Snort snort

This weekend, we went hiking on the East side of base and we hit the jackpot in wildlife spotting. Actually, Ellen took the prize this time for being the first to spot almost everything. It had been raining here a lot so the trails were still pretty muddy but the weather was perfect this weekend. Our first encounter was when Ellen saw two hogs about 20 feet in front of us, just off the trail. She had tried to get my attention but I was focusing on getting around a muddy spot in the trail. But when the two hogs picked up on us, they started running across in the branches. So I only saw the second one. It got both our heartbeats up pretty good. Then, just after a couple turns, Ellen spotted another one off in the distance. But this time it turned out to be a couple hogs with a set of babies. There were about 5 of the babies, pretty much hairless and all waddling around in a pack. In this picture, you can only really see the one adult in the center.We were pretty satisfied at that point, but things got even better. Again, Ellen was the first to spot it. An armadillo was just off the trail about 6 feet. It realized we were staring at it pretty quick, so it started trying to walk away. But I was determined to get a good picture so I followed it for a while. After moving through some prickly bushes, it stopped behind a log. When I got closer, I saw that it had gone down into a hole. I thought about getting closer to try to look inside, but I took heed of some warnings I've heard about how mean armadillos can get. It didn't matter though because further down the trail, I spotted another one! This one seemed a little more alarmed of our presence, so it sprinted over to this little ridgeline. It jumped over branches pretty high to get there. And when I caught up to the ridgeline, he was already long gone in some hole. It was like in the movie Fugitive, where the guy is at the end of the tunnel so you think he's caught, but then he jumps off into the dam.

The only big catch we have yet to see on the East side now is an alligator. So maybe they'll come out in the summer to get some sun. It was a pretty successful hike. Neither of us fell into mud this time, but Ellen picked up some good scratches on the legs. I got some nice photos and have been messing around editing those. Now that the weekend is over, Ellen's back to work and I'm back to sitting around waiting to be scheduled for a flight. I got a sim last week, so that was good to get back into the mindset. I've been trying to take advantage of the time to study but it's hard to retain it when you're just reading through the manuals. I would work on Masters stuff but I'm in between classes right now. Ellen, on the other hand, took the plunge and signed up for a Masters of her own. She's already started her first class with Walden University. It sounds like after this course, she'll be taking two at a time. They provide all the course textbooks as well, so that's nice. I think she's excited to get going on it, but she's also realizing how picky some classes can be as she reads through the grading criteria and discussion boards.


There's a lot of other stuff I probably should update here, but I just wanted to get the hog story out there. We got lots of beads at a Mardi Gras parade, it actually snowed here (and stuck), we signed up to take a vacation to Japan in the summer, yadda yadda...