Filed under: Uncategorized
Critter Camp 2011 was a great success. We hosted over thirty campers in our 4 1-week sessions for all age ranges from babies to 13 years old. Each camp day was from 9 am – 3:30 pm with lots of activities, crafts and fun things for the children to do. Critter Campers went home every day with new stories and experiences to tell and came back the next morning, ready for their adventure to being again.
Critter Camp 2011 included a wide range of activities, from science experiments to horseback riding. Since it was extremely hot outside, we were constantly trying to come up with ways to keep the campers cool. One of our science experiments happened to double as a tug-of-war game and a water game. 
We had one counselor and one camper lay on a table with a towel and thermometer on their back and a fan in front of them. The other campers and counselors played tug-of-war and whoever won the tug-of-war got to dump a bucket of water on their camper or counselor to see who was cooling off faster. Our counselor ended up getting dumped on and the thermometer showed a 17 degree drop in temperature so the game was fun and the experiment was a success!
We also had special presentations of all of our mammals, reptiles and birds. The children learned things such as how the chinchillas take baths and were able to hold snakes around their necks! The messiest, but 
yummiest activity was our goat-milking day. The Critter Campers learned how to milk a goat and then took the milk inside and made mozzarella cheese and ice cream from the milk. There were lots of sticky fingers and messy faces once the kids dug into the ice cream at lunchtime! We also had plenty of take home crafts, such as a clay flower pot made by the camper on a pottery wheel and a scrapbook that each child made with pictures from the week’s activities. We encouraged the Critter Campers to pick up treasures from around the farm, such as “pet rocks” and feathers to take home and show their families.
For next year, Critter Camp 2012, we are hoping to include an optional overnight campout for the older campers with campfire stories, s’mores and great bonding experiences for the children. If you are interested in learning more about Critter Camp 2012, call or email Cathy’s Critters to get some information.
Critter Camp has been educational, fun and exciting for the campers and counselors. If your child made new friends, let us know – we’d love to hear your stories! Please sign in and add a comment to the blog. We encouraged campers to exchange email addresses, but if your child is missing new friends, let us know and we’ll try to get you together.
Filed under: Uncategorized
Magic, our daddy llama, passed away last Saturday. He came to the farm 7 years ago and was one of the first pair of llamas on the farm. He was the first llama to go to petting zoos. Magic has over the years delighted many children with his ability to take a cup of food and tilt his head to eat the whole cup! He was also the only llama we had to let children ride on his back. A year after he arrived on the farm, he fathered our first baby llama named Junior. Since then, he has fathered 10 other beautiful babies – many spotted just like him. The heat has been tough on many animals here on the farm and it was no exception for Magic. Magic suffered from a heat stroke one Saturday when the temperature reached 108 degrees. With the vets help, we tried to get him back up but to no avail. We will miss him 
greatly around here. Farewell old friend.
Filed under: Animal fun
A child holding the rabbit to his heart
Here at Cathy’s Critters, there is no shortage of cute, cuddly rabbits. Rabbits and bunnies are one of the most popular animals that children get to interact with at our petting zoos. Rabbits, for the most part, are gentle creatures and children tend to gravitate toward them because they are cute and small. However just like all animals, rabbits have defenses to help them stay safe. Among those features are their large back feet and large front teeth. A rabbit can use its big back feet to run from danger, changing directions on a dime to get away from a predator, or to scratch hard if it happens to get caught. Their front feet are used for digging to find food or to build a den. The teeth are obviously used to get food. They have two large front teeth called incisors to cut grass and other plants to eat. A child should never put a finger directly in front of a rabbit’s mouth. It will “taste” it to see if the child is edible. When a rabbit is picked up we often encounter a bunny that wiggles trying to “get away” from what it thinks is a dangerous situation. A child, however, may interpret this behavior to mean that the rabbit doesn’t “like” her, so we must be teach her how to hold the rabbit so that it feels safe and the child doesn’t get hurt.
