Two Months at Coyote Howls

     Pete and I have been living in Coyote Howls for almost two months now and I have to say that I have grown to love the place. Not so much because of the scenery and vegetation which is not so good but for the people that live here in Coyote Howls, the village of Why and the small town of Ajo (pronounced Aw hoe). True to the name the coyotes howl at night several times a night....and they prowl around hoping to make our chihuahua Tilly a meal...so we are very careful with her.

It seems that all the trees,bushes and plants have thorns on them..the ones that are native to the Senora desert....and many of the creatures are poisonous like rattle snakes, scorpions, and Gila monsters. Truthfully have not come across any of these. Besides the coyotes ...are wild burros, and javalina pigs which I have not seen yet but have heard the burros heehawing in the distance ….there are also pronghorn antelope and tiny deer ,as well as jack rabbits and white tail rabbits. As for birds...hardly any that I know except for the screechy doves and a vireo that visited us one day as well as humming birds.. The weirdest bird being the Road Runner. They are very large and one ran into our place the other day. Stopped and looked at me for five minutes then ran on.

I miss the Great Basin which is a high desert with its miles of sagebrush which I love and real trees and animals that I know. Yet what I like about here as I mentioned before is the people and the conveniences.

     Seems most of my life I have spent putting out fires and the fires just got bigger when I married Pete. It seemed that anything that could happen ...did happen...to us....and we were just plain tired when we drove into this place set up for Rvs and trailers and retired people. Many younger people park here as well as it has so many amenities …..

Coyote Howls sits next to the village of Why with the main gas and goody store called the Why Not

really caters to the people here..most being snowbirds as very few spend the summers here as the summers reach up to 120 degrees. There are a lot of trailers and Rvs here....small houses on wheels and even tents,vans and cars that people are living in..The range goes from wealthy to the poorest guy living out of his car....We fit somewhere in the middle and probably more on the poorer side of the spectrum.

     For 550 dollars a year you get a very large lot...at least 40 feet by 40 feet with a water hook up. You do need your own source of electricity ...we have a generator and solar panels that Pete makes very cheaply......and we intend to have enough of them to spend the summer here with a swamp cooler and a window air conditioner as a backup. It will be a very strange summer as we will be part of a handful of people who stay.

The other amenities we enjoy are the 25 cant hot showers that go a whole five minutes. Cheaper and easier then heating up your own. And restrooms all over the place as well as a laundry. A tank dump for black water,a number of trash disposal bins,a golf course and a mini golf course,shuffle board court,,,picnic areas. A computer room a kitchen with fridges and freezers that you can use, a community center where people go to jam(lots of musicians and artists here)and the thing that draws a lot of people is free internet...although gets tied up at times.

Coyote is a couple miles from a national park called Organ Pipe Park and we are 28 miles from the Mexican border.

     With the closeness of Mexico and sitting right next to an Indian reservation we have a lot of border patrol running around.....which at first bothered me but now it is just part of the makeup of this area. They have all been friendly and kind and we have had no objection to them...but sometimes their helicopters annoy me...but that is not ongoing...just once in awhile....

What annoys me is that every so often the air force nearby like to bomb certain areas or give us a sonic boom....but also does not happen so often.

When we got here on Oct 9 the temp was in the low nineties but zoomed up to 100 degrees in a few days. Was a little warm but we were here a little early as I will explain later. Still we came here because the north was cooling down and we did not want to put up with snow or minus zero temps.

Now this last week as proven to us that one can acclimate to the climate and when it plunged down into the seventies I was shivering. (I am sure my friends are feeling very sorry for me as they are suffering from temps in the twenties) I have been told that the coldest part of the year is in January as the temp lies somewhere between 35 and sixty...chilly but warmer then most of the rest of the country.

      The mountains surrounding this area are very strange and I am not sure I would call them mountains. It looks as if someone dumped piles of rocks and boulders and then the cacti and bushes grew all over them. We are making yard art with these rocks as all you have to do is dig them out and cart them home.. We have been making circles of rocks on this dusty ground and filling them with rocks,cactus skeletons and such. We have had people drive by and take pix of it and we have actually only started. I also intend to build a castle and and a water wheel in my pretend brook. (No flowing water in Arizona just dry gulches but I can pretend.) Any who will be taking pix of these rock formations as we build them.

     By the way after writing about the wild pigs above actually saw one yesterday...a baby pig. Told Pete that I thought I saw an opossum or a a armadillo but they have neither of these animals here...and as I thought about it realized that it was a pig. Also we saw hoof prints in our yard as Pete leaves carrot gratings out for the bunnies and we thought deer were coming and eating them. Wrong again it is those little javalina pigs. No more carrot gratings for the bunnies as the piggies leave calling cards as well .lol

     The winds have not been a problem until yesterday and we really got hit with some heavy ones. Lots of dust swirling up and over everything but by night died down so was glad of that. I do have a great fear of a dust storms as I have been through a few in Utah but everyone has said that they have never seen one here so I feel better about that.

     Our neighbors on both sides are Canadians ...many Canadians down here and are very friendly and kind.....have no complaints. I can think of only one person that I do not like but no one likes him so no big deal. In fact have found most of the people living here and moving in are kind and helpful...a first for a very long time...and so refreshing to be surrounded by caring people.

The management is fantastic here...if it were not for them this place would not be so comfortable...they are angels as far as I am concerned. They make a place like this for those who have no home so very livable.

     Another option if this does not appeal to you is coyote Howls Rv park with all the hookups. This will cost you 1700 dollars a year...but you can live in it for six months during the summer for 600 dollars an option that we have if our solar panels fail.

I will tell you about the village of Why and the town of Ajo when next I write and as soon as I get a chip will take pix....love this place.

Kristina

December 8, 2017