OMG Antelope!!

This is Scraggy. I named her that because, well, she's pretty scraggy.

That's a pretty smug grin you have there.

She hangs out in and around my neighborhood and is quite the character.

This is Scraggy and her boyfriend Boy George. Yes. I name all the antelope around my house.

And this is Scraggy and her TWINS!!!! How freaking awesome is that??

OMG Antelope Butts!

Yep. Those are pronghorn antelope butts. Hard to sneak up on antelope when you have a 4-year old and an icky dog with you . . . .

Before they took off. I love the antelopes by our house :)

Elken . . . . .

Happy elk is happy . . . .

In Estes Park this past fall.
Elken are cute!

Deer . . . . .

I've been quite smitten with them lately. You can expect to see more artwork and plushies that are deer related . . . . .

And this is my own pic. Took it this past summer. Antlers are in velvet, getting ready for the rut!

BIRDS!!!!!

OMG I LOVE BIRDS!!!!

And I get tons of birds in my yard!!

We get red winged black birds, brewers black birds, house finches, house sparrows, and song sparrows!!! I wuvs them all - but especially the sparrows!!!

Sparrows are my favorite . . . .

ELKEN!!!! And Project 365

OMG I'm lazy!!!! So this post is Project 365 for Sunday AND Monday. And awesome pictures of ELKEN!!!! That's what I use as plural for elk. Even though "elk" is the proper term for multiple elk. And for a singular elk. See? I just taught you something.

You're welcome.


But I like to call them elken. Mainly because I'm awesome like that.


Anyway, we went to Estes Park on Sunday for the Scottish Festival. The highlight of the festival were the wild elken that were not part of the festival (Estes is a mountain town - there are elken everywhere). And that I got some delightful Lemon Curd (basically a creamy, lemony spread of the GODS!).


I love lemon.


The festival was $25 a person. A person. We thought it was free. But we went with friends and thought it would be rude to drive 3 hours and be all screw this! It's expensive! So we sucked it up and dropped $50 to get in (luckily Ayden was free). There was lots of Celtic dancing, bagpipes, traditional Scottish games (that we couldn't play because they were a competition), and tons of overpriced food and souvenirs.


For example, we found the Baird family tartan (yes, Jeremy is half Irish and yes, I know it was a Scottish festival, but there was Irish stuff there too). To buy a scarf in the Baird colors . . . .$26. For a scarf.


We didn't buy it.


Then we got a snack. A meat pie. Basically a small potpie. We split one and got a bottle of water. $9.50.


To recap: Elken and Lemon Curd = Awesome, Scottish Festival = expensive and somewhat boring.


On to the pics!

This elken looks sooooooo happy!! He was sleeping in the shade, enjoying himself.

Us, with the elken and the lake in the background.

OMG ELKEN!!










This guy was proud of his harem.

Hooray for elken!!

Frogs in my backyard?

There's quite a bit of wildlife around my house, but I never thought we'd have frogs. With all the rain we've had this summer though, the usually dry field behind our house has become a marshland. Over run with frogs.

Quite small little buggers, but there were about 20 in our backyard!

Ayden isn't sure what to make of it.

Well, there ya have it! Frogs!

Wildlife!

I live in Falcon, Colorado. Just a little east of Colorado Springs (about 60 miles south of Denver). Falcon is a little rural. Jeremy (my hubby) and I have 1/2 an acre of land. Not a ton, but definitely a whole heck of a lot more than if we had stayed in the Springs (where I swear you can touch your neighbor's house just by lifting your arm). We're also surrounded by fields. Vast open fields. I didn't like it at first (I'm a mountain girl), but I've grown to love it. The grasslands have a beauty all their own (and it helps that the Rocky Mountains are less than an hour away!). It's also very cool to have pronghorn antelope practically in your own backyard!

Now, these guys are on the outside of our back fence. Before we had the fence up, they would come into our yard and up on our porch. And I gotta tell ya, pronghorn make a sound very similar to the velociraptor 'cough' sound in Jurassic Park. Seriously. Kinda creepy.

Running off after Zan wnet barking after them:

We also have fox, coyote, ground squirrels, rabbits, tons of birds, hawks and mice. Here's a gorgeous fox that watched us for a while. I love his eyes!

And yes, this is right by our house. The fox walk along the top of our back fence. And they're fun to watch, pouncing on mice! I love where I live!