little potable water left in the tank, and I really don't want to fill the tank with the water available out of the hookups here.  No one drinks that water.  We get our drinking water at the community building where a new 20 gallon reverse osmosis machine purifies the water.

I decided to give Stephanie, the volunteer coordinator, a call to see if the refuge had any heat strips that I could use on the hose.  It turns out that at the weekly staff meeting, keeping the volunteers comfortable came up for an extended discussion.

This was the result of part of that discussion.  The hose was lifted off of the ground and insulated.  I hope that works.

The other part of the discussion centered around the rodent problem.  The refuge has decided to move forward with using poison (this is not usually done on a refuge) in addition with supplying me with six more glue traps.  The glue traps I put out myself  haven't caught a thing yet.  I set up three of the new traps on the outside of the rig.  One in the engine compartment, one in the generator compartment, and one in another storage area.  I'm going to continue to use the snap type traps inside the rig.  So, all in all, I have nine traps set in a 29' rig!  The body count so far has risen to 17 in the last two weeks....all caught inside the rig.  YUCK!

The other couple that is volunteering here at this time is leaving several weeks early since they are fed up with conditions.  For now I'll stay, but if I find a mouse running across my body while I'm in bed, I'm out of here.  This happened to one of the fire guys that is in the trailer across from me.  That is just too creepy for me.

So that's the latest for today.  The rest of the day was spent doing laundry and cleaning the rig...ho hum.

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later,  Judy

One heck of a cold front

Shortly before five this morning, I was rudely awakened by thunder, lightening, a deluge of rain, and winds so strong I felt like the rig was going to roll over. I literally jumped out of bed, and in less than three minutes, I rearranged things and brought the slide-outs in! Then Emma and I sat in the living area and watched the news. What else can you do at five in the morning? Actually, I was surprised that I still had electricity. It seems anywhere I've been that the electric goes out with a storm of this intensity.

Eventually, the front moved through, the rain abated, and the skies cleared. The wind, however, continued to blow at an average of 32mph with gusts much higher. I had to make a decision....do the salinity tests and bird survey today, or try to get it done tomorrow morning before starting to cook for our Christmas Dinner at the RV pads. I decided to get it done today, so off I went.

I have two places that I stop to do the salinity tests, and this is the first one. I hope you notice the muddy conditions. I donned my rubber boots, stuffed the salinity meter into my pockets, grabbed my walking stick for stability, and began the challenge of sloshing through the muck and mire.


This is the view looking back through the mud that is spiced with plenty of cow pies. :) A fragrant and boot sucking trek to say the least. This is where the cattle drive, that I posted pictures of last week, ended up. The cows had moved off to another section, so at least I didn't have to deal with them up close and personal.


Once I got to the culvert that has locks (as in water locks, not combination/key locks) on it for increasing/decreasing water flow, I took out the salinity tester. It measures salinity in parts per million.

My job is to submerge the sensor to several inches above the bottom to get a reading. Today, the reading was 4.4; last time it was 3.3, so things do change.

After I tested in four locations, I drove to the Shoveler Pond Loop to do the bird survey. Since the hurricane, there has generally not been much to see on the loop bird wise. I thought it might be a little different this afternoon because of the high winds. The slightly inland location of the loop would afford some protection from those winds. I was right! While the variety and number of birds was not astronomical, it was probably the best count for this year. It took me two hours to do that 2.5 mile loop.

I'm really glad that I did the tests and survey today so I can just enjoy the holiday tomorrow. The winds are still blasting away close to 40 mph, but they're supposed to subside to around 20 by 9:00. Maybe these conditions will keep the rodents flying past the rig tonight????

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy

A scary experience!

