We were out driving around a couple of evenings ago and saw a bunch of cars pulled to the side of the road and a photographer taking pictures.  I glanced over to see what everyone was looking at and at first thought they were watching prairie dogs, but it turned out to be a mom and five baby foxes.   They were living on the side of the road in a drainage ditch.  We pulled over and looked at them for a minute and got Jake out so he could see.  Last night we went back with our camera and video camera and sure enough they were still there.  It was really fun to watch them, they look like little kittens playing.   Here are a few photos and videos we got.

Colorado has red, grey, swift and kit foxes, I was pretty sure these were red foxes and confirmed it when we got home.  According to the Colorado Division of Wildlife, red foxes have become more common with increased irrigation used in farming.  Red foxes are fairly common around here, we have seen them walking along the side of the road on multiple occasions.  Kit foxes  and swift foxes are the two species that are rarest.  Kit foxes are listed as “state endangered” and live in the desert areas from Montrose to Grand Junction.  Swift foxes are are listed as “state special concern” which means they are not endangered but still low in numbers and live in the shortgrass prairies in eastern Colorado.  They also have a little blurb about how to live with foxes, including keeping your garbage tied up with something animal proof, which would have been good advice for someone in this neighborhood.

This first video is of the mom feeding her babies, we thought had gone hunting but came back with a hot dog bun, apparently she was raiding someones trash nearby. I can’t imagine going to put something in your trash and finding a fox in it.

This second one is a short one of the mom and baby.

And the third one is of the kits playing together, it’s longer but pretty cute!

We went to the Farmer’s Market in Boulder on Saturday morning and picked up a few things that were available this early in the season.  We bought some purple potatoes, parsnips, and spinach.  We were planning on having steaks and roasted potatoes for dinner Saturday night and we didn’t have any specific plans for the produce we bought.  Thanks to teething, Jake took longer than normal to go down and while I was laying with him I came up with an idea for the produce.  We made a wilted spinach salad with roasted purple potatoes and shaved parsnips, with a maple mustard vinaigrette.

I have been making my own salad dressings thanks to the guidelines in the book How to Cook Everything.  After making Mark Bittman’s basic vinaigrettes I started to see a pattern and started experimenting with some of my own dressings.  This has been my favorite salad dressing so far! After eating it on our salads we fried some french fries the next day and ate it as a dipping sauce, which was also delicious.

For the salad:

I roasted potatoes in the oven with olive oil to coat at 450 for about 40 minutes or until crispy.  I like spinach better cooked a little bit, so I wilted it in a pan with a little bit of olive oil for a couple of minutes.  I put the spinach on the plate, topped with the roasted potatoes, and shredded parsnips, salt and pepper.

Maple Mustard Vinaigrette:

3/4 cups olive oil

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

3 tbsp maple syrup

1 tbsp spicy brown mustard

2 tbsp shallots

salt & pepper to taste

Add the white wine vinegar, maple syrup, mustard, shallots and salt and pepper to a food processor, and blend thoroughly.  Add the olive oil a little at a time and blend.  Adding the olive oil a little at a time should create an emulsion.

Enjoy!