The Vilisar Times

NEW LOOK TO THE BOGSITE; JOHNNY IDENTIFIES NEW LIZARD SPECIES; SECOPND THOUGHTS ABOUT RETURNING TO GUAYMAS; LOOKING FOR WATER
Friday, 07 October 2005

New look to the blogsite

Thanks to Gwen who designed the original site and has now worked tirelessly to get the blogsite up to speed. The archived texts are available and recent photographs are also here on the left-hand side. I hope to get more photographs posted in the next few weeks but this will depend upon space.

Johnny Wiggins identifies new lizard species

Let me tell you about Johnny Wiggins. He is the youngest (15) of the Wiggins clan that arrived recently at Rancho el Nogal from the U.S.A. The family includes Bill and Terry, his parents, and Johnny’s older siblings, Joe (19) and Jeannie (17). A really nice family. Bill is a trained electrician and is handy with machinery of all types. And the whole family is involved with horses, including coach and saddle horses. Despite his young years, Joe is an inventor with lots of ideas. I’ll write more about Joe another time.

Johnny’s consuming passion, on the other hand, is reptiles. He is a fountain of information about them. Not only are reptiles Johnny’s consuming passion, they are close to being his main topic of conversation.
“Lovely day to-day, Johnny!”

“Speaking of lovely day, did I tell you about the blue spiny lizard that I caught just this very day?”

or

“I read on the net today that American bombs are destroying Fallujah.”

“Speaking of war in the Middle East, did you know that there are fourteen types of poisonous vipers in Iraq, the largest being 2.5 kilometres long?”

You get the picture. He’s a great kid and has obviously got something that interests him. His knowledge of the subject would put a graduate student in biology to shame.

Half the time, when he comes into the ranchhouse, Johnny has a lizard in his hand. I was hoping as an experiment to get a flock (herd?) of them inside to help keep the house flies under control. The reptiles did not do too badly. But unfortunately, or not depending upon your point-of-view, the house-lizards have turned into MRE’s (Meals Ready-to-Eat) for the striped cat who, it develops, is quicker at catching lizards than lizards are at catching flies (or escaping cats, obviously). But I digress

Yesterday Johnny announces that he has discovered what he thinks is a new species of lizard: it's clearly of the Spiny Lizard family, he says. But these ones have very spiny scales on the neck that grow smaller as they run towards the tail (this is the opposite of normal spiny lizards). The points of the spines all have little holes in them; this is also unusual. The juvenile male he actually captured has a green head and neck and a blue patch that fades toward white in the centre. The adult he saw but didn't capture had more blue but Johnny couldn't tell how far back it went; the female he also captured has blue all the way to the tail and split down the centre.

I tried looking up the Latin for John but none of the online English-Latin dictionaries would translate Johnny’s name. So I am guessing: I think we should call this "scelopores ioniensis" and he should report it to whomever one reports these things to. (If anyone knows how to translate John’s name into Latin, please email me.)

Another day I will interview Johnny about all the poisonous slithery things around here.

Second thoughts about returning to Guaymas

We are having second thoughts about leaving the ranch at the end of next week. Temperatures in Guaymas this week have topped 100 ° F every day (CNN weather) and it is wonderfully cool up here. We want to be in La Paz to meet Bob Ferguson, my Canadian friend who is coming down on a motor vessel from Seattle by the end of this month. We thought we might go to San Carlos on 15Oct05, ready Vilisar for sea and sail across to Sta. Rosalia on the Baja-California peninsula and dally down to La Paz to arrive in time to meet Bob.

One of the main reasons impelling us to take the crap shoot of leaving Vilisar on a mooring buoy during the hurricane season was the intense heat in the Sea of Cortés in the summer. The water temperature in Bahia San Carlos was 90 ° F when we left and the air temperatures were in excess of that. Only the southerly afternoon breezes made life tolerable. At night, the wind died and it was hot and sticky and uncomfortable. Returning to that is not an attractive option but we don’t want to miss Bob in La Paz. Maybe we will stay on another week here and then sail directly from San Carlos to La Paz without exploring the Baja coast going south.

