Sun. & Mon, Mar. 20 & 21

I finally remembered I'd packed the cat's 'mouse' toy in the outer compartment of the cat carrier! The cat batted it all over the uhaul and seemed happy to see it!

I've never heard of a cat being as content as this one, traveling!

After breakfast we decided to go check out the mesa east of town, so we hopped on the motorcycle and headed up there. This picture is on the way back.

We're looking for a remote place to camp for a while and hunt coyotes.

Too many people out having fun up on the mesa on ATV's, which is great, but makes it not what we're looking for.

Steven's new house?


Not just a house...the whole pueblo!
In the afternoon we went to "The Lost City Museum of Archaeology" south of Overton.
We spent 3 hours looking over the Indian relics they've unearthed, and reading about how they do their 'digs' and studying of the things they find, and other things pertaining to it.
There was also exibits about other things of local interest, such as mining and the Hoover Dam.


Near our campsite is this tree. It has green bark, and these old seed pods. The last several inches of the branches have dozens of thorns, like a raspberry plant would have. But this is a tree, about 15' tall, and bushing out widely with branches down as low as 3' off the ground.
I looked it up in the not-so-good book I have on the plants and trees of the southwest, and it seems like it could be "locust" or "Catclaw", but I don't really know. I tried to do a search here at the library on the internet, but it runs so slow here, I gave up. For now.
I have other pictures of this tree, too. Close-ups of some of it's other features.
If anyone thinks they know what it is but wants more detailed pictures, send me an email and I'll send you more pictures.


Here's another look at it's limbs.
Another bush was growing in tight next to it, and that's what's in the background.


When you shell the pods you get these brown beans that are kind of flat-ish, like watermelon seeds, and remind me somewhat of coffee beans.
I don't know if they're toxic or edible.
I shelled about half of cup of them and put them in a jar for now.


I finally got a picture of a goose flying over.
It's the first time I got the camera out and turned on and aimed in on them!

Got Steven to do the cooking tonight.

He made marshmallows!

:)

S'mores again!

The view out the windows to the east, this morning.

We came up with a plan, so after french toast for breakfast, we loaded up.

We're going to the east side of Lake Mead, way back in on a dirt road.

It's very remote, and there's no water near where we'll be camping. We stopped at

the city park in Overton and filled every jug we have. We've got 24 gallons of drinking water and about 10 gallons of non-drinking water. We'll be camped back in there for about a week, so conservation will be important. I might get a chance to try making a "solar still" and see if we can get a little more water. I've read about them for years but I've still never actually made one.

There is a lot of yucca up there, so I might finally get to make soap, or at least dry some scrapings that will lather up later on when I go to use them.

We'll try some coyote hunting. Steven has his predator calls with him. What we did last year was to go out around sunrise and around sunset, and climb a nearby ridge, preferably one that juts out over a valley, like a peninsula. We sit almost back-to-back for maximum view, each with a .22 rifle, and Steven uses the calls. Some of the calls sound like coyotes, and some sound like wounded rabbits.

During the day we'll explore the canyons, washes, and ridges in the area, and harvest and eat prickly pear and/or beavertail cactus.

We'll be away from internet for about a week, but don't lose interest, keep checking back!

No doubt we'll have adventures that I can't even imagine right now!

And you never know what Odie and the cat wil be up to!