The Calm Before The Storm

It's getting longer and longer between blog updates and that's because we're just kind of cruising right now. If this blog were a cross-country airline flight, we'd be about Nevada. There's some turbulence coming up as we cross the Sierras and then we'll be landing in L.A to finish the journey. Well, something like that, anyway.  In the meantime, we're getting ready to ship cattle on Saturday and the cattle season will be drawing to a close. Yessir... the cruise part is over, we're about to hit some turbulence, but hopefully we'll get this thing landed and get back on terra firma.

To get ready for cattle shipping, I've been spending a lot of time feeding and counting cattle. “Feeding” involves driving around towing a cake feeder. I honk my horn to signal the cattle and they come running for the sweet, high-protein cake. This serves several purposes; it puts weight on the cattle and it also trains them to the feeder which makes gathering easier. Cottonseed cake is expensive stuff and a lot of cattle owners don't like to feed it, but it really is good stuff from my perspective. Feeding takes a lot of time, a lot of wear on the ranch truck, and gasoline costs money. But it's also a great way to count cattle and it gets me out in the pasture. 

Trusty Ranch truck and cake feeder

The wheel turns the gear which turns the chain which turns the belt...

...and the belt pulls cake out into the hopper, which an arm opens and dumps.

Cattle at sunrise

Deer season opened on Saturday and we've been out looking for a buck. This is the first season in a long time that I've had trouble finding deer and I attribute it to the dry conditions. The cattle are foraging in areas where they don't usually go and I think this pushes the deer out. But, we found 14 deer yesterday and I'll be heading back to that canyon this afternoon to see if I can waylay a buck when they come out again. [Edit: the wind came up and I never made it.  Oh, well....]

On the falconry front, both birds are flying fairly well and reliably. They're both going up decently. Neither has taken a duck although the peregrine knocked a teal down a few weeks ago. I'm taking a short break from flying right now while I get ready for shipping and while I deer hunt. Will probably start flying again on Wednesday, though. Just a short break.

On the Davidic front, 2 weeks ago the doctors decided to give him 2 units of blood instead of the usual 1 unit. For some undetermined reason (there are a lot of those in this game) he didn't do well and inside 2 weeks had actually dropped to nearly his worst level. The hospital wanted us to come to ABQ that evening, but the reality of a 4.5 hr drive, arriving at 10 pm, and then etc, resulted in Mom and David going to Santa Fe and doing another transfusion on Saturday. Then they stayed over on Sunday to meet with the doctors on Monday. Come Monday, the docs decided not to meet after all, and so they came home. If it weren't for my mother's house in Santa Fe, this would a LOT more stressful, but, thank God, she has a very comfortable little place there that's a great home away from home.

I'm finally getting some solid guitar work done and getting my savings account built up again. That's nice and I really enjoy working on guitars. It's relaxing and satisfying work.

That's the update from here.

Sunday lunch in the local cafe.  Mom and David were in ABQ.

First snow.  You might be able to see the sandhill cranes on the right.

Peregrine progress

Today is a new day and I made some progress with the peregrine.  First, for the uninitiated among you, here's what I'm dealing with  (I suggest you turn your computer speakers down, or at least have the "MUTE" button handy):

For the past week, I've been let the peregrine eat and I've been going inside with no food, just saying hello, and then leaving.  I'm trying to break the food association link.   This didn't really make any difference in behavior, although he did gain a little weight. Tues ,the wind was blowing from the south, pushing it up the butte where I flew the prairie Sunday. She was scheduled to fly, but unfortunately was still a little heavy so I decided to take a chance with the peregrine and see how he'd do.

I set him on the ground right at the truck so I wouldn't have to walk with him screaming thru the hood in my ear. After several sit-on-the-ground sessions where he'd sit until I got too far away and then he'd get up, make a circle around me, and land again, we got closer to the butte. He felt the wind and went right up the side to the top where a tiercel prairie immediately joined him. The two chased each other around a bit and I was really surprised at how well the peregrine handled himself and how aggressive he was- HE made most of the moves on the prairie. They flew around for awhile and then I tossed two pigeons just as the falcons drifted out of sight over rise. Nothing.  The pigeons circled aimlessly, looking for home. Nothing.  The pigeons gained height. Then, suddenly, WHOOSH!!!! the peregrine went ripping by overhead, followed by... the tiercel prairie. We were treated to stoop after stoop as both falcons chased a specific pigeon and each other.

