Fear Factor

I was working on a ladder up under the eaves the other day and was a bit nervous to find this creature a few feet away from me. Probably completely harmless... but at the time it was a bit difficult to immediately deduce my high chances of survival (another way of saying I just about wet my pants). Later we found out that a Houston friend had actually just posted a very similar photo. So I wonder, could it be the same spider, secretly stalking all of us and reporting our activities back to his alien mothership? Or just Arachnophobia gone wild?

Stick Monster

We've had plenty of odd creatures around our Wimberley home this year (no, not referring to any of our humanoid visitors). In my book none of them are any cooler than the oddly elegant Walking Stick. With a top speed not much faster than a snail, these guys are especially fun to show to kids old enough not to hurt them. I've seen at least three different types of Walking Sticks at Wimberley, and Wiki says there are more than 3000 species and even has a video at www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phasmatodea

Coon fever

After waging war on the raccoon population around our house for several years, I think I had got rid of all the local coons. I (and my bird feeders) have been living in relative peace for the past year. But now I'm getting occasional deposits of coon poop around the house again, or at least it sure LOOKS like coon poop to me. I set the old reliable coon trap one night, even baited it with some yummy canned cat food, but no luck on that try. Ann was kind enough to photo me baiting the trap at the most stupid-looking moment possible, which seems even more stupid since the only thing in the trap that night was me. I'm figuring that the newcomer coon is just traveling through our hood occasionally, marking the territory for some future expansion plans. One night he'll come by when I've got the trap set again and "wham", end of the pooper-king.