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. 
   

10 October 2012 - Blue Whales and Tornadoes

I had some fun today. I was in Catoosa, Oklahoma for a meeting yesterday evening, and the earliest available flight back was at 5 pm. Since I had a car I thought I would explore the area.

First on my list was a trip to the Dick Duck Cemetery. I had tried to find it on my trip in May but ended up some 20 miles in the wrong direction. Imagine my astonishment (with better directions) to find the cemetery is not even two miles from the hotel I was staying in. 

Dick Duck Cemetery has a reputation for being haunted. I was there on a sunny day, and didn't see a single haint. The cemetery is very well cared for. It is quite small and has many tombstones from the early 1800s and as recent as last week. There were many areas of family plots. 

I went looking for the stone for Bluford Duck, a notorious outlaw who was more known for his friendship with Belle Star. His stone was in an area of Indian graves. Many are just marked Halfbreed.
It was a different time and culture, but I for one, am glad it is over. 
From here, I went to the Redbud Valley Nature Preserve. The first thing you see as you enter is a big sign of Do's and Don'ts.  I have to admit I was tickled to see this sign. More places should have similiar rules.

Do... 

Hike, daydream, bird watch, visit with a naturalist, sketch, photograph butterflies, relax, study the wildflowers, forget things, look for fossils, remember things, sit, stare, listen... do all these things and more. There are a multitude of possibilities - invent some of your own.

This is not the place to...

Ride your bike on the trails
Walk your dog or other pet
Play a radio or tape/CD deck
Have a picnic
Go fishing
Go hunting
Target practice with gun, bow or air rifle
Make a fire
Go swimming
Camp overnight
Use fireworks

And please do not disturb the plants, animals or other natural features here in any way.

What is interesting about this preserve according to the ranger I talked with is that it is a series of microclimates that are not found anywhere else in Oklahoma. She described the area as taking a walk from Missouri to Texas, as those are the habitats you will see. 

I thought it was lovely and walked all the trails. I climbed the so-called rugged trail to the top of the bluff. The trails were very narrow and barely wide enough for one person. The bluff trails were incredibly rocky. Bear with me here, way too many pictures of the bluff trail, but it was amazing. The only problem is that the pictures don't really do justice to how steep the climb was. 

 This rocky bluff area is the Missouri part. The top of the bluff is like Texas. One inch of poor soil on top of rock. Commonly found on the top prairie area are tarantulas, scorpions, snakes including copperheads and rattlers. Ticks and chiggers are pretty common too. Oh boy. I didn't see any though. The prairie was really dry, soil was hardpacked and cracked. 

My surprise was finding this area filled with prickly pear cactus. When they say stay on the path, they mean it. As I mentioned, the paths were barely a foot wide, so when the cactus was growing into the path, you had to walk very carefully. 

I found a really interesting creature on the path. Stopped me dead in my tracks. This little caterpillar was not even an inch long, but check out all those defensive spines! Isn't he great?

 At the end of the walk, I went back to the ranger station, showed her my picture and asked if she knew what it was. "Oh yes," she said. "Good thing you didn't touch it."  What? And how did she know?  Turns out that if I had touched it I would have been swollen and itching from the venom in those spines. I learned that this caterpillar turns into a very small brownish moth and the caterpillar belongs to a class known as spiny slug caterpillars, even though they are not related to slugs at all. 

From here I went to a piece of Old Route 66 to see the famous Blue Whale. If this whale doesn't make you smile, I don't know what will. He is such a happy thing! 

 Hugh Davis built this as a present for his wife, with the help of a friend who was a welder.  The pond was on their property and the kids kept asking for something to jump off of into the pond. It became very popular, so they added a picnic area, lots of sand and a snack bar. The picnic table supports and benches are miniature whales. 

Inside the whale is a ladder to an upper floor in the head. You can look out all the portholes. On either side of the whale where the flippers should be are slides. There is another ladder to a platform on top of the tail which is a great place to do cannon balls into the pond.  I was charmed.  

You can see by the watermarks on his side that the water level is down over two feet. It has been a dry year in Oklahoma, too.

 

This is inside his head up on the platform. Nice views from the portholes and lots of light from the blowhole.  

                              Looking back at the tail, you can see the diving platform on top.  Swimming is no longer allowed, but you can just imagine how kids must have begged their parents to come here. 

Next I slammed on the brakes and dove into Catoosa's Fire Station parking lot. As I tumbled out of the car, camera in hand, a fireman came out to see if I needed help.  "Yes!  What is that?"

Any guesses? It is a tornado. The guy who owns the building makes safe rooms for people who live in tornado country. This sculpture is motorized so it swirls, and there are flecks of metallic paint that sparkle and shine.  It is cool! Wonder what the neighbors would think if I had one on my house. This is ultimate yard art.

I had wanted to drive down Route 66 to Sapulpa, but I was running out of time. So instead I slowly worked my way back to the airport, stopping at the Historical Museum of Catoosa, where two men were working the restoration of a caboose. They were getting ready to repaint all the yellow parts. 

Almost forgot! I stopped at the DW Correll Museum, but it was closed. Drat! But the buildings were really neat. Mr. Correll has three large pole barns full of stuff from antique automobiles, to gems and minerals to historical itmes form Oklahoma's past. But what was neat is that he had created a rock wainscotting on the outside of the buildings.  

When you got close, you could see that he used an incredible array of rocks: rocks filled with fossils, or crystals or really different formations.

It is so rare to have a poke around day, I enjoyed every minute of it.