The first baby chicks

While sitting here today scanning some slides, the first 3 babies turkeys came by with momma turkey. The daughters of this same mother were all excited. The males wanted to check to see if they were their offspring but the daughters were protecting the mother. I can't tell which one is a male turkey yet but it seems the males can. They don't like any competition in male turkeys so they like to kill off the young. I have to say it's another exciting day for me here in the forest. Since they stopped here today they will be coming back every day after this unless something happens to them. Mom has to teach them where and what to eat. I noticed that with the skunks too. There was two young deer with pregnant mom here this morning. The males didn't want to share but I could see the youngsters wanted to come down and see me. They remembered me from last year and remembered our hand signals. It sounds crazy to name wild animals but I do and they seem to respond to their names too. What a great day, sunny and warm out and I'm inside scanning slides. Guess I'm going to have to get out there and work up a manly sweat and try to get another case of poison oak.

Cutest thing I've seen so far

I saw a black and white tail moving in front of the door. When I got to the door it was six baby skunks and momma skunk. The babies all kept close to mom but wanted to see what the world had to offer. They were so small even smaller then a young squirrel that mom would let run out of the nest. Seeing all my steps covered with little black and white bodies was one of the exciting moments of living here in the forest. They were scared off by the boys Big Buddy, Mr. B, and Stumpy my friendly deer that visit most every day. Since they seem to like the dark I'm thinking that they will be back later. As far as I could tell they ran under my tool shed. Don't know if they are living there but if they are that makes working in the shed a little tricky. Going to have to walk lightly. Still This has to be one of the high light of  living here like when I saw the family of raccoons come through.

Don't scare a skunk

Well, my Big Buddy and Stumpy was outside having a snack when I decided I'll give them a little more to eat. Soon as I opened the door the skunk started freaking out. I think it was because there were two skunks out the one the porch and one next to the planter, a half oak barrel. Scaring the skunk on the porch got him running to hide but he came in contact with the other skunk. An invasion of food territory. Well, the little guys started screaming and the next thing I knew there was this distinct odor. Not bad as skunks go but one of them did go. Funny how living in the forest and how you get used to odors like skunks. The screaming chased off the deer. Well they all will be back some time over though the night.

 

I got some pictures of the one skunk at sunset. It was the big tailed skunk. Usually the skunks never fight or if they see me they just run off. Then again, the first year I was here there was a cat that wanted to mate with the skunk but the skunk didn't want any part of it.

 

Can't believe the traffic going to Tahoe. There must have been three miles of traffic backed up just coming into Placerville. Yes the fruit cakes are on the road. Why is it on a holiday people just think they can do anything. Driving at unbelievable speeds on the roads. Yesterday a car changed lanes into a motorcycle. The motorcycle crashed into the center divider and killed the driver. Lot of one car accidents too. Those always amaze me why one car would just flip over or run off the road.

Singing in the Rain

Nothing like the deer making fun of you


I'm singing in the rain...


Last night was great with the almost full moon. The light came through the sky light and window and I could make out the trees almost like day light. Went to bed early did to much yesterday. It's always that way, do to much and take two or three days to recover. Some times it might even take months to recover if I do one minor movement wrong. Terrible getting old when your mind still fells so young.

The last couple days have been sunny and warm. Sure beats the rainy days but it's all a part of life so you just need to get dressed up and experience the weather. If you don't it's like only experiencing part of life.

Haven't seen so many quail here before. They are doing real good this year. The turkeys and squirrels are having a great time too. What I get a real kick out of is the Black headed grosbeaks.

Well, better fill the seed bags for the finch's and get ready to go to the doctors office.

