REMEMBERING JIM

It's hard to believe that this past Sunday was the one-year anniversary of the passing of Jim Otterstrom of Big Bear, CA. I followed Jim's blog for many years and his untimely death was a real shock to me and many others. He had a big heart and a delicate soul--and the nastiness of the world just became too much for him to bear.

My thoughts and prayers are always with Peggy, his widow, and their beloved dog, Dallas. I know their lives became extra hard after his passing. I hope they have found some measure of normalcy since his passing.

If you want to see what this man was like in better days, check out some of the older entries of his blog here:

http://earthhomegarden.blogspot.com/2005_04_01_archive.html

I still miss you, Jim--and I hope you found your peace.

November 14th, 1945 - January 22nd, 2011

THE JOY OF QUIET

Sometimes there comes along a person that has a beautiful insight about life; this is such a one:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/opinion/sunday/the-joy-of-quiet.html?pagewanted=all%3Fsrc%3Dtp&smid=fb-share

A DAY AT RANDY'S FARM - THE PEACEABLE KINGDOM

On Friday, December 30 my partner and I visited Randy Nauert's ranch in the hills above Mailbu. Randy was one of the founding members of The Challengers surf band back in the 60s.

On his property he has emus, llamas, alpacas, cows, donkeys, sheep, and GOATS! It was the latter animal that sent me up there. I've loved goats since I was a kid (pun intended) and I wanted to meet Randy as well, having been a fan of his band, too. He grew up in the same area of California that I did, the South Bay, though he was a few years older than me.

I was given the task of following the goat herd up a hell to a meadow where they grazed every day. It was quite a hike, but rewarding. From up there all you could hear was the tinkling of the goat bells and the occasional call of a Wrentit. Had it been a clearer day I would have had a view all the way down to the ocean.

The highlight of the day was feeding a holding the two-week old kid goat (yet unnamed). The mother (Heidi) is a milking goat and had to interest in feeding the kids (she had three), so Randy took over the duty. Two of the kids died, but the smallest survived. For the time being he stays with Randy in the house, along with another goat, Manilla, and his two Wiemeriners.

It was a lovely warm day and a good time was had by all!

Curious Emu...

...and prehistoric feet! Randy said their toes are so sharp and legs so powerful, they could gut you with one swipe!

2-day old lamb

The herd on the graze

Sister Red (Heidi in background) - Nubian goats

Part of the herd

Little Siri Bonk--17 days old. He keeps up with the herd really well. See the video below for him up in the meadow.

Heidi (the new kid's mom)

Manilla - the house goat

New kid--getting milk randy collected from mom (Heidi)

Gee that tastes good!

A man and his goat

Thanks for the wonderful day, Randy!

LUNAR ECLIPSE - DECEMBER 10, 2011

I don't really enjoy getting up early, but once I'm up, I enjoy the early morning immensely. Having gotten used to getting up at 5 AM to take the dog on his first potty walk, it wasn't much of a stretch to get up at 3:45 am to get ready to go our and watch the last lunar eclipse until 2014. I tend to get excited about astronomical events and this one had me really excited.

After showering and making a thermos of hot tea, loaded my camera and tripod, and headed for the beach. Since totality would not be visible from my neighborhood (due to hills), I knew the perfect spot to watch from.

It was beautiful at the ocean; the sky was inky blue-black and the sound of the crashing surf added a nice soundtrack. By the time I got there at 4:35, the shadow was just taking a small nip out of the top of the full moon.

For the next two hours, me and about a half-dozen other adventurous souls watched one of nature's splendors play out.

By 6:30 dawn was just starting in the east behind us and there was a lot of haze on the horizon, so the moon just kind of faded into it and disappeared from view.

During the earlier part of the eclipse I saw two meteors falling and a satellite cruising overhead. It was a 'stellar' morning!

UP IN THE FOREST AGAIN

Digby and I went up to the Angeles National Forest on Saturday. I hadn't been up there since the Station Fire and thought it was about time to go up and take a look. I am glad I waited; the re-growth is coming along, though there are large swaths of ghost forest (standing burned, dead trees), there is surprising amounts of intact growth along the road in a lot of places.

How a chilly dog gets toasty.

A nice little day use area at Chilao.

Along the creekbed, willows have turned yellow.

Digby on the alert for squirrels.

Yes--we have fall in California! A pair of cottonwoods show their fall finery.

Digby chilaxin' in the the back of the truck.

My favorite day spot, Chilao, is like an island in the midst of some of the worst fire burned area--virtually untouched. Buckhorn was also left intact, which made me really happy as this is a most idyllic piece of the forest, with giant Western Red Cedar, Jeffrey and Coulter Pines. Set down in a canyon along a seasonal stream, this spot is one of the most lovely in the forest.

The narrow road into Buckhorn is quite lovely.

One of the beautiful campsites at Buckhorn.

When we got up to the 6500' level, the air became increasingly cooler, and ranged from 58-64 degrees throughout the day. (Yes, I know that seems like a heat wave to a lot of areas of the country!). Digby actually got chilled and I had to wrap in in a blanket for a while.


