Territories Change

It's been an interesting winter in the desert.  Weather patterns seem to change every five to seven years, with the critters following along behind.  With so much water falling from the sky, they don't stop in for a drink quite as often.

Every few years also bring new leaders and new packs of coyotes to the table.  I didn't think their territories changed quite so often, but apparently they do.  

This video ... you'll have to look very closely in the middle as it plays.  Look for the shiny eye.  I've never seen these guys before, and only caught one on video.  I do however, see the holes they dig all around the property.  

Teeny tiny they are ... but you never see them in the daytime.  Too easy to become a snack for anything bigger than it.  Cute little guys, but oh can they make a mess of tunnels under your house.

These guys were back in full force on this night.  I think they patrol more than one territory, because I only see them about every three or four nights.  This is not the pack I have been watching for the past four years. These guys are all new visitors.

After playing with the game camera, it was time to get to work.  Believe it or not, I actually vacuumed the entire house.  I definitely got my exercise in for the day.  Then it was on to working with these "lovely" colors.  When you buy a little pack of 5" squares, they always put the prettiest on the top, then wrap it in plastic so you can't see any of the rest.   Otherwise, I would NOT have purchased this one.

It's going to take a little more cutting and hacking to get the rest of the blocks to look like the above two.  The good news is this will be donated and I don't have to look at that pack I bought almost ten years ago.  Hopefully I'll get my stash back down to a reasonable size.

My timing was a little off, but I ran two more racks of ribs through the smoker.  I don't have enough room in my tiny RV freezer to carry much back, so I'm trying to clean out the big freezer while I can.  Nothing beats Costco's racks of ribs.  One full slab went to my neighbors for hooking me up with the quilting machine repair guy. I hope they like them.

My next trick was giving Mr. Cooper a bath.  It's not his favorite ... although he stands pretty still, he shakes the entire time.   Becoming beautiful is not in his vocabulary.  He's mostly dry here since I use my hair dryer (set on very low), and upon comb-out becomes SO soft.  Of course it never lasts very long.

House is clean, dog is clean, let's go watch the next two episodes of 1923.  As the story moves on, there's more and more violence ... some really bad stuff about the Catholics trying to convert the Indians.  It makes me wonder if it was really like that in the "old" days.  As Dan said, I'm pretty sure the Catholics didn't approve THIS movie.

There's more nudity as it goes along ... also some not so good stuff.  Eventually I assume the three stories will become one.  They literally have you on the edge of your seat the entire time.  I figured I would buy Paramount+ and watch the next few episodes when I get back to California.

When is the next episode?  Let's look it up.  NOOOO .... this is the final episode of the season, which is an edge of your seat nail biter.  Wait ... what?  Yessirree ... you will have to wait until late 2023 or early 2024 to watch the next part of the series, because they haven't filmed it yet.  Well that's no fun!!

And so we wait with bated breath to see if this couple can save the day.  So far they are WAY behind the 8-ball.

After all that excitement, Chef Patty cooked up shrimp and grits for dinner.  YUM YUM!!  Food just tastes so much better when cooked by someone else.  By the way, that cherry dessert turned out pretty good after sitting in the fridge.  The flavors mellowed out a bit and it's quite tasty.  The recipe said to either cook it in a crock pot or the oven and gave directions for both.  I just might try it again when the cost of the $5.99 can of cherries goes down.

Today my repair guy is going to show up at noon.  I'm sure hoping he can fix whatever is wrong.  Otherwise, it won't get repaired until July.  Guess I'll just have to buy more material to stitch up into quilt tops while I'm waiting.  OH DARN!!