6 November 2012 - Last of Fall?

Lots of pictures for you today. The snow has disappeared, and we have had beautiful fall weather that includes the requisite blue skies, great color and the attendant rodents. The forecast is calling for snow (again?) on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, so I have to enjoy every bit of this gorgeousness while I can.

Even the sunsets have been spectacular--they start out pink and move to gold. A change that metamorphs in about 10 minutes. Don't blink or you will miss it.

With the cooler nights the deer are coming down in droves. We currently have six to eight does and fawns come through the yard several times a day.  

We had quite the excitement this morning. A doe jumped the fence and came to a stop about 10 feet from our patio. Her sides were heaving, her tongue was hanging out, her back legs were quivering. She took a quick drink out of the bird bath and fled. 

We were wondering if she had been chased by a dog, when over the fence comes a small 2 point buck. He takes off over the back fence after her. We run to the next window in time to see them cross the street. Ah-- rutting season. Got it. 

But here's the fun part, a large four point buck comes out of the trees, chases off the little buck and herds the doe back up the mountain. You just never know what is going to happen around here. 

Jack and I both thought he was smaller than the big bucks we had in the yard last winter, but he certainly out-weighed the little two-pointer. 

In addition to deer watching, we have been amused by squirrel antics. The cats have also had their noses pressed against the windows while nattering at the squirrels.  I moved our trestle table onto the balcony and covered it with a beach towel to protect it from who knows what. 

The red squirrels and rock squirrels think the towel would make great insulation for their winter nests. They spend hours gathering huge mouthfuls of towel then they jump up and down trying to take the towel with them. This is a rock squirrel and he has a really good grip on the towel. 

 We just happened to be looking out the kitchen window watching our covey of quail run from across the street into our yard. What a shock to see a peregrine swoop in and take one. You can see the feathers flying. Not something you  see everyday. Wish he'd take out the squirrels instead of the birds. 

And speaking of birds, we are thrilled to have Steller's Jays showing up at our feeders. Don't know if they are just passing through or if they will stay all winter, but they are are a gorgeous blue with striking racing stripes on their heads. 

They are very fast, very shy birds so trying to get a decent shot is really hard. 

  
   

25 October 2012 - First Snow

After a week of temperatures in the 70s it was quite a shock to wake up to snow. All kinds of snow. Tiny flakes blowing sideways, round hard hail-like snow, huge fluffy flakes, and straight down wet heavy snow.  All in one day. 

I had a hard time getting anything done. I just wanted to go from window to window watching the snow. We ended up with a good six inches of snow. Perfect packing snow. I should have been out making a snow man, but I was in thrall--ensorcelled by the snow. 

This was what I saw when I crawled out of bed.  Trees have not lost many leaves, so their limbs were bending and often touching the ground with the weight of the snow. 



                                   Our aspens were just starting to turn yellow, and they really looked gorgeous against the snow.  Here it is still snowing madly, the clouds are low and the day is quite dark. 

We had two storms, an early morning storm, then the wind came up, blew the clouds over the hill, the sun came out and the sky sparkled with blue. This is what makes winter so different here in Utah. Lots of sun!  It may still be cold with snow, but how can you not be happy with  a view like this?

The big maple in the backyard is just starting to turn yellow with a hint of red. The result of the sun on the snow covered branches was me being glued to the window. 


With all the leaves still on the trees, not much snow was able to get under the maple. I loved how the stairs looked--like an entry into a secret garden. Just push the snow-laden branch aside and you could be somewhere else.

 When I think about fall in Michigan, colors that come to mind are crimson, fluorescent reds, rusty reds, all kinds of red. Utah tends toward yellow falls.

There are some trees that turn red, but not many, and most are smaller ornamentals, not the big blazing red sugar maples that dominate in Michigan. 

And of course, Mt. Olympus looked fabulous with its fresh powdered sugar topping. See the red on the ridge near the right hand side? 

That red is all rock. 

  
  We are supposed to warm back up over the next several days. Hoping we get dry enough to rake leaves and finish getting ready for winter.  This early snow? Just testing us I think. 
 

20 October 2012 - It's a Guy Thing

Even though we made it up to 73 degrees today, we are trying to put the yard to bed, to get ready for winter, find places to store all the yard stuff.  We had quite a shock today to see that we have SNOW in the forecast for Thursday.  We  have a lot to do before snow falls. 

 Last weekend we got started.  Pulled all the yard tools out of the breezeway and finally screwed the tool hangers into the wall behind the garage and now have them all organized. Rakes hanging together,  shovels together; it is great. Jack and I have his and hers of every tool. Add Pop's collection to that and it is a whole lot of tools. Five pick axes. That is definitely overkill. May have to send a couple home with David so he can use the steel in some blacksmithing project. 

We talked David into taking some of his stuff home: riding mower, industrial leaf sucker, more iron out of the garage. My only regret is that we do not have a before picture.  However, there was not even an inch of floor showing when we started, maybe you can use your imagination.
 


 

This is an amazing change, and we have a bit more room to organize and put some more things away, not to mention how nice it is to walk on the floor, not over and around things that snatch, grab and trip you.  Yay!

David started filling his truck bed with metal. Pretty soon it was so full he couldn't take the two big machines. David and Jack loaded the leaf sucker into the back of Jack's truck. It barely fit in the truck bed. Fortunately David brought his ramps with him. 

