For any of you who know Spunk Kitty, you will understand how Spunk will not be outdone by mice, birds, squirrels, and especially lizards and bullfrogs. Spunk was not very happy that I posted Froggyphunk, by Jeremiah and the Lizards, yesterday before he got a chance to pitch his song idea to me. When I got home this afternoon, I got an ear full from Spunk about me posting a song by a stupid bullfrog when he had a song in mind called Meowing at the Half Moon. He insisted I help him record his song that instant. I told him I was tired and that I would rather do it over the weekend. Spunk would have none of that “over the stupid weekend” talk, and told me he would “scratch my eyes out” if we did not record his song tonight. So Spunk and I went into my darkroom/music studio, played, meowed, mixed and produced Meowing at the Half Moon by Dumpsta-Spunk. Enjoy.
The City of Albuquerque kicked off their first Heights Summerfest: Free, family, fun, concert-series last night, with Dumpstaphunk as the national headliner. Dumpstaphunk is a fantastic group of musicians, who put on a great show. We stood up against the barrier at the stage, and enjoyed their great sound as their funky bass and drums vibrated through our bodies (bass and drum vibes will heal what ails you like kitty purrs). Dumpstaphunk’s performance inspired Jeremiah and the Lizards to write and record Froggyphunk, above. Jeremiah and the Lizards are not quite as talented or as funky as Dumpstaphunk, but they came up with a decent tune. Jeremiah borrowed a recording of a “Chorus of Toads” from Laurie’s brother, Lane. Lane recorded the group of toads singing around his pond late one night. The chorus of toads adds a rather unique froggy element to Froggyphunk.
Dumpstaphunk members from left to right are Ryan Nyther on trumpet, Alex Wasil on trombone, Tony Hall on bass, Ian Neville on guitar, Alvin Ford Jr on drums, Nick Daniels III on lead guitar, and Ivan Neville on keyboards. Ivan Neville has a Hammond B3 organ with a Leslie as part of his assortment of keyboards. You don’t see many B3’s these days.Nick Daniels III also played bass. The two basses gave Dumpstaphunk a super funky sound.Dueling basses.Trombone solo on the monitors right in front of me.
The three owlets from two doors down were playing on the ditch bank and in the bosque last night, while mama owl watched from a perch along the clearwater ditch.
A beaver has been sitting like a bear on the riverbank across from Beaver Point grooming itself in the evenings after sunset. I took the video above last night. During the first part of the video the beaver was about 300 feet south of where I was standing, so when I zoomed in with the video processing software, there’s a soft focus on the beaver. I walked down through the brush and got almost directly across from the beaver, so the video has better focus for the last part. After moving across from the beaver it noticed me, got into the river, and slapped its tail against the water a couple of times. The tail slaps are a little week because when the beaver pauses to splash, the current interrupts the power of the splash. Tail slaps are much loader and more forceful in calmer water. The audio is of the river rushing by, traffic from I-25 to the east, and jets flying overhead.
The photos below were from the June 1st. The beaver was about 200 feet north of me, but it was later, and much darker. I was not able to get the camera to focus for video that night, but I was able to enhance the stills so they are bright with fairly good detail.
Grooming its tailScratching its bellingLeaning forward to scratch a bit lowerGrooming its face
I found this Western Ornate Box Turtle lying and the road where he would have been smashed by a driver not paying attention. I stopped in the middle of the road, jumped out of the car, grabbed him and brought him home. I took a couple of photos of him on our counter before I let him go on our property under the giant Dr. Huey.
If you were thinking the AWB started collaborating on a new rock band, you are half right. You might just hear a tune or two from Jeremiah & The Lizards at some point in the future.
I’ve been whacking weeds by hand for many years. You can see when I made a super weed whacker at https://photos.tandlphotos.com/blog/2016/8/whacky. But now I’ve developed “golf elbow”, which is quite painful, from all the years of manual weed whacking. About a month ago or so I bought a STIHL FSA 90R commercial grade battery powered weed whacker. We have very tough weeds and I knew I needed a commercial weed whacker to do the job. The FSA 90R came with 0.95 inch diameter orange string (shown below), and the first “tough” weed I tried to whack with it broke the string. The tough weed simply laughed at me. “Hahahahaha! You with your wimpy, weakling whacker can’t touch me!” I took the head apart, got more string out and tried whacking some weeny weeds, which it worked pretty well on. Over the past month, I’ve been whacking weeny weeds, which we have lots of, while the tough weeds laughed at me. I finally ran out of the orange string.
I did a bit of research and found the Oregon 22-895 Magnum Gatorline .095 inch trimmer line was highly rated as really touch line for really tough weeds. 22-895 Magnum Gatorline is square, which somehow makes more resistant to breaking. I found the best deal was a large spool with 600 feet of of line. I loaded my spool with the 22-895 Magnum Gatorline, and went out and whacked that sassy tough weed that’s been laughing at me for the past month. I’m happy to report, the weed is not laughing any longer, because the weed and all its buddies are no more. The 22-895 Magnum Gatorline ripped through them like they were butter.
Today I set out whacking all the weeds out of the irrigation ditches. The FSA 90R with the 22-895 Magnum Gatorline and I had to work really hard, but after six hours and 4 recharges on the battery, I got the ditches whacked and weed free.
Orange and square gatorline.600 feet of square gatorline
Trimmer headGreat clouds built up in the afternoon.Portion of irrigation ditch before weed whacking.Same portion of irrigation ditch after weed whacking.
Off Center & Not Even 