I have seen 2 panthers since living here.Both were within a mile & a half of the house.One was extremely thin & just walking along the dirt road until it heard me(I was out biking).The second was in much better condition & ran across the road,while I was driving. My father-in-law & myself had two black bears cross the road early Saturday morning when we were driving to a game. Late yesterday afternoon,I got bitten by this guy.I am extremely lucky,as it only broke the skin with one fang & apparantly didn't inject any venom.It was curled up under a squash vine & I was pulling weeds,when I felt it strike my index finger.I took the pics,as I figured I would be heading straight to the ER & wanted to give them a positive i.d of the snake.It is a pygmy dusky rattlesnake.I kept an eye on the wound(& my pulse/breathing-hard when getting a shock like that),but never got any pain,swelling or erratic breathing.I think I should go buy a lottery ticket today :)

Jay, I hate to hear there was a fire on your brother-in-law and sister's property, but am glad they didn't lose any structures. It is very unfortunate that they are likely to lose soil to wind erosion in the absence of vegetation to hold it in place. It was horrible here yesterday, but I got up early and got busy cooking, so already had the food prepared before the fire pagers started going off. We only had one fire close to us, and it was on the property behind my gardening friend, Fred's, place. As we were on our way there, I was worried about his house, but the wind carried the fire away from his house, so it all worked out. His whole veggie garden plot is freshly plowed, so it would have served as a pretty good firebreak anyway. The wind was not as bad here as it was further west and northwest. I bet our highest wind gusts were in the upper 30s or lower 40s, but in those winds, fires still can be hard to control. Half of West Texas blew in with the dust storm in late afternoon and that part of it was just awful. We were home by dark, though, so it wasn't nearly as bad of a day as it could have been. Even here in our county, most of the fires were in the northern part of the county and not the southern part where I live. Some VFDs were much busier than we were. Today I have to go outside and gather up lawn furniture that blew around and birdfeeders that got blown down, etc. It was our first Red Flag Fire Warning of the year, and I hope it is a long time before we have another. It is supposed to rain here tomorrow and it if does, that will give us minor fire protection for a few days. Of course, it won't help with dry, dormant vegetation, but with the rain and lots of sunny, warm to hot winter days, we have a lot of green up in the fields already and that helps us a whole lot. I suppose yesterday's wind, extreme fire danger and dust storm reminds us all of what is coming with the strong spring winds. I sure was glad yesterday that it is so early in the season that I didn't have to worry about the wind beating the living daylights out of a garden full of plants. Dawn

suero - that is a wonderful idea! Thanks! Amanda - I was so excited that I called DH at work and he he's all for helping to make it happen. We're going to do it for Christmas instead and some week this Summer when they're on vacation we're going to do it. I am so jazzed about this that I can't wait to actually talk to ex-SIL about it and recruit her help. I NEVER come up w/ good gift ideas for my in-laws (not that they care - in a good way). Many yrs. ago I acquired an Industrial Fan that I thought was cool looking. It blows so hard I couldn't use it in the house. Socks would blow across the room. Now I know what fate had in store for it (and me) when I picked it up!

FLAG! Reading you email this morning re all the work you're doing on your studio, I'm thinking you could do that very thing. One of the guys that I met last year drove from Arkansas. He had a very interesting trip, and had his own car for his vacation. Many people I met at our little hotel return every year. Some of the workshop people return every year to the Hacienda. I've talked my daughter and her friend to go w/me this year, and I know once they see the place and experience the wonderful art and inspiration there, it'll be a yearly trip for them too. Hey, DAISEY: We can go shopping one afternoon and then have 'ritas and snacks afterwards.