Rain and Wet Skunks

Sprinkled all day and was dark out. Couldn't get moving since it was so gray out just wanted to sleep or at least stay under the covers. It's pouring tonight and I have two wet skunks on the porch. It's worse then a wet dog their hair gets all matted down and not the usual standing up. Feeling sorry for the little guys I put a bag of microwave popcorn out for them. They just love popcorn, don't know if it's the grease on the corn or what. They go at it like jocks eating steaks without their hands. The popcorn is to big for their mouth so they have to chew it to smaller pieces. It's almost like they are attacking the popcorn they way they hop around. Their bodies remind me of a miniature bears. There's a woman back east that sells de-gland skunks and says they make great pets. I'm not one to keep any animal a prisoner for my enjoyment. People that own pets do just that own like they used to own people a 150 years ago. I don't agree with hunters because of their mind set. It the adrenalin rush of chasing and killing something that can't fight back. I guess they might be the same ones that keep their wives in place and own dogs and children and other living things. It might be fun to hunt the hunters with tranquilizer darts. Tie them to the front of your grill as you drive your trophy home. Could you imagine the reaction of a hunter waking up tied to the front of a car on the freeway. Seems like it would be a fair game, a catch and release program. Sneaking up on the sneakers.

"Stay the Course" of at least 50 grit

Nature these last few years we have come up with some new quotes by the administration and the war. "Stay the course," and "Mission Accomplished are two of the most recognizable. What is bad is they are becoming common place words that don't mean much. "Stay the Course," seems to mean, we are going to cut off our noses despite our faces no matter how wrong we are. The Republican agenda is some thing not what's good for the country but what's good for a few of the top 1% of the rich. Going into Iraq was like kicking a dog while he was down, there was no weapons of mass destruction or WMD as we now use it as slang. Mission Accomplisished means we go the oil and you don't. Even Greenspan is using "Stay the Course" for the economy even though it's been going down hill since Bush took office. The Russian President was right when he said you call yourself democratic when a court appoints the president. We don't know how much graft there was in the second Bush election because there wasn't a paper trail and it seems like pulling teeth to get a paper trail. The Republicans didn't want a paper trail because they didn't want to loose. It's to bad that the today's Republicans have the I.Q. of hand balls in the way they voted. If the Republicans would have said that there agenda is to break the unions and make most of the people of the united stated live below the poverty line similar to how it was in the 1800's. Where the company used you until you died. Now with United Airlines passing off their pension plan to the government it's going to be a rush by the other corporations to follow to stay competitive at the cost of the tax payers and at the expense of the pensioners. Out of the five years Bush has been in office we haven't met the need of jobs per month. Which was 350,000 new jobs per month. Inflation is another one of my beefs. When inflation is higher then what you get back from your savings your a looser. The numbers might say your making money because of the interest but when you take in the fact the negative part of inflation your going backwards. When Bush say's he wants to support the troops and then cuts their pay, medical services, close down the VA hospitals. It's so amazing how misinformed the American people are worried more about gay marriage then the security of the country or the solvency of social security. If the people would have known that Bush was going to cut their social security I don't think Bush would be president or the puppet of the corporate world. United Airlines is a dead dog and should start be dismantled selling off the planes and terminals to pay for the pensions of it's workers. The no child left behind should be no rich child left behind. The clean air act is how to confuse people to make more money while people choke down more chemicals. They blame smokers for lung cancer but it's more the environment that is killing you.

More Rian

Rained yesterday and all night. So far today it's just overcast. The squirrels must know something that the weather service doesn't because they are eating like it's going to rain for several days where they won't be able to gather food for days. Then again the squirrels are like dogs in a way, you can feed them to they explode. I should give them more credit then that because they do eat seeds then go off and eat greens. Same with the turkeys, they don't just eat grain but bugs and greens. My lawn is growing to fast for them to keep it trimmed down. Most of the time it's well manicured.

 

I sat outside with the squirrels while they came up on the porch a few feet from me. It still amazes me the variety of the squirrels, in that they are all gray squirrels but each one is just a little different. From the shape of their nose to their eye brows. There colors very widely from light colored to a dark gray. The younger ones are like puppies with a more fuzzy body hair. They have longer black hairs which seems to make up their color. Take out their black hairs and you'd have white squirrels.

