Look at the long round thing!

 Socks Kitty walks down the drain pipe and calls for the rest of the gang.

 Sprockets goes to meet Socks. Come on Fuzzer. Look we are on this thing, it above the ground.

Well not much out here lets go climb on something else.

Out with my deer friends

 Pretty Girl and the baby being friends. The baby is scared being around the other deer since they are so much bigger.

 It's the little baby up the hill under the pine trees just past the apple tree.

My new Little Buddy that wandered in the last two days. He's so happy smiling here. Nice to have a friend but there's a couple females that don't want him around and chase him. When mothers have babies they kick out last years babies out on there own. It's for the safety of the new born.

 Such a happy little guy about a year old.

My Momma Girl coming to say Hi to me. She will walk up the walkway and up to the porch to let me know she's here. Have all sorts of chamomile flowers growing here everywhere. There's one on the lower right corner of the picture.

Allegiance to the Country and not a corporation or people

When your hired for any job in the government you take a pledge of allegiance to the country of the United States. You also say that your not in or have been affiliated with the communist party. Doesn't say you can't belong to other groups that want to over through the country like some religious groups or tea bag groups keep talking about. Doesn't say you can't show allegiance to an industry, business or persons such as the Koch brothers and Koch industries and what they stand for.

It's common knowledge that the tea bagger party is funded by Koch brothers and the Koch industries. The go between was Dick Army. Dick Army is also the one that revealed a CIA agents name, usually a treasonous offense and lied about it to the FBI.

When you look at how the wealth is divided up in the country the working class and middle class are at the very bottom with .3 % of the wealth. In case you didn't see that decimal point or can figure out fractions like most people these days, that's 3/10 of one percent. 2 percent of the people have 85 percent of the wealth. Those are people that have or make over a 1,000,000,000 dollars a year plus the money in the bank and investments. They pay less then you on their income tax because of all the breaks they get.

The Koch brothers make after taxes 110 billion dollars a year. That's $110,000,000,000 dollars a year if you need to see the zeros and compare that to what you make. That's every year too.

To understand 2% of 300,000,000 people is 15,000 people. So 15 thousand people have all the money in the country out of the 300 million people in the country.

That are so rich they pay people and have nonprofit focus groups and lobbyists. Koch brothers have all the so called nonprofit think tanks you hear about on TV news that is against things like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, any social programs like public schools, the government,  any thing like regulations that would harm you the public. They are against being able to sue a company for wrong doing. That's the regulations they are going after right now. They do believe in monopolies and are against antitrust laws.

When it came to saving the planet from economic meltdown these groups wanted to bail out the banks and insurance companies but didn't want to help the people they took money from as investments. All those people lost trillions of dollars. A trillion dollars in 1000 billion dollars. That's $1,000,000,000,000 dollars. Took a few trillion to bail out the banks and AIG but countries like Greece who bought these paper products ate crap. The whole EU is down because of Wall Street and the ratings companies who rated trash as triple A rated paper. Myself I think those ratings companies need to have their business license pulled and be put out of business and be forced to help pay for the bailout. The leaders and managers of these firms should be jailed one day for each dollar. What's real bad is if you rob a bank they will put you in jail for 20 years but commit fraud and you get a slap on the wrist and get to keep the money. If you do go to jail it's only for a couple years and you still get to keep the money. In China you would be ask to kill yourself and the government would take all the money you had back. Law here are made to protect the white collar crimes. They affect more people then any bank robber could do. Why isn't the time in jail proportional? I don't understand why a bank who is protected by insurance so all the money taken is returned but the bank robber gets 20 years for taking a few thousand dollars. Yet, a broker who steels billions of dollars, doesn't spend any time in jail. After the bailout the leaders of these companies gave themselves a tax payer funded raise for causing there institution to fail.

So when you hear people like Canter asking for billions to fix his state after cutting funds to FEMA. The people need to say fix it yourself Canter. Take it out of your state funds. Raise taxes and bonds to fix your state. Why do republicans say they want to cut everything but have a little disaster then they have their hands out saying give me. Sure we can give you money but it's going to be a loan and we with make sure it's a low interest loan. These are people that don't want to pay taxes but want tax payer dollars. Why should anyone give them anything? They don't deserve a dime. Ask the Koch brothers to help you out and see what you get. A big NO.

Back to the point I want to make. When you take the pledge to work for the country you need to say that you do not have any allegiances to and corporations, any people, any ideology other then for democracy. After working for the government job you need to take a break and not be hired for any think tank for the rest of your life. You can't be hired to lobby either for a life time. The idea you want to make the government so small that it's irrelevant should be seen as not being with the country and be a hostile person to this country.

Perry who is tied to a religious group along with Michelle Bochman and Sarah Pallin who believe that the country needs to be taken over because of the end times biblical prophecy, need to be removed from the government as hostile people against the state. People that want to stop public education have a reason, they want uneducated people to work cheap for them. They only want rich people to be educated. That's why in Texas they are rewriting history, changing it along with science so people will only believe in the teachings of the bible. That way they can control the masses. They just quote from the bible and you wimp out and don't question what they are doing. People like Perry, Pallin, Bochman are criminally insane. They plot how to take over others and dominate them. Bochman  who is against big government profited her whole life from the government and so did her husband how did state work. It's funny to hear someone running for president say professional politician made this mess. No it was republicans like Bush and Chaney who didn't pay for two wars and gave all the tax money to the super rich caused this problem. This same person comes from a family of politicians. He's been in office decades.

We went to the moon back when the tax code was 70% on the very rich and the country had more jobs. We had a middle class back then also. Industry didn't move to other countries like the mantra is by the republicans. Even giving tax breaks to the rich and corporations doesn't create jobs it's the government that can do that when it's really needed. It's done that in the past and can do it again now. We need a project like Hoover dam but a solar panel field 100 square miles set up in several places in desert states. We need fiber optic cable and fiber run to every home in the country to stay up with the rest of the world. The USA is 16th as far as speed in the world. ATT wants to take over T-Mobile not to give you better service but to make itself into a better monopoly. I believe it's time to bring an antitrust suet against ATT and they need to be broken apart. Because corporations have no allegiance to any one country, if they are to continue to work and do business here they need to take a pledge of allegiance to the country just like a federal employee. Some of these corporations need to be nationalized for the good of the country. Say in putting in Fiber Optic cable around the country, that should be owned by the government and leased to companies and corporations to use so that us the people don't get riped off like we are now. Everyone should have a fiber going to their homes that isn't tied to any corporations. This would be the type of work project that would create jobs and a lot of them independent of corporations. Use the UK model, it works there and can work here. The FCC has been run over by the republicans and corporations and needs to be returned to the people. Putting solar panels on every home in the country would take away the need for new power plants and cover the power needs during the day. The power plants that are here now would only be needed at night. Making deals with power companies who are corporations and have no allegiance to the people of the country need to have the lights turned out on them and start serving the country and We the people. They will not do what's right and you can't trust them. If you hear the ads for natural gas and gas mining they talk like they are your friends when the only friend they have is profit for the share holder. They don't care if they drill a well and your property is damaged in the process. The Oil sand pipeline will not bring down the cost of gasoline because that type of oil is only good for making diesel fuel which will be sent over seas and sold there. So far the first parts of the oil sands pipelines all have leaked and caused damage to rivers and farm lands. As the hearings about the San Bruno pipeline explosion was taking place there was a leak in another PG&E natural gas pipeline which I believe caused a fire. They found several leaks on that line but the republicans are watering down any regulations on natural gas pipelines so that putting in automatic shut off valves is optional. That's the regulations that they are fighting against happening things that would make people safe. They are out to undermine everything that has been fought for over the years. They want the days when lakes are so toxic and catch fire again and not to be held responsible for it and want to be protected against law suits.

