Megan's Dragon Eggs

Megan painted these hatching dragons for gifts for her friends, Emily and Amelia.

Pretty cool, don't you think?

 

The Lizard Project Continues...

We have been training new personnel and have a fairly large crew for this summer's horned lizard work. The UAZ folks want to do intensive Mark-Recapture surveys before construction for the airstrip begins later this summer. In addition to their group of 6-7 people, we hired a "local" crew, consisting of Robbie, Ryan, Arthur (he's almost local because he's been here before several times), and Genifer (she's local because she was born and raised here even though she's been living away for the past several years, plus she worked for us 7 years ago).

These pictures show how much fun this job is.

Here we have tracks of a large snake.

Snakes are cool.

This lizard is a survivor!

Note that it is missing most of its tail.

Very fresh FTHL tracks--note the distinct body impression

Genifer is taking data on this lizard.

"The Boys" have bonded over this experience. Robbie and Arthur first bonded when Robbie and his wife rescued Arthur from the Greyhound Bus Station in Phoenix, where he was stuck due to a broken-down bus, but that is another story in itself and must be told by Arthur himself.

Robbie loves his lizards!

Ryan likes to catch lizards too, and he is a tad competitive.

So we all get together in the wee morning hours and drive out to the study site to start our surveys as the sun rises. Getting paid to catch lizards is a pretty good job.

What We've Been Doing Lately...

 Zach broke yet another one of our green chairs. 

We're going to run out of chairs if he keeps this up!

 

Also, we have some great visitors staying at our house!

Arthur W. and Genifer L. came to town just to do FTHL surveys with us.

Naturally, we took them to play in the desert for fun the first chance we got.

 

Dallin won't ride in the backpack anymore,

but he'll accept a shoulder ride.

 

 One morning, Ian found a ground snake in our front yard!

It was very beautiful.

On the 12th, our friend Jesse M. (USU alumni) and colleagues stopped by on their way to collect rattlesnakes in the Tinajas Altas. We haven't seen Jesse for years--he remembered Megan as a toddler. They joined us for a float trip down the Colorado River with Arthur and the Horrocks family, but we couldn't take photos since we don't have a waterproof camera, so you'll all just have to imagine what we looked like.

Before the float trip, they showed us some rattlesnakes they already had in their cooler.

 

They tubed the snakes, and we could touch them and admire their rattles.

 Kiki likes her perch.

Megan earned this cake as a trade for making a photo op for the Horrock's family reunion. They were planning a western theme, so she drew a cowboy with a cut-out hole in the head for the children to put their faces into for photos. Luckily for us, Megan shared some of the cake.

Erin got stung by a bee when she was out swimming. 

Usually she doesn't have much of a reaction, but this time it swelled up for a day.

Happy Father's Day to our favorite father!!!
We celebrated with his usual applesauce cake.

Erin's Swimming Lessons

During the first two weeks of June, Erin took swimming lessons each morning.

She had a GREAT time and became a little fish.

Learning the front stroke

Treading water

Swimming across the pool after diving in

Floating on back

Looking at Dad!

In Memoriam

Yuki

25 May 2003 - 5 June 2012

Yuki joined our family 9 years ago, after Megan begged for a dog and Dad promised her she could have one when we had a fenced yard. The children loved having a little puppy and flooded her with attention.

 

She got to go on hikes frequently.

She loved playing in the snow her first winter.

 

But...Kevin had grand plans for her. He was hopeful he could train Yuki to become the first Flat-tailed Horned Lizard Finding Dog. So, off she went with our family to the desert for a couple of field seasons.

 She had a good nose, but she couldn't find any horned lizards using it!

Instead, she preferred trying to dig up rodents or chasing lizards that ran away.

 Nevertheless, we all loved her.

She was spoiled at Christmas.

 

 And went on many trips...

 

 

  

In March 2005, Yuki was diagnosed with Addison's Disease and had to start taking Prednisone and get a monthly injection of mineralocorticoids to keep her adrenal glands functioning properly. We were warned that this would age her prematurely.

It didn't seem to slow her down too much. 

If anything, the steroids kept her hyper and active.

Because Yuki was initially trained to "hunt" lizards,

she never got the hang of bird hunting.

Kevin took her out, but he and Ian would end up 

flushing more birds than she ever did!

Yuki was not the perfect dog, and got in trouble for chewing up a couple books as a puppy,  got sprayed straight on in the face by a pair of juvenile skunks on a Sunday afternoon walk, and was guilty of a mouse massacre when she got into the children's mouse breeding cages. But she was a great family pet, who traveled better than the children on long road drives (as long as she had her crate), accompanied us on many fun adventures, gave us a sense of security when Kevin was working out of town, exercised well with her beloved laser pointer, and always kept our kitchen floor clean from spills.

When we moved to Yuma, Yuki loved our 1-acre plot and spent hours chasing the birds and squirrels back and forth. She also enjoyed trying to dig for the gophers, but we never saw her actually catch one. She made a trail through the grass where she constantly ran. 

She did show signs of aging, but she remained vivacious and excited about life. We nursed her through a couple more Addison crashes, but she always bounced back.

Yuki at No Name Wash, AZ, December 2011

The afternoon of 5 June, Yuki collapsed on our kitchen floor after coming in from playing outside. She suddenly stopped breathing and was gone--we are guessing from a sudden heart attack. While it was traumatic and shocking, we are glad she didn't suffer and have to endure an agonizing end. We buried her in a corner of our yard.

Thank you, Yuki, for being a faithful and loving pet.

We will miss you.