Newberry Springs

We spent the day today at Twin Lakes RV Park near Newberry Springs, California. We'll spend the next couple of days here then head for Quartzite. One thing nice about RV Parks like this is they don't have rules against hanging clothes outside like most of the ritzier ones. Forry strung the new line Granddaughter Havela gave him for Christmas from the toad to a tree and I washed some towels and hung them out. It seems like the nicer a place a park is, the less "green" it is.

There isn't too much vegetation around here, it's mostly grease wood and salt cedar trees like the one in the picture. Also called tamarisks (I think), they are much disliked by forestry people as they are considered weed trees that force out other trees. Their roots pull of salt from the deep ground that contaminates the soil around them so nothing else will grow.

It's a full moon tonight. We were out walking as we watched it rise, it looked huge! It got pretty warm today -- we had all the windows in the RV open. It did freeze last night.

MUSINGS WHILE MAKING TUNA FISH SANDWICHES

I was thinking about Martha (my late beloved mother-in-law) this noon when I was making some tuna sandwiches for lunch. As I buttered the bread I recalled her urging me to "be generous with the butter, make sure it covers the edges so the bread doesn't dry out," as we prepared sandwiches for the harvest crews. It was quite a contrast to my Mom, who with five kids, was always very sparing with butter -- and other food. Not that we never had enough to eat, but there never was a surplus. Anyway the sandwiches were good -- I learned to cut dried apricots into the tuna at a little sandwich shop at Manito Park in Spokane.

Birds seen today while we were out driving around:

Ravens, red-tailed hawk, Say's Phoebe, Black Phoebe, white crowned sparrows, mourning doves, geese, mallards