Welcome Aboard

Finally my first post.  So first of all let me welcome you to Quantum Planet.

Desert Life for Me

Living in the desert is a humbling experience.  So much open space, it’s like entering a new planet all on it’s own.  We first moved here in 2006.  We are surrounded by a 360 degree view of mountains.  The desert is a place that will take your breath away.  Most people who have not lived in this desert might picture it as a land barren of life and nothing but sand to see for miles and miles.  This is so far from true.  There is so much life in the desert.  Flora and Fauna that is my desert.

We have lots of plant life here and if you come in the spring the wildflowers are just waiting to be admired.  Trees, flIMG_4805owers, cactus are plentiful and come in so many varieties it would take me a whole book just to name all the varieties that can be found.   My yard is collection of so many different cactus, each and everyone beautiful but at the same time dangerous.  If you have ever mistakenly touched a cactus you know what I mean by dangerous.  My wife Denise, had the misfortune of finding this out the hard way.  She was weeding the yard out front and was gathering up the debris, in the debris there was a Cholla cactus that had fallen off the main plant.  We had to use pliers to remove the cactus and barbs from her hand.  Some cactus flower every year, while some do not flower for ten years.  It’s always fun in the spring seeing which ones will blossom.

The deserts Fauna is another unique experience.  Right in my own yard I get to see a huge variety.  We have five different species of hummingbirds year round and sometimes we get some migrating varieties.  Because we live in a migrating path the birds that come to our yard are always fascinating.  We have house finches, mockingbirds, wrens, orioles, mourning doves, black phoebe and roadrunners, and that’s only the one’s I can think of at the moment.  Trust me when I say there are many more then even I can remember.  I will be adding some of the pictures I have taken into my gallery.

Besides birds we also have a good variety of lizards and this year we have had the pleasure of having a male and female blue spiny lizard gracing our back wall.  A number of different animals have ended up in our house, compliments of our cats.  Don’t worry our cats love bringing them in alive so they can watch us run around the house trying to catch the critters.  Kangaroo rats are one of there favorites to bring in.  We have seen coyotes, jack rabbits, big horn sheep, just to name a few.  There are also rattlesnakes, desert tortoise and many more that would also take a book to name.  We even have a place called The Living Desert that house’s many of these animals and many more that come from Africa since our climate is very much like the deserts there.

Another reason we love this area is the concerts.  We have many casino’s and with them comes a lot of great entertainment.  There is nothing better then a concert outdoors with the mountains as a backdrop.  There are also, as of this year, three major concert events.  First, two weekends of Coachella Fest, followed by Stagecoach and new this year in October, Desert Trip which will be two weekends with classic rock legends.  Oh anyone reading this that have tickets they would like to give away, I am free those weekends.  Though that was worth a mention since the tickets for both weekends sold out as fast as they went on sale.

Well I hope you found my first post a little informative, it just gives you an idea of what is like to live in the desert.

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