Welcome to our Adventure!

Al and I are thrilled that you have found your way to our blog. We hope you enjoy reading our journal and viewing our photographs of the natural wonder of our United States of America. Let's hit the road together!
Homer, Alaska

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

What is That??

As I awoke this morning, there was a strange, yellowish glow coming through the window. I dashed out and opened the shades, and there's an odd yellow ball in the sky...can it really be the sun???

It's also supposed to be a bit warmer. Yesterday's chill drizzle had me back in my hat and gloves! I didn't like it :-(.

Just some odds and ends today, as we haven't done too much except wait to get started working again...which is today! Monday we located a Home Depot 9 miles from here, in Brighton. Very nice area to go for shopping, if we can't find it here by us, we'll find it in Brighton! We bought our piece of plywood to make our deck, and then went across the street to PetSmart. They have dry food for both Chelsea and Casey there, so that's good, and we picked up a few cans of Purina ProChoice to try out. There's a weight-control series to try Chelsea on as well, although the extra walking she's getting should help take a few pounds off. There's also a Panera Bread in the shopping complex, making me very happy :-), and we picked up some soup for lunch and some Asiago Cheese bread to go with dinner for a few nights...yum!

The afternoon was devoted to building the deck. leveling it off took some work, but luckily Al thought ahead and bought a piece of 2x4 to cut up for shims. Guess I can't give him a hard time about bringing the saw now :-). Then we fastened the patio rug down on it, and we have a nice entryway! It's easier for Chelsea to get up the stairs now as well. The first step was pretty far off the ground. They also cut the grass here yesterday, so we moved our table and lounge chairs off to the side and now the grass is nice and short out front. Now I just have to clean out the fire ring, get some wood, and get some pots of flowers, and I'll be all set for the summer :-). Let it come, please!

We've had quite a few birds showing up at the feeders. This is a pair of goldfinches who have been regulars. I was also told that we get a lot of hummingbirds here in the summer, so I'm going to put out a hummingbird feeder for sure! I have to watch and make sure that the birds don't become too messy, though, if you know what I mean :-).

Lastly, we finally found out what's been driving the pups crazy around here. I thought it was chipmunks, but didn't get a really close look until Monday. There's holes in the ground all over the place, and the pups go nuts when we go for a walk, sticking their snouts into every one they come across. Of course, I keep telling them to be careful where they stick their noses, one day its going to get nipped, but they don't care :-). So anyway, as I was sitting at the table on Monday, I saw what I thought was a chipmunk, but it's very strange looking! Turns out that they are not chipmunks, they are thirteen-lined ground squirrels. I never heard of them before!
The thirteen-lined ground squirrel is from 4 1/2 to 6 1/2 inches long, with a tail that is 2 1/2 to 5 inches long. The body is light to dark brown, with 13 stripes down its back. The stripes alternate between solid white and ark with white dots. Thirteen-lined ground squirrels live in short grasslands and weedy areas. This squirrel needs to see over the top of the grass when it stands on its hind legs. Golf courses, cemeteries, parks, roadsides , and airport land are ideal because they are occasionally mowed. The squirrels dig burrows without a mound of soil at the entrance. They spread the soil around and pat it down with their feet and the top of their head. Breeding takes place once a year about mid-April and the babies are born about 28 days later. The babies come out of the burrows about a month after birth. That should be interesting when that happens!!

So I have a new species to add to my animal sightings list, No new birds yet, but I'm hoping. I took the time yesterday afternoon, since it was cold and wet out, to research the parks in the area for hiking and wildlife observation. There's about six state parks an 3 metro parks within a 30 minute drive of the campground, and most are centered around lake areas...did I mention there's alot of lakes in the area? So there's plenty of hiking and boating available within a short distance, which is good, given the price of fuel :-(.

At 10am today, I meet with David at the Park Store to start my training along with another girl Vicky. It'll be good to get my brain working again at something :-). Then at 1pm Al starts his rangering training. Another workamper couple arrived last night, and pulled in behind us, so we have backside neighbors now. They were here last year, and Cathy is rangering with Al, while Dave is working maintenance. The campground is starting to fill it's workamper sites, another one pulled in and set up in the block down the road from us, so we haven't met them yet. I'll let you know tomorrow how things went, and until then, have a great day!

PS: For everyone who has trouble posting comments, this blog entry has a good explanation...far better than I can do! take a look, it's about halfway through Rick's post. It should help you figure it out.
http://rickpaulettervjournal.blogspot.com/2011/05/blue-heron-and-options-for-comment-ids.html

4 comments:

  1. Good luck on the training today!

    Glad you finally saw sun. You must have sent the rain south. It's been raining here since last evening...it got cold too :(

    ReplyDelete
  2. so are you keeping track of your animal finds? It would be kind of cool to have a post with pictures of all the animals you find as RV'ers.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Glad to see it has 'sunned up' for you!!

    Neat ground squirrel info.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This looks like a beautiful place. Hope you are enjoying!

    Bruce and Laura Raber

    ReplyDelete