One of the things that we have learned at Cathy’s Critters is that having gentle animals is a must. We begin taking young rabbits out to petting zoos at about 4-5 weeks of age, usually with the mama for the first few times. By going out at a young age, the rabbits get a lot of handling and attention which makes them into good petting zoo companions by
the time they are a few months old. Even with a lot of handling though, most rabbits will still kick and scratch if they are held incorrectly. The easiest, safest way for anyone to hold rabbits is to have the rabbit sitting against the chest with one hand on its bottom for support and the other on its back for petting. For older kids, we use the phrase “hold him to your heart.” For the younger children who can’t hold a rabbit by themselves, we encourage our petting zoo wranglers or parents to hold a rabbit close to the child and tell him to give the rabbit a hug. That way, the young ones won’t get scratched but they can still feel the soft rabbit and have a cute photo opportunity.
Our attendants are trained to help the children, but for optimum safety and enjoyment, we encourage parents and teachers to learn these techniques and help the children. Interaction with animals is an exciting opportunity that can be enhanced by kids’ seeing their parents and teachers as helpful role models as well. Even with all of the techniques that we show to our wranglers and kids, the occasional scratch is unavoidable. Unlike scratches from cats, which can spread dangerous bacteria, rabbit scratches can be treated
easily with a little wound dressing and common sense. Our “zoo crew” always has a first aid kit with antibiotic ointment and band-aids on hand. We want the visit to the petting zo
o to be a positive experience for every child and parent and strive to make it as fun and safe as possible. So remember, when you visit the bunnies, show your kids how much you love them by “holding them to your heart”!
With the heat hovering between 90-115 degrees during the summer, staying hydrated and cool is just as important for the animals as it is for us. When a team heads to a birthday party or festival, we are sure to include a tent for shade and lots of water for the animals and crew. Even so, there is one animal that we cannot send out during the July heat.
An adorable Guinea Pig getting loved on at the farm.
Guinea pigs, also known as Cavies, are native to the Andes Mountains in South America so they are accustomed to cool temperatures. In the mountains, guinea pigs were wild until the Natives of modern day Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador domesticated them for food. Spanish Sailers in the 1600s were the first to bring guinea pigs to Europe to be used as pets. They quickly became popular due to their calm temperament. Guinea pigs are one of the larger members of the rodent family and can grow to be as large as 12 inches long and 2.5 lbs! They also have a longer lifespan than mice and gerbils, typically living between 4-6 years and can even live up to 8 years. In captivity, guinea pigs need to stay in temperatures ranging from 60-75 degrees. As you’re no doubt aware, temperatures in Texas definitely get above 75 degrees! If guinea pigs are left without protection in extreme heat, they can suffer from heat stroke, which can be quickly fatal, so we take precautionary measures here at the farm to keep them cool and healthy. Our guinea pigs live in a private condominium with air conditioning and an automatic watering system.
The building is kept below 75 degrees during the summer months. In the winter, their living space is heated to keep their climate similar to their native Peru. Our guinea pig cages are thoroughly cleaned 3 times a week, which consists of cleaning out the old shavings, wiping the tray down and giving the guinea pigs fresh shavings. We also clean the area around the watering system to keep it clear of hair and shavings so the water can run smoothly. The watering system was a great step forward for efficiency on the far, as we used to have to clean and fill 18 water bottles per day. This time-consuming task was replaced with a gravity-fed system of PVC piping and stainless steel lab-quality “lick valves”.
In general, if it’s uncomfortably hot or cold out for you, then it’s potentially dangerous for the guinea pigs. They will be going out to petting zoos again once the temperatures cool off around mid-late August/ September. The health, comfort and safety of our animals is our main concern so we will be sure that the guinea pigs can handle the weather before sending them out again. Since we mostly work outside, we are sensitive to the effect of the weather on our employees and animals.
Cathy & Kevin
Cathy’s Critters
972-562-0583
reservations@cathys-critters.com
Filed under: Products and Services | Tags: birthday parties, cathy's critters, evening parties, petting zoo, summer pricing, twilight
Have you considered having your child’s next birthday party as the sun goes down? What could be cooler than relaxing around the pool or backyard picnic table while Cathy’s Critters’ expert and friendly crew entertains and informs your kids and their guests with the assortment of clean, friendly animals you know and love: guinea pigs, rabbits, chickens, ducks, goats, and llamas (see last month’s post!).
How about 10% off your party price when you book a 2-hour party, or add a pony to a 1-1/2 hour party! Cathy’s Critters is introducing our Twilight Special for the summer of 2011 to celebrate the longer daylight hours and take advantage of cooler evening temperatures. This also allows you to consider having your party on a weeknight afternoon after mom and dad get home from work. Make it the social event of the summer – bring a cooler of adult beverages for the adults, grill some hotdogs, and have a farm-themed birthday party.