This afternoon, I headed for the main part of the refuge to patrol the roads for litter. Some volunteers don't like picking up litter, but I do. The reason I like it is because I'm outside and can enjoy the wildlife while I'm working. I was driving my official refuge vehicle and decided to start with the route around Shoveler Pond. I had noticed quite a bit of litter there last week, but apparently someone else had picked it all up. I headed down the road to the boat launch on the bay. This is where many fisherman go. There is never a lack of beer cans, bait containers, and other junk that has been tossed along the road. I don't understand why fishermen (and women) can't take their trash with them. Anyway, I stopped numerous times to get out to gather the trash. As I tried to slow for more garbage, a light started flashing on the dash and an alarm was sounding. I couldn't stop...NO BRAKES! Thank goodness this happened on a refuge road and not on FM1985! I don't even want to think about the possibilities of what could have happened on that road where the truckers go about 80 mph.

I turned around and cautiously headed back to the shop only to find that the gate was closed and locked. I have a key to get in, but the problem was that a closed gate meant no one was is the temporary office area or the shop. I had noticed that Chuck, the staff that takes care of all the vehicles, had left the refuge around noon. Now what do I do? I didn't want to try driving the ten miles back to the rigs on FM 1985. I had passed John, the refuge assistant manager, on the road, but was unable to stop to flag him down. Thank goodness, I carry an emergency phone list for the refuge in my fanny pack. I called John, and he was able to return to the shop and get a different vehicle for me so I could get back home. Now I'm driving a ten passenger van around. That's really overkill for what I need, but at least the brakes work.

Before the brakes gave out, I was able to get a few shots around Shoveler Pond. One of the few survivors of the hurricane was out sunning himself. This big boy or girl was about eight feet long.
You can estimate the length of an alligator by looking at its head. The distance between the nostrils and eyes, in inches, converts to how many feet long the gator is.

I also spotted a Roseate Spoonbill quite a distance out in the fresh water marsh. This one wasn't very rosy, so I guess it hasn't been eating too many shrimp, which produce the reddish color.

Loosing the brakes was enough excitement for me for today. By the way, the body count is up to seven so far. After a suggestion from a reader, Jack, to fix them for Christmas dinner, I'm thinking of keeping them in the freezer so I can share the wealth with him in case he visits next month. ;)

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy

Increasing my arsenal!

This is the six o'clock report from the front lines of the great rodent war. After initially disposing of one dead body a few days ago, things were fairly quiet. I was still hearing some scratching noises, and Emma would jump up and rush over to the refrigerator several times in the evening, but my traps remained empty. I had put some additional sticky traps in the outside storage areas and on the kitchen counter, but I couldn't entice any furry critters to visit them.

So, today I went to Lowe's in Baytown, TX, to get a new electric space heater. The one I have in the front of the rig has been acting funny recently, and I thought I should replace it before something unfortunate happened. I've used it quite a bit in the last three years, and I'd rather be safe than sorry. While I was at Lowe's, I checked out their mouse traps and was finally able to find the kind I'm comfortable with. I bought four more of them.

When I got back to the rig, I heard mouse type noises that seemed to come from under the shower. Under my refrigerator, which is next to the shower, I have a long shallow drawer that I keep all my tin foil, baggies, and plastic wrap in. I decided to pull that drawer out to see what was underneath it. As I pulled it out, it was obvious that this was a favorite location for my adversaries. P.U.!!!! I didn't need to see the evidence, I could smell it. I loaded up a trap with peanut butter and put it under the drawer on the floor. It is behind a portion of the lower wall where quite a few electrical wires are located. Within 30 minutes, I had caught two mice. Aha...maybe I'm making some headway. YUCK...I hate meeces to pieces!

As if the mouse problem isn't enough, I had another surprise this weekend. When I wake up in the morning, I look out the window at the head of my bed to see what is going on with the weather. Yesterday morning, about 6:30, I looked out the window and noticed a huge spray of water going up and out from my hose connection. The small ditch to the east of the rig was full of water. Sometime during the night a hole had blown out in the Y connection that the hose was attached to. I scrambled to get outside and turn off the water. That connector and hose belong to the refuge and have been in place for several years. The fire guys couldn't get it off when they moved the refuge trailer off of the site last week when I moved over here. The connection was so corroded, that it was impossible to unscrew it. Of course it was Sunday, so no one was working on the refuge. Luckily, I had about 12 gallons left in my fresh water tank from my travels. Nathan, the maintenance guy, was able to replace the old corroded faucet today, so I'm back in business for doing dishes and showering. It wasn't a horrible experience, but just one of those little bumps in the road.

