Iguana

My latest carving

Zebra Tailed Lizard

Iguana

Iguana

I just finished this walking stick. I made it to give to our boss Ginny, she loved it. I went looking for the Desert Iguana tonight and was successful as you see. It is getting really warm now and the lizards are getting more active. It reached 85 here. Louise turned on the air conditioning today after we got home from the store. I will start getting things ready to travel tomorrow.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Mom and baby owl

Mom and baby owl

Just had to post this new find here at the preserve. This is first day we have seen the baby in the nest. Our boss who is a specialist in owls, says there are most likely 3 or 4 babies in the nest. We will keep watching. 11 days and counting before heading out on the road again.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

SAND BLAZING STAR
FLOWER BEETLES

WHIPTAIL LIZARD

CHUCKWALLA LIZARD

We're back! Well we weren't really gone, but we have been busy. We've been hiking around the spring desert viewing the beautiful wildflowers and the very active lizards. The chuckwalla isn't moving much, but the whiptail was hunting, and, well, you can see the flower beetles were exercising. The large one was going forward and the small one was walking backward. The photo of the blazing star doesn't do it justice. The center actually looks as if it's glowing with candlelight.

In our previous post I mentioned I wasn't feeling well. Thankfully that only lasted a day. I have been feeling fine as well as has Duane. We have only 13 days left here, and are looking forward to being on the road again. We will use the last week to thoroughly clean the sand out of the house and put things back where they belong. Duane is getting his last couple of carving projects done and I am getting some sewing done before I put away the machine for a while. When we aren't working or hobbying, we'll be walking around the trails trying to get more fantastic pix for you to enjoy!

More desert later,

Louise and Duane

One month to go

Pincushion
Wild heliotrope

California Sunflower

Turkey Vulture

Turkey Vulture

Mocking Bird

We can hardly believe our time here is almost ended. True we have been busy. After we learned our spiel for working in the Visitors' Center, we amused ourselves by hiking all over the preserve and learning more. I have not been hiking as much as Duane. I used to do a job like this so I let him learn this one. He has such fun developing new hobbies like birding and learning all about wildflowers for this area. The birds and flowers are very different from the ones we grew up with in Ohio, and the ones we came to know in Texas. He learned this stuff so he could lead hikes. He led two for The Nature Conservancy on Friday. We have also been busy using the GPS unit to accurately map out the hiking trails here. Duane has been hiking more this week than I have for a couple of other reasons. I injured a small tendon on the top of my foot on Tuesday so I have been resting my foot while sewing quilts for our three new grandchildren due this year. Today I developed a fever from something so now I'm not even interested in sewing. I hope this is just a 24-48 hour virus. We'll see.

We hope you enjoy our pictures. The wildflowers are really beginning to pop up and the animals are starting to move around more after resting this winter. Here in the desert spring is here already and lots of people are out and about enjoying our fine weather before it gets too hot. Today our small lot was full as about 35 vintage and classic car owners showed up for their annual stroll around our grounds. They caused quite a stir. Other visitors forgot they were in a parking lot and strolled around taking pictures as if they were at a car show! The trouble was that today was also the day the local Boy Scouts were here working on part of our most popular trail. It turned out ok. Everyone finally maneuvered themselves back onto the street without a single fender bender. Tomorrow promises to be just as busy, but we don't work this Sunday so we planned to drive around Joshua Tree National Park to see if their wildflowers are better than ours. We'll let you know.

Enough for now,

Louise and Duane

San Diego

Baby Sea Lion
Young Sea Lion

Waves crashing on the rocks

Surfer

Sunset

Stacy and Louise getting their feet wet

Pelican

Here we are combing the beaches of San Diego. We drove down for a couple of days to tour with daughter Stacy. The pix above were all taken at La Jolla. The baby in the first pic was a newborn. That little pink thing across its tail that the gull is so interested in is the umbilical cord--still attached. Stacy and I were on the rocks for different reasons. She was trying for a cool pic. I was looking for interesting stuff. Notice our pants legs. She was smarter and only got kinda splashed. I squished around for the rest of the afternoon! It wasn't bad though. We were rained on earlier in the day, but the rest of the day was only overcast and windy. It was fun being back on the beach again, watching the rollers crash on the rocks and hearing the surf. Tomorrow we leave, but plan on touring the national monument near here first. (I can't remember the name of it, but it has a huge military cemetery and a naval base near it and a lighthouse.) Then back to the desert and hopefully some warmer weather!

Basta!

Louise and Duane

Catching Up

Prairie Falcon
Great Egret

I entered 2 carvings in the fair at Indio, Ca. The giraffe I entered won first place in the novice animal catagory. The blacksmith won second place in the novice human catagory. Pretty good I think for the first show I have entered anything in. I have my other carvings on display there and sold a bottle stopper today.

Duane is too modest. He thinks anyone can follow instructions in a book and carve. HAH! When I'm quilting I can't even cut a straight line without lining up the grids on the ruler and the cutting mat. I say his carvings are great and deserve the ribbons he won.

