Yours Truly and Her Very Own Website

I've been thinking about doing this for a while and finally wedged enough time into the weekends and evenings to get it finished.  I've put up my favorite images as well as some silk scarves that I designed and had digitally printed.

The site is:  http://www.prayinghorse.com

I'm sorting through quite a few wildflower pics - even though it's been a dreadfully dry winter, some sturdy flowers are popping up.  I'll post some of those soon, but in the meantime, enjoy these Wild Pea Leaves (sorry don't know the species, as there are no flowers yet).  Taken with my Lensbaby, after a lovely spring rainfall.

Rural Living (Dino's Adventure Getting Home)

Photo by Megan (iphone camera) on her way home Thursday

 Dispatch from Dino about his day on Wednesday:

I had an errand in Mariposa, and since it was dry, went to Eastman Lake to remove two Kestrel nest boxes temporarily for a construction project. Since it was still dry after that, I completed another task at Hensley Lake. I thought a town trip was warranted, since I was close, so off to Madera I went. It just started to sprinkle as I was heading to Madera. When I was in Evan's Feed at about 16:00 hours, I could really hear the rain, and the gutters on the streets were full. I left Madera at 18:00 hours, and with the rain and darkness, drove like an old man at 50 mph.

Pulling the grade just past the Raymond church, I noticed that the road cuts were more white than I'm used to seeing. At the Road 600/415 split, snow was sticking to the road. I proceeded up Road 600 and finally hit a curve where I was slipping a bit, so engaged 4WD. At the high point just past the old stage stop, there were a bunch of cars stopped. Some pickup had spun out and blocked traffic. A 4WD towed him out and down towards Raymond, but the half dozen cars that had stopped were stuck. 3 inches of snow were on the ground. At least the stuck cars could get a cell signal, and the ones I talked to had called their husbands or friends to come get them. I found out this morning that the highway into Oakhurst was closed at Deadwood summit, so a few of those cars had tried a detour via Raymond and up Road 600.

Going down Road 810 was another matter. This is a one-lane dirt road dropping 1000 feet. The #$*! automatic with 3:1 first gear hardly held me to a slow speed, but would require more brakes than I'd like to stop. A few bushes were encroaching upon the roadway with the snow, but there was plenty of room to get by. At one sharp corner on the dirt, there was a larger oak in part of the road that covered the tracks of the previous vehicle. Not a good sign, I was thinking. At the paved 10% grade I had to put the Lemon in low range to hold me back on compression, and before the cattle guard, there was a live oak across the road. Damn!

I was not thrilled about backing up the 10 % grade with the ice and snow before I could turn around, and who knows what troubles I'd find on Road 600 back to Raymond and up Bailey Flats Road. I had my nest box installer's tool bag with me, which had a 10-inch folding pruning saw. Working on the trees, I kept hearing trees and limbs falling around me. A reassuring sound to some, no doubt. One hour later, I was back on my way with soaked gloves and numb fingers.

A few hundred feet later, there was a car in the middle of the one lane road, and another live oak down across the road in front of the car. No one was in the locked car. I used some Nixon presidential language about then! My tow chains were at the house where I've been using them to pick up and move moss rocks for a wall I'm building. Besides, this isn't Montana where you need to keep all types of supplies in your vehicle because the weather can change suddenly.  I had some 1-1/2 inch tie-down straps, and was able to use them to drag the vehicle over the ice and snow to where I could push it off the road so I could get by. (I was nice, it was pushed off on the uphill side)

Another hour and I was on the road again. On Bessie Jacobs Road, there are a few trees I'll have to prune back so I can get by with the trailer on Thursday.  On one of the notoriously steeper hills, I lost traction in the clay and was all over the road. I'll have to get a more aggressive tire for the Lemon for winter use. (I was telling Megan earlier she could go with a less aggressive tire for the Toyota, but this storm showed me to stay with what she has.)

End result was 47 miles in 3hours 50 minutes.

Thursday, I cut up parts of seven trees on our road, including two that fell after I had passed by Wednesday night. Since I had the saws in the Ford, I cleared the trees off the remainder of the road that passes through our land, and took one path I have through another parcel, and cut my way through a total of thirty limbs until the sun was setting, and I had to backtrack home. Maybe this weekend I can finish the trail, and see what is across the fences. When it is all said and done, this sure beats living in the city!