For any customer who books a 2-hour party, or party with a petting zoo and pony starting at 6:00 PM or later between now and August 26 (the next date at which sunset occurs earlier than 8:00 PM), we’ll take 10% off their entire package price. For assistance in planning your party around available daylight, please see this Sunrise and Sunset Calculator.
Some of our most memorable events have been the late afternoon and early evening parties. The animals are relaxed, the kids are mellow, and the parents have the freedom to socialize. Call the office, 972-562-0583, to check on availability of times, or just book online, our office will follow up to confirm the date. Our office hours are from 9AM-2PM Monday-Wednesday and 9AM-Noon Thursday and Friday, but the web site is always open.
Thanks for your continued patronage,
Cathy & Kevin
Cathy’s Critters
972-562-0583
reservations@cathys-critters.com
Filed under: Animal fun | Tags: birthday party, camel, cathy's critters, llama, petting zoo, spit
Magic checks out a group of boys
We get this question a lot: “Will he spit at me?” Depending on what kind of mood we’re in, we may respond “Only if you spit at him first!”. Llamas, a beautiful, somewhat fiesty pack animal native to South America, have gotten a bad rap for their temperament and habit of spitting half-digested stomach goo at people. Anyone fortunate enough to have had this experience will testify to how nasty it can be. Half-digested stomach goo is as bad as it sounds.
However, the truth is that llamas raised around people can be reasonably well-mannered. We’ve seldom met one that seeks out human attention the way a dog, or even a horse might, but all of ours (except a few of the younger ones) will stand still and be petted in exchange for a little feed.
Their most endearing habit is that of simply being curious about you. If you stand still they will approach you, sniff your face and study you, as interested in you as you are in them. Don’t be alarmed – they are not looking to see whether they think you’d be a good candidate to receive a face full of toxic bile – yet.
Male llamas will compete for the attention of a female. If two males are both attempting to court the same female, they’ll get into a shoving match, occasionally even batting (beating) each other with their wicked front feet. In this exchange, you’ll often hear the snort, gurgle, and “ptooie” of one or the other hocking up a nice hay-ball on his competition. Female llamas don’t have a typical heat cycle like many mammals. They will mate year-round, whenever they are not already bred. The gestation period is 11-1/2 months, so it’s not uncommon for a breeding female to have a cria every year at about the same time each year.
Another occasion for letting one fly is in a competitive situation for food. When a human comes into our llama pen for the nightly feeding, all the llamas crowd around to be the first head in the bucket after some feed is poured in. They get pushy. One hungry llama may attempt muscle another out of the way using its body to shove the other animal, and lobbing a little of the morning feeding he had been saving in his cheek like a wad of chewing tobacco. This is a very likely time for you to get caught in the crossfire. You have to be on your toes if you get caught in a llama feeding frenzy.
As it turns out, the more “frustrated” a llama is, the deeper from its 3 chambered stomach (the llama is a modified ruminant) it can draw for it’s projectile crud. Therefore, if you get a blast and smells like the worst kind of bad breath crossed with a porta-potty at a chili cookoff, you’ll know you really ticked him off.
My best advice if an opportunity for an encounter with one of our llamas arises is: Don’t withhold food from him. That’s the simplest way to frustrate him and perhaps get a face full. Just belly up to his fence, stand still and let him check you out. You’ll be amazed at how long his eyelashes are, and if you do feed him from your hand, how nimble is his prehensile upper lip.
These are amazing, interesting animals. Don’t let them be over-simplified by some friend who warns you “Don’t get to close — they spit!”. Enjoy the experience and keep an open mind!
—
Kevin Smith
Cathy’s Critters
February 12, 2011
Filed under: Animal fun, Stuff We Do Out Here | Tags: animal farm, animal photography, cathy's critters, llamas in snow, texas snow, white christmas
Friends,
So we’ve got relatives in from North Carolina who are used to vising us and experiencing Texas’ notoriously unpredictable weather. This time they get treated to a sight they would not have gotten back home, where it’s raining cats and dogs.
