Crows bathing in the Rio Grande in the late afternoon.
Video of the crows bathing.
The Pterodactyl was sunbathing in a cottonwood and took a flight when he got tired of the paparazzo photographing him. He landed on another cottonwood across the ditch. No sooner than he settled in, another Pterodactyl flew in a took his place.
What’s that?
Incoming
Ready
Get Set
New Pterodactyl
Spunk view.
A few hours after the current very restrictive lockdown was announced that put a capacity of 25% or 75 people, whichever is smaller, in any store that was allowed to be open, people went nuts, rushed out, and bought out all the toilet paper. I ordered a box of 80 rolls of super-soft, 2-Ply, 100% Recycled Fiber Bulk Toilet Paper on-line at a reasonable price, less than Costco’s Kirkland brand. The cats, especially Spunk, Silver, and Marble, worked and worked on getting the box of toilet paper opened. When I walked into the dance room on Saturday morning November 21st, I discovered the kitties had managed to get into the box and pull out a roll of toilet paper and had started shredding it. Fortunately, one roll was enough for them — the sacrificial roll. We hadn’t realized a roll of toilet paper could be so much fun. Since then they have been slowly shredding it. Spunk, Silver, and Marble have been taking turns beating up and chewing on the roll.
Video of Spunk, Silver, and Marble playing with the roll of toilet paper. All three really go at it, but Silver and Marble were reluctant to really beat up the roll when the camera was rolling.
The freshly frayed roll.
The kitties really like beating up on the roll on top of the card table.
Marble admiring her work.
Silver looked crazed.
Spunk’s tail by his tiger tail he uses to protect us that he placed by the toilet paper.
Spunk at 4:00 am with his tiger tail and toilet paper.
On October 28, 2020, I posted One, Three, Four with five photos of Sandhill Cranes. Marina Kanavaki at Marina Kanavaki dot com commented: “One, three, four, three, three… that would make a very interesting beat!” I replied “¡Sí! C Em F Em Em as in C EmEmEm FFFF EmEmEm EmEmEm repeat.” I wrote lyrics and played the 1, 3, 4, 3, 3 chord progression on the guitar and recorded Cranes in the Key of C. I put the song together with footage of cranes flying above me, in a field, and over the Rio Grande.
This is the time of year to kiss calves and enjoy that sloppy taste of hairy bovine.
I originally posted this video in December 2017 on T&L Photos. I did not have the recording software and equipment I have now, so I made a new recording of the music and updated the video with the new audio.
Cranes having a spat on the Rio Grande.
A group of cranes flew into the shallows on the Rio Grande this evening and decided to have a spat over something. They are doing a nice crane dance as part of the spat in the GIF below.
The duck walks out of the middle of the spat.
Gwendolyn: “Wow! Is this kitty wonderland really for me?”
I have been wanting to put kitty hammocks on the opposite wall from the current two kitty hammocks. However, the problem I was facing was what to put on the opposite wall for the kitties to climb to get to the hammocks. When the kittens, Glenda and Gwendolyn, figure out how to get out into the rest of the house there are going to be a lot of issues with only two hammocks.
Another problem is the kittens are always climbing the walls to get in high places. I am planning on putting shelves near the ceiling for them to play on, but I had the same problem of what to put in the room they could climb to get onto the shelves instead of climbing the walls.
While looking for ideas online, I finally decided that a kitty play structure would do the trick. We found a play structure with the best features, dimensions, and height that looked like it would do the trick and I ordered two of them: one for the big kitties in the dance room and one for the kittens in the bedroom.
The play structures were delivered Thursday, so I spend much of the day between other chores and projects putting together kitty play structures. The kittens have really taken to their play structure. Gwendolyn really loves it. The big kitties helped me put theirs together, and four of them got on it before I could move it to the corner and secure it to the floor and wall. Since then, the big kitties have been lounging on and off on the play structure. I ordered hammocks, so next week I’ll be installing new hammocks.
All the parts. Silver beating up on a toilet paper roll. That’s a story for another post.
The instructions had me assemble the cat houses first.
Sasha helping out.
Spunk checking out Sasha checking out a cat house.
Marble went straight for a higher platform and started playing with her tail on it.
Spunk
Silver & Spunk
Marble, Silver, Spunk, and Sasha
Loki
Gwendolyn
Gwendolyn
The Kittens on the structure in its place in the bedroom. It replaced my nightstand.
Gwendolyn and Glenda
The big kitties’ play structure in its corner of the dance room.
Sasha is satisfied.
Off Center & Not Even 