Things are very quiet here in the desert now, although we are seeing signs of spring wildflowers popping up here and there. The flowers are very small and close to the ground, but they are there. The weather isn't cooperating, though. It's been very nice and relatively warm, but the last few days have been chilly. I hope we get to see masses of wildflowers before we leave at the end of March. The highlight of our days is walking the mile to the nearest oasis to see the great horned owl, although he's been hiding out against the chill lately. The two birds pictured above we saw at that oasis, so it's worth the trip.

Basta por hoy (enough for now in case you forgot your Spanish)

Louise and Duane

February already?!!!

Plain ole side blotched lizard

Resident Great Horned Owl

Hello everybody, I (Louise) have returned after my trip to Ohio and have fully recovered from that nasty virus. I am very glad to leave the cold, snowy weather and am basking in the warm sunshine again. The two pix above aren't anything new, but Duane got a new lens for his camera and the owl and lizards are the only things willing to pose. We have been laying low for the past month, hanging around here working in the Center and taking hikes. We are planning an excursion to Quartzite this week. Hopefully we will find some Class of 06ers there. I also want to check out the rock dealers as I am an avid rockhound. I also need to visit the quilt shops to replenish my fabric stash. These places were all closed for the season when we passed through last Sept. Daughter Stacy will be in San Diego later this month (Feb) and we are looking forward to spending a day or two with her. She hasn't decided yet whether she will drive up here or we will meet her down there, but we will have fun either way. Make us tired, though, just thinking of the activity packed month ahead (he he).

More later.

Louise and Duane

Louise is back home

Louise arrived back in California on Thursday. She is feeling pretty good now. She still gets a little tired but doing okay. She is baking cookies tonight so I guess she is on the road back...lol We have tomorrow off.
Till next time
Duane and Louise

The latest carving is complete

I carved the blacksmith and anvil some time ago. I decided it was time to finish it. There is a fair near where we are living coming up in February. The carving club that I attend on Mondays has a booth there and there is a woodcarvers class at the fair. I am entering the blacksmith and one other carving in the competition. This is the first I have ever entered any of my carvings in a show. We will see how that goes.

I get my wife back tomorrow night. I can't wait. She seems to be doing alright since she got out of the hospital. She will arrive here at 8:00 tomorrow evening. It will great to have her back, getting tired of sleeping alone...lol

Till next time

Duane and Louise

American Kestrel

I went out this morning to see if I could get a good photo of the American Kestrel, I liked this one. They fly when you get close, so I went out and hid in the palms till he came back. The weather here has been in the 80s during the day. We have been really busy here at the preserve. The warm weather brings a lot of hikers out.
I hope to get Louise home some time week. We are waiting to make sure she feels good enough to make the all day flight, maybe Wednesday.
Till next time
Duane and Louise

The CAT !!!!

First off, Louise is out of the hosiptal. All the test turned out ok. They did not find any heart problem. They think it was all connected to a virus she had picked up somewhere. She will stay in Ohio till the first of next week to make sure that all is ok before she gets on the plane to return to California. I can't wait for her return.

I went out to take some pictures of birds this morning and the bob cat in the pics crossed the trail in front of me. I was able to follow him for a little while and get a few pretty good pictures. This is the first time in all the hiking I have done here that I got to see the cat on the trail. I was really excited about it. Tomorrow I will return to the same area to try and get some better pictures of the Kestrals. They are a rapture in the falcon family. Maybe I will get lucky and find the cat again.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Louise goes to Ohio

Louise went to Ohio to visit the kids there. I stayed in California to work at the preserve. The first of the week she got to feeling a little sick. She passed out! Her daughter, Rachel, took her to the hospital emergency room, they kept her. She is still there. They have ran all kinds of test on her and have found nothing wrong with her. That is the good news. The bad news is we still don't know why she passed out. We think she may get out tomorrow. She will wait till she is feeling better before she returns here.
I have a very sore foot so I have slowed down on the hiking for a while. Not sure how, but I seem to have bruised the ball of my foot pretty bad. I had been hiking 2 to 6 miles a day and I can't wait to get back to it. I have been watching an owl for a while now and I miss going to the grove to see him. There was a couple of kestrels in a tree that I can watch from the coach. I think they are nesting in the tree. I hope to be able to get some good pics them soon.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

EARTHQUAKE!!!!!!!!!!

Just felt the first earthquake since we arrived here. Louise is in Ohio so she missed it. According to the USGS it was a 5.0 magnitude centered about 60 miles from where we are located. I was sitting at the computer and the whole coach started to shake. It lasted about 45 seconds. I was waiting for another but it didn't happen...lol
Louise is in Ohio for a week of grandbaby fix, so I am fending for myself. She left me a bunch of meals so I don't have to eat my own cooking. I cheated tonight and went to local hambuger joint, shame on me....hehehehe. When the cat is away.....hehehe. I did a 6 mile hike today and will go on another hike tomorrow with the naturalist here. Should be about a 4 miler. Guess I will walk off some of the french fries.....