 

The suns out again for a few minutes. The pigeons are hanging out in the trees waiting for the squirrels to leave. The turkeys are the only one that get close to the squirrels while eating. A siren went off some where in town and the squirrels scrambled to the trees. The turkeys started gobbling every time the siren whined.

 

Well better get ready to go to the doctors. Seems when I step outside there is always something to do. Just one more thing, always just one more thing.

Jumping Squirrels

I slept in today when I was a woken by a squirrel. He was running into and up the door just past the window. I've heard the little guys scratch on the door to get my attention but this was a first. I have to tell you I'm always amazed at something here.

 

Today was a good day for turkey watching too. This one male is so shy. He still thinks he's small like his sisters which were all here too. Was a good day for deer watching too. Friend sat with me for an hour or so. Bullwinkle a young deer about two years old has a well developing rack. You can see he's young by his narrow body and nose. They are have little things you can notice to tell how old they are or how's in charge. Like Big Buddy is the one to watch out for the rest of the group. The quail are some what the same. One of the males will be up high while the rest will be looking for food, always in pairs. I like seeing the pairs of doves walking together. I know they do greave if their mate dies because I've seen that when I was down south. They will go around just like the other one is there so I felt it was like a period of sadness for the bird.

 

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Want to hear something scary? I seen one of our elected Republicans using Michael Crittians new novel as fact about global warming. Yes that's "right" using a science fiction novel as truth. This goes along with the same people that bring you "Creationism" and Intelligent Design." This country is going backwards as far as intelligence is going. Why are the jobs going over seas? It's because we have people that read a sci-fi book and take it as fact. The worst thing about that is here's someone in a highly elected position preaching how sci-fi book is for real. Makes you wonder if the people that take the Bible word for word, totally out of contacts because they only read one line at a time as fact instead of science. When the founding fathers used the word "God" in the language at the time it was a group of people called free thinkers. They believed that there was some one that gave the universe a push and that was about that.

 

The matter in Kansas that is going on is a bunch of morons trying to get the bible in the science classes. What's real sick is that they will most likely win and we are going to have a generation of idiots. Smiling and blessing you without a clue voting for the republicans because someone told them to. Just like the past two elections with it's wedge issues..

 

Hearing the nominee of Bush's from Texas the woman who thinks that raping the earth is just fine. When it comes to the earth and making money there must be defective genes in republicans to think they can destroy the earth and still be able to live on it. I don't know if it's that they are waiting for some sort of scientist to fix it all. Come up with some sort of cleaner called "Nuke Away." When the air becomes more deadly then smoking cigarettes like in Los Angeles rush hour traffic. From a study I heard some years ago, they said, "driving in rush hour traffic is like smoking 4 packs a day." The cover up of using diesel fuel and how much it pollutes has been covered up for so many years by the trucking and truck manufactures.

 

What is this world coming to? A bunch of apathetic people that don't care about anything but their own back yard. 

Watching a squirrel make a nest.

I don't see this to often but when I do it's real neat. Theirs a squirrel stripping bark from a cut down apple tree. As she pulls of long strips and hold them in her mouth she stops and reworks the pieces turning thing into long stringy parts to the nest. I've seen them also cutting fine blades of grass sorting them all out to 1 1/2 inches long. The strips she's cutting today look like they are around six to eight inches.

 

Since it looks like it's going to rain again, it throws off the critters timing. When the clouds come over they think it's getting dark and need to eat for the evening. When the sun comes out it's time to play.

 

Well, the clouds are really coming in now. It's a real dark gray sky and it doesn't look like it's going to be a outdoor day. I wanted to do some weed eating but that looks like it's going to have to be put off. Same with the foundation fix, the ground is to wet and muddy. It's only in the 50's today. I noticed that there is a lot of cherries on the ground because of the rain. It's been too windy for the fruit to stay on the branches. If things keep going like they are there won't be any fruit this year.

