Got Feral Kittens?

My back porch became a favorite spot for some feral and outdoor cats over the winter. I opened the blinds yesterday to see the new batch of kittens that were emerging from under the porch. The mama looked at me in mountain lion mode and doesn't look like she wants to be messed with. I'm not sure if I should do anything or just leave them be. I'm hesitant to call the animal shelter because I think they will assume they have rabies and put them down. As long as they look happy and healthy I'm thinking I'll leave them be. 

I must be getting old or soft or both, they look damn cute and it's tempting to claim a couple. 

Cats on my blog, what next?!

Earth Day Bonanza

The RE students (I think Daniel and Paul did all the work)  hosted a big earth day event on campus. They bused in local kids in grades 1-4 for the morning. An impressive volume of kids and participants, local farmers and other local businesses set up booths, educational stuff, and a raffle of organic products and earth day t-shits and such. I co-hosted a science quiz with Brian. The kids got super excited to win a raffle ticket for getting the right answer, and they got to play again just by going back into the line. They figured out that if they watched long enough, questions would cycle back through and they memorized them so they could win extra raffle tickets. So easy to brainwash 'em if you get to them early enough.

The most popular was the "paint the veggie oil car" event, seen above, and the solar oven baked chocolate chip cookies.

Apparently last year's emcee was pretty good in his role - and one of the kids let me know it. "You weren't here last year, were you? He was much better." Thanks for the honesty kid.

 

Spring!!

The mid-March to mid-April weather has cracked. Raw, blustery, nasty winds, sandstorms, freak snowstorms, and such are all part of the fun. Yesterday started at 32F, the sun came out and the intensity was back, ~75-80 in the late afternoon. Good stuff. Way to go sun. Temps dropped back to about freezing overnight, so it was 34 when I hopped on the bike. Much better than 26 and 20 mph sustained winds that feel like a fistful of sand in the face. 

April was worse weather than January, so I am glad to see the warm weather return. 

Put away the wool hats and reach for the sunscreen! 

Winter in April...

Heading north from Sante Fe I stopped to car camp. The intention was to get up and ride my bike in the mountains. It's April 11. 

It was after dark when I put up my tent. The weather was mild and the ground was sand and rock. Sand and rock don't hold tent stakes too well. The wind kicked up during the night. 4 times it ripped tent stakes out of the car, twice they were gone for good and I had to find new ones. Once the stake is out of the ground, the tent will flog itself to pieces, and you have to get up and deal with it. Then came the rain. Horizontal. The rain comes inside the tent when the stakes come out of the ground. An amazing amount of rain can find you inside your tent. It turned to snow at dawn.

Sunrise, well daylight at least, found me cold, maybe a little crabby and certainly wet. I drove out looking for breakfast. No way I was going to sit there and get the stove out etc, when civilization might be found nearby.

I stopped at a diner, I think in a town called Rio Chama. Coffee, eggs, chorizo, beans, potatoes, and a giant tortilla. The waitress was impressed with how fast I could eat. I mentioned I slept in a tent at Abiqu Lake. 

"Abiqu Lake?"she says. "That's a shit-center for bad weather. Why would you camp out there in April?" 

Like a moth to flame, that is a good question.