The last couple of weeks, the hummingbirds have really been hitting the feeder hard. We’ve gotten up to a dozen at a time, but they move so fast that this is about as many as I’ve been able to get in one shot. It takes them about four days to empty the feeder. We’ve had …
Category: Uncategorized
Ponderosa Pines
I heard this interesting piece on Ponderosa pines on NPR on the way to work earlier this week. It was taped in that beautiful area in Arizona between Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon, which they say is the best place in the world to see Ponderosas. All I have to do is walk out the …
Lane Batot on Trailhounds: Part 2
Although growing up around relatives’ and neighbors’ trailhounds, I did not acquire my own first hound until I was well into my 30’s, and even then, quite by accident. A horribly starved, wretched little Black-And-Tan hound showed up at the place I was employed at the time–a small game farm/zoo in Tennessee, where the bossman …
Quiet night
Everything was quiet in the pasture this morning, with no signs of further predation during the night. The animals were all calm, and the guardians all seemed content. Although some may see the fact that two lambs were killed as some fault of the guardian animals, Jim and I disagree with that view. We shudder …
Predation
I swear any time I change my schedule, something goes really wrong. I drove my son Cass to Laramie yesterday to move him into a dorm for his freshman year at the University of Wyoming. It was a fun but stressful day as I tried not to think about the fact that my son just …
Heat-treated Tool Stone
We’ve known for quite some time that it wasn’t uncommon for prehistoric peoples to heat-treat their lithic raw material to improve its flaking properties. In fact, I believe W.H. Holmes recognized the practice in some of his pioneering work in lithic studies in the 1890s. It’s been observed ethnographically and assumed archaeologically that raw material …
More on the Murder Hollow Bssetts
David Zincavage takes on Patrick Burns’ seeming complacence over the outrage. Also read the post below for a gut- wrenching description of what might happen to any multiple animal owner. Did you know that PETA’s new slogan is “There are NO good breeders!”
Chimney Rock – A Chacoan Outlier
Here’s an interesting report on this year’s excavations undertaken by the University of Colorado Field School at Chimney Rock, an Anasazi site near Pagosa Springs, Colorado. Chimney Rock was a colony planted in the 11th century AD by groups from the political/cultural Anasazi center in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico. Steve Lekson, a Chaco expert on …
Tamarisk Eradication
Tamarisk is an invasive plant that takes a terrible toll on the environment here in the Southwest US. Almost exactly two years ago, I had a post about studies for a plan to introduce Asian beetles here that prey on tamarisk in its natural environment. The concept is that these tamarisk-eating Diorhabda beetles will if …
A True Tale of Bureaucracy and Individuals
I posted this as a comment below but decided it could stand as a post. Re “individuals” and beaureaucrats. When Libby was in Bozeman an INDIVIDUAL woman who disapproved of Libby’s keeping company with a hunter (really) got the town to go after our then third dog, as no one could keep three without all …