Dryad Ranch

Pig Hill: Aptly Named

2012-02-05T19:31:00.000-08:00

Much of my weekend enjoyment seems to take place on the walks we take. Last Sunday, I ended up taking two. The first I accompanied Dino to the mailbox at the red gate, a little over 3 miles. And then after I helped with some shop building/storage container organizing, I made good on my threat to do a Pig Hill hike. We'd gotten talking about good walks that get the old heart rate up and I realized I hadn't done one of those in a while. It's a good steep hill - not a cliff or anything but a decent challenge.

Just as I started up, right where the field starts sloping upward, under a big oak tree I spotted something white that looked suspiciously like bones. I always check those out. As I got closer, I could see it was a skull and initially I thought it was a horse. But as I kept looking, it was too small to be a horse, and then I saw: tusks! How appropriate for Pig Hill. I finished my walk up and back, then scouted around the area to see if I could find anything else of the skeleton - no. I carried it home - four pieces, top, jaw and the two tusks which had fallen out. I stuck it in a bucket of dilute bleach and found an old scrubber and washed it off nicely.

I didn't have time during the week to do any photography, but come yesterday morning as soon as I had some decent natural light coming in, set to work.

I'd Rather Be Hiking. Also, #91!

2012-01-25T20:15:00.000-08:00

I just got word from Dino that he saw two Rough-legged Hawks (Buteo lagopus) today, making that the 91st species for Dryad Ranch!

We got some nice rain over the weekend and Monday (finally). At one point as I was standing at the kitchen window looking out, Dino came flying down the driveway on the tractor: dodging hail. That was it for the tractor work for the day.

I still ended up taking a couple of walks in the on/off drizzle. Although I feared I would be disappointed, as we'd only just gotten the rain, I was rewarded by spotting a few cap and stem mushrooms already popping up, and these turkey tails. The bonus was two types of slime mold, a sub-interest, which is very hard to photograph until such a time as I finally spend the bucks and throw some hardware at the problem. Oh, look at this two millimeter red dot on a log! Anyway, turkey tails are usually orangy brown, but these new ones were green. Neat.

It was so amazingly beautiful walking; I swear I could smell the rain sinking into everything and hear all the trees and critters and living things breathing a big sigh of relief. As I got to the top of Deer Ridge, I found myself experiencing that sort of in the moment joy where you are just a human fully in the world, you could just as well be the wind or a pine cone and there's no silly mind chatter, just clean air in the lungs and wide open spaces. (Like this:)

Exploring the Contents

2012-01-18T22:01:00.000-08:00

As Dino continues with organizing the marvel that is the shop building, he is making wonderful presentations of the old tools he has inherited and acquired over the years. I claim he has all the "tools known to man", but he emphatically denies this. The other day, he had a number of them out and was de-rusting and oiling. Even though I am almost entirely hopeless at using hand tools, I remain fascinated by all the shapes and intended uses (about which I am also clueless, mostly). Some of the tools are over 100 years old.

Taking Off

2012-01-10T19:43:00.000-08:00

We made it through another Christmas season, with an annual trip to my folks house, a visit with Dino's sisters and an interesting side trip to see the USS Iowa in Richmond. As it was Christmas Day itself, we weren't able to take the tour, but instead peered through a chain link fence for what turned out to be a pretty good view of it.

These paperwhites bloomed a couple of days after Christmas; they were a gift from my sister and they are still blooming!

Dino has been super busy the past weeks what with participating in Christmas Bird Counts (Oakhurst, Mariposa and Merced) and working on the kestrel project. That is shaping up very nicely, it looks like, with a number of possible areas surveyed and assessed. Dino is in the stage of receiving approvals and permissions and is confident that a decent number of nest boxes will be built and put in place for this year's nesting season. We'll be putting some on our property as well for the kestrel population of this area.

This beautiful photo of a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk was taken by Dino on the Merced bird count.

American Kestrels

2011-12-15T21:30:00.000-08:00

Dino has been working on the beginnings of a project to set up and monitor nesting boxes for American Kestrels. He came up with the idea after reading an article in the most recent issue of Birding magazine, published by the American Birding Association, about the population decline of these birds, and after attending two presentations by Steve Simmons, who is a master bird bander. The data from the Audubon Society's raptor run were presented to Steve, who noticed that no kestrels were observed during nesting season in the grasslands. That pointed out the necessity of taking action and providing nest boxes for the birds in the area.

In addition to banding the birds, Steve also has built thousands of nest boxes and monitored the nests over the course of many years. He's done this not just for kestrels, but also for barn owls, western bluebirds and tree swallows.

This last Monday, Steve and Dino paired up and visited several areas where kestrels have been spotted and counted during the local Audubon Society's raptor runs. They captured a kestrel, and Steve banded that bird. To capture the birds, Steve uses a mouse as bait - but don't worry, the mouse is not harmed. Instead, the mouse is safely ensconced in a wire mesh trap to which have been attached a number of small nylon loops (think fishing line). When the kestrel swoops down to grab the mouse, instead the bird becomes entangled in one of the loops.

The loop is then carefully removed from the bird's foot and the band attached.

Dino says that in this picture he is grinning internally.

Lunar Eclipse Saturday Morning

2011-12-12T20:30:00.000-08:00

We both got up early on Saturday to see the lunar eclipse. We had a good view from 4:45 when it started till about 6:30 when clouds and the sunrise covered everything up. Dino contributed the three shots on the bottom right - he did a much better job of capturing the interesting reddish color as the eclipse neared totality.

Acorn Time

2011-12-06T20:18:00.000-08:00

We've been busy planting. A while back, I ordered a bunch of wildflower seeds and spent some time over the Thanksgiving weekend getting those planted. It was pretty easy, since the seeds were ones that I specifically know grow in this area (but not in our garden areas) and all they required was a general cleanup, some loosening of the dirt and a good mix-in with some compost. Followed all that with a nice squirt with the hose and hopeful finger-crossing.

Last weekend, Dino enlisted my assistance in planting some blue oak acorns in the area just below his big shop building. I did actually do some digging, really I did, after I got the photos taken.

Over the Weekend

2011-11-30T19:57:00.000-08:00

After our Thanksgiving repast and visit with Dino's elder sister, we headed out of the Bay Area to our evening residence, one of the top five worst dumps we've ever stayed in, not that I'm complaining mind you. At least it was only one night and I am grateful that I only saw one bug, i.e. the earwig I shook out of the shower curtain. (It wouldn't be an adventure if everything got to be perfect.)

We had a most excellent day Friday, strictly devoted to birding. We got up early and bailed out of the motel before seven. I made Dino stop at the roadside so I could snap this shot of prototypical California farmland.

After that stop, we headed for the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge. This is one of the spots Dino went to last week for one of the field trips during the bird symposium. At the Beckwith Platform area, we were treated to the promised clouds of birds, mostly the Aleutian subspecies of Cackling Goose. There were Ross's Goose and some White Pelicans in the mix as well. This refuge offers a built up wooden platform so visitors can look out over the wetland area to see the birds. There was a man there who evidently works for whichever agency maintains the place, as he was doing some cleanup work around the area and was kind enough to spend some time talking with us. He estimated there were about 30,000 birds. It really was a sight to see and a noise to hear.

We stopped at the Pelican Nature Trail, part of the same refuge, before lunch. There we didn't see so many birds - the noontime doldrums apparently - but took a nice 5 mile walk on the trail, enjoyed the scenery and ate our lunch following our perambulations. After that we headed to the Merced Wildlife Refuge, stopping a number of times on the way to look at birds. On one of these roadside stops we saw some White-faced Ibis, which I'd never seen before; that was the most exciting one for me of the day. We were also visited by a Fish and Game warden while we were stopped at one point; I guess he wanted to make sure we weren't going to shoot anything. He was a fresh-faced young man (they all seem to be young nowadays), but I don't think I'd want to be on his bad side.

At Merced, we ran out of daylight and decided against doing the full five mile circle and put it on our to-do list for another day. We did spend about a half hour at one spot watching and trying to figure out what the heck kind of bird those little peeps were; small sandpiper types, difficult to identify unless one is really knowledgeable about shorebirds which we are definitely not, although Dino's working on it and studying assiduously.

We identified 41 species: American Crow, American Kestrel, Belted Kingfisher, Black Phoebe, Black-crowned Night Heron, Black-necked Stilt, Brewers Blackbird, California Quail, Canada Goose (Aleutian Subspecies), Cattle Egret, Common Raven, Coot, Double-crested Cormorant, Eared Grebe, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Great Blue Heron, Great Egret, Greater Yellowlegs, Killdeer, Lesser Goldfinch, Mourning Dove, Northern Flicker, Northern Harrier, Northern Mockingbird, Northern Shoveler, Red-shouldered Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Red-winged Blackbird, Ross's Goose, Sandhill Crane, Say's Phoebe, Snowy Egret, Steller's Jay, Turkey Vulture, Western Meadowlark, Western Scrub-jay, White Pelican, White-crowned Sparrow, White-faced Ibis, Wrentit, Yellow-billed Magpie, Yellow-rumped Warbler

Never Too Many Dippers

2011-11-28T19:44:00.000-08:00

Dino took this series of photos of one of our favorite avians, the Dipper, aka Water Ouzel. He confirmed for me the other day that we do indeed have a pair.

And something special for your reading pleasure, The Water Ouzel by Harriet Monroe:

"Little brown surf-bather of the mountains!
Spirit of foam, lover of cataracts, shaking your wings in falling waters!
Have you no fear of the road and rush when nevada plunges -
Nevada, the shapely dancer, feeling her way with slim white fingers?
How dare you dash at Yosemite the mighty -
Tall, white limbed Yosemite, leaping down, down over the cliff?
Is it not enough to lean on the blue air of mountains?
Is it not enough to rest with your mate at timberline, in bushes that hug the rocks?
Must you fly through mad waters where the heaped-up granite brakes them?
Must you batter your wings in the torrent?
Must you plunge for life and death through the foam?"

It's Part of the Price We Pay

2011-11-23T20:21:00.000-08:00

This last weekend, while Dino was at the Central Valley Birding Symposium, I spent yet another few hours planting the last fifty or so bulbs. Recent rain showers didn't do enough to soften anything up, so it was more pick work. I kept at it until it was all done, even though it turned my arms to jelly. I sure do hope those doodads actually bloom come spring.

Monday, I finished up a bout with jury duty. It was the first time I ended up actually serving on a jury, and a fascinating and also frustrating process it was. The first day was devoted to picking the folks who were able to serve and were not: actively working for law enforcement or hopelessly biased in that direction, nursing mothers, ill, or for whom missing work would cause a financial hardship. I didn't fit into any of those categories, so serve I did.

It was a criminal case, and in the end, we found the defendant not guilty. The whole case boiled down to a neighborhood relationship gone bad. The evidence was virtually nonexistent and the main prosecution witness was a convicted felon and otherwise not believable. We were left with not only "A" reasonable doubt but any number of doubts. Something happened, but whatever it was, was not what he was charged with.

I got back that afternoon with just enough daylight left to go for a little walk down to the river, where I was pleased to see my little dipper bird and some of these mushrooms that like to grow in the moss on rocks. This particular rock was on a hillside overlooking the river which made for a bit of a challenging setup.

2011-11-09T19:51:00.000-08:00

We had our first fire of the season last Friday night. It's getting chilly enough now. We've also had two smallish soaker rainstorms since Thursday, which is great because that means there's less runoff than when it's a bigger storm. Dino told me the other day that the weather people think this area will be colder this year and rainfall projections promising "normal to wet". I will endeavor to keep the whining about the mud and the drive up the hill to a minimum over the next few months.

