Tag Archives: wildlife cam

I Still Can’t Spell Opossum Without Looking It Up First

I really admire this guy’s devotion to his feet. Or her feet.

I looked up how to tell whether a raccoon is male or female and the Internet says females are smaller. Seems like there would be other clues.

Yesterday colleague came over to rototill and while I was out in the backyard I cleaned out the water bucket which was filthy and had some green in it.

Already last night one of the visitors tipped it over.

During the snow for and for several days after I did not have a single opossum sighting but it’s been back through.

Bunny has been the biggest performer, hanging out right in the center of camera range and twitching every couple of minutes so I end up with 50 video clips. He’s also been busy nibbling on the Jerusalem artichokes that I grew, harvested, and then left sitting in the shop for months before throwing them into the garden.

I finally ordered seeds and was momentarily distraught when they were sold out of some items except I remembered that I am a minimalist gardener who often fails to even harvest things so basically I was distraught about my future composting.

I started 4 cherry tomatoes on the windowsill plus ordered 2 regular tomato plants since I have had such terrible luck with tomatoes for the past many years. Who wants to be this year will be great and we will have tomatoes everywhere? (I hope this is what happens.)

Did I ever mention that the renters next door moved? We were so relieved. They were pretty quiet the past year with just a few loud nights. Rumor is that the house will be put on the market. It is perfect for a flip house or rental property so fingers crossed that nice friendly people who actually want to live there buy it.

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Wildlife Update

I set-up the wildlife cam to get some blue jays. This one is rage eating the sunflower seed chips because all the peanuts are already gone.

They are really cute but I’ve already created a monster. They hop around on the back porch screeching for their peanuts early in the morning.

So many hilarious clips including several with me in the window, trying to get a good view of what they are up to.

Obligatory shot post ice storm. Ice storms are terrible and really pretty.

The only sign of raccoons since the bad weather started. Someone took a little detour.

He dug through the snow and ice for a drink. Sorry I didn’t get it but I had the camera set up for blue jays.

Little paw print and looks like a blue jay up in the corner, too.

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The Nature Report

A couple of weeks ago I had a couple of opossum frolicking around the backyard. For a moment I thought it might be a NSFW clip or in the alternative way of thinking, an educational video.

They ended up looking for snacks and continuing on their way.

The bunny also showed up again, paused in the middle of the yard and then headed for the exit in three giant leaps. On the video the bunny was so small it would have been to hard to see in a post but it was a hilarious clip.

We also have cats coming through regularly, often cats I’ve never seen before. They look in the bucket and then possibly shudder and keep going without touching it.

I am constantly astonished by the quantity of TV shows coming out. Who can keep up with all this TV? I try to make notes of things that are up for awards or made by people I admire.

I’m still working on shows that are airing now. Every time I turn around I am blasted with ads for new shows or another season of a show I didn’t know existed. For some reason I am enjoying gloomy international detective shows. Tonight I have the last episode of season 1 of The Break.

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A Raccoon and A Bucket

This guy in the bucket is so funny.

At Thanksgiving we bought so many groceries they gave us a free turkey.

We already had a turkey so we put the free one in the freezer and I made it this weekend.

The free ones were gigantic. This was an 18 lb. bird. I’ve never cooked one that big. It was too big to spatchcock.

I broke it down which I’ve never done before. Afterward I told Bob: I feel empowered but also traumatized.

The legs are in the outdoor fridge doing a fancy brine thing. We roasted the breast and wings on Saturday and shared with my bro/sis-in law. I used the back to make broth. I picked over everything and set aside a bowl of shredded turkey.

It took most of the day. Bob and I were talking about what the next few meals would look like and I kept saying: Turkey! Turkey! We have to eat turkey!

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Happy New Year

Three for drinks!

I still haven’t figured out how I can make gifs on my own. Well, I can make the gif but the file is huge. When I use the tips to make the file smaller, the gif looks like caca.

So for now, we’re stuck with embedding from a third party.

This is 2020

I intended to do this yesterday but time got away from me. It’s going to be a half-assed year end wrap up.