White Christmas! Cool! Ok, so once again we see that weather forecasting is the true “dismal science”, but we enjoyed waking up to a frosted farm.
http://weatherblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2009/12/no-white-christmas-but-its-about-to-get.html
I knew it might be a very long time before I saw such a sight again. Even on days that are not immortalized in song as being associated with snow, it’s pretty rare to see our fields and barns covered with white, so I took some pictures.
Here’s a nice sunrise over our tiny pond:
Sunrise over pond
Obviously it’s not cold enough to freeze the pond, so the snow is not going to last long.
April had already been up since about 6am to feed the livestock before the rest of us had even had our coffee. Santa doesn’t visit the animals, so we’re still on the hook for taking care of them.
This was also the first year that we decided to start weaning our teenage kids off stockings-hung-by-the-woodstove-with-care. We didn’t do it cold turkey, but by insinuating that perhaps Santa is become senile and deranged. In their stockings were apples, oranges, twizzlers, bubbles, fireworks, and cartoon character band-aids (Transformers for Casey, who will be 17 in March). Next year we’ll rachet it up a notch and perhaps put credit card offers and kitchen utensils in their stockings.
The animals really don’t care about holidays, and most are pretty ok with any weather. Here’s the zebu with her tongue in her nose as usual. Wouldn’t you, if you could reach?
This girl is one of the newer members of the team. We’d like to milk her and she has a new baby so that would probably work. It’s just a matter of finding time to add one more chore to the day.
Wilbur and friends right after feeding
We had pork chops for breakfast, but nobody who had run around the farm – strictly grocery store stuff.
Recipe:
Saute’ coarsely sliced onions and minced garlic until onions are translucent. Remove and reserve onions. Slice bones off chops and reserve for stock – they’ll make a good northern bean soup. Add more butter and fry pork chops until nicely browned on both sides, remove from pan to same plate holding onions.
Put about 1/8 cup of water into hot pan and loosen up material from cooking meat, scraping with wooden spoon. Melt 2 tbs butter, then immediately add flour, about a teaspoon at a time, mixing well to make a thick paste. When it seems that the paste will not absorb any more dry flour, add milk, about 1/4 cup at a time, over medium heat, stirring constantly. Keep adding and stirring until gravy has the perfect consistency. You should yield about 2-3 cups of gravy. Salt to taste. Add the meat and onions, cover and simmer over medium-low heat until the parents-in-law arrive for breakfast. We removed the chops from the gravy, sliced them thin and then returned to the pan to serve with scrambled eggs. It went over well, considering our audience usually snarls if the breakfast protein is anything but bacon or sausage.
After all, it has turned out pretty comfortable
It’s been a long 7 years of difficult challenges and dashed hopes of a simple, relaxed life on the farm. This has been anything but idyllic, and I understand why farmers don’t recommend the lifestyle to anyone. But looking back at every fence post, every barn, every shingle, and saying “We did that” is a most rewarding feeling. I chuckle when our friends from the suburbs visit us and gush “Oh I just LOVE it here, I’d love to have all these animals!”. I say politely, “It’s a lot of work”, but that ain’t the half of it. Give it a year or so, and you’ll know if your heart’s in it or not. After two years you’ll start to think you’ll know what you’re doing. In three years, you’ll be tiring of the whole experiment and consider whether you’ve made a huge, expensive mistake. After four years, some psychotherapy, and perhaps a career change to enable you to devote more time to fixing fences, you are probably past the point of no return. You’re a transplanted suburbanite hobby farmer and you won’t be going back to town until maybe you decide your back’s getting too sore to carry feed bags and hay bales, or that taking 10 hours to mow the yard is getting really old.
At that point, heading back to the ‘burbs is not like giving up, it’s more like retiring. I think we’re pretty well committed by now. I’m sure there will come a day where the heavy stuff is just too heavy. If we can afford to pay young strong backs to do it for us, then we’ll have the luxury of staying forever. If not, well, we’ll just have to cross the bridge when it gets here. We’re too young to be thinking “exit strategy” quite yet, and you just can’t get that view any other way.
By the time I write this (almost 5pm), the snow is pretty much long gone except in a few shady areas, my daughter told me I need to come see the cake she just iced, I smell the rib roast starting to cook, and I feel like trying one of the winter ales I received from my sister in law.
So in this season where we all (hopefully) take some well-deserved time off to reconnect with our families, catch up on some of the books gathering dust on the night stand, and reignite interest in our neglected hobbies (anyone else give or receive any musical instruments this Christmas?), we wish a very merry Christmas, happy and reflective time out, and a happy new year.
