5-legged frog

Ern, my youngest son, has a dog that loves hunting frogs in the stream running through his front yard.  As he was trying to get the frog from Lily, the dog, he noticed that the frog had 5 legs.  If you are interested, he has posted a picture of it on Facebook. It is one of those freaks of nature that we sometimes see.  It is a really good picture.  Check it out when you get a chance.   Maybe he should put it on you-tube; it'd be the perfect thing, especially if it was still alive and moving.  He said it could jump pretty good.

Weight Loss.

Remember some time back when I was going to lose some weight?  Well, I am so excited to inform you that I have lost some weight; I have lost 21 pounds altogether.  Since I have been back in Hannibal, however, I have gained 6 pounds of that back. Not to worry, I am working on that, I have lost 2 of the 6 already. Of course I will not stop with that, I will keep going.  I have yet to lose a clothing size.  So that will be my goal after the six pounds are gone.  I want to thank you all for your support in this life-saving endeavor.

Sick Auto!

On the hottest day so far since I've returned to Hannibal from Arizona, my little red car failed me for the first time since I bought it.  Since I had no choice in the matter as to where this would take place, I think half the town is angry with me and my car.  It stalled in the lunch rush traffic in the out drive of McDonald's.  The manager helped; he and my grandson physically pushed the car out onto the highway - solved his problem, as I was no longer stalled in the restaurant drive.  Now I'm stalled in what probably is the busiest spot in Hannibal at lunch time, on highway 61 in front of McDonald's.  Thanks to a good Samaritan(thank you Louise,) who stopped to help, I was able to purchase a new battery to replace the two month old battery that was now dead.   The auto parts store checked out my car and told me the alternator was not working therefore it could not charge the battery.  So, I purchased a new alternator, paid to have it installed and the battery light was still on so it was replaced by another alternator and a new belt which should be replaced while everything was unattached. You know it was one of those belts that, one size fits all.  That is it is the one belt attached to a lot of different working parts and probably the old belt was fine; but logically it makes sense to replace it while all those parts are loose and a belt has to be put back in place.   I end up with a spare battery and my battery light is still on; however, the alternator is working, everything is charging as it should so until I find a rational explanation for that little red light, I will ignore it.  That was an expensive trip to McDonald's. 

Continued................(April, 2011)

The RV is parked about one hundred feet from the old Octave Cemetery.  There are only rocks on some graves, no markers, no names.  Some people in the area gathered and put in some metal crosses and more stones to mark the graves, probably within the last five years.  I've taken some night pictures in which I can can see some ghostly looking figures; but no one else can see them.  Most of the people buried here were probably gold miners from the 1849's.  This was a thriving tent city back then, all about gold mining.  By the way, they only kept the really  huge nuggets or chunks of gold because it wasn't worth very much back then.  They discarded the dust and small flakes and nuggets.  Therefore, theere's still gold in them that hills.  Lot of history in this area,  Lot of lore still being told. 

Continued................(April, 2011)

 A day or two ago, I kept hearing a small rock land on top of the RV.  Then little pecks on kitchen window.  At first, I considered a small meteor shower(LOL) then realized someone was throwing tiny pebbles at the window.  Well, it got my attention.  I looked out the window just in time to see a man on a horse riding away.  He had turned to look back but I couldn't see his face.  Too bad, it could have been that cowboy of my dreams.  You know, the one whom I mount the horse behind him, and we both ride off into the sunset together.  The one who looks like Roy Rogers or Gene Autry (LOL).  I was home alone!!  My son and I talked about it later with his friend who said Dam!!.(LOL)   We think we probably know who it was.  With the Mesquite and Palo verde trees and all the different types of cactii, it is hard to see a person coming or going.       

