This and That

Not the best place for a flat.

Interesting lichen circles and colors.  

A patch of mossy growth in a moist crack between boulders. Things are greening up with the recent rain and more rain expected tomorrow.

Curious neighbors.

Band of Ewes

My hand held ridge shots are crappy but it was the only opportunity to record this band of ewes. No lambs yet. Always exciting to run into the sheep.

Two more post-topper totems

All these goodies are greenware and still have to survive firings and glazing.

Two faced owl totem

Red-tailed Hawk

Kestrel and Sheep!

They're back! Waiting for the rams to follow now.

Dog Diaries: Valley Fever and Food Fussiness

A couple of new things going on that concern me. 

Tux had been eating enthusiastically, lining up with the other dogs while I prepared their meals. For the last few weeks she's gone back to waiting on the sofa or her bed until I call her, then three days ago she didn't want to eat breakfast at all. Yesterday I separated the components to see if it was one thing in particular she didn't want. All she ate was the canned food, no egg or dry food. Dinner last night was chicken, canned food, rice and dry. She finally ate it all, but not with her previous vigor. This morning I offered chicken and ground beef with Cream of Wheat which she ate, but only after I brought it to her. Additionally, she was reluctant to eat the Tramadol/liverwurst pill this morning which she had been greedily gobbling down. 

At about the same time the food fussiness started the sores on her leg were revving up, so I'm wondering if there is a connection. This food fussiness is not a good sign if you recall how she stopped eating entirely last year. I'm keeping fingers crossed this isn't a failure of the two medications allowing the fungus to multiply. Could our luck possibly be that bad? She seems to be feeling well otherwise and maintaining weight for now, so I'm just keeping track of progress. 

Sometimes I feel like I'm in a struggle with death over this dog that is goddamned hopeless. 

Dogs

Update on the dogs

If only we had an unlimited supply of $$...

Hoop, losing hearing but doing well

Tag, cataracts maybe? Senility? Something's wrong. 

Tux, sores on leg are back otherwise OK

McHeffy Springs

We took a walk to the springs at McHeffy Butte today. The site has fallen into disrepair; good for the burros I guess. Lots of tracks, burros and sheep, but we didn't see anything.

Checking out a small cave

Massive Strawberry Hedgehog

A seep down the drainage from the springs

Special Burros and Dog Diaries: Tux

TUX: Terbinafine

I'm changing the delivery method of Tux's Terbinafine to save money. It was a bit of a shock to get a bill for $45 for six teaspoons of liquid with less than $1 worth of Terbinafine in it, and I don't want to pay that again. It required persistence but I got a prescription to buy the meds from a local pharmacy at $4 for 30 tablets (a six month supply!) giving me a savings of $266 for that time period. The tablets have to be crushed and divided six ways but I'm pretty sure I can handle that. It's not rocket science. They aren't happy with me at the vet's office but we're spending way too much on meds and specialty foods for the three dogs as it is. They'll have to get over it.

Burros

It was love at first sight when I saw this little burro. I adore the unusual coloring. Mom is very red compared to most of the burros and her little one is black from the front legs forward and reddish brown towards the back, a sharp dividing line looks almost like a red blanket on its back. Really striking. If only I could keep this one! They wanted nothing to do with me so it was difficult to get close enough to snap good pics.

Red mom, black & red baby, and normal color burro

Mom and baby

Black head and front legs, red to the rear.

Post Toppers

Bob wanted a cow to go with the sheep, but I know nothing about cows! Ugh. Best I could do....

A Big Rattler

We ran into this big Diamondback the other day. It was either very hypothermic or dead as it didn't move for two days. We took care handling it regardless and saw no evidence of injury or blood so we think it was caught outside its den when the cold and snowy weather hit. There are fourteen intact buttons on its tail and it's quite a large rattlesnake for this area. 

Sapsucker

Another couple of sad photos taken through the window with dust, UV film and half inch thick glass causing distortion. Not to mention the bird was pecking in the bark like a machine and most of my pictures were a blur. I've done a little color correction to compensate.

I think we have a red-naped supsucker here. I was reading how sapsuckers make wells in the bark for extracting sap and came upon this mention of hummingbirds and bluebirds being associated with them. We are seeing hummers and bluebirds now, too. Maybe it is no coincidence.

Other species make use of sapsucker wells to supplement their food intake with sap or with insects attracted to the sap. Rufous Hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus), for example, appear to be closely associated, ecologically, with both Red-breasted and Red-naped sapsuckers; they place their nests near sap wells, follow sapsuckers in their daily movements, and may even time their migration to coincide with that of sapsuckers so they can feed off the sap wells. In addition, sapsuckers excavate nest cavities that often provide nesting or roost sites for other species of birds (for example, Mountain Blue­ birds [Sialiacurrucoides]), and even some mammals (for example, northern flying squirrel [Glaucomys sabrinus]) that cannot excavate their own. 

This bird lacks the black breast band of the red-naped sapsucker, but perhaps it's in an intermediate plumage phase. It just doesn't look like anything else to me.

Totems and Toppers

Bob asked me to make toppers for the fence posts (in Sequim). Without proper tools I've been making do with snips and snails and puppy dog tails, but I am having fun making totems and simple figures. There are 100 fence posts so this is a project I can work on for a very long time.

My skills do feel rusty and working with a new clay is always a challenge, but artistic vision and eye-hand coordination are slowly returning. The lack of tools contributes to a primitive style that I like.

Phainopepla

Phainopepla, perched near a mass of mostly eaten mistletoe berries.

Birds

Still working on getting a picture of one of the hummingbirds, but nothing yet. Got these two birds instead.

Flicker (shot through a tinted window)

Loggerhead Shrike

Cave Walk

Snow mostly gone and warmer weather coming, good day for a hike. We walked to a small cave that was inhabited in the distant past. Possibly as a hunting shelter. Artifacts from the site were removed  long ago but smoke stains on the cave ceiling remain. I found a small treasure in the wash, an old burro's tooth!

Unnamed cave

A winding trail leads up to the entrance

Smokey cave ceiling and black cooking nook visible 

View from the cave, up the wash

Bird nest on a cliff 

View from the cave, down the wash