Ants!!!

Ants seem to be a fact of life for us on the road. Shortly after we move to a new place, we start to see ants on the counters. It doesn't matter how clean we keep things, these little ants always are there. It is so frustrating, and I really don't like spraying chemicals all over the RV to get rid of them. Then I saw a post on Facebook with a solution to my ant problem, so I gave it a try...

In a jar, mix 1 cup of sugar with 3 tablespoons of boric acid. Slowly add 3 cups of warm water, stirring constantly so it doesn't get lumpy. I used raw sugar which is why my solution looks a little brown.

I soaked a cotton ball in the sugar/borax solution and put it on a piece of an index card. I then placed the card on the counter where we were seeing the most ants. It was discovered almost immediately by a couple of ants. Within an hour, there was a line of ants going to the solution. They must have thought they had found the mother-lode! The number of ants coming in was incredible and I was wondering if I had made a mistake. It seemed like I was drawing more ants into our home.

However, a few hours later, I noticed the number of ants had diminished to only a few.

By the next morning, all of the ants were gone! We didn't see any more ants for the rest of our stay!

The way it works is that they take it back to their colony and the borax kills the colony. Now that I know what works, we will hopefully stay ant free!

Wordless Wednesday - Four Corners USA

Standing in four states at once!

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Visit 5 Minutes for Mom for other Wordless Wednesdays!

Billy the Kid

We finally finished a tour that we started 13 years ago! Back in 2000, when Hubby and I hit the road for 3 months and 10,000 miles, we did the Billy the Kid Trail through Ruidoso, Capitan, and Lincoln, NM. We visited Billy's old hiding places and the Lincoln County Courthouse where Billy made his famous jailbreak. We learned all about the Lincoln County War, Murphy-Dolan, Tunstall, and McSween. We also learned which parts of the movie Young Guns were authentic. However, we always felt like we had unfinished business as we didn't visit his grave. So I was excited last month when I noticed our route was taking us right through Fort Sumner, NM!

Of course, our first stop just had to be the Billy the Kid Museum. It is located right on the main highway as you travel through town. I have to say I was a bit disappointed in the museum. They did have a movie about Billy the Kid, and a replica of his grave, and a few Billy the Kid artifacts including his rifle, chaps, and a lock of his hair. But that's the extent of it. Most of the items in the museum are someone's collection of things from that time period. Overall, the museum has very little to do with Billy the Kid, which is what we were there for. After all, it is called the Billy the Kid museum.

So we left, and headed to the grave site. The cemetery looks mostly empty since floods in 1904 washed away all of the grave markers. The exact spot of Billy's grave is unknown, but a place for a headstone was chosen based on descriptions by old-timers from the area. The headstone is completely caged in so that it cannot be stolen. I found it rather ironic that Billy's grave is behind bars.

Right next to the cemetery is the Old Fort Sumner Museum. After the disappointment of the first museum, we weren't too thrilled about visiting this one, but decided to go in anyway. Now this is the museum we should have gone to in the first place! It was all things Billy the Kid, starting with a huge storyboard of his life when you walk in the door.

The museum also has a collection of letters Billy had written to the governor regarding the pardon he felt he was promised.

Handcuffs and leg-irons believed to by Billy's from when he escaped the Lincoln County Jail.

Unfortunately, due to the time we lost at the first museum, we only had 15 minutes in this museum before they closed. I was bummed since this museum was what I was expecting all along. But at least we were able to cross visiting the grave of Billy the Kid off the bucket list, and finally finished our tour!  Hmmm, well maybe. Now I'm wondering if we need to visit historical places that are connected to Brushy Bill Roberts!

Weathering the Storms

It was a long night last night! We had several hours of severe thunderstorms keeping us awake. One thing that is completely different when living in an RV rather than a sticks-n-bricks home is how I feel about storms. I am now completely paranoid when it comes to them. I grew up in Wisconsin, so I'm no stranger to tornado watches and warnings. However, in a sticks-n-bricks, I at least had some idea what to expect. I knew what the tornado warning sirens sounded like, and I had a basement to go to where I felt relatively safe.
 
After being a little too close for comfort to a couple of the worst tornadoes of 2011, I've come to really not like storms in an RV. First off, the sound of the rain is amplified on an RV roof, making it almost necessary to yell to be able to hear each other. The wind makes the whole RV rock, making me envision it being tipped over by a strong gust, or lifted up in a tornado. We have no idea what the local weather alert system is. And are usually unsure where to go if we need to seek shelter. So, on nights like last night, I spend the whole night on Weather.com watching to see if the weather turns for the worse. I'm looking forward to the end of the Spring storm season. The weather is predicting more storms for tonight. Hopefully we'll get some sleep!
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Photo Courtesy of Jennifer Ellison via FreeDigitalPhotos.net

"Ring of Fire" Today

According to Space.com, there will be a solar eclipse today in which the moon will cover all but the outer edge of the sun, leaving a "ring of fire" in the sky. Unfortunately for us, it will only be viewable in parts of Australia and the Southern Pacific. However, we will be able to watch it online beginning at 5:30pm EDT. Click here to enjoy the eclipse!

Photo courtesy of Space.com

Wordless Wednesday - Grand Canyon

Earning Another Jr. Ranger Badge

Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum

Seems like everywhere we turned in Tucson, AZ this year, someone was asking us if we'd been to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum yet, so we decided we had better go. Now we know what everyone was talking about! We started to enjoy the museum before we even got to the entrance! One of the rangers was standing outside with an elf owl and answering questions.

Next we noticed people standing around an enclosed garden and wandered over to find out what was going on. After looking close, we noticed a lizard...then another...and another...and another! Once you knew to look for them, there were lizards everywhere!

Once we'd had enough of lizard spotting, we paid our admission and went in. We were surprised to find an aquarium in a desert museum! The garden eels fascinated us.  It really did look like a little garden of eels planted in the bottom of the tank. There was a larger fish swimming in the tank, and we found it hilarious as the eel would duck as the fish swam overhead.

The museum offers quite a few tours and programs to choose from. We attended the Raptor Free Flight demonstration and learned about the native birds of prey.

The gray fox had a favorite blanket to sleep on.

That's a lot of frogs!

My favorite exhibit was the Hummingbird Aviary. It was a delight to watch those tiny birds dart about.

The desert was in bloom, and the gardens are beautiful!