The happy fox...

The happy fox...  We took a drive up to Hardware Ranch yesterday.  This elk refuge is just 20 miles from our home, with most of the drive being up a beautiful canyon with a rushing stream plunging through a narrow forested floor interspersed with larger meadows.  Our goal was to see the elk herd, which congregates near the feeding station in the winter.  We did see the elk, though at some distance.  However, while we sat gawking at the elk, Debbie spotted something much closer and much more interesting: a red fox, hunting in the field just below us, perhaps 300' away. 

The photo at right is not mine, but the fox in it looks like a freshly bathed version of the one we saw.  Ours looked like it had spent some time recently in a muddy area – it's tail was matted, and the entire fox looked quite dirty.  As we watched, it was hunting (most likely for voles, which are extremely common here).  We saw it pounce several times, and after one of them it took a minute or so to eat something it caught...

Muskrat love...

Muskrat love...  Well, not so much.  Debbie went downstairs to visit with our cats yesterday morning, and shortly thereafter hollered up at me to come down and “see something”.  When I walked into the cattery, she and the cats were all looking out one of the room's windows.  It opened into a casement, and in the bottom was a small (and quite unhappy!) muskrat, very much like the photo at right (which I did not take).

The cats were all “Get that annoying thing out of here!”  Debbie was pretty much the same.  All of them looked at me :)  We got a plastic bucket that had a snap lid, and managed to herd the thing into it.  I took it out into our field and let it go – where, most likely, it made a good meal for a hawk or a dog...

Progress report...

Progress report...  The barn is being painted, and the dog agility “room” is being textured first.  The workers have been at it since Monday, and it's starting to look a lot nicer inside.  Instead of bare OSB, now we have light-colored walls that brighten the rooms.  The garage part is a very light green, so light you can just barely tell there's a tint to it.  The wood shop is a warm, bright yellow – very cheerful!  The agility room will be a light bluish-gray, a color picked to coordinate with the electric blue foam flooring that's going in there.  Said flooring is on order and should be here in about three weeks.  The hardware for the interior doors arrived yesterday, and I'll be installing that as soon as the painters are done.

I've been just a bit under the weather the past few days – some sort of low-grade bug that just sapped my energy level, nothing more.  Debbie made some tlapeno soup yesterday, and ever since I ate a gigantic pig trough full of yet, I've been feeling better :)  That stuff is Mexican penicillin!  I've been doing just a few easy things inside the house, and putzing around with some programming (not much physical effort there!).  I'll most likely take it easy again today, but I can feel that I'm on the mend, and I suspect I'll be back to normal tomorrow at the latest...