Wild Weather

Today's storm has to be the worst storm since I moved here. When I stuck my head out the front door the rain was so load I couldn't hear the radio I was standing next to. It was dark all morning with minor rain but about noon it really started coming down. There was so much hail so quick that the rain gutters were over flowing. As far a visibility goes I could almost see the other side of the creek from my desk. If I didn't know what was there I wouldn't know what it was. This storm was on a North Northeast trek so it came up from the South. I heard a lot of thunder and saw a lot of lightning. You know it's close when you see the flash and then you hear the boom. I didn't have my computer on at the time and could here the thunder from my computer speaker. Heard a couple calls to the fire department to put out houses that were hit by lightning. PG&E is disconnecting the power from one burning house so the fire department can put out the fire. There were several car accidents all one car. From all the report I've been hearing it looks like this storm is following Highway 49.

 

My friend Carly is having her funeral today. So sorry to see her go we were just starting our friendship and relationship when she became ill. She died last Tuesday.

March 11 2006 and more snow

March 11, 2006 and a nice white morning. Don’t know how long it’s been snowing but there’s three inches of snow over everything. The hens came walking up the road single file to the house from the south. The males came from the north. First squirrel here was at 6:00 AM. The turkeys got here at 7:00AM. I hear the snow level is down to 1000 feet or so but then that the weather people. The pictures I’ve been taking have been coming out rather blue. As the little birds fly through the trees they knock clumps of snow and powder from them. This is the first time I’ve seen ice sickles in many years. My forest is a white wonderland. Snow is falling again not as heavy as it did last night. Just amazing! I need to get to town for feed.  I don’t have chains and hesitant about driving. Just took the temperature, 33.1 degrees. Tree branches are bent over touching the ground. Should I stay or go now or will it clear later.

SNOW and a lot of it

Living in the Sierra's always has surprises with the weather. It's not bad here at the 2000 foot level but on top is another story. Weather people said on top of the hill it's getting 4 feet of snow for every storm. People back east think they know what snow is but unless you've seen 20 feet of pack you never seen nothing. Had two avalanches this week off Highway 50 on the way to Tahoe. I could use more grain for the critter, I went through 80 pound today. I'm so amazed at people who call themselves hunters, they know so little about the animals they hunt. My little fur balls have been here all night. Why can I walk up to animals and animals run away from other people. There are two visiting skunks and they don't get along with my skunks to well. Noticed one thing I never knew before about skunks, each one has a distinct odor. Well enough looking outside time to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day picking up branches that feel over night. Have to eat a lot of calories if I'm going to be outside.

Bushs fear mongering

Bush’s fear mongering backfires, when it comes to the port transaction deal with UAE. Bush has been preaching terrorist, terrorism and fear for so long the people voted down the UAE port sale. Rove campaign to scare the people of the United States has work. Lets see how warrant-less wire taps hold up in court. What gets me these days the people that Bush was attacking he wants more of. Bush had called scientist elitist but what about a rich son that gets to go to two high dollar colleges. The said part of all this is Bush is just a puppet of Rove and Chaney with out them he’d be drilling dry well and going out of business. Only in America does a failure get to buy the presidency. The only people that are doing well with this administration is Bush’s buddies. By the time Bush leave office there will be two world powers and the United States isn’t one of them.

COLD

Raining now but snow is on the way. The raccoon came by I was happy to see he was still alive after the hash weather. He was startled when he first saw me but a smile and a wave let him know, I wasn't going to hurt him. The little guys hair was all standing up to keep him warm. He ate about a pound of the cat food I put out for the skunks. Really feel sorry for the skunk with only one eye. He really has a hard time getting around. I guess he got into a fight that he could finish. Skunks are like that, in that they bit at each other but no one gets hurt. Poor wet critters. Last night I could hear one of them under the house snoring. It could have been him cleaning himself too. The skunks seem to take very good care of their fur. Well I better make something for dinner to warm me up. Need those calories.