The birds drifted off to the east where they were joined by a female prairie. The pigeon went out of sight over a rise and I saw the female put in a more serious stoop. We started running, watching for rattlesnakes!, and about 0.8 mi later (I Google Earthed it)  found the peregrine out on the flat, happily munching away on his catch. He was glad to see us.  The prairies were nowhere to be seen.

I let the peregrine eat, then tore a wing off, got him on that, and picked him up. He didn't like being picked up too much, but I got him eating again, then hooded him. We had a long walk back in the now 25 mph headwind and back home, I gave him a wing to tear on.

Good flight. Just like the prairie did, he got some height. I think that butte's going to be useful, but I'm getting telemetry I can carry with me!

Sunset on the prairie with the peregrine

 Mom and David are off to ABQ for another blood transfusion for David.  This is Number... I've lost count...6?   They're also getting the camper window that I busted in Winfield replaced.  $350...whoooshh.... gone!

The End of an Era

The past couple of weeks of have been pretty stressful.  There's an ugly ranch situation going on that I can't talk about until it's settled.  It has me talking to our lawyer, getting papers together, calculating, re-calculating, and just doing a lot of wondering.  We're looking down the road at shipping cattle, with all the preparation and busy-ness stuff that brings.  I always hold my breath until the final count is done as you can count pasture every day and come up with great counts, but all that matters is how many head cross that scale and go into the truck.

Over at church, attendance has been dropping steadily and rapidly and I was beginning to wonder if I might be the problem.  I held meetings with church members and had some discussions that I feel good about.  I'm sticking tight for now, but that, too, was a stressful time.

The biggest news. though, is that my grandmother, the matriarch of the family, died on Sunday evening.  She'd been in the nursing home for a year and half with rapidly declining health, mostly unable to recognize any of us for maybe a year.  This probably gave us all time to say our goodbyes but it's sad to see someone decline like that.  It was my grandmother who kept 2 ranches and a bank running for close to 30 years after my grandfather died and she kept that control until just about 3 years ago.  At that time she passed the reins on to my mother and aunt, splitting the main corporation into 2 separate ones.  That's when I got "promoted" from "cowhand" to "ranch manager".  Not more than 2 months later, she fell and broke her hip and that was the beginning of the end.   Here's a link to her obituary. 

In other news, my falcons are flying.  The prairie falcon is doing great.   The peregrine, not so great.  Here's what I said on the falconry forum:

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Today, I had a south wind which means that it blows up the face of this butte in my backyard:



The prairie killed a pigeon two days ago, ate all she wanted, and was fasting yesterday. Today, her weight was right back to 630, so I loaded her, some pigeons and went out to the base of the butte. She has started going up on her own, but I figured this would help. There were a bunch of ravens and a wild prairie flying around the butte- the wild prairie went into a stoop on the opposite side and didn't come back up so I went ahead and let my bird go. She flew in 1 circle- I could see her catch the wind on the down turn- and then immediately headed for the butte where she circled and went up just like an elevator until she was up there mixing it up with the ravens. I didn't want things to get out of control, so I tossed the pigeons- one strong bird and one young bird. The young bird flapped a hundred yards and landed on the ground and by then the falcon was in full-tilt stoop at it. This was cool- 1) her first real altitude, 2) first real stoop, and 3) coming right at us.

She whapped the pigeon hard enough to roll him over and then kicked up and looked back. This was really cool to see as she was RIGHT THERE. She flipped back but overshot the pigeon. Pigeon then got up and headed upwind- he could see the pigeon house and he was going for it! The prairie got off the side and worked up above him and drove him back down wind where she was able to tag him again, but he let the wind lift him and she went underneath. After that, he _really_ pumped for home and she was right after him. They disappeared over a rise and seemed to have gone down into a creek bed between us and the house- about 1 mi away.

We got a fix with the telemetry and then I sent my wife in the truck down the road and across the creek while I walked toward the fix. When I came over the bank of the creek I paused to look and the first thing I saw was the prairie dragging the pigeon down the opposite bank toward me. When I actually approached her, she flared away a bit, so I tossed the lure down. She ignored it, but seemed to settle down at the sight of the familiar object, as she stayed toward me and started plucking feathers. She'd already eaten the head, so I pulled the pigeon crop and helped her break into the breast. After eating a bit, I ripped a wing off and moved her to that while I pocketed the rest. Then I picked her up, hooded her, gave a couple of more bites thru the hood, and we walked back to the truck with her sitting very nicely. Back at the mews, I set a wing/breast on the perch and unhooded her. She'll be stuffed tomorrow, but that's okay. Good effort = good reward.

