[sic]

The early afternoon run to Home Depot Sunday was a success in procuring the materials I’d need to build the lid to cover the main part of the tortoise hutch begun and completed Saturday. By the time I got home it was hot and I wasn’t really planning on commencing construction, but with Susan still out running errands, and the primary option being long overdue vacuuming, I figured what the hell and got busy.

I am remiss in that I did not document the build in-progress. But it was hot and I was baking and so instead I snapped the following pix of the ceiling in place and attached on this the morning after:

I added the images to the end of the Flickr photoset from Saturday, viewable here.

It’s funny, when you think about the materials involved in putting together a 5′ x 5′ outdoor pen for our Russian tortoise Buster — four boards, four legs, slats, screening material and some brackets it seems like putting it all together would take hardly any time at all.

Four hours later, I finally was done — with stage one. Still to come before adding Buster is construction of a hinged and lockable custom roof screen, plus I have to decorate the interior with a layer of dirt/bedding, and a covered space (with heating element)… but she’s gonna love it! At least as much as a chelonian can love anything.

Flickr set of the above images of the work in progress is here.

Our Russian tortoise Buster, whom you may have seen recently in a far more active mode, likes to position herself in the late afternoons to catch the last of the day’s rays as the sun sets behind the Micheltorena Ridge, and only minds it a little bit when I encroach with my cam on such quiet, reflective times (click to triplify):

Work on a long-overdue 5′ x 5′ outdoor enclosure begins today.

Click here to see the best footage yet of Buster the Russian tortoise going full nom on her foodstuffs!

So. Sadness: my tiny doorway spider is dead. I’ve written about her far more than I’d imagined I would. I first found her in April and marveled as she produced not one but two egg sacs. Subscribing to the Charlotte’s Web mythology, after her first brood hatched and dispersed I figured she wasn’t long for living. But then she proved that one shouldn’t believe what one reads by producing a second egg sac that hatched on June 11. Just when I thought she was done for a few ways ago I stood in awe as she consumed a big bug that had become ensnared in her web. For all I knew she was protein loading for her next batch of spiderlings.

Then I found her dead this morning. But not just dead — killed. Unless someone can show me that passing arachnids can manage to encase themselves in their own silky threads, then she tangled with an intruder and the ended up entombed in its webbing:

I fancy myself tougher than some, but my heartbreak at her death — something I knew was inevitable — was compounded by her life being so tragically cut short. And after I removed her from her unbecoming suspension and laid her to rest I angrily searched the vicinity for any likely eight-legged suspects.

I found none, but I did find some solace in discovering one of her babies, barely more than a pencil point in size had spun a little web about a foot or so from where its mama had brought her into the world:

Be careful little one. There are dangers about. And while it will be sad these coming days to pass through the front door without seeing your mother, I hope you’ll be able to hang around awhile.

Yesterday, Buster our tortoise took most of the morning to find the snack of snail vine blossoms I left for her (which she then devoured within minutes).

This morning within minutes of installing her foodstuffs (with another generous helping of snail blossoms), she was aaaaalllll over it, allowing the TortoiseCam to capture what I consider to be the very definition — the quintescensce, if you will — of reptilian nom nom.

P.S. Yes, a picture of Buster’s famed and much beloved namesake* was added just because I could.

*And don’t start about me naming a female Buster. When I first began caring for the fugitive tortoise back in 2001 I thought she was a he — and either way the stoic resemblance is there.

It took more than four hours for Buster to discover the snackables, but there she is exiting the scene of the carnage for a much-needed high-noon nap,

In case you missed out on all the feeding frenzy fun, I managed to capture images of Buster going stone cold-blooded off on the edibles and they’re viewable via this slideshow on Flickr.

In the wake of my post about snail vine blossoms and our tortoise Buster’s addiction to them, my friend and fellow L.A. Metblogs contributor Julia excellently suggested “Dude, howsabout you webcam Buster so we can feast our eyes upon the tortoise feasting upon the flowers.

So of course I said oh hell yeah and cranked the porchcam off the almost entirely nonactive birdbath outside  and now we’ll have pretty much the following visual of some greens and some snail vine blossoms…

…that Buster may or may not wake up to stroll over to and quickly devour at some point. Fingers crossed we catch some of the hot turtle feeding action.

P.S. That’s just a still image above (not that it’ll change much live). The Webcams page wiith the motion-sensing version is here.

This snapshot above of the greenery growing alongside the onramp to the westbound 10 Freeway from Vermont might not be much of a big deal to you, but when I first spotted it a couple weeks ago biking home from work I put it on my list of I Shall Returns.

Not for me — for our Russian tortoise Buster. See this verdant thing is one humongous and healthy snail vine, and Buster, to say she likey the snail vine blossoms is way of an understatement. They’re pretty much crack to her. Any time I feed her she’ll look over and be in no rush to eat, but if there are snail vine blossoms (like the one below) in with the mix of greens and squash and broccoli, she’s all over ‘em. Gnum gnum gnummy gnum gnum!

You can see from the shape of the flower and the pod above the blossom why “snail” is in their name. And while we have a snail vine growing in the side yard, its production of flowers fluctuates and for the last couple weeks I’ve opted not to harvest any of its meager supply to give it time to rebound.

Thus the bike ride down to Vermont and the Santa Monica Freeway this afternoon: to get me some! And yes I don’t think twice about a 12-mile roundtrip to get some fauna for my favorite reptile.

And I got a lot. Loaded up 75 fresh morsels of tortoise-loving goodness. Buster gonna love me!