I’m working on a new project. Painting Kaiserslautern on my new iPad. I’m stoked.

Reputation?  Google Joan Jett.

These sensational news headlines got me thinking…

• Campers rescued after coyotes surround campsite
• Animal Control Looking For Coyotes That Surrounded Woman, Dogs
• I Shouldn’t Be Alive – Trapped and Surrounded by Coyotes

I thought… what the? I’ve been surrounded by coyotes, more than once. Really surrounded. I thought it was cool. Maybe I’m the one who’s nuts? Being surrounded by a herd of javelina and being face-to-face with a young mountain lion – those situations were a little more dicey. But my personal worst scare was when I came head to head with two very large Brahman bulls on open rangeland in Mexico. I gave them a wide berth, slowly. They were waaaay bigger than me.

Regardless, I was reminded of when I was surrounded by coyotes. I was surrounded on one occasion for the same reason many people are “surrounded”, because I had food. I was in college, and was working on a biological survey of wild rodent populations in the deserts of southern Arizona.  I normally worked with with a biology graduate student, but I was alone this dark night. Almost 200 traps were set out (the mice were caught alive, we recorded their vital statistics, then let them go). Unfortunately for the mice, the weather was unseasonably cool.  I began to check the traps at 11pm, and many of the trapped mice were in a state of torpor (a hibernation-like state to conserve energy). What to do?

Not to worry. This has happened before. When I came upon a torpid mouse, I put him or her in one of my pockets until he or she warmed up and started to wiggle around. Quite amusing. I wonder if it was the mouse equivalent of waking up and having a “Where am I? I don’t remember drinking that much” feeling. When the mice were re-animated enough, I took them back near where I picked them up and let them go.

Enter the coyotes. I heard coyotes barking earlier in the night; quite common and I thought nothing of it. But after about a half hour into my two plus hour check, I noticed that I keep hearing noises just beyond the range of my headlamp. I became a bit more vigilant. There were creatures out there that could do me in quite easily. Eventually, I began to catch glimpses of coyotes flashing by in the darkness; one, two, or was that three? They were running circles around me. I was literally surrounded!

Coyotes at night, Michael Liebhaber, Digital drawing, 6.25 x 3.5″, 2012

Coyotes, not a mountain lion, I was okay, I said to myself. I’m not sure what happened, but all of a sudden it dawned on me why I was so popular with the coyotes on this night. Seeing coyotes was not a big deal, but having them stick aournd was a bit unusual. The reason they followed me – I was setting down mice that were fairly easy targets in their less-than-alert states. I was potentially serving dinner to the coyotes. Duh.

So I started keeping the mice in my pockets a little longer to make sure they were fully awake. Some became quite fiesty, epecially when there was more than one mouse in a pocket! Then I placed them near a hole or under thick brush. I felt sorry for them, but I also did not want to lose any future data. Desert mice can live quite long lives, in mouse years. I didn’t want to lose one to a coyote. My “two hour” check lasted almost until dawn. The coyotes stayed with me until the first hint of sunlight. It was quite an interesting experience; a big dog-and-mouse game.

So I was surrounded by coyotes, but I didn’t make the headlines. Sigh.

And if I say to you tomorrow. Take my hand, child, come with me.
It’s to a castle I will take you, …

I am pleased to say that my show has been scheduled.

The preliminary details are:

• What:  Landscapes and cityscapes of the local area.
• Where:  Visione Restaurant, Gaustrasse 1, Kaiserslautern, Germany
• Opening:  March 29.  7pm.

The project is finished. The Rodenbach farmland marked the end of the project. There are 10 images. to see all of them click here.

It’s late Fall in Germany and I wanted to capture a bit of the coor that is left in the trees so I took a few minutes and I went exporing today. I found this farm a little ways north of Kaiserslautern. Conveniently, there was parking nearby so it was a short walk to the field where I stood to draw this. Good scenes = next to parking lots. Great scenes = next to parking lots and a place to sit.

Farmland near Rodenbach (digital, 10x8in, 2011)

No, not Santa Claus. The church. This chruch, St. Nikolaus Catholic Church, is in the village of Ramstein, Germany.

St. Nikolaus Catholic Church (digital, 10x8in., 2011)

¹ In the beginning Michael created the lines and the shapes. Michael saw all that he had made, and it was very good.

Preliminary sketch for St. Martin's Square

Do you take photos when you travel? I don’t because I either forget my camera or I forget to use it.

So my tips are

Tip #1: Do not forget your camera
Tip #2: Do not forget that you have your camera

Sometimes I get really excited when I am traveling to a new place. I just take it all in. I look, listen, smell, taste, and participate. I’ve been to lots of cool places and done all sorts of interesting things and you think I whould have a photo of me doing them? Almost always, no. Well, that is if you do not count the video of me dancing with schoolchildren in Costa Rica.

I always remember to draw, so I have lots of drawings and paintings. But don’t take my word for it. Scroll down and under My Paintings, click on My Travel Paintings.