I was happy. Sure, she tail-chased the pigeon, but hey, she hit it twice and as far as she was concerned it was HERS. I am happy at her persistence and I'm also glad I put the Power Max on her instead of the Scout. I got some exercise and it was a beautiful evening on the prairie.

Update on the peregrine: he's acting like a spoiled little brat. Screaming, baby-fluttering, sitting on the ground, etc. I'm tempted to wring his noisy little neck, but I've been here before and patience rules. I've put him up for a couple of weeks while I focus on the prairie falcon as duck season opens on Weds and I always intended for her to be my duck hawk and him to be my late season pigeon hawk, anyway.

What I'm going to do for the next 2 weeks is work on his screaming by going into the mews a lot and feeding him thru a food chute at night (so that the food is there in the morning). When I fly him again, I'll look for that south wind and fly him up against the butte. He just needs a little maturity, some flying experience, and we'll be fine. 

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I've otherwise just been working on guitars and chatting on Facebook.  Am very much looking forward to getting cattle shipped and out of here and moving on into winter. 

Under Construction

Well, this is the longest I've gone in updating my blog.  It's not that nothing has been happening- to contrary, a lot of things have been happening, but it's just been the same thing over and over and over and over, in a seemingly never-ending repeat.  You ever see "Groundhog Day" with Bill Murray?  Something like that.   It seems like I've been building stuff all summer long.  And it seems that way because that's exactly what I've been doing!  First the hawk house, then the shop, then working on the buildings that got emptied when I moved into the shop, then re-arranging the house where stuff got moved out, and on and on and on and on.  In the middle of all this, there's a ranch to run, antelope hunters to take care of, taxes to pay, deaths, births, weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, and on and on and on and on.  Whew, I'm already tired.  But wait!  There's more! I've been flying both falcons, too.  Teal season opened this week and we've trying to catch one.  So far, no luck, but the falcons are flying better, sticking around, coming to the lure, and just getting better and better trained.

Enough chit-chat, let's get to the pictures...

Nearly Finished!

The hawk house is nearly finished.  All the metal is up, the exposed wood is painted to match the roof, and all that's really left to do is put flashing on the corners.  But I'm tired of spending money, so that'll just have to wait until next year.  For now, the building is solid and comfortable.  There's the prairie falcon sitting up against the window to the left.

Birds, Boxes, and Band saws.

Benches upon benches!

Working on skirting

Inside the shop, I am pretty well full.  I have tables, benches, saws, box racks, and falcon perches.  The shop makes a pretty place to park the prairie before going flying.  Outside, I'm in the process of putting in Z-flashing to protect the top of the skirting, and digging the skirting about 2" into the (hard) ground to help keep rodents out.  It's slow work, but I should be finished with it tomorrow.  I'm backing the north skirting with some insulation and this should help a lot this winter.

Guitar work has been coming along well.  I find that it's nice having all my stuff in one room, but since I have 3 benches, I tend to get tools scattered around the place and I walk around a lot more to get this or that tool.

New bridge and saddle

Neck reset and setup

In the process of doing guitars, I've also recorded a few videos for the customers.  Here's the top guitar in action:

And here's the other one:

And finally, on the Davidic Front, mom and David are off to ABQ this afternoon.  David's hemoglobin was 5.1 gm/dl today, almost what it was back in May when we started looking for a solution to his anemia.  I don't know what we'll find when they get to the doctor's tomorrow, but if you want to keep up, follow me on Facebook.  Speaking of Facebook after years and years of resisting, I've signed up.  Probably part of the reason I haven't updated my blog is 'cause I've been busy kicking around FB to see what it'll do.

OH YEAH, let's not forget the RAIN!!!

Last week we got 2" on the west side of the ranch and 3" on the rest.  It will let the grass grow just a bit longer, but it also filled up the creeks and ponds so that the cattle can spread out a lot more and get to grass they haven't grazed all summer.  It also means that I'll have some ducks to fly with the falcons!

Heading to the field

 I think that's enough for now!  Upcoming this week, I need to ride the pastures and get a complete count of cattle on the grounds in preparation for shipping sometime next month.

Past Lives, Half Lives

I've been working out of my new shop for a full week now.  It's pretty nice and I'm happy with the move.  I have everything out there in one place- power tools, shipping stuff, workbenches- and it's nice to leave the house and "go to work".  It's a lot quieter in the shop and I can listen to music w/out having to hear it over the washing machine, people talking, people walking, doors slamming, phones ringing, and so forth.  It's a more comfortable work environment.

After moving my shop out of the house, I moved my office from the bedroom corner to the central room and I like that better.  When I'm doing office work, I don't mind household noises so much and I actually like being in the flow of traffic as I can keep up with what's going on. 

