Wild Woman of Nevada

Virginia Range, Hidden Valley

2012-02-16T14:02:00.000-08:00

Last week, the dogs and I want for a lovely hike up into the Virginia Range. We started at Hidden Valley Regional Park and hiked quite a ways up one of the drainages. The dogs had a blast exploring and meeting new friends.

It was a beautifully sunny day. In the shade it was cold enough to make your ears and fingers hurt, and in the sun you still felt crisp, but it was a crispness that had the sun's warmth behind it, making you want more of that delicious warmth. I love that feeling!

Here are some pictures:

View of Peavine from the Virginia Range

Horses, a common site in the Virginia Range

That lovely sun over the Virginia Range

Single-leaf Pinyon Pine, common in the Virginia Range

Sun over the Virginia Range!

Dusty in the icy drainage

View of Reno from the Virginia Range

Icy Thomas Creek

2012-02-02T10:05:00.000-08:00

We haven't had much snow yet this winter season, but it has been fairly cold. I took my precious pups for a hike up Thomas Creek and found an icy wonderland.

The sky was amazing again, so of course I had to take some photos.

More NoNev Skies, How I Love Them!

2012-02-01T10:26:00.001-08:00

These were all actually taken a few weeks ago.

Enjoy!

Big Sagebrush

2012-01-26T10:46:00.000-08:00

Big Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata)

Big Sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata) is the Nevada state flower and one the most abundant woody plants found throughout the Great Basin and is an icon of the American west.

Big Sagebrush can grow up to 10 feet in height, but tend to average less than 3 feet. It is considered an evergreen, although its leaves are more of a grey/silvery color. The leaves are wedge shaped and tend to have three lobes at the end. They also have a distinctive odor when crushed--an odor that is emblematic of the the wild west. The flowers are inconspicuous and yellow, they bloom in late summer--1 plant can produce up to 1 million seeds. The plants prefer dry plains, mesas or rocky areas with deep, well drained soils. They tend to be found at elevations between 3,000 and 10,000 feet.

Three lobed and wedge shaped leaves of the Big Sagebrush

Big sagebrush communities are vital to the Great Basin because they provide an important winter food source for wildlife, including deer and pronghorn, although it tends to be avoided by horses and cattle. Sagebrush also provides nesting cover for sage grouse and other birds, it helps prevent soil erosion and protects animals against harsh environmental conditions such as wind, rain and intense sun. The importance of big sagebrush communities for wildlife habitat is widely recognized. Species of concern that rely upon sagebrush communities include the Greater Sage-Grouse and Pygmy Rabbits.

Sagebrush community in the Pine Forest Range

Big sagebrush was considered an important medicinal plant by some Native Americans, and teas made from the leaves were used to cure a great variety of ailments from stomach disorders to eye soreness. Big Sagebrush was also used as a cold and cough remedy.

Sources:
- Online Nevada Encyclopedia: Big Sagebrush website, accessed January 10, 2012, http://onlinenevada.org/big_sagebrush
- Weeds of the West, 5th E.. Western Society of Weed Science. 1996.
- Moerman, Daniel E. Native American Ethnobotany. Portland: Timber Press, 1998.

Great Backyard Bird Count, Let's Do It!!!

2012-01-25T10:25:00.000-08:00

The 15th annual Great Backyard Bird Count (GBBC) takes place February 17 – 20. It is the perfect opportunity to enjoy nature and be a citizen-scientist. This study helps scientists better define bird ranges, populations, migration pathways and habitat needs.

Anyone can participate in this free event and no registration is needed. Watch and count birds for at least 15 minutes on any day of the count, February 17-20, 2012. Enter your results at www.birdcount.org, where you can watch as the tallies grow across the continent. The four-day count typically records more than 10 million observations.

For more information about the Great Backyard Bird Count, call or stop by the Wild Birds Unlimited store located within each Moana Nursery location: 1100 W. Moana Lane (825-0600); 11301 S. Virginia Street (853-1319); 7655 Pyramid Highway (425-4300); or visit www.reno.wbu.com or click the button below to go to the Great Backyard birdcount's website.

Top 10 Cool New Species for 2011

2012-01-24T09:48:00.000-08:00

Each year the IISE announces a list of the Top 10 New Species for the preceding calendar year. The top 10 species for 2011 are:

Darwin's Bark Spider (Caerostris darwini), Bioluminescent Mushroom (Mycena luxaeterna), Bacterium (Halomonas titanicae), Monitor Lizard (Varanus bitatawa), Pollinating Cricket (Glomeremus orchidophilus), Duiker (Philantomba walteri), Leech (Tyrannobdella rex), Underwater Mushroom (Psathyrella aquatica), Jumping Cockroach (Saltoblattella montistabularis), and Pancake Batfish (Halieutichthys intermedius).

Find more details about each species on the Top 10 page at the IISE's website.

Snow--For Real This Time!

2012-01-23T11:37:00.000-08:00

Yay! snow! finally!

I posted back in November about it being the first snow of the season, however, I'm not sure if that snow can actually count as the real first snow--it barely covered the ground and melted away before noon.

November snow. And even though you can't tell from this picture, it was snowing.

Personally, I think today, January 23rd should be considered the first real snow of the season. We woke up to about 1/2 an inch on the ground. It wasn't snowing then, but soon after it started snowing and it hasn't stopped. This is definitely the first day I've thought "Yes, a snow day" and have felt like getting cozy in a nice warm blanket with a hot cup of tea or coco. It is finally here, snow, this region needs all the precipitation it can get and it was starting to look very scary. Hopefully it will keep it up and we will have a nice wet Winter and Spring.

Bodie and Casper hiding from the snow, this is Casper's first real snow.

Snow trails, California Quail (Callipepla californica)

Crafty, Crafty, Crafty!!!

2012-01-21T09:00:00.000-08:00

I admit it, I am not all that crafty, but sometimes I like to pretend that I am, especially around the holidays. So, this Christmas I got to feeling crafty and decided to paint wine glasses, mugs and bowls. It was quite the endeavor though, especially the wine glasses. The mugs were the easiest, which was a nice surprise, since I did them last. Painting glass that you can't lie down or it will roll away, is trickier than I would have thought, the paint runs, the glass doesn't hold/accept the paint readily and I accidentally kept putting my fingers into drying paint, arrrrg! After awhile I did manage to find a technique that worked well for me--the main part of that technique was being much, much more patient than I really wanted to be. In the end I think all the projects turned out relatively respectable. Here are some pictures:

Mom and Erin's wine glasses--mom loves putting strawberries in her wine!

More wine glasses

The mugs

Crafty!!! Apparently I forgot to take pictures of the kids bowls, which is too bad, there were some cute penguins and snowmen and stockings and whatnot.

What the Heck, Another Fire!!!

2012-01-20T10:19:00.000-08:00

Smoke from the fire, view from our house

Wow, northern Nevada has had its run of bad tidings these days and it just seems to keep going--it is starting to become a bit unfathomable.

Yesterday we had another major fire, yeah, that's right a major fire in late January. They are calling it the Washoe Drive Fire and are currently reporting 26 homes lost. As with the last big fire, there were raging winds all day, making the situation that much worse. US 395 was closed in both directions yesterday and is still closed today, making commuters, including my mom, drive all the way around, through Virginia City to get to and from work.

It sounds like one death is being attributed to this fire, but there are no details on it. Also, there are no details yet on how the fire started.

Again, my heart and thoughts go out to all those who were affected by this fire.

Stay strong Reno, I love you!!!

Warm Hike into the Hills in January

2012-01-19T09:28:00.000-08:00

The weather here in Northern Nevada is finally starting to get a bit chilly. It has been incredibly warm all through December and most of January, which is a bad thing of coarse, but has made it nice for hiking and playing outdoors. A week or so ago we took the kids out on family hike into the hills just behind our house. Check out how gorgeous the day was, unfortunately it appears I had a smudge or something on my lens :(

New Years Day Run

2012-01-02T08:12:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, New Years Day, my friend Maresa and I went for a 6.2 mile run. Originally we were going to drive over to Auburn and do the 10k Resolution Run. Actually, three of us were going to do that, but someone backed out at the last minute to go on a fun camping trip--can't say I blame them with all this warm weather. On New Years Eve Maresa sent me a text wondering, since it was going to be just the two of us, "do we still want to spend three hours in the car, spend money on gas and on the entry fee, or should we just do our own 10k here in Reno:" I voted for doing the 10k here, which she was happy about too.

We started at Maresa's house and ran up to skyline then down skyline toward Virginia Lake, did a lap around the lake and then back to Maresa's place. It was a nice run and a great way to start out the new year, especially since I want to focus more on running this year. On our lap around the lake we saw a ton of Northern Shovelers (Anas clypeata), which is interesting because I haven't seen any at the pond near the condo, but there were hundreds of them here. I also saw one little pied-billed grebe (Podilymbus podiceps), so cute, I love them. Both of these birds were hanging out near the shore and easy spot while running. I kind of wanted to take a little break and see if there were some more cool birds hanging out further from shore, but alas, I kept running and it felt great!

Happy New Year, everyone, may it be a wild one!!!!

Winter River Run in Spring Like Conditions

2011-12-28T15:30:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, I went for a nice little four mile run along the Truckee River. It was a beautiful day, although too warm for the end of December. As I ran, I saw a bunch of the usual suspects, Mallards and Canada Geese, but I also saw a female common merganser (Mergus merganser) diving amongst the rocks in the river and three red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) enjoying a thermal above I-80.

Pretty much all of the plants along the route were brown and shriveled, taking their rest during the winter months. However, December has not been very wintry this year, with all this warm weather and no snow. I wonder when the winter weather will finally decide to bless us with its presence? Hopefully soon!!!

Hoo-h'HOO--hoo-hoo

2011-12-20T07:28:00.000-08:00

Our new friend, the Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus), woke me up at 3:30 this morning with its haunting calls. So pretty, and quite frankly, I don't mind it waking me up in the early hours. The calls are so mellow and low, they don't prevent me from falling back to sleep. Hoot on my friend, hoot on.

December Solstice 2011

2011-12-20T07:12:00.001-08:00

It's almost time for the December solstice or, as we call it here in the northern hemisphere, the winter solstice. This year, for Nevadans, the winter solstice will be on December 21, 2011 at approximately 9:30pm. For the northern hemisphere, the December solstice marks the longest night and shortest day of the year. After the winter solstice the days will start getting longer, Yay! And even though it is still far off, the days getting longer means spring is getting closer--that thought helps me get through the cold months of January, February, March and sometimes April.

Happy winter solstice everyone!

What, No Title?!

2011-12-10T12:57:00.000-08:00

Dan has been in the Basque Country for just over a week, so I have been going back and forth between our house and the condo. It's always nice to spend some time at the condo. One of my favorite parts of staying at there is taking the pups for strolls around the pond. The pond typically has a nice variety of ducks hanging around it. This week, I was lucky enough to see hooded mergansers (Lophodytes cucullatus), American wigeons (Anas americana), American coots (Fulica americana), and of coarse mallards (Anas platyrhynchos ).

It's pretty cool, there is a white mallard who has been around since spring, when it was a tiny duckling. There must be ducks who nest near the pond that carry white genes. Several years ago there was another white mallard born, who grew up, flew off and we haven't seen since. This new duck seems to be sticking around a bit longer. Both ducks we watched grow from tiny little ducklings into full grown mallards. It's amazing to see how well they do. They seem to be quite strong and do very well competing for food and resources. It was fun to watch them grow from little ones into full grown ducks.

These white ducks were born and raised with wild mallards who nest and live near the pond. I would like to call them albino, but I just don't know enough about them to say for sure. They might be albino or they might have domestic duck genes mixed in. Either way, it's interesting that they are completely white with pink/orange bills and feet, with no other coloring whatsoever, while their siblings look like normal wild mallards. I love nature!

My Inner Animal!!!

2011-12-05T09:20:00.000-08:00

The World Wildlife Foundation has a fun little quiz on their website called Find Your Inner Animal.

"Would you live in the mountains like a panda? Are you reclusive like a turtle? Sleek like a snake? Answer these 8 fun questions about your personality and interests to discover the one animal that you relate to most. There are over 100 possible species!"

Check out the quiz to see what you are.

Can you guess what animal I am????

I love it, I'm sooooooo excited about it, and I feel like it fits me quite well.

Can you guess what I am????

Can you????

You'll have to wait and see!!!!

I know, I know, you can't handle the suspense any longer.

I

am

a

Bighorn Sheep!!!

Yay, Bighorn Sheep!!!

And, this is the description that goes along with it:

"You are a big-hearted gentle soul who loves hiking in the mountains with your friends and family. You prefer colder climates and rigorous activities. Quite competitive, you enjoy sparring with others athletically."

Pretty accurate, although I do tend to like warmer climates rather than colder ones.

A Few of My Favorite Things

2011-11-29T09:31:00.000-08:00

Mountains and awesome cloudy skies are most definitely a few of my favorite things--although this is not a great picture

Alright, while reading this post you must hum and/or sing the Sound of Music's, My Favorite Things. This can be done silently in your head, out loud, at the top of your lungs or anywhere in between--your choosing.

There is very little that is better than a long holiday weekend spent with a few of your favorite things. On Wednesday evening I came home from Paradise Valley and stopped by the condo where I got to visit with my favorite sister, Erin (fresh in from Flagstaff, AZ) and my favorite mother. I then headed to our house and pretty much fell into a delish pre-thanksgiving meal with my favorite Dan and our housemates.

On Thursday we were lucky enough to spend the morning with a few of our favorite peeps enjoying one of our favorite pastimes--ultimate frisbee of course. After that, we picked up that favorite sister of mine and headed down to Carson/Douglas to have Thanksgiving dinner with my Dad's family. My brothers were super cute, as always and Tanner loved being a ham. Friday we slept in, then took the kids (Dusty, Coco, Bodie and Casper the friendly goat) for a nice, little hike--another favorite pastime of ours. Friday night we did a post-thanksgiving dinner with mom and Erin at one of our favorite restaurants, Bangkok Cuisine, which was yummy as usual. Then we met up with some more of our favorite peeps for a beer at the Tap House.

