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.