Dino is on the light duty list at the moment, recuperating from hernia surgery. All went fine and Dino was feeling perky enough last weekend to head out on an Audubon Society field trip to look at birds. That left me with some alone time at the house, which I filled with the usual weekend chores. I picked the remainder of the quinces, cut those up and put them in the freezer. Also, I picked the first pomegranates of the year - a half dozen had spontaneously split open, triggered by the rainstorm. Got the seeds out of those and we'll be enjoying them in our morning yogurts.

Saturday, I headed out to the orchard and planted two long rows of tulips along the fence. We've now run out of bulbs even though there are still a few semi-dug areas around some of the trees; Dino has promised to buy some more when he's in town this week for his follow up Dr. appointment. So far, between the two of us, we've planted in the neighborhood 250 daffodil bulbs this year, plus this smaller batch of tulips. The hope is that the daffodils will contribute to our anti-gopher efforts, as we've read that these bulbs discourage the little beasts. Link.

We had a sad moment last week as one of our neighbor's horses, Geronimo, had to be put down. Dino got a call mid-afternoon to let him know that Ger was in terrible pain with his right front leg; he'd had a badly cut foot, which seemed to be healing, but had taken a turn for the worse and Ger couldn't walk. Geronimo, also known as the World's Most Perfect Horse, was the favorite horse of Karla's daughter Hilary, who was riding Ger the first time I ever saw her. I always said about Ger that he had the soul of a wise man; it was really not like being around a horse at all, he had that kind of presence. We of course agreed to go up to our goodbyes. After the vet got there, we said a few words and Ger was released with care and gentleness and no small measure of sorrow.

This photo was taken at this year's roundup:

Two Favorites

2011-10-29T20:34:00.000-07:00

This post is about two of my favorite birds, and it also announces species number 90 for Dryad Ranch! Last weekend on our walk, we saw a flock of birds that I was pretty sure were Cedar Waxwings, mostly based on their calls as they flew by. I doubted myself for a day or two, and then Dino was able to confirm. There is a spring he likes to visit with birding in mind, as it has had a good offering of ripe grapes. Evidently the Waxwings found those fruits to their liking, because he spotted some and that gave us our 90. I just love Waxwings, I think they are one of the most beautiful birds.

This image is in the public domain from the US Fish and Wildlife image library:

Today, after a neighbor dropped by, we headed out on another bird walk and saw favorite number two, American Dipper. This is a homegrown image:

We're Keeping Our Feet on the Ground However

2011-10-23T06:49:00.000-07:00

Dino was greatly taken with this video.

Trundling Along

2011-10-22T07:43:00.000-07:00

In between doing the usual chore-like items, we've been doing a lot of bird and Audubon related activities. That comes as no surprise I'm sure. (If only we'd get another couple of nice rains, we'd have some fungi other than puffballs to look at.)

Last Saturday, Dino helped co-lead a beginner's birding field trip in Mariposa, sponsored by the Audubon Society. I also attended that, as we were planning to take off directly from there on a jaunt south to one of those humongous theater monstrosities to see an Actual Movie. It was bird related of course: The Big Year. Verdict: it was OK, not great, but we got some good laughs and it was about birds so that gave it a few bonus points. We both agreed that the mall and theater area were rather like a different planet; we were almost as entranced with the people watching as with our morning bird watching. We followed the movie with dinner at our favorite restaurant, Lucy's Lair, which serves delectable Ethiopian food.

Alas, this weekend, it's back to the chores. Dino is working on stocking up the wood shed and I've promised to help him tomorrow do some organizing in the storage container and shop building area. I do love a good organization project.

Would it be fall without a good autumn colors leaf photo?

Ground Sloths

2011-09-25T08:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we took an interesting side trip to the Madera Fossil Discovery Center to look at old animal bones. The fossils at the center were extracted from the landfill right across the street from the center. Some years ago, as one of the equipment operators was scraping up dirt, he saw bones. What's remarkable is that he stopped and told someone about them and paleontologists were allowed to swoop in and start collecting and analyzing. They are still doing it - as the dirt is being scraped off a new section, a scientist follows along and if bones are spotted in the scrape, a small flag goes in the spot. All of the fossils found in this area are Pleistocene era - around 700,000 years ago. These are all mammal bones: Colombian mammoth, camel, horse, dire wolf, short-faced bear (14 feet tall on hind legs!), peccary, smilodon - aka saber-tooth cat - and three species of ground sloth. They had created life-sized replicas of all of these skeletons and the one that I found especially intriguing was the Harlan's ground sloth. Those critters were big and the rib cage! We figure it was six feet across if measured at the greatest extent of the outside of the rib cage. It's estimated they weighed 3500 pounds - it was really impressive. Here's a link to a photo someone else took of this replica: Link.
The center didn't have very many "customers" when we arrived and after we saw a short introductory video, as we were coming out of the screening room, we got an impromptu invite to get a personal tour. So we got the whole spiel from someone who was working on the dig. It was great to be able to ask questions and get in depth answers.

I found out also that I can now get senior discounts. Evidently, I've been in denial that turning 55 means that I have moved into the senior range. Dino was very amused by my reaction although I remain firmly convinced that I have not become fossilized yet. On the other hand, we saved four bucks on the admission fee.

Before we set out on our trip to town, we took our morning walk. There's a big spring up the hill where we lingered, hoping to see (and photograph) birds. We did see a flycatcher that would have been a new species for the ranch, but there are two species that look almost exactly alike and we just don't feel certain enough about the ID to call it. Either a Hammond or a Dusky. Dang those flycatchers can be tricky to identify. Was the head rounded or did it have a flat area? At Dino's request, edited to add: our available time for identifying the mystery bird was cut short by the sudden appearance of a kestrel, which naturally enough, scattered all the birds in the vicinity.

Here's this year's obligatory wild grapes photo. It doesn't have any grapes in this one, although at the moment the grapes are at peak ripeness and are delicious, and although very small and seedy, worth it.

89!

2011-09-18T08:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I accompanied Dino on his usual morning walk - we headed to the red gate, then headed upstream, then home. This was an excellent bird walk and gave us our 89th bird species for the ranch: Phainopepla. We also saw two blue herons and a second year juvenile bald eagle, plus our usuals. Flickers are starting to come back now that we're moving into fall.

I took a second walk mid-afternoon. I wanted to go to the spring by Altar Rock and see if anybody showed up there - birds often go there to drink - but that was a bust. I gave up after a bit and walked down Lion Creek's dry bed to the road, stopping to look at milkweed fluff and found these on one of the plants where the pods hadn't fluffed out yet (warning insect shot): Large Milkweed Bugs, Oncopeltus fasciatus.

I was having a heck of a time with the wind and count myself lucky the bugs are in any sort of focus at all. Yes, there are Small Milkweed Bugs too.

I decided to try some fall vegetables. After being thoroughly disgusted by my lack of planning earlier, having no seeds, and being completely skunked at finding any vegetable seeds at all anywhere in Oakhurst, Dino came through for me by bringing home some seedlings from his Thursday trip to Mariposa. Broccoli and beets. And he found some snow pea seeds. All that got planted in the two available cinder block beds yesterday. The cucumbers are putting in a very spirited second effort now, both the Armenian and the lemon, and we had an excellent cuke salad last night again. The bees are very busy in that bed again, which gives me hope we'll get a few more weeks of cukes.

Check out the web site I did for the local Audubon society: www.yosemiteaudubon.org

Snakes. Bugs. And a Triumphal Ha! Fungus!

2011-09-07T20:42:00.000-07:00

Ha. Another wildlife update.

I had an excellent opportunity to observe a healthy specimen from the reptile kingdom on the way home from work the other day. As I was making the approach to the abandoned houses, I noticed a large rattlesnake in the middle of the road. It was not in a hurry to get out of my way and since I rather like snakes as long as they are not trying to bite me, I had no intention of simply running over it. Never one to rely entirely upon rationality, I honked the horn. Amazingly, that caused the snake to begin the slow process of moving off the road into the grass. It had just barely gotten its tail to the edge when it stopped and allowed me to pull up to look closely and admire. It had a good sized midsectional circumference, but maybe there was a meal in there?

Sunday morning Dino and I took a lovely walk up the hill, then down along the river, observing birds. American Robin and Western Bluebird were particular highlights.

Dino also pointed out a big group of these water striders (Gerris remigis) in a river backwater.

A bracket fungus of some sort. Wow, it's September, how did this grow this time of year. Granted, it was not far from the river. This one was quite firm, with a slimy surface.

Wedding!

2011-09-05T17:41:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was the joyous occasion of my son's wedding. We journeyed to the Bay Area to celebrate the event, staying with my folks for a couple of nights. Oh, a good time was had by all and the happy couple are on their honeymoon - Munich, Vienna and Prague. Not sure what the exact itinerary is, but the Munich leg evidently included a beer hall and oompah band. I thought the most fun part of the whole shindig was the jam session at the reception - I hardly ever get to hear my son playing, so really enjoyed that.

The happy couple:

A scene from the jam session:

A fun shot:

A slideshow of the photos taken by me and Dino at the wedding and reception here.

Really Neat Bird Video

2011-08-23T20:01:00.000-07:00

Dino found this great high speed video (1000 frames/second) of an Eagle Owl landing on a perch. Here's a short youtube version, but you can see a longer version here. I am entranced by how the feathers move as it lands.

When Is a Bug True?

2011-08-16T22:38:00.000-07:00

On my way back from a walk several days ago, I was greatly distracted by the creek we have to ford on the way to our house. It's still got some water in it, not much but enough to attract all sorts of critters. I watched flame and widow skimmer dragonflies and took a picture of a wildflower I haven't been able to identify yet. Then I saw these bugs - ha! You should have known there would be insects.

I sent off a query to the excellent What's That Bug web site and I got a wonderfully detailed reply a few days later. Turns out, they were: "...two immature individuals of a species of Giant Water Bug in the genus Abedus, based on this image of Abedus herberti posted to Bug Guide. The yellow individual in your photos and the BugGuide image are newly molted nymphs in the teneral stage, meaning that their exoskeleton has not yet hardened and darkened. Insects are especially vulnerable immediately after metamorphosis. We believe the dark individual in your photos, also a nymph, is taking advantage of its weaker coeval by preying upon it. Of course, your photos do not reveal the final outcome, and the teneral individual may have actually been the victor in this food chain drama."

Cannibals! The reply went on to describe typical habitat, which was quite accurate for where I found the bugs. And these are what is known as "true" bugs, not that I know why some bugs are true and others are not. The males carry the fertilized eggs on their backs and pictures of this behavior look absolutely disgusting and fascinating at the same time. Yes, these are of the Toe Biter clan.

First August Update

2011-08-06T20:17:00.000-07:00

The vegetable garden is starting to die down - the cucumbers are tapering off heavily, and the green beans are done. The delicata squash is still ripening. Tomatoes have been disappointing overall, although we are getting enough to have in our salad every day. I had grand thoughts of having bushels that I would have to make into sauce and so on.

This year I also planted some soup beans, i.e. beans intended for drying. It was an interesting experiment and although we haven't eaten any of the beans yet, if they are anything like the beans I've gotten in the past from Rancho Gordo which sells these heirloom varieties, they will be delicious. I bought the seeds from Seeds of Change, which offers organic and heirloom seeds of all sorts. I planted one of the raised beds with two varieties: Yellow Indian Woman and Tiger Eye.

Dino has been working on the shop building - the electrician finished up last week (well nearly, there are a couple of minor details still outstanding.) Some of the equipment we had in the garage got moved down to the shop, and we've been discussing how to reorganize.

We've been greatly amused by the Acorn Woodpeckers, who seem to have a bit of a sweet tooth, as evidenced by their frequent visits to the hummingbird feeders.