Continued................(April, 2011)

A day or two ago, I kept hearing a small rock land on top of the RV;  hen little pebbles on the windows in the kitchen.  I considered a meteor shower(LOL), then realized someone was throwing tiny pebbles one at a time at my kitchen window.  Well, it got my attention so I looked out the windo9w just in time to see a man on a horse riding away.  He half turned to look back but I couldn't see his face.  Too bad, could have been that cowboy of my dreams.

Continued................(April, 2011)

Here in the Weaver Mountains, there is always a breeze blowing in either dust or clean dry air.  Lately there have been some strong breezes, around fifty miles and hour.  Don't expect your hair to stay combed here.  One has to be very careful about building a camp fire.  It is so dry here a fire can start easily and will spread out of control very fast.  No fire is built here unless the wind is very still. to none; only in a fire ring and no vegetation nearby.  Always keep a shovel and sand close to the fire if needed. use it.  There is no water available in this desert to douse a fire.  The best way to put the fire out is totally cover it with sand and dirt.  Saw a horned toad lizard crawling on the fire pit rocks.  A big one that squirts the paralyzing blood from its eyes at the enemy.

Continued................(April, 2011)

This whole area is about Gold Hunting.  I am doing some prospecting by working with my son and his friend sometimes on BLM land.  That is Bureau of Land Management.  It is located on a mining district  of the BLM named after a person with the last name of Weaver.  He works with a wet sluice.(There are dry ones also.)  The sluice has a mat on the bottom then metal dividers and a screen at the top part.  The sluice shakes the dirt down or in this case, the water washes down the sluice, pushing rocks and dirt alike, washing it along and out  The gold is very heavy and drops to the bottom of the sluice and gets caught in the fiber of the mat and stays there.  At the end of the day, the sluice is washed out, the you pan what is left in the sluice.  The gold appears in black sand and you pick out the gold with tweezers (if you are lucky to find a small nugget)or pick up smaller pieces out with an eye dropper with water in it.   The gold really stands out against the black sand background. 

Continued...................(April, 2011

This whole area is about gold hunting. I am doing some prospecting by working with my son and his friend sometimes.  They are on BLM land which is leased from them as a mining district by the Weaver Company.  We work with a wet sluice.

Continued................(April, 2011)

About three days later, I made a trip into the nearest town which is Congress, Arizona, about 10 miles away. I got gas and stopped at the Family Dollar store which is the only store that one can shop, literally-only store, other than the grocey.  On my way back, up  the first hill with a sharp curve at the top (mountain should I say).  here come my son who was not coming into town that day.(last week of March.).  He was going at a dangerously high raate of speed and his dog patches was with him. I suspected what had happened.  I turned my car around and headed back to town.  I went past the fire station which is on the main road.  As I suspected, there was his jeep parked there with patches(his dog)in it.  I went in and sure enough, there he was laying on a gurney with one of his jeans legs cut off.  He had gotten bit by a rattler.  The firemen EMS (EMT) are trained for this type of situation.  They had already taken blood, and drawn circles around each fang puncture and on uppper and lower of that they had drawn circles around his lower calf.  They measure around these to check for swelling because one way to know if there is venom in the bite.  They were checking his vitals, blood pressure, etc. and asking questions on how he was feeling.  He was walking down a mountain and heard a rattle, seen nothing, but he stopped.  Then he heard another rattle and he jumped aside.  He did not feel the bite at all. The rattlers have teeth like small or smaller than needles where the venom comes from.  They had called the EMS which is like an ambulance to drive him to the hospital.  They also had an air-vac hellicopteron stand-by.  They had to draw more vials of blood to send to the hospital with him.  I parked his jeep where I was instructed to do so and loaded up patches in my car and followed the EMS to the Wickenburg hospital.emergency where they took the vials of blood immediately to the lab to check for venom.  Everry hour then to three hours they took more blood to be checked for venom content.  They also kept measuring his lower calf for swelling.  Records was kept of the measurements from the first measurement.  He never did get any swelling.  They kept him in the emergency room all night checking every three hours for venom in his blood.  He got lucky this time, none showed up.  The older snakes sometimes bite and do not release all its venom because they reallize by the taste and smell that you are not on their regular diet as a mouse or rat would be; whereas the younger snakes will bite and release all their venom in one bite of their prey.  He also got an antibiotic shot.  The doctor said it is better to have the bite farther away from the heart.  He also said venom doesn't always show up until days later.  The Poison Control Center kept calling him to check on him for days later and weeks later, to make sure he was still doing alright.  It was called a dry bite because there was no venom. 

