Rain, rain, go away...

Odd as it may sound, we are experiencing the infamous Southwest Monsoon season.  We have had torrential rains, lightning, thunder, almost every day for the past 10 days and this will continue intermittently for the next month.  Nearly all the rainfall in this area comes in a very short window in mid-summer to early fall.  People in the park have said that the rains will continue until about the middle of September.  When it's not raining, the weather is gorgeous; blue skies, temps in the mid-70's to mid-80's.

I attended the Burro Mountain Homestead Association meeting last Saturday morning.  The park functions more like a coop than a regular RV park.  Only residents with a year's lease are invited to attend.  

There was the usual reading of the minutes, treasurer's report, coffee fund report, etc.  The park sponsors a whole bunch of activities, including a champagne brunch next month.  I volunteered to help clean up after the brunch.  (I did go to the brunch and bused tables.  It's about the only work I've done in five years.)

At the end of the meeting, there was a spot for announcements.  A gentleman behind me stood up.  He knows someone (Forest Service guy, maybe) who has ten wildlife cameras in the area around the park.  The camera has recorded SEVEN individual Cougars.  The message was "BE AWARE."  There are a number of ranches in the area near the park and lots of cattle.  If the cougars get tired of deer, they munch on cattle which explains why there is a hunting season on them (the cougars, not the cattle).

Update:  It is still raining almost every afternoon. Lots of lightning, thunder, and poor Muppet is terrified.  Indy just sleeps through it and Lola is uneasy but not hysterical.  Mike's old dog, Bela, would panic and try to hide in any little cubbyhole she could find.  Once she got under the bed in the RPOD and got stuck.  It took both of us to work her out.

Strange accidents sometimes happen out on the trails.  Mike's left front wheel locked and would not turn.  Weirdly enough, somehow a stick exactly the size of the opening in the wheel got rammed all the way through and jammed the wheel.  

You can see that the stick was all the way through the wheel, barely visible from the outside.  When Mike took the wheel off, we could see why the wheel wouldn't turn.  Note the bent piece.  Took us half an hour or so to bend back the damaged piece, remove the stick, and get the wheel back on.  Took tools in both of our tool boxes to get all the work done safely.

I have mentioned that the deer wander freely through the park.  We have a doe who comes to visit and has developed a taste for bird feed.  No wonder this feeder is empty every morning.

Several weeks ago, I put a salt block down the hill behind our site near a game path.  Occasionally I put an apple on the salt block.  This morning, I looked out to see a doe munching the apple with a fawn at her heels.  The apple fell to the ground and the fawn tried to get a bite.  Mama gently nosed him/her away and ate the last of the apple herself.  The fawn had to have milk for breakfast.