Stinking

I was in the infinite shed of doom measuring and taking inventory of material for a project I’m working on. When I moved some wood, a darling baby skunk ran between my legs and took refuge under another infinite pile of doom before I could get a photo of it. When I pulled a door open that acts as a wall to a caged-in area in the shed, I was face to face with Mama Skunk. She lunged at me a few times when I stuck my phone in her face, but then she finally sat back and listened to me talk to her. She never acted like she was going to spray me. It’s possible that since I only take a shower a couple of times a week to save water, and since I was dirty, sweaty, and all dressing in black, she might have thought I was a big, stinky Nephilim paparazzo, who obviously could not be a threat the way I smelled.

Mama Skunk sitting back and listening to me talk to her.

Two Firsts and a Wet Skunk

I got water for my first irrigation tonight. It’s so dry the land soaks up the water for a long time before it keeps flowing. Furthermore, the water level in the acequia madre keeps fluctuating, which changes the water pressure. Between bone dry land and changing water pressure, it’s going to take a long time to get everything watered tonight. I may not get everything watered tonight.

That little fuzzy head in the darkness is Mama Owl’s and Daddy Owl’s new owlet sticking its head up for the first time to say “Hello world!” I was talking to Jim between calling the owlet and taking photos, and Jim asked “Why don’t they stick their heads up when it’s light?” I told him that owls like darkness.

Mama Owl and Daddy Owl in a cottonwood in the bosque looking for Junior’s dinner.

If anyone has suggestions for names for Junior, I’m open.

“¡Hola Mundo!”

The left fork in the Y in my irrigation ditch flows through a culvert where Scrappy Skunk was sleeping. Poor Scrappy was rudely awakened by the water and he came out one end of the pipe but got offended that I was videotaping him. He crawled back in the culvert, came out the other side, went back in, and stayed in the culvert until the water got too high and finally forced him out. He was an embarrassed wet skunk when he finally climbed out of the ditch and ran off. You can watch Scrappy Skunk in all his wet glory in the video below.

Tonight’s flowers, bunny and moon follow.

Beatrice Bunny

Mammatus Monday

August is the month for mammatus clouds. I posted similar clouds on August 1, 2018. These mammatocumulus clouds rolled in well after sundown the other night. While I was out photographing the clouds, I ran into a skunk. The skunk was a sassy little guy. He ran up to within a foot of me and stamped his little paws. It was too dark for the wide-angle lens to focus on him. I took a few steps backward, and he ran up to me and stamped is front paws. This happened several more times. He never turned to spray, just kept running up to me like a challenge or maybe he wanted to play. When I shined my phone light on him to try and get a photo, he ran under the car.