The Joys of Desert Living...

Almost exactly a year ago, Kirk and I left our Tempe apartment and bought a gorgeous house in the far East Mesa area, overlooking the beautiful Superstition Mountains. Just mere moments from great hiking and nature in two directions, I expected some of it to venture even closer to home...but the last month has been interesting.

So far we have:

Nearly run over a poor king snake in front of our house. For what its worth, he was not the Central AZ desert type, but rather a Southern AZ type...yeah I don't know what thats about.

Heard more than a couple coyotes nearby. I don't let the dogs out alone at night now.

I have seen baby quail early in the morning. I like those...they are adorable and fluffy and cute.

Dealt with a paraplegic tree squirrel (yes tree...and I had only ever seen ground squirrels out here) who made Mirabella insanely throw her body into the back door to try and get it. No idea how it got back there...but it eventually tried to crawl into our wall, and unsuccessful, crawled out and sadly passed on in the middle of the yard.

Baby Gila Woodpeckers in the saguaro in the yard behind ours. They sing cute and its fun to watch mom feed them.

As I type there is the BIGGEST Palo Verde beetle I have EVER EVER EVER seen (including the ones we saw while in college in Tuscon) sitting on my wall. The thing is bigger than my hand....biggest I have EVER seen. Mirabella- the little huntress she is, alerted me to it and is feverishly demanding to go outside and monitor the beetle situation. Needless to say between bouts of me going out with the flashlight to make sure I am indeed not hallucinating (I get chills looking at it!) she is grounded...those things deliver a NASTY bite. I refuse to take photos. I don't want to be anywhere near when it decides to open its wings and use its horrid sense of direction...75% of the time that ends up with me with a giant bug in my hair screaming like someone is stabbing me to death.

Needless to say, I am remembering quite quickly that I live in the desert. This is their home...not just mine. But it sure does get interesting out here when the whole desert comes into my yard to play.