thewayne | Entries tagged with nature

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A place called Toyah, directly south of Carlsbad, about the same distance south of the border as Carlsbad is north. Maybe 200 miles from us on a SE diagonal? Very brief duration, just a couple of seconds.

Now, the funny thing is we had literally just completed filling in the word Tremor in a crossword puzzle! I thought Russet was shaking the couch as a joke, but nope, it was real! I could see the TV vibrate as it doesn't have a very good stand. The dogs didn't react, they're lying on the couch next to where we were sitting. Nothing fell and we didn't hear any breakage.

Keep in mind that we're literally on top of a mountain at 8,800'! (2,682 meters) There's lots of fracking on the eastern half of the state, also in that part of Texas, part of the Permian Basin which is a major oil production area.

(or at least next door to one: the other side of our back fence line IS the forest)

I was sitting at my desk working on my computer this evening when some unusual movement outside the front window caught my eye. I looked up and it was an elk in my front yard. And then it was two. And then three. Possibly four, I'm not sure. Unfortunately it was well in to dusk so photography was out of the question. One was a very young (whatever immature elk are called) and among other things, they were nibbling at my weeds and grass, and I saw what I presume was the mother actually lift a foreleg and cuff the young'un! I guess it was going to eat something that was not strictly kosher for elk.

Although my coolest animal encounter is definitely when I opened my front door to let the dog out and there were three raccoons on my door step. They actually stayed in place long enough for me to grab my camera and get a few shots, but they weren't very good.