Till next time
Duane and Louise

Hiking In The New Year

Mockingbird

Trail making machine

Louise at the highest point of the Indio Hills

Canyon view

View of the trail

Happy new year to you all. We celebrated New Year's Eve with our new friends from the Preserve. New Year's Day we stayed home and goofed off. Yesterday (the 2nd) we hiked the new connection between Willis Palms and Moon Country. Our neighbors dropped us at the Willis Palms trailhead (1 1/2 miles down the road from our house). We walked the first part of that loop then took the connector over the ridge. Just short of the ending in Moon Country (about 2 miles from the house) the trail ended. As you can see in the second picture the little trackhoe is the trail making machine. It still has to make the path down the gravel hill a good 300 feet. We started out at Willis Palms at 320 feet above sea level. In the third pic I am standing at the highest point on the trail--1,308 feet. The last pic shows the trail winding in the distance just over the top of the big rock. In the fourth pic the white at the bottom of the canyon is a large sandy wash. This hike took us 3 hours of walking with one 10 rest for a snack break and 4 or so 1-2 minute photo stops. We walked 5.7 miles. Once the trail is finished it will be longer. We were tired but happy after our hike. Today we took a slacker walk of 2 miles to Mc Callum Oasis. Duane took some more pix of the resident Great Horned Owl. We got the really good shot of the mocking bird and saw a Northern Flicker on one of the palms after Duane's camera ran out of battery power (of course he left his spare at home).

Basta por hoy!

Louise and Duane

A few new carvings

Eagle head cane Whale Bottle stopper

Snowman

Well, Christmas has past and things have returned to normal. The Tuesday before Christmas I came down with a virus and was sick till Saturday. Other then that, things have been great here. I carved all the grandkids snowman ornaments for Christmas. The whale bottlestoper went to Matt and Beth. The eagle cane I made just because I wanted to make another one. The first one I sold, so I wanted one for show and tell. The bad thing I did was not taking pictures of all the things I made for Christmas. I got in such hurry to get them all done and shipped to the people that they were made for, that I forgot to get pics. I hope to get pictures of the them later. I am now working on things to put in the fair that is coming up in February.

The weather here has been a little on the cool side, high 30s at night, high 50s during the day. Today it got back up in the 70s. That's the way we like it. We have been hiking almost every day. There is a Great Horned Owl that is living in the grove a mile away. We go down there a lot to see of he is in a place that I can get some good pictures of him. We have been taking visitors out to view him when we get time.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Great horned owl

Ocotilla bloom
Snow on the mountians around us

Great Horned Owl

We went on a hike this morning and spotted a great horned owl in one of the plam trees. It was the first time we had seen an owl here. I have had a few people come in the center and tell me about where they had seen an owl, so we went looking for it. Along the trail to the grove where we saw the owl is the lone ocotilla plant. We think it was planted here years ago as it is not natural to the preserve. It had one bloom on it.

It rained all day yesterday, very different from the norm. The rain should wake up the desert and bring out more flowers. The big flower time here is not until February . The weather is cooler now, 40's at night, low 70's during the day. The mountians were covered with snow when we got up. Most of it was gone this evening.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

We are back to work

Well it's back to work after our trip to Matt and Beth's. I led my first hike today. We went back to an area that most people don't hike to. The first pic is of the wall of the mud walled canyon we hiked into. There is a lot of erosion on the hill sides, really pretty cool looking . The hike was almost 6 miles in lenght. Louise worked in the center while I led the hike, her first day working by herself. She survived just fine.

The caterpillars are American Queens. They resemble Monarchs but are much smaller. The babies are the cutest in California! If you see them together you don't know they are siblings. Jack is a curly red head with bright blue eyes. Katie has a head full of dark straight hair and of course the usual newborn brown eyes. We'll have to wait a while to see if they start looking more like each other.

We are battling mild cold symptoms but otherwise are fine and busy getting ready for Christmas.

That's about it for now.

Duane and Louise

Katherine Alice Buechter

Louise, Katie, Jack, Matt
Katherine Alice

All snuggled up

Here's the new little star on our horizon, grandbaby #6, granddaughter #3. Katherine Alice debuted this morning at 9:18. The first picture is Grandma Weezie holding Katie. Big brother Jack is giving her a kiss while Daddy watches. Everyone but Grandma was apprehensive about this because Jack is usually a little whirlwind around the house, but I knew he would be gentle with his little sis.

We are visiting here in Walnut Creek, CA for the week. We arrived yesterday afternoon, just in time to babysit Jack while mom and dad went to the hospital to have Katie. While we are here we will celebrate Christmas with them before heading back home. We left sunshine and warm weather, drove through fog for most of the last half of the journey, and are experiencing overcast skies and chilly damp weather today. Yuchh! But Jack is a pretty sunny fellow with his curly red hair and dimply toothy grin. He makes us laugh.

I guess that's enough for anyone who isn't family ( or maybe if you are!)

Louise and Duane