Lone Coyote

February 12, 2023

Howdy folks,

Well, the ol' Cat Butt Fever struck again.  Or, at least, that is the most likely culprit...we think.  A month or two ago, somewhere near Christmas, Erin got violently ill twice in the same week.  This was very out of the ordinary.  Then, as I noticed our swirling mass of kittens starting to grow more and more into brave, little explorers, our four older cats from PA started hanging out in unusual spaces.  I noticed one of them sitting on a cutting board that Erin only uses for cutting lemons for tea(I don't use lemons in mine), so we narrowed it down to that, changed it and it hasn't happened since.  Our older cats are literally pulling their hair out as all the little minions keep getting into all of their favorite, established places.  I, myself, have been down and out all weekend with a splitting headache and a terrible stomach ache...nothing more, but, boy, did I pretty much sleep from Friday night until Sunday morning!  As in Erin's case, I've examined what has been going on lately and think that perhaps I can pin it on the brats again.  I usually have a glass of water right next to me when I'm sleeping, and I'm pretty sure that we're now starting to think it's really neat to wash our little paws in stuff like that.  I now use my Yeti insulated cup for everything and never leave the lid off!  Clearly, we have way too many cats in our house, but we haven't been in too much of a hurry to push them outside yet and are continuing our little escapades outside around the house for an hour or so.  Bootsie, the outdoor queen, likes to hunt them and sit underneath the tree that they're all climbing in, giving them the death stare.  Not much more than that has happened, but she did box Ebony's ears in the other day pretty hard.  We've certainly found out, ironically, that TG Swiper(Tough Guy) is probably our most cowardly kitten!  So, that brings me to good news on another front.  Suddenly, the never-ending construction project on the boss's new house seems to be nearing an end and it looks like we might just finish within the next six weeks or so!  Then, the boss will move into the new place, all of the windows in the house where the boss was living will then be replaced, we need to then move into that house(next door about fifty feet away), then the window guys come back to do our casita, and then the boss goes away on vacation in June with all of us nestled in our new spots.  Best of all, we'll have much more space for the kittens to transition into true, indoor/outdoor cats and they'll be able to inhabit the 2.5 acre backyard that is protected from critters by both hogwire and coyote fencing.  Our living space will then turn from a barn into a zoo!

I finally found my old sketchbook in storage this week!  I'm terribly excited about it and knew that it was buried somewhere in the deeps of our two storage units.  Another benefit of our upcoming move is to be able to bring a lot more stuff home to sort through and hopefully go from two units down to one...or zero would be pretty cool, too.  I'm pretty sure that Erin's going to be set up along the roadside, or down at Pecos River Station, with her table full of wares!  The weather has been all over again this week, hitting both 60 and 10 degrees within a few days of each other.  We had lots of snow and also lots of wind before the snow.  We're creeping up on the time of year when the wind really starts roaring again.  The one day this week had gusts going as high as 80mph(steady at 50+!) pummeling us all night long while we listened to the wind continuing to wage its eternal war against chimneys and anything that dares to poke its head too high up in the air.  I think ours is well past-due for a good resealing!  The horses have calmed down markedly since my last report when the dogs and I got very unceremoniously thrown out of the pasture by a herd of pissed-off mustangs!  Everyone is much more chill and the coyote activity has diminished.  Although, that being said, the moon is much dimmer and is starting to rise so late in the night that it's closer to the dawn than it is to the dusk.  I'm sure that that has a role in all of this.  Speaking of things that are constantly barking at coyotes, I've been trying to spend more time with the boss's two dogs.  The boss has been tied up in Santa Fe a lot recently and the dogs are often left at home for us to tend to.  A lot of this is them roaming around that huge 2.5 acre backyard.  But, they certainly are very social and don't like being alone either.  Willow used to play with the boss's dog, Cheyenne, endlessly, but Buck was added to the mix about a year ago and I haven't had our pack of four together again since then.  Five shouldn't be too hard!

And, lastly, here are some new pictures for everyone.  First, a drawing of Erin from my sketchbook.  Then, a lone coyote out sneaking around about 100 yards from our front door one morning.  Next, Buck & Cheyenne mugging for the camera way up top in the yard.  Then, a shot of Nanette eating off the ground on a cold morning(she loves to yank flakes of hay out of the feeder!).  Next, two shots from the tippy-top of the new house while I was cleaning: first, looking out towards the horse pasture; then, turned towards the north, looking up at Barillas Peak.  Next, a look at the newly installed pot rack that a local artist, Christopher Thomson Ironworks (http://christopherthomsonironworks.com/), made for the boss.  Then, a series of three shots of a particularly striking dawn this week on one morning when I was out about an hour earlier than usual.  Next, a series of five pictures detailing the winter weather this week: first, the sun peeking over the hill at the main horse gate; then, a secondary interior gate in the gloom; next, the mesa hidden in the misty skies; then, a mixture of horse tracks and buggy tracks in the fresh snow; and, finally, the lightly dusted mesa set against our windmill.  Finally, a sneak-peek looking down at the back of our soon-to-be new digs from the heights of the dog yard.  The view of Barillas Peak is about a hundred times better way up on top of the hill...just for a sense of size, it sits 3000' higher than us and is ten miles away, as the crow flies.  From another spot you can see Santa Fe Baldy(12,000'+), Barillas Peak(9000'+), San Juan Jose Mesa(almost 8000'...also known as Rowe Mesa...and about 20 other names) and Starvation Peak(7000').  Let the countdown begin...

Take care.