Number 88! Also, Fun at the River

2011-07-28T23:05:00.000-07:00

Last night, while seated at the supper table, we spied the lovely fast swoops and dives of a flock of Barn Swallows in the area at the front of the house. I'd seen them a few days ago while watering my vegetables, but wasn't quite comfortable in my identification. I believe I speak for us both when I say that we hope they caught a very large number of those dang grasshoppers, which are a plague again this year. Although these birds are not uncommon by any means, this was our first ID here. Dryad Ranch species # 88: Barn Swallow!

We had house guests last weekend, and a fun time was had by all. Nothing like being able to head down to the river to dangle one's feet in the coolth:

Hilarity Amongst the Tomatoes

2011-07-21T20:05:00.000-07:00

Dryad Ranch was blessed last week with an overnight visit from my son, who was on the first leg of a cross country road trip to his new home in Washington DC. His fiancee just started a new job with the Department of Energy and it's been just a tad stressful for them the last several weeks. (Yours truly can hardly wait till August for the big matrimonial event.) Of course, there had to be a photo op and what better place than the tomato patch?

The raised beds that were built for this year's vegetable garden are proving to be ever so much more productive than our straw bale attempt last year. We've been eating cucumber salad every day for a couple of weeks and have practically forced some of the overflow onto friends and neighbors. (I still have a lovely freshly-picked selection right now as a matter of fact, if anyone's interested.) We're about done with green beans, I think, maybe we'll get one more meal out of those. I've also done the first picking of a couple of varieties of heirloom soup beans - they did well, but should really be considered more of a row crop I think, as we won't end up with a large quantity. It's not the plants' fault, now we know how many need to be planted, meaning more than we have room for just now.

Oh what the heck. For the entertainment value, another insect photo. (If not fungi, then bugs.) I found a couple dozen of these tarantula hawks on some evidently delicious wildflowers down along Lion Creek. I love how their antennae curl like that.

Sparkling Gem of a Driveway!

2011-07-03T17:43:00.000-07:00

I could possibly go exclamation mark-mad but will somehow restrain myself to only one. The other day, our neighbor Tom, who writes this excellent blog, came down the hill with his grader and did a superlative job on making our circle driveway Downright Spiffy. Heaps of gratitude coming your way Tom for that assist. The next day, a big truck arrived and now the driveway is all gravelly and really super duper.

Any Number of Complaints

2011-07-01T19:55:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday afternoon, after a mini-cleaning and cooking frenzy, I blew off the rest of the chores and shouldered my camera bag and went for a walk. I decided to go down to the big ford on a neighbor's place and then walk downriver till I got to our place, then hop the fence and head home. This is where all those complaints I mentioned there in my title come in. It was hot, I had a 17+ pound sack of camera gear on my back, my right sock wasn't on quite right, I dropped my big water jug in a fetid backwater of the river and got some nasty scratches on my arm from a blackberry bush when I fished it out. From time to time, some salty sweat rolled down my face into my eye, which stung. The skeeters were fierce and the sun was bright.

And I realized that I had the biggest grin on my face. I love going for walks like that; that river is just the best. What a great few hours. I didn't get home till almost 6.

I was almost home, when I stopped for these wildflowers, which are on the slope just below the house near the spring. Dang, I just love pretty yellow flowers.

Arnica Cordifolia

Garden Update

2011-06-27T19:53:00.000-07:00

The last couple of weekends have been pretty focused on doing stuff in the garden, mostly.

Last weekend, I finished up Round Two of the weeding in the Upper Garden fence, and helped Dino with a few tasks in the Lower Garden. One of which included filling up that old claw foot tub we've got with good organic potting soil (almost five full bags). Also did some levelling to the left side of that tub, under the oak tree and put some of those faux brick 16" paving stones there. I rooted around the area near the big storage container where we put all the empty clay pots and came up with three more good sized ones, and hauled those down.  I haunted the nursery in town for a couple of lunch hours last week plotting and planning.

Friday after work, I finally bought what I'd decided on. I should have gotten a sales commission while I was there because one of the other customers saw what I had in my wagon (I decided to get more of the salvia that the hummers like so much) and after I praised it heavily, he decided he wanted some too, so I showed him where they had it. I also bought several pots of a trailing variety of thyme and some vinca.

In the vegetable garden, lovely growth. *Knocks wood and makes the sign against crop failure* Some mornings, I've been cutting short my early a.m. workouts to go up to the vegetable beds and get the watering done ahead of the day's heat.  We've got big big tomato plants, and as of now a few small tomatoes and some cute little blossoms. I am really hoping for a big 'mater harvest this year to make up for the pathetic yield of last year. This weekend, we ate the first of the peas and the first pick of the Blue Lake green beans.

If you must know, I feel smug, as if I were the first human to discover that seeds will grow if you plant them in the right place and do good stuff to them.

Meanwhile, Dino has been kicking some major butt on getting the drip irrigation going in the Lower and Front Gardens, and I've probably forgotten something, so forgive me. The shop building got its visit from the county inspector and received a thumbs up, so all of the trenches going down there got filled back up. The next big step is getting the electrical system going.

These peas inspired not only hunger but the urge to close the shutter.

Ouch!

2011-06-04T20:23:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, I was scrunched under the big rose bush in the far corner of the lower garden hand weeding, when Bad Things started to happen. I'm a little unclear as to the exact sequence of events, but I think it went something like: I disturbed a bee, maybe two bees. One of them stung me on the arm (I think - at the time I thought it could have just been the rose thorns raking me again.) I started yelping and the other bee, maybe the same bee, flew into my mouth and stung my tongue.

This is when Dino said I started making some really "funny" noises. I got the bee out of my mouth and backed up out of the rose bush pronto to go find Dino. I was a little worried that if I started to have an allergic reaction it wouldn't be great. He could see a big welt in there and suggested I go get an ice cube and work on that for a while, which I did and it helped. Obviously, no bad reactions, just a sore tongue - and how wrong is that I ask you?

After sulking about that for some minutes and sucking on the ice cube, I decided that all was going to be well and went back to the scene of the crime and my weeding task. I'll be able to finish up that Lower Garden today, and I'm pretty excited about that area because Dino's just about finished with getting the automatic watering system to a place where he can get all of that operational. I rearranged the potted plants, moved around some of the neat rocks we've collected from here and there. There's one large pot whose inhabitant died over the winter - I'm going to find something as a replacement sometime this next week, and find two or three other smaller somethings to fill in a bit. All of those will then go on the auto drip.

Mariposa Lily, Calochortus venustum, of which there are a near-profusion this year. My favorite wildflower.

Babe

2011-06-02T21:16:00.000-07:00

Another inspiration from our uphill neighbors. On the previously mentioned round up day, I split off from the group for a little while to spend some (photographic) quality time with Babe, a beautiful Steinway.

Some Roundup Pictures

2011-05-27T19:44:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was the annual horse roundup conducted by our uphill neighbors - it's been kind of a busy week for me at work otherwise these would be more timely. Yeah, excuses excuses. Said uphill neighbor, who blogs at Musings of a slowly rotting mind, has posted about this fun event in the past, and this year showed us a rather, er, intimate moment involving a mare's pregnancy check.

It's always fun, with good food and company and lots of activity. Here are a couple of shots I took that day. This first one I swear Lepa (the palomino) is giving me/us the Stink Eye.

The second shot shows some interesting tools, another one of my favorite subjects.

What Kind of Spring IS This Anyway

2011-05-19T19:25:00.000-07:00

I spent the weekend in the Bay Area visiting my folks, enjoyable time had by all of course. I came home with a truck full of goodies, most notable among those were some of Mom's amazing chocolate chip cookies. Dino, whose alternate nickname is Cookie Monster, was pleased.

I made a road side stop on my approach to the foothill area for this vista.

We've had rain. In fact, it hasn't been necessary for quite a few days now to do any handwatering of my precious little vegetable garden. In spite of all of that, and some rather chilly days as well, I was happy with their growth rate as I did my morning inspection today. Maybe we'll even have some decent tomatoes this year.

That Grade is a Treasure Trove

2011-05-13T20:12:00.000-07:00

Every work day, I drive up a steep grade to get to the paved road that takes me into town. This year, the wildflowers are especially fascinating. I'm afraid I got in the way of one of our neighbors yesterday, as I thought it would be a nifty idea to stop right there to take pictures. She had a smile on her face, sort of, once I'd moved out of her way.

There are a couple of decent-sized patches of these, which I believe to be Madera Leptosiphon, Leptosiphon serrulatus.

And many thanks to the Calflora web site, one of the niftiest sites ever for "looking stuff up".

While I've Been Chasing Wildflowers

2011-05-07T19:17:00.000-07:00

Dino has been busy on a project that will provide water and power to the shop building as well as all of our garden areas and eventually will allow for setup of an automatic drip system. At the moment, we have any number of trenches into which various pipes and pieces of conduit will go.

I was able to offer a day's labor last weekend, which in spite of the fact that I'm in pretty good shape, had me whining about sore muscles. However, it is a truth that I would prefer trenching to having a day job, however much I am grateful for the income. My time for retirement is not yet, alas.

This post's photographic offering is an image of Pretty Face, Triteleia ixioides, a member of the lily family also known as Golden Brodiaea. (Note: there is an Elegant Brodaea blooming on the grade I drive up to go to work. I may try to snap a photo of that before it fades.)

Hope You Like Fungi

2011-05-06T19:46:00.000-07:00

As some of you may know, I seem to have developed a fondness for observing fungi. Over the last couple of years, I have made it a mini-mission to photograph as many fungi as possible - at least those that we spy at our beloved Dryad Ranch. I created a little book of my treasured finds:

Fungi of Dryad Ranch by Megan M Ralph | Make Your Own Book

Loving Wildflower Season

2011-04-14T20:27:00.000-07:00

Alas, looks like the fungi are done for the year. But I'm not in despair, as the wildflowers are starting to go nuts again. I found these last weekend on a little hike uphill a ways, in the lee of a big rock pile. I don't remember having seen these before and it took a while to figure out what they are: Caterpillar Scorpionweed, Phacelia cicutaria var. hispida.

More Fungi. No Apologies for It, Either

2011-03-28T20:18:00.000-07:00

Some may not know that yours truly is a bit obsessed with fungi, with a sub-interest in slime molds. In spite of the fact that I am really sick of this particular rainy season (acknowledging that is a very un-Californian type of thing to say), I cannot escape the fact that Rain = Fungi.

Therefore, I am foisting off yet another lovely group photo of these little numbers found just below the shop building area.

And, and what about these? Growing on the side of a tree. From a distance, they look like noses. Close up, like a weird mouth thing. And the color - a friend who saw this shot thought they looked like the color of old lady support hose.

New Bird! Number 87!

2011-03-21T19:32:00.000-07:00

All of Dino's raptor runs with the Audubon group (not to mention extensive studying of field marks) are really paying off in raptor identification. Today, he saw a Swainson's Hawk (Buteo swainsoni) on his daily walk - that's a new species for us here. Excitement plus!

I made it into town today through a bit of mushy snow only to find that there was No Power. Drat. Makes it hard to work on a computer in that situation. Another aspect of the general discomfort: building only has electrical heat, ergo, 53 degrees in the office. I layered, indeed I did and toughed it out till noon, then decided that I'd had enough and headed home. Dino headed out to work on the shop building, deferring to my need for quiet so I could get some paying work done, and I plugged away on the much slower connection. The PG&E web site does not give much hope for tomorrow either, not to complain about days off which are always nice, but I'd rather not burn my personal days for this. Ah well, make hay and all that - oh wait, the sun's not shining.

Here's a fungus pic for your trouble. I found these beauties on Saturday afternoon in an area I don't usually explore, in a spring on the area we call the Northwest Territory. I had a heck of a time wedging myself and my gear under a willow trunk where I'd decided to go for a nice view of the spring and the water flowing downstream. I was delighted to be rewarded by finding this mini-forest in a hollowed area of stump.

