Cabinetlandia.

Yesterday, I posted about the Cabinet National Library, discovered while geocaching. Since then, I've done a lot of reading and discovered there's much more to this astonishing little half-acre in the middle of nowhere in Southern New Mexico. I decided it deserved another post.

While the library was built by members of Rebar, the rest of the features of the half acre plot, were created by editorial staff of a magazine called Cabinet, which curiously has nothing to do with cabinets, but art!

Their story can be found here. Be sure to read about the rebuilding of the library after the ravages of the great flood of 2005, and definitely don't miss the photos at the bottom of the page of the celebratory "Prom Night", when the reconstruction was completed. Also beware: "plumber butt" image exists.

The more I dig, the more impressed I become with both the artists from the East Coast who created Cabinetlandia, and those from the West, who built the Library. What can you find?

Scanners! Under-age Hotness.

Yeah, that's somebody's mama at 15. I'm pretty sure the statute of limitations has run out by now; besides, I have it on good authority, this model is old enough now. How could I not fall for that... ever?

I've been burning up the scanner of late, so watch this space for more images from 45 years ago.

Hockey! Everything Else is Just..... Sports.

(Leon Halip/Getty Images)

That was the scene in Ann Arbor this afternoon, as a Guinness World Record Breaking crowd watched the University of Michigan hockey team shut out arch rival Michigan State 5-0 in "The Big Chill At The Big House". Michigan has led the nation in attendance at football games for most of the last 4 decades, but football has never hosted a crowd this big: 113,411!

The increase over the previous Guinness record hockey crowd could hardly be classified as incremental. The previous record? 77,803 last Spring, in Germany. For a little icing (no pun intended) on the cake, this was also the largest crowd to ever watch any NCAA sporting event.

Adding to the fun, the ceremonial puck drop before the game was performed by Michigan Alumnus, Lawrence Kasden. But that only seems appropriate, doesn't it?

And, as if that wasn't enough cool hockey for one day? NHL Network is broadcasting Hockey Night In Canada... in 3D... Canadians v. Maple Leafs! Does it get any better than this for a hockey fan?

Fun For a Winter's Day..

Among the many and sundry email alerts and newsletters I receive, is the Tech Talk from PC Pitstop. And among the topics in the newsletter I received today, is one titled, "Steve Bass's Top 15 Time Wasters of 2010"... How could I resist?

I haven't checked out all of the time wasters yet, but there were two I really need to share.. Ball Droppings.. has all the elements of a classic time waster, as you work harder and harder to come up with more and more complex sounds and visuals.

The other is just stunning.. as you tour the known Universe in six and a half minutes..

I've reduced the size to fit here, but make sure you go to YouTube and watch the full size version. This reminds me of a film that first blew my mind at the Ontario Science Centre way, way back in 70s...

...but which takes the concept many steps further by not stopping when it returns to Earth.

Lots of other fun time wasters at the link. Have fun!

S'cuse Me While I Obsess..

"Follow the Yellow Brick Road...."  as far as the eye can see.  In this picture are the two things that are floating my boat these days.. (figuratively, of course, I am in a desert)..  These billions and billions of golden beauties, and the "Red Mr. Bitchy".. (yes, it now has a name).  Spotted some more car parts in an arroyo today.  Aboard Red Mr. Bitchy all is still intact.

In a few weeks when, either, the novelty wears off (unlikely), or the poppies vanish for an unknown number of seasons again, I'll get back to normal.  I foresee a slide show in your futures.

A Day In Nature Pictures.

Why?  Because, that's just the kind of day it was.  It began right out the gate this morning, (literally), with this young fellow posing for a portrait.

After an uneventful trip to the bank, I decided to find a couple 

Geocaches out in the flats; a drive of about 10 miles.  Not long after turning off the main highway, I interrupted this immature

Harlan's Red Tail Hawk, who was opportunistically gobbling up a road-killed jackrabbit.  Sorry dude.

At the second cache, I felt I was being serenaded, looked up on the wire and saw this non-raptor meat eater.. a Loggerhead Shrike. 

 I enjoyed the song for a while, then headed back north for another hide.  That's when I whizzed past a Coopers Hawk relaxing on a fence post.  I made a quick U-turn, and stuck the camera out of the window and snapped off a shot just as it was tensing to make it's escape from my intrusive scrutiny..

At that point, I gave up on the caching, because I needed to get up close to something very spectacular that was going on on the west foothills of the Florida Mountains.  I had to get here:

Yes, the Mexican Poppies are blooming great guns.  It looks impressive from here.  Up close it looks completely insane!

And if that impresses us as humans, imagine the effect it has on these guys:

We Win!*

*One Third of Dutch Salmon's Pack Hunt. (Details to follow when we recover from the 12 mile forced march.  Click image to see all the winners.)

Maybe the Best Course I Ever Never Saw!