Ultimate-favorite sport

My favorite puppy kids

My favorite kid kids and their handsome papa--also a favorite of mine

My favorite and gorgeous mother and sister at the yummy Bangkok Cuisine

Saturday morning we met up with my sister and mother for a great breakfast at the Squeeze in then headed off to afternoon pick-up, where we got an ultimate surprise! Our good friend, Wayne, Wayne-O, BTW, Big Tall Wayne--who now lives in Colorado, was in town for the holiday and showed up for some fantastic, frisbee fun. After pick-up we went to Craft for some beers with more of our favorite people.

If you thought we were done with big meals, we were not. On Sunday our good friend Wayne wanted to get some sushi, which we hadn't had for quite some time and definitely did not want to miss out on. We were also supposed to go to a friends' Late-giving, but we had to bail on that because we had to get our house ready for the landlords "walk through" on Monday. Overall it was a great weekend spent doing great things with great people. And, even with all of this, we still missed out on seeing some of our favorite people, but hopefully we'll catch up with them soon. I love my life and the amazing people and critters in it, thank you all!

My sister the pool shark

Ham

Dad and my favorite brothers-the things- at Halloween

Morning Songs

2011-11-25T08:06:00.001-08:00

I was woken up this morning by the cool song of a Great Horned Owl. How awesome is that?! I loved it!

Hear their call here at All About Birds.

Last Day in Paradise-Thank Goodness

2011-11-23T07:00:00.000-08:00

Santa Rosa Mountains from the Forest Service Station

Well, I'm actually a bit torn, I really like the little town of Paradise and I love having the Santa Rosa Mountains so close by, but my time here has been extremely strained and quite frankly, I can't wait to get the heck out of Dodge. I came to Paradise hoping to learn more about weeds, but unfortunately I didn't learn as much as I would have liked. The following is a list of positive things I am taking from this experience:

1) I got to spend more time exploring the beautiful Santa Rosa Mountains.

2) I learned that I can be extremely--extremely--patient with people.

3) I learned that I can be quite a handy fix it girl--repairing the recoil starter, whoot, whoot!

4) I met a few folks that I really enjoyed.

5) I am damn good at what I do and I need not forget it!

6) I need to remind myself of #5 when I can't find a job and get all down on myself.

What, a Fire?!

2011-11-19T08:00:00.000-08:00

Thursday night Dan and I talked on G-chat. We talked about how it's supposed to snow on Friday and how hopefully the roads won't be too bad for my drive back into Reno on Friday night. Friday morning I woke up in my little bed, in my little bunk house, in the quaint little town of Paradise. Since I was expecting snow, I went over and I looked out the window, but there wasn't any snow. So I shuffled back over to my bed and I got on my computer--as I do most mornings--to check out what's going on in the world and very much to my surprise this is what I saw:

What?!

My first reaction was "What?!, it was supposed to snow, how is there a huge fire in Reno?" My second reaction, once I looked at the picture a bit closer, was a sinking one, "holy shit, my house is in that area. Dan, the pups, and the goats all are there!" I called Dan as fast as I could. I was so glad I was able to get through to him on my first call. Lucky for us, the fire was just north of our place. Dan had been woken up around 4 in morning by the wind and went outside, when he looked up the whole hillside to the north was on fire. He said it was pretty crazy. We were very lucky, even though the fire was fairly close to our neighborhood, the wind was blowing it the other direction. We were in the volunteer evacuation zone not the mandatory one, so Dan stayed, but got things ready in case the winds changed and he had to get the family out.

I left work a little early to come back and be with the family. By the time I got to Reno homes were no longer in danger, which was great to hear. This was a devastating fire for Reno, 21 structures were lost many of which were residents. There was only one death, which is a sad story of on older gentleman who had a heart attack while evacuating in the middle of the night. The last I heard they hadn't identified how the fire started, but they think it may have been caused by downed power lines from the wind. My heart and thoughts go out to all those who were affected by this fire. Northern Nevada has had a run of hard times lately--but it's been amazing to see our community come together and support each other during these times. I love my community, my home!

*Update on numbers: As of the morning of 11/20/11, a total of 29 homes declared destroyed/uninhabitable, 7 partially damaged and 1 with minor damage. In addition to the man who passed from a heart attack, one firefighter has suffered serious burns and is in the hospital.

Weekend Fun in Fall

2011-11-14T10:47:00.000-08:00

Chicken Creek, where we branded the first day

In between my weeks in Paradise Valley I have been keeping myself quite busy, this past weekend was my first weekend in Reno in four weeks. The first weekend we were at the ranch branding, which is always a good time. I switched between giving shots and branding calves. The next weekend was Halloween, we went to the ranch again to celebrate with family. And last weekend we went to San Fransisco to sell books at the Basque Cultural Day where we danced the evening away to a great Basque band whose name I can't recall, but I'll try to find out. These weekends have been a lot of fun, but it was really nice to finally have a quiet weekend in Reno, we went hot tubbing and had dinner with friends, I played ultimate for the first time in quite awhile and we went out and had a wonderful dinner with my mom. She is such a great mom and person, I love her soooooo much, thanks mom! Here are some pictures of these fun filled weekends, although I don't have any of my nice, quiet weekend in Reno, oh-well.

Dan excited about branding...or our new truck?

Branding, in action

Lunch time after branding

Gopher snake we found on our way home from the branding

Halloween I was a flower and Dan, a bee

Our friends, dead skiers

Basque Cultural Center, where we celebrated Basque Cultural Day

Making friends at Basque Cultural Day

Wild Women Artists Are Back Again

2011-11-04T07:44:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again, the Wild Women Art Show--gotta love their name--is back in Reno. This year's theme is Regeneration:

“We have each taken the word regeneration and made it our own. We as a group choose to explore the creative, setting our goals in a positive direction. The effort in going back to our individual skills and breathing new life into what we do brings comfort and celebration in knowing that each of us uses our own hands and our own skills to create works of beauty.”
~ from the artist's statement.

The exhibit and sale will be held at the Wilbur D. May Museum from November 4th through the 6th.* We went last year and had a lot of fun. The artists were extremely friendly and interesting. We entered the raffle where you put your tickets into the box of artists you like at the end they pull a ticket from each artists box and if they pull your ticket you win a piece of art from that artist--unfortunately we didn't win. We will be in San Fransisco for the Basque Cultural Day (Nafarroa Eguna) this weekend, so unfortunately we probably won't be able to make it. But, if you can, you should check it out.

*When: Friday, November 4: 12:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. Saturday, November 5: 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. Sunday, November 6: 11:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.

Cost: Entry into the exhibit area is free

Santa Rosas Are a Blaze!

2011-10-25T07:00:00.000-07:00

Luckily not with fire, as they were a few weeks ago, but with aspen (Populus tremuloides)! I went for a hike yesterday to get up close and personal with the fall colors. Check it out:

Not nearly as impressive as the real thing!*

Getting closer to the color

A blaze!

So pretty!

I love fall! Actually, I think I'm enjoying it more this year than ever before.

Aspen!

and more aspen!

On fi-ya (fun way of saying fire?)

Golden Tunnel!

One last Golden Tunnel, one of my favorite things of fall!

*None of these pictures give the colors any real justice. It is amazing out here right now. If you can, get out and enjoy the fall foliage--it is gorgeous!

I Rant

2011-10-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

Shortly after I left the computer yesterday, I remembered one of the topics that I was thinking of writing about and, I'm warning you now, this may turn into a bit of rant. I might use some swear words and I WILL be discussing bodily wastes, so If you are squeamish about any of these things, it would be best to stop reading here.

On Monday, I stopped a gas station in the town of Lovelock, I won't say which one, but if you've driven through Lovelock on I-80 you can probably figure it out. I stop there to use their restroom almost every time I drive through and although their thrones are not all that glamorous, they are usually just fine--especially when compared to all the gas station toilets I've used throughout my life.

Well, yesterday when I stopped for my usual bathroom break the toilet seat was absolutely covered in, a not so fine spray of, some other person's urine. It was disgusting. I understand that some people are scared of toilet seats and don't want to sit on them, but come on sisters, if you hover, be a sweetie and wipe the seatie! It ridiculous for people not to sit on the seat anyways. In my microbiology class we did the bacteria test, where we swabbed places from all over town, including toilet seats. Know what we found out, toilet seats are one of the cleanest things in a bathroom. It makes sense, they are cleaned everyday--often more than once a day. Check out this article from ABC. Really, the big issue in the spread of germs is hand washing, DO IT. The people who hover, pissing and pooping on the seats are the ones who make toilets seats gross, so STOP IT.

If you are still afraid of the toilet seat germs, most bathroom have those handy dandy little paper toilet seat covers, USE THEM!!! I use the covers in sani-huts, because even if they are clean, they just seem gross to me. And I'll admit it, I do hover from time to time in toilets that just seem nasty, but if I sprinkle while I tinkle, I clean it the F*** up! Haha, I should do a rendition of S. Jackson's version of "Go the F*** to Sleep" but make it, "Clean Your Piss-N-Shit the F*** up!"

Anyway, a friend of mine recently published a post on different kinds of rude people and she brought up people who don't wipe up after they make a mess on the toilet seat. After yesterdays visit to the gas station bathroom, I couldn't help but think of the her post and a comment someone left on it. Anonymous said something to the effect of "I shat all over a toilet seat the other day and since I didn't have my 409 on me and I didn't want to waste a bunch of toilet paper, I didn't clean the mess up." I'm sorry, but if you're so afraid of your own shit, why the hell would you make someone else clean it up for you! And, I may be the asshole here, but unless you are a baby or in someway medically incapable of doing it your self, you should be the only one who cleans up your piss and shit.

All right, all right, the rant is over. I apologize, but I guess it's a pet peeve of mine and usually, if it's just a little sprinkle, I clean it up myself, but yesterdays was all over the toilet seat and just plain disgusting--hence the rant.

Have a great day and remember: if you sprinkle while you tinkle be a sweetie and wipe the seatie! It's much appreciated--by pretty much everyone...even you.

I Blank

2011-10-18T08:00:00.000-07:00

On my drive to Paradise Valley today I thought of several posts I wanted to share with you all, but now that I'm sitting here, in front of my computer, I forget them all. Why does that always happen? So many times when I sit down in front of the computer I forget the all cool stuff from the day that I wanted to research or I forget what it is I wanted to write.

Oh well, hopefully the ideas come back to me soon.

Smoothie Goodness

2011-10-07T07:23:00.000-07:00

In all of my life, I have never been a big breakfast eater. I know, I know, skipping breakfast is a horrible horrible thing--although I never really felt that way. I just don't like eating in the mornings. It tends to make me feel weighed down and sluggish and my stomach nauseous. And--get ready for this, try to hold back your stones--I just really don't like breakfast foods. Eggs make me nauseous, bacon is good but so greasy, I'd rather eat a piece of bread than toast. The only breakfast food that I really like is chicken fried steak, which is super heavy and not all that healthy, so I don't like to eat it very often...Peg's Glorified Ham &Eggs, mmmmmmmm.

In the last couple of weeks, however I've gotten really into making smoothies for breakfast. I love them! They allow me to get great healthy nutrition in the morning and make me feel energized rather than weighed down. When I first started making them I didn't put yogurt in them. I just wanted fruit and juice. Instead of yogurt, I would use a banana to give them a creamy, smooth texture. In the past week though I have started adding activia yogurt: I've been having some issues with my digestive system, so I thought I'd give it a try and it seems to be helping.

When I make my smoothies I tend to use apple juice as a base. It doesn't overwhelm the flavor of the fruits which is nice. I should try using some other juices as a base, but I've really been enjoying the apple. So far, one of my favorite mixes is what I call the purple power punch (PPP). I put in apple juice 1 banana, about 8 blackberries, about 30 blueberries, a piece of kale, honey, and yogurt--which is optional. It is delicious, I had one this morning. I've also been making ones with mango and kiwi, yummy! They are so fun to play around with and are such a great way to get a bunch of fruits and veggies in early in the morning. I recommend highly!

Just Another Day in the Rain!

2011-10-06T08:00:00.000-07:00

Snow in the Santa Rosa Mountains!

Well, we did not work on weeds again yesterday. It was a fairly nasty day, it rained all morning and most of the afternoon. It even hailed on us a bit and the Santa Rosas got snow. Crazy! We can't spray when it's raining because the rain dilutes the chemical and washes it off of the plants. The plants then continue to live happy lives, growing and reproducing and our time spent spraying would have been wasted. We were going to drive out to do some weed monitoring, but Dave told us not to because apparently the roads get really bad in the rain. So, we ended up cleaning the office, working on the PDR and doing some paper work. Later in the day, however, someone tried to drive out to the wilderness area, but got stuck in the mud. The fire guys had to go rescue him--we were glad we took Dave's advice and didn't drive out.

The other day a bought a beginners acrylic paint set, just for fun. I broke it out last night and played with it for awhile. I have never really painted before, so this should be an interesting, if not comical, endeavor. I had fun mixing colors and painting simple flowers and crosses. I can't wait to play with it some more, maybe attempt a landscape or two.

My masterpiece, watch out Georgia O'keeffe!

I also bought a yoga DVD so I can get some exercise and stretching in while I'm out here. I'm such a goob though, I totally forgot that my computer doesn't have a cd drive. We bought an external one, but I didn't even think to bring it with me. Last night I got everything all ready; I had my comfy yoga pants on, I laid out my yoga pad, I had the lights nice and low and was all set to begin my new yoga routine. I pulled out my DVD and went to put it in the side of my computer--like I would on my mac--then realized "oh shit, this is not my mac, this is the pc and it has no cd drive!" Sad, sad face--I was soooooo ready to get my yoga on. Oh well, what can you do? I'll just have to bring the cd drive out with me next time. Till then yoga, till then.

Snow!

2011-10-05T11:41:00.000-07:00

First snow of the season today!

I'm not in Reno to witness it happening over the sierras :( but it is happening all the same!

Crazy!

I am in Paradise Valley and I am witnessing it happen over the Santa Rosas!

Yay!

I'm kind of sad that summer is definitely over, but I'm kind of excited for winter to get into full swing!

More Santa Rosa Please

2011-10-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

West side of the Santa Rosa Mountains

So, as I previously mention, I worked in the Santa Rosa-Paradise Peak Wilderness area during the month of August. Which means, I've been done with that job for about a month. However, early in August I went to a friend's wedding where I met a person who works for the Forest Service in the Santa Rosa Mountains. He monitors and treats noxious weeds. We got to talking and it turned out they really needed someone to help them with their weed projects--apparently they have been trying to hire someone for months, but for some reason none of the people have worked out--so, they asked me to apply. I applied early in August and found out in mid September that all my paper work went through and I could officially be hired on to help with the weed issues in the Santa Rosa Mountains. I accepted and now I'll be playing in the Santa Rosa Mountains until the end of November!