Sincerely,
Kevin, Cathy, and all the 2-legged and 4-legged crew members at Cathy’s Critters
Filed under: Stuff We Do Out Here | Tags: big bend, cathy's critters, hiking
Wow, WordPress kind of sucks for a page this big. I created it all in MS Word and now can’t paste in the generated HTML :-(. I’m not too good at this…
I put the pictures in a photo bucket at:
http://s283.photobucket.com/albums/kk311/kebmsmith/
THE HIKE
Pinnacles up, Laguna Meadow down…
Well, we made it! Cathy and Kevin made it to the south rim and look beyond the Rio Grande to the deserts of Chihuahua, Mexico. It was an amazing trip (mostly amazing that two out-of-shape 40+-year-olds made what is called “a strenuous two-day hike…that any Texas hiker worth his salt will eventually attempt”). We decided that what we lack in athleticism we make up for sheer stubbornness and ego.
We planned to get an early breakfast at the lodge restaurant on Saturday so we packed out backpacks on Friday night. We did pretty well on packing for necessities and emergencies. Scott loaned us lots of goodies for the trip including the tent, sleeping bags, “insta-flate” mats, a hand-held GPS, and other equipment. The GPS wasn’t really necessary for finding our way since these are well-marked trails, but it was cool to keep up with our altitude and distance traveled. They say to pack at least a gallon of water per person, per day. A gallon of water weighs about 8 pounds, but you don’t want to risk running out. However, our guide book (The Hiker’s Guide to Texas, Laurence Parent) informed us of a not-very-publicized spring at about the half-way point going up where water containers could be filled (depending on the time of year and amount of rainfall). We weren’t going to count on this, and the ranger where we obtained our permit said that it was not very wet, so into each pack went 16 pounds of water, plus a drinking container for each of us.
We joined a group from the Houston Arboretum (Bill, Glen, and their party) for dinner on Friday night where we met a fellow named Rob, who was built like Atlas, and looked to be about 25. He had done the whole South Rim trail that day. He said that Boot Spring indeed was wet and we’d have no trouble filling our water supply there. Later another hiker we met said that rangers often don’t tell hikers about the spring because for conservation reasons they’d rather not have hikers all drinking out of it. Understandable, but I don’t feel bad about acting on inside information. After dinner, we took one gallon from each pack and set it aside to lighten our loads, resolving to fill up as necessary at the spring (we had iodine tablets to treat it). They still felt ridiculously heavy. We didn’t weight them, but I know what a 50# bag of horse feed feels like, and they both felt heavier than that.
That night we both slept terribly, waking up repeatedly worried about how we could get so much weight up a 2000-foot altitude change over a 6-mile hike. Cathy’s panic attack was around 1am (which I slept through) and mine was about 4am (which she slept through). My thoughts revolved around contingency plans if we couldn’t make it to the top. Would we just turn around and head back? (not likely), camp at another site? (would be a big problem if it turned out to be reserved by someone else), camp at a non-site, off the trail? (dangerous? legal? even possible?). In the morning, my ingenious wife suggested that a big part of the weight of my pack was the tent, and that we could trade that out for the waterproof tarp and 50’ of rope and make our own tent with a couple trees. I may not be real bright, but I know a good idea when I hear one. I pulled the tent out and replaced it with the lightweight materials and feeling a little more confident, we headed for breakfast.
Breakfast was pretty good. I read up on this place before we came and all the reviews of the restaurant were essentially that “the food was the best of any national park restaurant”. That may not be high praise, but their dinner menu sounded promising with items like “pork loin chops with prickly pear sauce”, an 8-oz rib eye, pasta dishes, and some tex-mex stuff. We had kind of a better-tasting equivalent of a Denny’s “Grand Slam” (eggs, pancakes, sausage, bacon, hash browns, and toast) which was big enough to split, came back to the room for our burdens, and walked across the parking lot to the trailhead.
Up the pinnacles trail we went, full of optimism and spirit. We would look back occasionally at the lodge, a little oasis of condo-like buildings in a basin surrounded by peaks. See that little “mini-mountain” by the buildings? The patio of the restaurant has a great view of the top of it and we happened to look up on the way to dinner and saw a person walking around on the peak. We were impressed by his feat, until we saw the molehill from this vantage point. “You’re not king of the world – we are!”