 

The turkeys are walking down the road thinking it's going to get dark soon. I've been able to gauge what time it is by watching the wild life and where they are moving during the day. Right now it looks like it would be around 7:30 PM on a normal day. Some times I like dressing up nice and warm and getting outside. Being cold is okay but cold and wet is another. There was a day when it didn't matter to me but getting old and slow moving makes staying inside seems the thing to do.

 

It's turning into a feeding frenzy for the smaller birds. The jays and pigeons and out in force. When I see them eating like there's no tomorrow then I know that the rain will be here soon and maybe for a long time. They say it's going to be in the 80's later this week but you couldn't tell that from the way it looks now. I'd be taking pictures but there is not enough light even using 800 ASA film.

 

Looking out the window I can see things are getting wet. No down pour, yet. This winter has thrown a lot of curves. Hot where you can be out in shorts then rain then hot again. Some of the weeds are almost full grown while others have just started. Well better check the NOAA website and see what's going to happen. Yesterday they had tornado warnings out and had some funnel clouds. I missed most of that real bad weather mainly because it went around me.

All weather all the time

Dark, rainy and want to sleep but I had to go down the hill to the doctors. What a journey this was. Rain, hail , fire brimstone, funnel clouds. There was a brief period that it wasn't raining but for the most part it rained. Saw a couple cars on the side of the road that smacked into each other. One was on the side of the hill going the wrong way. Right at that time was when I hit a squall line so I guess they got caught off guard and smacked into each other. Like the rain hit and one bone head slammed on the breaks forgetting people were behind them.

Hand has lost it's numbness after the cortisone shot. I feel the cortisone part as a stiffness but the lidocaine wore off. It'll be a couple days before I start having better hand function.
__________________________________________________________________

Back at home.
The deer stopped by. Big Buddy, Stumpy and one guy last year was big buck on campus and now has a limp and Marty Feldman eyes. I thought he was going to die he was in such bad shape. One of his eyes last year was closed and his antler were knocked off. It looked like he dislocated his front left leg but it's seem to heal sort of well. Still he has a limp. Don't think he's going to be that same scrappy young thing he was last year.

It's nice having it stay light so late but today it just was one of those days. It just had a red dark fade to night.

24
Only two more episodes left. What city will get blown up! Let see the little places I used to see around Los Angeles that are suppose to be else where. Still, the series has a lot of great tension. The best way to see 24 is to rent the whole series and watch them all at one time. You don't even want to pause the DVD play to take a pee.

Good day for the critters

Sort of sunny today. Some high cloads so the sun comes out in spots. Had five deer here a few minutes ago. Have six squirrels outside right now chowing down. I guess it's going to rain again because every one is eating early. Usually this part of the day every one is kicking back in the trees and don't come back out until 3 PM. Grampa Tommy and one of his young hens are outside too. Since the turkeys have all mated they are out nesting. The only hens are one year old and daddy bird is watching the youngsters. It so cute to see the young squirrels. They like doing squirrel things to make them into a strong squirrels. They play chase and bounce off trees. The grosbeaks are becoming more visable. guess it's because there is more of them. The young squirrels are so small you could put one in your hand. I can get close to them but not that close. Everything here is wild and I bilieve that it's because of trust that I can get as close as I do to them. Well, done with my coffee and watching, better hop in the shower and get out and do something before it rains.

Rainy day but the little critters are out.

New "Life" in spring.


A great looking flower with some great detail.


Lazy day and a little hen getting some rays.


Big Buddy stealing the birds food. He lost a lot of weight since the rut and he's growing new antler.

Last night I had a bunch of deer eating in the field. There was Big Buddy, Stumpy fellow, Friend, Mom Girl and the two babies which are one year old now.

There are a lot of quail and grosbeak out today. My favorite little bird is the nuthatch but the little guys won't sit still to get the picture taken.

You can tell you have a healthy forest by the amount of birds you see. At least that's what I'm gauging my forest by.

I saw Mr. Stinkers last night. I didn't see him come on the porch but I did hear him pushing things around.

I see evidence of the bobcat coming around but I haven't seen him in a few month.