Hopeful for Some Speed

They're gone now, but Sierra Telephone was here over the last few weeks digging an underground phone line to our neighbor's new house site.  Since they needed to come through our place to get there, Dino suggested the best way to go through.  It was interesting watching the progress.



Of course I was thrilled to have the opportunity to take pictures of the equipment.  There were four (five?) machines of various types, plus a trailer.  I'm sure Dino knows what all of it was. 

Now that all the work is done, supposedly we may be able to get DSL here.  Finding a replacement for our current very cantankerous satellite connection would be excellent, and I've got a call into the phone company now to find out if we can get it. 

It's Mid January Already?

I mostly bailed on doing chores today and all sorts of other "shoulds" in favor of taking a long walk along the river.  Scared up the great blue heron a couple of times, heard a kingfisher and saw any number of juncos. 

The fungi are in a bit of a retreat just now, what with not much precipitation lately, not to mention the cold weather.  I took some photos of a mushroom with ice crystals on it just for the fun of it.  It's a wonder that this particular mushroom hadn't been obliterated though, by the phone company heavy equipment that is currently digging an underground phone line up to our neighbors.  (Note:  some great machinery shots on their way at some, couldn't resist.)  It was mere inches away from the path left behind by the Cats.

Meanwhile, Dino had called early in the a.m., determined that it was a burn day and headed for the slope below the house to do some cleanup.  This is the same area he'd worked on some years ago, and entropy being what it is, things had gotten untidy again.

Number 93

Our 93rd species was spotted last night on my way home from town.  As I was passing a neighbor's new gate, I noticed a white bird-ish shape perched on a oak branch overlooking the road.  I hadn't noticed anything there before, and when I stopped to peer at it, discovered the lovely heart shaped face of a male Barn Owl looking back.  We figured they had to be around - they're not uncommon after all - but neither one of us had actually spotted one where we were confident in our identification.  We both agreed that it was a good omen for the nesting prospects of the several Barn Owl nestboxes that Dino has recently installed on our place. (Photo US Fish and Wildlife, in the public domain.)

On the subject of which (bird boxes that is), Dino and Audubon compadres have had several work days the last couple of weeks for building new boxes intended for the abovementioned Barn Owls, plus Wood Ducks and passerines such as Bluebirds and other cavity nesters.

I took last week off work, it was a little rough getting myself back into the office on Monday, but now look!  Four more days off, one of which will be spent eating good food!  Nifty!

This photograph was taken on a not-quite futile fungus hunting expedition over the weekend.  I found this oak bathed in pretty afternoon light near Lion Creek on our Northwest Territory.  A friend who saw this photograph states she can see a horse in it (that would have to be a spirit horse however).

November Road Trip

Week before last we took a road trip south to attend the memorial service for Dino's aunt.  We took a couple of extra days to play tourist. It was a major road trip, over 700 miles of mostly back roads through some of the most beautiful areas of California.  (Have I mentioned that I love where I live?)  We went to three wildlife refuges, took a side trip to a national monument, took the coast route south, and saw mile after mile of farmland, which has always fascinated me no end.  The cotton crop is being picked.  Slide show photos: the seahorses and all bird photos by Dino except the sanderling.  Others by yours truly.




Thursday was the first leg of the coast part of the trip.  We stopped in San Luis Wildlife Refuge, not too far from home, in the wetlands area of the Central Valley.  The flying critters were jam packed, and unfortunately that included a terrible number of hungry mosquitoes.  Leaving that aside, we did some heavy duty birding, being especially enchanted by the Sandhill Cranes. 

From there we headed toward Monterey, where we arrived in plenty of time to get checked into our comfy but not fancy motel, which as it turned out was only a 10 minute walk to Asilomar State Beach.  After we got situated, we headed to the beach and found that the tide was out enough that we could do some tidepooling.  I hadn't taken my good camera with me, just the iphone, and I did not get good shots of some of the neat critters - crabs and anemones, but the gadget did a pretty good job on capturing the beautiful sunset.

The next morning we lingered in the room a bit, eating breakfast and having a couple of cuppas, and then headed to the aquarium neighborhood.  We were still a bit early, so we walked along the waterfront and did some more bird and Harbor Seal watching, until the aquarium opened.