Rain to Celebrate Spring

2011-03-20T11:23:00.000-07:00

Being stuck inside is prompting lots of sitting around, plus some vigorous reading and now! Actual writing! Good thing we both got out and about yesterday - Dino off on a birdwatching trip to Bass Lake and yours truly on some photo-ing.

One of my favorites for this time of year: the amazing green of the freshly minted buckeyes. I've had my eye on this specimen for the last week or so on my way uphill to work.

You'll be happy to learn that I did not wield the camera for one of the more intimate moments so far witnessed among the turkeys that come to visit our front yard. I can say that wild turkeys seem to have more fun than the mere couple of wing flaps and wiggle of the doves - although I did observe that instead of enjoying a post-fun cuddle and smoke, the male stood on the female's back for nigh on ten minutes before he decided to let her stand up again.

More Yosemite

2011-03-04T19:20:00.000-08:00

One of my most faithful readers was alarmed at my reaction to Yosemite. I say no no, I will chose a blase attitude about a lot of things, a crusty even cynical attitude about others, but when it comes to flinging myself off the cliff of honest response to THIS beauty, I'll choose the fall. Look at those rock walls, the size of it all - that granite doesn't give a toss about my ridiculous little ego and its prattling.

And that is real liberation.

Our lunch view the other day.

A Lovely Day Trip

2011-03-01T20:56:00.000-08:00

Recently, we were honored to host a friend of mine who was visiting from Moses Lake, Washington. This was her first trip to California and since we are so close, we decided to visit Yosemite, truly a world-class destination.

I've decided that yes, Yosemite is best in the winter. Seeing that place again - so many times I felt like falling to the ground in wonder. I felt whacked about the head and shoulders with it all, my heart broke again and again.

Birds Birds Birds

2011-02-27T08:53:00.000-08:00

Over the last several weeks, Dino has become active in the Mariposa chapter of the Yosemite Area Audubon Society. He's participated in several "raptor runs", where a group of interested birders follow a prescribed route and count the individuals of each species of raptor identified.

A couple of weekends ago, as Dino was relating his interesting day raptor-watching, he suggested that we should do some birdwatching of our own "some time soon". I suggested that since all I had on my agenda for the next day was some yucky housecleaning, perhaps that would be a good day to go birding and leave the kitchen floor to fester. (Hyperbole there - hard encrustations don't actually fester, they merely stick and lurk.)

Come the next morning, we gathered up all our gear, filled up a lunch box and headed off. It was a great day, with a good 30 plus species identified (not counting our usuals here at home of course), and a couple of instances of "we know that's a Scaup but don't know Lesser or Greater" so we couldn't count it. I also saw a few new species that I'd never seen before. Of course, since none of the birds we saw are uncommon, I may have seen them but just didn't know what I was seeing. I know it's a form of bird geekiness to keep lists, but we do anyway. And it's not really the listing that's fun it's the watching. Totally different terrains from where our place is too, just beautiful California interior valley grasslands with many ponds and vernal pools that attract water birds.

We took quite a few record shots of birds we weren't sure about identifying at the time in hopes that we could identify them later based on the photos. I'll share just one of these with you, it's the best of the bird ones. A Northern Mockingbird:

Slime Mold and a New Bird

2011-01-31T19:32:00.000-08:00

We went for one of our weekend walks yesterday, after the little rainstorm ended. I always like to go down to the river after a rain, and we were blessed with a sighting of a pair of Northern Pintail ducks. Our 86th species identified!! We also saw a pair of Common Mergansers, the usual mallards. The four-leggeds were represented by those scruffy and destructive hoodlums, the wild pigs, of which we saw two confirmed, but there may well have been more.

Dino pointed out the most interesting article in the January 22, 2011 issue of New Scientist magazine regarding the activities of certain slime molds. According to the article (link), slime molds deliberately include their preferred strains of bacteria, i.e. their meals, into their spore capsules, which they use to reproduce. When the slime mold colony move to a new location, the bacteria can then be "seeded" into the new spot, making it easy for the new slime molds to find a ready source of nutrition.
In the below photograph, taken in the latter half of November 2010, the red bumps on the log are slime mold.

Mushroom and Red Slime Mold / Nov 21, 2010

Mark Your Calendars - Birds!

2011-01-26T19:26:00.000-08:00

The Aubudon Society recently sent a reminder email about this year's Great Backyard Bird Count. This year, the count will be happening February 18 - 21.

Each year, participants are encouraged to count birds - in their backyard, at work, on their daily travels and submit those counts to the Birdcount web site. The data are used by the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and the Audubon Society understand more about the continent's bird populations. Anyone can participate - it doesn't matter if the only birds you see are the same couple of species that land on your back fence.

Find out more at the official Great Backyard Bird Count site. It's fun!

Hey Weather! I'm Complaining About You.

2011-01-19T19:44:00.000-08:00

Every weekday, I drive into the nearest town to go to work. Not that I'm a big fan of the 45 minute commute, but since I'd already been used to that before we moved here, not such a big difference. Most days it's no big deal and perhaps even pleasant, with lots of pretty views and relatively frequent wildlife sightings. Sometimes I even get as far as Hwy 49 before I see another moving vehicle. Lately, it's been nice in town; blue skies, vaguely warm temperature. Yesterday, I got about a mile out of town on my drive home: wall o' fog. Not as bad as the horrible-est tule fog but still non-fun. I'm shaking my fist at you, fog.

In other work-related news, I had to employ an interesting methodology for getting into my office yesterday morning: climbing in the window of the bakery with whom I share a common access door. When I got to work, one of the bakery workers was outside talking to someone on the other side of the door, who was rattling the door knob and attempting to open it. The locksmith arrived well before noon to fix everything. Glad I lost all that weight so I was able to fit myself through, because otherwise I would have been late to work, gasp and god forbid.

Below, a picture of the Chowchilla taken on Sunday afternoon - the one day recently where we got some sunshine in our little valley. If I'd tried taking this shot on Monday, it would have been like taking a picture of the inside of a cotton ball.

Skunks

2011-01-13T18:48:00.000-08:00

We must be coming into skunk season around here. When I walked to the truck yesterday morning, I noticed a strong smell of skunk. Then twenty minutes later, as I approached the cattle guard near the top of the paved grade, one of the stripey numbers made me wait while he or she wended his or her way across the guard and finnalllyyy down off the side of the road. One doesn't want to alarm them with a honk or pee-yoo smelly truck. Patience is the best strategy. Also, I've been seeing smushed skunks on the road the last few days coming to work, so making the assumption that mating season is approaching if not already here. Nature note: California striped skunks are the species Mephitis mephitis and are a member of the weasel family.

Furthermore, I have no idea what's going on with that particular cattle guard but three days in a row critters stopped me right there. Monday, it was cattle. I've never seen them go up that far, but there they were staring at me stupidly. Window roll down - "move it ladies!" (Sorry, not a cow fan, although I know some folks love them.) Yesterday, a buck, a muscly good looking lad - I didn't have to encourage him to head off the road.

A certain friendly reader has requested regular river updates - herewith a photo of the Chowchilla, still running at a brisk pace, although greatly reduced from its mightiness of a couple of weeks ago. This shot is of the river just upstream from the ford our neighbor uses.

Rain and the River

2011-01-03T19:42:00.000-08:00

Even after all these years of living in California (since 1972 but who's counting?), evidently I must still be considered a mere transplant. It's been a tad soggy of late, and yesterday morning while sitting in my cozy easy chair glumly looking at another day's promise of rain:

Me: "I'm sick of this stuff*."
Dino: "We've only had about 20 inches so far this season."
Me: "Not relevant."

A true Californian is happy and peppy when it rains buckets, stircraziness, mud and icky spots in the road notwithstanding.

At quarter to four yesterday, it looked like it had stopped and Dino proposed that we put our mud boots on and go out for a bit. I was pretty much springloaded by that point so that sounded downright agreeable. He took me out to the lower garden to show me where he's going to put more carpet roses and discuss a particular pathway and what we may want to do there. It was still sprinkling but just a little bit, so we kept going and walked up the road some so he could do a little inspection of water flows and how his culverts were doing. Saw some great fungi - didn't have the camera but suggested to Dino that if he felt inspired, I would not object at all if he were to take a few shots himself. There was one big conk in particular that caught our attention (species not yet confirmed). The rain continued to stay stopped so we ended up walking all the way down to the big river crossing on our neighbor's property to see the Chowchilla. Whoo, we were impressed with its High Muddy Thunder, although we could see that it was still not at the high water mark (evidenced by a visible area of detritus), which had been reached with the big storm of a few weeks ago. Then we walked back onto our place to see the river there, and the spot where we often take our picnic lunches and sit on the rock under the Oregon Ash - entirely underwater.

It was past dusk by then so we walked home in the near-dark. Some of our most memorable walks have been at dusk or later, including one gorgeous end to a long day hike in Anza Borrego Desert State Park, where the moon lit our way back to our camp site. I discovered that my mud boots aren't quite as waterproof as I would like, as tromping through the myriad little creeks introduced some cold trickles to the interior of said footwear.

A couple of short samples of the Chowchilla running big post-storm:

* Family friendly word substitution

Clouds

2010-12-25T12:08:00.000-08:00

Been Wet Lately

2010-12-22T19:41:00.000-08:00

We took advantage of a brief respite in the rain the other day to take a bit of a walk around the place - Dino wanted to stretch his legs and get in his daily exercise and I wanted to see the Chowchilla run big (or at least bigger). Naturally, I was unable to resist the call of a new image and got left behind to twiddle with the Canon at leisure.

That is the skull of Heather, whose bones we found in Lion Creek around the fungus-ridden area we call Chanterelle Knoll a year ago (maybe two years ago). The skull and the few bones still left there are moved around from time to time by the critters.

2010-12-10T20:23:00.000-08:00

Dino has been focusing on the shop building the last couple of weeks, whenever it's not wet and/or windy. Weather has been cooperating fairly well: things are progressing nicely.

Oh heck, one more shot. Ladder against side of building:

Nature report: We've got Pine Siskins this year. They skipped our place last winter, but Dino tells me we've got vast quantities, this based on direct observation plus the fact that the seed is disappearing at a heavy rate.

This 'n' That

2010-11-22T18:25:00.000-08:00

We got a lovely storm over the weekend, but evidently I have not gotten over my city girl driving outlook. I had plans to head into Fresno yesterday to visit with some friends, but ended up canceling because I wasn't altogether comfy with driving up over Deadwood or even taking various alternate routes. I felt not so much like a total wimp about when I found out that the other two ladies that live in my area who were going to go to the get together also refused to drive over the pass.

(By the way, you've heard that no woman should marry a man who wants to take her somewhere with the words bad, death or hell in its name right? I have definitely done all - Anza Borrego badlands, Death Valley and Hellhole Canyon, the latter a truly beautiful hike as long as one heads down canyon. We saw a wild sheep skull there but I digress.)

We did have enough of a break in the rainstorm yesterday to get out for a nice walk, not a strenuous one although we were out for a couple of hours. We headed down to the river which is always fun to see all the water in it after a good rain. Dino had tempted me out of the house with a promise of seeing the Dipper, but unfortunately said bird decided not to cooperate. We did see a large group of horses (17) on our Northwest Territory and spent some time doing scratches and conversation. Our place is at a low enough elevation that we did not get snow, but the hills just above us did, which made for a postcard pretty view. Incredibly enough, the rain triggered a zillion or so fungi to pop up, including a couple of varieties that I haven't photo-d before (heh heh).

Including this one, the Jack-o-Lantern mushroom, Omphalotus olivascens, which is bioluminescent, i.e. it glows in the dark. Cool! Also evidently if it is eaten, it makes you sick (ugly gastrointestinal upset) but doesn't seem to kill you and, according to this mushroom web site, is hallucinogenic which supposedly is a plus for some, although with possible eruptions from both ends, I dunno. Being well past my experimental early college years, I'll just take their word for it.