March 3rd snow and no power

March 3rd 4:44PM. Snows almost melted. Hundreds of little birds are still feeding like crazy making every second of day light count. I’ve been hearing sirens all day some close and others on the highway. Most people wouldn’t hear them but I’m funny that way. From the days where I was doing studio work to being in front of a stack of speakers at a arena. I’ve told people the sound is so loud that your ears bleed. Now I’m here and I can tell what kind of bird that is chirping a hundred yards away. I’ve always had good hearing with a photographic memory. Same with smells also which could bring back memories from years past. Just saw a flash at first I thought it was the TV but it was thunder. Well time to batten down the hatches. One squirrel is getting a few more seeds before the cold night. Here comes more snow or hail or rain what ever it is it’s cold here. It’s really coming down now, little white beads of frozen water. It’s that popcorn like hail. I walked the creek and the water is really moving. What was once grass is now rocks with broken branches. I was going to unload the grain from the car but I think I’ll wait, at least my cars nice and clean on top. How wild I see blue sky in the white puffy clouds. Well I better do it now while there’s a break in the weather. Nop, can’t do it, have a squirrel eating on the porch. Ya, I’m such a softy I’ll let her eat until she leaves. If I scare her off she wouldn’t come back for a while and by then it might be dark or harsh weather. Every year I’ve been here the weather has been different. The only thing I can count on is it will be hot or cold. How the miners ever lived here has got me this is the most inhospitable and harshest place on earth.

All right night shift is taken care of now it’s time to take care of me. Chicken tonight, so it looks like my little stinkers are going to eat good too. So goes my nice clean pants. I thought they would have stayed clean more then a couple hours.

I’ve noticed that the deer during this wild weather have a harder time of finding their way. I’ve seen them stumble or at least heard them stumble when it was real dark without any starlight.

I was watching the noon news to see what the weather was going to be like then a reporter in P’ville said it was a blizzard here. Of course it was only a mild snow which just go me. I’ve been in blizzards and this is no blizzard. I even was cross country skiing in a winter blizzard on the east side of the sierra’s by mammoth mountain. Then I knew if I stopped for to long I’d die and wouldn’t be found until the spring thaw. I wish they would give these news readers a yard stick to give accurate measurement because 2 inches turns into a foot. One foot turns into three feet. Sixty mile an hour wind gusts turns into hurricane force winds. I bet when they go fishing they catch hundred pound fish on 10 pound test line and the fish is described as 10 feet long when it’s a minnow.

News Hours on.

March 3rd snow and no power

March 3rd, snow and no power. Snowed all night and most of the morning. Suns coming out now and things are melting. Since I had no power or phone and going outside looked way cold I stayed wrapped up in my down bag looking out the front door. Three male turkeys just arrived and look very hungry. They must have been burning a lot of calories. I’m sure the squirrels and little birds have done the same. I put out seeds under the picnic table so the little birds feed and it’s working out good for them.

I’m going to have to remind the phone people to finish what they started because my phone hasn’t worked for a week now. So far since November I’ve had about 3 weeks of service. What gets me is the phone company thinks I need to pay for service I don’t get. Isn’t that just like a corperation.

March 2 2006 snowed

March 2, 2006 snowed last night. It’s news time and the snows almost melted it’s in patches here and there. I took a cold walk around and found several large branches that broke last night from the weight of the snow. Two willow trees lost three large branches that were budding. The squirrels and little birds were eating all day. I saw some young squirrels I haven’t seen before. They could have sat in the palm of my hand. Life’s hard in the forest. I think I found the rest of the body of the Cooper Hawk. I think the cold weather did him in, I’m going to miss seeing him flying around here. The creek is flowing rather good and so are the hills. I haven’t been down the hill to see where my creek joints the other creek yet but I’m sure it’s really moving. It’s to bad that the snow is coming in spring and not winter. Now the snow pack is melting with the rain so the snow doesn’t get to soak into the ground. From what I’ve heard that this area used to get a couple feet of snow that would stay through the winter. Want to hear a good joke? People are buying $500,000 dollar houses below sea level in the Sacramento delta.