Dutch couldn't make it out with us yesterday, but that was OK.  Our guys have been running well lately, and with a fair amount of success.  It was time to see if they could duplicate that success without the help from Dutch's dogs.. particularly Angie and Phyllis.  It was time to do a Pack Hunt "pre test" on Sandia and Ashley.

So Mrs. Shotonsite and I rounded up the two, and threw in Willow for the exercise, and headed out to a field we've left alone for several weeks in the hopes it would produce some jackrabbits.

As is our usual habit when not meeting Dutch, we were running quite late; by a few hours.  It was almost Noon.  Fortunately, there was a decent breeze from the North, so it was not as warm- at least initially- as it was forecast to be.  

We headed south, following a draw that's been known to hide rabbits in the past, but not this time.  We had Sandia and Ashley offlead, free coursing.  Sandia is very, very good at finding the hares.  But they were running around like maniacs, which isn't their normal style.  You'd have thought they hadn't been in the field in weeks, when it was only two days.  

Somewhere around 3/4 mile, we began to lose our breeze, and it started to get warm.  I decided if one of them was on a slip, the other would slow down and stay close.  I grabbed Ashley, got her slipped up, and as soon as we started walking again, wouldn't you know it, Sandia jumped a jack!

Away they went,  heading south. The rabbit got on the road with Sandia within inches of it, and Ashley catching up quickly.  Willow was bringing up the rear and getting good exercise!  Soon, Sandia wrenched the rabbit to the left, over a berm, and down from the high ground we were standing on.

In a field known for giving hunters unobstructed views of entire courses, no matter how long they run, we were standing in absolutely the worst place we could be.  Once they dropped out of sight , we didn't see them again.  We walked toward the edge, looking out on the flat, but they weren't there.  We couldn't see them anywhere.

About the time we were approaching the edge, Willow came back.  I don't think she ran very far, and being a black dog with a fairly heavy coat, I didn't mind.  She seemed fine, and we continued to look for the other two dogs.  I was blowing the Fox 40 continuously.  This was very unlike them, especially Sandia, who hustles back very quickly at the end of each course.  We even looked behind us in case they returned via the great circle route.  Not there.

Finally, I spotted two specs approaching from the south.  They had run a very, very great distance.  When they had been out of sight for such a long time, I shut off my stopwatch.  It registered 2:51.  I'm thinking now I may have been premature.  They probably ran close to 3:30, and maybe even more.  When they finally got back to us they were really beat.  Both were in a froth, and more exhausted than I've seen them this season, and they are in very good shape, sometimes running as many as 5 hares in a day.

Then I took a good look at Sandia..

,,,and his beard showed me everything I needed to know.  Blood.  They'd run that sucker down.  Ashley had blood on her, too.  It looks like they tried to carry it back, but it was too far, and they were too bushed.  

We decided they were done for this day, and headed back to the van, our little experiment successfully completed

Wolfman.

I know, it's a movie opening soon.  This has nothing to do with that, but will attract traffic to the blog from Google searches for the movie.

This is actually about Sandia.  We went out hunting today, as we do a couple of times a week.  This was a particularly rewarding day, with 4 long courses, culminating in a take on the mile+ fourth chase.  And as always, I took lots of pictures.  Many of them were pretty good, but it was a detail I noticed on one that caught my attention.

That's Sandia.  Looking scary.  And he looks so skinny when he's standing still!  Looking at it, I was reminded of something else:

Yeah.  That's what I thought.

A Changed Perspective.

I did something different this weekend.  There was a hunt locally, and I left the dogs at home, opting instead to carry about ten pounds of photographic equipment around the desert instead.  The results were, modestly speaking, fantastic.

Usually when I shoot, either at a hunt, or just out free coursing with friends, I'm with the gallery, and all the shots look the same.  You get a jackrabbit butt, and you get hound butts, as they disappear  into the distance.  This time, I got some separation from the group, and either hung out with the judge, or got off by myself, sometimes getting shots from the side, like this attached slideshow of the Saturday Greyhound final, or way out in front as I did for this second run from Sunday's preliminary Greyhound run.

In the slideshow above, I think I captured the feel of one of the best courses I think I've ever witnessed.  All three hounds in the chase took at least one shot at one of the most badassed jackrabbits I've ever seen. He even slipped away from a near fatal tactical error, where he turned left to avoid one dog not realizing the other two were waiting about 6 feet further left.  He finally created enough space to scamper over the hill and get into the rougher 

vegetation, and made his escape.

It was pretty obvious he'd experienced the hot breath of other predators in his brief life as a prey animal, and used all of his tricks.  Hats off to you, Mr. Hare!

Blue Moon

For the benefit of that one reader of this blog who's not on Facebook, here's a shot of last night's final "blue moon" of the decade.  (Unless you believe the decade doesn't end until the end of this year- but that's a whole 'nother article).

Bonus: who can tell me the difference between this moon rising over the North Florida Mountains, and a similar shot from last Spring?