Of Mantids and Hummingbirds

2010-11-11T19:48:00.000-08:00

Dino noticed this hummingbird before the praying mantis did - this bird had evidently perished while securely perched on the fence wire. Its little feet were still clamped shut and held the bird pendant. Ever of a scientific bent, we left it.

Some days after its demise, along came a hungry praying mantis. We did not know that mantises would eat carrion.

We are still feeding huge swarms of hummers. Dino has been tracking the number of hummingbird feeders we fill, and determined that in the month of October we put out forty two gallons of hummingbird nectar (1:4 sugar water solution). This represents a 50% increase in hummingbird food over the months of August and September.

Using a calculation of 500 birds/gallon/day, we figure that we are feeding 677 hummers/day. On heavy days, we can easily see 50 or more birds at a time. I'm not sure where Dino originally found that calculation, but the website Field Guide to Hummingbirds repeats a similar one: "One fluid ounce of 1:4 sugar water weights about 35.5 grams (approximately 20% more than its plain water counterpart). We'll average the weight of the birds to 3.5 grams, or about 10% of the weight of a fluid ounce. Multiply that times by 265% for average consumption and we get 0.265 fluid ounce of 1:4 feeder solution per bird per day, which we'll round down to 1/4 fluid ounce per bird per day. This multiplies out to around 32 smallish hummingbirds per 8 ounces of 1:4 sugar water, 128 per quart, and 512 per gallon." Since Anna's hummingbirds are somewhat larger than "smallish", using 500 birds/gallon seems reasonable.

*Note - the author of the blog noted wrote the Peterson Field Guide to Hummingbirds book, so believe her info to be good.

New Outlook on Wild Turkey Behavior

2010-11-08T20:31:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, as I returned from a town trip, I pulled into a driveway that was doubling as a wild turkey battleground. Two males had engaged in battle and were so intent on their contest to establish dominance that they were in some sort of alternate universe - they paid me no mind as I stood there watching, mouth agape. After a minute or two of watching, I rushed inside to make sure Dino saw what was going on. Turned out he was well aware and that the battle had already been raging for well over an hour. He'd been photographing and was only inside to grab another type of flash unit.

Neither male showed any signs of backing down - they were using their beaks to grab the head of the other combatant and then twist the neck into horrible-looking contortions. Occasionally, one would seem to get the upper hand, forcing the other into a corner (against the fence) and then the tide would turn again. As dark fell, they were still at it. We don't know the outcome - there were no turkeys about the place this morning (no carcasses either that we know of).

As we were reviewing the photos, I admit to feeling a tad icked out by the mess they were making of each other. This is not at all one of the most gruesome looking pics.

Subsequent research found this charming quote: "Turkeys also spend a lot of time establishing a pecking order in the flock during the fall which means there is a lot of fighting going on between birds to find out who is more dominant. This makes fighting purrs especially effective calls in the fall because not many turkeys will turn down a good fight" from The Wild Turkey Zone website, unfortunately a site devoted to turkey hunting.

Of course, we understand the concept of "pecking order", we'd just never SEEN anything like this.

Playing Catch Up

2010-11-04T18:50:00.000-07:00

We had a lovely time hosting house guests from the Bay Area last weekend - don't we both just love showing off our paradise! Not to mention enjoying the wonderful company and (of course) ye old food and drink.

The oldest quince tree on the place - we have another planted not even a year ago that is not mature enough yet to bear fruit - took a bit of a rest this year and gave only about twenty or so fruits this year. I was determined not to let a single one go to waste. Last week on one of my days off work, I made membrillo, a very sweet quince paste/preserves number. And, as I was pondering what else to make that didn't involve quite so much sugar, this month's Vegetarian Times arrived with The Answer: Quince and Vegetable Tagine.

In a shocking departure from precedent, I am posting the recipe on this blog.

Note: the original recipe calls for 2 small fennel bulbs which I detest so I left them out. If you want to use it, they go in with the cauliflower and zucchinis. Also, the chickpeas were something that I added to make this more of a main dish than a side. The original recipe called for 3 cups of water, but I found that to be too liquid-y so 1 or maybe 2 cups would work better.

Serves 4

Ingredients
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp coriander
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ginger
1/4 tsp cayenne
3 cups tomatoes, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
5 tsp sugar
4 cups cauliflower, cut into florets
3 zucchinis, halved lengthwise and cut into 2 inch lengths
2 cups chickpeas, cooked
1 medium onion, quartered and thinkly sliced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cinnamon
2 quinces , unpeeled cored and cut into eighths
1-2 cups water
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 450.
Combine cumin, coriander, turmeric, ginger and cayenne in small bowl. Set aside.
Drain tomatoes and set aside. If using whole tomatoes, slice in half. Transfer juice to small saucepan.
Stir garlic, 2 tsp sugar, 1 tbsp of the cumin mixture and 2 cups water into tomato juice; bring to a boil Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer 15 minutes.
Toss together cauliflower, zucchini, onion, oil, tomatoes, chickpeas and remaining 1 tbsp cumin mixture into roasting pan. Move vegetables to center of pan. (They need not be in a single layer.)
Combine 2 tsp sugar and cinnamon on plate. Coat cut sides of quince pieces with cinnamon sugar. arrange quince skin-side down around sides of roasting pan. Sprinkle remaining cinnamon sugar and remaining 1 tsp sugar over vegetables, and cover with foil. Reduce oven heat to 350 F and bake 1 hour, or until quince and vegetables are tender.
Let stand 10 minutes.
Sprinkle with cilantro before serving.

Starting Right Back Up Again

2010-10-19T21:45:00.000-07:00

Hey guess what! Fungi! I saw four varieties on my walk Sunday, only one of which I hadn't photographed. Since the world was waiting:

In wildlife news (you know I live for this):

The praying mantises finally ended their love-in, after five plus days of togetherness. We don't know if either of the males got eaten and we haven't located the ootheca (egg case) yet, but then we may never find it, which is OK because it's none of our business anyway. Dino has observed the, or at least, a female mantis in the asparagus fern and again on one of the h-bird feeders a couple of times in recent days.
I saw a skunk on the way home last night. They have a tendency just to run on the road in front of the car and they'll do that forever, so I stopped and waited for it to find its way down the hill. Don't want skunk smell on my car.
Watched six wild pigs on the way to work this morning - looked like a sow and five juveniles, or possibly one big and one small sow and four juveniles. One of the pigs was sort of brown, black and cream spotted; they others were black. I stopped the car and rolled down the windows to tell them, "I was just thinking about you as*****s.' And I had been - only the other day I mentioned to Dino that there hadn't been any pigs around for a while. See, it's my fault. They were rooting around under a stand of oaks for acorns; they are terribly destructive.
There were two ravens in the front yard under one of the main birdfeeders. We haven't seen them there all summer.
Dino told me that this month we've been putting out 50% more hummingbird food than last month. They've been double and triple stacked at the feeders waiting their turn.
Saving the best for last: It's Tarantula Season again! We've both been seeing the male tarantulas out and about now - this time of year they start on a trek looking for female tarantulas to make babies with. I had to take evasive action on the road yesterday to avoid a spider squish-o-rama.

As Of This Morning, 48 Hours of Togetherness

2010-10-07T19:05:00.000-07:00

The day before yesterday, Dino noticed these two love bugs on the side of our house enjoying each other or what passes for such in the mantid world. They've been there for two days now, and as of this morning have been joined by a second male who is hanging around and (not to anthropomorphize) may be hoping for some of the same.

Dino took this shot:

A couple of weeks ago, I took a photo of what could very well be the same female, although she's not wearing a name tag so confirmation is unlikely. She was sitting on one of the hummingbird feeders, but during the time I watched her, she didn't make any attempts at snagging any of the birds as they came to eat.

Moving Dirt

2010-10-03T18:01:00.000-07:00

The big excitement last week was getting the concrete poured for the shop building. I was stuck having to attend my paying job that day*, so wasn't able to watch all the fun goings-on. I did run into the contractor at the top of the hill as I was on my way to work - he was disappointed that I wasn't hanging around to help and claimed that he'd saved a shovel with My Name On It just for the occasion. For anyone interested in action shots of that day, our up the hill neighbor Tom posted some great photos on his blog.

Dino has been working on more prep work at the site for the time we actually put up the shop building.

* I am not complaining, I am grateful for said job.

One Never Knows What's Around the Next Bend

2010-09-28T20:30:00.000-07:00

When I set out Saturday on my walk I decided to head to the old schoolhouse that's across the river and it would be quiet and contemplative, maybe I'd take a couple of pictures. Turned out that a neighboring rancher was going to be branding some of his cattle - and that whole operation was in the pen right next to the schoolhouse. No one objected to me hanging around to take pictures, so I did.

One of the calves as he's waiting his turn in the squeeze chute.

All of the calves were males who got castrated at the same time. The methodology for the latter task has improved greatly - it's more of a clamping and banding technique nowadays. Not comfortable I'm sure but the calves didn't seem to be in pain. No, I didn't take any closeups; it just seemed too personal.

Check Out This Bug

2010-09-25T16:03:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I got out for my walk around 2:30 or so and spent some time tramping about on our place enjoying the sunshine and early fall warmth. When I got back to the house I decided I needed to take a progress shot of the building site (which I'll post later - it's not just a patch of dirt any more.) I got my camera out and set up when Whap! A big bug flew into my chest and then landed in my camera bag. It was a beetle with the most amazingly long antennae. It just sat there in the bag without moving so of course I had to take pictures. Look at the face on this thing.

I spent some time last night trying to identify it - the closest I could get was Monochamus carolinensis - Carolina Sawyer - but nowhere was I able to find what the range is of this species so figured it could be something else. I found this awesome web site What's That Bug? and sent off these photos and an inquiry to them last night. And they replied this afternoon! I was semi-close and at least got the genus: they believe it to be Monochamus obtusus.

Here's Some Dirt

2010-09-19T07:59:00.000-07:00

Photo 1 in the shop building series. The leveled area where the concrete will be poured next week:

It's Not Nice to Laugh at Small Creatures

2010-09-11T20:46:00.000-07:00

This afternoon, I decided to take a walk down to the mailbox. As I was headed home, starting the walk up the hill, I approached the second gate. Although I was making no attempt to be secretive or quiet, nevertheless I managed to sneak up on a ground squirrel. He or she had evidently been snoozing or otherwise spacing out in the area a few feet away from the gate. When the GS realized how close that big scary predator was, it leaped to its feet and took off at high speed, only to run head first into the gate post. It staggered back for a second or two, gathered what was left of its senses, leaped over the low wire of the fence and hightailed it for safety. The predator was helpless with laughter.

The following photo is just a rather nice snapshot of Washakie. We feel so bad for him as his poor knees are so obviously painful. Lately, he's been somewhat more amenable to human contact, allowing and possibly even enjoying the odd scratch from time to time.

It's a Bit Embarassing

2010-09-08T19:13:00.000-07:00

While going up the big grade on my way to work the other morning, my attention was drawn to the pretty wildflowers that are blooming now. All I can say in my defense is that yellow is my favorite color.

Tarweed.

No Reason Beyond Cuteness

2010-09-01T21:37:00.000-07:00

Hey there Oak Titmouse, I'm lookin' at you too!

Dry Time

2010-08-22T12:49:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, we decided to take advantage of a not-so-hot spell to go for (surprise) a bird walk. We took the red gate/bridge/upriver-on-the-west bank route although we did a variation about halfway and stuck close to the river where normally we would walk the bluff above. Harder walking but it turned out to be absolutely fascinating because of the wildflowers and various native grasses that we spent some time looking at. We also found a blackberry thicket where some of the berries were ripe - yum.

