Saturday encore ~ Walter Pigeon makes a wrong turn over Arizona

One year ago, a pigeon came into my life, if only briefly. It was a magical moment in 7MSN Ranch history 

and one I will fondly remember for many years to come. I'll use the next couple of Saturday Encores

to re-live the story for those who might have missed it the first time around.

***

 

Alan: Mom, there's a pigeon in our yard.

Me: That can't be a pigeon. What would a pigeon be doing way out here?

Alan: Beats the hell out of me.

We first noticed the pigeon Sunday morning. Didn't give it too much thought at the time. He walked around the corral 

for awhile, flew off, and that was that. But then he showed up again a few hours later...and a few hours after that. 

When he showed up again Monday morning, I deemed his appearance blog-worthy and started taking pictures.

I was surprised by how close I could get to him. Then one time I got too close...

...and he took off. I figured I'd never see him again and so much for that blog post.

I downloaded the pictures anyway and gasped when I realized what I had been missing because
I can't wear my glasses when I'm taking pictures. Scroll up two photos. Do you see it?

Now do you see it? My pigeon was wearing an ID bracelet! I rushed back outside to see if I could find him. And there he was in the barn.

Maybe I could get some close-ups of the leg band... maybe I could find out who he belonged to...

 

...maybe I would fall in love with a pigeon. Isn't he gorgeous? 

Who knew pigeons had perfectly shaped hearts above their beaks?

Already Lucy is jealous.

So umpteen photos later, taken at every possible angle, I was able to piece together all the writing on Walter's leg band.
It was a 13-digit code that included the letters "AU."
A little sleuthing on Google, one e-mail and a phone call later, I was talking to Walter's owner.  
 

Walter's owner races pigeons. He released Walter in Globe, Arizona (Point A below) on Saturday.
Walter was supposed to fly 75 miles home to Safford, Arizona (Point B below).
Walter made a wrong turn.

How or why a navigationally challenged racing pigeon ended up at the 7MSN will remain a mystery.

Walter's owner is baffled by his pigeon's behavior. Apparently it's been a strange year for pigeons. 

This is the first time he's had one fly so far off course. He thinks his pigeon might fly home to Arizona once it eats and rests for awhile.

He also told me that Walter is a hen. I've since named her Amelia.

Amelia is now roosting above the feed room in the barn. I've told her owner that I would call him 

if she leaves so he can be on the lookout for her, but I'm hoping she'll decide to stay. 

She's got food, water, lots of company, and 15 minutes of fame on a blog. What more could a pigeon want?

A lesson to be learned

It was Saturday, late afternoon. I had just spent several hours piecing together a music video of a pigeon 

I had known for only a week and needed a break, so I went out to the barn. 

Yes, I was secretly hoping Amelia would have magically returned and was fully prepared to scrap the whole video if she had.

We were all in a funk. I climbed around the rafters just in case
a pigeon might have gone unnoticed in one of the corners. No such luck. 

Me: Hank, even caked with mud you're handsome. 

I'm sorry I didn't brush you today.

Me: What's everybody looking at? Is she back?

Me: Damn. Just a bunch of cows. *sigh*

The last time I posted about cows, June commented: So . . . let me get this straight. All these cows just wander all over the place and then somebody eventually goes out and rounds them up when it's time for . . . whatever?

That's about the gist of it. The rancher I bought this land from still runs his cows up here. They're registered black angus. He sells off a bunch every year and they end up on a steak-house menu. Hence we've disciplined ourselves to not get attached to them. There's a lesson to be learned there.

Free Bird

I called Amelia's owner in Arizona to let him know to be on the lookout for her. He says he'll call me when she gets there. Let's hope her GPS works better going in that direction. Or better yet, let's hope she gets to the New Mexico/Arizona border and turns right back around.

Saturday encore ~ Confessions of a Pumpkin Hoarder

Have you recovered from your Thanksgiving dinner? I haven't. I'm still in the mood for food...particularly orange food. Blame it on the twice-baked sweet potatoes with chipotle pecan streusel. The secret ingredient in that recipe was the chipotle chile powder, which my Walmart in the middle of nowhere had on the shelf, much to my delight. It's my new favorite spice, and I can't wait to add it to the soup below the next time I make it. Which just might be today.

***

I found this soup recipe on Tasty Kitchen last winter, and it is so easy, delicious, comforting, elegant ... ok I'll stop now... because I could go on and on and on about how wonderful this soup is. Here's the link to the recipe. It's called Velvet Pumpkin Soup. I won't bore you with step-by-step pictures and instructions. Basically, you sauté some onions in a pot, add a few spices, dump in some chicken stock, canned pumpkin, and evaporated milk, and you're done. The key to the soup, as far as I'm concerned anyway, is the velvety texture. The recipe says you can puree it in a blender in batches, or not. I've tried it pureed and I've tried it chunky – pureed is definitely the way to go, except for the getting-the-blender dirty part, when you have to clean the blender and all the vessels and utensils you've dirtied transferring the soup from the pot to the blender and back again. Anyway, I made this soup so often last winter that I decided it was high time to buy one of these:

An immersion blender. I am normally not a gadget person, but this thing has become more of a necessity in my kitchen than a gadget. I may never use my regular blender again. Why disassemble, clean, and reassemble a blender when you can just eject the end of this thing and rinse it off?