With all the rain we have been getting everything is growing so fine. Going to have a lot of fruit and berries. I think I picked up a little poison oak but it's not bad yet. It's just that I've got the scratches all over. I think what happened was the oil from the poison oak soaked through my sweaty cloths. Well it's sprinkling again and all the little critters ran off for shelter.

When I hear that Kansas is having talks on intelligent design and no science people are there to debate it, it shows me that the country is going backwards as far as science goes. Without people going into the science industries we are just making a country of burger flippers. It's one thing to have faith but to make that faith the law of the land is like Islamic countries making it the law of the land. That's why we went to war in Iraq and won't let them have an Islamic government. So why does Bush keep pushing the Religious Right as the Germany did before WWII? Unless this is a ploy to do the same thing that Adolph wanted to do in making it a "Christian" country. But no one learns from history these days. Hell, you don't even know what you did last week. To ask you what you did last year would be a pipe dream.

Getting ready to rain

Have all my toy put away and ready for the rain. Did some more forest cleaning today used the chain saw like crazy. Well, here comes the quail. They're here early. Then again every one ate early getting ready for the rain. It looks like it's going to rain 3 or for days then a one day break and rain another 4 days. Looks like inside work for me. As it is right now I'm still drying out from my forest fun. Been dragging a lot of trimmings that the power company has left be hind after there trimming. Makes a lot of sense to put a pile of dried wood under the power line so if one breaks and drops to the ground it could start a good fire. The bad thing about them trimming trees is they don't know how to. They cut the top of a pine tree off then it turns into six or eight trees growing up. Not to mention the branches they leave hanging in other trees as they fall. To avoid any clean up work the push the branches under other bushes. If it's one thing I learned in life, short cuts will come back to make problems. Last year when I complained to the tree service the power company uses they said they don't have to clean up in a forest but it was my back yard so I don't get it. Last year they started a very large fire in the county and it was totally out of control. Highway 50 was closed. Then it rained which put out the fire but also caused a land slide. I just wonder how many people have no idea they are sitting on time bombs.

Long day

It's been a long day of tree trimming. The good part of the day was watching the birds and squirrel. I never get tired of watching them. Saw two grosbeak today. Friend showed up, a young Stumpy Fella's son. Never thought I'd be naming all the deer but when you can tell them all apart and see how they all act it make them rather special. Trimming the forest of the dead wood to make it look like a fire has cleaned it out is a job. I did that on the south end of the property over three years and it's growing great. Now to the north end where the poison oak bushes are as big as trees. Took a few picture with my 500 mm lens with the Pentax, they came out rather well. Using the Canon they didn't. Not sure why that was, the Canon always worked well. Think it has something to do with no f stop. Thing is I had a Phoenix lens with no f stop and it work well. Maybe the shutter is hanging up. I don't use it enough. Although it will work with a 200 mm zoom lens with f stops. The Pentax I can control that problem. Think I'll be getting a lot of pictures this year. I've been slacking off the past year. Funny, a few years ago I was shooting 12 to 24 rolls a week.

Well, had a nice sit down with my Big Buddy. We both heard a noise of towards the creek then Mr. Stinkers popped up on the road. I see he's wandering up this way and will be here when it's a little more quiet. I know Buddy will run off as soon as he sees Mr. Stinkers. Later this summer I'll keep trying to get close to the little guy. Last year I was laying in the door way and he came right up to may face. Skunks got a bad rap. Then have such a nice coat of fur, it's just amazing. I hope to see some raccoons this year. The first year there was mom dad and the four babies. The deer didn't know what to think of then and the babies didn't know what to make of the raccoons. The deer did try to give them a sniff.

Have my coils almost finished to do my low frequency studies of the magnetic field of the earth. I'm sure I could read more on it but there is some new facts happening to the earth magnetic field. Could we be instore for a polarity shift? Again? From what I've read in college it looks like they happen over a 100 year cycle. So looking a Polaris might be the south pole. What they didn't say about polar shifts is does the planet turn over. That would be a real drag. But it could happen to keep order to the solar system. The suns pole has been constant as far as we know. I still look at it as our planet if like a spark from a welder that is cooling off with the hottest parts keeping it moving until it's cold like mars.

