Tuesday, July 05, 2011

Cooling down, only going to be around a hundred

Well it has been around a hundred so when the weather reader said on the news today it was going to cool down I thought he meant it was going to cool down. So it's down 4 degrees from 104 degrees to 100 degrees really not much of a difference. It's still like being in a sauna. Going outside for a little bit my shirt is soaked and I'm sweating even though I'm under the celling fan right now.

There was a couple cells of thunder storms crossing the mountains. Up to 2 inch hail coming down. It's mainly following Interstate 80 since that's the low spot in the mountain pass. It's moisture coming up from the Gulf of California. This is the main rain that comes up every summer to water Joshua Tree. It's also blowing up the back side of the Sierra's.

Kitties are moving some what slow but it's hard to keep a kitten down. I'm putting out cool milk for the kitties and they flock to the bowl soon as I close the door. I've notice that the kittens wanted to play with a baby squirrel but the squirrel wouldn't have any of it. The kittens just see the baby squirrel as another fuzzy creature that is the same age as them. They don't see that there is a difference in species. I've notice that what I thought was the white kitty has gray ears, tail and part of it's back legs are gray with white feet. The gray kitty with long hair seems to be more on it's own a lot of the time. It does play with the other kittens but I notice it being off exploring by itself. The black and white kitty and the mostly white kitty are best buddies and are always together.

I put scratch out for the birds on the rails of the porches. The jays are the first to zip in. They come by every morning and evening. They have to be the jets of the bird world with there sleek bodies.  They dive in on each other for what looks like fun. How they drop straight down and land is amazing. It's drying out here so not as many robins as there once was earlier in spring. Every late afternoon the finches come through the trees in a large flock going from tree to tree.

I've added a trash can lid to my cascading water for the critters and birds. Have to do some minor adjustments to level them off. There was a jay splashing in the water yesterday cooling off. I'm amazed at how the birds come in and clean up even in the cold of winter. Now it has to be about cooling down. I've noticed the birds with their mouth open, panting.

Not sure what's going on with the hummingbird feeders but I'll find them on the ground or empty hanging in place. I tried hanging one out on a dead branch but it still gets knocked down. When I took the one down to fill it, it had large ants inside. The ants up here are something else. The worst ones are the carpenter ants, big black ones. They live inside wood carving the wood out just leaving a shell of the wood which falls apart with a touch. The next worse ant is the black and red ones because those like to swarm and they climb all over you rather quickly. There are small ants and I mean real small that seem to be mainly outside.

Trimming some weeds out of the gardens I saw a yellow spider with eggs on a leaf. Was the first time I've seen this type spider. The daddy long legs spiders making a random like web make the material for the finches nests. As I was pulling weeds near the house these two finches came in close then started collecting spider webs from the eves. They make hanging nests like a sock hanging from a branch.

The deer are starting to show up so I should greet them. It's nice to see them sile when I come out to see them. I wanted to water one area so it would be damp for them when they lay under the trees and bushes.

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