Who's looking at Southwestern Desert Blogger This Week?

This week's Southwest Desert "Howdy" goes out to the blog readers from Tucson.  How are all you cowboys and cowgirls handling your Monsoonal heat and humidity? Stay out of the wash when the water's running.  I don't want you getting caught by that Tucson Stupid Motorist Law.  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Arizonas-Stupid-Motorist-Law/262377276540 And while I'm greeting folks, let me send a Southwest Desert "Howdy" to the folks in South Africa, Germany, Israel, Australia, USA, and all the other Southwest Desert Blogger readers out there.  Hope all you folks are enjoying the 2012 Summer Olympics.*  The only TV station I get to see the Olympics on is a Spanish speaking station.  They seem to broadcast a lot of beach volleyball (women's), basketball (men's), and wrestling (men's).    I guess you know which team I'm rooting for -- Team USA.  Back to the Blog...      Here are some of the search terms, in bold, you used to find me this week: buy omega vrt350hd tucson  [my answer: Don't know] omega vrt350hd foamy kale                                           [see comments below re: foam] buy juicer omega vtr [sic] 350 hd south africa buy omega vrt parts huron 100 vs omega vrt 350 omega 350 frozen bannanas [sic] and the old favorite: omega vert 350hd problems To the person with "problems":  Just scroll back in time on this blog and see all the posts detailing my Omega VRT350HD problems.  Tales of Omega vrt350hd problems started back in September of 2011. See September posts and 1/14/12, etc.  Does misery want company?  You should start an Omega VRT350HD Problems dating site.  Remember dear old Southwest Desert Blogger when this idea makes you as rich as a Facebook tycoon. To the person with "foamy" Omega 350 hd kale juice, I have photos of the pulp I strained out of Omega 350HD juice, photos of the strings and foam clinging to the jar, photos of the strings I pulled out of the juice and measured ... you get the idea.  For a while I posted the Omega Vrt350HD String of the Day! Was my Omega VRT350HD juice too foamy?  You bet!    Not pleasant juice in my opinion.  Wheatgrass foamed a good head for me.  See 11/1/11 post, for pulp, strings, etc. To the "Omega VRT350HD parts" person, I tried replacement parts.  The problems persisted.  Good luck amigo.  The parts are costly.  Do you have the warranty?  See post 10/29/11, 11/1/11, et al. To the Omega VRT350 frozen banana person, don't bother juicing bananas.  Just make smoothies.  See my smoothie recipe posts using frozen banana.  Peel bananas before you freeze them. Then store them in a plastic bag or reuse a yogurt container.   Just scroll down to the end of this blog and see the Southwest Desert slide show and click "bananas" or "smoothie" on the list of Labels.  It will take you to the related posts. These are ripe bananas!  Peel and Freeze.  Slicing is optional. *Hope your team wins some Olympic gold, but what really matters is how you play the game. Southwest Desert Blogger P.S. I Send me a Huron.  I would love to review it.  Are all the vertical juicers made in the same factory in Korea?  Isn't the Huron cheaper than the Omega VRT350HD?  Made of healthier plastic?  Send me one Huron juicer Lord, so that I may enlighten the Southwest Desert Blog readers.  Amen. C.  (c)2012

Got Tarantula? and Updates

My Halloween Tarantula -- Trick or Treat?

We are getting a taste of cool Southwest Desert weather.  The temperature dipped into the high 40s (F) last night and is projected to only reach the mid 70s (F) today.  The temperatures will be warmer after today-- back into the 80s (F) during the days and into the 50s at night.

Yesterday I found a tarantula outside my gate.  It showed up to scare me for Halloween!  I have only seen a few tarantula's in the wild. This is a small one.  There are about 850 different species of tarantula in the world. Only about 48 species of tarantula are found in the United States.  Their colors vary from black, to reddish brown, to tan.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with the tarantula, it is a hairy spider.  The one I found is about 2 inches long.  See the photos.  Tarantulas have 8 legs and 8 eyes set in two groups.  Below the eyes is the mouth.  Tarantulas have fangs and I am told their bite can be painful.  They also have barbed and irritating hairs on their abdomens.  It is said that the females sometimes kill the males after they mate, like a black widow spider.

Some cultures eat tarantulas.  I imagine they are crunchy as they are exoskeletal creatures.  Tarantulas shed their exoskeleton.  Some folks keep tarantulas as pets.  I think keeping the exoskeleton would be more trouble-free.

