Foovay’s Cauldron

Posts Tagged ‘New Mexico’

This lovely little Canyon Towhee dropped by for lunch today.  He was picking up pine nuts under the evergreen outside the kitchen window.  Hubby got a great picture of him!  The Canyon Towhee is a new bird for us!  Whee!

Summer

We will not be moving into the city

Look who dropped by our back yard this morning. When I woke up they were right outside the window. They moved away a little when hubby got up and dressed to slip outside and take these photos:

And hubby’s Dr. says – “of course, you’ll have to move to Cruces”

HAH. Will we make a 200 mile round trip commute 3 times a week for this?

Yes.

I set out yesterday to finally really set up and get all the blogs I’ve had plans for – the main ones being added are for adult short fiction and serials. If you look down towards the bottom on the right hand column now you’ll see two new categories of links, Blogs by Foovay and Adult Blogs by Foovay. I’m also making sure that all the blogs have TweetMyBlog on them – I love that plug-in.

The main one I wanted to brag on today is Foovay’s Floozies. Think Victorian era naughty girls. Original stories, vintage “porn” photos (some of them quite soft core), and some photo manips. It was quite popular early this year, then I had all those hosting issues and this and that and well… hey, it’s back now!

Last night and this evening I got some beautiful photos of the storm rolling in – and then snow on the Sierra’s behind us. My Flickr pro account is a bit past due so I can’t upload and make a pretty slide show. Sorry. So here’s my two favorites.

Storm Front 12/22/09

Remember me telling you about the colored charcoal and grey paper I got for Solstice? Well I’m going to get one more blog set up and maybe a few entries in the others and then I’m sitting down with my new toys and these two photos. Maybe tomorrow I’ll have some art to show you!

Blessedbe

Summer Fey Foovay

These photos are the sunset of a few days ago as a storm blew in. We got our first sprinkle of snow the next day, our first freeze, too.

For some reason I love being able to actually see the rain (or in this case, maybe it was snow) falling from the clouds miles away. Sometimes you can stand in the sun and see it raining all around us on the mountains. After this storm, there were white caps on the surrounding mountains – so they got more snow than we did.

I love being able to actually watch a storm move – here it is coming in from the south. It seems odd, but then remember that many of our storms (including this one) are the last remnants of hurricanes coming to land south of us in Mexico.

This one is my favorite though. The colors in the sky here never cease to amaze me.

There is a Traditional Navaho prayer that suits this place perfectly:

Today I will walk out, today everything evil will leave me,
I will be as I was before, I will have a cool breeze over my body.
I will have a light body, I will be happy forever,
nothing will hinder me.
I walk with beauty before me. I walk with beauty behind me.
I walk with beauty below me. I walk with beauty above me.
I walk with beauty around me. My words will be beautiful.

In beauty all day long may I walk.
Through the returning seasons, may I walk.
On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.
With dew about my feet, may I walk.

With beauty before me may I walk.
With beauty behind me may I walk.
With beauty below me may I walk.
With beauty above me may I walk.
With beauty all around me may I walk.

In old age wandering on a trail of beauty,
lively, may I walk.
In old age wandering on a trail of beauty,
living again, may I walk.
My words will be beautiful.

Blessedbe

Summer Fey Foovay

The last two days we have had a very sick cow dog having seizures every few hours. Totally scary. As of this morning, Klyde seems to be just fine. It’s been quite an experience – and no sleep for me or Third for two days. (We think he’s been poisoned)

I will say, I paid a big $5 from Paypal to  ask the vet a question here and Dr. Marie was very nice, very helpful, very kind and did not do any of the guilt tripping over us not being able to take him to a vet. I can’t say enough good about her. She replied within half an hour, too. So – if you ever have a question you really need a veterinarian for – she’s the one. She’s on Twitter, too. @AskAVetQuestion.

That said – I had to share a typical sleepless morning on the ranch. Klyde was pacing and whining and whining and pacing and pacing and whining. Then Thirds phone rings. And rings. And rings. He mumbles something about “I am not going to town today.” It stops. It starts again. Klyde paces and whines and paces and whines.

So although it was early (I try to keep morning feed at 10 am here, but since I was up the last two days it’s been 7 am) I went out to feed. Both dogs go with me which is great because Klyde has not felt up to going out to feed for a couple of days. I’m tired but trying very very hard to be patient.

First thing I notice is the mule is gone. GONE. Nowhere to be seen. The mare is hung up in the fence. The old cowpony is upset and pacing and whinnying.

