"Cause she'll take your voice and leave you howling at the moon"

 

 

Love me some Tetons...

I'd really like to be back standing there on a day like that again..

or driving on this road...

Animal Peeping...

Now that I live along a river I've been watching the beaver activity like a hawk.  The banks are more and more exposed each day and today I found that my usual sit spot (a downed beaver log) had washed away in the recent melts! 

Here's a part of a letter I just found that I had written to Crystal in early April of 2008.

"Exciting news in the animal department this week I've witnessed many species.  Yesterday I went with Molly and Lisa to the Greenfield farmer's coop and the baby chicken were in.  They were in these big washtubs and there was chickens, ducks, and turkeys all about 3 days old. 50+!!!  I got to ride home with the box of 6 tiny chickens on my lap.  They kept peeping and their mini beaks were beyond cute.  So cute it was..in fact it made my heart feel warm.

Next, last night I had a hard time falling asleep so I took an evening stroll along the tracks.  I first encountered a skunk who was sniffing around and I watched him for a bit.  Once I moved on I only went about 20 feet until my next animal encounter.  I heard a strange squeak from behind the bushes.  It was from a mouse which was getting pawed at by a kitty.  I felt bad for the mouse though...

My most recent animal encounter involves a squirrel.  I saw a squirrel crossing the power lines with what looked like a giant load of food in its chubby cheeks.  But, at closer look it turned out to be a baby squirrel hanging across the mom's mouth, gripping on tightly.  I wastched as the mom teetered for a moment and looked like it was gonna fall.  I was scared for the baby (and the mom!).  I was walking that dog Mare and I told her what was going on."

also in that letter...
"There's supposed to be days of rain ahead of us and that means the possibility for mushroom spotting but, it may still be too cold here for some good sightings"

Reading that in the letter has got me excited because it will be mushroom season soon!!!  Only about a month to go for writing stuff like that again!

Hail And Kill

The Manowar show was amazing and I'm still too hopped up on the all the excitement to settle down for sleeping.

Can you taste the metal?

"Hear the pounding army of the night
The call of metal summons us tonight
And gather we on this site
To behold the power and the might"

My sister an I are probably pumping our fists somewhere within that orange circle.  We were able to get pretty close to the stage even though the dude ratio at the show was probably 10:1.  The bassist (the one in the picture pouring that drink all over himself) told the crowd to cut out the moshing and crowd surfing, pretty sweet for us because sometimes the shows at that venue can get pretty out of control.   My right arm is probably going to be sore tomorrow from all the intense fist pumping I was doing but, it was totally worth it.

• The music was so loud that our hair was actually bouncing on its own!
• I spotted both of our hairstyles blowing from the wind created by the intense head banger in front of us!

We've done a lot of interesting things in out sisterhood and it was really fun to experience our first "real" metal show together!  Now we wanna go to Sweden and see them play because they have a much bigger following in Europe!!

Maybe Iron Maiden is next for us...

I can tell that winter is starting to come to an end.....

Pippi sleeping in the sunlight!

The amount of light is growing bit by bit each day and I've heard rumors of the first buds starting to poke out on some witch hazel branches.  I do love winter, but I'm ready for springtime and that ability to sit outside comfortably for long periods of time that the warmer weather brings.

There's two tricks that I've tried this year that help to evoke the feeling of spring by stimulating the sense of smell and touch.

1.  Smell :  Dig up the snow and get down to the leafy mulch layer.  Pull up a chunk of this mostly decayed matter and sniff it.  Yes, it does sound kind of wierd/gross...maybe it pushes the limits of conventional society a bit too far (ecspecially for city dwellers).  But, if you're someone who is really fiending for spring if you really shut your eyes and breathe it in, the experience may whisk you away to warmer days.

2. Touch:  This one I learned by observing Nutmeg (my favorite terrier).  She likes to sit and lounge in the bits of rectangular light that comes in from the windows in our living room.  Today, I decided to do the same and I realized that laying with my face in the sun even though it was inside did give me almost the same sense of relaxation that lying in a field

I started being very interested in the senses when I first started living with ferrets.  They are extremely smart and I remember reading that they test higher than chimps on problem solving!  Anyways, they need sensory enrichment while living with humans because they become bored incredibly easy.  I had a lot of fun building them different things to climb on and bringing in boxes full of snow or leaves for them to tunnel in.

This is Annie.  When I put her down to check out the snow she looked right up at me and scurried with a sense of urgency up my body and crawled right into my hood where she stayed for the duration of the outdoor adventure.  She didn't take to us or the business (a group of ferrets) until she got her torso caught in a hamster tunnel and three of us had to hold her still while Victor cut the hard plastic to release her.  She was screeching and it was horrible but she really took the group after that.

This is Pippi.  She came into my life purely by chance.  Driving late one night in Westboro we spotted her walking down the street.  We put down a box and she walked right in.  She was the best.  I miss her dearly! 


"Ferrets are mammals not rodents and are not even related to rodents. Domestic ferrets are related to minks and weasels, and to the black-footed ferret, a wild, weasel-like animal native to North America."

 Ferrets can sleep so soundly that they cannot be woken up even when picked up and jostled.

Sleeping legs!

There are many old paintings and tapestries depicting ferrets.  They are said to have been domesticated for nearly thousands of years.

Bet you didn't realize how snuggly they are!

"The word ferret comes from Latin and means “thief,” same meaning as the word mouse."  They would snatch many of our items and create a "nest" under the couch of all the things they loved that smelled like us.  

"In the Middle Ages, ferrets were used to hunt for rabbits. Hunters would muzzle the ferret’s mouth, and send it in the rabbit hole to chase rabbits out another end where hunters waited with nets to catch them. This method was used in the United States as well until the early 20th Century."

"They were also used on ships to hunt rats to control their populations. "