Monday March 6 2006

Monday March 6, 2006. Waiting for the storm. Sun has come in and out over the morning. Lot’s of young squirrels zipping around playing “chase” and “dare ya.” It’s a squirrel version of follow the leader. They keep testing themselves to see what they are possible of doing.

Doesn’t look like I need to worry about snow from this next storm but the weather people don’t read it right some times, you never know.

Saw the “flicker” today again, three days in a row.  Very aggressive when looking for bugs, no loose piece of bark left unturned.

I need to get outside, feed the birds and squirrels, turn the antenna around, get cat food and get ready for tonight “24.” Not before I have more coffee. Just not ready to get in the cold damp air, my bones are telling me not to.

Okay, got a lot done. Dinner??? What to do…  Backs doing it to me having a lot of pain standing. News, the evening break, time to lie down and make it count.

Feeling rather cold in the house. Pledge break on News Hour.

One hour before “24,” deer are feed. skunks are feed.

Chicken tonight; guess who’s getting the scraps. All three guys are here checking out the new cat food. They also look like they better eat because something bad is coming.

Got about an hour of phone service yesterday.

Was looking at the deer yesterday. Two youngsters a dark one and a tan one both male. As I looked out the door at them I was reminded of Hank Hill’s neighbor Lu talking to hank but it was the deer talking to each other. The little brown deer kept saying to the other deer, “You hillbilly deer, look, look it’s human.” Tan deer, “relax dude Bob’s cool.” I found out there is two type of deer, black tail and mule deer.

Skunk fight, break up all sore of wild things. Only rules here no fighting or eating your neighbor.

No snow yet so I don’t think there will be any. I saw an area up the mountain on TV and it had fog. So moistures in the air and it’s about freezing.  

Tuesday March 7 2006

Tuesday March 7, 2006 hale! And a lot of it. No driving today. In the last few minutes it’s been haling and now the place is covered white. One squirrel is avoiding the weather on the porch, just eating seeds like nothings happening. Turkey’s got his head facing into a bush. As fast as it started is done. The sky is looking brighter then it was, still gray but brighter. Hearing rumbles of thunder. I was under the impression that we were going to be drying out for a few days. I think I like when it snows better it’s a more quiet type of event. Yup, it’s cold outside and now everything is dripping. Through out a couple pound of sunflower seeds. There’s a few birds trying to dig out seeds on the picnic table. They can see the color distortion under the hale and that’s where they start digging. The creek looks real nice with the blanket of white meeting the water.

News has past and now for CBS’s new show. Smells like a skunk passed gas and it lit on fire. Sort of smells like burning plastic, the skunks don’t even like it. Had a couple stray skunks coming over along with the cat. Was hoping to see the raccoon.

Oh darn it’s so cold in and out of the house. Just have that low-pressure type feeling and the start of a headache. Weather people said it might snow. I’m in for the night no more going out t o night. Did laundry today nothing like the feel of warm cloths.

Sunday March 5 2006

Sunday March 5, 2006 waiting for the storm. Turkeys and squirrels have been here all morning and afternoon eating and cleaning making sure that everything goes right in this next storm. They look serious about this storm like they did before the last snow, I watched one of the young male practicing his fighting moves like a dancer would test his choreography. The winds been gusting, I heard a warning for Napa earlier. Ground so wet water is running out of every gopher, mole and ground squirrel hole. Ant’s are moving to high ground, my kitchen. I see the male turkeys are under a large ponderosa tree sort of in the shadow of the tree. Can’t see any hens, they’re doing military maneuvers getting to get out of the wind and weather somewhere. I was looking at the direction they have been going and it low shrubs.  Always wondered what they might do in harsh weather. Whether they would still roost in the pine tree at night with these winds.

I’ve noticed that the turkeys are separated by age with the youngest in the center. Then it’s the mothers older young males then the old males. There’s one young squirrels rocketing around the trees, I hope he’s not lost. This little one has just left the nest in the past couple days.

Getting dark now and the deer are coming in along with the storm winds.

Phone just came one. Try e-mail.