I go on into the barn to get their hay (the mare has a tendency to extricate herself when food is in the offing without any help) and notice I am down to one upset barn cat (I have two..). Klyde, whose seperation anxiety is now off the scale after his illness, tries to follow me into the barn and I raise my voice and tell him “no”. He vanishes.

I get the hay and go toss it. By the time I’ve walked down the fence to drop the second pile, I hear my other cat. I walk around trying to find her. She is up a power pole, standing on the transformer of a power line. There is nothing, NOTHING on this ranch that will reach that high.

I turn to go back to the barn and the mule has traded off his invisibility cloak – he is now in my back pocket (Klyde took the cloak, more on that in a minute). Follows me to the first gate. This mooseheaded mule bashes gates with his head to knock them down and he’s got this one so bent up I cannot get it open to let him in. I go to the second gate – same thing. I cuss him. Told him he’ll have to wait, I’m going to go get the mare out of the fence.

I step over the fence in a spot I usually go through and dipshit mule tries to follow.

I am 5 feet tall and weight about 130. The mule is about 18 hands high (six feet at the shoulder) and weights about a half ton. He doesn’t fit through where I do. He gets caught. He tears the entire section of fence down behind me. The good news is he is now in the pen.

Meanwhile, I’ve discovered the mare has literally woven one hind leg through the field wire and is well and truly caught. I mash and push the wire down to her ankle and she lifts her foot and starts jerking. I take the foot to try and help her unweave herself and she twists around and crushes my hand and damn near kicks me in the head. I get my hand loose and back up a step and cuss her.

Well! She says. Then casually unweaves herself and walks over to eat…

So I go back to the barn, get the chickens breakfast and thank goodness they, at least, are all present, accounted for, and doing what chickens do.

I walk back up to the house and – no dogs. I call and call and here comes Harry full tilt boogie and goes in the house – but no Klyde. I walk around the barns and house looking for him. I’m afraid now he flopped over and had a seizure and I cannot see him because he is down.

So I go in, tell hubby my tale of woe. He gets dressed, gets his boots on, I get my boots on as I now expect to be walking knee deep in brush in snake country searching for a down dog.

Open the door.

Klyde is on the porch.

But runs off because he is now 3x more spooky than he has been for a year. Both of us eventually have to get off the porch and leave the door open and herd the herding dog inside.

I am having a beer for breakfast, anyone else want one?

I love living on the ranch. I love our animals. Really.

The cat is still on the pole.

Update at Noon:

I’m on my second beer.

Hubby looks out the window and the cat is not on the pole.

THIS is on the pole:

Hubby goes out to get some good photos of this Very Large Hawk.

Fortunately:

The pole sitting cat is in the barn.

I check the number of beers left in the refrigerator.

“My sister is an idiot”

Migration season is so much fun here. I get to see old pals who live in the more temperate clime of Tulsa, OK but who drop by for a visit at our new home here in New Mexico a couple times a year. Like this Red-Breasted Nuthatch. He’s the first one I’ve seen here on the ranch. According to my bird book he could be just migrating, or he may winter over. I’d love to have his cheery company all winter.

He was sure having a busy time this morning. He was flying into the big live pine tree by the back door and picking loose some pine nuts and dropping them on the ground. Then flying down to the ground and picking up the nut which he then carried up the dead pine tree right in front of the kitchen window. He stuffed a few into the bark of the tree, and took a few up into the branches where he cracked and ate them. And then back to the live tree to pry some more pine nuts loose.

James got the photos, of course. I apparently took about ten – with the lens cap on or something *rolling eyes* I have big plans to get some work done today – both online and on the house. It’s turned off cold and all the “vermin” have decided it would be much cozier in the human house. Notice how cute little deer mice go from “critters” to “vermin” once they move into the kitchen.

I wouldn’t mind actually. I’d cohabitate to some extent. But nesting and peeing and pooping in the towel cabinet in the bathroom – and doing the same in the silverware drawer – that’s just unacceptable. I finally broke down and bought a live trap yesterday. You wouldn’t know that I already (should) have two live traps – one big fat white kitty (Pearlie doesn’t muss her paws) and a terrier (Harry doesn’t even bother staring at the cabinet any more). Sigh.

Laters!

Summer Fey Foovay

P.S. Red-Breasted Nuthatch coloring page added
Red-breasted Nuthatch added to the free clipart