buzzardnotes

Dot, Cora, Lynda at the bottom of Dot’s driveway. Pretty matilija poppies are in the background with Dot’s house at the top of the photo

Dot lives on hillside that overlooks the valley and this is one view from her house. In the distance, one can see Mt. Palomar along with its famous Palomar Observatory. It’s a tiny, tiny white dot sort of in the right center of the mountain.

Dawn looking toward Mt. San Jacinto from Dot’s house

Almost the same view later in the morning with Dot’s house in the foreground. You might notice some haze/fog in the distance. It’s normal in this area and for that reason, the next town south is called Temecula, “Valley of the Mist.”

Of course we had to do some shopping (that’s a tradition with us) and we trekked off the Temecula.

There are many fine and some funky shops (ye olde shoppes?) in Temecula and we only visited a few. Ironically, we met two Orange High alumni in one of the shops.  It’s indeed a small world.

Trish found some good stuff!

Because we shopped so hard and worked up an appetite, we had to do lunch. Temecula has many nice wineries and we elected to have lunch at the Wilson Creek Winery. No, this was not the bottle we had at lunch!

It was a good lunch with some good vino

Elizabeth arrived later that evening.

Most of us had a first time experience the next morning. We got to visit an alpaca ranch and actually touch, feed, pet and talk to them. It was such fun for all of us!

The girls were waiting for our arrival because that was the signal that they got to go into the pasture and have some food.

Running to get dibs on the best spot in the pasture. This little one was so ecstatic that she romped and jumped for several minutes. She was a real kick (no pun intended).

Alpacas certainly aren’t camera shy. Sherry has a new friend!

I look a bit hesitant here but they were very gentle with us and each other.

This llama is known as the baby sitter. She protects the other girls and makes sure everyone is cared for. She reminds me a bit of the “push-me-pull-you” from “Dr. Dolittle.”

The other guard/caretakers are two big Great Pyrenees dogs. They are also used in North America as livestock guardians. I wouldn’t mess with these dogs but they were pretty mellow while we were around. The alpacas were recently sheared and that’s why it looks like little waves in their coats.

Just restin’, Mom.

Nancy, Shiloh Springs co-owner, showed us some fiber and items she has made.

One of the things she does with the wool is called felting. She makes a design with the different colors of wool and then lays it out on a piece of silk and the wool/yarn strands somehow hook onto the silk. One doesn’t need any glue to make this work. This picture shows the outside (the farthest away) and the inside (nearest).

A vest made with the felting method.

Not only did we get to see the alpaca products but we got a tour of the other ranch areas, such as their veterinary facilities and a work place to make more products. Nancy was a foster mom to a pregnant cat and Diana is holding one of the offspring. You can see some of the many prize winning ribbons on the wall behind Diana.

Elizabeth has found a new alpaca buddy.

The girls like the tasty leaves on the trees in the pasture and reach up to get them.

Multiple photos were taken of us in this pose with the girls and not one of them has everybody looking in one direction. We all had such fun with these animals that were a bit shy with us at first but they allowed us to pet as well as feed them. Maybe we were all alpaca whisperers.

I loved the cute faces of these animals. Personally, I could have spent a few more hours with them as it seemed that all of them were curious and wanted to be friends at one time or another.

We zoomed off to another Temecula winery to have lunch and proceeded to get a selfie of the entire group just as a tiny breeze came up to toss the hair.

THE END

The elevation ranges from 6,840 feed to a high point of 7,880 feet. The hillsides in the park are covered with sagebrush (the state flower), while piñyon pine (state tree) and Utah juniper dominate the upper elevations. This is looking toward the Berlin town site.

All of us were most excited to get to see the Ichthyosaur fossils at this park. “Ickys” were prehistoric marine reptiles ranging in size from two to over fifty feet in length! The largest specimen (now the state fossil) dubbed Shonisaurus popularis after the Shoshone mountain range where they were discovered in 1928.

This is a life-sized painting on a wall near the fossil shelter. You can see how big they were compared to humans. Their eyeball was really that big in comparison to their bodies.

One of their favorite foods was an ammonite that would have been free swimming in the ocean.

Check out those jaws!

The Fossil Shelter, high up in the mountains, covers many ichthyosaur fossils still embedded in the ground where they were found. It is a fascinating exhibit! We were very fortunate to have talked to Ranger Jeff, who took time to give us a special tour of this facility. The regular tour season doesn’t begin until May 1. It pays to talk to people and let them know how interested you are in what they are saying.