The deer were here

The deer were here earlier; I had to sit with them so one of the deer with antlers wouldn’t push them around. There are a couple guys still with antlers and now they think they are top deer on campus. Big Buddy is just the best father and leader of the herd. Even when Buddy had his antlers he was so gentle with the younger deer. I saw one deer creep up to Buddy he was so scared. Buddy locked antlers with the youngster and they began pushing. Buddy started pushing and it was a cakewalk. He stopped and started backing up and let the little deer win. It was his son and looks like a miniature Big Buddy. Little Buddy has the same personality as Big Buddy too. Buddy’s getting old and one day he won’t becoming here. I was worried when the mating season started because he took off for about three months.

Tonight I sat outside with the deer for about an hour. Even challenged the deer with the antlers because he was being a bonehead. One of the little girls seemed to be getting picked on by everyone. I was sitting down and she came over by me, I think she felt safe. She sure looked happy and seems to perk up being there. I don’t mind them eating the forest because I won’t. Summer is great for them I have all sort of fruit for them. I think going out with a deer and getting apple out of the tree for him is the coolest thing ever. Having a deer follow you or you follow them it show me how they can reason. The thing that amazes me the most is the family that they have. I can tell that the herd has three type of main marking. When I first moved here, they were just a deer, I could tell anything about them. Now I can see a foot and tell which deer it is.

I came in when I saw the first skunk sniffing along. I had a couple of George Clinton’s family show up. Not George himself if their tails, it looks like George Clinton hair. Pooh-key the medium sized skunk really was chewed up. He’s got a bald spot and teeth marks. The teeth are spread rather far apart so I know it wasn’t another skunk. Stinkers run off when he sees any other skunks. Seems everyone want to bit on him. The raccoon just butts in and eats the cat food without to much worry.

It still amazes me when your nice to any animal they will be nice to you. Sure I have that alpha male type personality and that doesn’t seem to matter to much. Even the turkey, squirrels, skunks, raccoons all seem to turn out to be very friendly They don’t seem to be wild at all even though they are.

What a day

What a day. I laid down on the heating pad and was watching the snow fall and it made me so tire. I close my eyes for a second and next thing I know it 7PM. Little Buddy was digging through the snow for something to eat. Poor little critters, having to deal with this snow. Well it’s mostly gone now. I’ll know better how the night shift did later this evening. Was sort of nice being out in the falling snow just a bit cold for this not so young body. Not sure if this storm is over yet but it sounded like the storm was going to be here a couple days then nice weather. Then again it changes hourly and you can believe any of the long-term projections.

Well dinner calls. Time to wake up. COFFEE!!! Nice warm coffee.

Snows almost melted

Snows almost melted. It’s 34 degrees at noon today Saturday and my phones out again. It worked for a couple minutes but now it’s dead, no static at all. Have two brave squirrels here eating. It haled here for a few minutes with the sun out. The sky is darkening and looking menacing. Snow level was down to 1500 feet. Radio said it’s going to get up to 50 degrees today but not here.

Had a good down pour of hale while the phone guy was here fixing my phone. Yes it works again. I can’t believe it. There water and I can use the phone. Well it’s raining, no it’s snowing it’s… the sky is falling and the ground is turning white.

Feels good to put on “the boots.”  I can only were these in real cold wet weather or a long distance hick up the side of a big rock. Amazing, I bought these boots in 1972 and still haven’t wore out the soles.

I’m fascinated at the little birds feeding. They look a little rounder and puffed up with the cold. My turkeys took off. I think they are under trees somewhere. Mrs. Squirrel is hunting for seeds on the picnic table. She scraped the snow off to revile the sunflower seeds. There’s another squirrel coming down the tree. It sure takes the squirrels a long time to see if things are safe.

Snowing again too warm to stick right now. Well spoke to fast here come the fluffy chunks of snow. It’s not a white out just soft clumps of snow gently falling.

