Time

Tonight it's Friday May 24th at about 10:40pm. The sky is mostly clouds and there is a breeze. It's beautiful tonight. Teresa fed the critters tonight. I heard her talking to the foxes, raccoons, ringtail, and a skunk or two. I was inside working on scheduing so she volunteered. Tampa shook me up. Every airport, every everything, there were so many people everywhere. I had forgotten about civilation in general. It exists here of course but at such a small scale and I control most of it. It was nice to see friends of the past and as I spoke with each one I was thinking I'll probably never see them again so make the most of this. I don't want to go back out into that world. For years my once or so a week journey was enough for me. Hour to town, hour back, and an hour in town. If it took longer than that I was disappointed that I wasn't spending that time out here.

Jax and I are hiking again since my return but it's limited. Usually by 6:30am I've fed the birds, squirrels, and chipmunks in three locations around the lodge. The hawks that use to hide in wait in the morning rarely come around anymore. I have three prominant pair of ravens who mate for life and over the years they have ganged up and killed most of the hawks to include my frienemy several years ago. I think there are three hawks left. There are more turkey vultures lately but they don't bother the three feeding areas around the lodge. Strangely having not seen a rabbit on this side of the property there is one now and it's seen most mornings running around the lodge. How it survives with the amount of foxes around I don't understand.

Yesterday I had a guests who's vehicle couldn't get up Hurrah so they returned to town and called me when they had service. I told them to drive back towards me and I'll head towards them and when we meet give them a ride back to the lodge. So in the morning I'll be taking them abck out to their vehicle in a side by side. There has always been one corner on the way up Hurrah where biting flies live and there is about a mile of the road where they land on me even when I'm booking on the side by side and bite me. I'll take a fly swatter with me and on the way back when I don't have guests with me I'll stop get bitten a few times but take three or four of them out. The Desert Willow tree has always first bloomed between May 10th and May 14th but last year it was way late and this year two blooms showed up on the morning of the 15th.