water conservation

It is super important here in New Mexico. Check out these features:

There is a fire near Santa Fe

St. Francis of Assisi and I witnessed the smoke rolling in, covering the setting sun.

The email I just sent to my housemates:

So here is a good story for you all. Possibly this is not a story you will be thrilled to hear, but at least you didn't have to experience it.

Last night, Greg turned off the kitchen light. And no more than 5 minutes later I went back into the kitchen to get a glass of water. Turned on the light. Started to round the corner. Spotted a BAT on the floor directly in front of the refrigerator, panicked, and ran into the living room. I managed to get Greg's attention (funny what a little screaming will do), who managed to cover the bat with the white basket that is now on the front porch. He slid some cardboard under it, and took everything outside. He tried to fling the bat into the woods, but from what I understand it mostly just rolled out onto the ground. And it was still there this morning, either dead or just about dead.

Soo, I don't really know how a bat got into the barn, or how he decided to nearly die just in front of the refrigerator. Greg is guessing he hit it. I don't know what to think. As far as I can recall, we have never had a bat inside the barn, although I think I remember a story of one in the barn the year before I moved in.

Will anyone be getting any bonus points?

Now I think you can see him a little better. There he is, that sly deer. He looked over at me for this photo when I yelled "Hey Deer!"

Look what I saw this morning:

Can you see what I spotted, that is slightly more interesting than grass and trees?

Anyone who guesses correctly gets 8 bonus points. I'll post a zoomed higher-resolution photo tomorrow!

A storm

Less than 6 minutes passed between these two photos. A week and half ago we had this huge storm, but it didn't last longer than 30 minutes. It cleared out as quickly as it came rolling in.

LSE

LSE - long straw embarrassment



Thank you, Dear, for getting me this very delicious treat. And thank you for picking out the appropriately sized straw...

pshing for birds. squirrels?!

My mom taught me this technique called "pshing" for birds. Or at least, that is what I am 85% sure the technique is called, and also 100% sure I taught Greg that is what it is called. Basically, if you hear a bird and want to maybe entice it closer to you, you just stand there and say "psh psh psh" and the bird, being the curious little fellow he is, just flies over closer to see what that noise is. I don't think I've ever noticeably made a bird fly closer with the "psh psh psh", but I definitely got a cute reaction out of this little guy!



The last frame is his reaction to the pshing :)

Mystery Photo Revealed

Actually it was revealed in the previous post, but I'm not sure the revelation was very telling. The mystery item I made, was, in fact, a mushrooming bag! As of writing this post it has not actually gotten any use, despite the fact that I found this swell fellow growing in Julie's garden.



Unfortunately I don't actually know what kind of mushroom this is, so I am just going to go ahead and assume he is not of the edible variety, for my own safety.



I learned about the importance of mushrooming bags from the book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. The idea is that once you pick a mushroom, it is still dropping all of its spores, so if you want those spores to hit the earth and have potential to become new mushrooms, it is best to use a mesh bag to carry your harvest.

Can you guess what I made now?

I'll give you a hint: It is not a hairnet.

Can you guess what I made?