Cooking, Smoking and Critter Cam

I can't tell you how happy I am every morning when I go out and retrieve the critter cam.  The weather has been cooling off and the coffee clatch kids have been meeting up quite often.  It seems the rabbits never sleep, but wander around the water looking for tidbits.  Unfortunately for all the critters, there has been little to no rain, meaning little to no food.   These guys however, seem to have found the secret, as they are fat and happy! 

 

Here are the two dove babies, only two weeks old and almost completely grown.  Sadly, the desert is not always nice.  I woke up one morning to find feathers spread across the yard.  Apparently something was very hungry because the babies disappeared.   I'm guessing owl or roadrunner.

 

Time is getting short, so I've been packing up and trying to get organized.  There are post-it notes on every available table and door to remind me of things I need to do.  I check my phone every ten minutes because it's snowing in Colorado right now, making me a nervous wreck.  If it starts to snow when I'm there, I'll be gone in a flash.  Driving in snow is not in my DNA, just like cleaning and vacuuming.

I threw a chicken on the BBQ so the puppies and I would have something to eat while on the road.  I swear, that's the easiest way to cook a whole chicken EVER.  I thank George Yates every time I cook one.

 

I also thought I might try my hand at smoking salmon.  As it turned out, that one is not in my wheelhouse.  Oh it was edible, but too dry.  I smoked it too long at too high a temperature.  I would much rather have it sauteed in a cast iron skillet anyway!!

 

Back to the videos, this young coyote was very hesitant and it took me awhile to figure out why.  The water had just turned on, filling the tank.  The noise and water movement made him very wary.  So much so that he decided not to drink.  In a video from another wildlife fan across the valley, the young coyote would not drink because of the rain drops hitting the water.  I think if you double click, the image will be larger and easier to see.

 

What about the snake you ask?  Well ....... Snake 3, Nancy 0.  I was all set up for a confrontation, whereupon I would fling it out the open gate, but he never showed.  I'm hoping he was harassed so badly by the broom of the night before that he decided to get the heck out of dodge.

Just to ensure that theory, I lit up the back yard like a freeway.  They are nocturnal hunters and don't like light.  I haven't seen him since, knock on wood, and hopefully WON'T again!!  Everyone else is more than welcome ... except those scorpions and centipede things.