 The riding mower had to wait for this weekend. This is part where things get weird. 

Jack and I struggled to get the riding mower into the back of the truck. We had the ramps, but at the top of the ramps, where the mower should go into the truck, it got caught on the mower deck. With the help of a 6 foot pry bar, plus Jack holding the ramps waist high while I  pushed the mower, we were able to finesse it into the truck. 

This morning we took it to David's. I explained the situation. David listened calmly. "No problem," he said. "We can just lift it off."

Three of us? Lift the mower out of the truck? Is he nuts? Au contraire, that wasn't what he meant at all. Like I said, it is a guy thing. First he hops into the truck and starts tying rope onto the mower.

 He brings his backhoe into position, adds his lifting hook and wraps the rope around the hook. 
 





Me?  I'm just staying out of the way and mostly keeping my mouth shut. I did ask why, and the answer was why not? Okay.
Any excuse to use big machinery, I think I get it.

  
 It's gotta be a guy thing. Use the tools that are best suited for the job. Of course that is subjective.


 


 

19 October 2012 - Looking for the Cricket

I have such a hard time in October. It is a push-pull happy-sad time of the year.  The color change is gorgeous, but all my flowers are fading and are at the end of their short but previously glorious lives. The grass is green and lush--best it has looked all year--yet it is getting covered with falling leaves and the trees are rapidly being undressed by the breeze.  Any waft of air causes a yellow rain. That is so sad. 

The sun has moved far enough south that we are now shaded until 9:30 to 10:00 am, since it has to poke up over higher peaks. All things pointing to winter and cold. And speaking of cold, we have had several light frosts, and chilly days. Yes, we finally turned the furnace on. 

But today, I want to find the cricket. Somewhere in the front yard, most likely on the house and well protected in the ivy there is one lone cricket and he is singing loudly enough to hear his song inside. I can even hear him when I'm in the backyard. 

Have you ever tried to sneak up on a cricket?  It ain't easy. I've come close, too close for him, and he'll stay quiet until I leave. Now it is just the principle of the thing. Where the heck is he? I'm not complaining at all about the constant thrum of his chirping. I find it comforting. It's just that I really wonder where he is.  

After the last 15 minutes of standing in front of the kitchen windows, trying to follow the noise, it dawned on me that this is probably not a cricket, but a katydid. A green katydid would be even harder to find than a cricket.  You can see how hard it would be to find a cricket or a katydid among those leaves. 

Meanwhile our world is changing rapidly. The aspens on Mt. Olympus are glowing gold and the lower elevation brush is red. Heartbreak red since it will not last much longer.  This north east facing side of the mountain only gets late afternoon sun now, and the low slanting sun really makes the colors pop. 

The peaks in the morning are mysterious. Usually shrouded in mist or fog until the sun rises high enough to burn it off. I love these mountains. Love how they change with the time of day, the time of year, and weather. 

 Here I'm looking across the street in early afternoon. We had a very fast isolated shower move in. The clouds piled up on the tops and after the rain left, they were decorated with mist.

 

 

13 October 2012 - Signs of Fall

According to David and his rain gauge we had ¾ inch of rain last night, it was great! We really need the rain. Jack had fertilized the lawns, yesterday, hoping for the overnight rain, and we were not disappointed. 
 
This morning, sitting at the computer and looking out, the sun is shining on a very clean world. Everything is sparkling with little drops of water.  The mountain tops are wreathed in low hanging clouds, and the colors are rain-washed and vibrant. 

While I was sitting here this morning, a flock of quail came scoodling across the lawn from the garage to the feeder. One at a time as always. Run, run , run…little legs moving as fast they can. This time, they were accompanied by a rabbit.

The poor quail are having a hard time. The blue jays are swooping very low over their heads trying to move them along, then a red squirrel showed up and was running headlong into the flock chasing them out from under the feeder. Then a second squirrel showed up to chase the first squirrel followed by a magpie who pecked both squirrels away.  It is a mighty entertaining world outside of my windows.  Oops!  Here is a big old rock squirrel up on the porch trying to chew up a piece of cardboard.  I think all the animals and birds are getting ready for winter. Wonder what they know? 

What I know is that we have moved from late summer to fall. The air is crisp, the hummingbirds have already moved south. We are starting to get occasional sightings of winter birds. We've seen a couple of juncos, a stellar's jay, the magpies, flickers and downies are showing up regularly and so are the deer. Oh yeah, way too many deer are showing up in the yard every evening at dusk. I've been spraying my favorite plants with deer repel, which smells absolutely vile, but works. 

We had a couple of evening grosbeaks stop by. Saw them for two days in a row and haven't seen them since. Guess they were moving south as well, but it is always a treat to see something new. 

Meanwhile, the squirrels are really busy stocking up on food. The red squirrels get huge mouthfuls of sunflower seeds then bury them in the lawn. the seeds are starting to sprout which pushes the turf up and reveals a silver dollar sized hole with 50 to 100 sprouts.  The rock squirrels are also storing food. They get their cheek pouches so full they look like they might burst. He reminds me of the kid in the Harry Potter movie that ate something from the Weasley's Skiving Snack Boxes, and his face grew really long.  The rock squirrels spend all day loading up and taking off for parts unknown. 


Fall is when we often see praying mantis. Came home to find this lady on our bags of fertilizer. I tried to get a close up portrait and she objected.  Had to go get another camera.