New Little Ones

Hi everyone! This post my be a bit short because I've had some requests to put up more picture and that takes a ton of time. Well, here it goes... Well one afternoon, it was really hot, so Christine was sleeping and I was just resting in bed when I started to hear these weird sounds. It sounded as if Christine was having some flatulent problems but the noises started becoming more rhythmic. I went outside to look for maybe a bird that was making the sounds, but there was nothing. Then I went back in and looked at Christine; no, it wasn't her either. I went out again, and then I saw it - there was the tail of a snake sticking out of a hole from under our porch. I wasn't really alarmed or should I say worried because Christine had described a snake she had seen to be and said it was only a Gopher snake (they're harmless; they pretend to be rattle snakes by moving their tails back and forth in the brush and flatten their bodies out when threatened to appear bigger). Well, this snake was busy doing something and I knew it had to be eating some poor soul. I went inside and woke up Christine to come see and I asked her if I could throw a rock at it or something to make it stop and save whatever it was trying to kill. She convinced me that it was just a snake and that's just what they do. Then I thought about the tons of quail I slice open every day for the falcons so I decided not to throw the rock. The torturing of this unknown creature went on forever and we had to head out to the site, so we left. When I came back to go to the bathroom the snake's head was popped out of the hole with two toad legs sticking out of its mouth. That was the flatulents I was hearing - a toad being suffocated. So I watched the snake gobble the rest of the toad up and slowly slither away. We talked to Artemeo (or who we like to call "Art") that night and he said that a rattle snake can kill a horse in 20 minutes! Christine and I decided it might be a good time to invest in some anti-venom. It takes a half an hour just to get to the ranch house for us. He also told us a useful term if we happen to get stuck in the mud with our truck, "atascaras." Thanks Art. A day later or so we finally met the man behind the voice (we like to refer to him as "Charlie" from Charlie's Angels); Bill Heinrich. He is the man who works at the center in Idaho who is one of the people heading the project. He was really funny and sweet, and said he had never made it to the house before but could see it from a distance (he always gets lost). That afternoon we saw a huge gopher snake in road when Paul and Bill were showing us where to get the best cell reception (which ended up being a flop). We all got out of the car and stood in a line, then at the same time we started to approach it like a mob squad. Bill tried booting it by tapping it with his toe and Christine and I both thought to ourselves, "This is the mastermind behind this whole project?" We saved a really strange scorpion-like bug from a bunch of ants one afternoon and found out that it is call "Nina de la tera" which translates to "Child of the Earth" - definitely one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. One night Christine was about to lay down on the ground to do some exercises but then saw a bug moving. She put a light on it and saw that it was a tiny scorpion. She decided it would be best to save her exercised for another time. We have been driving out from the hack site and burying our leftover quail. but found out that something keeps digging them up so now we just chuck them out into the open. On Friday, Paul Juergens brought us nine new falcons. We now have five in the West tower: 6Y, KH, KU, NV, and NY; and four in the East tower: NN, ND, NR, and 8V. Wasn't it so nice of them to give us so many codes that started with N's? That should be fun reading. Well what was really exciting is that Christine and I both got to hold one. I got to hold one of the only two female of the nine, 8V. She is gorgeous and absolutely weightless to the touch. That was definitely a moment I will keep with me for a long time. About a night or so ago we had a huge storm. Christine and I took our safety positions on the floor in case we were struck by lightning; you know since we're the only house out here that also happens to be metal, and of course safely residing next to an enormous tree! Well after all of that excitement, we were driving back last night from making our check-in call and we almost ran over a rattle snake! I'm not really sure how we missed it because it was fully outstretched in the middle of the road and Christine didn't see it... I yelled "Stop!" and then "Reverse!" and I guess somehow our tires missed it on both sides. Now, I was going to wait for the dangerous species until after I got my required 10 weeks in for my school credit, but how could I pass up this photo 'op. Well, that's all I have for this past week. I miss you all terribly and can't wait to see you all once again, even though that seems so very far away. Love you, Ang