jun09

Friday morning (10:30 a.m.) we were headed out to our first guzzler with 14 volunteers. Lyle
and Jim had already located the four guzzlers for this project, all guzzlers were within 10 miles
of the camp site. The volunteers started doing what they do best, removing tar, grinding,
scraping, bagging and removing a couple hundred lbs. of tar from the surface of the guzzler. It
was around 1 p.m. when one of the guys noticed a bunch of quail wanting to come in for water.
We set out a small tray full of water about 30 yards from the guzzler, hoping the birds would use
this water and we could continue working, WRONG!!! These quail wanted their guzzler water
and we were in their way. We all set down our tools and backed off, it took only minutes and
here they came. I am just guessing but I would say over 150 birds came in for a drink. Jim took
some great pictures of these quail coming to water, see attachment for pic's. We sat back for
about one hour and after they finished drinking we went back to work. We managed to prepare
surface and apply first coat of Merlex then head back to camp.

John Nelson had called me the week before the project and said that his QU chapter, # 480
Santa Clarita will provide chicken filets and tri-tip for our Friday night dinner. When we
returned to camp (6:30 pm)John was busy cooking our dinner along with several more
volunteers arriving and setting up camp. John cooked the chicken to perfection and the tri-tip
was a perfect medium rare, along with a BIG pot of good beans, a fresh salad and bread, our
dinner was complete, along with desert. Thank you John and QU for the dinner.

Friday evening Dave, Cruz, Phillip, John, Zack, Rudy, Craig, Stan, Dennis, Lyle, Marie, Jesse,
Deb, Ken, Doug, Pat, Bob, Richard, Jim, BJ, Ray, Rod, Kathy and Dennis, along with a few I know
I forgot, we all chowed down, bought raffle tickets and spent a cold night in the desert.

Saturday morning a few more showed up, John, Bert, Mark, Darla, Mercer and Jonathan, we had
donuts and rolls supplied by Water for Wildlife and QU chapter #480, separated into two crews
and headed out to work. Dave Smith took a crew to apply second coat of Merlex to first
guzzler, the rest of us headed for guzzler number two. We worked on the apron until Dave and
crew showed up. Dave took over this guzzler and we moved on to the third guzzler. Buy the
end of the day we had completed one guzzler and 75% on two others. (continued to page 2)