Revisiting the pasture

I have irrigation water coming on tomorrow morning at 7 a.m.  (It comes through Solano Irrigation District and I have to call when I want the water "on"--in my ditches.) Irrigation has been a struggle this year. Even with the water on for 36 hours there are some paddocks that have died back because I can't get water to them. Part of the problem is probably the old culvert--too deep and too small. It is half filled with mud that I can't get out. I taught a weaving class today but after that we went out to tackle the problem. Dan dug the culvert out with the tractor.

For tomorrow's irrigation the water will be running through the ditch. Eventually we need to replace the culvert with a bigger one.

After setting up the tarps to keep the water in the ditches I checked the paddock where I experimented with burning medusahead. This is the plot that my son burned early in the season. He didn't think it was effective but the medusahead is still gone.

The area of trefoil is where I burned the medusahead that was growing over it. This is some of the area that got water but that medusahead is still thick. I hope the pasture plants will choke it out.

This is some of the area that I haven't been able to irrigate. Not much forage there and look at the medusahead cover.

Medusahead closeup.

Here is the trefoil that would be a wonderful replacement for the medusahead. Hopefully irrigation will go a little better tomorrow and we'll get water on those dry areas.

Jepson Prairie

I wasn't sure if I had missed most of the wildflower show at Jepson Prairie Reserve but I thought I'd go see this morning. Jepson Prairie is a natural area owned by the Solano Land Trust. The website says: The reserve protects one of the best few remaining vernal-pool habitats, which are found only in the western United States and few other places in the world, as well as precious remnants of native bunchgrass prairie that once covered one-fourth of California.

Today's weather is a bit crazy for May. The reserve is just about 10-15 miles southeast of our place and I was watching the black clouds as I got closer.  As I got out of the car I saw lightening and decided to wait it out for awhile (in the car). So I drove down the road through the reserve.

I can't find my bird book so I'm going to count on my best birding friend (I was going to say Claire, but now there are more birding friends out there) to chime in here.

No that's not snow in the background. It's the hills that are drying out.

As green as it is in my pasture and in the surrounding farm land, the Central Valley would be a desert without water. So the prairie is drying out and I missed a lot of the wildflowers for the year, but not all.

The flowers that are blooming now are the ones that can handle the drying conditions. Now I don't have the excuse of "I can't find my wildflower book." I used to know most of these flowers and now I can't remember them. But I still enjoy them.

I think I remember this one -  Calochortus, Mariposa Lily.

Even the dry grass is pretty since I'm not worrying about foxtails here.

Here is the spectacular show. The rings of flowers around the lake change as the lake dries up later in the spring.

I think this is Gold Fields.

When you look closely you see another flower. Downingia comes from the recesses of my brain, but i don't know if that is right.

A fun weekend away

  I spent the weekend with Shannon of Kenleigh Acres and Joan of Mud Ranch at Shannon's place in Oregon. The original purpose of the visit was to pick up Clint, a ram lamb for this year's breeding line-up.

But Joan and Shannon and I turned it into a private retreat.   I taught Joan to spin. Joan gave me photography pointers. Shannon helped both of us with sheepdog issues.  I was trying to figure out what Shannon got out of this deal and I realized that it was Houseguests.

Here is Joan spinning away on the Ashford Travellor double treadle wheel, which worked really well for her.

Shannon is giving Joan's collie, Hank, his first lesson.

Joan's Dad is getting pointers from Shannon on how to train his Australian Shepard, Harley.

This is the English Sheepdog puppy, Tolo, at the end of a leash held by Joan's mom.

Rusty waited patiently for his turn.

Shannon put Rusty through his paces.

It could be said that Rusty is a little too enthusiastic. But more to the truth is that Rusty has been confused by his handler (that would be me). It was very helpful to work with Shannon because she saw things that I was doing that are counter-productive to the way I'd like Rusty to behave as a sheepdog.

I spent some time working on one of the many projects that I brought with me.

I'll post photos tomorrow of what this became.

Shannon felted a bowl and several soaps while I worked on my fiber project.

It rained all weekend. After all, this is Oregon-what did we expect? The rain cleared on Saturday afternoon, but on Sunday it seemed continuous. The rain has its advantages however.

This fence post holds a whole ecosystem on it's top.

On the way home I felt as though I had changed seasons. After about 3 hours of driving in the rain I was back to California.

Mt. Shasta always is a spectacular scene.

Rabbitbrush in bloom is a colorful contrast to everything else that is so dry and dusty right now.