I started about two and half weeks ago, but I took last week off to baby sit the Oz monster (my mom's and sister's dog--who is kind of my dog too, but not as much as mom's and bear's). Yesterday, my first day back since my vacation, we ended up not working on weeds at all, but on fires. Over the weekend there were quite a few fires in the area, the whole southeast end of the Bloody Run Hills has turned black. Yesterday we did what is called "back hauling." We drove around to areas where firefighters had their staging areas and picked up supplies that needed to be returned to the BLM warehouse. We also took all their trash to the landfill. I had never been to the Humbolt County Landfill before, but I ended up going 3 times yesterday--the lady at the window and I became well acquainted.

Well, I have to say, my first day of working fires was not as exciting as I thought it would be, but all in all it was a good day. Today will be back to weeds, we should be headed to the Quinn River for some Canada Thistle (Cirsium arvense) action, we'll see how it goes!

Rain!

2011-10-05T07:21:00.000-07:00

Rain! Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain Rain RAIN!

The Last Flight

2011-10-03T14:36:00.001-07:00

So, I don't know much about moths, other than they have fuzzy antennae and tend to hold their wings flat when they're not in flight. I also know that I wish I knew more about them.

On my first backpacking trip in the Santa Rosa-Paradise Peak Wilderness Area this summer I saw a lot of moths. Actually, I saw a lot dead moths. Where I camped both nights there were a bunch of white dead moths scattered all over the ground and, as I was setting up camp, I noticed white moths fluttering madly around the area. They were old, their wings were battered and torn and they were putting all of their energy into what I termed "the last flight." I don't know, do moths turn white before they die, because these moths were white, almost unnaturally so--like they were living exoskeletons that had been bleached. They appeared to be fighting for every little bit of life they had left. I remember feeling a bit bad for watching them during this difficult part of their life. Now, I know that I'm projecting my human emotions onto them, but I felt like telling them "you are old now, just rest," but they all seemed determined to take their last flight, no matter how they struggled.

As I was pulling my stuff out of my backpack, I looked down and noticed a little, white moth at the base of an aspen tree. He was alive, calm, just resting.* It appeared that he knew it was his time and he was going to go peacefully without the struggle I had been witnessing from the rest. I ate dinner, read and went to bed pretty early. When I awoke the next morning my old moth friend was still there, still alive, but had moved to a piece of grass right next to where he was the previous evening. I went about my business making breakfast, getting my supplies together. I glanced over and saw that he too had started to madly flutter--though not flying, just beating his wings--which made me a bit sad. I said "stay calm old one, it'll be okay" and went back about my business. Right before I headed out I looked over at him and he was calm--*smile*.

My old friend

I had an amazing hike and saw a ton of wildflowers. When I returned to camp, I looked for my old friend, but he was gone, his body was there--on the ground below the aspen--but he had passed. His body, however, was already in the process of being disassembled. Ants were taking him apart and carrying his remains off to continue the circle life elsewhere. I was actually happy to see the ants taking him away. There were so many white moth corpses all over the ground, I'm glad his remains will be put to good use and not left to be kicked about by roaming cattle.

Goodbye dear friend.

Moving on

*I don't know if the moth was male or female, but to me, he came across as an old man.

Workin' for a Livin'

2011-08-31T07:14:00.001-07:00

The Sata Rosa-Paradise Peak Wilderness

Sorry it's been awhile since my last post, I've been working for Friends of Nevada Wilderness in the Santa Rosa-Paradise Peak Wilderness Area and it's been keeping me busy.

The Santa Rosa-Paradise Peak Wilderness Area is just north of Winnemucca, NV, between US 95 and Nevada 290. It is a gorgeous wilderness, 31,000 acres, with stunning phylite cliffs low in the canyons and granite higher up. There are no lakes in this wilderness area, but there are quite a few creeks; Rebel Creek, McConnel Creek, Horse Creek and Singas Creek--just to name a few. The creeks are surrounded by cottonwood and aspen forests and are quite lush, at least for the Nevada desert.

August is a little late for wildflower season, but I still saw quite a few, including; horse mint, lupin, columbine, monkshood, monkey flowers (my favorite), baneberries, elderberries, and many more.

The first week I was out, the butterflies were amazing. There were so many and they were everywhere, I wish I knew more about them and how to identify them, but I did identify some Mourning Cloaks and some Western Tiger Swallowtails.

Well, I'll post more about the Santa Rosas soon, but here are a few photos to tide you over:

Elderberry flowers

A cool rock formation that reminded me of the Moai, monolithic statues, of Easter Island

The view in Horse Creek Canyon

Many Reasons I Love it Here,

2011-08-05T14:02:00.000-07:00

one of which is our skies. A week ago today we had a thunder storm roll through Reno and, along with a few small fires, it gave us a spectacular show of lightning and crazy, beautiful skies. Here is just a bit of what the evening had to offer:

Twin Lakes Reunion

2011-07-29T11:37:00.001-07:00

The upper lake with mountains

Last weekend I went to Twin Lakes, CA to visit some friends of the family. Several of the people I grew up with, but hadn't seen in something like 10 years. It was wonderful to spend time in such a gorgeous place, catching up with old friends.

Twin Lakes is an amazingly beautiful place and I feel lucky that I have had the opportunity to spend as much time here as I have. Our friends own a couple of cabins in the area and as a kid I would come up with their family on holidays and in summer to play. It was a lot of fun. In summer there's swimming, hot springs, hiking and backpacking. In winter there's skiing, sledding, snowshoeing and hot tubbing. So much fun for a kid...and adults as well!!!

Unfortunately I did not take many pictures on this trip--I was too busy catching up and playing with everyone's cute kids.

Les and Dick on a morning hike.

Getting ready for the ice cream hike with the kiddos.

Enjoying ice cream in the sun!

Two of my great friends, father and daughter.

Plants that Clean

2011-07-26T10:52:00.000-07:00

Over at Eartheasy there's an interesting article about a NASA study in which scientists found the top 10 plants that reduce indoor pollutants.

The top 10 plants are:

1) Areca Palm (Chrysalidocarpus lutescens)
2) Lady Palm (Rhapis excelsa)
3) Bamboo palm (Chamaedorea seifrizii)
4) Rubber Plant (Ficus robusta)
5) Dracaena “Janet Craig” (Dracaena deremensis)
6) Philodendron (Philodendron sp.)
7) Dwarf Date Palm (Phoenix roebelenii)
8) Ficus Alii (Ficus macleilandii “Alii”)
9) Boston Fern (Nephrolepis exaltata “Bostoniensis”)
10) Peace Lily (Spathiphyllum “Mauna Loa”)

Hats, Hops, and Hucks: 2011

2011-07-19T16:36:00.001-07:00

Team Prime BID

For those of you who don't know, one of my favorite ways to stay in shape for my wild adventures is to play ultimate frisbee. Frisbee tends to be much more of an addiction for me than anything else--it is so fun! This past weekend was one of the most incredibly fun tourneys of the year, the annual Hats, Hops, and Hucks (HHH). Hats; because it's a hat tournament--you tend not to know any of the players on your team and you have to wear a hat, Hops; because there's a lot of beer involved, and Hucks; because people love to throw that disc deep.

This year, 2011, was the 20th anniversary of HHH and there was a great turnout, we brought something like 30 folks from the Reno area--almost every team had a Reno-ite on it. Our team had 3 on it and another team had 6. There was only one team I knew of who didn't have anyone from Reno on it, but there could have been more.

Anyway, we got there around 7:30pm on Friday, registered and met up with other Reno folk. One great thing about this tournament is that food and camping is part of the registration fee, so once you're there you don't really have to worry about anything. Saturday morning we had a breakfast of eggs, pancakes and hash browns, then we hit the fields.

This year the theme was "Come and Get It", referring to food. There were three pools and they were aptly named breakfast, lunch and dinner. I was in the dinner pool and the name of my team was Prime BID, after Prime Rib--of course. On Saturday my team had a bit of a hard time gelling, we won 1 out of our 4 games. However, Saturday games just determine seeding positions and don't determine how you end up in the overall tournament. With our 3 loses, we ended up being seeded 12 out of 15 teams--not as high as we were hoping, but we were having a blast.

On Sunday we started out playing the 5th ranked team, INSIDE-OUT Burger and after a hard fought battle, we won!!! All while having an amazing dance party on the sidelines. We were super pumped! Our next game was against another bracket breaker, DISC-CUTS and Gravy, a team who was seeded 13th after Saturday, just beat their their highly ranked team and now the battle was between seeds 12 and 13, crazy! It was a super close game. We were down 1-7, but made an amazing run and came back. The result came down to a universe point, the score was 12-12 and whoever scored the 13th point got to move on to the semi-finals. We pulled it off and were in the semi-finals. It was a super close and fun game, although a bit nerve wracking.

Sideline dancing with FLICK'n CATCH a SCOREI

In the semi-finals there were 3 teams from the dinner pool and 1 from the lunch pool. We ended up playing a team named SWINGlini and CLAMS, a dinner team who we played on Saturday and lost to--they were actually one of our bigger losses--but Sunday we turned things around and we ended up winning. Yay, we're in the finals!!!

Over in the other semi-final game, the teams were FLICK'n CATCH a SCOREI vs. PULLed Pork, the game was really close and it came down to an universe point, which FLICK'n won. FLICK'n was in the dinner pool too, we played them on Saturday and had lost. The finals were so much fun. Both teams played really well, but in the end FLICK'n CATCH a SCOREI were able to pull it out and beat us 11-17. It was pretty close until the end, when FLICK'n went on a streak and we just couldn't catch up.

Congrats to FLICK'n CATCH a SCOREI, it was a great game!

Overall, it was a wonderful weekend of ultimate. Both us and FLICK'n CATCH a SCOREI ended up playing a total of 8 games each!!! So much frisbee, so much fun, I wish it wasn't over. But, there's always next year and I can't wait for it!

An intense game of Ninja!

Thanks Mo for all the hard work you put in to make this tournament happen!

Up Coming Festivals

2011-07-15T06:46:00.000-07:00

The Wings and Willows Festival

This coming Saturday, July 16th (from 8:00am-8:00pm), is Carson Valley's Wings and Willows Festival. There will be all sorts of interesting and educational activities to partake in. There are handful of nature tours, including several different bird tours, wetland and habitat exploration tours, butterflies and wildflower tours, Carson River floats, and much more, check out the tour schedule for times and locations. In addition to the tours, there will be workshops and presentations on a variety of topics including invasive species, bears, bats, wildflowers, birds, and butterflies, for times check out the workshop and presentation schedule. I really wish I could make it out to this event, unfortunately I'll be out of town--so if anyone is able to attend please feel free to comment here. I would love to hear all about it!

Also,

The Kirkwood Wildflower Festival

Kirkwood Mountain Resort is hosting its Wildflower Festival on July 30th (12:00-5:00) and July 31st (for some reason it doesn't give times for Sunday). There will be guided hikes, wine and beer tasting and a photography workshop--all for an additional price. There will also be live music, BBQ and the Mountain Bike Park and Zip Tahoe will be open! Come out, play and enjoy the wildflowers!

Multiple Indicator Monitoring - MIM

2011-07-11T19:06:00.000-07:00

Team 1, minus me, measuring pools

Two weeks ago I traveled to Elko, NV to take a week long class on Multiple Indicator Monitoring. I was planning on camping two nights and getting a hotel the last two nights. My plan was to camp at South Fork State Recreation Area, which is about 14 miles south of Elko. The first night was really nice. It was great to be camped out next to the water and have a nice quite campground with clean bathrooms and water. The second night however, I got back from class to find that the wind was crazy intense and my tent was pretty much leveled from the wind--not broken though, thank goodness. I sat in my tent for about 2 minutes and decided there was no way I was going to be able to sleep like this, so I decided I'd get a hotel a night earlier than planned.

The first two places I looked at were extremely expensive. At one of the expensive hotels the front desk lady was super apologetic, saying that they charge those prices because apparently Elko gets a lot of contract workers, whose companies pay for their rooms. Luckily, I was able to find a nice, clean, room at a reasonable price at the Econo Lodge, which happened to be about a block from the BLM office where the class was being held, so that was awesome!

Alright, back to class! Multiple Indicator Monitoring (MIM) is a protocol used in riparian management, it is designed to be a tool used in monitoring streambanks, stream channels and streamside vgetation. During our training, we got to go to two creek sites in the Elko area--nothing better than walking in a creek in the middle of a hot summer day! The creek we spent most of our time at was Trout Creek. We monitored two sections of Trout Creek. One section of the creek was outside of an enclosure, and has had heavy grazing occurring in and around the creek. The second section of the creek was within the enclosure and used to have heavy grazing, but not any longer. Unfortunately, I do not know how long the enclosure has been up.

In the MIM protocol, there are 10 indicators that can be looked at (you don't need to use all 10), 3 are short term indicators and 7 are long term indicators. The short term indicators are stubble height, streambank alteration and woody species use. The long term indicators are greenline composition, woody species height class, streambank stability and cover, woody species age class, greenline-to-greenline width, substrate and residual pool depth and pool frequency.

The MIM class was a lot of fun, the people were really nice and I learned quite a bit--especially that I need to work on my riparian grasses.

Anyway, here are some pictures from my MIM adventure:

The class making the plant list

A cute little gopher friend!

Where's that greenline?

The deepest pool in our DMA--Designated Monitoring Area

A Walk In Pearl's Canyon

2011-06-23T13:42:00.000-07:00

The kids on the road to Pearl's Spring

Dan and I went to Leonard Creek Ranch last weekend to meet up with a cyclist. He is doing a bike tour from Missoula, Montana to San Fransisco, California and found us on warmshowers.org, a site that connects bike tourists with people who are willing to let them use their showers and/or homes for the night. We've been on warmshowers.org for over three years now and finally got our first cyclist--yay, I guess the ranch is just that far off the beaten path. Unfortunately though, the cyclist caught Dan's mom's flu and wasn't up for doing much during his time at the ranch, so Dan and I decided to go on a short hike in Pearl's Canyon.