Started off a cold

Started off a cold dark day and got colder. Snow began around 5pm tonight. Phones out again as soon as the snow started. TV reception is flaky the antenna is gathering snow. Poor critter are hating life, I can see they are fighting over food being to close or the way another deer looks. There’s more than enough for everyone if they just slow down. I can see that they’re cold and confused with the snow. I left the corn bin open on the porch. I know Buddy know how to get on the porch. The white covering over everything looks rather nice to a point. Sure it makes a nice post card but you don’t want to lay in it. I saw one of the skunks and he didn’t look so happy getting around this weather. Sure they have fur but they still get cold and have to look for food in any weather. What a hard life. Seeing the deer in the daytime I get to watch how happy they are to be alive. When I was out earlier it didn’t seem to cold but when I came back in the house my glasses fogged up. This last time I was outside with the deer it was rather cold but then I was in a tee shirt and long johns, which isn’t the brightest thing to do. I heard a large crack, which sounded like a large branch racking from the weight of the snow. I’m glade I parked the car in the road so nothing can fall on it. When I went to the car a couple hours ago there was at least two inches of snow on the car. If I didn’t know better it sort of looks like it’s a little foggy out. Snows still falling but not as much as it was earlier.

Well Rummy’s on Charley Rose. I’m going to have to watch this to see all the lies. Besides my back is killing me and I need to lay down for a bit.

The boys are loosing

The boys are loosing their antlers. Mr. B only lost one and it looks sort of lopsided. He’s still the gentleman deer, always walking so proper and upright. You might even say he’s a bit snobby. There was two new baby girls come through without their mother. Mom must be raising some new bambi’s. Little Buddy didn't want them around here or at the table to eat. I think they were male and never had antlers. It looked like they had bumps but that could have just been their marking. They were very dark brown with a bark face. There was almost no white at the tip of there noise. Little Buddy is light brown with two unique white spots on his neck. Most of the deer that come here have one white spot under their chin. I sure find them amazing. Why they like the new bale verses the old one amazes me. The old one is next to the new one and is half the size of the new one but they don't want it. I think it ha something to do with them tipping their heads. They feel safer at certain level although they will reach to the ground if they have to. Maybe it's about the way they have to spread their front legs to eat on the ground. I found that I could leave the bottom piece of string on the bale so it holds together while they kick on it and it doesn't fall all over. They sort of take bite off like they are biting beef jerky.

The skunks were here until I stepped outside. I think Clinton damaged one of his eyes in that fight the other night. Out of all the stuff they eat sunflower seeds have to be their favorite. Chicken is always good then it’s the cat food. Feeding them by hand had to be the biggest kick. I don’t recommend that to just anyone unless you have a rap or with them. Well Clinton’s back having more cat food.

The raccoon family seems to disappear. Not sure if they’re sleeping the winter away. I wonder where they do go when they are all together. Do they have some sort of home base?

I spoke to soon, one of the kids are here. I don’t see it as them taking food from the raccoon but Clinton did. He had his tail in the air and the gland was puckered. Only a little stink and it was just in the air to scare the raccoon. When I open the door to break up the confrontation both guys ran off. The raccoon just went to the shadows always look to where the food was. I went to the bin of the cat food was and got a can full. Then walk down to the walk where the raccoon was watching me. I poured out the food and walked back on the porch. The little bandit came up the food by the time I was closing the door to go inside.

Cheney blasts lawyer point blank

I was watching the news last night when they showed a doctors drawing of where all the BB's are in the lawyer Chaney shot. To me it looks like the guy was shot point blank, less than 20 feet away. The pattern was around a foot across. Even with a full choke shot gun the pattern wouldn't be that tight unless the guys was real close. The Vice President is coming up with this cover up story just like he said, "I know where the WMD's are." If the lawyer was just peppered he wouldn't be in intensive care and he wouldn't be in intensive care for another week. Chaney turned the lawyers chest into hamburger. The shot that is imbedded in the lawyers heat got there by the closeness of the blast. The lawyer is near death when he was shot. If the lawyer was only peppered he would have been able to walk away from the accident. I'm sure if someone could get into see the lawyer they would see him hooked up to all sorts of tubes and things. This is just another cover-up by Chaney and this administration.

