10: more to the story...

Dear Friend,

Whether you have been out in the midst of spring blooms, or you’ve been contemplating the metamorphosis of caterpillars, or ingesting a rainbow of jellybeans, we hope that it’s been a colorful day for you and we’re very grateful that you are here, reading Tracks by the Post!

How was your week? Did it fly by for you? Maybe you’ve been super busy with work, school, family visits, or just maybe you’ve finally had a chance to catch up on some reading. We’ve been thinking of you, hoping that all is well in your world!

In our travels through the Mojave Desert last week, we saw many of these Phainopeplas see above. (aka: Silky flycatcher or black cardinal or desert cardinal or desert mistletoe bird). Yes, desert mistletoe is a thing!

For more info on mistletoe, please revisit the first Tracks of 2025: and mistletoe…

And when hiking in the Mojave, we kept seeing these silky looking nests of caterpillars.

It turns out, these are Western tent caterpillars. They will eventually turn into beautiful brown moths. Here’s a VIDEO (a LiteFoot Film): The life cycle of the tent caterpillar, a quick overview.

Springtime in the desert is full of life. Frank had no trouble finding subjects to photograph, here are just a few of his favorites.

These horse friends were roaming free, maybe taking a break from some nearby ranch duties? At this time of year, the desert floor is rich with grasses.

And we saw several small groups of cows grazing as we hiked near the campground... perhaps they were all from the same herd? This particular friend kept an eye on Frank.

This beautiful Golden Mantled Ground Squirrel kept posing... but only for two seconds.

Beautiful desert!

We missed the barrel cactus blooms...

But Frank captured lots of other color!

Lots of surprises like this bloom along the trail.

A different sort of surprise were these rings to help one clamber up the rocks.

One afternoon while Frank was out photographing our surroundings, I was busy at my desk in the trailer, writing a very important dialogue between two pivotal characters in my sequel to Beyond the Weakened Thread.

An Aibrum had come to report something very important to Auntie Moave, the very most nurturing and wise mouse in my story. I was doing my best to stay focused, but I had been hearing odd sounds in the trailer all day; I kept telling myself that the wind was blustery and odd sounds are a normal part of camping in nature.

But as I wrote, I had the sense that I wasn’t alone. I looked down at the floor to my left and saw a darling little mouse, looking up at me. Of course, I was still in the midst of my story so I calmly said, ‘Hello.’

This is not a large trailer, the mouse ran beneath my chair and ducked into the bathroom directly to my right.

I wasn't afraid of the mouse, but thought that it would be much better for everyone if the mouse could find itself outside again. So, I got up from my chair and grabbed an empty bowl. Yep, I was going to simply cover the mouse, scoop it up and carry it outside. Easy, done and done. But that didn’t happen.

No sooner had I crouched to my knees, the mouse darted past me and ran under the bed at the other end of the trailer. I whirled around, still thinking that I actually had a chance to gently capture this wayward mouse.

Then I glanced over at the bathroom again and there was the mouse. How did she do that? Had she run past me? Was she magic? That seemed impossible!

Long story shortened by several reams of paper, there had been WAY more than just one mouse in the trailer. I mentioned our mice visitors to another camper and her husband, they are the very kind couple who suggested that I borrow two of their humane-mouse-traps.

I am all about humane, as is Frank; we hoped that these traps would work. Within minutes, we’d captured the first two mice.

(Little did we know that we would eventually capture 7 more).

The idea of these traps is to bait the trap with peanut butter, set the trap, catch the mouse, carry the trap to a location far away from the campground, and let the mouse go.

Yes, it was, that simple!

Since we only had the two traps, we did take relocation walks in the very wee hours so that the traps would be free to use again right away, just in case.

How does a mouse feel about being relocated to the land on the other side of the gully?

Well, I’m not sure, but I do know that it feels much better to us to relocate the mouse than to imagine having to smash, poison, drown or otherwise dispatch a little friend like that. So, hopefully the mouse (or in this case, the mice), are OK with their new digs, and can continue on with their lives, plenty far away from the campground.

Though there are many different sorts of mice, these mice looked like Pocket Mice, but since Pocket Mice like to stay underground to avoid cold weather and it was still quite chilly outside, these could be Deer Mice, instead. (?)

(If you have an idea of what sort of mice we were hosting, please contact us and share)!

Yes, we are very aware of Hantavirus (and other germs) and have taken precautions several times to clean, clean, clean, everything in the trailer very well!

As the week went on, we wound up spending lots of time sealing every tiny entryway that we could find under and inside the trailer.

Look down at the tip of your thumb and imagine squeezing in through a hole that big. These mice had no trouble at all. They are in it for survival, there is a way to find balance(s)... We’re learning every day.

And we know that life will throw us so much more to learn, so there will always be more to the story…

Speaking of such things, we’d love to know how you are doing. Please write, we truly enjoy hearing from you!

Thank you for your caring thoughts and prayers in our direction, we keep you in our daily Thanksgivings, as well.

Wishing you and yours a lovely week ahead,

Gently Be,

Leslie and Frank