Monday, December 29, 2008

The Effects of Cosmic Catnip


This plus


The wooly gnome

Equals this ...


And this


And then this


And this...

Sunday, December 28, 2008

Winter Has Come To The Retreat

We've had lots of snow teasers, but so far no accumulation beyond a dusting at least in this part of town. Other parts got about a foot, lucky ducks.

The front yard/garden



Looking out a living room window to the "back yard"




An amazing sunset



Mayana the Christmas Kitty, helping me decorate ;-)

Sunday, December 7, 2008

Stinky Excitement!

I've known since Tuesday or Wednesday this week that we had a skunk who decided our laundry room was it's all you can eat buffet. I had moved the cat food in there from the garage because the mice were getting at it, not that they'd live long with Mayana the Mighty Huntress around, but still...
So the cat food and water was stationed up on the clothes dryer and our skunk was climbing up the back of the washer on pipes and tubing to get at it much to the disbelief of 2 different critter catchers I called. Skunks don't/can't jump I'm told... Well all I know is that there's a skunk and it's eating the cat's food cuz they don't go through this much food normally and it stinks to high heaven oh well and there's a puddle of pee on the washer too and the cats don't do that!
Thursday morn I saw the little devil scrambling down the pipes behind the washer. It was really small. I thought maybe it was a baby...
So the critter catcher, Bryan comes out Thursday afternoon and we look all over and don't find it. I had left the back door open in hopes that it would leave voluntarily which is what we both decided.
Friday afternoon I heard from Daniel, the houseguest, that he saw it early that morn up on the washer eating the cat food. Drat it's still here! I realize that it's probably going down the pipes in the wall and chillin under the house.
So Bryan comes back out Friday afternoon, sets a trap w/bait, and the skunk finishes off what little cat food was in the dish and bypasses the trap-fooey.
Saturday I put the cat food and water dish away and sprinkle cat food in the trap before heading out for the evening to listen to some live folk music and I come home to a sprung trap complete with skunk! Wahoo!!
I called Bryan this morning to let him know and he came out this evening and was so excited by what we caught! Not the common striped skunk, but a Western Spotted Skunk instead, and fully grown, oh and come to find out they're climbers ;-) Yeah, coulda told ya that! I'd say they're about the size of a guinea pig...? but w/a bushy tail ha ha.
So cute! Here's a pic from the web that I found that looks just like the one that was here.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Tennessee Trip!

I just posted all about my trip to TN and the conference and lots of pics on my Genotype Blog. Here's the link http://genotypes.blogspot.com/
I don't know what I was expecting... But it was soooo gorgeous! Go check it out! :-D