Pretty soon, some time past the water tank that supplies the facility, we lost sight of our home and had to focus on the journey. Zen advice: don’t think about how far away the top of the mountain is; just think about getting to the next turn on the trail. Okay, that kind of advice works for a while…
Most the pictures are of Cathy, since Kevin held the camera most of the trip. They say that if you’re not the lead dog, the view never changes, but this was a nice view to follow.
Hey! Turn around!
Kevin, looking chipper after less than a mile
Pretend you don’t know she has a camera – no acting skills here…
The basin is made up of named peaks around the small area that was cleared out for some lodging and gift shops. The most famous of these peaks is “Casa Grande”. The large vertical rock that makes up the upper part of this mountain looks much less wooded and green than other large mountains in the same range. It had me wondering out loud if any of it was open to hiking. I read later that it is, and it’s a very difficult side trip from the “Lost Mine” trail.
The day before out big trip we hiked down to “The Window” which is a narrow gorge through which a small stream trickles and becomes a 200-foot waterfall, the tallest in Texas (which says more about Texas waterfalls in general than this particular one). We got to see a very nervous mother watch her teenage children venture out as close to the edge as they would dare, then we got to check it out as well
After the portion of the trail called “The Pinnacles”, so-named for the favorite card game of local miners (they were poor spellers), we started up Boot Canyon trail. The canyon is watched over by a very tall rock formation with a good resemblance to an inverted cowboy boot.
At boot spring, we found the pool to refill our drinking water
and took a rest to stretch our backs.
At Colima trail, hikers have the option of cutting off most of the ascent and half the distance by cutting west through to the Laguna Meadow trail and heading back to the basin lodge.
About lunch time now (chicken salad and crackers, dried fruit, beef jerky), and we came across an absolute oasis. There’s a picnic table just past the Colima trail turnout and a small off-grid building that I can only assume is a storage shed for tools that the park service uses for trail maintenance: shovels, rakes, and other implements of destruction (279). I thought it was way cool to find a little solar-powered building halfway up a mountain.
They have 4 panels just like the ones we just put on our barn (120W each or so), and they are doing rainwater collection from the gutters into a storage tank. I guess they use it for hand-washing and mixing concrete, or possibly even treat it for drinking. Several times I marveled at how difficult the work of building and maintaining these trails must be. Imagine having to walk 5 miles uphill to work before engaging in heavy labor with railroad ties, wheelbarrows of rocks, and spreading human manure from a composting toilet. Serious hats off to the National Park Service.
Jelly is so passe’. I decided to have a peanut-butter-and-dried-strawberry cracker. Dee-lish. Cathy feels ready to go after a hearty lunch.
After about 8 hours of hiking, mostly up, this was our first view from the South Rim. The mountains in the distance are part of Mexico’s protected area in the Chihuahua region. Our camp site was “SE-2”, one of four sites on the southeast rim. SE-1 was already taken, and was the closest to this amazing view. Ours had good access to a nice boulder on which you could sit and look out over the expanse.
At the campsite I thought I had little black bugs on my ankle, but they just turned out be seeds hanging on for a ride.
Cathy arriving at the site – any farther may have been grounds for divorce .
Here’s the Boy Scout emergency tent we packed to save weight. It worked great! May not have been super in a downpour, but we did get some afternoon rain and it kept our stuff dry quite nicely. That little green box is a safe-keeping place for food and trash to keep bears and other grazers from raiding your food supplies.
We explored a short distance from our site and found the coolest surprise. There was a rocky area and an overlook above a nice valley where we could get a view of the setting sun (352, 353, 354, 355, or 356), and the next morning back to our private boulder for the sunrise (358, 359, 360, or 366).
You can identify many animals by their poop. We think this may be gray fox or coyote. Looks a little like my peanut butter and strawberries.
Heading back home now, the pictures are scarcer as we’re tired, jaded, and walking fast (since it’s mostly downhill). Home at last, ready for dinner (real food!).
Sunday night after dinner we headed into town (Study Butte <pronounced “Stew-dy Byoot”>) to get a card reader for the camera. On the way, we had to pull over and get pictures of some javelina. They look like pot-bellied pigs, but are (we’re told) more closely related to the hippopotamus .
