Last year at this time there were 2 hens with 12 chicks between them and by Fall just 2 chicks at the nearly grown stage. Both Bob and Karl were inside when this group walked down the driveway. I confess to not being that fond of the turkeys. The males are beautiful when “strutting their stuff” – peacock-like with red, black and white plumage – but they are all loud and messy. Karl chases them off. I am not sure why they persist in coming so close to the house.
These are real raindrops – NOT water from the sprinklers – on the lily-of-the-valley leaves…this morning!! So very exciting as rain is both rare and welcome in July in Montana. And especially welcome as yesterday’s forecast was for dry thunderstorms… as in lightning and thunder but no rain. And also for windy conditions. There was a fire weather watch and to me that is scarier than bears or mountain lions or coyotes. It is a fear based on a natural and healthy fear of fire, combined with some irrational fears of being trapped by fire.
And although some extra humidity last night as the clouds formed was encouraging, the rain this morning sealed the deal and made things much less scary and cooler.
Rain!
June 23, 2009
July 14, 2009
Goatsbeard (Salsify)
Salsify is actually the name that is more recognizable. I now know why my step-Dad, Bill, has a dislike for this particular “wildflower”. Even though the seed pod made for a fun and pretty photo, in reality, the salsify gone to seed look like dandelions on steroids. And I can see that a lot of them make for a takeover, so much so that in Colorado, where my folks live, Salsify is considered a noxious weed.
I recently had my woods sprayed for noxious weeds. I first walked the woods with Bob and Tana Gornick who did the spraying. It was an experience I anticipated with low expectations only to be surprised at how fascinating it was. Bob and Tana are retirement age and spend Winters in Arizona, but they are Montanans with their own woods and acreage. Noxious weed eradication without destroying any more than necessary of natural flora and fauna is a passion of theirs and I LOVE passionate people so we had a wonderful time!
I had the woods logged two years ago for the health of the trees and fire defensibility. Bob Love, Confluence Timber, who did the logging is a man who loves trees, woods and the land with an incredible and knowledgeable passion. Before he left, we walked the woods and he instructed me to get some grass seed on the areas that were turned up from the logging equipment. New weeds, exposed to new and favorable conditions, were likely to grow. Good vegetation is the best defense against “bad” vegegation. I did as told.
Bob and Tana said they had never seen a woods that looked so healthy and full of good stuff so soon after logging. Still, there were patches here and there of noxious weeds. I had tried to keep up by pulling as I saw them, but a few areas were close to being out of hand and there were some things I hadn’t recognized as noxious. We agreed on a plan of backpack spot spraying with only 3 small areas of broadcast spraying.
Broadleaf weed killer is to vegetation as antibiotics are to bacteria … good things are killed along with the bad. The less broadcast spraying, the better.
It has been almost 3 weeks since the weeds were sprayed. Most of the noxious weeds are dead or dying. I pull anything that is noxious as I see it. I learned from Bob and Tana to recognize the young versions of the noxious weeds. I also learned of a few things that I didn’t realize were noxious.
But the Goatsbeard/Salsify…in Montana, it is not classified as noxious. It is a butterfly attractant…so far.
Beauty and the Beast: weed or wildflower?
July 4th, 2009…not fireworks, just excitement…
Sometime just before 7:00 a.m. on the 4th, Karl started barking, Bob came roaring inside…
I tore outside, stopping only long enough to grab my can of pepper spray.
Karl was doing his “woo-woo-woo” something up a tree kind of noise. As I rounded the motorhome I saw Karl and the coyote. The coyote looked so small that my initial thought was “young” coyote.
They were squared off.
As I came into view, the coyote looked at me, turned and took off to the East – our loop walk. Karl moved a bit toward, keeping up the “woo-woo-woo” and then, somewhat spastically, nose to the ground, alternatively barking, sniffing – following the scent around the area, but not giving chase.
I let Karl do as he needed. He was all over the scent, stopping occasionally to look East and bark.
Time to keep watch…
Watching…
Bob was watching also…with the occasional low growl.
July 4th, 2009. It started out with a bang.
Karl and I did not get to go south to the good sand, but we did get a long late morning walk close to home.
It is foggier and colder today even than over the weekend. While we were sitting and watching…
…they flew over…
…in formation.
Lupin or Lupine, that is the question… I googled lupin to make sure that my spelling was ok and found that while Lupine is the typical North American spelling, Lupin is the original. Lupins were so named after the latin for wolf, as it was originally thought that they “wolfed” the soil of nutrients. As it happens, it is the reverse. Lupins add nitrogen back to the soil, enriching it for other growing things. Additionally, they are a larval food, hence Fuzzy and many of his brethren that were all over the lupins…
Now, to the my life part of the post… I have had a business trip to San Francisco area pending since November. It is now to happen but there is no room at the inn for Karl, ( K9 Kamp) – it is full and it is full for several weeks.
I really wanted to do this trip by RV. There is some indication that more than one meeting might be necessary. My original thought was to go and park near and be available for awhile. Yippy-Skippy, that is what is going to happen. Wild Thing and all of her crew are cleared for take-off and will depart late next week bound for South San Francisco. All of this getting ready for the meeting, getting ready to go, getting the house ready to leave…it takes time. Posts might be skimpy or missed.
But once we hit the road things should be fun. New places to see and share photos of. Adventures to be had, all shared at From the Front Porch. Karl, Bob and I are going to Californ-i-a!
See, more than you wanted to know about lupins and my life.