FAQ Friday, episode 13

Let's kick off this edition of FAQ Friday with my new favorite photo of Hank.
If this light doesn't make you love New Mexico, I don't know what will.



From JaneK:
Q. Since I am relatively new to your blog, I am not as familiar with your indoor cats. What are their names, etc. And do they get along with Deets?
A. The little flowers in my indoor bouquet are Rosebud, Daffodil, and Snapdragon (Snapper). Rosebud is the eldest, at 14; Daffodil is 13; and Snapper is 11. Until I adopted Rosebud, I was a diehard dog person and wanted nothing to do with cats. My, how things change. I adopted Rosebud to keep the then-piglet Wynonna company. Then I adopted Daffodil to keep Rosebud company. Then I needed a barn cat, so Snapper came along...and promptly became a house cat. They are all strictly indoor cats now. Last summer, I experimented with letting Snapper decide if he wanted to be an indoor/outdoor cat. My rationale for that is posted here. Once he got comfortable roaming the ranch, he started picking fights with Deets, so that was the end of the experiment. Now when he's looking for a little adventure, I let him patrol the garage.

From A New England Life:
Q. Seriously? You eat this [Hungry Rancher-Woman Chicken] almost every night? Wow, you're a consistent lady!
A. You say consistent, I say boring. Yes, I do make this recipe or some close variation of it almost every day. When you're cooking for one, life is too short to spend it planning meals. I will say this – there's something about eating chicken every day that does wonders for one's fingernails. I can haul and stack a hundred bales of hay without breaking one.

From Breathe:
Q. How does Hank's knee do after such big play?
A. So far, so good. He seems to know that his knee isn't as sound as it used to be and respects its limits. He'll continue to have episodes of lameness, and the vet thinks his knee joint might fuse with his leg bones eventually - which will be ok. He will be peg-legged but have less pain. Until then, the pain medication is working, and he has a very good life.

From JaneK:
Q. Would you put the picture with Hank rearing up on "for you"?
A. Done.

From Wade:
Q. Does the monsoon season green the countryside up? Or is the desert too set in its ways?
A. A little bit of rain goes a long way in this desert. We haven't had enough rain this summer for the grass to go crazy yet, but I'm hopeful. The grass in this picture, from August 2006, was literally knee high...if you're 5'4".

From Tina:
Q. Seems like you are taking more pictures of George than your sweet Alan...is he more cooperative than Alan?
A. Both burros are cooperative, but George would rather hang out with me than eat. So he's always right there, waiting to have his picture taken ... or his butt scratched.

By the way, thank you all for helping me choose your favorite picture of George. You're helping me make the selections for the 2011 calendar.

From deejbrown:
Q. What was your vote?
A. The 3/4 head shot. Even though I LOVED the navy-blue sky in the other shots, the light, the twinkle in his eye, the color palette and the negative space sealed the deal for me on this one.

From Marianne:
Q. I hope you're going to label all these posts that you manipulate the pictures in with the Photoshop label. Someday I'm going to splurge and buy PS, and then I'm going to spend time going back through all your pictures that you've "improved" for helpful hints and tricks!
A. My plan is to include one before/after photo in almost every post. I started using the mouseover thing on July 15, so every post after that should contain one mini Photoshop lesson. Except this one. Because I forgot to write down what I did to make Hank's picture perfect.

I will try to keep the number of snake posts down to a dull roar, but it's going to be tough - Smooch alerted me to two ginormous bullsnakes just since the rattlesnake episode, and we're all on high alert.

From Morning Bray Farm:
Q. Umm... were you laying down taking that last picture [of the rattlesnake]?
A. No - my devotion to this blog has its limits. I was kneeling and used a long lens.

From CeeCee:
Q. I wear shoes in the house all the time because of scorpions. Maybe your indoor kitties keep yours all cleared out?
A. New Mexico's hockey team is called the Scorpions, and that's the closest I've come to seeing one. Having said that, I'll probably step on one tomorrow. But the indoor kitties do seem to keep the house bug free.

Hope y'all have a great weekend. Lots of rain in the forecast here. I wonder if that will bring out more snakes or make them go away...