Never trust a corporation that says trust us, we are your friend. Never trust anyone from the Koch brothers think tank that talks fast.

Deer Freinds

 Baby deer looking to mother for guidance.

After pulling the weeds out the ones that stick in the hair of everyone it turns out it's a nice place to hang out. I had just watered the area so it was a little damp and cooler because of it. I've pulled out more so the none native grasses since then and the native plants are making it look green.

Forest friends

 Blue Jay on the railing having some scratch. I am that close. The jays and other birds will keep a bit of distance from me and I can see why seeing this large animal coming around them, it's just a size thing. I do get to stand in one places as they fly over to me and as long as I'm relativity still they continue eating until they can't put any more in their mouths. They have to be the stunt fliers of the birds. I'll see them what almost looks like them dropping from the sky and land. I found that they will eat their fill of food then continue packing their mouths and take that off to a stash place where they hide what they have picked up. I believe crows also do that. Seeing them holding a larger seed with there feet and peck at it then eat the insides is amazing to watch. It's great to watch them in the morning. Soon as I walk out the door I'll hear calls from one jay to the others. They will see me putting out feed and call their buddies. No matter how cold it is I'll see them at the water splashing in it getting clean. Nothing like a bath in the morning to wake one up. Wonder if they would like coffee too. My railing has gone from that red to green now. Two coats of green enamel and a good sanding. Just have a little bit more to go one the front porch and it will be done. Was thinking of painting the roof a corrugated steel I put up last year or the year before. I reinforces it so it's strong enough to stand on. I figure a white or light color would reflect sun light and heat away. This might make it cooler under the roof.

 Kitties on the plank. I've made a sort of playground for the kittens and they really like climbing on things. I've never seen cats do as much climbing as these guys do. It's follow the leader all the time.

 Don't take my picture! Not the flash! My eyes. My big buddy didn't like flash photography. He's cool George from my first two skunks, George and Martha. He's very friendly and comes up to me when I call "Buddy." He also lets me pet him and I pick off the burs in his fur and tail. The cutest thing is when he stand up to get closer to me. Some time putting his hand on my leg. He's been here 6 or 7 years now and was this big when he got here. He's the largest of all the skunks. If I get up early and go up the hill I'll find him laying out in the sun watching the sunrise. Skunks do come out in the day time and do like the sun. They just don't like it when it's real hot. Out of all the skunks George is mister mellow and walks around with his tail almost dragging. It amazes me how clean they keep there hair. It's always clean and mostly bug free. I don't see flees here. I noticed that I did see flees north across the American river where it's much dryer. I've only seen a couple tics here in all the years here. Yellow jackets everyone hates besides the big house flies which are starting to show up this time of year. Since it's so warm out I'll find the skunks laying on the concrete or in the yard cooling off and cleaning. They lay at the edge of the porch with their heads poking over the edge looking out at the yard. Each skunk's got a unique personality too. I remember when I first started seeing them come around, their hair looked so soft. Then I heard companies back east raise skunks for the fur trade. You can also buy de-gland skunks in pet stores. Since they have bread them in captivity they now come in many colors beside black and white. PBS.ORG has a Nature show about skunks and it's worth watching because it will give you a different insight into them. There's a teacher that was doing show and tell about skunks and the kids were just amazed. She had a sling like shoulder bag on and at the end of her talk she pulled out a skunks, a full functioning skunk. The kids at first looked with wonder hearing it had it's glands and could spray them. She held the skunk and asked the kids if they would like to pet her. Of course the kids did and came right up. I think the first things out of their mouths was it's so soft.  The ferret like face looking at you really does grip you. They can have a meek look I found as they come up and a more happy look once they feel safe. It's real sad that people think skunks are carries of rabies because they aren't. They can get infected just like anyone else. In the forest they are the clean up machine. They eat bugs that people don't want to have around. Also get gophers and moles eating your gardens and making tunnels all over where when you step your foot goes into the tunnels and you almost break your ankle. I did that many times here until I had raccoons and skunks coming around then my gopher and mole problem went away. I still have what I think is someones escaped hamster tunning around here. I had a rat and mice problem but they seem to go away too with the owls moving in. I have two types of owls here. I don't know the types just that ones a big one and the others are small.

It's baby turkey with mom out walking and learning where the foods and water is. They come by every day walking the same route around the yard. They come down the hill stopping by the picnic table where bird seeds has fallen on the ground. Then it's a few feet more over to the water. They like going through leaf piles. They scratch at the leaves revealing the bugs below. There's one type of grass with a long center section where the seeds grow. The turkeys will grab the stalk and pull it tight until they get to the seeds and get them as they pull it through their beaks. Momma turkey makes little peeps and she walks ever so slow with her baby. As the baby grows mom with teach the babies where the best dry dirt is for a dusting of dirt to get rid of insects. I'm not sure why they lay in the sun, sort of one their side with one wing open. Then they flip around and do that to the other wing. They spend a lot of time taking care of their feathers. Little baby learns from a young age it needs to follow moms lead and start mimicking mom and taking care of it's new feather.

Looking out the front door

 A look from the porch down at the road where the Sunny Boys are eating grasses.

Sitting at the computer with the door open and a visitor comes up to see me. She will walk right up to the doorway on the porch after climbing the stairs.

Close up of tiny bugs

 Tiny white insects on a blade of grass.

Seeds have fell off where I was feeding some birds until the kittens got to big. Just one of these seeds made this large plant about 2 feet tall. Seeds are about an 1/8 inch across. Going to try to grow more of these plants around the yard for the birds and deer.

