Saturday 20June2009

We had a clear, dust free night. This week I learned the difference between a sand storm and dust storm. A sand storm is equivalent to hail or thunderstorm. It can last from a few minutes to a few hours. The wind is strong and the sand can do damage. Sometimes there is water mixed with the sand. It forms a nasty concoction of flying mud that is very difficult to remove once it adheres itself. A dust storm is like having constant cloud cover with the humidity hanging in the air that you could cut it with a knife – just replace the humidity with dust. You could reach out and grab it. A dust storm can last for long periods and just fluctuate in severity. Apparently this weather will continue until September - and get worse too.
I played with a fox tonight. The poor thing was so small I wasn’t even sure it was a fox. It had a long fluffy tail and large erect alert ears, a long narrow fox face. But his body. So small and thin. My buddy said that all look like that because of the general lack of resources for them. He came pretty close to me several times. They know we feed them. I was right in the middle of eating a piece of sweet potato pie so he got a nice chunk of that. A little vegetable for him. He came back for more. So I looked through my bag and tried the peanuts. I threw the first one shell and all. He took it off into the shadows. Came right back. I threw another one. But he didn’t pick it up. Ok. I shelled the next peanut and threw it. Gobble gobble. He was happy. Protein. Maybe a little dry. He kept smacking his lips and tongue like a dog with peanut butter. And so it went for a while until a vehicle came by. Off he went.
The ants and the birds woke up around 2:30 am. The rats came out at 3 or so. Still haven’t seen a snake!!!