Strawberry and Spirit

Several folks have asked about or newest arrivals on the hilltop, Strawberry the drafter mare, and Spirit the twin calf.  Well, here they both are.

Spirit is on this side of the fence, Dandy with the blaze face, his mother Shiplay hiding behind, and Strawberry up next to Spirit.  

As you can see, all are doing well.  Spirit is still taking a bottle twice a day, but may get cut down to maybe 3/4 bottle or less, as she picks up on Calf Manna, a grower grain ration, and alfalfa hay.

Strawberry on the other hand is enjoying green grass, and daily alfalfa hay down in the barn.

And, though Dandy still likes to lord it over her, she has manages to get past him and into the barn so she can get to the hay.

Spring is Sprung

The old saw about "Spring is sprung, Fall has fell, Summer's here, and it's hotter'n ...." is not true now, for sure, but it is indeed starting to be true.  At least the part about Spring, springing.

The first harbinger of a change that I saw was the rate at which my Hummingbird feeders are being emptied.

Five of the six feeders hanging on my front porch.

During the late summer, we have 75-100 birds coming and going all during the daylight hours, especially during the very early and last-light times.  But during the winter months, I have taken down two feeders, until that slows down, and then removed two more, leaving only a basic two feeders for the mid-winter months.

This year, I cut down to four hanging feeders, but never went lower.  In November and December I would fill them about every third or fourth day.  But in late December, and especially during January, the activity level picked up, at first slowly, but still increasing.

But about mid-January, the feeding frenzy in the early and late hours has become frenetic again.  I am now filling all four feeders every other day, to stay up with them.  I think it is a bit early to put up the final two feeders, but that time is surely not far away.

Morning feeding time.

In this forum, I have talked about things I observed in the surrounding Nature, and reported them to you. This increase in Hummingbird activity was quite expected, but not until now, maybe even another couple of weeks, before we began to see an upswing in activity.

So I am wondering if that 13.30 inches of rain we got a month ago was not only the high point in winter storms, but may have also been the last shot out of the cannon.  We have seen this happen in years before, as the winter rains quit early, but it means for a somewhat shorter grass year, too.  The final flush of growth on our hillsides depend on a good drink of water sometime in late-February and hopefully a little more in March.

But, that time is still a ways off, and we could still get a good rain.  Nothing is drying out around the ranch yet, as every possible niche is either oozing water, or only now beginning to stop leaking.  So the ground is wet, and the grass is feeding on it.

Above the fog level, here in the foothills above Lake Success, the sunshine is delightful.   It is beginning to warm up during the middle of the day now, and that will certainly put the plants into a growth burst.

Speaking of fog ... which nobody likes to drive in ... many folks commented on the "smell" of the fog Wednesday evening.

About 4:30 that afternoon the evening fog came swirling in with a vengeance.  I stepped outside the building on Olive, just west of the PHS, and was startled as I smelled smoke.  Then I realized it wasn't smoke, like from a burning fire, but smelled more like a fireplace.  

I puzzled on that one a bit, wondering why we suddenly had early and thick fog, as it has been a little less aggressive.  Then I realized an old science fact, and it began to make sense.

Fog is nothing but a high level of humidity floating along.  When something solid gets in the way, a small bit of that humidity attaches to the tiny piece of something and becomes a floating water droplet.  The smoke from the Main Street fire during the morning hours threw a large quantity of smoke in the atmosphere.  And smoke is nothing more than a plethora of tiny particles of carbon and other chemical compounds, floating away from the fire.

So when the sun went down, and the air began to cool, the humidity found the smoke, and bingo ... we had a thick, aggressively-formed fog bank.  Granted, we had fog that morning, but it wasn't nearly as thick, and only formed during the late-night hours.

Spring is fencing time in the ranching country, as the ground is wet and much better for digging than during the summer months.  The weather is more comfortable too.  My neighbor, Rusty Hunter, and I are replacing a fence between us, renewing the entire thing.  The only way to fix this one was to tear it all down and start new.  The new posts on the ends are in, and the first wire will soon be strung to define the line where the two or three wood posts in between will be placed.  We'll both be glad to get this one finished, and get the cattle back in that pasture.

Wow, how time flies

A couple of you have dropped me e-mails asking what was going on with me.  To make a long story much shorter, I applied for, interviewed, was hired, and have worked two weeks on a real paying job.  What a marvel that is.

I have returned to teaching, and am working as a part-time teacher (actually more of a tutor) at the Tule River Indian Study Center in Porterville.  I have been assigned six youngsters, five boys and one girl, from 5th Grade to 9th Grade (freshman at PHS).  I work Monday through Thursday, 1:30 to 5:30 p.m. with Friday off.  Those Fridays when I need to leave for the northern part of the state for one of my monthly meetings, I am already off and don't have a conflict.

Since it has been much too long since I posted, it's time to catch you up on what is going on around the hilltop.

Spirit, the black and white twin calf is still doing reasonably well.  She's still on the bottle, and doing quite nicely.  She's started picking up on Calf Manna, and today I added grain and alfalfa hay.  She's growing and really fills up the dog house in the kennel, so may have to make some further arrangements soon.

Strawberry, the big roan drafter, has found her place with Dandy and Shiplay.  Dandy is still a bit of a stinker to her.  He tries to herd her away from hay, or if we offer a carrot.  She simply moves away a bit, until he quits, then immediately returns.

IT RAINED!  Man, did it rain.  Over a period of sixteen days, I got 13.30 inches of rain in my gauge.  On the hill behind us, and north to the south side of Snailhead, the ridge between here and Springville, there are several outcroppings of white stone, some of which was responsible for the digging of a Tungsten mine on the hill behind my home during WWI.

Also present in this area is a deposit of crystal stone, similar to Rose Quartz.  Every spring I have seen in these hills has a smattering of quartz which carries the water.  My theory is that when the mountains shift and slip, stone such as granite simply crumbles and crushes.  But the quartz stones shatter like glass, leaving cracks which carry water.

During the big rain, a much greater amount of water than usual was deposited on the foothills.  As this soaked in, it found quartz paths which do not usually get filled with water.  But this winter every outcropping is oozing water.

One of the small gullies draining some of the country to the east of the house, will only run if the rain is heavy.  Not only did it run, but it ran strong.

During this rainy period, a portion of the hillside behind the house fell away.  Because it was just below the road leading up to the old mine shaft, I assumed I needed to do some ditching on the road or have it wash out during the next good rain.

When I got to the site, I discovered it had nothing to do with run-off from the road, but simply was the hillside being saturated with water.

Of course, all this water falling on the area raised the Tule River up to the point the County Road Department removed the railings and support posts on the Upper Globe Bridge, closing it to traffic.

The Tule River drops quickly but the high-water level is obvious.

Looking upstream from the deck of the bridge, the highest water level deposited a little trash there.

Most of the locals went around the signs, crossed the bridge without the safety measures, and saved time and miles, especially if the trip were to Springville.

The book is coming along, even if slowly, with the support and advice of the Writer's Group.

I will make an effort to get in here and blog a little more often ... let's make that a whole LOT more often.