As Usual, Not Over Yet

 As I'm driving to town yesterday to get food for Kobae, a haircut, gas, and Jax's butt swelled up, he had cancer a few years ago, they said they got it all but it might come back, so taking Jax to the vet, the truck starts cutting out and barely makes it up Hurrah Pass. I drop trash, drop a side by side tire with a sidewall flat, non fixable, I take Jax to the Vet. They are booked but if I leave him whenever the vet has a free moment he'll check him out. I call Chris, mechanic, to tell him truck not running well and bring it to his place. "Squirrels", he says. Ate some plug wires. Doing the math, $1400 in squirrel wire repairs the last eight months. 

Jax doesn't have cancer and he'll be ok. What a relief. After 12 years together I'd be devastated. 

Teresa dropped off a blue tail when we were in town and Jax and I dropped off two more. That makes seven in the last eight days or so. I'm starting to see a difference around the property but I also saw a very small one on the front porch so they've had their babies. #7 Blue tail and #8.

Blue Tails #2, #3, #4, and #5.

 Caught four more rock squirrels, painted their tells blue and dropped them off in Dripping Springs and so far none have come back. It's some work and some side by side wear and tear in addition to drive round trip 50 minutes out and back to drop them off but it seems to be working.

Blue Tail to Dripping Springs

 In the early days I'd catch rattlesnakes and take them to the intersection of Lockhart Basin and Chicken Corner and release them. They'd be back about a week later. Didn't paint them they just came back to the same place they got caught originally. I read up on them and learned that the Midget Faded or Faded Midget, I've seen them listed both ways, never went more than a mile from where they were born. They had some sort of beacon in them that kept them grounded to their birth neighborhood. Thinking about it I figured the beacon had to be a straight line. I started taking them three turns toward Chicken Corner where now they have to swim the river three times to get back. To add to it, down a fairly tough slope to get next to the river. They don't come back anymore. 

 There's something telling the rock squirrels where home is. I assume it's the smell of the river or the prominent saddle rock formation across the river that assists them in returning to the lodge. We caught the blue tailed one again and this time Jax and I took him way back into Dripping Springs, past the Wind Caves, where it can't see The Saddle and has several water springs to mitigate the smell of river water. When I use to drop them at the Train Station part way up Hurrah Pass, Jax would chase them off into the distance and be gone four or five minutes. He's never caught one but it keeps them from heading back to the side by side. Dropping the first one off in Dripping Springs there is so much cover the chase lasted about 15 seconds.

Moratorium

 I've taken a couple day moratorium on catching rock squirrels while trying to figure out what to do next. Can't leave them all here and I don't want to kill anything though they have done significant damage to my trucks wires, cisterns, and even Kobae's house has some tunnels going down into it. Got to do something. So until I figure it out Jax and I are going hiking.

While generally things are going pretty well and bookings are climbing back up after last year's disaster as is most of Moab it appears we have one more critter issue. At the 9:30 pm critter feeding we have one raccoon, we call "Mother", is a problem. She's been coming to the porch for nightly feedings for several years. All critters have designated spots to eat. The raccoons own the left side of the porch, the skunks own the right, ringtails the rafters, gray fox the left side of the parking lot and red fox the right side of the parking lot. Jax keeps them in their places but Mother ignores the rules. She does whatever she wants. I can wack her with the broom and she doesn't care. She took a skunk hot dog and the skunk sprayed her three times in the face. She calmly took the hot dog, washed it in the water bowl, then went out in the parking lot to try and steal a fox hot dog. I'm constantly on her. It's draining. She's next after we figure out the rock squirrel issue.

Feeding the critters has always been fun. There are a few days where it's not so much.

Hummingbirds

 The large Desert Willow has a couple hundred flowers on it and even the small ones have fifty or sixty. They have hummingbirds on them all day and especially towards evening you can see eight to ten at one time. Teresa put a couple of feeders on the big one to include one right above the chair I frequently sit in so you here a hummingbird look up and it's just a couple feet above your head.

The Day After

 The day after dropping off a painted red tail squirrel at the train station it was out on the back porch eating. Fortunately we caught him again and this time painted his tail blue and took him on a caged hike way out past the train station into a couple of gullies and released him.

The very next day I saw blue tail out on the back porch eating.

Tanimura & Antle

Month or two ago I came back from town as ten or so side by sides were leaving Base Camp. Teresa said they stopped and ask if they could eat lunch here and she said "Of course." While 20 or so of them were outside eating around the lodge Kobae came across the parking lot to eat on the porch. Teresa pulled out a box of romaine lettuce and it said Tanimura & Antle on the side of it. They said "That's us". Teresa explained that Kobae goes through a case of that every week and that's where I was in town picking up another case and additional food for Kobae. Then a few days ago a package came UPS.

Inside the box was a grab bag they sent us full of Tanimura & Antle goodies.

This note was attached. 

"Kobae, 

During our recent trip to Moab for Easter Jeep Safari we stumbled upon your beautiful home by the river. We appreciated the invitation to eat our lunch on your back porch and were pleasantly surprised to see a box of our romaine in the house. After learning you eat a case of it a week I can officially say you are our best single customer! Packed here is a token of appreciation from your friends at Tanimura & Antle. We hope to see you again soon. 

                                                Brian Antle