I haven't used it to blend margaritas, only because I never thought of it until just now, but I'll bet it would do the trick. It might even mash potatoes. Heck, you could probably stir paint with it if you washed it off real good.

But getting back to the soup recipe... I learned a very important lesson last winter once I started making it, and I learned it the hard way. Grocery stores do not stock the main ingredient (canned pumpkin) year round. It is only available from about October through January. After that, you cannot find it on the shelves - at least in New Mexico, you can't. So if you do make this soup and fall in love with it (and I'm betting you will), start stocking up now.

A girl can never have too much land or too much pumpkin in her pantry. And you can quote me on that.

Giving thanks...for a pigeon?

Amelia is still here, and I'm seriously over-the-top happy that she's chosen to stay for at least another day. 

When I went out to the barn Tuesday morning, she was right where I left her Monday night, perched above the feed room. 

Then the sun came up and the whole neighborhood came out to greet her.

I took the picture above out my office window around 7:30. 

That's Amelia sitting atop the pipe rail, looking down over the chickens and five doves. 

There are three more doves perched on the roof.

Where did all these doves come from? 

Whoever said doves were lonesome needs to visit the 7MSN.

Amelia seemed a little surprised by all the fuss being made over her arrival (that's her standing closest to Eugenia). 

I can only hope that all these new friends are enough to entice her to stay permanently.

Amelia's presence is alot like those glory days when Deets was here – she doesn't have to stick around, but the fact that she does makes me smile so big my face hurts. This is going to sound ridiculous as soon as I type it, but I'm feeling honored because a pigeon has chosen to live here, if only temporarily, and I'll be adding "pigeon" to my list of things to be thankful for tomorrow.

Speaking of which, tomorrow somebody might be live-blogging her attempts to make Martha Stewart's Triple Chocolate Pumpkin Pie and the Cookin' Canuck's Twice-Baked Sweet Potatoes with Chipotle Pecan Streusel. It could get ugly, but then again it might be fun. Until then, all of us at the 7MSN wish you a very blessed Thanksgiving.

Walter Pigeon makes a wrong turn over Arizona

Alan: Mom, there's a pigeon in our yard.

Me: That can't be a pigeon. What would a pigeon be doing way out here?

Alan: Beats the hell out of me.

We first noticed the pigeon Sunday morning. Didn't give it too much thought at the time. He walked around the corral 

for awhile, flew off, and that was that. But then he showed up again a few hours later...and a few hours after that. 

When he showed up again Monday morning, I deemed his appearance blog-worthy and started taking pictures.

I was surprised by how close I could get to him. Then one time I got too close...

...and he took off. I figured I'd never see him again and so much for that blog post.

I downloaded the pictures anyway and gasped when I realized what I had been missing because
I can't wear my glasses when I'm taking pictures. Scroll up two photos. Do you see it?

Now do you see it? My pigeon was wearing an ID bracelet! I rushed back outside to see if I could find him. And there he was in the barn.

Maybe I could get some close-ups of the leg band... maybe I could find out who he belonged to...

 

...maybe I would fall in love with a pigeon. Isn't he gorgeous? 

Who knew pigeons had perfectly shaped hearts above their beaks?

Already Lucy is jealous.

So umpteen photos later, taken at every possible angle, I was able to piece together all the writing on Walter's leg band.
It was a 13-digit code that included the letters "AU."
A little sleuthing on Google, one e-mail and a phone call later, I was talking to Walter's owner.  
 

Walter's owner races pigeons. He released Walter in Globe, Arizona (Point A below) on Saturday.
Walter was supposed to fly 75 miles home to Safford, Arizona (Point B below).
Walter made a wrong turn.

How or why a navigationally challenged racing pigeon ended up at the 7MSN will remain a mystery.

Walter's owner is baffled by his pigeon's behavior. Apparently it's been a strange year for pigeons. 

This is the first time he's had one fly so far off course. He thinks his pigeon might fly home to Arizona once it eats and rests for awhile.

He also told me that Walter is a hen. I've since named her Amelia.

Amelia is now roosting above the feed room in the barn. I've told her owner that I would call him 

if she leaves so he can be on the lookout for her, but I'm hoping she'll decide to stay. 

She's got food, water, lots of company, and 15 minutes of fame on a blog. What more could a pigeon want?