Ah, Ha, Got Ya!

Managed to sneak up and get this photo today.  Down below in the flowers were a couple more adults and about 10 babies.  They look rather well fed don't they?

Mullein

Ah, I just went out and killed a Mullein plant.  Mullein is a mixed bag of good and bad.  Native to Europe and Asia, it was brought to the US in the early 18th century and had spread accross the US by the late 19th century.

It has several medicinal uses and while it doesn't pose much of a threat to crops or native plants in most places, it does attract nasty little bugs that do pose a threat to both. 

I think the only reason I let this one get so big was a knee jerk reaction to a gal that I used to ride horses with.  Every time she would get a glimps of a Mullein plant she would go on and on and on about what an ugly plant it was.  Now, I don't happen to think it's an ugly plant and it is a survivor.  That should be honored.

It's the first to pop up after man or fire has disturbed an area. Mankind relied on it for centuries for it's medicinal properties and thought enough of it to make sure it was one of the plants they took when colonizing new worlds.  I'm not saying that man hauling non native plants all over the place is a good thing, but that's not the plants fault.  I know, I'm being wierd.

Any way, it was attracting some weird bugs, so it and it's bugs are in a closed plastic bag now.  Sigh. 

Interupted Dinner

A while back the dogs and I got sight of an Osprey sitting on her nest.  We saw her again today sitting on a tree watching us.  I stopped and took several pictures as she glared back at me.  I didn't realize until I got home and looked at the pictures that I had intereupted her dinner.  Full size, the pictures show the fish very clearly.  Uploading though, they tend to take pixels out, so not sure if it will be so obvious in the blog.  You can see the tail of the fish pretty clearly though. 

Isn't she beautiful?  Further down the road we saw one of the youngsters near the nest.  It never did give me an opportunity at a picture.  Ospreys are quite the fisherbirds.  She waited for me to leave and when I just kept taking pictures, she left after giving me a bit of a glare.  She's looking right into my camera lense here.

Rough Roads

Nancy and I drove up to the Moore Creek Trailhead to ride to Bobby Lake, the PCT and back last Tuesday. Well, as I said before, the actual trailhead is a nasty turn around, so we parked down the road.

The 5 miles up the gravel road with the trailer were rough and poor Jo was soaking wet with nervous sweat when we got there.  I rode her down to the creek which had been full of water 2 weeks ago, only to discover that it was dry as a bone.  How's that song go, "drove my chevy to the levy but the levy was dry"?  Yeah, well, Moore Creek used to run all year, guess not this year.

According to the signs and maps, it should have been an 18 mile round trip, came in at 13 according to the gps.  Ah, well, we stood in the marsh next to the lake and chatted for close to an hour.  About 45 minutes in, I realized that I hadn't seen a single mosquito.  Not sure where they were, suspect that I wouldn't want to be there near night fall though.

There was about a one mile section that had a lot of downed trees.  We got over or around them all, but that section does need to be cleared.  There apeared to be trail activity coming in off of the PCT, but not much from the Moore Creek side.

I'd never ridden all the way around Bobby Lake, turned out to be a pretty good sized lake.  Got a couple nice views of Maiden Peak.

The ride home down that wash board road was nasty, at least for poor Jo, alone in the trailer.  She always buries her head in the corner but on that ride she jammed her head into the corner so hard, she drew blood.  Poor thing.  That trailer is sooooo noisy, she must have thought she was in . . . well, you know.

Well, the ride was beautiful, nice day, beautiful scenary, good horses and a good friend.

Summer Flowers

After a winter of nothing but white, spring and summer flowers are a real boost to the soul.

This Iris appears to be the only one in my yard.  I think it's the only one that I've seen in this rust color.








They say that roses won't grow in this area, but I have two that struggle along.

Hot Days, Cool Nights, NOT

Woke up at 1am all hot and sweaty.  Looked at the thermometer, 60 degrees.  WHAT???  This is the mountains, not the valley.  It can't be 60 degrees.  That's one of the nice things about this area, it ALWAYS cools off at night.

Finally got back to sleep, got up at 5:30, it was 56 degrees.  Geez! Well, if I need to get any thing done outside today, better do it early.  Hadn't planned on riding but had planned on doing some clean up.

Better get busy!

Bird Listening

Okay, I think the Dark Eyed or Oregon Junco is a handsome little bird.  I love to see them in the yard, stopping by for a cool drink of water and a bath.  BUT, their call to each other is a dead ringer for squeaky car brakes.

I have a yard full of Junco's.  I am getting very tired of their constant calling to one another.  High pitched squeaky brakes.  Okay, okay, I may be a little bit at fault for teasing that one little fellow with the recording, but that was a month ago.  Time to come up with a new song.

The Mountain Chickadee and Nuthatch songs are a little less irritating, but really kids, try some thing new.

Saw the American Pipit again yesterday.  I'd never seen one before, so nice to get a new sighting on my list.  The female Western Tanager still comes in to the bird bath, but her mate just won't come near the house.  I see him from time to time out back and spotted him once on the empty lot next door, but he won't come any where near human or dog activity.  He is so pretty, one of the most colorful birds in the NW and while she is very pretty, colorful she's not.

Ah, a couple Chickadee's getting a morning drink.

Summer Riding

Rode Taro yesterday, tried his new boots.  Easyboot Gloves in front and Easyboot Edge in back.  He did well, walked out, didn't trip.  Taro is a nice ride, I enjoy him.  Rode Angel today.  Angel is Taro's half sister, both are 18 years old.  Different as day and night.

Angel has the attention span of a nat.  Although, if I put her in a big trot, she can do it all day long.  If I want a walk, with out a jig and faster than a nat, it's a fight.  We've been working on it.  We have made some progress.  I've finally stopped listening to all the trainers who say, hold until she stops jigging then release, she'll figure it out. Yeah, right.  Finally figured out that I had to change her frame.

She is an Arab, which means high head. Nice flexion, but high head. High head, I get a short stride then jig.  Rather than get in her mouth and hold until she walks and then release, which has never worked,  I decided to concentrate on her head and getting it down, down, down.  Discovered that she can't jig for long with the head down.  I mean down. So, head down.  That gets me a walk.  But, lengthening the stride is fun.  Kick shortens stride, spanking lengthens stride. Spank her, she bucks.  No biggie.  So, head down, spank, ignore buck and let her settle and finally, I was getting a walk with a decent stride.

Managed an 11 mile ride today, walking at a blistering 3.9 mph.  That's fast for her.  It will get better, we are making strides (chuckle, get it, strides).  She may have to walk with her head on the ground for a bit, but, once she figures it out, the head can come up a bit.

There were moments that were actually fairly pleasant. Saw a Red Tail Hawk . . . pretty.

Walking

Once the snow melts, there are several people, mostly women, that walk by my house every day.  We live in a subdivision, and they tend to walk the same route, every day, year after year.  It amazes me.  The same two or three miles, every day.

I walk often, almost NEVER in the subdivision.  With in a five minute drive there are several old forest roads closed to all motor vehicles and one state park with about 20 miles of trails.

One 3 mile section of closed road follows a river and I never fail to see all sorts of wildlife and birds, from Bald Eagles to finches.  It's one of the most beautiful walks any where.  The state park has trails that run along two different rivers and there's a water fall.  If one is really into a good strenuous walk, there are several small buttes.

With all this beauty a mere five minutes away, why would some one choose to walk daily in a subdivision with cars, trucks, dogs and dust?  I don't get it!