April 4 - 13 2026 Shoshone, California

 84 and sunny.

We hiked into the badlands behind China Ranch. Coming back into China ranch. It is a true oasis. 

Some of the date palms at China Ranch. Saguaro blossom, prickly pear, salt heliotrope, sacred datura, side blotch lizard and western whiptail lizard.

Driving out the slot canyon that goes into China Ranch. Chocolate covered peanut butter stuffed dates I made with some dates I bought at China Ranch.

Beginning of sunset. John enjoying dinner with sunset.

End of sunset. We went back to China Ranch to get some more pollen for our date trees and to have date shakes for dinner. 

View over China Ranch's parking lot.  Sunset.

Weird looking cloud. Sunset

I finished this beauty. It got bigger than I planed. It  is made from dyed pine needles, polyester thread, glass beads and the center is a piece of glass I fused from murrine I made. Very colorful. 12 x 3 inches. Close up of the center. 

One little cloud peeping over the horizon for sunset tonight. The desert golds are still blooming, but they are really short and the blooms are about the size of a dime. Not enough water for them.

Sunset looked like a bunch of pink toes on the horizon.  Woo hoo it rained! not very  much, ( 0.06 on our weather station), but enough for a nice rainbow.

We had dinner with Susan at the Crowbar on our last night in Shoshone. Fun to see her and great food. This is all of sunset there was after the rain. 

March 25-April 3, 2026 Shoshone, California

 99 sunny and too hot.

Desert tortoise feeding frenzy. There are 6 living here in Shoshone and they feed them cabbage and lettuce. 3 of the date palms are blooming!! They have to be hand fertilized. Our male tree has not recovered from transplant shock enough to produce pollen so I am going out to get some from China Ranch date farm today.

My cousin Bobbye and husband Cary came to visit from their vacation in Death Valley. We took them to China Ranch and gave them a tour of Shoshone.

Bobby, John and Cary viewing pupfish in Shoshone. Bobbye, me and Judy. We look alike!

Sunset. Moon and Jupiter through palm trees.

Flame skimmer dragonfly. pupfish, too hot to hike, tortoises. Sunset. 

I ordered this camo net to try to shade the bus. I had wanted to just throw it over the bus, but John would not let me, said if the wind came up it would pull stuff off the top. So he installed it on the side of the bus, but it was not big enough. It was pretty cheaply made, John thought it would shred in the first big wind. So I sent it back. More wire wraps I made. 

Some of our palm trees are blooming. They need to be hand pollenated, so here I am pollenating. I have pollen from China Ranch on cotton balls, and just rub it on. We had another Palm Patio Party last night to celebrate Judy's birthday and bon voyage James and Judy who are leaving for the season. We had tons of appetizers left over from our trip to Furnace Creek Inn, so we had apps for dinner. 

John took Judy and I out to dinner at Steak and Beer tonight. Tues will be the last day of the season and then he is moving the restaurant to another location for next season. It was yummy as usual. We have pollenated most of the date flowers now. Each one of those stems will produce 20-30 pounds of dates. Of course there are new blooms each day now. 

A few more jewels I wire wrapped. We had dinner at the new taco place in 
Tecopa with Mike, Susan and Michael. It was very good. Was great to visit with them. 

Sunset with Tecopa peak. 

March 20- 23, 2026 Shoshone, California

 98, sunny and a bit windy.

Testing out the camera in my new phone on the moon. We are having an invasion of fan palm inchworms. 

I had a vender booth at the Tecopa Reggae festival. It was 100 degrees, sunny and windy. Not a big crowd, and the people there were mostly in the shade. Had poor sales. But got a free concert and had fun socializing. A few of the performers at the Tecopa Reggae Festival.

There is a tarp over the stage, the wind and dust side view of the stage. John was cooking up a storm. Delicious Jamaican food and burgers and hot dogs. 

Pretty sparce crowd in the heat of the day. James on his head!

I love this shot of the 'crowd'. We had fun socializing in the shade with Laura, Isabelle and Christie. 

Sunset was lovely.

James, Roger, Toni and Judy came for the headliner. Don Carlos, the headliner packed in a crowd. 

Judy's electric car now has shade. The batteries don't do well in high heat. Sunset.

Sunset. Wild looking cloud. 

Sunset the next night. Waxing crescent moon in sunset. 

Sunset. Salt heliotrope, carpenter bee, sunset reflected in broken glass, lilac bonnets. 

The vultures are back roosting in the tree.  Sunset with moon.