Starting Right Back Up Again

Hey guess what!  Fungi!  I saw four varieties on my walk Sunday, only one of which I hadn't photographed.  Since the world was waiting:

In wildlife news (you know I live for this):

• The praying mantises finally ended their love-in, after five plus days of togetherness. We don't know if either of the males got eaten and we haven't located the ootheca (egg case) yet, but then we may never find it, which is OK because it's none of our business anyway. Dino has observed the, or at least, a female mantis in the asparagus fern and again on one of the h-bird feeders a couple of times in recent days.
• I saw a skunk on the way home last night. They have a tendency just to run on the road in front of the car and they'll do that forever, so I stopped and waited for it to find its way down the hill. Don't want skunk smell on my car.
• Watched six wild pigs on the way to work this morning - looked like a sow and five juveniles, or possibly one big and one small sow and four juveniles. One of the pigs was sort of brown, black and cream spotted; they others were black. I stopped the car and rolled down the windows to tell them, "I was just thinking about you as*****s.' And I had been - only the other day I mentioned to Dino that there hadn't been any pigs around for a while. See, it's my fault. They were rooting around under a stand of oaks for acorns; they are terribly destructive.
• There were two ravens in the front yard under one of the main birdfeeders. We haven't seen them there all summer.
• Dino told me that this month we've been putting out 50% more hummingbird food than last month. They've been double and triple stacked at the feeders waiting their turn.
• Saving the best for last: It's Tarantula Season again! We've both been seeing the male tarantulas out and about now - this time of year they start on a trek looking for female tarantulas to make babies with. I had to take evasive action on the road yesterday to avoid a spider squish-o-rama.

As Of This Morning, 48 Hours of Togetherness

The day before yesterday, Dino noticed these two love bugs on the side of our house enjoying each other or what passes for such in the mantid world.  They've been there for two days now, and as of this morning have been joined by a second male who is hanging around and (not to anthropomorphize) may be hoping for some of the same.

Dino took this shot:

A couple of weeks ago, I took a photo of what could very well be the same female, although she's not wearing a name tag so confirmation is unlikely.  She was sitting on one of the hummingbird feeders, but during the time I watched her, she didn't make any attempts at snagging any of the birds as they came to eat.

Moving Dirt

The big excitement last week was getting the concrete poured for the shop building.  I was stuck having to attend my paying job that day*, so wasn't able to watch all the fun goings-on.  I did run into the contractor at the top of the hill as I was on my way to work - he was disappointed that I wasn't hanging around to help and claimed that he'd saved a shovel with My Name On It just for the occasion.  For anyone interested in action shots of that day, our up the hill neighbor Tom posted some great photos on his blog.

Dino has been working on more prep work at the site for the time we actually put up the shop building.

* I am not complaining, I am grateful for said job.

One Never Knows What's Around the Next Bend

When I set out Saturday on my walk I decided to head to the old schoolhouse that's across the river and it would be quiet and contemplative, maybe I'd take a couple of pictures.  Turned out that a neighboring rancher was going to be branding some of his cattle - and that whole operation was in the pen right next to the schoolhouse. No one objected to me hanging around to take pictures, so I did.

One of the calves as he's waiting his turn in the squeeze chute.

All of the calves were males who got castrated at the same time.  The methodology for the latter task has improved greatly - it's more of a clamping and banding technique nowadays.  Not comfortable I'm sure but the calves didn't seem to be in pain.  No, I didn't take any closeups; it just seemed too personal.

Check Out This Bug

Yesterday, I got out for my walk around 2:30 or so and spent some time tramping about on our place enjoying the sunshine and early fall warmth. When I got back to the house I decided I needed to take a progress shot of the building site (which I'll post later - it's not just a patch of dirt any more.)  I got my camera out and set up when Whap! A big bug flew into my chest and then landed in my camera bag. It was a beetle with the most amazingly long antennae. It just sat there in the bag without moving so of course I had to take pictures. Look at the face on this thing.

I spent some time last night trying to identify it - the closest I could get was Monochamus carolinensis - Carolina Sawyer - but nowhere was I able to find what the range is of this species so figured it could be something else.  I found this awesome web site What's That Bug? and sent off these photos and an inquiry to them last night.  And they replied this afternoon!  I was semi-close and at least got the genus:  they believe it to be Monochamus obtusus.

Here's Some Dirt

Photo 1 in the shop building series.  The leveled area where the concrete will be poured next week:

It's Not Nice to Laugh at Small Creatures

This afternoon, I decided to take a walk down to the mailbox.  As I was headed home, starting the walk up the hill, I approached the second gate.  Although I was making no attempt to be secretive or quiet, nevertheless I managed to sneak up on a ground squirrel.  He or she had evidently been snoozing or otherwise spacing out in the area a few feet away from the gate.  When the GS realized how close that big scary predator was, it leaped to its feet and took off at high speed, only to run head first into the gate post.  It staggered back for a second or two, gathered what was left of its senses, leaped over the low wire of the fence and hightailed it for safety.  The predator was helpless with laughter.

The following photo is just a rather nice snapshot of Washakie.  We feel so bad for him as his poor knees are so obviously painful.  Lately, he's been somewhat more amenable to human contact, allowing and possibly even enjoying the odd scratch from time to time.