Love!  The seahorse exhibit was so neat, and although I do love seahorses, I fell in love with the Sea Dragons.  There were a couple of different species, the one in the slideshow is a Leafy Sea Dragon.  I was fascinated by watching their little fins pulsing -  the fins aren't the leafy things.  They have two little fins on the top and near the tail.

Then, on to the jellyfish exhibit, always interesting.  Another area I could just stand mesmerized.  That blue is how the photos came out of the camera - I don't know what the lights are used for these exhibits but wow on that color.

After the aquarium, we spent a couple of hours on a tour of the Tor House, the home of Robinson Jeffers.  We had to make an appointment, because only six people are allowed at a time on the tours, which are strictly led by guides.  I can see why, people would start carrying off bits and pieces of the place no doubt.  Most of the house and all of the nearly 40 foot stone tower were built by Jeffers, by hand, who rolled the stones up the hill from the beach.  We all got to climb the tower, via the secret passageway.  (Actually just hidden behind the door, but fun anyway, if a bit claustrophobic.) 

Next leg of the trip was down the Coast Highway.  Not the speediest way to get to where we were going, but on a nice day, the most beautiful. 

Sunday was our day to head north to home.  Instead we took a southerly direction (so typical of Dino, it's uphill both ways with him always but it's always interesting) and went to the Carrizo Plain National Monument.  This side trip was with the hopes of seeing a California Condor, which had been spotted somewhere in the area, according to the eBird software Dino uses.  We didn't see any condors, but the bird watching was great, I saw a couple of new species for me, including a prairie falcon.  The shot of Soda Lake, a large drainage basin which is seasonally wet show that this obviously is the dry season.  This area is also one of the best areas to see some of the naked slashes of the San Andreas fault - the background of this photo shows the Temblor Range.  Nothing was shakin' while we were there, however.

I'm taking the week off work, it's been lovely to doodle around the house and take multiple walks.  I've been doing a lot of Audubon work so I don't get too used to being lazy.

Fingers crossed for more rain at the end of the week.

Wood and Walls and Websites

I'll start in reverse order.  I've been working with a friend to develop her new website, Mindful Palate, which will have all sorts of yummy recipes, some thoughts about mindfulness, a little magic, and a hidden button to a secret place.   I designed the logo too, a bit of shameless bragging there, but it all turned out very well if I do say so myself.  And, the recipes are great - I made the butternut squash one last weekend and found it most delicious.

Dino has been working himself to a frazzle on getting firewood cut.  He likes to be at least a year ahead, and we've got some good stacks going now.  I helped last Saturday on this project:  Dino worked the chain saw (good choice) and I hoisted the cut pieces into the bed of the Ford.  Glad I've been doing all that weightlifting - it came in handy for this;  I needed help with only the last huge round. 

Lifting heavy things also comes into the stone wall that I decided to build near the road.  It was in the spot where a big oak came down one Christmas four or five years ago.  Dino had gotten the road cleared of the tree, and also pushed the logs and rocks out of the way.  I've been eyeing that spot all this time, mulling over the idea of making a little wall.  Now that I'm describing the thought process, I think really I just wanted to organize it, one of my favorite things.  If the project had involved bags, boxes or baskets it would have been truly primo, but being able to use the wheelbarrow made up for the lack of "useful pots to put things in."  I'm not entirely certain I'm done with the area - there is an untidy area on the other side of the road that may need some work as well.  This photo shows the wall after the first phase, it's more cleaned up now.

I'm taking another stab at getting some fall vegetables going, specifically snow peas.  I planted about 10 days ago, and noticed a couple of sprouts last weekend already.  Dino has been vigorously applying his best anti-ground squirrel techniques and I am hopeful the little devils *insert worse word here* will leave these infant peas alone.  We had a good crop last year and many excellent stir fries.

Excellent Snow Pea Stir Fry Recipe (four ingredient style)
Pick a pile of fresh snow peas, and clean the strings out.
Mince 2-3 cloves of garlic
Add 1 tablespoon of olive oil to your favorite perfectly seasoned cast iron frying pan
Heat the oil, add the peas.
Let them cook a few minutes, until they get that amazingly gorgeous bright green color, then add the garlic.  Fry for 1 more minute, then add 1 tablespoon low sodium tamari and mix all of that for another 30 seconds.  Remove from heat.  Enjoy.

I noticed this tree the other day, at the perfect time of the late afternoon.