Update 1:  As you read in previous blogs, I AM still waiting for the arrival of my replacement Omega VRT350HD vertical juicer.  I shipped it back to the company over 2 weeks ago.  Since then, I have been perfectly happy with my old, 16 year old juicer with which I make my daily quart of mixed vegetable juice.  It does not clog, is fast enough to clean, juices quickly, and does well with celery, which the Omega 350HD did not. 
Update 2:  As you read in a previous blog, Jeweler who did not pay me the correct amount for the "scrap" gold he bought has finally sent me a check to make up the difference.  He told me some more fabricated facts in an effort to save face.  Old saying:  A person who steals would lie.  It is sad when professionals have to invent stories to cover for their misbehavior.   What a pathetic person!  I hope he does business in a more ethical way in the future.

Thank you for reading my posts.  Check out my previous posts and the Southwest Desert slide show at the bottom of the blog.  If you like to make smoothies or juices, get this free eBook and check out the site for other good, nutritional info.  You may need to cup and paste the link that follows:
http://www.1shoppingcart.com/app/?af=1383344

Be well and happy,
Southwest Desert Blogger
C. (c)2011

Tiny Cactus Flowers

We have a break in the monsoonal weather so I have been outside looking for flowers.  I found several tiny mammillaria cacti, growing in the wild, in bloom.  There are over 170 different cacti in the genus mammillaria.  Only 14 of them are native to the United States.  The posted photos illustrate how difficult these tiny cacti would be to spot if not for their vivid flowers.  The flowers, in full bloom, are about 1 inch in diameter.  This species of mammillaria is more or less 3 inches tall.  Some are a few inches taller, but these often tend to lean to the side. Please enjoy the photos.  I just shot them and even though it is a mere 100 degrees outside, as I sit and type this, there is sweat running down my spine.

tiny mammillaria in the wild -- notice the prickly pear pads on the left, wilted in the dry summer heat

Close up of the flower and spines: notice the hooks!

The spines provide the cactus with some shade and protection.

 

if not for the flower, this would have gone unnoticed

                                         view looking down -- notice all the flowers and buds
There may be many more flowers where you live.  They may be larger, more abundant, more colorful, and fragrant.  Here in the wild Southwest Desert summer, the flowers are rare and often small.  We appreciate them, and I hope you have enjoyed them too.  Stay cool.

As ever,
Southwest Desert Blogger
C. (c)2011

A Monsoon Flower

"Rain Lily" in the Southwest Desert

The monsoonal weather, as we call it, continues.  It is humid.  We are not used to high humidity.  One consolation is that something unusual may bloom in all the rain and humidity.  One such treat is what we call a rain lily.  This little flower, whose blossom is about 3 inches in diameter and about 7 to 8 inches tall on a very slim stem, grows from a bulb.  The only time rain lilies appear in my yard is monsoon.  The blossom lasts one day.  Somewhere back in time someone planted the bulb.  It split, i.e., the bulb multiplied over the years, and now there is a cluster of several bulbs.  If you look at the second photo closely, you can see the wilted remains of the early blooming rain lilies.  The blossom lasts only one day, then wilts and dies.

 second photo of Rain Lily

Notice the wilted and dead flowers above the rain lily blossom in the "second photo of Rain Lily" (to the right of this paragraph).  There is a very healthy basil leaf hanging down into the top of the photo.  That old terra cota ceramic plant pot the basil is in has been through over a decade of Southwest Desert summers and winters. It has the wear to show for it.  It has expanded every summer in temperatures over 110 degrees (F), and contracted in below freezing temperatures every winter.

Another unusual thing about this year's monsoon season is the record-breaking wall of dust that swept into Phoenix, the capital of the State of Arizona.  The news reporting folks tell us that the wall of dust was more than 50 miles wide and up to 10,000 feet tall.  When it hit Phoenix, it was reported to be 5000 feet tall.  That's almost a mile high as you folks in Denver know.  Winds were reported as high as 81 miles per hour.  Photos of the wall of dust look like a tsunami, but it was dust, not water.  Folks in Phoenix got quite a dusting of desert dirt particles.  Their cars needed washing and their swimming pools needed cleaning because of the unusual amount of dust that got swept in to the area.  The Phoenix sky turned black with dust. 

I suppose it will rain again late this afternoon as the clouds are starting to slowly appear.  The UV (ultraviolet) description is "extremely high" and we have more than 14 hours of sunlight from sunrise to sunset these days.  The sun is strong, the humidity is high, the temperature is more or less 100 degrees in the daytime.

I hope the Southwest Desert Blogger readers in South Africa and Germany are staying cool.  Let me know what the weather is there.  And P.S., translate it into Fahrenheit for me. 
Thanks and / und Danke,
Southwest Desert Blogger
C. (c)2011