Little Critters

Poor Stinkers has a hurt leg. Little guy is limping. I heard a bit of a fight last night. It really sounded rather fierce. Don't know if it was just the skunks getting into it or something bigger. I did have to air out the house today. I hate to see anyone in pain since I have so much. Seems it doesn't matter if they are big or small or have a nasty smell I like them all. Took care of my big deer when he had a broken leg and it healed up rather good. I wanted to help out the turkeys that were hurt but I couldn't get close enough. They are both still limping but doing a lot better. I think someone tried to shoot the bird with a hunting arrow. I just don't like people shooting on the property. They can do that on there own place if they want to do that. It really amazes me how small skunks eyes are for being out at night. I know they do a lot of smelling. When I went out to feed Stinkers, he started smelling the ground wear I was. I guess to make sure I was gone.

Just because you say

Just because you say it’s true doesn’t mean it’s true. If you claim something that is top secret and know one knows about it you could make up anything to defend your policy. You could say anything and say it’s true because there is no way you can check it out. Bush could say he stopped an earthquake in California. See it didn’t happen and how are you to know he didn’t.

In Iran the Bush white house is now saying they are making nuclear bombs but the Iranians are saying it just power research. Who are we going to believe, Bush who took us to war over weapons that weren’t there, or the Iranians who don’t want to burn oil in power plants to prevent green house gasses?

Is this a republican big business maneuver to invade Iran for their oil? From the impression I’m getting from all the spending on homeland security nothing has really been done to make this country safer. The only people making out are the people making war goods. Iraq has turned into the money pit with no end in sight.

When the president says the economy is doing great then why does he have to cut social services to balance the budget, which isn’t balanced at all. Why is he keep giving the rich tax breaks, saying it’s going to stimulate the economy. He just said the economy was great then why does it need more stimulation at the cost of the poor. Bush said he would repair New Orleans at any cost but now the money has been cut off. He’s a president that couldn’t keep his word if his life depended on it. He said he’s a Christian and wants to protect unborn babies but kills the mothers carrying the babies. It’s okay to kill innocent people in a war but it not okay for a woman to make her own decision. Tom Delay said after the Patriot Act was pasted, “we have been working on this bill for 10 years.”  So that means that the republicans were planning to pass this act to reduce the amount of rights Americans have without the terrorist threat.

Is this terrorist problem a version of McCarthyism? Did the republicans make up the idea that Americans would support this or any administration because of the terrorist threat? Has anyone come up with the conclusion that this administration let the terrorist strike New York just to find a way to invade Iraq? I believe Dr. Rice prevented important information from getting to the president so the terrorist would complete their missions. This would outrage the American public and let the republicans do what every they wanted including starting a war or wars.

There’s nothing like a administration that does anything it wants without checks and balances. It makes this country no better then the tyrants we are fighting. Fascism comes in all forms. After 9/11 everything the republicans have wanted to do has been put into this category of impending doom. If you don’t do this we are doomed. If you don’t fix Social Security the way I want the terrorist are going to get you. If you don’t drill in Alaska the terrorist will get you. There aren’t to many things that the president has said that are true. The people of the United States have been led around like a mob trying to get every terrorist under every rock. Bush inherited the recession caused by his friends and campaign contributors in the stock market that took the American public for a 7.4 trillion dollar ride. Doesn’t that just make you want to invest to save social security?

Hearing a tapping so

Hearing a tapping sound on the porch it perked my interest. I looked out the screen door to see my hens. Two were on the railing one was, “Limpie Girl.” It’s all the girls moms and young Jenny’s. Earlier there was four birds laying in the planters enjoying the sun and nice day. I sat on the back porch while the males were enjoying the day. When they decided to start eating grass I went back inside to put the vacuum cleaner back together. Nice bright sunny warm fresh air day.

The turkeys have separated out to the guys and girls. Mom is protecting the young girls for another year before they can mate. The young males are learning how to be a male turkey. It’s like marshal arts for the turkeys.

Well enough playing with the computer, time to get out in the sun.