Jeff pointed out where the fossilized remains were and how they “stacked up” in relation to each other. What do I mean by “stacked up?” That’s what the fossils are.

It is not known if the “ickys” beached themselves or just how they got in this position.
But here is an overlay in a pamphlet that shows how the bodies were on top of one another.

Now, with the overlay taken off, you can see the outlines of the fossils. The letters are areas where Jeff pointed to and then we could see a skull, an eye socket, flipper bones, etc. I found this very interesting and a great technique to aid amateurs in figuring out what they were seeing.

Jeff is pointing to some ichthyosaur ribs, vertebrae and flipper bones. I would have thought they were just layers of mud. I really enjoyed being in this fossil shelter and felt privileged that we were the only ones in there that day.

We drove back down the mountain with this view to Berlin to eat lunch and then walk around the Berlin site. It was a pretty day.

The Berlin State Park contains many historic buildings, which are maintained in a state of “arrested decay,” much like the Bodie State Park is in California. These buildings offer a visitor a glimpse of Nevada’s mining past, with varied period artifacts and effects on display.

Old pickup in front of the machine shop.

From inside the machine shop overlooking the town and valley.

An overview picture of Berlin with the large mill on the left side. Berlin’s population never exceeded 250 and many of the people’s buildings no longer exist. We did walk around the very well marked area where cabins/houses had been and learned a lot from those signs.

The Berlin Mine hoist that took out the ore that sits just above an abandoned incline mining shaft that struck eastward into the Shoshone Range. The Berlin Mine was in operation from 1897 to 1910. It was a 60/40 mine, 60% silver and 40% gold. In the 13 years of operation, they extracted $849,000 in precious metals from the mine.

We saw several abandoned mines while hiking around Berlin. There are hundreds of those mines throughout Nevada that are very dangerous due to bad air, rotten timbers in the shafts or ladders, or poisonous varmints that could hide in them.

An Indian paintbrush is the only flower I saw in my trek around the town.

Dalan and Jason at the entrance to the Diana Mine. It was just a few hundred yards from the town of Berlin. Tours are given on weekends from May 1 to September 30.

Dalan, Megan and Jason around a Diana Mine ore car.

Megan is standing at the end of the ore car track where tailing and junk were dumped from the Diana Mine. Our exit road is stretching off in the distance. It crosses the Paradise Range where it joins another highway that takes one back to Hwy. 50, “the Loneliest Road in the US.”

The visitor’s center with a 45 star flag flying over the Nevada state flag. The flag coincided almost exactly with the hey-day of Berlin, commencing in 1896 with Utah’s statehood and ending in 1908 with the addition of Oklahoma to the Union.

Much to my surprise, I awoke the next morning to a very light covering of snow. In fact, it was still lightly snowing when I went out to feed the birds about 6:30. This poor bedraggled, wind-whipped daffodil shows how light the snow was. Daffies always amaze me, as they tend to be the first flowers I see that survive vicious winds, snow and rain.

Speaking of birds, beside the normal quail, gold finches, white-crowned sparrows, ravens and hawks, very hungry yellow-headed blackbirds and tricolored/bicolored blackbirds have returned in force.

I counted 79 (give or take a few) in the tree next to the house. You’ll have to trust me on that number because by the time I got my camera, many had flown away.

Blackbirds are such fun birds to watch…always singing to each other with a “liquid, gurgling konk-la-reee, ending in a trill. …Most common call is a chack” (National Geographic Field Guide to North American Birds) (How do they think up these sounds? I shouldn’t say anything because I have trouble describing birdcalls) Now that I’ve looked up the bird, I find that the tricolored lives primarily in central and coastal California. So I guess what I’m seeing is a red-winged or bicolored blackbird. On the other hand, perhaps these birds lost their compass and like my back yard.

This shows some yellow on his epaulets

In spite of the cold spells, some things are growing and blossoming. This is the leaning tree in my backyard. The prevailing winds have made it lean but thankfully, it hasn’t toppled yet. As soon as it warms up a bit, bees will be so busy that I will hear their buzz as I walk by the tree. A little peach tree is beginning to bloom just to the left and back of the conical shaped green tree.