Yesterday was a perfect day. Around 1830, the Wiggins came in for dinner and we sat down to a meal. As night fell, the sky became dark and there was lots of lightning and thunder in the distant. It had already started to splash rain when they headed off to their bunkhouse about half an hour away up the meadows along the river. They had just got under cover when it began to pour. Although the sky cleared during the night and the sun came up into blue skies, the river is very high this morning thanks to the heavy rains upriver. The temperatures in the night were probably down in the fifties and there were thick banks of clouds over the distant mountains before sunrise. They are all burnt off now and the day is warming up. Last night was the first time the dogs did not bark or some animal cause commotion in the breezeway where the feeds are kept.

Looking for water

Late yesterday afternoon, having finished their list of projects and come to halt on the dozer waiting for machine parts and gasoline, Bill and family head off with shovels to dig out a potential spring as a water supply for their house. At present they are carrying water back and forth from the ranchhouse reservoirs (actually, plastic tanks supplied from a spring about a half mile away in the hills). The water source is only about 150 yards from their accommodation so would be ideal. At dinner, however, they had to report that the “spring” looks more like simply water rain runoff and would likely dry up after the rainy season. They will continue looking but sources farther away will mean buying more ¾-inch water pipe.

There are lots of water sources on the ranch. Bob, the ranchero, told me once that on this 7,000 hectare (17,000 acres) ranch, he has 27 all-weather flowing streams and two rivers, one being the Tutuaca River right in front of the house. Even the Tutuaca tested clean enough to drink though, at present, it is rather murky from the sand and silt being carried down by the heavy runoff. But not all sources are close to where you need the water. By the way, some of the springs are actually warm (not hot) springs. Could for soaking in!