We saw 27 species of birds and 4 species of dragonflies and one of damselfly. Furry four-leggeds - we saw only the ubiquitous ground squirrel, but we did spend some time debating about some of the paw prints we saw in the dust of the road - fox perhaps?

Spent some time trying to find out what these are by looking in our Grasses of California book. No luck there, but a friend of mine clued me in: rattlesnake grass (Briza media), also known as great quaking grass. I guess it wasn't in the book because it's not native. Now that I know what it is, I've been finding it other places as well.

We feel sad that our equine friend King moved to the Great Grazing Land this last week. I hope Pelton doesn't miss him too much.

2010-08-10T20:01:00.000-07:00

After breakfast Sunday, I did the dishes (did them about four million times this weekend, no dish can loiter as it's ant season), did a couple of other tasks and then booted up and started on my morning walk. Got up the hill to the neighbor's gate, then back down past the site of the bones of a long-deceased horse, followed the top of Deer Ridge and dropped down past Altar Rock, then home as I was running out of water and getting hungry. Directly after lunch, I didn't feel "done" so I went back out and did a full loop around the Northwest Territory including a swing down to the river.

Early(ish) August nature report: the manzanitas are producing a good crop of berries and the coyotes are eating them, judging by the red pebbly nature of the coyote poop around. (Yeah I know sorry, but you can't help noticing.) Was able to confirm an identification of the White-belted Ringtail dragonfly as two of them held still long enough and allowed me close enough to really observe. Saw a kestrel, a red-shouldered hawk and three wood ducks. About every two hundred yards or so, I would cause another ground squirrel alarm call - a sharp chip chirrupupup. The ground squirrel population is robust as usual.

I wanted to see if the turpentine weed was growing this year, so was careful to take a look in the area where it's grown in the past and it's doing well. It's an interesting plant - not much to look at but it smells strongly like turpentine. While I was looking at those, I noticed a white something or other on a tarweed plant and went over to take a look.

The white was an egg sac of a good-sized very green spider. She was really guarding that sac - as soon as I bent over to take a look, she wrapped her legs round it and made sure it was secure. Post-walk research shows that she is a Green Lynx spider, Peucetia viridans, a fairly common spider in the southern half of the US. Evidently they are very good at pouncing on their prey, hence the "lynx" name. It was quite windy so I'm surprised any of these photos came out at all - here's a record shot of this little ol' gal:

I got back from that walk around 3, about an hour later Dino proposed that we go take another swim in the river, which sounded like a good idea. We ended up not swimming much; we found it more interesting to watch the fish. We got into one of the deeper pools (not very deep, maybe waist high to me, but if you squat a bit, you're all in). The water was clear enough for us to see the fish checking us out - there seem to be two kinds. One is some sort of split-tail minnow, although which species we haven't figured out. The other we haven't come close to identifying yet at all - these had a long dorsal fin, all fins with white edges, tail fin with an additional brownish stripe, and a dark spot behind the gills. While there at the river, we saw a large yellow and black butterfly, a speedy flier which we've identified in the past but couldn't remember. Didn't get around to looking that one up yet; it may be marked in the butterfly book. The other interesting find were several stands of pennyroyal.

I had a very difficult time yesterday morning getting myself in the proper frame of mind for going to work. I felt very wistful and found myself wishing that I could just wander around every day looking at interesting critters and plants and taking pictures.

HIgh Summer Wildlife Report

2010-07-30T19:10:00.000-07:00

It must be high season for bringing babies out because as I was getting ready to leave for work this morning, there under the big seed feeder were three hen turkeys and about a dozen juveniles. I watched them for several minutes but then it came time for me to leave so I greeted the mamas (Good Morrrrning Ladies!) while they hustled the little ones back down toward the spring.

And, I saw a bobkitten on the way home day before yesterday. He or she scooted across the road just above the ford and below the second gate and ran down the creek bed toward the waterfall area. This probably explains why I've been having so many bobcat sightings recently - I suspect that I've been seeing the mama bobcat hunting for her babies/baby. The area I saw the kitten is riddled with ground squirrel burrows, and at the moment there are vast quantities of ground squirrel babies, which are undoubtedly viewed as perfect hunting practice.

Photo has no relation to the topic, it's one I've been waiting to work on because I wanted to try the HDR feature of the latest version of Photoshop, which upgrade arrived on my doorstep this week.

Whole New Outlook on the Chowchilla River

2010-07-18T20:21:00.000-07:00

Why didn't we think of it before? Mid-morningish, I was puttering around, sweating, wanting to get outside if only to move around a little bit. (OK I also did not really want to scrub the floors and other low-interest tasks.) I got to thinking about a certain river, not too far away from this very house and realized that in the years since we bought the part of the property that has river acreage we never went swimming. For some reason, we never connected the dots. Upshot: we put on our suits, hopped on the ATV and went down to the swimmin' hole! It was awesome! Aside from just feeling excellent in terms of cooling down, it was a good enough hole to actually swim in! And on top of all that, it was a way to learn about the Chowchilla River from an entirely new perspective. We saw a new kind of dragonfly - we think it's a White-belted Ringtail, but we didn't have our binoculars so it was just naked eye. We'll have to go back later and hope to see it again.

After we'd had enough we sat on a log to dry off and ate apples. Some of the horses were hanging around near the salt lick not too far away, so I walked over and tried to call Bill the Mule over by showing him the core and clucking at him. No go. So I ostentatiously took a bite of what was left and smacked and chomped. That did the trick. Once he was done with that apple, he went over and pestered Dino for the other leavings. We are both fond of that mule; he is a very handsome animal.

On an unrelated note, Dino pointed out this spider on the garage door handle, so a record shot was required. This one is probably a Silver Argiope.

Home

2010-07-13T20:26:00.000-07:00

The topic of "home" has been on my mind of late, for various reasons. The more I think about it, the more grateful I am that I've found my home - which isn't so much the house we're in, but the land and the area itself.

Proof of the point below. This lovely spot is someone's stock pond - I always slow down when I pass on my way to work every day because there are sometimes Canada geese visiting, as well as mergansers.

At supper last night, we watched a bobcat come up out of the spring area below the house and nose around the ground squirrel burrows around the outside of the orchard fence. He or she didn't find anybody to catch though. That bobcat looked like it had little black socks on all four legs, it was just beautiful - we always have binoculars on the dining room table so we can just grab them when a good opportunity arrives.

On the other hand, this morning while I was in the garage working out, a HUGE brown beetle came in under the garage door and scared the wits out of me; I'm surprised I didn't wake Dino up. That thing was at least two and a half inches long and I am not even close to kidding. We've seen them before, they're called California Prionus (Prionus californicus) and I did not run for the camera believe you me - ha ha I just ran. Between the bugs and the black widow I just know is lurking, I'm always on the alert in there.

Some Stages of Metamorphosis Are Butt Ugly

2010-06-28T21:16:00.000-07:00

After doing some more chores and spending about an hour in the garden deadheading roses, I loaded up the camera and went for a solo walk. I did a sweaty uphill climb to a neighbor's gate and then headed down to the river. I wanted to see if the Bullock's Orioles were still around near last year's nest (no) and as I came up to the top of the little hill where I was going to watch for them, I scared up a wild pig from his afternoon siesta. It was just the one and I can't imagine how it was I got so close since I was huffing and puffing up the hill, tromping through dry grass, snapping branches and generally making noise. Off he went at a good clip.

When I got to the river, I saw a pond turtle make a movement and then hide next to a big rock. He then did a really good imitation of a rock himself - if he hadn't moved, I never would have seen him. I took some pictures, but oddly enough, it looks like I took photos of a rock.

Not far from the turtle/rock, I saw this big tadpole - it's a European bullfrog. Not a pretty sight. That sort of short stick thing to the left of it is actually a wiggly nymph of some insect - blech, there are certain life forms that give me the shudders.

The Small and the Shed

2010-06-20T07:15:00.000-07:00

The first thing that happened after I'd gotten the groceries unpacked Friday night was that my husband pulled me into the garage to show me these:

Baby spiders! A fresh hatch - there were easily a hundred of them and so small that they looked more like flecks of sawdust on the web. I'm surprised my camera captured anything at all. (Note to self - start saving for that macro lens you want.) Although we - well, Dino actually - just cleared out a huge black widow web with attendant BW, we are pretty sure these are not her babies, they are actually rather more of a light brown color pre-Photoshop.

After that, we took another mini-nature walk to the lower garden where there was a shed snake skin - a perfect shed with no fraying on the skin at all. Don't know what kind of snake, but not a rattler. This snake was long and thin; the skin was a little more than four feet long with a tail that tapered to nothing more than the thinnest pencil-lead width tip. Maybe a whipsnake?

Rescue

2010-06-13T08:12:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, while clearing out an area of the lower garden where some "stuff" had been temporarily stored, we found a metal screen with diamond-shaped holes about 3/4" wide. In one of the holes was a fence lizard. It had gotten its head, one front leg and shoulder through the mesh but its belly was too plump and it got stuck. It looked dead. We set the screen aside and continued with our tasks. When the time came to find a place for the screen, I picked it up and while admiring the lovely blue belly of the lizard - since it's difficult to get a good look at them what with their ability to run fast - it started struggling! It was still alive! The lizard rescue team sprang into action.

We took the screen to the operating room, aka the picnic table. We gathered the surgical tools. The assistant (me) held the screen firmly while the surgeon carefully yet forcefully made several cuts in the wire and slowly moved the cut ends away from the body of the patient. The surgeon gently nudged the lizard back through the mesh until its entire body was free and we placed the mesh on the ground in the recovery area. The lizard stayed motionless for quite some time while we went about our other tasks. We were a little concerned that the lizard would end up as food for someone else, so I found a cardboard box top and assembled a little shelter. When I went to find a rock to prop up the top, that galvanized the lizard to find its legs and off it went at high speed to hide in the culvert. Long term prognosis: unknown. We're pretty sure it won't come back for a follow-up visit.

Other items on the beautification project to-do list: I got the upper garden weeding project done in substance yesterday - I'll do a second pass today through some of the original areas but it's looking good right now.

Dino has been extremely busy this last week - looks like he has plans for more next week - in continuing to knock back the dang thistles.

In other doings - last weekend a friend came for an overnight visit. We decided to play tourist and went for a steam train ride on the Yosemite Sugar Pine logger. The whistle blew, the wheels of the train went clickety-clack, it was grand fun.

Birds and Tubs

2010-05-19T20:07:00.000-07:00

The other day when I was talking to a Bay Area friend on the phone, discussing her visit plans for next month, we got to talking about quail. She said she sees quail from time to time from her apartment patio and I bragged, saying I see probably 100 on any given day. I got to doubting myself and thought I'd better find out how close that estimate was. This morning, 54 of them. So, about the same going home, makes that guess about right. On the other hand, it could be just the same 54 individuals. I love those little dinglebops they have for a topknot.

A straw bale update: we bought a bunch of veggies last week and got them all planted on Saturday, except for one poor sunburst squash that got broken sometime during the trip home.

We also moved the tub. Somewhere along the line, Dino acquired an old fashioned claw foot tub - don't tell me we should install it in the bathroom because there is NO room, seriously. Anyway, he had it re-enameled and painted some time ago and it's been sitting in the upper garden. We decided to put it in the lower garden along the fence and fill it with flowers. Ha ha, the process of moving that thing was fun - it's cast iron and heavy. Of course, we first tried picking it up and although we were able to lift it, walking with it was out of the question. Don't you love the macho assumption that we could just bully it along? Snort. The problem was that it was behind the fence of the upper garden, so how to get it up and over. You already know where I'm going no doubt. Tractor to the rescue again. We got the big straps around the tub, hooked them all up to the various shackles and hooks attached to the tractor's front scoop attachment. Lifted it up, then had to scrunch the top of the wire fence down to get it over. Dino maneuverered it to the general spot in the lower garden and gently set it down. Then, more muscling to get it set on the blocks/bricks so it was level and voila. He's going to rig something up to improve the drainage. Now, I am just going to have to figure out what to plant - a lovely conundrum because of course one wants everything. Definitely something that will trail for the edges, but the rest is up for grabs.