Mothra

Now that's a moth. The vertical metal bar is 1/2 inch, 12mm -13mm. The eyes reflect light back out and with UV light they light up. They blend in with tree bark which fits the area. I've seen only one bug bigger then this one that hit the screen door one night. I thought it was a bird when I looked. Looking closely at it I discovered it was a very large insect and happened to be one of the types of bark beetles. As the year goes by, different insects come and go. There's a small stingerless wasp about the size of a somewhat large ant that starts coming out this time of year.  They are very annoying because you will find them crawling just about everywhere when you decide to relax. Under the eye glasses is really the most annoying. Birds show up at different times of spring and summer depending on the type of insects. Worms are a favorite treat for the robins. If the ground is wet in the morning the robins show up. There are several other bird I see bathing in the morning at the water. They have to get the little bugs out of their feathers. Turkeys on the other hand take dirt bath and choke the pests away. It's so interesting to see mother turkey teaching baby bird how to do this. Long lived animals have so much teaching they do. For a male it's several years before he moves up to a leader. The seven girls a group from one family of turkeys didn't mate but stuck together for two year and mated on the third. This same group of girls chased off a black bear, charging at the bear wings flapping and crying out. The bear took off running cross the road, down the bank of the creek and up the other side disappearing into the trees of the forest.

Looking Up

So, what's out there. Lots of things like this the Andromeda galaxy. Something the size of the moon across but real faint on the sky. There are more then one galaxy here. The two in the foreground and the smaller spots in the background. M31 the main picture and M33 the lower center galaxies. Then there are the globular clusters groups of stars in a group. It's amazing how big this is and because of light pollution had to see without a telescope. You can see the ghost star at night if you know where to look. There's a lot of free star programs that are open source free to download and have. It's amazing what the space telescope Hubble has shown us. Now NASA is making a new telescope to replace Hubble, The Web telescope will be 80 foot across and be stuck away from earth. It's amazing to thing that a rocket will put this telescope out there where it unfolds and becomes a mirror with in wave lengths of being perfect. Unfortunately the tea baggers said you went over budget and we are going to cut your funding to punish you. This is a one of a kind telescope something never made before and boneheads that don't understand anything about science or economics are making judgments about what NASA's doing.  So the parts are made and now it need to be put together in a clean room a real big clean room. Shall we give the Chinese the telescope parts so they can finish it? Remember the tea baggers were ready to crash the economy to prove their point. What that point was is their heads are very pointy.

Herd of Quail

Was driving slowly up the road when I saw the quail on the side of the road. I've seen them here a couple times before in the low brush. It's real good cover for them. When I first saw them they were a lot smaller. They are growing fast. I've had a couple quail coming by over here and would let out a whistle to tell them where I was. This let me walk right by them without them flying off. They seem to sense whether your going to harm them or just walk by.

Lady Bugs

I was looking at this orange color and wondered what it was so I got closer and discovered it was moving, it was Lady Bugs. Thousands and thousands of Lady Bugs on the roots of the tree near the creek.

I first was shown the lady bugs a couple months ago when they were cutting down the grass in the park with weed eaters. One of the guys brought me over to one side of the creek where they covered the ground. I was heading to town at that time and by the time I got back it was dark out. I forgot about it thinking they would be gone. At that time there was millions of the lady bugs covering the ground in an area about 50 by 50 feet. I looked across the creek to see if they were still there in the grass after it was cut down but they weren't. They must have been feeding on the grass that was growing there before it was cut down. I've noticed that some plants will grow in only one spot. It might be just the right amount of shade, right amount of water, right amount of sun. Also some plants will grow under other plants and you never see those plants because of the taller plants cover the smaller plants. When you cut the taller plants away then the plants under the taller plants will die off because they can't handle the harsh sun light. It's like having pine trees and under them ferns growing in the shadows. There are wild flowers here that only grow under some trees. I have wild lilies that grow only under one spot of pines. There's a blue flower and a white flower that hangs downward like a lantern that only grows in one area around here. There's one flower that grows near the apple trees and no place else.

Kitties on the Fence

Little deer looking at the little kitten. It's a new face running around. The Sunny Boy wants to make friends with his new found friend. I've noticed the deer come up to all the babies no mater what kind of baby they are.

When I moved in here the fence was falling down. I used screws and wire to hold it together and covered that with this rope like material that was from an old rug I found here. Since then moss has started growing on the cord. I was more motivated back then and my back was in better shape so I was able to get around a lot better.

Warm Cloudy Night, Full Moon and Meteor Shower

Was a full moon and the clouds rolled in yesterday. I could hear thunder miles away up the mountain where the clouds touch the ground along with the lightning. There's that annual meteor shower going on but the moons like takes that away to a point. If you face north with the moon to your back you should see them. It's not just one night if you hear it on the news but a period where it goes from a few per hour to many per hour as we pass through the debris of a comet that has gone by.

Was out on the porch with my little friends when I saw one buddy that walked a was to get here and was covered with the Velcro like seeds. I got a hair brush and started brushing her. She didn't mind and sort of backed into the brush. I could tell as I pulled the seeds out it was pulling on her hair and she would make a little sound but didn't run away. She didn't like me brushing her tail and would drop it away from me. I resorted to picking them off one at a time. It's amazing when the wildlife sense your helping them they don't get upset at all.

I'm not sure how to get rid of these plants from growing here. I haven't found any wildlife or insect that takes advantage of them. I've been pulling out the none native grass hoping that would cut down them from growing next year. In the past I've mowed them down but that just seem to reseed them. I don't like the idea of using Roundup early in the year because there are plants that the deer eat. There are also tree frogs everywhere. A little 1.25 to 2 inch frog that you never see but hear at night. I've seen what Roundup does to yard, you end up with dirt. I have enough erosion that I don't need any more. It's like slow moving mass in motion over time.

Having tall grass helps out the baby deer hide and keeps the baby turkeys out of sight. I've been watch a mother turkey and it's only baby walking around getting seeds and bugs. There's horse flies going after everything big standing up mainly the deer. There' another bug that's black and flies around like a bee. Getting a lot of yellow jackets this time of year. I put out traps for them and there has been dozens of the yellow jacket that flew inside them. I see a lot of termites swarming at night around the light. One of them I think is a queen termite flutters around and if they get close to the raccoons, they are chewing on them catching them out of the air.

They cut down a lot well many acres of trees in the park next to me. Now it's about 10 degrees hotter here in the hot summer months. The Manzanita trees kept the sun from hitting the ground which now dries out in summer. It had a whole ecosystem going on there but a guy from the USDA came out and said he knew what was going on. So they ran over the trees and ground them up with a dozer and grinding machine on the front. The only thing growing back is poison oak bushes so far. The guy at the park was saying all the trees would grow so fast but it's been 5 years and it's still a void. No animals go there because of the heat. The deer don't cross the waste land because they are afraid of breaking their legs. Even with my big boots on, these are boots for rock and mountain climbing and still it's hard for me to walk across. They didn't seed the place so I don't know how pines and oaks are going to grow there. Any seeds that may find there way up there soon die because of lack of water and heat. It's going to take a century for the hills to be covered again. When you get someone that doesn't know the place come in and say he's going to return it to a natural setting  you have to wonder what good he is going to do. It was covered in natural plants and now it's not. I think they did this for the homes on one side of the park to prevent fires mainly the houses burning up at the expense of the forest and wildlife. There are still scars of hydrolic mining done over 150 years ago. They still haven't recovered.

