Pictures of the Family, Garden, and Friends
Craig, a (hungry) Bengal tiger cub, David, and Marietta DouglasThis picture was taken in August, 1996 while we were visiting the Alamo Game Farm outside of Alamosa, Colorado. We were feeding a Bengal tiger cub. To say that our son David was thrilled is being conservative. (Frankly, his mom and dad enjoyed playing with the tiger cub, too.) After all, David's goal in life since he was 3 has been to become a zoo keeper like his hero, Jack Hanna, director emeritus of the Columbus, Ohio zoo. (Jack is the only living private citizen of a country, i.e., not a government head, to be loaned a pair of giant Pandas for his zoo.)
This is a lovely, off the beaten path area of the United States. We would heartily recommend a visit to the area. There are 14,000+ foot high mountains nearby. Further, it is only a half day's drive from the Copper Mountain multigrid conference location and the Colorado Springs airport.
Alamosa is near the Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, the Colorado Alligator Farm, and the Sand Dune National Monument. We were drawn to Alamosa since the scenic railroad has one of a handful of rotary snow plows still in service. The train ride is worth an extended trip.
We see many types of wildlife at our house. The picture below was taken on Thanksgiving morning, 1999. The tenth turkey's head is on the far right of the picture (you may have to move the page right to see all of the picture. There were around 50 ducks milling about, too. All of them were waiting on some cracked corn for breakfast.
David went trick or treating in 1999 as Pikachu, a Pokemon. His mom made the costume.
We have a formal herb garden and an informal one. In another 2-3 years it will be a formal one, too. The formal one is connected to our side yard. Click on a thumbnail if you want to see a larger version of a picture.
What herbs are where in the formal garden. A complete list is also available.
The informal one is behind the yard and house on a hill formed by a geological fault that is there. Yes, we have lots of little earthquakes (roughly 2.5 on the Richter scale). We cannot often feel the quakes, but we can hear them (an odd cracking noise). Our pets can predict the quakes a few hours in advance, of course.