We had a light lunch of cheese, apple, and crackers, and I got out my Brunton Flex backpacking stove and heated some water for tea. Then went for a nice long walk. I was pleasantly surprised by how easily I could now walk up at altitude, due to all the extra walking I've been doing with the dog the past couple of months. Truly a pleasure!


After an hour we headed down to Buckhorn. We hiked a ways on the Burkhardt Trail and then continued on down the road. We drove the length of Highway 2 from La Canada to Wrightwood seeing hardly any other vehicles, which was lovely indeed.

View from about 7000' down into the San Bernardino area. Nothing but wilderness down in those canyons, where deer and bighorn sheep roam.

We drove home via the Antelope Valley, Soledad Canyon, and the 5. It was a long day--8 hours total, and we were both glad to get home.

Traveling with Digby is a lot of fun; I forgot how much fun a dog can be and what swell companions they are! Can't wait for our next adventure!

ADVENTURE WITH DIGBY

A couple weeks ago my partner and I decided to add a dog to our family. We’d been talking about it for a few years, but never lived anywhere that we could have one. We were also going to wait until we retired.


But a recent medical scare for my partner helped us make up our minds. She is supposed to get a lot more exercise now and we thought walking a dog would be just the ticket. Little did I know that it would benefit me so much as well!

I haven’t had a dog for about 27 years. My last pooch, a miniature poodle named Fiamma (‘flame’ in Italian), lived to the ripe age of 17. She was a good dog and a fine travelling companion. She loved to camp, hike, swim—that dog never knew she was a poodle!

I’ve missed having a little four-legged outdoor pal, and Valerie had never had a dog before and really wanted one, so we started looking.

Our main consideration was one that would get along with our cats. A puppy was out of the question, as we don’t have the time and energy to put into the training. So we hunted for an adult dog that had been (hopefully) socialized with cats.


A couple days of online searching through some rescue groups and we found a likely candidate: Digby! A group called Tiny Loving Creatures based in Simi Valley, who usually only rescues Chihuahuas, found Digby in the Ventura County Animal Shelter and decided to rescue him, too. He was considered a ‘Beagle/Chihuahua mix’, but at 14 lbs, he was a lot larger than all the other dogs. Still, they thought they could find a home for him. He’d already been given a long extension at the shelter because he was so likable.

To cut to the chase, we went and met Digby at the Petco in Simi Valley on Saturday, September 17 and fell in love with him. He’s sweet and quite a little character. Our vet thinks he is Beagle and Bulldog, and we also think he may have some ‘Doxie” in him, too. He’ got over’ the cats pretty quickly, especially the younger one. The 10 year old took a little longer, but it was a peaceable kingdom after only a week.

Digby in his new bed-first day home

This past weekend I took him on his first trip to the mountains. It was quite an adventure for him, I’m sure. All the smells were unfamiliar. It was a long car trip for him, but he’s really mellow and just laid down and dozed in the ‘shotgun seat.’

Chillin' in back of the truck

Enjoying the forest

I’m looking forward to many more adventures with this little guy!

McGill Campground, Mt. Pinos

View down into Frazier Park from McGill

SATURDAY STORM CHASING

Inspired by my love of extreme weather and one of my favorite shows ("Storm Chasers"), I headed out this past Saturday to see if I could connect with a large, monsoonal storm cell that was forecast to hit the Mojave Desert and the local Angeles National Forest near Wrightwood, CA. I was not disappointed!

I actually drove into the storm about 10 miles east of the town of Pearblossom, CA and was pelted by heavy rain, surrounded by lightning. It was magnificent! Incredible cloud-to-ground lightning as well as some beautiful cloud-to-cloud forked lightning. And LOUD thunder!

The temperature was 103 when I went through Palmdale, but by the time I was about 20 miles east and in the actual storm, the temp dropped to 77! Up in Wrightwood it was a pleasant 68-degrees.

The system was slow moving, so it stayed around the area for a long while and ultimately flooded the town of Victorville; the downtown area was hit pretty hard.

I chased from 11:00 am to almost 5:00 pm--a most satisfying day!

Looking east, towards Acton and the Angeles National Forest at 11:30 am. The cumulus congestus is beginning to form.

Same view, zoomed in.

Another view, same direction.

Taken from moving vehicle, 10 miles east of Pearblossom. Not quite in the rain yet, but can see it in the distance towards the mountains where the veils are dark and thick. Active cumulonimbus clouds.

More veils of rain.

Mount Baden Powell seen from Grassy Hollow at 2:00 pm, looking southwest. More clouds were piling up in the east and I could hear more thunder. Cumulus and strato- cumulus from the dissipating storm.

Coming down from Wrightwood, looking southwest. (taken through vehicle windshield)

Zoom detail of previous--awesome cumulonimbus formation.

Looking east from Acton at 4 pm. The clouds are forming into the typical shape of the anvil altocumulus.

Detail zoom of the previous.

This storm was fairly rare for this time of year, so I was lucky to catch it. The way the climate is changing, I will no doubt find other interesting weather like this to observe in the future!