I got to go to 4 soccer matches. Grateful I went to preseason matches or it would have been only two. Among the last “normal” things I did.

And now that I’m sitting here, I can’t figure out what to say.

We’re doing okay. We’re grateful for what we have. We’re hoping things get better soon. We worry about the world.

Walk at Klamath River bar. Mom likes to tell people she’s going to bars.

I was going back through my old posts. Remember when one of my teeth epically failed? I had to get a root canal. We had the crud. Then I had that weird spell where I would get disastrously dizzy when I turned my head a certain way (luckily resolved on its own). This was all in January and February! Before the protests, and the smoke, and not getting into the writing workshop, and people we lost, and other disappointments that aren’t even related to Covid.

But some good things: my wildlife camera has been super fun. We thoroughly enjoyed our yard this summer. Bob just got me some bird-feeding equipment so looking forward to getting that going. Bob’s enjoying retirement and has taken over the cooking which is fabulous. Braces are off. Zoom calls with people that I rarely see or have lost touch with.

I’ve picked a new writing project — get ready for the ups and downs of that.

I probably won’t keep this updated but for fun:

989 / 90000 words. 1% done!

Some shows we enjoyed: Ted Lasso (10 million gold stars, I watched it twice.) Ozark. Chernobyl.

I’m trying to think of movies we saw. I loved The Hunt for the Wilderpeople. We just watched On The Rocks.

We enjoyed the Creem Magazine and GoGos documentaries.

Even this guy knows the importance of washing hands.

I managed to read a lot this year. LOVED LOVED LOVED Murderbot (Martha Wells). I am precious with my reading time because I have so many books I’m dying to get to but I read the novellas twice and considered reading them again this month. Olive, Again (Elizabeth Strout). The Hearts of Horses by Molly Gloss is phenomenal and needs a new title and a new cover because it should be huge. I loved the Broken Earth Trilogy (N.K. Jemison) and the Farseer Trilogy (Robin Hobb) even more. The Liveship books are sitting on deck. Barkskins by Annie Proulx was fantastic.

I don’t think turning the calendar over is going to be magical but it’s a great time to refresh our optimism.

Happy New Year.

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Getting Crowded Around Here

I actually have a funny clip of three raccoons on the porch but I can’t get the weakass web gif maker to do what I want it to do.

Looks like there are some fun tricks I can learn with the Adobe apps that a few months ago I swore I was going to learn to live without, but I can’t learn them this afternoon.

So here is a photo from September.

At this rate we’re going to need a velvet rope for this hot spot.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

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Highlight of 2020

Yes, I know the bar is low but getting my braces off this week was the highlight of my year.

The whole idea that they make my teeth look better is of little consequence. I am so happy those things are off. I complained about them almost every time I ate. They rip up your toothbrush so you need to replace it every month. Flossing is completely unsatisfying. I always felt like I had bad breath. Thrilled to be done.

The before picture is right after I got the top braces on December 17, 2018. I couldn’t find a decent shot of me with the bottom on, too.

The after picture is when I exited the building after getting them removed.

I have eaten caramel, mixed nuts, a wide variety of crunchy things, raw vegetables. I have snacked and not brushed my teeth immediately after.

Tomorrow I get a retainer that I will need to wear full time for 6 months so back to more careful oral care. But probably for the better of none of my pants will fit.

This is not the clearest view but I put it up because if you enlarge the video and watch the little turd on the right, he is pulling off the bottom of the drain spout. Those raccoons throw wild parties. I put it back and they haven’t touched it again.

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Raccoons Aren’t Going Anywhere

I’m not sure what I was thinking.

Maybe the raccoons go south for the winter?

Nope, they show up almost every night.

At this point I only check the camera card a couple of days a week and now I’ve got so many great clips that I yawn at the new ones.

The other night I had at least 9 clips of the opossum working its way back and forth across the yard. And at one point, jetting off into the bushes. Those little guys can move fast if they want to.

But not as fast as these guys.

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Raccoons Still Busy Out There

I put the bucket away and moved the camera closer to the house. I figured I would see much. I was wrong.

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More Raccoons

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