What ... pigs, in a gated community?

No more logging distance each day; now I'm focussed on the weather. Yesterday reached a lovely 65ºF with blue sunny skies, but not much chance of that today as it's overcast and drizzly.

After a week on the road we've had a change of pace by generally staying put and enjoying our new home. Our lifestyle has now changed somewhat, and it's good for us. As part of the home sit we are to walk the dog twice a day, and she's used to at least an hour's walk each time. Well, those who know us well will know that Greg and I have good intentions about exercise, but like many, we struggle with discipline and consistency. Now for two weeks, at least, we're forced into a good cardio workout each day.

We're living on the outskirts of a large, gated community which backs onto open flat desert terrain. This gives us the option of walking streets or undeveloped land, and we tend to mix it up. Yesterday morning we chose the hill behind us and had a great walk.

Woodpeckers build nests in the cactus

In the morning, I was able to get up close to a hummingbird and hear the lovely song, but that was about it, even though we were on open land. (Sorry about the poor photo quality but it's just done with my phone.)

However, in the evening when we stayed on the streets, we saw more wildlife than when we went outside. We saw tons of bunny rabbits, which had Fanci running in circles with excitement, and gave Greg quite a workout, running with the dog on the leash, trying to catch rabbits!


A man stopped to warn us there were two javelinas near us (also known as collared peccary or skunk pig), but not knowing what that was we had to ask him to explain. We saw them within minutes, but would have thought they were pigs, had we not spoken to him. An interesting learning experience for us. We've since talked with others in the community who've explained more to us, and we understand there's a pack of about 17 that travel in another part of the neighbourhood. I hope we don't run into them!

Today, walking the neighbourhood, we've seen quail, ducks, a northern mockingbird, a roadrunner (but no Bugs Bunny), a Gila woodpecker, a cottonwood, and even more real bunnies. I have to take Greg's word for it, as I have very little knowledge about bird varieties. Hey, we can't all be good at everything!

No funny road signs to report, so I'll end with Greg's corny comment of the day. We saw this in a yard and of course he said ... you guessed it ... Holy Cow!