We will be off on December 25th

Our time here is the Lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas is almost over.  We will be packing it in on the 24th and heading out on Christmas.  We have learned so much in our short 3 months here.  The wildlife refuge tours have been fun and educational.  We have met so many nice people at the visitor center, here at the volunteer village and on the tour.  Now I can actually drive a bus the size of a small school bus and even back and do a three point turn in it!!  I am sorry I could not post pictures or use the blog as I have in the past.  The Internet service here is spotty at best, even with our booster.  It will be better in Organ Pipe Cactus.  We have had issues here with no water, no electricity for one day and then no electricity for another 48 hours.  The Internet is the least of the problems.  I feel sorry for the interns (just out of college girls building their resume, living here with free housing and a stipend).  They have no other alternative means when things happen and communication at this refuge seems to be poor at best.  We at least have other means like the generator and some water on board when things happen.  It is always sad to leave a place you have adjusted to but that is what this is all about, the adventure of what is around the next corner.  And good and bad experiences are learning experiences both.  I am much more easy going than I was although I still sputter about things!  All one had to do is say to oneself "Will I even remember this 5 years from now?"  The answer is usually "no" and it puts it into perspective!

These nice volunteer neighbors Henry and Bev took us out to dinner for my birthday.  We hope to meet them again.  They are living full time in their home on wheels and have had lots of great experiences.  They have volunteered here for over a year!



This poor quality picture is 3 Plain Chachalocas eating an orange on the tree next to our MH.  They are native here. This is the only picture I have of them taken out the window the the RV.  Note their size!

Happy Thanksgiving

The pen I won in the drawing at the Thanksgiving Pot Luck here. I never win anything but I did win this pen which is made out of mesquite right from this refuge!  David is in the picture below is making a pen (his hobby) at his campsite.  Note our MH and car in background.

Pam and Lisa, our daughters, have returned home after visiting in cold weather.  I told them to only pack one pair of jeans for it was hot and humid here.  Well, it was abnormally cold and raw so we did not go dolphin watching, go to the beach, or summer things but went to a show & museums and played games.  They did see strange birds and dead nilgae and wild pigs for it was hunting season and they have a meat locker here for harvested animals!  We enjoyed one another even if the weather was not perfect!  We had a pot luck with everyone here and enjoyed our Thanksgiving dinner.

It is hunting season here!

Here at Laguna Atascosa NWR the hunting season is by lottery for rifle hunt (weekends only) and 2 one week seasons for the bow hunters at the beginning and ending of the hunting season.  During the season many of the roads are closed to hikers to keep them out of danger.  The season includes wild pig, nilgai antelope (both invasive species) and of course deer.  There is no limit to pigs or nilgai but the nilgai are so big (male 650 and female 400 lbs.) that usually a hunter only takes one and has to quarter it to get it out. John and I helped biologists count populations before the hunt by going on a truck at night spotlighting to count anything seen.  Three trucks went out with John and I on one as spotlighters, one person driving and one person keeping the talley.  Both were experienced so they could tell us what we were seeing.  The nilgai are as large as cows that look like deer with small heads and run like a rocking horse. They look really strange running and they are very numerous here in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.  We saw deer both doe and buck, nilgai, peracke (a ground roosting bird that settles on roads sometimes), herons on the bay probably sleeping,  coyote, bobcat, and a few unknown eyes peering at us.  It was very interesting although a very bumpy ride!! Lots of fun!!!!!!

Yesterday morning 18 turkeys went walking down our little road in front of our MH.  Emma just looked on intently. 

 

Where has the month gone?

                           The booster is working and I can now have pictures & blog!!!! sometimes!

We have been in the Rio Grande Valley for over a month.  We know where towns are and know our positions here.  We work at the visitor center and are drivers on the tour & will be giving the tour talk soon.  We are still on a high learning curve but have managed to see this small place in the RGV / National Wildlife Refuge of Laguna Atascosa as home for a few months.  Emma now knows her way around.  We bike to work and have had opportunities to participate/watch the ongoing studies of the animals here.  The birds are varied and amazing, the wildlife different from what we are used to and some the same-like the coyote.  I have seen live armadillo, lots of different birds like the plain chachalaca, Mexican eagle/Crested Caracara and the Aplomado falcon which is endangered and has benefited from a captive breeding program here.  In the LRGV there are 25 nesting Alomado pairs now when in 1999 there were none.  I have yet to see the endangered elusive ocelot or the invasive nilgai, that weighs 400 to 600 pounds and looks like a huge deer, small head and runs like a horse. It is from India and purchased legally on a game ranch but it does not know boundaries and loves it here. Tonight we will be going on a biologist project counting animals at night and I might see one.  John has seen one from a distance and one person came into the visitor center thinking he saw a moose.  There are no moose in LRGV but after showing him a picture of the nilgai, he said that is what he saw! 


Home Sweet Home until just before 2014

The visitor center where we work

Perigrine Banding

They are clipping a tiny portion of the feather for further study

The bird who is very calm for she has a head cover and padded jacket on, is being set on stand for study and banding.

At the end of October we went on a outing to the Padre Island part of this NWR.  We watched a biologist check, band, and release 2 artic perigrines falcons, young females, on their way from the artic where they were born this summer.  They rest and hunt here before flying over ocean waters going south for the winter.

Liz, a volunteer, is releasing a newly banded bird.  This picture, taken by another volunteer, was perfect!

Open windows

Today at 10AM it is cool and windy and pleasant.  We have windows open and no AC.  Horray!  I have not liked it closed in with no air circulating.  We have birdsounds and wind noise.   I have been told we should see lots of different wildlife right here including a species not native to this continent  I will try to take a camera with me at all times.  Emma is enjoying her window air.  She looks out to the woods and brush and likes to watch things.  We will be going out today to civilization and shopping.  Tomorrow is a pot luck supper.  I have tried to post pictures but so far no success!

Trek to Laguna Atascosa NWF, TX

We started out on Tuesday Sept 17th in the pm.  About 70 miles into the trek we were towed to a truck place by Good Sam Emergency Service.  It took some time but we were safe and learned how they tow a big rig.  The MH smoked under the chassis and John thought it was the transmission.  It turned out to be an overfilling of transmission fluid.  We had all fluids changed before traveling.  I will deal with that cost problem when we return to Woodstock.  It was a quick fix and on we traveled.  We met up with traveling friends in VA and spent the day at President Woodrow Wilson's birthplace/museum and evening at Chili's before they headed west and we headed south to TN.  We visited friends in TN for a few days and headed to the Shilo Battlefield traveling part of the Trace National Scenic Highway.  At least it was before the shutdown.  We arrived in Los Fresnos, TX and the refuse to discover we could come into the volunteer campground but like the NPS, the federal NWR was shut up tight for the duration of the government infighting of October 1st.  So here we sit safe and sound but not volunteering for anything.  We are to think of it as a free campground.  Here's hoping the govt gets it's act together soon.  We came to learn the area and we cannot even get in to the refuge except the campground. 

John & Emma in Tennessee at a state park after Shilo

We stayed in an equestrian campground and donkeys were where we expected horses.

We have battled sugar ants in northern Texas and mashed Love Bugs and Butterflies all over the windshield and radiator coming to the Rio Grande Valley.  We are still battling ants here and creatures will try to get the upper hand.  We have our lights out and have sprayed the RV pad.  We plan to get screening for some of the places to protect against invasion.  The air conditioner is on for it is humid and in the 90's.  It is supposed to cool down soon.  I sure hope so!