Pearl's Canyon is named after Josie Pearl, one of the few female prospectors in the area at her time--1873-1962. We hiked up to Pearl's Spring, a nice little oasis in the desert. It was a gorgeous day and we took all the kids, even baby casper, who had a great time.

The lupine were blooming like crazy!

The family, coco's behind Dan

The kids at the spring

Dan enjoying the view

More view

Summer Solistice

2011-06-21T11:09:00.000-07:00

So, most people know that the Vernal Equinox is my favorite season changer, but today is the summer solstice--the official first day of summer and the longest day of the year. Today, the Sun reaches its most northern point in the sky. After today, the days will start getting shorter :( which always makes me a little sad.

"The word solstice comes from the Latin words for "sun" and "to stop," due to the fact that the Sun appears to stop in the sky. The Sun is directly overhead at its most northern point at "high-noon" on the summer solstice, creating more sunlight in the Northern Hemisphere on this day then any other." - The Old Farmers Almanac

Casper the Friendly Goat

2011-06-07T16:58:00.000-07:00

Welcome the new addition to our family, Casper the Friendly Goat. Yes, that's right, Bodie--our baby goat--has had a baby of her own. A little boy. He is super Cute and very energetic. He was born on Saturday May 28th at around 6:00pm.

Unfortunately, Bodie was feeling pretty poor after she gave birth. She wasn't eating and she was acting really depressed, so we called the vet. She came over and gave Bodie some "pick me up" shots, which worked really well and she was back to her normal, feisty self by the next day. YAY!

We're so proud of Bodie, she is such a great mother. We weren't sure if she would be since she didn't have a goat mother herself and since she hasn't been around other goats all that much. But, she loves her baby so much, she lets him eat (suck) and cuddle, they are sooooooooo cute together. I can't wait to take them on hikes, it's going to be so much fun!

Here's a couple more pictures!

The Past Couple of Months

2011-05-22T12:56:00.000-07:00

Okay, where to begin--where to begin? Well, I've been on quite a few different trips as of late; Deer Creek Hills in Sacramento, CA, Opal Creek in Oregon and then back to Deer Creek Hills again. I discussed these trips briefly before, so I'll just post some pictures from the trips and talk a little bit about them.

Deer Creek Hills: We took students on field trips to learn about water and rocks!. This first trip was in mid April and, as you'll see in the pictures, it was quite green.

A group of students at Deer Creek Hills

Deer Creek Hills, with some amazing students

Deer Creek, some of the water we tested.

Opal Creek: I went to Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center in Oregon to renew my Wilderness First Responder Certification. This was the second time I made the trip to Opal Creek to re-certify. It is an amazing place with great scenery and great food. I highly recommend it.

Snow on my way to Opal Creek. This was in Oregon, I couldn't believe it was a blizzard in Oregon! The weather in the Reno/Tahoe area was beautiful when I left.

One of the creeks, either Battle Ax or Opal. I forget which one this was a picture of, but regardless, they are both beautiful.

Some of the WFR Re-cert crew, there were 10 returners from two years ago--that's how much people love this place!

Back to Deer Creek Hills: This trip was in mid May and it was not nearly as green as it was in April.

Back at Deer Creek, not quite as green as it was in April

The stewards took us for a hike after one of our programs to see some of the sights we were not able to see with the students. The pictures that follow are from that hike:

The pond at Deer Creek Hills

Woodpecker acorn storage holes

Grinding holes, this one is thought to be an oven because of its elongated shape.

I should be in Reno now for sometime--with the exception of going to the Ranch for Memorial weekend, but at least that is still in Nevada.

Back in Sac!

2011-05-11T08:26:00.000-07:00

Sorry, I haven't been posting much. I've been really busy lately and this week I'm back in Sacramento teaching outdoor science lessons at Deer Creek Hills.

It's amazing how much the preserve has changed in the last month. The grass is already starting to dry and brown up. The water is drying up too, it's not quite as easy to find as it was in April, but if you look hard you can still get to it. Also, I'm happy to report, there are still some pretty cool wildflowers blooming. We found a bunch of Harvest Brodiaea (Brodiaea elgans) which have lovely purple flowers and belongs to the Liliaceae family. I took some pictures of them so I'll post them once I get back to Reno and get them downloaded.

Have a good rest of your week and I'll try to post soon.

Back to Opal Creek Ancient Forest Center

2011-04-28T07:55:00.000-07:00

Well, it's time for me to head up to Oregon and re-new my Wilderness First Responder (WFR) certificate. I re-certified there two years ago and I was so impressed by the facilities at Opal Creek that I decided that, if I can make it happen, I will always try to re-certify there. I had such a great time last time, I'm really looking forward to this trip. I'm leaving this morning and will be back on Monday the 2nd, hopefully with a lot of pictures and fun stuff to share with you all. Check out the link above to read about my last trip.

Wish me luck and see you soon.

Whitlowgrass

2011-04-23T10:22:00.000-07:00

So, awhile ago I was walking around the property we live on, and as I was looking down at the common plants in our area, like red-stemmed filaree, I noticed a whole bunch of tiny white flowers. They were so small and muted, that I almost didn't see them. I wasn't sure what they were so I got out my trusty guide books to find out their identity.

They are Spring Whitlowgrass (Draba verna) also know as Spring Draba. They belong belong to the Mustard Family (Brassicaceae). Verna, as in Vernal Equinox, which is my favorite equinox, means spring. You can find these flowers in early spring, blooming between February and April. The leaves form a basal rosette and are pubescent. The flowers have four, white petals which are deeply lobed. According to the USDA Plant Profile, this plant can be weedy and invasive.

Draba verna, not the best picture, but all I could get with my camera.

Alright Alright

2011-04-21T07:20:00.000-07:00

Being in Sacramento California all last week, I had no time to post. This week has been a crazy one and has kept me from posting as well. I'm going to try to get a post up by Friday morning, but it might end up being Saturday morning instead--we'll see how it goes.

The weather has gone cold again! It was really windy last night and this morning it was raining really hard and was still really windy. Just when we think spring is finally here to stay, mother nature says 'ha, fooled you! Here's some cold storminess!'

A Field Trip

2011-04-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

Reno is still stuck somewhere between winter and spring. Last week was pretty cold with some snow flurries here and there. Yesterday, however, was nice and spring-like; I'm ready for spring!

This week (4/11-4/15), I'm going to be in Sacramento, CA. So, I most likely won't be able to post much. I'll be playing with students at Deer Creek, a Blue Oak Woodland Preserve in the western foothills of the Sierra. We will be teaching them about the watershed and about geology, so it should be a lot of fun. I'll try to take a lot of pictures and hopefully I'll have a lot to report.

Have a great week!

This is a Story All About How the Weather got Flipped, Turned Upsidedown

2011-04-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

Please excuse the musical introduction, but the weather we've been having lately made me think of that song. We went from super snowstorms to balmy springlike/summerlike weather. A little over a week ago we had to cancel two of our snowshoe trips as a result of too much snow, now we are having to put on a ton of sunscreen and strip off layers to keep from over heating--what a difference a week can make.

Supposedly, it is going to get cold and rainy again, but in Nevada it seems as if the weather is always surprising us and keeping us on our toes. I have to say, it was fun having all that snow late in the season and, as we know, Nevada needs all the moisture it can get. However, I am ready for spring and summer. So, if it does get cold this week I'm hoping it only lasts for a little while.

P.S. my computer is broken and I haven't been able to upload any of my pics. Hopefully it will get fixed soon--I have some fun wildflower posts I want to share.

Today it was

2011-03-31T08:46:00.001-07:00

the killdeer who were out singing up a storm. This morning, while I was out walking Bodie, I saw some killdeer hanging out in our field and others where flying overhead. The killdeer were singing their most notable call, the easily recognizable, high pitched kill-deer kill-deer, kill-deer, kill-deer call, which they are named for.

A cool fact about killdeer is that they are known for their broken-wing dance, which they use to trick predators into following them, leading the predators away from their nests. Also, a fact that sometimes goes overlooked, is that killdeer are quite good swimmers--I don't think I've ever seen one swimming before, but I bet it would be a neat sight.

You can hear their calls and find more cool facts at All About Birds.

This Morning

2011-03-28T07:36:00.000-07:00

the Mourning Doves (Zenaida macoura) are going off, with their familiar oowoo-whoo-whoo-whoo.

Waking up with Music

2011-03-27T09:08:00.001-07:00

The birds have recently upped the intensity of their morning songs and even though we have been getting a ton of snow, those sweet morning tweets make it feel like spring must be right around the corner, it must be--right?

Two of the songs I have been hearing quite a bit lately are those of the Red-winged Blackbird and those of the Western Meadowlark. Both have unique calls that are fairly easy to identify. The Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) with their easily recognizable, breeeeeeeee-you or konk-la-reeeee and the Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) with their melodic flute-like notes.

You can read more about them and listen to their calls at The Cornell Lab of Ornithology's web-site All About Birds:

Red-winged Blackbird: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-winged_Blackbird/sounds

Western Meadowlark: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Western_Meadowlark/sounds

The Vernal Equinox Is Upon Us

2011-03-21T11:46:00.001-07:00

Oops, I missed posting about the vernal equinox, my favorite of the equinonxes. I've posted about it in the past so I won't spend too much time on it.

It was yesterday, March 20 at approximately 11:21pm UTC (Coordinated Universal Time). During the vernal equinox the day and night are each approximately 12 hours long. The Sun crosses the celestial equator going northward; it rises exactly due east and sets exactly due west. Cool!

Happy late vernal equinox everyone!!!!

Yeah, Super Full Moon!

2011-03-19T16:03:00.000-07:00

I've been meaning to post about the Supermoon all week, but haven't had time. I still don't really have time so I'm just going to share a link: Super Full Moon, check it out. Oh yeah, it's tonight (3/19/2011), so be sure not to miss it. Yeah, Supermoon!

The Supermoon, picture from wikimedia commons: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Lunar_perigee_apogee.png

It's Time for Holi:

2011-03-18T07:22:00.000-07:00

A celebration that I desperately wish was observed widely throughout the States. Holi, the Hindu Festival of Color, is a yearly festival celebrating the return of color to the world. Holi is celebrated on the Phalgun Purnima (or Pooranmashi, Full Moon) in the month of Phalgun according to the Hindu Calendar. This year the celebration starts March 19th and runs 2 day finishing on March 20th--the actual day of Holi.

According to The Festival of Colors, "Holi celebrates the spirit of life which is happiness and merriment. This festival is about letting go whatever has happened and enjoy life together with friends and family. Liveliness of spring season takes its heights, when colors and flowers swathe the courtyards and streets throughout the country."

Last year at this time I had already seen my first wildflowers mainly lomatiums and violas. I haven't seen any yet this year, we have had a few late snow storms and to be fair I haven't been out for a hike in awhile. My new job is keeping pretty busy, but hopefully I'll get out into the hills soon. We are going to be at the ranch this weekend (for Holi) and I'm sure we'll go for some hikes, hopefully I'll get lucky and spot a wildflower or two.

Happy Holi everyone, let the color of the season dye your soul a shade of joy!!!

Whoop Whoop, Wildflowers!!!!

2011-03-15T09:00:00.000-07:00

Yay, I saw my first wildflowers of the season on Sunday (3/13/2011)!!!!!! Can you guess what they were? They are often one of the first flowers I see every year--what, you can't handle the suspense anymore?!?!--okay, okay I'll tell you, they were Beckwith's Violets (Viola beckwithii). Colorful little beauties. With all the snow we've had the last few weeks I was thinking it would be a bit longer before I saw any wildflowers. However, I was pleasantly surprised when Dan shouted "hey, hey look at these" and there in front of us, a slope sparsely covered with gorgeous little violas. Last year I saw my first wildflowers in late February, so I suppose the late snow did keep them at bay for a little while

Also, on Sunday I noticed a lot of lomatium plants, but none of them were blooming, then of coarse the next day I saw a couple plants with blooms on them. It always seems like violas and lomatiums like to come out around the same time of year, early spring/late winter. It is always soooooo exciting to see the first flowers of the season, it means spring is rapidly approaching and more flowers will soon be on their way. Yippy!

Viola Beckwithii

Gorgeous Viola beckwithii thank you Dan (I forgot my camera).

What a Difference a Mountain Range Makes

2011-03-12T07:03:00.000-08:00

I'm sure you're thinking, "of course a mountain range makes a difference," but it seemed so crazy to me. On Thursday, I went to Sacramento to teach students about the watershed they live in and geology. For those of you who don't know, Sacramento is just on the other side of the Sierra Nevada Mountains from Reno, it's about a two hour drive, with some great scenery along the way.

Currently, Reno is still pretty barren in it's winter freeze. Although the sunny days have started again and there a few shoots of green here and there, like some grasses that are starting to pop up and a few little green plants like the red-stemmed fillaree (Erodium cicutarium). Compared to the other side of the pass though this is absolutely nothing. As soon as we were over the pass and down out of the snow, we were surrounded by green grass and the trees were already in full bloom. It was cool to see all the colors, the trees covered in white and pinks, the orange poppies blooming along the side of the road. It really made me excited for spring to come to Reno, but I need to be patient, all in good time. I don't want to rush something that is soooooo great.

I need to start remembering to take my camera with me so I can share pictures of all of this with you. Well next time--hopefully!

Winter Wonder Land

2011-02-26T08:19:00.000-08:00

Wow, after a winter of very little snow, February has brought us much. Last Tuesday it started snowing and didn't stop until Friday night. The result was a late school start on both Wednesday and Thursday and no school on Friday. When school is cancelled so is my work, which was a nice little surprise and with it being the presidents weekend we ended up with a 4 day weekend instead of a 3 day weekend--a nice little holiday.

Now a week later it started snowing on Thursday evening and this morning, Friday morning, we have another late start. Unfortunately we were supposed to take a group of students out snowshoeing today, but it has been canceled due to the late start. It was going to be my first snowshoe trip at my new job, I was really looking forward to it, but it will have to wait.

Ouch, Perhaps the longest I've gone

2011-02-13T08:19:00.000-08:00

without posting, crazy. I had plenty of time to post since early October--I hadn't been working. I guess I felt like I wasn't doing anything all that interesting. I had gone on some awesome hikes and was actually doing stuff, but I don't know why I wasn't inspired to write.

