Month: May 2022

Dancing With The Stars

Timothy Price43 Comments

Out at 4:00 am dancing with the stars and planets and La Llorona and Chupacraba

Since I got home late tonight, I didn’t do any redneck roofing. Instead, I went out to check on the owls. We had not seen any sign of the owls for the past 3 days. I think part of it was the fire department was running their super noisy airboat up and down the river all weekend watching for fires in the bosque. On Thursday, 30 acres of bosque burned south of Montaño Blvd., about 8 miles south of us. All was quiet tonight. The first bird I encountered looked like a juvenile Western Blue Bird. Then Daddy Owl came swooping through the property and landed on Susan’s tree. I thought he was going to get a squirrel squirreling around up ahead of me, but he didn’t go for it. But then our bunny came running out and he showed interest in the bunny. Laurie bravely stood between Daddy Owl and the bunny as we told Daddy Owl to leave our bunny be. We told him he can get all the squirrels and gophers he wants, but we draw the line when it comes to our bunny.

As we were heading to where the owlets hang out, a Cooper’s Hawk buzzed us and landed on a nearby tree for a few seconds. When I got up to the Tangle Heart Tree, Mama owl was just taking off to go shopping. The owlets were there peeping like crazy wanting Mama and Daddy to bring them food. A few minutes later Mama Owl returned and gave Mary whatever she caught. When I looked at what Mary had in her beak in the photo, it looks like a cicada, but I can’t say for sure. Mama, flew back to Wowlmart, as Shey calls it, but it was getting dark, so we didn’t stick around to see if she or Daddy Owl came back with anything interesting.

Mars and Jupiter

Western Bluebird

Daddy Owl on Susan’s tree eyeing our bunny. He gave up after we told him no.

Cooper’s Hawk

Mama Owl flying off to Wowlmart.

Smokey sunset.

Sliver moon

Redneck Roofer

Timothy Price72 Comments

Jupiter is making its way around Mars in the center of the photo. Venus is just rising on the left and Saturn is on the right. There was a nice alignment of stars that are at the top of the photo.

Since our cover over the deck was looking like it would rip anytime in the wind, Laurie suggested that we put a permanent roof on the canopy over the deck for our anniversary. We had thought about it for years but never did it. I ordered the supplies Sunday morning and picked them up Sunday afternoon. I started working on the roof at 7:00 am this morning and ran out of screws and energy at 7:00 pm. The vented part of the roof took a lot longer to build than I had anticipated. All my joints are complaining tonight.

Twelve hours of work with only water breaks.

Our pink Peony is blooming

I spied this beautiful rose hidden in the bush when I was on the ladder.

A spray of our anniversary Petunias

A Ruby Wedding Anniversary

Timothy Price98 Comments

Laurie and I celebrated 40 years of marriage and a total of 42 years together. Both are significant numbers. While I can’t say we’ve been wandering around in the wilderness for the past 40 years, we have spent 40 years together in the high desert. Fortunately, we have carved out a piece of paradise in our desert. For those of you who have not seen the photos from our shotgun wedding, you can see them at https://photos.tandlphotos.com/blog/2017/5/celebrations-of-life.

Sunrise

Tristan made us a very special dinner for our anniversary, which included a four-layer Zigarat cake. The dragon tail flame illuminated a ghost who joined us for the celebration.

Not a cloud in the sky at sunset

How To, Loki, Flowers

Timothy Price52 Comments

I irrigated on Thursday. A gopher hole created an unwanted lake that was draining water that the plants needed. After 30 minutes of trying to plug the hole where it was flowing out of the ground, which I knew wouldn’t work, I finally found two holes that were the source and plugged them. Not before getting a significant-sized lake. The whole thing reminded me of how the Salton Sea was created.

Loki was practicing his cat tree ballet.

White neon iris

Sunset

Owlets On The Tangle Heart Tree

Timothy Price62 Comments

Daddy Owl Shopping for dinner

Laurie was out before I was, and got Peter, Paul, and Mary on the end of the Tangle Heart Tree.

When I got up to the Tangle Heart Tree there all three owlets were in the tree, but Peter was in front of Paul and Mary was sitting on the backside of the left-hand branch.

Peter, Paul, and Mary from the backside of the Tangle Heart Tree.

Paul looking over Peter’s shoulder

The Owlets were frolicking in the Tangle Heart Tree (click on the gallery to see a slide show).

A pensive Mary

Jupiter rose a minute after Mars this morning. They were very close together. Stars in the early morning sky. The moon rose looking away from Venus.

RAW Power

Timothy Price60 Comments

I’m trying out a new photo editor called RAW Power. So far it’s pretty good.

Processing a photo of our bunny in RAW Power.

pTerodactyl flying overhead

Buddy working hard

Hummingbird behind

Almost the same devilishly cool temperature inside as outside.

Sunrise looking south

Cresent moon at sunrise

Pretty Peonies

Together

Timothy Price73 Comments

How many owls can you find in the above photo?

Mama Owl in the Tangle Heart Tree.

Peter, Paul, and Mary together again in the bosque eleven days after Peter flew the coop.

Peter, Paul, and Mary

There was a 50% chance of rain, but any rain evaporated long before it reached the ground. The wind blew a lot of dust, however.

Snowy

Timothy Price55 Comments

A Snowy Egret flew by at high speed this morning.

Violet-green Swallows were swarming over the river catching insects. They were also flying close to the water splashing in it as they skimmed the surface. I was not able to get still shots of them splashing.

Mary flew over to the tree with Paul last night. She was really proud of herself this morning perched in the shade with her chest up and out like “See what I did?”

Paul and Mary. Daddy Owl was sitting in a cottonwood in the bosque where he could see both of them in their new tree between the ditches. It will be interesting to see how long it is before they fly into the bosque.