Stocking Stuffers! (From the Shameless Commerce Div.)

Look up there in the Cafe Press box!  New designs!  "Life's too short to hunt with a slow dog", featuring 6 of the fastest, true sighthounds. They make great gifts, as do the  "I'd Rather be Coursing",  "The Family that Preys Together",  "Prey.. Church of the Open Field", and "Hearts, Hounds, Arms & Love" items.   

Many are available in coffee mugs, courier bags, T-Shirts, sweatshirts, etc etc etc.  Still time to get them before Christmas.... but you have to HURRY!

Just Click and go there!

And That's Why Glenn Beck's Crying Like a Little Girl.

Voters' Testosterone Affected By Presidential Election Outcomes - Really - Air America

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Who would have thought anything worthwhile would come out of Duke?

Wedding Album

As promised..



It was a beautiful day in the Gap. You couldn't imagine a better setting. To review, the day was 09/09/2009. We began promptly at 9:09 in the morning. Unplanned, but pretty cool, was the fact we had 9 guests including ourselves. Getting in the spirit of the day, Dutch and Cherie Salmon brought 9 red roses, and 9 assorted bottles of wine. Also in attendance are our neighbors, Marilyn and Jim Woods.. (the unofficial "Mayor" of the neighborhood; better neighbors one couldn't have). Margaret's daughter, Stephanie, and sister, Tori attended. And to tie it all together, figuratively and literally, was Margaret's son, Tony. He assures us the ordination he obtained on the internet was legal! We were his second wedding, in fact. The county accepted the license, so I guess we're good to go! Best image of the day is when the Tarantula Hawk landed on Tony's back towards the end of the proceedings. I had been telling him how big they were, and he got first hand experience with one.

Having the dogs out added to the fun, and casual atmosphere. And believe me, we like casual.

A Wedding? Cool!

Somebody got married today! Wonder who? The dogs were in attendance. I'm sure even Randir was here. Details to follow when things slow down around here. And a slide show. And a video on YouTube! The marriage 45 years in the making.

Insane Rainbow

Before I get to a rather long rant on bugs- well, flies mostly- I have to share this with you. Most intense meteorological phenomenon I've seen in a very, very long time. Maybe ever. Driving back home from Silver City.

Very Early in the Morning.

Most mornings, when Sandia demands to be let out at 6AM, I get really cranky, and ignore the barking as best I can. But there are advantages to getting up so early in the morning... for instance, we would have missed this amazing rainbow over the Floridas had we slept in just another 30 minutes!

Watching the weather radar, the rain causing the rainbow made an S-curve through the gap to the left and went behind the Little Floridas, missing us. Again. The annual "monsoonal flow" has begun, but you couldn't prove it by us. We can sit on the porch and watch it rain on Deming, but so far, with the exception of an hour-long splash the other night, it keeps missing us. At least it keeps the weeds down.

By the way, this was taken with my new phone! It's got an amazing camera. It's an LG enV Touch, with a 3.2MP camera with a Schneider Kreuznach lens, and tons of editing software. I'm using it a lot!

Rare Ducks at Windyglen.

Black Bellied Whistling Ducks.  As the map at the link shows, these guys are way north of their usual range. (We're on the Red River in SE Oklahoma).  "Very un-ducklike" indeed.  I thought they were something altogether different when I first saw them.

Look at all that green.  A bit different from what's been posted here recently, eh?

Wow! That's A Lot of Pixels!

You won't believe your eyes.  Hat Tip to Frank Vigneri..  Hmm, I've got some tree frog close ups in my archives...

Shrinking Bedroom.

Don't ask me.

The king-size bed that came with the house was fine with me.  But Margaret's been pretty much living at the 2nd hand store downtown, and there was this bed.  We saw the headboard a month ago.  I really liked it.  I wanted it, because the bed in the house was just that- a bed.  The headboard would really make it look nice.  It's identical to the bed used in the TV series, Medium.

Problem.  The headboard, and matching footboard were part of a California king bed.  Same width, but 6 freakin' inches longer, and they wouldn't sell just the headboard.  Oh well, I thought, ...and thought about it no more.

That didn't stop Margaret from pursuing it, however, while also picking up more chairs, tables, lamps and such.  As it turned out, they took our basically brand new bed in trade, and today they delivered it and set it up.  All of a sudden, the bedroom looks a whole lot smaller!  Amazing what 6" of mattress and some lumber can do to shrink a room.

But it is very cool.  The mattress, it turns out, is a brand new Sealy- still in the bag- with a cushy pillow top.  It also came with the matching bedside cabinet!

At 30" high, we were worried about our resident octogenarian*, but he continues to amaze...  

Think about the effort required to kip-up those rear legs!  I've said it before, and I'll say it again about this old man who is now the lone surviving member of his litter: What a guy!

*at the human equivalent of 88 years old, he's very nearly a nonogenarian!