Volunteer Work, Cooler Temps and Rattlesnakes

September 10, 2010 Bill Williams River NWR.

View from our site towards the entrance.

We’ve completed our second week of work.. I mean volunteering. The last few days the weather has been much cooler with temps in the mid 90’s and low 100’s. However the biggest difference has been the cooler evening and morning temps in the upper 70’s and lower 80’s. Yesterday we spent the majority of our time working on the peninsula trail, clearing weeds and brush from within a foot of the paved walk and then pressure cleaning the two aluminum fishing docks. I wanted to get an early start with the pressure cleaning, but I forgot that I would have to wait for the solar powered water pump that supplies water from the lake to the peninsula needed to capture enough sunlight to operate which is usually later in the morning.

Wednesday night after work we went down the road to the Lake Havasu resort and a local restaurant, named The Springs for dinner. Nothing to write home about but reasonable.

Again we’ve put in more hours than required this week, but I’m motivated by the amount of work that needs to be done around here. Today we were actually off but I worked on installing a water tank, pump and battery in the bed of the newer John Deere Gator. I did the install so that the tank can be removed by taking off two wing-nuts freeing up more room in the bed of the gator when the tank is not needed. A feature that the older Gator doesn’t have! While I was doing that, Joyce was busy cleaning the inside of our rig.

The last two evenings we’ve taken Maggie and Rico for a walk along the paved peninsula trail. 

However each night we’ve come across large rattlesnakes within a foot or two of the paved walk. My first instinct would be to kill them but here at the refuge, it’s frowned upon! So, we generally end our walk and/or turn around and go the other way.