I told you all that to tell you this- in the process of moving my office, I went thru my file folders, as part of the purpose of moving the office was to give me better access to my file cabinet.  In the process of going thru my folders, I found a folder where I'd block outlined my "career".  I must've done this pretty immediately after moving to the ranch and I just found it interesting to look back over my earlier jobs and life.

The Folder (click for bigger version)

We were in Anahuac TX when I was a "househusband" and it seems like we were there forever, but it really was only 8 months.  After that, I went into a cycle of working for the NM Legislature (as a bill analyst) and working for BLM in the summer (doing raptor surveys and other field work).   Then I went to grad school at Eastern NM University and did spotted owl work for the USFWS/NMSU during the summer.  I worked for a month at the ranch one summer, before the second owl job came up.  There's the finish of grad school, a summer with The Peregrine Fund (which was probably my first "real" wildlife job and definitely the first non-government job), and then back to the Legislature.   I was surprised that there was so much time between the legislation jobs and I sure didn't remember doing them after I was done with my M.S.  I had a period where I was "self-employed" which means that I lived on savings, Top Ramen noodles, and worked on the falconry equipment book.

The book was published in '92 and then I headed up to Boise ID to start work with "Greenfalk Consultants", doing radio telemetry studies in the Snake River Birds of Prey Area.  After we got to Boise, paid 2 months rent on a house, and everything else, we had $120 left to our name!  Greenfalk was pretty much a dream job for me as it required me to do field work, computer stuff, and data analysis.  Again, it seems like I did this for a long time, but it really was only 2.5 years, only 2 of which were as a full-time employee.  During that time, I gave several presentations at scientific meetings, we bought a house, and we had our daughter (who is now 17 and has her own blog!).  A busy and exciting time!  A few photos from then:

Watching falcon nests

Coordinating radio-tracking- my main job

Rappelling into a falcon aerie

When this project finished, the company more or less dissolved and we all went job-seeking.  I decided to move into the computer field and make a bunch of money.  Ha!  Big surprise there.  I ended up working at tech support for a records keeping company.  I swear, I was there for years and years, but it was 6 months.  During that time, I developed tendinitis and couldn't play guitar for most of those months.  About that time, I decided to move back to New Mexico, so I called my grandmother up to see if she could use a ranch hand on the north ranch.  She said "I've been waiting for you to call".  However, there wasn't a house or anything and all that had to be laid in place which was going to take some time.  I heard thru the grapevine that the folks at the Snake River needed a desktop publisher for a 6 month position.  I'd be back working with the biology crew, doing computer work- right up my alley- plus I knew the study and could help with fact checking and all that.  I applied, got the job, and turned in my notice to the database company.  I quit there on Friday and started the new job on Monday.  The desktop publishing job was a real pleasure and I got to work with some of my heroes in the raptor field.  It was a great ending to that career.

When the house was on the ground, we moved the family down via U-Haul and then I flew back to Idaho to finish up my last month at the desktop publishing job.  During that last month, my former employers at Greenfalk let me live in the old office (bathroom and shower there) and even gave me use of a Toyota pickup to drive.  Bill and Joan- THANKS!!!  I finished up the job, flew back to NM (with a newly acquired Cole F5 mandolin!) and started a new life.

Looking back, what strikes me is this- up to finding that folder, I've thought of myself as a former wildlife biologist now working on the ranch.  But the reality of it is that I only worked as a full-time biologist for 2.5 years.  The rest of those were summer and temporary jobs- 6 summers and 6-month positions worth of those.  By contrast, I've been at the ranch for 15 years, working professionally on guitars for 12 years, and pastoring my church for 6 years.  I have more formal training in biology, it's true, but far more real-life experience in the other 3 jobs.  Maybe it's time to re-calibrate my life and start wearing the hat?

Enough about me.  David and I went back to ABQ last week for his 5th transfusion.  They always test his blood prior to the actual transfusion and this time discovered that he'd developed antibodies.  This complicated the transfusion as a match had to be found for the antibodies.  Our appointment was at 10 am and the actual transfusion didn't start until 3:30 pm.  Fortunately, we'd already made plans to stay in Santa Fe for the night so that we could attend both the NM Falconer's meeting and the Santa Fe BG festival on Saturday.  The transfusion went without hitch once it got started and we made it to SF for a good night's sleep at my mother's very convenient casita.