I actually waded into the cacti and happened to get between one of them and the other two in his group, causing him to be bold enough to get quite close to me in an effort to rejoin his pack
After that last flash he turned back into the brush to wait for me to leave. The sunset from the road was very nice. Here it is reflected on a large lake. Kidding, no large lakes up here – that’s the roof of my rented Hyundai.
NATURE SHOTS
Several (9?) years ago when we went to the Grand Canyon, we took all nature pictures: plants, critters, scenery. This trip was no different. A lot of the pictures we took were to take back and identify later so see if they are anything that might grow in our garden. Here’s a lonely red flower (unidentified).
We simply called these “blue jays” until we read that the common jay in these here parts is the Mexican jay, which I supposed is what this fellow is. (252).
We didn’t run into lots of mammals (considering the duration of the walk), but we did meet this curious but cautious squirrel. He peered out at us from the safety of his rock fort.
This pretty red flower growing right up among the leaves of a prickly pear is called “Scarlet Lady’s Tresses”. We learned this from our new-found friends with the Houston Arboretum. Rob had found this very same flower the day before and shown us a picture of it. We took the same picture of the same flower. I’m told that the only place in the world that this plant grows is Big Bend National Park.
There are these neat-o trees with paper-thin bark that appears to shed like snakeskin. If anyone wants to identify it for me, 50 points. Texas-sized waterfall.
Walking along after lunch, I was walking in the lead and Cathy suddenly screamed like a little girl. I thought she had hurt herself and whipped around to see her pointing at a very frightened rattle snake. It then registered that I had heard the rattle right before the scream. I don’t know why he didn’t react to me, having just gone by seconds before, unless I woke him when I walked by. I tried to get a decent picture of him, but he was already heading through the grass by the time I could point the camera. Shortly after the snake, we saw our first white-tailed deer, not counting the ones that hang out by the lodge, untroubled by tourists.
This place is so amazingly beautiful that it’s almost impossible to take a bad picture (303).
We often rested our shoulders by letting a rock support the pack for a short stretch break. This colorful bug is a Desert Lubber Grasshopper. Here’s a hummingbird we saw while perched on our private boulder. We were lucky that he sat still long enough to get a nice picture.
More deer – small 6-point buck on the trail from the camp site to the composing toilet. We had a little doe that came around our site and grazed within 25 feet of us. As the rain clouds are gathering over our site, there look to be a couple downpours in the Rio Grand valley. Good for the plants. We were walking the ¾ mile from our site to the toilet when the rains really came. Our $0.99 emergency ponchos came in handy.
That’s pretty much the end of a tiring weekend. I’m in bed at 11:23pm as I type this. Tomorrow, we’ll be lazy most of the day and take a sunset pony ride.
Good night!
Filed under: Stuff We Do Out Here | Tags: big bend, cathy's critters, hiking
Hiked the “Window Trail” today. 5 mile round trip, showed us how out of shape we are! Tomorrow and Sunday we’re hiking around the South Rim, about 12 miles. We’ll camp right on the rim that looks hundreds of miles into Mexico over the Rio Grande (or as they say in Mexico, the “Rio Bravo” – how come it has a Spanish name on both sides?)
Just for fun, we counted our water and calorie intake to get an idea of how much food to bring for two days. Breakfast was 2 eggs, sausage, hash browns, and toast (haven’t calculated that – what do you say, 500 cal?). Lunch at the Window waterfall was peanut butter crackers, trail mix, and beef sticks, about 600 calories. On the hike, we drank about 2.5 quarts of water, and then another .5 quarts back at the lodge on returning. We’re heading off to Terlingua or Lajitas to do a little shopping and maybe try to find a memory card reader for the camera so we can put some of the nicer pictures up. I’m only able to upload these low-quality ones from my phone.
No updates again I’m sure until Sunday night at the earliest unless I get said memory card reader and can post pictures later this evening. If you don’t hear from us Sunday night, don’t send a search party, we took out a permit for two nights camping just in case we felt like extending from a 2-day to a 3-day hike. We’re not athletes, so that just might make more sense…
Love to everybody! Special thanks to our strong, brave, and resourceful kids who are holding down the fort, feeding the animals, keeping the petting zoos running, and keeping the house clean.
Best regards,
–
Kevin & Cathy
Cathy's Critters - stuff we do out here 