Catching Up

I have been more than busy– PT, weight lifting, starting to walk again, keeping the little bird handled after some neglect, breeding and crossing pouter pigeons for our new “North American pouter” project (pix soon), trying to arrange getting “my” (not yet) Aplomado in. At least we are not having puppies! Health is generally improving. …

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Sheep camp, week 3

Lambing is in full swing now, but here’s a short review, in pictures, of the week.This pronghorn buck is our constant companion. We don’t know why, but he hangs out with the herd, and follows Rena and I around a lot. The guardian dogs do not stay together, but greet each other a few times …

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Name me

This rock is the westernmost point of the “coyote rocks” on our lambing ground, and as you can see, is a very interesting character. Sadly, it does not have a name. Accepting suggestions now.

5000 Year-Old Scammer?

David Z (see below) sent us the latest on Hari Scam and and, amazingly, it is even more ridiculous than what has gone before. “Among the mixed-bag films at Tribeca this year, Thorkell Hardarson and Örn Marino Arnason’s Feathered Cocaine was arguably the most mixed. Alan Howell Parrott, an American Sikh convert, introduced falconry to …

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Sheep camp, week 1

The photo above is the view out my sheep camp door. I’m home for a few hours to take care of some paperwork and grab a shower, then back to sheep lambing camp in the Big Sandy country of western Wyoming. This is the first year I’ve gone to such a remote location for lambing. …

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Back to Blogging

Slowly. Until I tame the voice dictation software graciously given me by a friend the two hardest things to do are typing (five typos a line!)and cramped arthritic handwriting. Small movements are affected more than big ones. Though those lost ground too, I am gaining. A bike provided by another friend and a membership in …

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Dragon Taming

Two recent movies feature updated versions of a very old fantasy meme: taming dragons.  In both James Cameron’s AVATAR and the more recent DreamWorks picture, How To Train Your Dragon, the protagonists befriend what amount to winged reptiles (or their “Pandoran” equivalents) after intense and well-rendered sequences of the wild animals’ capture and taming. I imagine most falconers will watch these movies with a …

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Hurricane Us: a Hasty Screed

No stranger to disaster, Louisiana faces what may be its worst-ever coastal impact in the next 24 hours. By tomorrow, the first of millions of gallons of floating crude oil will wash ashore in Louisiana, with all five Gulf states potentially endangered in the days and weeks ahead.  At immediate risk: hundreds of miles of hard-working coastline and hundreds of years of cultural dependence on …

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