More recently I was hired at Sierra Nevada Journeys--a non-profit that focuses on science and outdoor education--as an Experiential Educator, which is exciting and keeping me really busy. I guess with busy comes inspiration to write. I don't have too much to say today, except that I'm going to try to get back into this, I miss writing and sharing what I love in this world.

A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That

2010-09-20T09:00:00.000-07:00

Man, it's been a really busy month or so. I'm finishing up my job with Friends of Nevada Wilderness, which is keeping me hard at work. My last day with Friends is Friday the 24th and I don't think I'm going to finish everything that I wanted to get done. There's still an area in Gray Creek I would like to get to and I'd also like to get further into the west side of Hunter Creek.

I'm very sad that this awesome job is coming to an end, I have enjoyed the experience immensely. I can tell, however, that my body is a bit tired and is in need of a break--my knee has been hurting and I've been feeling fairly tired overall. I don't want to take too big of a break though, I'd like to stay in as good as shape as I am in now or, if I'm lucky, get into even better shape--that will be hard if I'm not hiking 8-20 miles a day like I am now. I want to start swimming again,maybe start running too. I'd like to do a marathon...I think. I also would like to get back into climbing, it's been a few years and I miss it. As for work, I hope I can find another job that is as awesome as this job. I think I'd be happy if my next job is even half as fun as this job. I feel so lucky to have had this opportunity to explore the Mount Rose Wilderness and to get to know the people at Friends, they have been wonderful, I'll miss them.

I know this post is a bit rambly for me, but it has been preoccupying my mind. As far as what I've been doing as of late; a couple of backpacking trips for work, a bachelorette weekend, and some pro-mini golf. Here's the proof:

Dan and two of the kids at work

Dan and Dust hard at work with me

I love Mount Rose Wilderness

Bachellorette floaty

Bachelorette Groove Thang

I love Mount Rose Wilderness

Backpack trip for work, Thomas Creek to Brockway

Gray Lake and Rose Knob Peak at Sundown

2010 4th Annual Pabst Reno-Tahoe Mini Golf Open:
The Most Awesome Team!

Nevada Dustymaiden or Sierra Pincushion, either way it's a Chaenactis nevadensis

2010-09-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

Chaenactis nevadensis

I found these little beauties on a backpacking trip I went on with the family in late August. They are commonly known as Nevada Dustymaidens or Sierra Pincushions and they belong to the sunflower family (Asteraceae). Nevada Dustymaidens prefer to grow in dry environments, in sandy or gravely soils. The flowerheads are made up of many tiny tube flowers and can be anywhere from a light yellow to a rosy red. The leaves form a basal rosette and are woolly and pinnately lobed. Gorgeous!

Chaenactis nevadensis flowers and leaves

Another Year Gone By--Crazy!

2010-08-26T20:30:00.000-07:00

This past Sunday was my 34th birthday, it was a really fun day. We started with Peg's Glorified Ham and Eggs for breakfast and then played some ultimate at Reno High. We were then going to float the river, but it was overcast and thundering so we decided not to. So we went home to rest for about an hour. After our rest, we went and spent the afternoon at the Reno Wine Walk--I hadn't done a wine walk in about a year so it was extra fun. After that, we went and had a yummy dinner at the Greek Festival. Then we finished up the night at a screening of the Rocky Horror Picture Show at Lawlor Event Center. A fun filled day to say the least!

Like I mentioned last year, I like to do something every year that makes that year special and unique. For me 33 was the year of travel. I had never traveled oversees until last year and I got to do it twice last year, yay!!! I went to Romania to visit my sister in the Peace Corps and to Euskadi because Dan was sent there for his work. Another thing that made this year super cool is that I have an awesome seasonal job with Friends of Nevada Wilderness and I have been able to explore parts of Mount Rose Wilderness I never thought I would. Sadly it will end in about a month.

Here's to making 34 as awesome as 33!!!!

Here are some of my favorite pictures from my travels, I hope you enjoy:

Sunset at the Black Sea

My Sister, her friend and me at the Nadia stature

Cows on the Black Sea

My sister and me at the Black Sea

The cathedral

Dan taking a picture

Playing on the Flysh

Dan and me on the cliffs

Dan playing on the coast

Woody-Fruited Evening Primrose

2010-08-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

Woody-Fruited Primrose

Woody-fruited Evening Primrose (Oenothera xylocarpa) is a beautiful plant to come across in while hiking in the wild and they are blooming like crazy right now in the southern part of Mount Rose wilderness. I love their soft, delicate petals that look as if they've been made of fine, yellow tissue paper. They have long distinctive anthers and a large, cross shaped stigma. The fruit is a straight, curving, or twisting capsule which may be up to 9 centimeters long.

Woody-Fruited Primrose flower

Their leaves are a gray-green with little purple splotches all over them. They are oblancolate with small lobes near the base. The leaves grow along the ground while the flowers spring up from the axils of the leaves. Woody-fruited primroses are perennial and grow from a thick taproot.

Woody-Fruited Primrose leaves

Rangers' Buttons

2010-08-09T08:30:00.000-07:00

Rangers' Buttons flower clusters

I have always heard of Rangers' Buttons (Sphenosciadium capitellatum), but I had never actually seen them out in the wild. I was very happy to finally see them while hiking up the Thomas Creek drainage the other day. Rangers' Buttons have gorgeous little, spherical, clusters of white flowers that are widely separated from each other. They can be found at streambanks and marshy meadows. Sphenosciadium means wedge umbrella, which refers to the shape of the flower umbel. Capitellatum means with heads in reference to the round flower clusters.

Sources:
Blackwell, L. R. 2006. Great Basin Wildflowers: A guide to Common Wildflowers of the High Deserts of Nevada, Utah, and Oregon. The Globe Pequot Press. Guilford, CT.

An Orchid a Day Keeps the Blues at Bay

2010-08-02T09:15:00.000-07:00

White Rein Orchid

The White or Sierra Rein Orchid (Platanthera (syn. Habenaria) Dilatata) is such a treat to see in the wild. They have brilliant white flowers that easily catch your eye. Since they belong to the Orchid family, the flowers are very complex and distinctive. The upper petals and sepal are fused to form a sort of hood. The two lower sepals shoot out to each side and one large petal tappers strait down from the middle. Another distinctive feature of the Rein Orchid is a large spur that hangs down from the bottom petal--you can see it in several of the pictures, especially if you click on them to enlarge them.

Flowers of the Rein Orchid

Rein Orchid with Indian Paintbrush

The White Rein Orchid is a monocot, meaning their major leaf veins run parallel to each other often looking grass-like, the flower parts are in multiples of three and their embryos have a single cotyledon. There are other characteristics that define monocots, but these are the big three most people think of.

Rein Orchid leaves

The Rein Orchid likes to grow in moist meadow areas and along creek banks. I found these along the Thomas Creek trail, just inside the wilderness boundary where the water has spread out and the trail becomes a bit muddy.

Even More Winter this Summer

2010-07-30T12:00:00.000-07:00

White-veined wintergreen

Just after stumbling across bog wintergreen in the Thomas Creek drainage, I found white-veined wintergreen (Pyrola picta) as I was hiking along the ridge above Thomas Creek. This is yet another plant that I had never seen before and since I had just read about it while researching the bog wintergreen, I was very excited to come across it.

Flowers of the white-veined wintergreen

The flowers of the white-veined wintergreen look very similar to those of the bog wintergreen in that they both grow along an erect stem and are turned downward, to the ground. The flowers on the white-veined wintergreen, however, are white rather than pink as in the bog variety. Another difference between the two plants is the leaves. The leaves of the white-veined variety are not as glossy and round as those of the bog wintergreen. The white-veined wintergreen gets its name from its leaves--the white veins of the leaves are very distinctive, they expand and contract with varying amounts of sunlight--more light equals smaller veins and more green for photosynthesis. The white-veined wintergeen is hemi-mycotrophic, getting some of its nutrients from fungi in the soil, just like with the bog wintergreen.

Leaves with their white veins

Medicinally, an infusion made from the flowers of the plant has been used as a wash for for sick children.

A Little Winter in the Summer

2010-07-26T07:45:00.000-07:00

Wintergreen flowers

While hiking up Thomas Creek, just southwest of Reno, I stumbled upon a beautiful little flower that I have never seen before, a bog or pink wintergreen (Pyrola asarifolia). It has a long, single stem rising up above a rosette of dark green, round leaves. The stem is sprinkled with little pink flowers which are turned downward, hiding their reproductive parts.

Leaf rosette

Wintergreen often grows in large groups because they have extensive rhizomes (underground stems) that sprout plants up all over an area. The bog wintergreen tends to grow in shade and in moist forested areas. Because they are hemi-mycotrophic (partially dependent on fungi), they need a lot of dead wood and compost to create an environment that has just the right balance of fungi and other soil nutrients, otherwise they will not grow.

Dense clusters of wintergreen plants

The leaves of wintergreen are edible, but they tend to be tough and bitter. It has been used as a broad-spectrum astringent, treating urinary diseases, mouth and throat inflammation, hemorrhoids and insect bites. The leaves leaves are high in methyl salicylate, a natural painkiller.

Close up of a wintergreen flower

Wintergreen flowers on the single stem

Watch Out for that Hot-Rock!

2010-07-19T09:00:00.000-07:00

Hot-Rock Penstemon

With my job, I've been seeing a lot of plants I've never seen before and some that I've never even heard of. Hot-Rock Penstemon (Penstemon deustus) is one of the plants that I have never seen or heard of before. I found it while hiking up the Hunter Creek trail. When I first noticed it, it didn't appear that interesting--it looked like a bushy, little, green plant that was just hanging out on the side of the trail. However, when I looked closer, I saw that it had beautiful, little, white and purple flowers and I thought to myself "wow, what could this plant be?"

Hot-Rock Penstemon flowers

When I went home, I looked it up in one of my plant books and found it to be Hot-Rock Penstemon. As I alluded to above, the Hot-Rock Penstemon is fairly inconspicuous. It has small flowers and the plant is quite bushy so you don't necessarily notice the flowers at first. When you do notice the flowers, you find that they are unique and quite beautiful. They are white and trumpetlike. They have dark purple/brown guidelines that lead to the nectar hidden within.

Hot-Rock Penstemon flower

Hot-Rock Penstemon is a useful plant, it is used for wildlife habitat enhancement and restoration efforts. It is also a popular plant used in xeriscaping. In addition, a poultice of the smashed leaves has been used to aid in the healing of skin sores, such as boils, mosquito bites, tick bites and open sores.

It's fun to see the Hot-Rock Penstemon in nature, because it's so different from most of the penstemon in the area. Many Penstemon tend to have bright purple, pink and/or blue flowers, so the white flowers of the Hot-Rock is quite unique.

Brilliant Splashes of Color

2010-07-12T09:00:00.000-07:00

Indian Paintbrush in the desert

I bring this post to you by popular demand, thanks Kym!

Indian paintbrushes are fun to see, they tend to bring a bright splash of color to desert hillsides. There are many species of Indian paintbrush and they can be quite difficult to identify, so I'm just sticking to the genus (Castilleja). Paintbrushes belong to the Snapdragon Family (Scrophulariaceae). They come in all sorts of bright colors, yellow, pink, orange and red. Although, it seems most people tend to associate them with red.

Indian paintbrush plant

Indian Paintbrush are partially parasitic, which means they get some nutrients from the sun, but they also get some nutrients from the roots of other plants. Paintbrush parasitizes directly from the roots of plants, unlike snow plants who parasitize the fungi surrounding plant roots--mycotrophic. In Nevada, a plant that paintbrush likes to parasitize is sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata).

Indian Paintbrush close up

It's interesting to note that the bright parts of this plant are not actually the flowers, they are modified leaves that form a bract. The actual flower is hidden within the of bright leaves toward the top of the plant. The flowers of the Indian paintbrush are edible, however, they tend to absorb selenium from the soil, so you want to be careful in eating them and not eat them in large quantities.

A little ditty

2010-07-07T09:50:00.000-07:00

So, with my new job, I haven't had a lot of time to write--although I've been seeing a lot of plants and have a ton of posts in mind. At work though, one of the bosses wanted me to write a brief narrative about my job, so I figured I would share it here with you all:

I really enjoy working as a wilderness monitor in the Mount Rose Wilderness area. While I knew I would be hiking all day, an unexpected bonus of being a wilderness monitor has been working with some really great people. All of the volunteers I have worked with have been wonderful, very helpful and motivated, especially since I make them pull weeds! I like getting to know the volunteers and learning what led them to Friends of Nevada Wilderness. It is also interesting to see and meet wilderness users. There are so many different ways to enjoy the wilderness; during the course of any day I might meet trail runners, bird watchers, day hikers, backpackers, and the list goes on.

During the course of almost every day “at work,” I get to explore parts of the wilderness I have never seen before! It is a gorgeous wilderness full of wildlife and great views. The other day, I wondered into the territory of an American Kestrel breeding pair. They were not happy with my presence: they hovered above me and then started dive-bombing me, coming within five feet. It was amazing—I got to see these beautiful little orange and white falcons up close and personal. I moved through their territory as quickly as possible to minimize any stress I may cause them, but it was exhilarating to see them in action.

In addition to the kestrels, I’ve seen quite a few animals such as: a golden eagle, western tanagers, flickers, a variety of woodpeckers, lizards, a few bull snakes (no rattlers yet!), deer and signs of bears. I’ve also seen a ton of wildflowers: desert peach, larkspur, wild rose, western peonies, dagger pods, hot-rock penstemon, mountain figwort, heart-leaf arnica, and snowy thistles—just to name a few.I feel so lucky to have the opportunity to wake up every morning, excited to explore a different part of the wilderness and see what surprises lay in store.

I took a couple of pictures of the kestrels, although they did not turn out all that great.

Kestrel tree

In flight

Blooming Snowy

2010-06-30T08:58:00.000-07:00

A while back I wrote a post about the snowy Thistle (Cirsium occidentale). When I took pictures before, none of the plants were blooming. I have since been back on the trail and found a bunch of snowy thistles in bloom. Here are some pictures so you can enjoy their colorful offering.

The scarlet bloom, brilliant against the dense, snowy white hairs

The whole plant, blooms and all!

Dwarf Waterleaf

2010-06-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

Dwarf Waterfleaf whole plant

The first time I saw a dwarf waterleaf (Hydrophyllum capitatum) was several years ago on the Hunter Creek trail in northwest Reno. When I first saw it I thought it was so interesting because it has beautiful leaves and hidden underneath the leaves are bunches of pretty little lavender flowers. If you're not looking it is an easy plant to miss.