Continued...............(April, 2011.

Speaking of animals, I have took a wonderful picture of a Gila Monster, that is what I was told it was.  I have yet to look that up.  Later I will look it up and report back.  The only gila monsters I have seen are pinkish with big dark spots and their body is about the same size as their tail.  This one was green and a green tail that looked like a turtle tail and the body was round like a turtle without a shell.  Reptiles love the climate here.,  They crawl from under the rocks and lay on top of the rocks to sun themselves.  One afternoon I was outside painting and put my canvass away to dry.  I decided to sit at the same table to read a book.  I was relaxed with my legs stretched out read a little, felt the need to move my legs since they get stiff if I sit in one position for a while.  Something (my guardian angel) made me look down before I moved. what I saw was a rattlesnake crawling or should I say slithering under my legs. It was a pinkish color with grey markings. The locals said it was a mojave. which are a little more venomous than the others and the Green Mojaves have no anti-venom serum. So you live or die if they bite you.  I didn't move, I figured if it hadn't already bitten me, I wasn't going to give it reason by moving.  Plus I probably didn't smell like a mouse or rat or other food they eat.  I jusst waited and waited ............ finally I saw the rattle go past. It was sticking up and had black bands around it. About 4 or 5 of them each about a half inch wide. It was not rattling as yet.  Then I immediately grabbed my walking stick(which I now call my snake stick)and pulled myself up and away.  The snake immediately started rattling and hissing in strike position.  It just wanted to get away from me.  I poked at it with my stick and picked it up on my stick then let it go.  It crawled under a nearby bush.  I noticed it wound around one of the bush stems and hung down so it could catch a rat that might be crawling underneath.  More snake story following...........

Sheperds n Sheep herds

This letter was written the last day of April, 2011. I am still at my son's abode out in the mountains or higher altitude higher altitude desert.  The deserts with plants.  This time of year every plant has blooms and all vegetation is greener.  There is actually some grass growing on the desert floor as well.  We are still having some very cold mornings. This weekend had a couple of very cold nights and early mornings.  Sheperds have driven their sheep down from the ranches in the higher altitudes.  Yes, there are still sheperds, can you believe it. I was amazed.  The sheperd has a dog to help with the herding of the sheep.   I did not get a picture of that but wish I had.  We have open range here,  so one has to be careful driving so you don't hit any animals.  Some of them tend to blend into the background and are very diffult to spot.  We also have a lot of deer and Jack rabbits.  Yes, they are real, with long ears and long legs and the ears stand straight up whetherthey are running or sitting.  I got pictures of some different flowers and blooms.  I will probably paint them on a canvas later. 

I'm in cyberspace again!!

Hello, I'm in Hannibal, Mo again. Sorry about not keeping up with my writing.  I lived in one of those dead spots in the middle of some low range mountains. Somewhere you really may not want to be if you like to use your pc or cell phone.  I did however, enjoy the quiet, sereness of the desert and seeing the cactii, flowers, bushes, trees, animals and birds of the area and the people and gold miners I met in that area. I had written a letter to a friend who lives in Pennsylvania catching her up on the events of my life since I had talked with her last.  I will forward a copy of that letter to you also because it is part of my adventures you missed while I was still in that dead zone. Now I'm in another of those zones.  When I use my cell phone, it goes on roaming every time.  The only way I can make or send calls.I'm sure my bill will be higheer this month. I only make necessary calls.  Best to email me.  I have wifi so I can use my pc here since they have computers.