It's nice in southwest Texas right now. The days are the perfect temperature, high 60's to low 70's. The nights stay above freezing, sometimes in the 50's. But we haven't seen precipitation in a long long time. It's like a desert here. It's dry and dusty. Everything is coated with dust. No, not dust. Powder!
Blog editor's note: It's 39 degrees and misty today (Tuesday, Jan. 27) with an expected low of 30 tonight.
The problem with no rain is no food for our animals. No rain means no grass, no clover, no legumes, no nothing. So when the cows or the goats see us coming, they chase after us. They assume we have bags and bags of feed with us. I never carry feed. I might have to start though. Being hounded by hungry goats must be something like being hounded by hungry paparazzi. They're relentless, aggressive, pushy, and rude.
Below: The goats had caught up with us and seemed ravenous.They were so riled up from the chase that a couple of them expressed their anxiety by butting heads. You can see them, near center, as their head-butting begins.
Below: The headbutting is really half-hearted. Just nervous energy really.
Below: The two quit their squabble quickly, more intent on food than proving superiority over each other. They both look over at me and one begins to bray. Hysterical.
Below: Can you believe the dust they've kicked up running towards us?
Below: Funny that just a few feet away from that rabble of goats and that dusty haze is this placid tank full of fresh water.
Below: We were walking along the creek when we spooked the cows as they were coming to drink. If we'd been in the car they'd have come running. Car+man=Food. Man Alone=Something to be suspicious of.
Below: how cute is this calf? I wanted to cuddle her!
Below: The guys had this bit of camo cover draped over a deer blind which was, oddly, set into the back of an old Jeep/Mule thing. It had an interesting swirling pattern to it, I couldn't resist swirling it a tiny bit more in Photoshop
Above: I don't know if it's the lack of food or what, but lots of mommas seem to be abandoning babies. All the goats are dropping kids right now. Three have come home with us so far, only two have survived. They're so terribly cute. Nasty, filthy, dumb as dirt, but cute cute cute. I'd rather their mothers kept them. Taking care of baby goats is a real pain.
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![Anthanassa [Phyciodes] Texana](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4Lbs7zAS05g/SPADFsXulYI/AAAAAAAACrU/w0fr3dKJw1A/S1600-R/Anthanassa+Phyciodes+texana.jpg)
7 comments:
Love your photos, especially the swirly one, very cool. You must have awesome dark skies where you are.
ps, last picture very cute.
What a fun place! A fun dusty place! the sunset of the pond is beautiful.
Thank you, Bob! We do tend to have some dark, clear skies. Got my new tele-converter yesterday, ran out last night to try and get a clear shot of the Pleiades but it was cloudy! And darned if the moon isn't in the wrong phase for me to try and catch it just yet. And, yeah, baby goats are painfully cute.
Glad you liked it, Jean! Shouldn't be dusty today though, eh? I can't wait for Spring, you know?
Awesome photography! Have fun with the goats!!
Thanks Roger! It's so desolate here right now, the goats are about the only thing I'll have to shoot!
Loved the pictures! Reminds me of my weekends with Nick!!! Loved the water picture...very peaceful! Saw the moon last night, thought of you and how you would have been able to capture the awesome moon/earth shadow on it! You must tell me more about your tele-converter!!!
You and Nick certainly have some awesome landscape to explore! You are going to be in heaven when Wildseed Farms is in full bloom. And I'm going to be jealous.
Not much to tell on the tele-converter--except don't expect miracles from it. And if you plan to upgrade your camera to an S5, the lens does work with that one too.
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