When it comes to rabbits, Tucker is relying too heavily on his sense of smell .  I have witnessed several instances where he was sniffing around the front door of the rabbit house and the rabbit exited the back door and Tucker was none the wiser.  These rabbits are fast, which is why I have no photos of them and have no concern that Tucker will ever catch one of them.  We leave all our composting out in the desert, so that the rabbits will get a smorgasbord. So I feel that in a small way, we are paying them back for tolerating Tucker.

He also seems to have decided to take it upon himself to provide for proper burials for all the dead critters he finds. He will come up to us with a bone ….looking quite sheepish… and then comes back a few minutes later with a very brown nose. …..and no bone…   Or perhaps he is planning for future visits, like a GPS marking.🤔

We are currently in New Mexico, splurging at a campground. The first time we have paid to camp in over a month.  Our solar/battery system is working pretty well, but still not quite enough to completely relax about it. Ken has a CPAP which runs all night and often the furnace is needed at night, and although we have managed thus far, it is always a bit of a concern, so Ken is constantly reading up on how we could eke out a few more amps of sunlight/electricity per day.  Perhaps we need another panel to fully charge the batteries.  So tonite it is a luxury ……. Not having to worry if the phones are charged before the sun goes down.

We have been “boon docking” (dry camping) in some rather remote places, and sometimes my imagination gets away with me and I worry, but then I tell myself….. WE LIVE in a rather remote place where there is no one around, so that makes me feel better.  HOME SWEET HOME.  It IS more fun when you are camping with friends.

Of course we ARE out rockhounding every day, and finding lots of rocks, and learning more about rocks all the time.

And then there is the invasion of Ukraine by Russia.  A week of negations with NATO (the US), very slim details by western media. Putin (apparently) feels that if the Ukraine is allowed to join Nato, that that WILL be a threat to Russian security. I guess US could move the nuclear weapons even closer to Russia….than Turkey? Hard to say, but the US clearly said NO to any  limits to the expansion of NATO. It seems given the stakes they could have tried a little harder , knowing that Russia would invade Ukraine if they did not agree to limit expansion of NATO, which is exactly what happened.  I wonder if Russia had said we WILL bomb NY city if you do not limit NATO expansion…..whether the US (nato) would have done anything differently….perhaps tried a wee bit harder to “negotiate”. It just seems that Nato has thrown Ukraine under the bus…..the Russian Bus.

We feel for the Ukrainians, Ken’s mothers family escaped from the Ukraine. So Ken is a first generation Canadian, his mother was born in Ukraine. But we also feel for Iraqis, and Palestinians and Yemeni.

I try hard to think of all people the same, and equal. Russians, Ukrainians, Americans, Canadians, Palestinians. AND judge their actions equally. The western media does not. I watched as hundreds of Americans protesting the Iraq war (in DC)were arrested. The media did NOT “cover the war”. AND when Chelsea Manning shared photos of what was going on in the prisons of Iraq to journalist Jullian Assange, they both went to jail (in the long run). They were just Iraqis fighting for their country. The world did NOT cut of the USA’s finances, perhaps if they had, the war in Afghanistan and Iraq might not have lasted as long. The rest of the world did not impose sanctions on the US for the illegal war in Iraq. The same is true for the illegal actions of Israel with regards to Gaza. My own prime minister, Trudeau, said that Canadians supported the rights of Israel to “defend itself” while they bombed the shit out of Gaza last year. US weapons, US funding. HOW ironic. Now they are talking war crimes and the international crimes court, but the US, and Israel do not recognize this court.

It is possible to grieve for the people of Ukraine, but also wonder if Nato did not exist, if any of this would happen. Grieve for the daily killing of innocents in Gaza, Yemen as well.

So now I shall get off my soap box and wish everyone adieu. We are in New Mexico, Demming now. We watched a ?herd of Antelopes wander by last night, brought to our attention by Tucker, who was fortunately indoors.

Much love, Janet, Ken and Tucker the lousy Rabbit hunter.