Tahoe Tessie and offspring invaded Carson City right around April Fool’s Day and are still swimming in the pond just kitty corner from the post office!

At least someone was kind enough to post a warning about these plesiosaurs.

Death Valley has seen its fair share of storms this year and some areas/roads were closed because of them.

There has been a lot of erosion from the mountains and it becomes very easy to see how alluvial fans are formed.  Check out how small the people seem compared to the small cliff they’re standing on.

The weird thing about driving through the floodwaters in DV is that it turned my tire sidewalls blue. Other than some chemical reaction, I have no clue as to why that happened.

We drove to Badwater that arrival afternoon to see how it was doing.  Jerri took a much better picture than I did and that is why she’s not in the photo instead of me.

Dalan and his grandma (Jerri) are very close. Even though he’s fourteen, he still likes to be with adults. Jerri and I think that’s cool and very sweet

Coach Allan is teaching us all how to play pickleball. Everybody seemed to love it and I think it will become one of THE games in DV.

Scott returning a ball.

Jerri became the first wounded warrior of the adventure when her shoe tread sort of stuck to the court surface. It was very painful but once she got a hold of a magic potion made by good friend, Azure, her face healed up almost totally by the time she came home.

Playing in the pool was one our fun activities. I love this pool because it’s fed by a warm spring, has no chlorine and the water is re-circulated each day. The water is then recycled on the golf course.

Bike riding is another activity.

Walking the dogs is a necessary activity but gives one the opportunity to walk around the camp and maybe get to see some wildlife. Note the difference in size between Max and Buddy (the black dog). More on that later.

Golf is another activity we enjoy. I never do very well because the views, color changes on the mountains and coyotes and birds all distract me. The weather was perfect when I got the play the second time. None of us thought about taking a jacket (we should all know better because we live in a desert where the weather can change in 15 minutes). Dalan noticed that suddenly we couldn’t see the mountains and thought a dust storm was on the way. Nope, it was rain. We got a pretty good soaking but we soldiered on through to the finish. I thought about giving up but didn’t want the guys to think I was a wuss. Beside that, Scott loaned me a sweatshirt he had in his golf bag and I couldn’t give up then.

Another game we played was Cornhole…tossing beanbags to a board with a hole in it. This is Jason and Scott putting the beans (gravel?) back into the bags when the seams ripped.

The boys used the time honored fix-all, Duck Tape, to patch up the bags.

Jerri throwing a patched bag. Note the white tape on the red bag.

Buddy likes to get into small spaces so that Max can’t tease him.

I woke up one morning and there was Max curled up, thinking he is a smaller dog than he is. Max  thinks he is a lap dog. He is half lab and half black mouth cur and is also very sweet and gentle.

One afternoon, Allan took Jerri, Dalan and me to see Inyo Mine that was supposed to be back in the mountains about four miles off the main highway. About three miles into the trek, Allan decided, since it wasn’t his truck, that the ledge we needed to drive over was too big and stopped. Well, why not hike the rest of the way? After all, it was only another mile…

We hiked up this road at least another mile, maybe two, into a gap in the mountain. It really was quite pretty. When a vehicle passed us, I asked the driver how much farther was the Inyo Mine? He said about 10 miles. That took care of that decision. We neither had the time nor the inclination to hike 20 miles to see a mine.

I espied this petroglyph on the way back to the truck. I believe it’s not a real Indian artifact as there were no other drawings nearby and didn’t look weathered as others have that I have seen. I thought it looked neat though as long as others don’t think that’s license to graffiti other stuff on the rock.

Dalan brought some gymnastics rings that his dad set up in a nearby tree. He did some tricks on them and made it look so easy.

Can’t say the same for Jason, though.

We took two cars to visit Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge where the famous Devils Hole pupfish live. I had stayed there a few years ago with my good friend, Gale, and was excited about showing the family the refuge. Ash Meadows had completed a new visitors’ center recently and I wanted to see that also. Check out https://www.fws.gov/refuge/Ash_Meadows/about.html if you would like to learn more.

After seeing an introductory movie, we walked on an all-accessible boardwalk to Crystal Springs. Here are the rail birds looking at the springs.

Crystal Springs gushes out 2,800 gallons of water per minute. We all wanted to jump in and swim in it but that’s a no no.

Jerri took this picture, which seems like you’re looking through an underwater window.