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy

Finally, a break in the bad weather

When the sun rose this morning, you could actually see it! I headed in to the shop to help one of the staff members clean up the sign area in the loft of the shop. My guess would be that there are enough signs in storage to last about fifty years. These signs are mostly road signs like speed limits, detours, no hunting, Nat'l Wildlife Refuge boundary signs, and all kinds of curves, along with trail signs. Quite a number of them were recovered from the debris from Ike. We sorted through all of them and got the area organized. Some old signs were reusable, but others were really beyond use. I can honestly say that I've never done a job like this before. ;) We were also kept company by a number of mice scurrying around.

This must be the year of the small rodent at Anahuac. Makes me think of the rise and fall of the lemming populations in the far north. I'm sure all the northern harriers and red-tailed hawks must be staying healthy with the wealth of food for them to catch. Do you more mature folks remember the body counts on the nightly news during the Viet Nam War? Well, we have our own version of the body count each morning as we compare notes on how many mice were caught in the traps overnight at the RV pads! Wouldn't it be wonderful if rodent engagements were the only kind of war our country had to deal with?

After lunch, I headed over to the office, in the town of Anahuac, and worked with Stephanie all afternoon on the education programs. We were able to get the kindergarten program ironed out and began work on the first grade program. We have to make sure that what we do goes along with the Texas science standards for each grade level. Kindergarten students need to learn about their five senses, so we developed a station for each sense. Most stations are activity driven at that age, and I think we came up with some enjoyable learning experiences for the little people. Stephanie has the next two weeks off, so I won't be meeting with her again until the new year.

Tomorrow, I'm scheduled to work in the VIS all day, so I'll have to be up and at 'em quickly in the morning. I'm still debating whether or not to take Emma along with me. Nine hours is a long time to just leave her to her own devices in the rig. :(

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy

The battle begins!

Do you like rodents? I don't mind rodents as long as they stay in their natural habitat (read as outside my rig!). I bet you can guess what my battle is. Colin, the volunteer from England, told me he was trapping up to four mice a night in his trailer this past week. I hadn't seen any evidence in my rig, but I loaded up two traps with peanut butter just in case. Around 9:00 last night, Emma and I heard an unusual noise from under the kitchen sink. Sure enough, a little furry creature bit the dust. Later in the evening, Emma flew across the rig and dove under the steering wheel. I didn't see anything, but she's usually sound asleep by then. Hmmm....looks like I'll have to work more aggressively to overcome the onslaught.

Toward that end, I looked for more mouse traps while I was out shopping this afternoon. I can't stand those wooden traps with the spring and lever. They just make me nervous to set up. I have two plastic traps that accomplish the same thing without a danger of "catching" my fingers. Of course, I couldn't find any of the plastic traps today, but I bought four glue traps instead. I hope they have improved the glue on those things. When I tried them about five years ago, I ended up with a pile of fur on the trap and a half bald mouse running around the house!

Anyway, I'm going to put one under the hood of the motorhome and a couple in the basement storage compartments tomorrow. I will prevail!

The other challenge for the day was to somehow get more heartguard pills for Emma. She is due to have one on the 17th, and I don't have any left. When I lived in Minnesota and New York, heartguard was only needed six months of the year. Now, I have to have Emma on them all year since I am seldom in an area without mosquitoes. I eventually found the vet where I took Emma when she first came to me (she was dumped on this refuge two years ago). I brought all my vet records along, and after calling the vet in Lago Vista, TX, they allowed me to buy another six month supply to the tune of $44. If I were in the Rio Grande Valley this year, I'd just go down to Mexico and get the same thing for $17, but since I'm not, I paid the price.

The weather continues to be overcast and rainy with increasing winds from the north. There may be some sun by the weekend. I sure hope so.

Thanks for stopping by....talk to you later, Judy