Trip to Santa Barbara - Part 2

I left off the last post with only a couple of the dozens of photos I took of Hebe's wonderful creations. Kenna and I took the dogs to the beach in the afternoon. There is an off-leash beach to the delight of dozens of dogs.

This was Rusty's first time at the beach.  It didn't take him too long to figure out that he shouldn't drink the water.

There were a lot of pelicans and it seemed that the fishing was good. I put on my amateur wildlife photographer hat. After I cropped these photos to enlarge the birds I was surprised to see how direct the approach is when they are going after fish.

A group photo of Kenna and her dog, Molly, and Rusty and me.

Next stop for the day was Canzelle Alpacas in Carpinteria, not far from Santa Barbara. Kenna has taught Carol Ann, the owner, to spin  and we're discussing fiber classes for some of Carol Ann's customers.

Kenna lives in an area surrounded by the Los Padres National Forest. When you hear about raging southern CA wildfires, some of them are right here. Two years ago thousands of acres burned in the Gap Fire, the edge of which is just up the road from Kenna's house.

We took a hike through some of the burned area and it is incredible to see the regrowth of vegetation. The CA chaparral can become impenetrable after years with no fire. It is a tragedy when homes are destroyed by fire, but it's probably not a bad thing for wild areas to burn periodically. It is hard to manage an area for both wild ecosystems and human habitation.

There was fog  on the coast this morning but we were above it.

I drove home in the afternoon and visited another friend (since 6th grade!) along the way.

This is a view out my car window. I'm glad to live somewhere that has such a diversity of landscapes. I never tire of the views.

It would seem that Rusty was worn out from the weekend. However, this is how he always travels. In fact if my ice chest weren't on the floor that is where he'd be. He doesn't pant, doesn't look out the window. He just sleeps.  Not a bad way to travel if the scenery doesn't fascinate you.

Nostalgia at Feather Falls

Last weekend my husband and I chose the absolute best day to go hiking in the Sierra foothills. Flowers were blooming in abundance, everything was green, and the weather was perfect. I hadn't been to Feather Falls in years--not since we carried one (or was it two?) of the kids on the trail. (And now the youngest is 19.) I have a lot of photos on my Facebook page, but here are a few of them.

There is a lot of poison oak along the trail. We could avoid it, but Rusty didn't seem to care. I knew that i'd need to give him a bath when we got home.

I wish I remembered all my wild flowers, but I enjoy them even if I don't remember all their names.

This delicate looking flower is a Ceanothus--Deer Brush or California lilac and the flowers cover bushes that are 6-8 feet high.

There were so many lupines that in places you could smell the sweet scent along the trail.

This is another kind of lupine that was closer to the falls.

Sticky monkey flower.

Feather Falls. The photo doesn't do it justice--600 feet of plunging water.

Sheep groupies and flowering trees

What a wonderful spring day! Here are some of my sheep groupies.

Sometimes I can't get far enough away to take a photo.

I took a second look at this oak tree today. It reminded me photos of trees in the southern swamps...

...but it was just oak flowers!

The locust has spectacular fragrant flowers.

Exploring Death Valley

These photos don't do the mountains justice. The colors and patterns are incredible and I have more to learn about my camera and software to show the real color.

This is Dan trying out an old car at Scotty's Castle in the north end of the valley.

I was on the lookout for flowers. They were blooming at low elevation.

Desert five-spot.

Golden evening-primrose.

Desert gold.

We walked up Golden Canyon at the end of the day.

This is at the base of the cliffs looking back out into the valley as it was getting dark.

We drove home the same way we came, up the east side of the Sierra. This time the sky way clear and we could see Mt. Whitney, the highest peak in the lower-48.

We drove up the road to the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest which is still closed for the winter. However, we got a spectacular view of the whole southern Sierras.

Good trip!

Three are dozens of quail at our place. I usually just see them in flight because when I walk out to the barn I always have a dog with me. We snuck up on them today.

We were not quiet enough.

Off to the blackberry bushes.

Here is the wisteria that I planted last summer. This is it's first blooming season!

Color inside and outside

It sure feels like spring! And here are my annual acacia photos. When you have a huge acacia tree in the front yard how can you help but take photos?

The fragrance of this tree is wonderful and you can hear the bees hard at work.

Take a look at the almond tree.

Here is the color inside--more scarves.

This scarf is chenille warp and bamboo weft with 6 colors in the warp.

These are two scarves on the same warp. I gave my daughter, sister-in-law, niece, etc scarves for Christmas and let them choose colors, style, etc. I'm still working on them. My niece wanted a gray and purple scarf so she will choose one of these. Only 4 more to go for the Christmas presents.