I am pretty sure these are Ash Meadows Amargosa Pupfish in their blue breeding tints. We didn’t go see the Devil’s Hole Pupfish because you can’t really see them due to a protective cage around them and the fact that my car doesn’t like real rough roads.

The family at Ash Meadows.

Scott posing for the photog. He’s hoping to take first place in the Nevada Day beard contest this coming October. Good luck, Scott!

Horseshoes seems to be a late afternoon activity.

Jumping Jason’s truck for the trip to Darwin Falls.

Our hike was gentle with having to clamber over only a few boulders and rocks.

Megan led the way. You can see evidence of flood debris in the background.

This PVC pipe is hooked up to an old iron pipeline that is the primary water source for the tiny community of Panamint Springs. The pipeline is several miles long

Obviously, it’s been there for a long time and is still doing the job, but I think I would be leery about drinking that water.

Jerri and Allan posing by the falls we reached. There are eight more above our terminus point. This little glen reminded me of Elves’ Chasm in the Grand Canyon. This falls even had a little fern grotto just like the Elves’.

We saw these all black burros alongside the road. They were getting drinks of water behind that orange fence.

Dalan went to spend the night with a friend and Megan stayed with me. Our last activity before going to bed was this domino train we built. Megan is really good at it and can make them fall just perfectly. Some are still standing because this is an action shot.

Sunrise on January 27 with snow still on the ground.

The Carson River is breeching its banks at Cradlebaugh Bridge on Hwy. 395.

Friday, that tiny settlement you can see in the back was totally isolated. The Sheriff’s Dept. used its armored SWAT vehicle to rescue 10 people stranded by fast moving water. The river is adjacent to their property.

Tiny rivulets and streams were spawned by the rain and snowmelt. They seemed to be everywhere I looked.

This may seem like an odd place to take a picture. But normally, this is a dry area where a large earthquake fault can be seen this escarpment. The melt has to go somewhere and this became a natural stream.

Two days ago, this area was flooded and one wasn’t able to see this culvert pipe much the road it’s next to

Somewhere under this water is the main east-west road to Genoa. This property belongs to James Settlemeyer, one of our state senators. Photo by Record-Courier

This isn’t the same scene but the house is the same. You can see how much the water receded in two days. Genoa Lane has been reopened. Look for these silos in a later picture

A picture I showed you in a recent blog.

The same tree after our 80 mph winds. This yard is a favorite of the Genoa deer

A broken fence might be the least of the owner’s problems here.

Looking north from Kingsbury Grade. Wally’s Hot Springs is the enclave at the bottom left that sort of juts out near the water. The Settlemeyer silos are also in this picture.

Looking southeast from Kingsbury Grade. Most of the flooding is between the Sierra Mountains to the west and Highway 395 on the eastern side.

This giant pond is in open range country right next to Stephanie Way, one of the main roads into what is called the Johnson Lane area. This area has been flooded since Christmas. At one time, the ice was so thick, I think we could have skated on it. All we needed was a Zamboni to get it ready for us! My house is about a half mile to the left.

My first stop was to get this great view of Job’s Peak (on the left) and Job’s Sister (on the right). People hike up to the peaks all the time, but I never have. My hikes aren’t quite that strenuous.

I turned just a little bit and took this photo of Kingsbury Grade, our primary road to Lake Tahoe. You can see the long cut leaving the valley (center left) and then another cut as it reaches the summit. There are some buildings at the top left that belong to the Heavenly ski Resort. Some ski runs are to the left, out of the picture.

The next stop was at the Dangberg Ranch Home that is now a county park. H.F. Dangberg was a pioneer rancher beginning in the 1850s. He and his family began the town of Minden. I have probably mentioned this before. But today, it was the place where I saw a bald eagle almost up close and personal. He was so majestic sitting in his cottonwood tree.

As I mentioned, it was pretty chilly and when it’s like that, one can often see pogo nip. It makes beautiful ice crystals on plants, fences, trees, telephone lines and many other objects. It also makes the snow sparkle like millions of diamonds are strewn across it.

The Park Ranch, a very large cattle ranch, surrounds the Dangberg Ranch Home and one must drive on an easement through a portion of pasture to get to the Dangberg. There was a nice sized herd of cows with many calves and I happened upon a little doggie that was separated temporarily from his mom. He wasn’t six feet from the car when I took his portrait. She had already crossed the creek in the background and he wasn’t quite ready to do that yet. I don’t think he was more than a week old, maybe two weeks. I always feel sorry for these calves that are born when it’s so cold. Their moms drop them into snow and they must get up right away and start moving or they might not make it.