Dwarf Waterleaf flowers

Now that I have been spending a bit of time on the Hunter Creek trail for my job, I've been seeing quite a few dwarf waterleafs. It belongs to the Waterleaf family (Hydrophyllaceae). The leaves are large and deeply lobed, quite distinctive. The leaves grow up on erect stems forming a sort of an umbrella that covers the small flower clusters. The stamens are long, growing out past the ends of the petals and sepals. I have found these plants mostly on rocky slopes.

More flowers

Waterleaf has been used as a food. The shoots and leaves can be collected before the flowers appear and cooked as a vegetable.

Brown Blooms

2010-06-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

Western Peony

I know I say it about most every plant I write about, but I have to say it again, Western Peonies (Paeonia brownii) are one my favorite plants. One reason I love them is that their flowers are brown. I don't know why, but there is something absolutely fascinating about brown flowers. I think they're fascinating because few plants have brown flowers and because brown is a color that is not typically associated with flowers. When I think of a bouquet of flowers I tend to see colors of yellow, red, orange, blue, purple, white and green, but not often brown.

Brown flower of the Western Peony

Western Peonies have 5-6 maroon/brown petals with a large number of bright yellow stamen that contrast beautifully with the brown petals. The leaves are large, gray in color are irregularly lobed. The leaves themselves are quite lovely.

Peony flower

Peony Leaves

Western Peonies have been used for medicinal purposes. The roots can be dried and made into tea. The tea has then been used to ease uterine cramps and to stimulate menses. The tea also has been used to treat lung ailments.

Flower bud of the Western Peony

Snowy Thistle

2010-06-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

Snowy Thistle

I have been working a lot with thistles lately. Mostly noxious thistles like musk thistle (Carduus nutans) and scotch thistle (Onopordum acanthium). I have been pulling these noxious thistles, in large amounts, from the Mount Rose Wilderness area. While working with the noxious thistles I have learned about native thistle that I had no idea existed.

The native thistle is the snowy thistle (Cirsium occidentale). The snowy thistle is also known as the cobweb thistle (Cirsium occidentale var. candidissimum) and is one of only a small handful of thistles that are native to Nevada. Snowy thistles are covered with dense, white hairs. The leaves, stems and and heads are all covered with the cobweb-like hairs, giving the plant a very white appearance. If you can get past the prickles and touch the leaves of the plant, you'll find that they are actually quite soft. The flowers are bright scarlet, a striking contrast to the white color of the rest of the plant.

Snowy Thistle leaves

Snowy Thistle plant, covered with dense white hairs

The stems of this plant can be peeled and eaten raw or cooked by stir fry, steaming or boiling. Many types of thistles can be used as food once the prickles has been removed. Removing the prickles, though, can be quite tedious. I recommend, if you want to use thistles as food source, pulling and eating the pesky ones rather than the native ones.

Western Tananger

2010-06-07T09:00:00.001-07:00

Western Tanager, picture from wikimedia commons: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Piranga_ludoviciana2.jpg

I've been seeing a lot of Western Tanagers (Piranga ludoviciana) lately, which is awesome because they are so gorgeous! They are colorful and super bright, making them a hard bird to miss. The males have a bright orange/red head, a bright yellow body, black wings with yellow wing bars and a black tail. The females are yellow, but tend to be less bright, they don't have the orange/red head and their wings and tail tend to be more of a grayish brown than black.

I get really excited to see these birds and although they are not rare for this area, I tend not to see them all that often. I saw one at Leonard Creek Ranch over Memorial Day weekend and I've seen several on the Hunter Creek trail I've been hiking on for work. I think one must have a nesting site right along the creek just a small ways into the wilderness because I have seen him there every time I've hiked up. I also have seen them as I've been driving around town. I think I've seen more this year than I have in past years, which is really cool.

Some interesting facts from All About Birds is that Western Tanagers breed farther north than any of it's mostly tropical family members. Also the red pigment on the males head is pigment that is rare in birds (rhodoxanthin). It is thought that the pigment is most likely acquired from the food they eat, probably insects who obtain the pigment themselves from plants they eat. Cool stuff!

Also, go to All About Birds to check out what they sound like.

Daggerpod

2010-06-03T09:00:00.000-07:00

Daggerpod plant

The other day. when we were hiking at the Virginia Highlands in the Virginia Range--southeast of Reno, NV--I found several daggerpod plants (Phoenicaulis cheiranthoides) growing on the rocky slopes. I had never seen a daggerpod before, so I was very excited! Daggerpod is a neat looking plant, they have a cluster of fuzzy gray-green leaves that look as if someone came along and folded them in half and are now they are unable to open back up.

Folded leaf of the daggerpod

Daggerpods belong to the mustard (Brassicaceae) family and have the typical four petaled flowers. The flowers are light pink, similar to the pink of a wild rose flower and they grow in a cluster (like most mustards) at the end of a long steam. The flowers tend to grow along the ground, out of the sides of the plant, forming a pretty purple halo around the cluster of leaves. The fruits, in contrast to the soft leaves, have sharp-edged blades that give it it's common name--daggerpod.

Daggerpod flower cluster

Daggerpods tend to grow on rocky slopes in the sagebrush steppe. They tend to like areas that are between 5,000 and 10,000 feet in elevation, just like the Virginia Range, and grow throughout the Great Basin.

Bloody Flesh

2010-06-02T09:00:00.000-07:00

Snow plant peaking through!

SNOW PLANTS!!!! One of my favorites!!!! Sorry for all the exclamations, but I absolutely love snow plants (Sacrodes sanguinea--which translates to: "bloody flesh-like thing,"). Snow Plants are beautiful, bright red, parasitic plants and they started peaking their heads out of the ground a couple of weeks ago. Dan, my sister and I went for a hike up Thomas Creek--west of Reno, NV-- and found several of the little beauties pushing their heads up through the soil.

A little group of snow plants peaking through

These cool plants appear right after the snow melts--often when the ground is still moist. They belong to the Indian-pipe family (Monotropaceae), which is closely related to the heath family (manzanita, laurel). Snow plants are mycotrophic ,which means they get nutrients from fungi (mycorrhizae) that grow under the soil. Since they don't get their energy from the sun, snow plants have no chlorophyll and have no green parts.

Snow plants tend to be found growing with conifer trees, this is because conifers maintain a symbiotic relationship with mycorrhizae. Mycorrhizae grows around the roots of the conifers, helping them obtain water and minerals. In return, the conifer provides the mycorrhizae with photosynthate (a nutrient product of photosynthesis). Snow plants take advantage of this relationship, stealing photosynthate from the mycorrhizae.

Snow plants are edible, they can be prepared much the same way as asparagus. However, in California they are protected and you can get a big fine for picking or damaging them. You can even get fined for collecting the seeds.

Trail Builder

2010-05-18T10:30:00.000-07:00

I have always been interested in trail building, but I have never really had the opportunity to get involved with it. This past weekend the Tahoe Rim Trail Association (TRTA) put on a trail building class, so I decided to partake. It was a lot of fun. I didn't know anyone in the class, but the people were nice and I soon felt quite comfortable in the mix. A lot of the people in the course had been hired for the summer at various organizations through the Americorps program. They are either crew leaders or crew members who will be out working on the trails all summer. As for me, I think I'm just going to volunteer at some of the local trails--at least for now.

The class was interesting, I learned about the different tools that are used on the trail such as loppers, pruning and pole saws, Pulaskis, Pick Mattocks, McLouds, and rockbars. I really enjoyed getting dirty and the physical labor involved in building trails. We worked on a section of trail that had quite a bit of manzanita in it. The manzanita was difficult to work with, but made for an interesting experience. We had to deal with a lot of manzanita roots, but there was one huge manzanita root we had to remove, it was tough but we got it out.

There was an advanced class going on at the same time as our class. They were learning how to do really cool stuff. They learned how to set up a griphoist system to remove huge boulders. They also learned how to shape and split rocks to build stairs and shape unmovable rocks into safer forms. We got to watch them for a bit, i can't wait to take that class in the future it looks like a ton of fun.

For now I can't wait to get out onto the trails and help with some trail building and or maintenance. The TRTA is planning a Reno to Rim trail with building starting in July, that is definitely a trail project I would like get my hands dirty on.

See you on the trails!

Snow in the Sierras

2010-05-11T09:00:00.000-07:00

Wow, last week was beautiful. The sun was shining, the wind was calm and it really felt like summer was on it's way. Yesterday, however, mother nature decided to through a snow storm at us. The wind was howling all day and then around 3:00 pm it started drizzling. My sister and I thought it would rain for a couple of seconds and pass, but as we walked the dogs, the rain didn't retreat, it increased in intensity! By the time I left to pick Dan up from work, the rain had turned into snow and the wind was still blowing--it was a full-blown blizzard! The blizzard only lasted about thirty minutes, thank goodness. I am so ready for summer and the activities that come with it. Bring on the warm weather!!!!

A New Art Endeavor

2010-05-05T09:00:00.000-07:00

Reheating my glass

This past Sunday I took my first ever glassblowing class. I have always been interested in the art, but never knew where in Reno one could get a start. I don't even think I had ever heard of classes being offered through the university or the community college. I recently found out about a fairly new studio in Reno called Burnt Knuckle Glass that offers classes in glassblowing, torch-working, and fusing/slumping. Actually, a friend found out about them and then sent out an email asking for people who might be interested, so I jumped on the opportunity.

The class itself was a lot of fun, I really had no idea what to expect. The teachers were both extremely nice and patient with us, beginning students. The work is quite physical which I really enjoyed. To start, we learned how to gather glass from the furnace onto our poles. We did that a few times until we got the hang of it. We then learned how to bevel (I'm not sure if that's the word they used) the glass using a table. During that process, we rolled the glass on a table creating an angle or a wedge shape with the glass while pushing the glass off the end of the pole--not completely off, mind you. We also learned how to create an egg shape with the glass by beveling the bottom of the glass then lifting the pole up and beveling the top of the glass.

It's an amazing feeling to work with molten glass. When it first comes out of the furnace it is super goopy and manipulates quite easily, almost too easily for a beginner. It is interesting to work with the glass as it slowly cools and the viscosity changes. We also learned how to jack the glass to create thinner sections, the thin sections are weak and is where you break the glass off of the pole once you are done working with it. At the end of the class we used all the skills we learned to create a paper weight. I made mine yellow and purple. We had to leave it over night to set. I can't wait to see how mine turns out!

Reheating my glass in a furnace so I can manipulate it

Jacking my glass

My paperweight, still glowing hot

Thank you to my wonderful sister who brought her camera and took these pictures--I, of course, forgot to bring mine.

Clasping Pepperweed

2010-04-28T09:00:00.000-07:00

Clasping Pepperweed (Lepidium perfoliatum), also known as Shield peppergrass, is blooming like crazy around the ranch right now. Clasping pepperweed belongs to the mustard (Brassicaceae) family. It is considered a weed and is a native of Europe, but now grows in much of the western United States. It's an easy plant to identify with its uniquely shaped leaves. The leaves along most of the stem are heart shaped and look as if they are clasping at the stem, they also look like little shields surrounding the stem, hence the common names. The leaves on the lower part of the stem look quite different they are fine and pinnatly lobed. The flowers are little yellow tufts located at the end of the stem.

As with all mustards, clasping pepperweed is edible. The seeds can be dried or used fresh as a substitute for black pepper. The greens can be used in salads and have a pleasant taste. Typically, younger plants taste better and are more nutritious, older plants tend to taste bitter, but taste better if boiled. Mustards, in general, contain a good amount vitamins A, B, and C.

In addition, mustard seeds have been used to aid in digestion and can be made into a paste and used as a poultice to the chest to relieve bronchial congestion, however this has been known to cause burning and blisters if the poultice is left on the skin for too long.

As always, before you ingest any wild plant material or use any wild plant material as a remedy please be sure you consult an expert or are an expert yourself.

Gone to the dogs

2010-04-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

View from our hike

Last Monday (4/19/2010) the family and I went over to Dog Valley for a stroll. Dog Valley is a great place to go because it's close to Reno and you can choose how intense you want your hike to be--you can stay in the valley floor or hike up the surrounding hillsides. I always tend to forget about Dog Valley, but I shouldn't because it's a great place to hike, bike, camp or just hang out for a picnic. Since there was still some snow and mud on the road, we decided to park in the parking area at the top rather than drive down to the valley floor. Once we parked we hiked down the road to the valley and explored from there.

Dan and the kids hiking down the road to the valley floor

Dog Valley

We started out hiking around the west side of the big meadow. We saw a ton of wildflowers, some I knew and some I didn't know. We saw Lomatiums, yellow bells, violets, phlox, blue-eyed Marys, plantain buttercups, green-leaf manzanita and then three species I didn't know.

Lomatium spp.

Yellow Bells (Fritillaria pudica)

Violets (Viola beckwithii)

Phlox (Phlox spp.)

Blue-Eyed Mary (Cossinsia parviflora)

Plantain Buttercup (Ranunculus alismifolius)

Green-Leaf Manzanita flowers (Arctostaphlos patula)

So, I'm currently at the ranch and I don't have all my plant books with me--I like to leave some in Reno so I can identify plants there too. I tried to find the flowers that I didn't know in my books here, but I couldn't find them. They all look familiar, so I'm pretty sure they must be in one of my plant books somewhere, but for now I still don't know who they are. Here are their pictures, if you know who they are please let me know, if not I'll try to figure out who they are and update this post.

I feel fairly certain I can easily find out who this is

This plant looks really familiar, I just don't know who it is

This one looks the least familiar to me, I hope I can figure out who it is

We did a lot more than just identify plants on this adventure. The meadow was still quite wet, so we had a lot of fun figuring out trails that would keep our feet as dry as possible. We hiked up into the hills where we found some dead, felled trees to be silly on. The dogs got excited about some squirrels, but were never close enough to make an attempt at a real chase.

Dan taking pictures

Shadow fun on old, felled trees

The day was beautiful and sunny. We only saw one other person down in the valley floor. We saw a group up where we parked but only one while we were out hiking, sweet!!! Oh, and we heard mountain chickadees throughout our hike and on the way back to the car one came right up to me, which was extremely cool, but I couldn't get my camera ready until it was a bit further away, oh well.