Straw Bales

2010-05-11T19:50:00.000-07:00

Trying a new method of growing veggies this year: Straw Bales. We saw this in Fine Gardening magazine as well as another gardening book Dino has.

We got the bales a couple of weeks ago and tractored them up to their spots in the orchard area, along one of the lower rows that Dino tractored out. Once the fertilizer settles in and becomes ready, which I'm not sure what the definition of ready exactly is, but probably pretty soon, we'll plant our veggies in the compost on top of the bales. The idea is the roots grow down into the straw. At the end of the summer, the bales are supposed to start turning themselves into compost also. We thought we'd try it this year since we knew we wouldn't have time to build the raised beds we wanted and if this works the way it promises, may just continue with it.

****Has happy thoughts of bell peppers, summer squash, bush beans. Etc. ****

We haven't been taking many birds walks lately, being more on a gardening kick, which to my mind is quite appropriate for this time of year. I've gotten all of the clay pots that we brought from the Bay Area - which had been under the patio at that house - and washed them out. I've already potted up some potentilla, shasta daisies and boxwood for one area. Oh! Also joined the Purple Petunia club - planted a dozen of those in an old compost box. Some gazanias and some geraniums added to the mix. There are another twenty or so pots ready to accept something - another trip to the nursery this week FOR SURE!

Just When You Thought There Could Be No More Turkey Photos

2010-04-19T21:19:00.000-07:00

The other afternoon, , I decided to head down to the river and the second bridge where I went last week. I wanted to see if I could get a better picture of one of my subjects, which I still didn't but I had a lot of fun birdwatching through my big lens as there were birds going in and out of my subject area (Bullocks' oriole, yellow-rumped warbler, finches galore). Anyway, while I was fiddling around with one composition, I noticed this wild turkey walking alone upstream. Did you know that turkeys will wade? I didn't.

One of the finch couples - the ones in the higher status lantern nest - have had their babies hatch. There are at least three; I'm going to try to get some pictures which should be interesting given the height of the lantern. The other couple - the two who were so recently blatant in their passion for each other - have five pretty blue eggs in their nest.

What Else? Birdwatching

2010-04-11T19:03:00.000-07:00

Even with the rain currently pouring down, it's a fine time to watch some birds. There are still a swarm of hummingbirds at the feeders stoking up for the night. A few moments ago, I watched a pair of lark sparrows plucking bits and pieces from the greenery in the front yard, for their nest I suppose.

And this morning, I inadvertently got a display of house finch porn. While I was doing the breakfast dishes, I looked out the window at the planter where the Birdbrain finch family have their nest, and there they were - in flagrante delicto. It only lasted a second or less - a couple of wiggles, some wing flapping. Then the male gave the female a seed or some other delicacy to eat, as if to apologize: "I know the earth didn't exactly move for you honey - here, eat a little something, you'll feel better." I guess it worked because the female then settled happily into the nest.

Note: they are referred to as the Birdbrains because this pair built their nest in one of the succulent plants hanging from the eaves. That makes it difficult to water. Competition for nest sites must be fierce this year.

I digress. We are the happy hosts of a rufous hummingbird, who spent the day guarding the hummingbird feeder on the back of the house, just outside the office window. Well, maybe it's a rufous. Maybe it's an Allen's - they are very similar, and the difference has something to do with the tail feathers, but of course this one refuses to let me examine his.

Getting Back to Normal (Whatever That Is)

2010-04-04T17:13:00.000-07:00

After a week and a few days of recovery from some medical issues, including a couple of overnights at Fresno Community Hospital, Dino is feeling much improved. I am ever so grateful that things weren't worse and appreciate my wonderful husband even more than before.

Yesterday, we finally got out and about for a lovely spring walk. The wildflowers are still profuse and as usual we're stumped by some of them. The bird watching was pretty good, though no eagles of any sort this time. Saw some Canada geese, which aren't usual around here, and a male merganser. We're hoping his mate is sitting on eggs. Plus the usual wood ducks and mallards. We also saw a flock of lark sparrows, which seemed unusual - we typically see them only in pairs or as singletons. Closer to home, the house finches have been extremely busy building nests underneath the front porch eaves again, and one dumb pair built in one of our planters on top of a succulent. Sigh, it's going to be hard to water that one now.

Cool! Two Morbid Photos in a Row!

2010-03-24T20:31:00.000-07:00

Before lunch last Sunday, Dino took me to a spot on the Northwest Territory where he'd seen a deer carcass in one of the dry creekbeds there. Our uphill neighbor blogged a few days ago they'd seen mountain lion tracks so the timing is just about right for this particular deer to have been cat food. It was already well picked over, but there was a certain je ne sais quoi when it came to odor. 'Course what with all of the carrion trees (or whatever those are called) in full bloom all over the place, it was hard to tell the difference. The insect life in the vicinity was vigorous as well.

It Wasn't This One

2010-03-08T19:35:00.000-08:00

We returned from our journey to Oregon to attend the funeral and found a number of pig tracks around the house. I had left a pair of hiking boots on the porch to dry off and had forgotten to take them back in - one of them had been picked up off its perch and carried several feet and (luckily) dropped. I would have been highly put out if that pair had been ruined, they are my favorite. I stand warned. Dino also found that the dragonfly fountain had been molested as well. That will be moved tomorrow behind the fence.

At any rate, since this picture was taken from the truck looking down off the paved road, we are certain it wasn't this pig that did the deed(s). There were seven of these vultures lurking about.

2010-03-04T20:33:00.000-08:00

This is a photo from Sunday morning's early walk. Down on a neighbor's property, just off the road are the Abandoned Houses. These are two very small houses, both not much more than glorified cabins, along with an outhouse/shed - that are in the process of slowly collapsing. Every year they fall more into themselves, and one is nearly down.

We are both heavy-hearted this week, as Dino learned that his best friend, who he's known since childhood, passed away last weekend. I know that I am grateful for the solace of living in a beautiful place and for the daily routine that has kept us going.

Western Pond Turtle Redux

2010-02-21T14:43:00.000-08:00

After doing a few necessary chores - like finally putting away the laundry I washed Thursday night - we started off on our walk, only to have it grind to a halt right away by the sight of the foals right above the circle driveway. That required some minutes for scratching and cooing. At first, the palomino colt was unhappy with the sound of Dino's slicker but eventually figured out that it wasn't a horse-eating monster.

We also spent some time watching a group of twenty or so Western Meadowlarks in one of the open areas on our neighbor's place, right next to the road. Several of them would sing together and what a lovely chorus that was.

When we got to the river, we spotted this Western Pond Turtle sunning him or herself on a rock. They seem to like this area - I took a picture last year of a pair of them, but I wanted to see if I could get a little closer and work with the big lens and what I could get. I started out pretty far back from the bank and worked my way closer. By working, I mean crawling on threes - the fourth was holding the tripod/camera. Crawl a little, stop, take a few shots, crawl a little more. The turtle let me get all the way down to the edge of the riverbank and for once, didn't leap into the water in alarm right away. I was so oblivious to everything else during this process I didn't even notice that someone had driven up on the other side of the river until he asked us what we were looking at. (Turned out he was working on a portion of the fence on that side.)

Can It Be? Spring-like Hints

2010-02-17T18:51:00.000-08:00

It is very difficult to avoid feeling smug about living in California this time of year. Other than knowing that we really, really do need more rain and more snow in the high country, the warm and sunny past couple of days have been a real joy. The horrid muddy spots on the road going up the hill have nearly dried up (for now and until the next rainfall, which as already mentioned Must Be Hoped For) and the wildflower season is beginning.

One of the lovely features of this particular form of media is that one gets to post pictures of whatever one wants to. The last couple of seasons I have been somewhat obsessed with fungi. This year, I made an unofficial goal to photograph all of the different varieties of fungus I saw. Sunday on our walk, we saw so many different/new kinds, I was beside myself. I was somewhat disappointed that I ended up giving up on the last two sightings. The first of those was a lovely bright red number, which Dino believes to be a type of bolete, the other was a horse poop mushroom, with a very white sponge-like cap. The bolete I passed up because that whole area was covered with big red ants that I recognize as having a nasty temper for humans sitting in the middle of their paths and the pooper was on the side of a steep-ish hillside and I could not figure out how to set up so both I and the equipment didn't tumble.

Here's one I spent some time with, though. Helvella lacunosa - Black Elfin Saddle. While I was noodling with this, Dino happily entertained himself by watching a flock of lesser goldfinches eating the seed pods of an Oregon ash.

In bird news, we participated in the Great Backyard Bird Count again. We counted 28 different species of birds, and I'm not sure how many individuals. Our favorites from this weekend: Hermit Thrush, Bullock's Oriole (yay for migration) and Yellow-rumped Warbler (ditto).

Wildflowers up: Indian warrior, baby blue eyes, shooting stars, those white belly flowers and a popcorn flower or two. Also, those tiny magenta numbers, I like those.

Orchard Continued

2010-02-08T19:29:00.000-08:00

Over the last several days, we've been getting the new trees in the ground. Bill got the first ones in the ground by himself, then recruited my help for a half day or so over the weekend.

Midweek, the nursery in town called to tell us that the Honeycrisp bare roots had finally showed up and been approved by the agricultural inspector. I sneaked away from work to pick out a likely candidate and reserved a second apple, a Gala, to act as a pollinizer. I also succumbed to temptation and bought a good looking forsythia that has the appearance of producing some blooms this year, small as it is.

Dino finished up the last arduous tasks of the planting on his own. Still to come: installing the watering system.

He'd rented a backhoe to dig the holes, and magnificent deep holes they were. Note: the backhoe was declared a "very nice piece of equipment." Santa, are you listening?

Into the holes went a cage of strong wire to discourage those dreadful gophers, and two lengths of white PVC pipe. The holes were filled with a compost/soil combination that had been mixed in a wheelbarrow - about three bags of compost per hole. Then pea gravel went in the pipe and a protective plastic collar put around each tender trunk.

The weather is cooperating nicely, giving lots of lovely sprinkly moisture and not too cold temperatures.

Last weekend, we heard and Dino saw a glimpse of a Northern Pygmy Owl.

Naiads and Dryads Oh My

2010-01-24T16:38:00.000-08:00

Now that we've gotten some decent rain, we've been enjoying the sound of running water in the creeks. The waterfall at the second gate coming in has also started up again. Yesterday, I walked there and found that the seasonal Naiad has made her appearance. Actually, Dino pointed out that there are two naiads in this image.

Orchard Fence

2010-01-17T19:56:00.001-08:00

Dino spent a good part of last week getting the fence posts in around the area designated for the orchard. Saturday, we got a little more than half of it fenced, until we ran out of daylight. We've got a series of storms coming in over the next several days, but we'll get back to it as soon as we can. We're already tasting those apples.

I'm headed into the Bay Area tomorrow for a couple of days at work there, but also for some shopping and meeting up with friends.

Orchard In Progress

2010-01-10T10:11:00.001-08:00

Dino has been working that poor tractor practically to death (bit of hyperbole there) getting the new orchard area ready for trees.

These are two of the rows, with stakes in to show where the new babies will be planted. All week I've left the house too early in the morning to see much of anything except fence posts along the outer rim (and fog) and too late in the evening for anything at all orchard related.

I believe next weekend, I'm being drafted for fencing duties.

Garden Planning. Fog. Number 84

2010-01-05T19:23:00.000-08:00

The last few days, we've been treated to a ribbon of fog along the course of the Chowchilla. It sure is pretty to look at (but not drive in, evidence my trip home tonight.) It's fascinating to see this obvious delineation right at the river. This photo was taken early Sunday morning before it warmed up.

