Sunday Stills: Mechanical Transportation

This was taken in Bandera, Texas, "Cowboy Capitol of the World" a couple years ago. It is the only place I know where you can buy beer with your breakfast tacos and churches hold rodeos on Sundays. I'm sure many of you would enjoy taking your horses to worship!

(And no, this is NOT my car!)

For more takes on mechanical transportation, visit Sunday Stills.

Color Carnival: Woodmen of the World

Last week while on a business trip, I stopped in Bertram, Texas, to photograph this lovely Woodmen of the World mural. I remember seeing their distinctive tree stump shaped headstones which had been erected during the early 1900's in the cemetery of the rural east Texas town where I grew up. Since that was pine forest, I always assumed this was a fraternal order of loggers.

According to Wikipedia, the Woodmen of the World is a fraternal organization based in Omaha, Nebraska that operates a large privately held insurance company for its members. It has nothing to do with trees at all. I thought the log shaped lettering was really nice and the colors and design of the mural well done.

But the article does go on to say that the organization's patriotic mission is the annual In Honor and Remembrance program, which pays tribute to the heroes and victims of September 11. So, it seems an appropriate post for today.

For more colors, visit Color Carnival!

Where's My Kayak?

Today we finally got a big storm. Real rain. As in over 5 inches! Everything just let out a big sigh of relief. The dry creek ran. Cracked soil expanded, trying to confiscate my sandals as I rushed around checking on the animals.

We'd gotten 3/8 of an inch last night, so this new amount is causing some flooding! Not enough to worry about yet, although Phoebe and Finley were not amused standing in their sheep "pond" this morning. Also, rain blew into the new coop from the unfinished overhang creating a small playa lake in the middle of the pine shavings. The chickens were all standing around looking at it while King Avelino tested the water with a foot and complained loudly.

It's temporarily brought the river back up to something worth kayaking--from near 0 to 260 cfs. Our dry well, however, has yet to see any results. There's more rain in the forecast for tonight and the rest of the week, so we can hope!

We Are Not Normal

Today Millicent, our wiener-terrier rescue, discovered Francisco's toy frog. It has been in her mouth all day long. Usually she plays with a dozen toys each day. Usually she plays with the kitten. But not today. This. One. Is. Special.

Macro Monday: Mud Daubers Nest

This is the nest of an organ-pipe mud dauber, a slender, non-aggressive wasp that preys on our black widow spiders. I'm happy to have them around. The nest is made out of local mud by the female who molds it into place with her mandibles.

I thought it was interesting that this one--attached to our house--was made with two colors of mud. I like the organic texture of it and think I'd rather live in a space without corners myself.

For more up close shots visit Macro Monday!

Sunday Stills: Rule of Thirds

After telling everybody I've been using the Rule of Thirds for a while, do you think I could get the animals to cooperate?

Avo, King of the Sheep (or Fuzzy Hens as he prefers) kept trying to explain the Rule of Twenty Sevenths. It was beyond me.

Finley suggested I use the fence to do my proportioning, although he says he prefers using the fence to scratch his rear ear.

Zoe the Apenzeller Spitzhauben hen and the yet unnamed White Crested Black Polish rooster just gave me a look like I am crazy...and of course, I am the Crazy Chicken Lady around these parts. If you have a good name for him, I'm taking suggestions.

For more Rule of Thirds visit Sunday Stills!

Farewell Rooster-o

In the beginning, we never planned to have roosters, but we didn't read the fine print that said there was a small percentage of error on sexing peeps on the first day of their life. Soon after our original batch of layers began to grow, we noticed something different about this one. It looked like a rooster.

Soon we were absolutely, positively sure he was a rooster, and thinking he was the only one, named him Rooster. You could say he was our first rooster, even though much later we were to discover three other of our 'hens' were also boys! They happened to already have girls' names that we could change to the masculine by adding an 'O'...thus Ava became the infamous Avo, etc. This is how Rooster became Rooster-o.

He was the smallest of all our roosters, and we never knew exactly what unusual breed he was. As a young cockerel, he excelled at sports, namely 'grape ball'. This is where we would toss a grape into the flock and he was like a quarterback that would run around dodging the other chickens who also wanted the prize.

Rooster-o was also a gentleman, always very kind to the ladies who, quite frankly, adored him. Especially the ill-behaved Egyptian Fayoumis. They knew he had the biggest wattles around and took advantage of that any chance they could get. He was the only rooster I could not easily pick up and handle--that is until he became sick. Because of this I never knew he was losing weight. Birds have a way of disguising illness by fluffing their feathers.

At first I thought he was malnourished from having a very hooked beak, which you may recall in an earlier post I clipped and filed. This definitely helped him eat more, and he had a voracious appetite up until the end. He regained his strength, and I moved him from the utility bathroom back into his coop apartment when the new peeps expanded into all our spare space.

But his health went slowly downhill. After the new flock moved into their coop, he came back in the house where I could more easily tend to him and he didn't have to endure the summer heat. I began cooking for him, meals that Farmer Rick says were better than what I cooked for us! In the afternoons I'd take him outside where he'd flirt with the hens from the comfort of my lap.

Farewell, Rooster-o, you will be missed by all of us!