Dan enjoying the valley floor

Mountain Chickadee from a distance (Poecile gambeli)

Baby Snake

2010-04-23T08:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, on my hike with the kids, I saw a baby Great Basin Gopher Snake (Pituophis catenifer), but unfortunately I did not have my camera with me, so no picture. It was so cute and tiny. When I went to move it from the middle of the road it coiled and tried to strike--so adorable. In the end, it was easy to catch and move--don't worry, I have worked in herpetology and have experience handling snakes. It was my first snake of the season and only my third or fourth reptile. The only other reptiles I have seen so far this spring have been western fence lizards (Sceloporus occidentalis) and I have only caught quick glimpses of them as they scurry under a nearby bush or rock.

Return of the Usual Suspects

2010-04-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

Red-winged Blackbirds flying off from last seasons cattails

The usual birds have started returning to the ranch. Every spring and summer we hear the sweet songs and see the beautiful feathers of these birds. We have other bird visitors as well, but we can always count on these bird species to show up in great numbers every year. The Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta) I mentioned last week is one of these consistent birds, but since I talked about them exclusively in the last post I won't talk about them again here.

Recently, the fields and pond edges have become filled with Red-Winged Blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus)--there are thousands of them filling the air with their distinctive calls, Brieeeeeeeeeeeeeee-you. They hangout on the top of sagebrush and on the tops of the dried out cattail stalks, leftover from last years growing season. The White-Crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys) are back too, they love to hangout in the trees right around our house, cleaning up the spilled grain that the horses leave behind.

Also blessing us with their presence, are the Killdeer (Charadrius vociferus). They aren't around the house so much, but they are out in great numbers down in the alfalfa fields. The Eurasian Collard-Dove (Streptopelia decaocto) is here too and although last year was the first year they were at the ranch, I have a feeling they are going to be returning visitors in the years to come. Oh, and I must not forget the Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura), they too are back in full force hanging out in the tops of the locust trees and circling menacingly around the ranch.

Turkey Vultures circling high above the ranch

There are other birds that are consistent returners to the ranch as well, however, I have yet to see them this season, I will post about them as soon as I do.

When, What to My Wondering Ears Should Appear

2010-04-09T09:00:00.000-07:00

But, the sounds of spring. You know it's spring when you start hearing the songs of the Western Meadowlark (Sturnella neglecta)--their scientific name sounds so disconcerting, doesn't it? The Meadowlarks have returned to the ranch with their sweet, melodic tunes. Every time I go for a walk or a hike I hear the welcome call of a Meadowlark.

Here at the ranch you often see Meadowlarks perched up on tall sagebrush. However, you often hear a Meadowlark way before you see it. They are about the size of a Robin and they have a bright, yellow chest, the yellow extends up their neck and spills over onto their face. They also have a distinctive, black, V shaped chest strap. In addition, they have brown streaks that run down their white/gray backs. These birds are easy to identify, both by sight and sound.

Western Meadowlark: from wikimedia

Meadowlarks nest on the ground and often cover their nests with a grass roof. Typically, they live in open country and can be found in grasslands, agricultural fields and the high desert. They like to eat insects, grain and seeds.

you can hear the song of the Meadowlark here: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Western_Meadowlark/sounds.

Resources:
Western Meadowlark, (n.d.). Retrieved April 8, 2010 from All About Birds: http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Western_Meadowlark/id.

National Geographic Society, 1987. Field Guide to the Birds of North America, 2nd Edition. Washington, DC: National Geographic Society.

Yellow Bells

2010-04-07T10:00:00.000-07:00

Yellow Bell

A couple of weeks ago Dan and I went to several places around the ranch to fix fences. I had never fixed fence before, so it was fun learning how to do it. While we were fixing fences I kept an eye out for any interesting wildflowers. We of course saw lomatiums, both Nevada bisuitroot (Lomatium nevadense) and Raven's Lomatium (Lomatium ravenii), which are all over the desert this time of year.

Lomatium nevadense

See the difference? Lomatium nevadense (left) next to a Lomatium ravenii (right)

We also saw beautiful little Yellow Bells (Fritillaria pudica), which are a new find for me. I have never seen a Yellow Bell in the wild before, so it was very exciting. When we first saw them I said "Hey Dan, look at these cool little yellow bells!"--not know what they were. When I looked them up at home, I found that my impromptu name (Yellow Bell) was quite accurate and is actually one of its common names.

The Yellow Bell belongs to the lily or Liliaceae family. It has an erect stem with lance-shaped leaves and can grow to be about 4-12 inches tall. The flowers are yellow and they nod towards the ground. They are also shaped like a bell, hence the common name, Yellow Bell.

The bulbs of the Yellow Bell are edible and are quite tasty. They can be eaten raw or cooked and can be a nice addition to soup. However, it would take killing many of these beautiful little plants to create a meal. Personally, I think it would be a shame to kill large amounts of this lovely little plant to eat, unless it's absolutely necessary.

Yellow Bell flower head

Fritillaria pudica

Remember, if you are going to pick wild food from nature try to take less than 10% of what is there. That way the population can sustain itself and you and future generations can continue picking wild edibles for years to come.

Also, beware that many plants in the lily family are quite poisonous and eating them can lead to death. Many lilies can look quite similar when they are young. Please take great care and have a solid grasp of plant identification skills before you ingest any wild plant material.

24 hours of wind, pain and fun!

2010-04-05T09:30:00.000-07:00

Wrestling a bear--think I'm winning?

This past weekend Dan and I decided to join in on the annual 24 hour Reno bike scavenger hunt/race--Scalleycat. The event has been held for several years and we have always wanted to attend, but in the past, life and location has kept us away. This year the stars aligned and we were able take part in the biking fun.

We started out at a local bar where we got our bike bible, which is the list of missions to complete during the scavenger hunt. The missions are worth varying points depending upon how difficult they are to complete. The bible contains way more missions than anyone can complete, so you have to pick and choose which missions to complete and in which order to complete them in. To get points you have to take a digital picture of you and your bike completing the mission. Oh yeah, and you compete in teams of two, one to be in the picture and one to take the picture. We didn't take the race part of it too seriously, we just wanted to ride and have fun--we even got 7 hours of sleep during the race.

Our route

We ended up riding a little over 60 miles. The first night was cold and windy and it even snowed on us a little. When we rode out to Patagonia we had a major head wind with rain and snow flurries, which made the ride out west quite interesting. We got to do all sorts of fun things during this great event. We drank beer, took shots, ate funky food, wrestled bears, climbed to letters, jumped into a massive dog pile, turned into unicorns, played with all sorts of animals, gave my mommy flowers, made new friends, hung with old ones and at the end, we danced the night away. All in all, it was an amazing 24 hours.

Here are just a few of the photos from our ride:

Dog pile in the middle of the Cal Neva dance floor.

I was turned into a unicorn at the Alibi

Giving my mommy fresh picked flowers.

New friends and a Rhea (these guys got second place, sweet).

Dan, Conor and a mountain goat.

Dan riding down 10 steps.

Ada Lovelace Day: Marie Curie

2010-03-24T07:00:00.000-07:00

Today is Ada Lovelace Day a day celebrating women in technology and science. It's an international day of blogging (vlogging, podcasting, comic drawing etc.) to draw attention to the achievements of women in technology and science. So today I'm going to blog about a wonderful female scientist, Marie Curie.

Marie Curie, picture from Wikimedia Commons

Marie Curie lived from 1867 to 1934 and became famous for her work in Radioactivity. She was the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize for her study of spontaneous radiation. She won the Noble Prize in 1903--just two years after the formation of the Nobel Foundation. She shared the 1903 Noble Prize with both her husband Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel--the man who discovered spontaneous radiation. She later became the first person to win two Noble Prizes, winning her second Noble Prize in 1911 for her work in radioactivity.

In 1898 Marie discovered that radiation is a property of an atom itself. In that year she also discovered Polonium and radium, both of which emit millions of times more radiation than uranium. She also coined the term radioactivity - the spontaneous emission of radiation. Curie developed methods for the separation of radium from radioactive residues in sufficient quantities to allow for its characterization and the careful study of its properties, especially therapeutic properties. Marie was passionate about the use of radium to alleviate suffering and during World War I she organized radiotherapy services for military hospitals and set up mobil radiological posts. In 1914 she founded the Radium Institute, which has since been renamed Maria Skłodowska-Curie Institute of Oncology.

Marie Curie passed away in 1934 at the age of 67 from leukemia, brought on by her years of exposure to high levels of radiation.

Sources:

Walter, Alan E. (2004). Radiation and Modern Life: Fulfilling Marie Curie's Dream. Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books.

Marie Curie, The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903, (n.d.), Retrieved March 21, 2010 from: Nobelprize.org: http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1903/marie-curie-bio.html

Hello Spring, I Love you!

2010-03-20T09:25:00.001-07:00

A buttercup amongst the violas

It's officially the first day of spring, the vernal equinox, yay!!! I've been in Reno all week. The sun has been shining, the earth has been sprouting and the birds have been singing. I love it. The wildflowers have slowly started showing themselves. I saw my third wildflower of the season the other day, a sweet little buttercup (Ranunculus, spp). However, I saw more than one buttercup, I saw hundreds.

I have also been seeing a bunch of Northern Flickers (Colaptes auratus) lately. Flickers are a large woodpecker that have a lovely brown and black coloring. I love seeing these birds and the little splash of color that comes with them. You see, even though their bodies are brown and black the shaft or rachis of their flight-feathers is bright orange/red in the west and bright yellow in the east, so when they beat their wings you get a beautiful gift of color. Also, they have a white rump patch, which is easy to spot when the bird is in flight.

An interesting fact about the Northern flicker is that even though they are a type of woodpecker they typically hunt for their food on the ground, ants being one of their main food sources.

Northern Flicker, picture from Wikimedia Commons

A bunch of buttercups

Holy Antelope, Batman!

2010-03-18T09:00:00.000-07:00

There are giant herds of pronghorn antelope (Antelocapra americana) all around the ranch and the north end of the Black Rock Desert right now. On every hike we've taken we've seen at least two herds, usually we see three or four. They are all over the place. I've seen herds of antelope before, but never in these numbers. One herd that ran by us had so many antelope that it seemed to take forever for them to cross our path.

Pronghorns are easily recognizable with their white rump and underside. Their back is a light brown/tan color and the males have a black muzzle, forehead and cheek patches. Both sexes have horns which shed annually. The males have longer horns than the females, whose horns only grow to about 2 inches in length or less, sometimes they don't grow at all. Male horns tend to grow to about 12 inches and have a prominent prong on one of the two branches.

I took this picture of a herd just above the ranch, I had to zoom way in so you could see them so the quality is not all that great, but you can see their prominent white rumps (click on the image to see a larger version).

Pronghorn antelope with their prominent white rumps

Bodie's Response to the Peacock's Advances

2010-03-13T18:08:00.000-08:00

Please Don't Bite Us, We Just Want to Relax

2010-03-10T09:00:00.000-08:00

Reflection off of a Pinto Mountain hot spring pool

On Friday Dan, the kids and I went for a wonderful hike to the Pinto Mountain hot springs at the north end of the Black Rock Desert. The day started out gorgeous as we enjoyed our leisurely stroll to the springs. The light was really nice for taking pictures so we stopped often to do so. We also stopped at the sand dunes and I took a bunch of pictures of tracks that little animals left as they scurried across the sand. I'll have to get my scat and tracks book from Reno so I can identify what critters made the tracks.

Critter tracks, I want to find out what these are, if you know let me know (I'm thinking rabbit?)

Bodie and Dusty in front of Pinto Mountain on the Black Rock Desert

Dan heading up to the Pinto Mountain hot springs

When we got to the springs there were several stunning pools, all of which were too hot to get into. We followed the flow down a little ways and found another pool that was at a nice temperature for soaking and had been set up for doing just that. There were several boards that had been placed across rocks to allow for easy access and to make under water benches.

A very hot hot spring, not suitable for bathing

More of the hot pools

I love all the different colors that come with hot springs

Dan and I decided that it was a perfect day for a dip, it was a little cool out, but not so cool that getting out and walking the hour and a half back to the car would be uncomfortable. We hopped in and found the temperature to be quite pleasing, although the deeper you went the cooler the water got, but if you stayed on the bench it was quite pleasant. Dan and I sat and talked for a bit, then I noticed my shoulder starting to itch. I didn't think too much about it at first, but then I noticed Dan itching his shoulder and then my shoulder really started itching. I looked back and noticed a bunch of little red spots all over my shoulder. I shouted "Dan there are tiny red bugs all over me, we need to get out." So we quickly hoped out and helped each other brush off all the tiny red critters. Luckily, they seemed to be only on the surface of the water and only the parts of our bodies that were resting at the surface were covered with the critters.

We didn't know what the critters were at the time, so we had the heebie-jeebies all the way back to our car. When we got home we did some research and found out the the tiny critters were red spider mites, which are a common pests of gardens, but who also infest hot springs and areas around hot springs. From the reading I did, spider mites will not do much harm to a person, but they will cause you to itch. Also, they get into your clothes and will continue to bite and cause itching, so if you have a run in with red spider mites be sure to wash all the clothes you were wearing. After that experience, I do have no desire to bath with red spider mites again. I read on a forum that some people don't mind them, they just get out when the itching is too bad, but I don't think that is for me. I sure hope red spider mites are not on the move, infesting some of my all time favorite hot springs.

Red spider mite

Nice clouds on our walk back to the car helped us keep our minds of the heebie-jeebies

New Friends

2010-03-09T14:45:00.001-08:00

I just had to post this, I thought it was too cute for words!!!

Violas on the Hillside

2010-03-08T09:00:00.000-08:00

Last week I stayed in Reno with Dan so I could play some ultimate frisbee on both Monday and Tuesday nights. It was pretty fantastic, it felt great to run around chasing that ever elusive disc. On Tuesday afternoon I took the dogs for a small hike at the Huffaker Hill trails, just south of Rattle Snake Mountain. As I hiked, I noticed that there were a ton of Lomatiums all along the trail. There were yellow ones and white ones and they were all over, it was amazing.