We are pleased to announce the arrival of the aforementioned 84th bird species to our ranch list. A few days after Christmas, we identified a Hairy Woodpecker. They look a lot like the Downy, but are larger. If you want to know the truth, getting us to actually place the binoculars on woodpeckers is a mini-miracle because we always think it's another Acorn, of which there is no dearth of supply. Anyway, we looked and were glad for it. If you know why they're called Hairy, that will win extra points, because I don't have a clue, they looked normally feathered to me.

Now that we have the building parts safely stored, we can work on other items on the task list. We've been figuring out an orchard, with special emphasis on yumminess. So far, we've picked out: 2 apples, 2 figs, 2 cherries, 1 quince, 1 pomegranate, 2 almonds, 2 plums, 1 mulberry and 1 walnut. Hoo boy, we're going to be busy in a few years when all these trees get going. We paced off the designated area the other day, and staked it and Dino's now busy prepping with lots of tractor work. We've scouted out a couple of local nurseries for the varieties we want, and the Honeycrisp apple bareroots are coming in sometime this week; the others next month. We lost a couple of cherries we started a few years ago to that awful grasshopper plague, and a quince this year to fire blight.

Latest Project

2009-12-26T08:21:00.000-08:00

Week before last, we took delivery of a new shop building. It's a steel building purchased in pieces from Future Steel. Putting up this building is Phase I - we'll be adding on a master bedroom in place of our current garage and another big area on the opposite side of the house. First order of business is emptying the garage, so putting up the shop building is required.

Dino will be arranging for pouring the pad and getting the foundation built and then will come the actual construction of the thing.

Last weekend, we spent the best part of a day getting it all properly stored. Dino had hoped he'd be able to just store it under tarps, but it turns out that the manufacturer recommends that you not do that because it gets discolored. There's a bit of an investment in it, so we decided to utilize the 40' storage container. We got the contents of the storage container rearranged, leaving almost one entire side open and ready to receive the building pieces. Then we toted and heaved and lifted till it all fit in nicely. We did use the tractor to move three of the larger stacks closer and the pickup to take it to the container. Otherwise, it was all by hand. 7800 pounds worth. Took us nearly six hours to move the whole thing, so you can imagine we had some pretty good appetites on us. Also a few new aches and pains.

Good thing I know how to lift heavy stuff.

Iddn't It Nice to Get a Bit of Moisture

2009-12-14T19:01:00.000-08:00

This little city mouse is getting used to this country mouse driving with snow and mud and slippery stuff in general. I abandoned my fah-ncy car temporarily for the practicality of Dino's pickup. At some point in the near future, I'll make that permanent by selling the impractical one and using the proceeds for - well, for something.

We took a jaunt on the ATV yesterday afternoon after the rain had stopped to see the river actually running. What is that foamy bubble stuff on it?

Well, Yes It Was Irresistible

2009-11-15T09:38:00.000-08:00

We were unable to pass up the opportunity to visit the newly adopted foals at our neighbor's ranch and walked up yesterday just before sunset.

In other news, the Dinosaur just got a new-to-him truck. We took it to the Ford dealership yesterday for a couple of little items he wants repaired.

A Man-Horse Moment

2009-11-10T10:13:00.001-08:00

While returning from our hike on Sunday, we ran into King and Pelton, who have been hanging out down on our place.

Other interesting sightings: a golden eagle apparently chasing a heron. The same eagle being relentlessly harassed by a local raven.

Let the Obsession Begin

2009-11-01T08:10:00.000-08:00

Now that we've had a little rain (a little more please), the fungi are popping up along with the grass. We saw at least five or six varieties of mushrooms and other fungi on our walk Sunday. The only type we could identify was a good stand of puffballs. Last year I was fascinated by these things, and it looks like that interest has not abated. The Dinosaur has a mushroom identification book that's about four inches thick and I doubt I'm going to be able to study enough to figure out what these things are, so I'm just going to have fun taking pictures instead. (How's that for justification of mental laziness?)

This particular fungus has the same general shape as a puffball, but is smaller - perhaps slightly more than an inch tall, and sits on a small stem.

83. Can't Count 84 or 85

2009-10-09T20:32:00.000-07:00

Gotta love fall migration. Our walk Sunday brought us 83: Black-throated Gray Warbler spotted in a lovely area near the river. And we also saw two new (to us) species but we can't officially count them because we are not 100% certain of our identification. The not-84 was either a Dusky or a Hammond's Flycatcher - these two species are very similar and I guess we're just not up enough on our flycatchers. Not-85 was a possible blue-winged teal sitting all by her lonesome.

Old Pots. Also Number 82

2009-09-30T21:23:00.000-07:00

Spotted this week was a Northern Mockingbird, not a rare bird but new for us here. My delight at tallying our 82nd species here at Dryad Ranch was dampened by the fact that when spotted, it was busy poking its beak into one of our ripening pomegranates.

Even so, we're rather fond of mockers. Some years at our Bay Area place we had a mocker begin to imitate the sound of a whirligig my father had made for us and that we had placed on top of the garden shed.

This photo is of some old cookpot found in a box near a picnic spot on the other side of the river.

Weekends at Dryad Ranch

2009-09-20T16:17:00.000-07:00

We got done all sorts of chores done yesterday. Dino put a temporary fix on a toilet that decided to start running/leaking. I did all the regular housecleaning stuff. After lunch we went into the garden to discuss how we want to arrange things and after that we just started drifting into doing little things out there that looked like they needed doing. I fell into a zennish trance of weeding.

Around 4, I found Dino"resting his eyes" on the front porch swing and decided to take a little walk. I laced up, grabbed the camera and headed up Ant Hill. From there I swung around to Altar Rock, which is my favorite spot on the place. There is a spring there and just above it is a very large rock upon which another large rock sits, altarlike. It's a very special spot and I go there on almost all of my solitary walks in that direction.

Just below the spring, I found bees enjoying sips from a small pool covered in duck weed.

From there, I climbed Deer Ridge in a straight shot uphill, found a good dozen or so bluebirds busily hunting bugs, then I dropped back down to the road and started the full loop around the Northwest Territory.

Finally, I made my way to Dino's favorite spot under the Oregon Ash and the little pool there. I really got munched by mosquitoes as usual. While I was sitting and waiting hopefully for a bullfrog to show up for a photo op, I was greatly alarmed by rather loud rustling footstep noises behind me. I whirled to start my defense, only to scare the crap out of about thirty wild turkeys who hadn't been aware of me either! They ran off about twenty feet to the other side of the river, then stopped and started milling about in a standard turkeyish way, talking amongst themselves. After not seeing the turkeys during the summer months, we've seen them the last couple of walks and have noticed evidence of them, in great scratched up patches in the ground under the oaks in that area.

When I got back to the house, I found it was three hours later. Since I hadn't intended to be gone that long, I really had to start hustling to get dinner ready.

Don't Tell My Boss

2009-09-11T20:19:00.000-07:00

Although I am not completely enamored with my daily commute into the nearest town to hole up in my solitary office, look at the view I am treated with every morning!

We all know that I am toiling away, nose to the grindstone, work work work. Right?

We'll Have to Be Careful In the Morning

2009-09-04T21:37:00.001-07:00

This little snake, who appeared to have recently eaten, wasn't fond of us trying to document his or her presence. It finally took off, sidewinding at a good clip, only to disappear somewhere inthe vicinity of the front porch. We lack the snake charming, er rather, snake catching skills of our neighbor, so will have to resort to crossing our fingers that it finds a better venue soon.

We've both been ever so busy, even after two weeks (and doesn't time fly?), with organizing and unpacking. Who knew that we'd accumulated so much "stuff"?

I have gotten my little office all set up and have been diligently driving to town every morning to do my telecommuting. I'm rather pleased with it all, the DSL speed provided is quick indeed. I had a bit more excitement than I would have preferred last week when the restaurant downstairs had a bit of a fire, which rumor had it, was caused by some careless cigarette-smoking workers and a stack of cardboard boxes. It was all very chaotic and let me tell you I boogied right on out of there. There wasn't much damage evidently, luckily, but that was all just a bit much on top of having to smell all the smoke from the Big Meadows fire.

At Dryad Ranch Fulltime

2009-08-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

We've been here more than a week now and haven't quite had a chance until today to start enjoying it. It's been insanely busy with getting organized and finding things that were so well-packed as to be virtually unfindable. There are still pockets of mess but mostly it's all coming together nicely.

There were a couple of truly grueling days of loading and then unloading. We had some fun getting Dino's workbench out of the rental truck - nothing like a little machinery to make life easier.

The air has been pretty bad the last few days with smoke from the Big Meadows fire, although not as bad as last year. This didn't stop us from taking a bird walk today; the highlight of the walk was a golden eagle soaring over Morning Meadow.

Fly Away Home

2009-08-08T08:17:00.000-07:00

I do know that the poem is about ladybugs, but I didn't have any handy for this post. However, I just want to crow about the fact that we are finally moving to Dryad Ranch for good, and yes, it does feel that we are flying home.

In spite of the gloom and doom about the economy, our Bay Area house sold in no time (knock on wood because escrow hasn't close yet, don't want to jinx anything).

The dragonfly is a Western Pond Hawk.

Teenager Hair-Dos

2009-06-26T20:53:00.000-07:00

We have two small lanterns under the front porch that the house finches have adopted the last several years as nesting spots. The other night, while eating dinner and simultanteously doing some bird watching, this perfect photo op:

There are three babies in this tiny lantern (yes, it's in the shape of an open owl's mouth.) We think this is the second brood in this lantern for the year; the other lantern just has the second batch started. Hmm, maybe it's the third. At any rate, we are certain that there will be no shortage of house finches around here anytime soon.

Weeding Could Be Dangerous

2009-06-21T07:50:00.000-07:00

As I'm sure has been noticed before, the task of weeding is never over, especially in a garden that is more wild than not. The other day, I set myself to the task of a bout of weeding, attacking a particular rose bed where Dino has planted all the miniature roses. He's also seeded a good number of California poppies, which were completely spent and needed cleaning up. One wouldn't think that weeding would occasion excitement, but I was startled while picking up a pile of weeds to put in the wheelbarrow by a wiggling scurry of Something across my foot. Since I could tell it wasn't a rattlesnake, the only thing that might be found around that area to worry about, I wasn't scared, but in true girly-girl style, I shrieked anyway because I wasn't expecting it. Dino said later that he thought the scream was a coyote in the spring area making a weird noise - I'm not sure if I should feel insulted or complimented by the comparison. My curiosity about what sort of Something made the dash across my foot was answered some time later by finding a Gilbert's Skink under another pile of detritus. These critters are about 5 inches long, excluding the tail, and are relatively heavy-bodied which explains why I really felt it. The breeding adults have that reddish color to the head - so I guess this one fits into that category. I certainly hope I didn't disturb a nest but the reptile book says they lay eggs in midsummer, which I take to mean in July or thereabouts.

Gilbert's Skink - Eumeces gilberti

Activities of the Ravens

2009-06-08T16:18:00.000-07:00

In case anyone was wondering where the ravens get to when they are not visiting our uphill neighbors, they come down to our place to snarfle the corn intended for turkeys. Evidently, this year's brood are still still not "weaned" from being fed by Mom and Dad, as we observed several delightful moments of gullet-stuffing where the parent had to stand on tippy-toes to reach the eager beaks.

Dino took this shot; he's undoubtedly appalled that it's being posted as he's not much for the abstract blurred look, but I think it's a lively interpretation of the scene.

Wild Turkeys

2009-06-04T21:14:00.000-07:00

As we were reluctantly preparing to leave on Sunday to return to our workaday world, we stopped to watch this youngster (with a buddy not pictured) finding the cracked corn Dino put out: