Fire! · 16 days ago

It happens so fast, but it could have been worse.

The arc caused by two wires (from the main PG&E power line that runs through the property) caused sparks to ignite the dry grass in the field. The insulator somehow broke and the lines came together, making a horrible noise. The loose one then settled on the crossarm of the power pole and the sparking stopped. But the damage was done: sparks had gotten to the grass and it blazed away.

Fortunately there wasn’t much of a breeze and the fire continued to spread in a circle, out from the pole. The ranch road runs diagonally above the charred area in the picture and acted as a fire break. If there had been gusty winds it might have been a different story. Until help arrived, we tried to maintain that line by beating it with wet burlap feed sacks. A mowed swath along the gravel road eased this part of the job by limiting the fuel right along the road. If you have a fast connection, click on the image to view a really detailed one. The power pole in the center of the picture is where the fire started—note that it isn’t even damaged.

Our local volunteer fire department and California Department of Forestry responded and contained the fire in no time. They even dispatched a bulldozer that wasn’t needed (see detailed picture), thank goodness.

We sincerely thank the firefighters for their fast response and the neighbors who called to report smoke, even though they didn’t know exactly where it was. This time of the year don’t take a chance! If you smell smoke, report it.

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Mountain Lion? · 147 days ago

A neighbor has just reported that one of his goats was dragged off and partly eaten a week or so ago. I’ve been a non believer in mountain lions until recently. Obviously they are moving back into this territory.

Scat (feces) full of hair with a dime alongside for size comparison

One day as I got out of my car to close the gate I noticed a large scat beside the road. It was full of hair and much larger than any I’d seen from a coyote. Since I had my camera I snapped a picture and promptly forgot about it.

Today I got it out and compared it to some other pictures I found on the web. Identification is still up in the air, but I am heading out to count the sheep. I will be looking up when I walk under the trees and looking down in soft earth for tracks. I don’t expect to actually see one, but I will be on the lookout.

The last documented mountain lion sighting in this particular area (outside of very recently) was in 1903. So it appears to me that they are moving in to the area from elsewhere.

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This and that · 148 days ago


The other evening I snapped a picture of a beautiful sunset. We’ve had a lot of rain and even some snow at the higher elevations. Now the days are growing noticeably longer. This sunset, with its lowering clouds and ridgetops in silhouette seemed amazing to me.

A sign of spring was the first wildflower to be spotted. Usually I come across Milk Maids or naturalized blue Forget-Me-Nots in January or February.

A lupin plant with gray green leaves and blue flowers

This year after the snow, during a sunny pause I glimpsed this lupine in bloom on February 1.

This colony grows on a dry rocky sidehill that dries out very early in the spring. I have noticed over the years that if we have a dry spring but get enough unexpected late rain, this lupine will have new blooms on it at the same time it has seed pods that have already burst open to disperse the earlier crop of seeds.

We can have more rain or even snow, the groundhog can see his shadow and head back for more nap but I am assured that spring is on its way.

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Web design on the range · 239 days ago

Several spider webs are highlighted against the dry grass of autumn

This is the time of year (autumn to some, fall to others) when the hills are no longer the palomino tan of summer. The dry grass has collected a coating of dust that has been turned to a coasting of gray by the moisture of the fog.

A spider in a dew covered web with the barn far off in the background

The other morning I noticed a collection of spider webs in the tall grass by our gate. A heavy fog was burning off and the webs were sparkling with dew drops. The webs are always there, we just don’t notice them without a little highlighting.

Closeup of a spider with striped legs in his web that is sparkling with dew drops.

I zoomed in close with my camera and noticed the resident spiders awaiting the unsuspecting visitor. The camera caught the beauty of the dew drops but not the nearly glow-in-the-dark green stripes on the spider.

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Mr Badger's View Site · 403 days ago

Looking down at ranch buildings from up on a hill Badgers live underground in burrows called setts. (Learn more about badgers here and here). It’s been my experience that they like to be high up, looking our over the country below. This picture is taken from above a local sett—you can see some of the loose dirt the badger has pushed out in the lower part of the picture. His sett overlooks the buildings below.

A group of badger holes making up the badger sett. A lot of loose soil is piled up around the entries to the holes. A sett is usually made up of more than one hole as you can see here. Badger holes make nice homes for other living things—snakes and frogs perhaps. But I would think they’d take up residence only in abandoned badger setts since badgers tend to be loners.

A hole in the earth with roots dangling I was curious about how far in the hole went but I wasn’t going to stick my hand in. Instead I pointed my camera down the hole and got a picture of the grass roots hanging from the roof of the tunnel.

In times past farmers and ranchers would try to eliminate badgers from their fields because they felt the digging was destructive. Larger animals can trip when their feet land in a hole and the holes can also lead to erosion. This particular badger sett is on a steep slope at the top of a swale. I imagine in years to come the the swale will enlarge and eventually become a wash or watercourse. The digging of the badger might speed up this process and then again it might not.

This badger is welcome to keep lookout over the place. Like some of the newcomers to our area, he has made his home where there’s a nice view. But his home blends in with its surroundings and you have to go looking for it to spot it!

Update: On another visit to the badger sett, I again used my camera to explore the hole. When I first looked at this picture I thought the marks you can see were simply cracks in the dry earthen wall of the tunnel.

Claw marks on the inside of the badger holeBut if you look closely you can see these are claw marks from when the badger was excavating, back when the earth was still damp. Imagine how powerful those diggers must be!

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