My Dear Deer Friends

 Deformed antlers. Just a way to much bone growth. It's like this on both sides of his head. This is the most radical version. I don't know what is causing the abnormal growth but it sure must weigh a lot. There's only a few deer like this and the others are all normal.

 My newest little friend who is so small. The little round head is an indicator on how young it is. All the deer like the baby and mom likes showing the baby off.

One of the twins which is a bit older then the new baby. Mom hides the babies until they can run with her. At the first sounds of anything different the babies are the first to run off. Today they were out testing their legs running around the yard as fast as they can. Up and down the hills and around the trees. They looked like they were having so much fun. They seen the new baby today for the first time. I think that why they tried to get the new baby out running with the twins. The baby is a bit to small for fun like that right now. It's a real joy watching the babies grow up because they are so full of life. They are always happy it seems. They want to check out everything they haven't seen before like any child. The twins have only seen me a few times but with moms help looking on the twins will come to me when I call to them.  Mom gets a rest while the kids play here. She on none stop watch for danger. Here it's safe for them to run and play. They get to learn what plants to eat and sample everything around. They walk up to flowers and smell them. After pulling a lot of the weeds it's given the deer a lot of places to lounge around. Been running the rain bird to green up areas and the natural grasses are all that are green and that's the plants they like to eat. None of the dead European grasses are green right now and only are in early spring. They die off as soon as it stops raining and turn brown with in about a month because of the hot weather. Sun light like they aren't design to get being so far north in origin. I've read about Pearl Grass which is a grass that is resistant to drought and has roots that go down a foot. Native grasses go down ever further up to twelve feet. Unfortunately 95% of the grasses in California are none native. Deer also like leaves of plants and look for ones that are sweet just like early humans found foods too. The nursery here is just fine with me, I get to know the deer through their lives. There are two family groups that sort of except each other at time. For the most part they are real good but I'll have to keep the peace at time.

Things I've found out about deer: They only have bottom front teeth and back teeth top and bottom. So when they eat an apple that's too big they will take a bite out and chew that until they get the size down where they can fit the whole thing in their mouth. Then they chew on it rotating it in their mouth until they can chew down on it. The deer need to be taught what to eat over the first two years of life.

Deer that have spent up to two years with mom with squat to go to the bathroom. Deer separated from mom early won't do that and stand up doing the business. One follows what they see mom does this and it's in males and females. The other deer I believe were separated from mom at an early age and are a bit more feisty. The ones that grew up longer with mom have better manners and work with each other in the herd. They show more affection towards each other, It's nice to see an older deer take a young one in and show him or her affection when they are scared.

One night when I first moved here it was raining and it was real dark, new moon time dark. A young deer came up where I was feeding the birds and started eating the bird seed. He was shaking and didn't look like he was along like this before. Big Biddy my first friend and best friend ever came up to the young deer. He pulled him in close with his neck and started like him. It was raining so I don't think he was trying to dry him off. That was the first demonstration of affection I saw. I don't know anything it else could be,

Big Buddy was so good with the young deer. It was late in fall so the velvet was off the antlers. A young meek deer came up to Big Buddy and was trying to challenge him. Big Buddy pulled him back and then let the your one push him and Buddy back up. Buddy pushed him back gently making it look hard like he was really trying. The little deer pushed back after Buddy let up and Buddy back up letting the little guy win the push off. The little deer with his head held high was so proud of himself. I gave him some self confidence something the young deer only get by picking on younger deer. It was a very health exchange by a caring leader.

During the year there are different plants the deer need to take advantage of being in season. Buddy would take out the boys and bring him to the edge of the forest pointing out the plants to eat. He paced back and forth watching them making sure they were eating off the right plants. He surely was leading them and showing them what he has learned. I can do only so much but miss the days we would go foraging together. He would point out apples he wanted and I'd get them for him Playing hide and seek aways was another thing we like playing. When I could find him he would pop his head up to let me know where he was. He could always find me no matter how much I tried to hide.Buddy was such a good friend and my biggest loss. He really held the herd together too. One time I said no more food for you guys until the girls get to eat. The guys waited in the field and even pushed the females forward. They waited there until the girls all ate then I told them it was okay to come up. They all looked to Buddy to find out if it was okay to go. Buddy would get me out side when I was having a hard time getting out of bed because I was so sick He would stand at the door looking in the front window until I got up and came out. Then he would go lay down under his favorite tree and watch me work around here. I'm so sorry he died trying to make it here while to coyotes were chasing him. He would have been safe here if he could have been able to cross the creek. He slowed down because of those big antlers to get under the trees. That's when they got him. If only I could have came when he cried out. At that time I was new here and my hearing wasn't as developed like it is now. Now I respond to the sounds of the babies. I'll be inside listening to the radio and hear the little sounds of the babies and come running out.

Got a tooth stuck in my head

Little girls got a tooth stuck in her head. You can see it going in on a slight angle but doesn't get her down. She's still nice as ever. Has those nasty Velcro like seeds stuck in her hair too. Every day they clean all the burs out of their hair and every day they get more walking around here.

Too hot to move

Too hot to move. Kitty lounges on the cedar fence. Been real hot here and it's effecting everyone.

My deer friends

 

Sunny Boy Too, lounging after eating apple.

 

Hard to scratch you nose without fingers. Such a cute baby girl.

Buddy trying to eat and not drop things out of his broken jaw. He still looks happy even though his tongue is hanging out the right side of his mouth. He still runs up to me with a silly smile. I try to help him out the best I can. He's really a nice guy and takes care of the younger deer by licking then and cleaning them. He seems very affectionate to the other deer.

Happy Faces

Mr. Friend lounging on the cool new soft grass. Mr. Friend will walk up to me and surprise me at times. Seems like that would be the other way around.

My Sunny Boy, one of the two Sunny Boys. Amazingly I can tell the twins apart. They are just over a year old. The Sunny Boys like to play together. The older deer look out for them and help clean each other. It's really amazing watching these little guys when they come running up to see me with a big smiles. Talk about trusting they didn't run off while lounging when I fired up the lawn mower today and cut part of the lawn and things were flying around. 

The babies are back and okay

Thought I lost my babies but here they are yesterday with mom. Had worried that mom might have left them because of the heat like mother deer ate doing in the heat wave zone. I heard a deer on the porch today. When I got up there were three coffee cans of grain gone. Don't know if momma deer was here when it was less crowded.

Today I started the lawn mower up looked over and the deer were eating the apples I brought up to the table. Some of them were too big for them to get in their mouth so I cut the big ones up into quarters. I had about a shopping bag full and they are all gone now.

Little baby skunk was screaming thinking all the older skunks were going to take her food. She was screaming so hard that the baby sprayed a bit. Lucky I'm used to it and it doesn't bother me. What did bother me was picking up grass and weeds and stuffing them into a bag. My arms became bright red like I poured boiling water on them. Just a minor reaction that I shouldn't itch.

The Bunghole Inspector

"I do this to all the incoming congressmen." The self appointed official "Bunghole" inspector makes sure that all republicans are perfect assholes. "It's a dirty job but someone has to do it." We can't have any posers coming into the ranks." Besides Bungholes he acts as the parties road block to block anything good to come to the senate floor even if it harms the country. He can't let anything from the other side pass. So it's better to stop all bills that don't have the republican name on it. He work "Boehner" in hand to keep congress as plugged up and constipated. If you wonder why nothing gets done in Washington look no farther here is the bowel obstruction of Washington.

Great day with the forest friends

Still recovering from surgery slowly. Tried doing yard work, pulling weeds with burs out and putting them in bags so they couldn't reseed. I noticed one thing interesting about the weeds and plants, there was several growing seasons this year. It looks to me like three seasons of weeds this year. In January we had a summer like two months where the weeds started the first time. Then it got cold with snow and rain knocking off many blossoms from the fruit trees. The snow and rain also knocked off many of the developing cherries and plums which are in the same family of trees. After an extended winter and spring we went into a two plus month of heat where it was close to 100 degrees every day. There was a short period of rain and cool weather which some people said was unusually cool but was normal compared to the 100 degree days which are now becoming the norm. It should be in the mid eighties here during the high of summer heat with only a few days reaching a hundred. Having hundred degree heat for months at a time is abnormal. Just like it's abnormal for Phoenix to be covered with a dust storm that reaches up two miles high and a hundred miles wide. But times are changing even if some republican law makes say it's a political debate and not scientific truth. The rest of the world is working on the reduction of Carbon Dioxide but here corporate money trumps logic. For a while the religious right followed the neo-cons talking points until they discovered they were being a part of the destruction of the planted. The neo-cons will do anything for money even poison Americans with anthrax to create fear and start wars with a country that wasn't even involved in 9/11. After that was even proven the extreme right still didn't believe it like telling the sky was blue and they were told by the party it wasn't so they went along with those talking points. So we have to get used to living in a more weather turbulent world with bigger storms, bigger tornadoes, bigger hurricanes, higher sea levels, hotter hots for longer periods and colder colds with more snow to areas that never had snow before. This will cause more flooding to some areas because we build our flood control to the past history and not the future which is changing. Some plants and animals will have to migrate this includes humans mammals too.

Back to the weeds with burs. The seeds have hooks like Velcro and stick to every part of your body and clothing. They hook on to hairs of everyone. When the hooks break off they become embedded into your skin for weeks. I've found that I can pull some of them out by dragging a razer blade over my skin but it doesn't get the deeply embedded ones out. I filled up six 50 pound grain bags with weeds. Also setup a sprinkler to spray out over the field. The mint plants were looking a bit dry and I see that  they perked up along with other plants in the field. I have a few different variety of sages that moved in as it's been getting hotter here. One sage has bright red flowers. There's moths that pollinate the sages. With the decline in bees over the past few years I was surprised to see the amount of honey bees this year pollinating the cherry trees.

I have a rare succulent that's on the watch list flowering this year. It's the first time I've seen them ever flower. So far it's been only in a few places here and grows very slowly. I've had to watch out for the plant to keep it growing. I have one pot I put a little piece of it several years ago and now it's a good sized plant. It hangs over the pot to the ground where it's starting to take root. That's what interesting about succulents is the root when resting on the ground. It's a great strategy for growth. It's always looking for the best and wettest places. The ground needs to be damp all the time for it to grow.

While weeding I noticed the short forest, the plants that grow under all the other plants. There are plants that are so small they live under the grasses flowers and plants. You need to get on your hand and knees to get close to them to see them. There's a whole world under the small plants just like grasses and flowering plants are under trees. Some of these plants have tiny little flowers that are only 1/32 to /1/16 in across. What growing right now is a pink flower in one area. I've noticed that some of these plants will only grow in one part of the forest and not in other areas. Some of the grasses are like that too. I've got several variety of sedges moving in over the years from the valley floor. Many of them usually grow around the edge of rice fields. One variety that has long waxy blade or leaves has a stem that grows from the center of the plant and has a seed clump that grows ant the end. This clump grows until it's heavy enough to fall over about 24 inches long. That's where it drops it's seeds for the next plant to get started. The seeds are very light and will blow in the wind but having a stem drop hundreds of seeds right on the ground insures that they will make it into the ground for the next generation. I've found you can cut them like grass and they are impossible to ignite because of the high amount of water stored in them. So even in the driest part of the year when it's extremely hot they are green. They are very decorative too. There are one variety that grows about six inches tall and that's it. It's got fine blades so it's really soft in feeling. There's one type that has long slender shape and it works well on the retaining wall because they hang over very nicely. There's a center stem like the others thats sort of round with a little clump of seeds at the end. Another real slow growing variety has round blades that are somewhat stiff so it looks like a pin cushion. Each blade or leaf is about 12 to 14 inches long and they grow tightly together in a clump. I've noticed that all of them have a good tight roots which holds them in the soil. You can dig them out but can't pull them out so they are good to hold soil on hill sides that would slide other wise.

The last two years I haven't been able to work on my garden area and it's over grown with native plants. Many of the plants I've never seen before and many of them I've never seen this size because the animals would keep them cut down. One thing about the native plants I like is they are green right now and just starting to flower unlike the European grasses and plants which turned brown months ago. The European grasses grow here in the spring when there's a lot of constant rain and while the ground stays wet just like European countries which are further North. Native grasses have extremely long root which goes down to the water table so they can be 12 feet long where the European grasses are right at the surface. The wildlife doesn't eat the European grasses which took over. It's good if you have European animals that eat European grasses.

While pulling weeds my deer friends showed up. They came over to where I was to see what I was doing because they are always interested to see what is changing. I shook the apple trees and several hundred small green apples fell to the ground. I had to help the deer with some of the apples that because stuck between logs or under plants where they couldn't see them. It was great having a dozen deer walking around me. I'd be pulling weeds and shoving them into the bags. I'd come across a apple and toss it to the closest deer. It was something you might watch on a fictional movie or in a fairy tail but for me it's a part of my forest and forest friends. I'm afraid that the two baby deer I posted pictures of are no more because of the heat. I do have water here for the wildlife which does help them. I also had bears hanging around here while it was cooler when they should have been migrating up the mountain. I can't blame them for anything because they are doing what comes natural for them like all mammals and birds just trying to survive but the humans believe they are expendable. One thing I try to tell people is that when you don't see wildlife it's not because they moved it's because they are gone. Deer live within two miles of were they are born. When the food runs out so do they. Migrations for wildlife is slow just like it's slow for plants. They can't hop in a car or jet and move off to another better place.

I did way too much yesterday and when I was hurting I just took a pain pill to keep going. I've always been like that, keep going no matter the amount of pain I'm in. I guess that was instilled in me when I was younger in the Boy Scouts. When I was backpacking and became tired or hand aches and pains I couldn't stop. In some cases it would have been deadly to stop and give up. So these days I'll put off getting water or running to the bathroom as long as possible because that would take me away from what I'm doing.

Stepping outside I can expect to see something new every time. Whether it's a new plant, flower or even bug there's always something new to see along with the sounds here. I'm always listening to the birds and noises to tell me where creatures are and who is there because they all have their own unique sounds. Now to figure out why I can't post pictures of my adventures here on planet earth.

Tea Baggers are ruining the country and world lead by the Koch Brothers

What do the Tea Baggers all have in common, the Koch brothers. The Koch brothers father was the leader of the John Birch Society and now the sons are picking up where daddy didn't do, destroy the country. It's amazing that the Tea Baggers say they are for the constitution but have never read it and quote parts that aren't even there. They talk about history and make it up as they go. From wanting to create another depression to run the country into the ground they are pure evil. It can't be just a simple ideology because they are so radical that the republican party doesn't want anything to do with them like the Christian Right. I believe they are a part of a conspiracy to turn the country into a totalitarian country. One so called Christian leader that will say he's doing Gods work but will be the Antichrist if not worse. If you have noticed people like Michelle Buttman who says she's a Christian and went to a fly by night Christian college and believes in Jesus Christ as her savior but who want to make the poor even poorer and take away the country's safety net. Want to through elderly people out on the street along with the disabled. They want to dismantle social security which is a insurance policy not some sort of free money like they would want you to believe. Michelle's husband is a real nut job too. A radical Christian who thinks he can change people gender practicing junk science. How can you get a science degree from a Christian college when they don't believe in science. Both don't believe in climate science because they were paid to say that by the Koch brothers and Koch industries a oil and chemical corporation along with many think tanks and political groups you may have heard of but didn't think they amounted to much since they sounded patriotic. They are extremist that want to have a working class of slaves. It's a take off of the sudo Neo-Nazi type of idealism. Money and power has been perverted with the Koch brothers. What would be good for the country is if their corporation was nationalized along with other energy corporations like it has been done in other countries. This would make energy fair to the public by dismantling the monopolies.

This corporate take over of America is going to be it's down fall since they have no allegiance to any one country. They are out for themselves and don't care about any country. That's why the corporate sponsored republicans are willing to cut taxes on the rich. They did away with Glass-Stegal act which brought down the banks and the public needed to bail them out to prevent a world wide depression. We should have put the banks into receivership and restructured them into smaller banks. Citi Bank and Bank of America still owes the country a trillion dollars each with interest. The Glass-Stegal Act  should be reenacted. Keep investment banks seperate from regular banks so they won't take risky beats. Hedge funds should be outlawed because it's like Los Vegas for the rich beating on things like funds that would fail after knowingly putting together fund that would fail. Everything on the stock market needs to be taxed and regulated to prevent them from fraud and cheating people.

I saw an ad on TV that said to read the prospectus closely at the end of the ad after telling people what a great bunch of funds and firm they were. As Greenspan found out which broke him from the big economist he was into the dirt-ball he is, a broke man. People listened to him like he knew what he was talking about and it turns out he didn't know what he was talking about. He's just an old man rambling.

Kanter is one that's so full of himself and believes the crap in his book, "Full of Crap" and his video, "So full of himself." I'd like to see Obama slap that smirk of his face. Punch him right in that big nose and make it bleed. No one has ever told him no before and so he just a spoiled man-child. He's the Eddy Haskel of the congress. I'm amazed how Boehner lets him walk over him. Boehner suppose to be the leader but he's snot.

Where were you when....

Where were you Mitch McConnell when Bush spent 10 trillion dollars? Where were you Boehner when Bush was spending 10 trillion dollars? I didn't hear a peep out of spending then but a spending spree. Your not blaming Bush for the problem we have now, why not? Because if you really had a spine you would say it's your fault that the debt is so high. Bush came into office with a 500 billion dollar surplus. What did the republicans do, start a war so Bush could be reelected. Bush had a map of Iraq on the wall from the first days he took office and planned on starting a war for oil and you guys followed him into hell. McConnell you said when President Obama took office that you are going to do everything you can to make him a one term president so you have been blocking progress, making the country worse off, blaming others for your problems, your just an incompetent bigot hillbilly. Boehner your speaker by default and totally incompetent. How did you even get elected, stupid voters? A Boehner by any other name is still a Dick. You can even say your name right, there's no "ai" sound in your name.

You voted yourselves a raise of 200%. You get more money to cut your hair per month them most people make. Free air travel any time you want. Now I found out you sexually harassment people without going to jail because your exempt. You and your family and staffers don't have to pay back school loans because you wrote a law exempting you and your family and friends.

How you McConnell say the lies you say without laughing because the others around you are standing in back of you.  Boehner we all know your drunk so you can say lies with a straight face.

So republicans where were you when Bush and Chaney were on the 10 trillion dollar spending spree? Giving the rich and corporations tax breaks tax and billions. Deregulating everything you could get your hands on bringing us to the mess we are in today. I haven't met one republican that hasn't been out for themselves and not to help the country. Republicans can't win an election without lies and  cheating. Why are you out to destroy the country?

The only thing I see republicans good for is fixing potholes or land fill like toxic waste.

The Little Babies

These look great at full size. Just click on the picture to see it as a larger picture. Click it again and it goes to full sized. You will see the little hairs and whiskers. Mother deer is so proud and smiling. I haven't changed anything with the pictures, they are right out of the camera.

I'd like to setup this editing software because U can't see some of the boxes because they are so light in color. White on light gray isn't very good to see. Since this is all new I'm wondering if they are still working the bugs out. I can't find anything to change the way the page is laid out. Can't change whether the pictures left or right but only in the center. Can't do that with the text either.

Now that's a Bug

Those are 2X4's the mosquito is resting on. The mosquito is so big that other bugs are crawling on the wings of this guy. The wingspan is close to 3 1/2 inches using the 2X4's as a reference.

Bit put off with this new blog editing software because they didn't check to see if it works with Opera, a real nice full service browser that does mail, web page design and more except work properly with Google Blogspot. You can click on the photo to see it larger and up to the original size 3008X2000 or there abouts. I was before the software Java script was changed able to set the size of the picture size and placement. Going to have to do the blog entry with Firefox. Well, had to manually edit this in HTML. I haven't looked into all the plug-ins it has, most everything is installed with what you need from the program. I should setup the mail and chat.

Congress Cheaped out the Shuttle

When the Shuttle was first being designed it was going to take off and land on a runway. Congress cut the assist vehicle that would carry the shuttle to a high altitude before it would take off on it's own power. This would have gotten rid of the booster launch rockets which one failed burning a hole in a O-ring and causing the external fuel tank to explode. It would have got rid of falling foam off the external fuel tank which damaged the leading edge of the Shuttle's wing causing the Shuttle to burn up on re-entry. They also had the NASA administration pushing for more launches by then which gave up on safety and they didn't listen to the engineers. That lift vehicle which sort of was like a 747 that moves the Shuttle from the other landing spots to Kennedy is sort of the idea how it works except it would take it to the edge of space before the Shuttle would start it's own engines to get the rest of the way into low earth orbit. There were congress men, persons that wanted to see rockets and power of a lift off and not a plane running down the runway so they vetoed that design. That design would make it safer for everyone on the Shuttle since the rockets used are just controlled explosions. Congress chose a 800 year old design over something new because it didn't have fire and flames and lots of smoke and sound of power. It's sad how people who know nothing about science have input on science only to screw things up. Taking off and landing horizontally with a reusable design would have been the way to go but because of the cut back design it ended up costing more to run then the original design which would have cost more to begin with but wouldn't explode on the deck. If you look at the X series of aerospace planes they were dropped from a B-52 high off the earth. That's how the Shuttle was designed originally but you can't sit in bleachers and watch a take off so congress didn't like that, it wasn't impressive although safer and cheaper in the long run then what we ended up with. It's too bad there are such backwards people that get elected to congress and make laws about things they know nothing about. Some of them don't believe anything that scientist tell them and that's why the United States if the only country where climate science is a political debate. When businesses can buy off congress and senate nothing gets done right. That's why republicans defend tax breaks for the super rich where they make billions and pay no taxes.

First of the babies pictures

Saw the babies for the first time today. Mother deer was so happy showing them off to me. I got to walk up rather close to them too. The Sunny Boys greeted them and licked them showing their affection. They are just amazing.

So I'm getting a lot of babies to watch. There should be more baby deer from all the mothers. I liked watching them run around but since they are so small they don't travel all that fast yet. They spent a lot of the time drinking water. Looking forward to seeing them tomorrow.

Getting some loving

Mother and baby exchanging some loving. I'm always amazed at the affection mothers give there babies and how their babies give mothers love and affection. It doesn't matter what animals I'm photographing they all express their love for each other. Whether it's a bird feeding it's baby bird a skunk with it's mother or my kitties and their mother they all express affection. What's real amazing is seeing a soon to be mother deer that's real pregnant come over to a mother skunk and her babies and admire them. She will stand there watching the babies knowing she's going to have babies soon. I was just watching a mother raccoon and her baby. Seems all the animals will see babies and cut them slack. One thing I find real amazing is how several species get along. I've watch the raccoons push aside a skunk and the skunk didn't even stop chewing. The baby skunks challenge everyone even their brothers and sisters. The babies being so small trying to stomp their feet can be real quiet even if there's leaves under them. I really like to two albino raccoons. They tend to get picked on by the others for looking different. Those little pink fingers are really something. All the raccoons do like getting wet and do smell like a wet dog. The skunks only smell when they spray and they don't do that very often. I wonder what ever happened to the one baby skunk that wanted to follow me around. He would come in the house and lay down and go to sleep then would wake up after a few hours and go to the door when it wanted out. When I sit out on the porch it's common for a baby to come up and lay next to me or on my foot and go to sleep. I guess it's the warm body they like.  I hear the skunks making noise and think it's one of the babies. I just have to say forcefully, "Babies" and they stop.

But us rich republican are just cheap

Rich people didn't get rich by spending money. They are penny pincher's and want everyone else to pay there way that includes for national security. Back when "Ike" was president income tax on the progressive scale was near 80+% and the country went on just fine. There were great social programs and no one went to another country to create businesses. When Regan did his tax cut everyone mainly the republican remember that but don't remember the 6 tax increases he had because the tax cuts were so great the county was going to run out of money. Then George H. Bush claimed no new taxes and had to raise taxes to pay for the first gulf war. Clinton said I'm going to raise your taxes and balance the budget and he did. There was a 500 billion dollar surplus at the end of his second term. W came to office and thought he would be cute and win over the people by giving a tax break for the wealthy and a minor check to everyone else. No rich people did anything but put the money in the bank just like it was predicted. We went from a 500 billion dollar surplus to being in debt. How Bush spent 10 trillion dollars while in office still amazes me. He didn't pay for any of the wars and gave the rich outrageous tax breaks. Before the end of his term congress and senate gave themselves a 100% raise while the republicans were still in power. Seems like those benefits they get should be cut. Make them pay for their own health care costs. Let them pay for their hair care too because what they get from the tax payers to keep their hair cut is just ridiculous. It's in the thousands of dollars a month range. Many of the people of both houses aren't insurable but we pay what ever the cost is to get them health care and now they don't want any people in this country to have health care even though they paid into the programs. Why republicans keep saying it's broken and they want to privatize social security when it is where the government has been borrowing money from for years. The government owes social security 75 trillion dollars and doesn't want to pay it back. That's like organized crime getting into the retirement funds of unions. Of course government plays that down and keeps saying it's going to run out of money in some years in the future. If the government paid back what it borrowed it would be just fine but they keep taking money. When G.W. Bush was in office I kept writing that he was doing everything he can to destroy the country and I was right. The republicans pilfered the country. The rich got richer and the working class got poorer. We are at the same place we were when Bush took office or was appointed by the supreme court as president. There hasn't been any growth to the county while Bush was in office. Now we are taking in 20% less income from taxes and fees and the republicans are out to de-fund and break anything and everything while giving tax breaks to the rich and wanting the lesser class to pay for the country. They, the republicans say that Medicare is broken when it works just fine for millions of people. What needs to be changed is both houses need to be placed on Medicare for their health care. Then changes will happen to improve Medicare for all. Why the republican hate all social programs even though before there were this so called conservative movement they were the social party. Now they are the anti-social party and I mean the mental kind. They are social-paths with their idealism. They don't believe in science. Inholf thinks climate change and global warming is a conspiracy even though the rest of the world would have to be in on it. He says it's so scientist can create job security, if that isn't the stupidest thing you ever heard.  It's amazing that most of the religious right broke with the republicans over climate change and said it was a crime not to be responsible for being good stewards of the world. Still slowly they are finding out that republicans aren't the moral party. They are as moral as Michelle's hero John Wayne Gacey the serial killer of her home state. If you look at new reals of hearings where Phil Gramm was defending deregulation and what made Greenspan a disheveled man. Markets can't be trusted at all and the republicans defended this policy saying the market will self regulate. Well we saw what happens there. The market cheats and lies and defrauds people of their money. They bring down other countries while making the country pick up the mess they created. Even if the republicans have their way and getting rid of social security something they hate because a democrat made it it still would only fix the budget for one year and leave many people destitute the year after. Why they want to protect the richest people in the country and I'm not talking about the low end of wealthy making a couple million a year but the people making billions a year with all sorts of tax breaks that common people don't get. Just 1% increase in their income would balance the budget over ten years faster without the Bush tax breaks. Yet they defend the richest companies in the world now that immoral. They don't care about people and yet keep saying how moral they are. They use the voters and harm then with a smile. What gets me is how voters drink the coolaid and think the republicans are going to help them when they are doing everything they can to take their money and leave them out on the street. There you can be arrested for being homeless and put in jail because rich people don't want to see poor people.

Cooling down, only going to be around a hundred

Well it has been around a hundred so when the weather reader said on the news today it was going to cool down I thought he meant it was going to cool down. So it's down 4 degrees from 104 degrees to 100 degrees really not much of a difference. It's still like being in a sauna. Going outside for a little bit my shirt is soaked and I'm sweating even though I'm under the celling fan right now.

There was a couple cells of thunder storms crossing the mountains. Up to 2 inch hail coming down. It's mainly following Interstate 80 since that's the low spot in the mountain pass. It's moisture coming up from the Gulf of California. This is the main rain that comes up every summer to water Joshua Tree. It's also blowing up the back side of the Sierra's.

Kitties are moving some what slow but it's hard to keep a kitten down. I'm putting out cool milk for the kitties and they flock to the bowl soon as I close the door. I've notice that the kittens wanted to play with a baby squirrel but the squirrel wouldn't have any of it. The kittens just see the baby squirrel as another fuzzy creature that is the same age as them. They don't see that there is a difference in species. I've notice that what I thought was the white kitty has gray ears, tail and part of it's back legs are gray with white feet. The gray kitty with long hair seems to be more on it's own a lot of the time. It does play with the other kittens but I notice it being off exploring by itself. The black and white kitty and the mostly white kitty are best buddies and are always together.

I put scratch out for the birds on the rails of the porches. The jays are the first to zip in. They come by every morning and evening. They have to be the jets of the bird world with there sleek bodies.  They dive in on each other for what looks like fun. How they drop straight down and land is amazing. It's drying out here so not as many robins as there once was earlier in spring. Every late afternoon the finches come through the trees in a large flock going from tree to tree.

I've added a trash can lid to my cascading water for the critters and birds. Have to do some minor adjustments to level them off. There was a jay splashing in the water yesterday cooling off. I'm amazed at how the birds come in and clean up even in the cold of winter. Now it has to be about cooling down. I've noticed the birds with their mouth open, panting.

Not sure what's going on with the hummingbird feeders but I'll find them on the ground or empty hanging in place. I tried hanging one out on a dead branch but it still gets knocked down. When I took the one down to fill it, it had large ants inside. The ants up here are something else. The worst ones are the carpenter ants, big black ones. They live inside wood carving the wood out just leaving a shell of the wood which falls apart with a touch. The next worse ant is the black and red ones because those like to swarm and they climb all over you rather quickly. There are small ants and I mean real small that seem to be mainly outside.

Trimming some weeds out of the gardens I saw a yellow spider with eggs on a leaf. Was the first time I've seen this type spider. The daddy long legs spiders making a random like web make the material for the finches nests. As I was pulling weeds near the house these two finches came in close then started collecting spider webs from the eves. They make hanging nests like a sock hanging from a branch.

The deer are starting to show up so I should greet them. It's nice to see them sile when I come out to see them. I wanted to water one area so it would be damp for them when they lay under the trees and bushes.

Coopers Hawk

Coopers Hawk. Saved a Blue Jay the other day from being snagged by this guy as it came diving in. The jay made it into a bush where the branches are close together. The hawk couldn't fly in tight like that, it did try though. I clapped my hands and the hawk flew up to the oak tree first still keeping an eye on the jay. I grabbed the camera and started walking closer to the hawk. It moved from one tree to another watching me very closely.  I hear the hawks crying out every day as they fly around.

The deer were here at sunset today like always. A kitfox came up on the porch for some cat food and was more interested in what was out in the yard them me. I told the little one it was okay and it continued eating like it was tame. For a wild animal it sure is friendly. I didn't want to move to get the camera because movement bothers most all the animals. I try moving real slow with the night shift and talk softly to them. The raccoons are resting up in the walnut tree. Been a real hot day close to a hundred. I see the skunks have the same idea and are laying on the cool concrete. The raccoons are laying with their arms and legs hanging over the branches. You would think the skunks would smell but there's nothing like a wet raccoon for being aromatic.

The baby skunks are trying to show off how tough they are. Saw a mother skunk get tired of the baby making noise and stomping it's little feet. With a fast nudge the baby was pushed off the walkway and totally surprised. There are several generations of skunks here. One my oldest male has been here since I first moved in.

Grandma raccoon's here. She's been here also since I moved in. Has a bit of wear to her too. Her tails trimmed like a toy poodle with a ball at the end from being chewed on. One raccoon has a round cut on it's ear and now looks like something sharp fell on it's head. There's a 3/4 inch piece of skin missing. Doesn't seem to bother the girl and is starting to dry up from the other night when I first saw the wound.

It's funny to watch the skunks sit down because their legs are so short like a wiener dogs. With it being this hot they look like a flat skunk laying around. It's amazing when they stand up on their hind legs to get a better view. The raccoons do that too so do the bears. It doesn't mean they are going to attack it's just for a better view. With the shape of their heads pointed and nose way out there it gets close to the ground. They have to be one of the best smeller's. They can smeel stuff that has past in the air and on the ground. They will follow the smell from in the air to where ever the smell takes them. They have musk glands and will rub the side of their heads on the ground to mark where they have been. I'll see them following their scent even in the rain.

It's amazing how much they look like mini wolverines. Big back legs and small front legs. They have long claws on their front paws and do a bit of digging. I heard if you give them enough time they will go through concrete but I think that is because of the determination they have. For the most part they are very friendly and like to explore everywhere. I've seen them and the raccoons snag bugs right out of the air as they flew by. I used to have a gopher problem but think my night shift took care of them.

I haven't seen the bobcats this year. Maybe because I have a cat with kittens. She's a bit on the wild side and hisses at me every time I get close to her. The kittens are something a mostly white one with a light gray tail and white feet and gray ears. There's a black and white one like the father and hangs close to mom. Then there's the little gray kitty that looks just like mom with the long hair just like her.

Still haven't seen the new baby deer, the mothers are keeping them hidden until they can get larger. I'll see the mothers ears perk up and look out over the yard and once in a while take off to check on the babies. It's going to be nice to see the babies running and playing here soon.