First grosbeak today

Saw my first grosbeak today. Got out the 500mm but he was gone by then.

Big Buddy and Friend came by and had dinner. I sat outside with them till they left. I don't think many people can say they can walk around with wild deer. When I bump into them in the thick forest and they can't see me, I give them my whistle and then they stop running because they know it's me, their friend.

I gave a whistle this morning and five young squirrels came running down with mom. They knew I had place sunflower seeds out.

The pigeons are coming back. They are good looking birds and they are wild but they are destroying my paint job on my car.

Having a good herd of quail this year too.

Saw the Jack Rabbit the other day. What a great looting creature. I was folding socks and I think it saw me move and took off running. It was just a few feet from my telescope and that was about 30 feet from my bed.

Rainy day and everything is so green outside

Nice and warm inside but cool and wet outside. It really came down last night. I saw a flash of light and started counting, one, almost two, bang. It was really close. I was waiting for hale but it was just water. My burn pile went out and smoldered like a camp ground trash fire, with it's camp ground odors.

Flying

Started raining about midnight lastnight. The wind was wiping though here at a unbelieveable speed. I thought it was going to rip some of the trees out. The oak tree in the front yard was moving inches which I never seen before because it was close to the base of the tree.

That flying of the ladder number I did last week has still slowed me down. You don't get to fly 10 feet into the ground and feel good over night. This sleeping is getting to be excesive. The pollen is doing a number on my too. The runny wet eyes and wet nose make me feel some what dinged out. Well the pollen from the Walnut tree is almost over.

Think I'll take advantage of the cold spell and do some work in the attic. Need to get my alarm in, put some foil on the roof to reflect the heat. Need to work on the venting too. The fan works but when the vent closes the air can't get out. Then there is the problem of no screen on that vent.

Well it llooks like it's going to be an early night tonight. Just haven't been able to wake up all day. Must be the rain and dark day.  Maybe it will be better tomorrow, maybe see some sun. I've always been one to be a sun peson. If I'm in the sun durring the day then I like to or able to stay up at night.

Histroy Repeating It's Self

Been a not so long time for me to be a grumpy old man at history.

I've been watching the BBC series on "The Wars of Britain."

Looking at what the English have done over the years have to be worse things then the, Roman's, Napoleon his French Army, Bo-Park, The Japaness,

Gengous Con

 

Cheaters always prosper.
and good guys always finish last.

 

 

Flying

Started raining about midnight lastnight. The wind was wiping though here at a unbelieveable speed. I thought it was going to rip some of the trees out. The oak tree in the front yard was moving inches which I never seen before because it was close to the base of the tree.

That flying of the ladder number I did last week has still slowed me down. You don't get to fly 10 feet into the ground and feel good over night. This sleeping is getting to be excesive. The pollen is doing a number on my too. The runny wet eyes and wet nose make me feel some what dinged out. Well the pollen from the Walnut tree is almost over.

Think I'll take advantage of the cold spell and do some work in the attic. Need to get my alarm in, put some foil on the roof to reflect the heat. Need to work on the venting too. The fan works but when the vent closes the air can't get out. Then there is the problem of no screen on that vent.

Well it llooks like it's going to be an early night tonight. Just haven't been able to wake up all day. Must be the rain and dark day.  Maybe it will be better tomorrow, maybe see some sun. I've always been one to be a sun peson. If I'm in the sun durring the day then I like to or able to stay up at night.

AOL

I guess you get what you pay for. Since it's free I guess that why is doesn't work. The 45 day of free service won't work until they start reaming you with a high bill. I bet this post won't even get to my blog. To bad, I feel sorry that people don't know they could get the came service or more for less then $10 per month.

Still trying to get AOL to work on my computer, it's been 4 days so far to try this out.