Wild thing, I think you move me

I promised more information about potential scorpion denizens earlier, so I thought I'd do some clarifying now, in addition to noting some of the other creatures around here.




Hank is the first scorpion we saw out here (for me, the first I'd seen anywhere, other than in photos). He was already as you see him here, fairly two dimensional, having been unintentionally squashed under a board. He's now part of our shower, mostly as a surprise for first-time users. It wasn't long after we found Hank that Tres found a live scorpion and, after examining and photographing it, made sure that it wouldn't turn up in our tent when we least expected it. After a number of conversations about scorpions and relentless teasing, our friend Dave, who had come to help put up the shop, went so far as to "scorpion-proof" his van, by sealing all of the windows and doors with tape at night. One night, he was awakened by a persistent rustling on the floor near his bed. When he became aware enough to locate the sound, he found a plastic grocery bag slowly making its way across the floor of the van. Upon closer inspection, what did he find? Yup, a scorpion. In his van. While he was sleeping. Suffice to say, he had a hard time getting back to sleep, even after Smitty (yes, we have a thing for naming scorpions around here) had been dispatched. I've yet to see a live scorpion out here myself, but I'm ok with that.

burrowing bug

There are a lot of living things out in the yard - a few steps into the sand generally send several well-camouflaged grasshoppers jumping and little lizards scurrying on their way. I noticed the bug above one day while I was reading. In less than a minute, it went from starting the small hole you see to having disappeared entirely into a tunnel in the sand. The little guy you see below was inadvertently responsible for the death of our camera (yes, it's official; I had to buy a new one, but at least now I can add new photos again!). It was the first lizard I'd seen out here and so perfectly posed on our sleeping bag, that I couldn't resist getting its photo. What I did not realize, however, was that there was a cat hiding under said sleeping bag. Upon starting to kneel on her (and her rather pointed response), I was so surprised that I dropped the camera, zoom fully extended. Still, all in all, I'd rather have broken the camera than the cat.

sweet lizard

My favorite animals out here (which I have yet to be fast/prepared enough to photograph) are the jackrabbits. They are super quick and super cute. I'm amazed at how big they are too. Here's more info (and a photo), if you're curious: http://animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/printable/jackrabbit.html We also have coyotes, which we've not seen but certainly heard. I find it a bit eerie, but neat (the cats aren't big fans, although that doesn't seem to motivate them when it's time to come in at night).

Some of the creatures we've brought out here ourselves. When Tres moved out to get started on the shop, we were watching his sister's black lab puppy. Booker is almost a year old and the best behaved puppy I have ever met, not to mention (of course) cute and sweet as can be. He is still very much a puppy - and a lab at that - and he was in heaven on a building site, with more "sticks" than he could ever possibly retrieve and lots of room to run around and explore (not to mention jackrabbits to chase!). We were sad to see him go.

Booker is a big help

But, we couldn't very well keep a dog around here with these two and we had no way to keep them separated. Moving the cats out here has been an interesting transition , a week at the warehouse at Tres' office, then into the hot and often noisy shop, but they're adjusting. They're particularly fond of all the small wildlife around.

look out lizards!

adapting to a new environment