As I expected , the gathering for the birthday party turned out very well . Great conversation among friendly people , with a wide loop thrown over the topics . Everything from the weather to cooking to horses , pets , recent travel , future travel , the recent interest in local real estate [?] , we couldn't get a grip on that one ! A lot of time spent eating the various food that everyone contributed to , I'm proud to say there were hardly any left overs !
The big excitement of the day was Mr. Coyote making an appearance to raid the duck pond ! Bold as brass in broad daylight . Recently the duck population has been diminishing , it was attributed to owls at night as no coyotes had been observed , then in the space of two days a couple of them show up and ba-da-bing three ducks missing . We were sitting in the tent talking quietly and Bob stood up and walked over to his golf cart , picked up a pistol and started a slow walk towards the duck pond , for a big old guy he moves pretty quiet ! Using the trees and brush for cover he was within 20 yards of the pond when he stepped to the side and up comes the pistol , a sharp crack and Mr. coyote was seen running down the road , a second sharp crack and Mr. Coyote developed some serious problems ! Bob dropped that coyote on a dead run with a pistol at least 40 yards . A great shot by any standards , a really GREAT shot by a 79 year old man shooting in bright sunlight ! Me? I didn't even know the coyote was there ! Bob confided to me later , he heard the critter go in the water . Remember I said we were in the tent talking ? Bob was sitting with his back to the pond , and he heard the coyote in the water with people talking around him , I was facing the pond and I didn't hear zip ! I believe I'll stick to the cooking and trash dumping chores and leave the gunslinging to Bob ! Tim told me later he's seen Bob hit jack rabbits at 35 to 40 yards with the little 22 auto he carries on his belt , not once but several times ! What a Guy !
The party began dispersing around 6 or so as nearly everyone had some driving to do to get home . Clean up was swift and everyone helped , . Upon returning to the hacienda and putting away the cooking gear , Had a large glass of tea and watched the sorms play around the mountain peaks , the light show from lightning is always surprising . I sit 20 miles away and feel safe and can hardly hear the thunder as it rackets from peak to peak . Just before sunset I watched a storm line come in from the east off the Pelloncillos . A pressure change and the push of air gave me time to reach the windows and get them closed before the wall of dust came . Someday I'll have a chance to capture this sight with the camera , visibility went from a crsytal clear afternoon to a brown , blank wall in seconds ! This lasted for most of 2 minutes and then , it was gone , but it was an exciting 2 minutes ! Trailer was rocking and the wind varied from a low sub sonic hum to a wail of a jet engine in seconds , then silence . The aftermath was evident as the sun dropped further behind the mountains , I hope all of you aren't getting tired of sunsets , this one really got my attention !
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