My last stop was in Genoa, home of the suicidal deer. Genoa is situated at the foot of the Sierras and, for some reason, has become the home of many, many deer that live in town. They cross the main street at will, cars stop and people like me take pictures. I counted 21 deer in less than 10 minutes of being in town.

I just rolled down the window and took this photo.

Peekaboo!

Friendly deer in a person’s front yard.

Here’s lookin’ at you, Kid!
(Check out this guy’s eyelashes and the snow on his whiskers)

If you follow Buzzard Notes, you have seen this spruce many times in pictures of the mountains. It’s on the corner of my tiny cul de sac.

There is a large juniper under that large covering of snow. Many cottontail rabbits live here and perhaps some birds as well. But I think they like to be in trees at night to avoid coyotes and other hunters.

These are quail tracks that were made in about 24 hours. At first I thought the rumpled effect was from snow falling from the trees. But that is not the case. There are so many quail that they rumpled the snow. (Can snow be rumpled?)

I call this the gauntlet because the quail must run about 30 feet from the sagebrush to the fence. This is prime time for a hawk to zoom down and catch one. You can see on the right, a trail that seems to stop. The bird might have become alarmed and turned around or taken flight to relative safety in my yard.

More tracks from the fence to the feeding area. That dark lump a short way from the fence is a seed block. It’s about 12 pounds of compressed seed that the birds, squirrels and rabbits like. Most of the birds like the loose seed to pick up at the feeders or on the ground.

Cottontail rabbit tracks. No, he didn’t have three legs. That’s just part of their gait.

Sparrow tracks. I think they like to spend time in the juniper in the background. They like to eat at the feeders and also spend a lot of time of the ground, eating what has been spilled from the feeders.

Taken about 8:30 yesterday morning. We had a storm the night before and the sun was trying to shine its way through the clouds. It was so pretty to see.

There are some goldfinches on the seed sacks and sparrows on the ground. If you look closely toward the sagebrush, there are no tracks coming across the snow. The quail slept in yesterday until it warmed up a bit. They were late this morning also. I don’t blame them. It was 18º when I filled the feeders this morning.

Just two days ago I captured an image of fog over the Carson River with the snowy Sierras in the background. I’m not exactly sure what causes this, but I think it’s because the water is warmer than the air and it creates the fog. Anyway, the fog line follows the river so I know it has something to do with the river.  The river is about 4 miles west of me

It rained most of yesterday and the wind was howling last night. I was surprised to walk out into a snowstorm when I went out to feed the birds this morning. You can see there are some pretty cold flamingos here. Notice you cannot see much beyond the back fence.

The snow was blowing in from the south and that is why the fence and trees are plastered on one side with the snow.

I was scheduled to give a tour at the Museum this morning and thought twice about shoveling my driveway. It is three cars wide and I generally shovel only half to be able to get the car out. It takes quite a bit of effort to get just half done.

This is one of my favorite late afternoon views. This is looking east toward the Pine Nut range and is basically the same view as the second picture above. You can see a shadow of the Sierras as the sun begins to go behind the Sierras in its setting mode. Quite often in the various seasons, the sun highlights the Pine Nuts giving them many different hues and appearances .

A zoomed in view of the Pine Nuts. Jerri and I take our RAZR up in these mountains to cruise on the mountain trails.

Here is the bird feeding area with no sign of snow. It had melted off with last weekend’s rains. (Click on the picture to enlarge it)

This was taken this morning. There are no birds because there is a sharp-shinned hawk in the tree to the right of the feeding area.

This is the flood channel just a block fro my house. The reason I’m here is because I had to take a letter to the mailbox that is by this location. I love how the snow sits on the sage and rabbit brush .

The first picture of my house in the snow.

As you can see, the snow and ice is all gone, but the quail are still here for their daily rations. I was just checking them a few minutes ago when I noticed my wrong-way mockingbird was chowing down at the suet cake. I say wrong-way because mockingbirds are not normally in northern Nevada. But this guy has been here off and on since just before Christmas.

About two minutes after the above photo, a red-tailed hawk swooped in and almost caught one of the quail.