posted by rjb,
12:48 pm

<$BlogRSDURL$>

		News From Ron and Kathy Bird__
For more pictures of Ron and Kathy Bird and the Vilisar, see these beautiful photos by Albert Pang Click here to e-mail Ron Click here to e-mail Kathy Archives January 2004 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 February 2007 March 2007 Vilisar Translation Expert German-English translation available; business and finance our specialty. SachverstÃ¤ndige Deutsch-Englische Ãbersetzung; GeschÃ¤ft und Finanz unser Spezialgebiet.	Friday, October 07, 2005 NEW LOOK TO THE BOGSITE; JOHNNY IDENTIFIES NEW LIZARD SPECIES; SECOPND THOUGHTS ABOUT RETURNING TO GUAYMAS; LOOKING FOR WATER Friday, 07 October 2005 New look to the blogsite Thanks to Gwen who designed the original site and has now worked tirelessly to get the blogsite up to speed. The archived texts are available and recent photographs are also here on the left-hand side. I hope to get more photographs posted in the next few weeks but this will depend upon space. Johnny Wiggins identifies new lizard species Let me tell you about Johnny Wiggins. He is the youngest (15) of the Wiggins clan that arrived recently at Rancho el Nogal from the U.S.A. The family includes Bill and Terry, his parents, and Johnny’s older siblings, Joe (19) and Jeannie (17). A really nice family. Bill is a trained electrician and is handy with machinery of all types. And the whole family is involved with horses, including coach and saddle horses. Despite his young years, Joe is an inventor with lots of ideas. I’ll write more about Joe another time. Johnny’s consuming passion, on the other hand, is reptiles. He is a fountain of information about them. Not only are reptiles Johnny’s consuming passion, they are close to being his main topic of conversation. “Lovely day to-day, Johnny!” “Speaking of lovely day, did I tell you about the blue spiny lizard that I caught just this very day?” or “I read on the net today that American bombs are destroying Fallujah.” “Speaking of war in the Middle East, did you know that there are fourteen types of poisonous vipers in Iraq, the largest being 2.5 kilometres long?” You get the picture. He’s a great kid and has obviously got something that interests him. His knowledge of the subject would put a graduate student in biology to shame. Half the time, when he comes into the ranchhouse, Johnny has a lizard in his hand. I was hoping as an experiment to get a flock (herd?) of them inside to help keep the house flies under control. The reptiles did not do too badly. But unfortunately, or not depending upon your point-of-view, the house-lizards have turned into MRE’s (Meals Ready-to-Eat) for the striped cat who, it develops, is quicker at catching lizards than lizards are at catching flies (or escaping cats, obviously). But I digress Yesterday Johnny announces that he has discovered what he thinks is a new species of lizard: it's clearly of the Spiny Lizard family, he says. But these ones have very spiny scales on the neck that grow smaller as they run towards the tail (this is the opposite of normal spiny lizards). The points of the spines all have little holes in them; this is also unusual. The juvenile male he actually captured has a green head and neck and a blue patch that fades toward white in the centre. The adult he saw but didn't capture had more blue but Johnny couldn't tell how far back it went; the female he also captured has blue all the way to the tail and split down the centre. I tried looking up the Latin for John but none of the online English-Latin dictionaries would translate Johnny’s name. So I am guessing: I think we should call this "scelopores ioniensis" and he should report it to whomever one reports these things to. (If anyone knows how to translate John’s name into Latin, please email me.) Another day I will interview Johnny about all the poisonous slithery things around here. Second thoughts about returning to Guaymas We are having second thoughts about leaving the ranch at the end of next week. Temperatures in Guaymas this week have topped 100 ° F every day (CNN weather) and it is wonderfully cool up here. We want to be in La Paz to meet Bob Ferguson, my Canadian friend who is coming down on a motor vessel from Seattle by the end of this month. We thought we might go to San Carlos on 15Oct05, ready Vilisar for sea and sail across to Sta. Rosalia on the Baja-California peninsula and dally down to La Paz to arrive in time to meet Bob. One of the main reasons impelling us to take the crap shoot of leaving Vilisar on a mooring buoy during the hurricane season was the intense heat in the Sea of Cortés in the summer. The water temperature in Bahia San Carlos was 90 ° F when we left and the air temperatures were in excess of that. Only the southerly afternoon breezes made life tolerable. At night, the wind died and it was hot and sticky and uncomfortable. Returning to that is not an attractive option but we don’t want to miss Bob in La Paz. Maybe we will stay on another week here and then sail directly from San Carlos to La Paz without exploring the Baja coast going south. Yesterday was a perfect day. Around 1830, the Wiggins came in for dinner and we sat down to a meal. As night fell, the sky became dark and there was lots of lightning and thunder in the distant. It had already started to splash rain when they headed off to their bunkhouse about half an hour away up the meadows along the river. They had just got under cover when it began to pour. Although the sky cleared during the night and the sun came up into blue skies, the river is very high this morning thanks to the heavy rains upriver. The temperatures in the night were probably down in the fifties and there were thick banks of clouds over the distant mountains before sunrise. They are all burnt off now and the day is warming up. Last night was the first time the dogs did not bark or some animal cause commotion in the breezeway where the feeds are kept. Looking for water Late yesterday afternoon, having finished their list of projects and come to halt on the dozer waiting for machine parts and gasoline, Bill and family head off with shovels to dig out a potential spring as a water supply for their house. At present they are carrying water back and forth from the ranchhouse reservoirs (actually, plastic tanks supplied from a spring about a half mile away in the hills). The water source is only about 150 yards from their accommodation so would be ideal. At dinner, however, they had to report that the “spring” looks more like simply water rain runoff and would likely dry up after the rainy season. They will continue looking but sources farther away will mean buying more ¾-inch water pipe. There are lots of water sources on the ranch. Bob, the ranchero, told me once that on this 7,000 hectare (17,000 acres) ranch, he has 27 all-weather flowing streams and two rivers, one being the Tutuaca River right in front of the house. Even the Tutuaca tested clean enough to drink though, at present, it is rather murky from the sand and silt being carried down by the heavy runoff. But not all sources are close to where you need the water. By the way, some of the springs are actually warm (not hot) springs. Could for soaking in! posted by *rjb,* *12:48 pm* Comments: Post a Comment
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Friday, October 07, 2005