As I continued to hike, I happened to look down and saw a little violet (Viola beckwithii). I was sooooo surprised to see it, a beautiful purple flower smiling up at me. Once I climbed a bit higher in to the hills, I noticed more and more violets. There were hundreds of them, it made me sooooo happy to see all these gorgeous little wildflowers. Yay, spring is on its way!!! Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me, but I did take a couple pictures with my phone. The quality of the pictures is pretty poor though, sorry for that.

Lomatium spp.

Viola beckwithii

The Viola beckwithii is native to California and the surrounding states and is only found in western North America. It, like the Lomatiums we've seen, is an early bloomer.

In addition to being beautiful little flowers, Violets are also edible and medicinal. The leaves and flowers have antiseptic and expectorant properties. The leaves also have been used as a diuretic. The flowers are the most common part of the plant to eat because they tend to have a sweet taste and they make a beautiful addition to any salad. The flowers can also be candied and used as a garnish on cakes and pastries. The roots and seeds, however, have been known to cause vomiting.

A Hike and A Wildflower!!!

2010-03-02T10:00:00.000-08:00

Dan's picture of TV mountain at sunset

Last week the kids and I went for a hike up TV mountain. TV mountain is a beautiful, cone shaped mountain that lies to the west of the ranch. It's not a terribly high mountain, but it sticks out because of its shape and how close to the ranch it is. TV mountain is very emblematic of the Ranch, it is one of the first images that enters my mind when I think of Leonard Creek Ranch. It got it's name because there is a large TV antenna located at the top. It's no longer in use, but when Dan was little that's how they got their television. Now it's all dish network or direct TV.

TV mountain last spring with blue mustard in the foreground

TV mountain last spring while bike irrigating

On the way up, I hiked up the east side of the mountain. The hike up is pretty steep, but not too long, it makes for a nice little workout. The hike is a lot of fun, especially once you get near the top and hit the big rocks that you need to pick and climb your way through. Bodie really enjoys that part of the hike, she loves rock hopping. Once we made it to the top we hung out for awhile so Bodie could play and so I could take some pictures.

Bodie and the antenna

Bodie playing on the rocks

Dusty overlooking the ranch from TV mountain

On the way home, we went down the west side of the mountain. When you go down the west side the top is steep and rocky, but then you hit a plateau where there is a road that leads down the mountain. So, the kids and I followed the road the rest of the way down. As we walked along the road I saw my first wildflower of the season. It seems a bit early to be seeing wildflowers, but there it was, a Lomatium Ravenii also known as Lassen Parsley or Raven's Lomatium.

Ranven's Lomatium is a dicot, and is native to Nevada, California, Idaho, Utah and Oregon. It lives in the sagebrush scrub habitat, which is characteristic of northern Nevada. The leaves are basal growing out of a long, deep, perennial taproot. The flowers grow in clusters called umbels and they tend to be white, but can be a light shade of purple as well. It is an early bloomer and can be one of the first to bloom in the spring. So it's not too surprising that I saw it first.

Lomatium Ravenii

Lomatium Ravenii

What a fun day, a nice hike with the kids and my first wildflower of the season. I can't wait to see what will come next.

Celebrate the Color!!!

2010-02-28T09:00:00.000-08:00

Radha and Krishna, and sakhis playing Holi, 19th century.

Yay, it's Holi time!!! Holi, the Hindu Festival of Color, is a yearly festival celebrating the return of color to the world. Holi is celebrated on the Phalgun Purnima (or Pooranmashi, Full Moon) according to the Hindu Calendar. This year the Holi festival starts Sunday, February 28 (Holi eve) with bonfires and ends on Monday, March 1 (the official Holi day) with people tossing colorful powders and water onto each other. In some areas the Holi celebration lasts up to sixteen days.

Holi is celebrated at the end of the winter months and marks the start of springtime in India. Anyone who knows me, knows I love springtime, especially the return of the wildflowers. I suspect, however, that the majority of wildflowers won't start showing themselves for quite sometime yet. With that said, spring and all the color that comes with it is on its way, yay. I actually saw my first wildflower, a Lomatium, the other day, but I'm going to post about that in the near future, so be sure to stay tuned.

Anyway, I love this time of year, the anticipation of spring and of what the earth has to offer. Have a great Holi everyone and may the springtime bring an abundance of color to your life!!!!

References:

Festival of Colors (n.d.), Retrieved February 27, 2009 from: http://www.thecolorsofindia.com/holi.html

Holi (n.d.), Retrieved February 27, 2009 from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holi

Holi Festival (n.d.), Retrieved February 27, 2009 from: http://www.holifestival.org/

Snow to Sunshine; Just When You Think You Know What to Expect

2010-02-25T11:54:00.000-08:00

Last weekend the pups and I went to Reno to visit Dan and take in some city life. We ended up not going out on the town much since Dan was suffering from a nasty cold. However, I did get to play some ultimate on Saturday which was a lot of fun. I definitely miss playing frisbee 2 to 4 times a week, but at least I'm able to stay in decent shape working out at the ranch.

The weather Saturday afternoon while we were playing disc was really nice, cool, but not so cool that you had to wear layers. I was wearing shorts a light thermal top and a tee shirt and was very comfortable. That night, however, it started to snow and it snowed all night long. We woke up Sunday morning to about a foot of snow on the ground and it was still snowing hard. The news reports said it was going to rain, not snow, so we were definitely not expecting it.

For some reason, mother nature has decided to dump a bunch of snow on us whenever I'm supposed to do a lot of driving. The last time it snowed this much was the day before I left for Euskadi and I had to take Bodie to the goat sitter, it was a pain, but we managed. Well, this past Sunday I was supposed to drive down to Carson and pick up my dad's four chickens and drive them up to the ranch. I expected the road down to Carson to be a mess, it usually is after a snow storm. I called dad Sunday morning assuming that there was going to be about a foot and a half of snow or more in Carson (Carson usually gets a lot more snow than Reno). He said they only got an inch or two, if that, Crazy!

Dan and I talked for awhile trying to figure out if I wanted to drive down to Carson and to the ranch in the snow. Even though Carson didn't get much snow the roads in and around Reno were not great and it was still snowing. Another factor in the decision was with Dan being sick, I might want to leave him the car regardless so he wouldn't have to bike to work in the nasty weather. Plus, I could hitch a ride to the ranch with Glynn and Trenton who were in Reno for bull riding. I would just have to leave the chickens in Carson and Dan could pick them up next weekend and bring them to the ranch when he visited.

We decided to leave the car with Dan and I would then hitch a ride with Glynn. Leaving Reno it was super foggy, snowing hard and there was a ton of snow on the ground. The snow was fairly wet so the roads actually weren't as bad as we had originally thought. As we drove, the weather appeared to get better and better. The weather at the ranch tends to be quite similar to the weather in Reno, even though it's about 5 hours away. One place may get a little more or a little less snow, but it tends to be comparable. If it's cold and cloudy in Reno it tends to be cold and cloudy at the ranch.

Well, when we arrived at the ranch on Sunday afternoon the weather couldn't have been more different than in Reno, it was a beautiful sunny day. I took the kids for a walk and I had to take off layers. It was absolutely amazing. It seemed so crazy that I woke up in a foot of snow in Reno and then I was basking in sunshine at the ranch. I called Dan to see if the weather had changed there, but he said it was still snowing in Reno and was amazed to hear how warm the weather at the ranch was. The storm must have been super isolated, hanging out over Reno. Mother nature mixing it up a bit, keeping us on our toes.

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the snow in Reno, silly me.

Daddy, Daddy, Daddy Long Legs!!!!

2010-02-23T09:00:00.000-08:00

Cellar Spider. Picture from: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Daddy_long-legs_spider_1.jpg

So, I have recently moved back up to Leonard Creek Ranch, which is very exciting and will hopefully get me back to blogging in a more predictable manner. I'm living in the little ranch house across the drive from Daniel's mother's house. The house is a bit run down and there are some cobwebs here and there, but overall it's cozy and quaint.

One of my favorite things about the house is a daddy long leg spider, also known as a cellar spider, who lives in the corner of my bathtub/shower. I tend to forget that he is there and I turn on the shower, let the water heat up a bit and I step in. I turn around and there he is in the lower corner of my tub. I always think, oh shit, I should turn off the water and escort him somewhere safe, but then he starts to climb his web to the safety of the ceiling. I watch him as he makes his way out of the danger zone and into the safety of the upper corner. He typically has a couple of small falls on his way to the top, but he always makes it and he makes it fairly fast. He's one tough spider.

Once my shower is over I think, maybe I should move him so he doesn't have to go through that grueling climb everyday. Then I think, maybe it's not too grueling, plus he now knows I'm here and that I take regular showers, if he fears for his life he would move, right? Anyway, I enjoy his company and he eats, or at least traps, many of the peskier insects, so I don't mind having him near by. And don't worry, if it ever seems like he's having too much trouble with the climb to safety, I'll move him to a quieter, less exciting location. I wonder though, in the world of spider, is it more disrupting to have to climb to safety everyday or rebuild and restructure your home/territory???? Hmmmmmmm, if any entomologists out there know the answer to that one, let me know.

Birthday Bodie!!!!! One Year Old!!!!

2010-02-17T09:31:00.001-08:00

A day at Lake Tahoe

One year ago today Bodie, the cutest baby goat in the world, wandered into our lives. She was such a tiny little goat, who was rejected by her mother. Her mother had triplets and only enough milk to feed two babies, so our Bodie was pushed off to the side and ignored. Ignored, that is, until she was brought to us by Dan's mother. She asked us to watch over her, but we ended up falling in love with her. For several months we bottle fed her and loved her and she slept in a big cardboard box in our bathroom. As she grew stronger, she started joining us on our outdoor adventures. She loves going for hikes and climbing mountains. Playing on the rocks is one of her favorite activities. She eventually got big enough and strong enough that she had to move outside. She is such a sweet, funny little girl, who never fails to make us smile. She has brought so much joy into our lives, we are soooooo lucky to have her as a member of our family. Happy Birthday Bodie, we love you!!!

~Renee, Dan, Dusty and Coco

Here are some of my favorite photos from Bodie's first year:

Baby Bodie on a walk with papa

Taking a nap on her favorite chair

Learning to drive

First big hike, turd peak

On her princess chair

Being goofy

Hanging out with her big bro

One of her many cozy spots

Snuggling with papa

We want to go too!

Everyone loves going for a ride in the car

Playing peek-a-boo

I could have posted a hundred more photos there are sooooooo many cute ones of our baby goat and these don't even include pictures that Dan has taken, he has a ton too. But, these are some of my favorites.

A Month and a Half Later, Give or Take

2010-02-15T09:00:00.000-08:00

Dan on a hike at the ranch for Christmas

Well, we have been back in the States for over a month and a half, but it took me awhile to post about my Euskadi experience. The last month and half has been fun, but nothing too exciting. I've gone to a couple of ultimate frisbee tournaments and on a couple of awesome hikes, but overall it's kinda back to the same old routine.

No Dice, UNR Ultimate Ladies team

Lei-out beach tournament in Santa Monica

Dusty and snow on one of our hikes

For Christmas we went up to the ranch, it was good to see all the kids and hike around the desert. Back in Reno, Dan and I took our kids to Pyramid Lake for a day which was beautiful and relaxing. We wanted to hit up the hot springs out there, but there were a bunch of people at them so we decided to wait for another time. We also went to Washoe Lake one day for a picnic, some cuddling and some disc tossing. It was a gorgeous day, which turned out to be really warm.

The family at Pyramid Lake

Dan the tree climbing expert at Pyramid

Bodie just loves Pyramid

A picnic and a cuddle at Washoe Lake

The one big piece of news is that Dan's brother Mike rented out his house in Reno and Bodie can no longer stay there. So; her, the dogs and I have moved back up to the ranch. We knew the time was coming and it's finally here. Being at the ranch is nice, but Dan is still in Reno for his job, so it's difficult for us being away from him and for him being away from us. We are hoping that this is a temporary arrangement, but we'll have to see. I love being up here it's just so hard to be away from the community, my mom and especially Dan. We would love to buy a place in or around Reno where we could have Bodie, but it's a hard time right now.

Euskadi; The French Side

2010-02-10T09:00:00.000-08:00

Erin and Dan in Garazi

On Friday we met Jose Luis in Donostia. Jose Luis does the book design for most of the books published by the Center of Basque Studies and he lives in Donostia. He really wanted to take us to the French Basque Country for lunch. The town we went to was called Garazi. The drive there was long and windy. It got me feeling car sick, I was so glad when we finally got there and I could get out of the car. Although it got me feeling a little ill, the drive was beautiful.

Erin, Jose Luis, Dan and me in Garazi

We got into Garazi around lunch time so we decided to eat first. Jose Luis really wanted to take us to this one restaurant, but it was packed and had a fairly long wait so we decided to go to another little restaurant. It was good we all got the pasta with interesting steak sauce, it was different than anything I have ever eaten before, but it was very good.

After we ate we took a walk around town and explored the city. It is a neat city with a lot of pretty buildings. It is amazing how different the French Basque cities look, you can tell by the scenery when you cross the border.

Buildings in Garazi

The River in Garazi

A beautiful house on the coast

We didn't stay too long in Garazi because we were going to have dinner at Sabin's, a friend of Dan's, house. We were also going to spend the night there before we drove to Madrid to catch our flight home. Sabin lives just outside of Bilbao in a cool house with his mom and wife. Dan went to Sabin's house for dinner before I got to Euskadi and had a great time. I had met Sabin for two seconds on the Friday I was super sick and he seemed really nice. I was really looking forward to dinner at his house and getting to know him better.

However, when we left Getaria we realized that there was more snow on the ground than we had expected. Drivers were going very slowly, it took us over a half an hour to get to Zumaia which is not that far from Getaria. We discussed it for awhile and decided that it would take us too long to get to Bilbao at the speed we were going and it seemed that the road was only going to get worse from Zumaia. So we turned back and stayed one more night in Getaria.

The next morning there was still a lot of snow on the roads so we decided to go to Donostia, return the rent-a-car and take the train to Madrid instead of driving. The train ride was easy and smooth, we were glad we choose that option. We got into Madrid late and stayed at a hotel that was right next to the train station. The next morning we got up and took the subway to the airport. Erin went with us to the airport, although she stayed in Madrid for two more days before she went back to Romania. Erin stayed with us until we checked in, then she headed out to explore the city. The plane ride home was smooth, but long.

It was a wonderful trip, I'm so glad I decided to go with Dan. I hope we get to go back next year and explore more.