Next day, we went to the falconer's meeting and that was extremely productive for me.  David won a new hawking vest for me in the raffle, and I came home with some badly needed falcon training supplies.  We got to visit with new friends and friends I've known for 30 years but haven't seen in a long time.  I got to see the other peregrine falcon taken this year in NM and just had a great time.  I need to get out more.

Well, that's all I know for this week.  Time to get to work.

I'm Movin' On

Live from New Digs Guitar Shoppe, High Lonesome, NM... this just in. I have electricity, I have humidity, I have music, I have 3 major work benches and 2 smaller ones and I'm IN!  It's been a week since we put the building on the ground, so I guess that's not bad.  It's comfortable out here.  I've got a great view, music, and with windows cracked and my portable swamp cooler running, it's cool. 

Here's the main shop area. That's my neck reset station center-left.  I'll be adding shelves to it ASAP.

Two parallel benches.  I'll probably use the right one for electrics

The T-bench will be my main fretting station

Power tools. 

The shipping station.  Gotta get some blinds on this window.

The Boy's Corner.  That's my portable swamp cooler.

It's holding humidity well and I'm happy about that.  All that's left to do now is skirt the building.  I have some T1-11 I've been saving for years that I'll use for that purpose.  It needs to be painted and then I'll use Z-flashing on top and bury it a couple of inches to keep mice out.  But, no big rush on that...Alright!!!  Time to get to work!!

Snakes Alive!

Well, we had an exciting day here on the ranch.  First thing we got was a report that our cattle had busted down a fence into the neighbors, taking down 10 steel posts.  He got most of them out easily because our new cattle are still a little wild while his are feeder trained and so all he had to do was honk his horn and our cattle went running while his came to the truck.  But why?  It takes a lot of force to bust down 10 steel T-posts.  One reason might be the 6 elk hanging out on the mountain.  Another might be lion or bear or even just lightning.  It wasn't very long after that, that Excitement #2 occurred.

We have 4  horses and 1 one them came up missing around lunch when they normally come in for water.  Given the report of stampeded cattle and the possibility of a lion, we were concerned.  B2 jumped on an ATV and went to look in the creek while me and D2 took another ATV and checked the east end of the pasture.  I didn't see anything except a coyote but heading back I saw B2 heading for the house.  I figured it was either snake-bite or some major calamity like stepping into a rock hole or something.  We headed back and sure 'nuff- horse was snake bit and down by the creek.  We went down there and the horse- last week's Reserve Grand Champion in the county fair- was staggering along the fence heading to the house.  She had a badly swollen head and nearly shut eyes, but we slowly got her up to the house and before long our neighbor and horseman Philip showed up.  Not long after that, Mark, the vet arrived.

Head's badly swollen with bloody pus from nose

From the side

Giving her shots and medicine

Mark gave her some penicillin to fight secondary infections, something for swelling, and then DMSO cream for additional swelling.  Philip suggested spraying cool water over her nose and she seemed to like that.  By evening, she was able to drink a little, so that's good.  We're not nearly out of the woods yet, but she should recover.  I've seen snake-bite before, but this was the first the kids have seen it.  I hope they watch their step a bit more now.

In other news, I moved my guitar benches out of the house and into the new building.  I won't get power until tomorrow, but there are a few things I can do that don't require power and it's going to take a few days to get organized in the new shop anyway, so I decided to just go ahead and get moved.

An empty work bench...

...becomes an empty corner and the end of an era in our household.

Out in the shop, I've got 3 benches set up with 2 auxiliary benches.  There are shelves on all of them.  I'm only taking 1/2 of the building for the actual benches.  Another wall has the power tools and the west wall has cases, boxes, and shipping stuff.  Still plenty of room, but I want to do my best to keep it from getting too cluttered.

On the falconry front, the prairie falcon is inside tonight.  She'll get her transmitter pack re-attached in the morning as she chewed it off 2 weeks ago.   She's also doing really well and has tamed down dramatically.  I've cut back on actual flying while I got my shop in shape and I also need to do some re-organizing of the pigeons.  I'm a little short on pigeons and there's no big hurry to get the falcon flying- plenty of time during the winter.  Instead, I'm using the time to train both falcons to tolerate handling better.  Right now, I can enter the prairie's mews and she'll jump up on my fist, take the hood, and is just 100% calmer than she was a month ago.   The peregrine's getting trained to the lure.  He's already tame and all I'm doing with him is making sure he knows what the lure is, and then just doing the same routine of picking up, hooding, and then feeding.  I hope to have my pigeon loft under control and both birds actively flying in the next 2-3 weeks.

That's about it for today!  I'm hoping to get electrified tomorrow and I also need to go check the rest of the north fence.