Natural History Notes

Wild Plum

2009-03-10T23:23:00.006-05:00

They are unholy who are born
To love wild plum at night,
Who once have passed it on a road
Glimmering and white.

It is as though the darkness had
Speech of silver words,
Or as though a cloud of stars
Perched like ghostly birds.

They are unpitied from their birth
And homeless in men's sight,
Who love, better than the earth,
Wild plum at night.

Orrick Johns, in The New Poetry: An Anthology of Twentieth Century Verse in English. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1923

(OK, truthful admission here, the photo was taken last Saturday in the daytime; the night-time effect is compliments of Adobe. But my admiration for the poem, and for the effect of wild plum in the moonlight, is unchanged. And the scent! the poet didn't mention the scent!
If any flowers remain tomorrow after the winds of tonight's cold front blow through, and if it isn't cloudy and rainy, I may try for a night-time photograph. Too bad I didn't think of it sooner, during the last few balmy clear full-moon nights.)

rain coming???

2009-03-08T11:46:00.002-05:00

Sunday morning — another clear, breezy day, heading for almost 80°. But the weather-guy now says we might get showers tomorrow or the next day, and Wednesday when the cold front comes in, he has upped the chances to 50%. Also lowered the forecast temperature to 50° or even the forties for daytime, with a couple of nights in the mid-thirties. Maybe I won't take the plants back out yet after all. Crossing fingers for rain! So far we have had a grand total of an inch and a half for the whole year.

more chiefs than indians

2009-03-07T14:24:00.007-06:00

Wearing my hat as one of the publicity committee photographers, I accompanied a city Parks/Rec-sponsored walk at Cross Timbers park. For the city, the staffer for such activities (I forget her name). For the public, four Brownies and their troop leader. For the naturalists, Dorothy Thetford, Dave Rowley, Marilyn Blanton, Joe Bain, Joanna Fellows and her husband, me, and I think a couple more I have forgotten. [edit - Sharon Barr, Tracy Durmick from city, and the woman who joined us midway.]

We saw several redbuds, just starting to bloom. The mexican plums are glorious! And the scent — aaaaahh! Also a real infestation of privet, which we pointed out and explained too. For herbaceous wildflowers, there were Antennaria (pussytoes) up near the lake.

Since I was last at the park, they have added a wonderful steep, dirt section up to the Lake Forest lake. You can hike one-way now from Hickory Creek Road to Lake Forest Park and the dog park, off of Ryan Road. I especially am glad they have a section of one-person-wide dirt trail, as opposed to the gravel "road" of the main trail.

We all got pretty good exercise; the total distance was something between 1.5 and 1.7 miles. Just about the longest the little girls were up to. Me, too. Really got to get in better shape!

So, a nice morning. Cloudy, temperature in the 70s, pretty breezy. Good company, and! two more hours for my service record. (Plus another hour, conservatively figured, for labelling, exporting, getting disc to Dorothy, etc. Dorothy called to say how much she liked the one I managed to send her online.)

in like a lion ...

2009-03-06T09:37:00.004-06:00

Well, the first couple of nights of March were fairly lion-ish, and since then we have also had some fairly ferocious winds, but the temperature has become positively lamb-ly. Although it is rapidly growing up to a full-sized sheep, all hot and smelly. 87° yesterday was more spring than most people wanted. We are promised a cold front next week, and I sincerely hope it is a 40° front, and not a 20° arctic special.

The daffodils have mostly done their thing. The early ones got frost-nipped, and the later ones were fairly rapidly shriveled up by the hot dry wind. No rain to speak of for weeks, sigh. The redbuds are beginning, and the Chickasaw plum thicket at the Ridge is a billow of off-white specks.

olives olives olives (Texas var.)

2009-02-22T09:38:00.005-06:00

Went down to the Fort Worth Nature Center yesterday for a winter woody plants ID walk yesterday, led by Suzanne Tuttle. I almost didn't; I've been in bed for a week or more, miserable and sick or depressed or both, but it had been scheduled for months, and I kicked myself into going. Glad I did. Only problem was I was pretty unfit, but it was a slow amble with stops to look at stuff, so no real problem. Betty Zajac, of the Denton naturalists, was there, and she did fall from an unexpected root under her foot. I was afraid I might, but made out OK. And her tumble did her no harm.

I saw one plant I had totally never heard of, Elbow Bush, Forestiera pubescens. Sprawly little deciduous gray thing that was already blooming, little puffs of quarter-inch yellow-green anthers here and there. It's in the olive family, which was actually fairly well represented -— Texas ash, green ash, privet, Japanese ligustrum (both being eliminated, maybe). Also turns out that lilac and forsythia are Oleaceae.

Another new one, that I had heard of before but not seen to know it, was Eve's Necklace, a tree in the Leguminosae, excuse me, Fabaceae. Also in the family, mesquite and honey locust, Gleditsia triacanthos – three-branched spines. Boy, it's a well-armed tree! I don't know if I will recognize Eve's Necklace if I see it again or not; it didn't make a huge distinct impression.

There was a very early Mexican plum blooming; also a pear (non-native) down by the waterside. Today I'll have to get out to feed poor Buddy (made it back to D&L in the nick of time to get him some food, but I was tired and came on home with it). Maybe the big pear's blooming there. I hope Bud's OK after last night's hard freeze; the weather underground site says it was 21! That's way, way colder than I thought it would be. I should have really taken him his food yesterday evening.

So, nice sunny afternoon, sort of sore muscles (muscles? what muscles?) and three hours AT for my master naturalist log.

Red-bird Ridge clearing

2009-01-29T02:19:00.006-06:00

I'll take an entry or two to summarize what we have done recently here at the Ridge. We're making it look a little more civilized, but I don't believe we have done anything much to degrade the habitat, more the contrary. Of course, the ultimate aim, of building a few houses and selling their lots, will do so to some extent. But three one- or two-acre lots, with the structures we envision, and rules protecting natives and prohibiting transformation of prairie into lawn, should be able to fit in OK. Certainly the wildlife, at least the birds and occasionally the foxes, come right up to this house.

Friday 16 Jan was the first time we used the new little 14" Husqvarna saw. Eddie cut half a dozen little trees, some dead, to open out the clearing at site SC. Then he tackled the largest of his targets, a 7-8" oak, and it fell wrong. He tried to cut the little twisted strip of remaining wood, and the trunk shifted and trapped the chain. Though he turned it off immediately, the drive sprocket damaged some of the drive teeth. I filed them so they would fit in the groove again, but it didn't serve.

So I found a place with knowledgeable Husky servicepeople at Ed's Lawn Equipment in Addison, and trekked down there next day. They sold me a new chain and got the chain brake loose where we did it wrong. Sunday I put the chain on, but I couldn't get it to start.

Last Friday I had Eddie and Virgil and Scott. Scott and I went to the dump with the trash from the shop last summer, and E and V tried "about a hundred times" to start the saw, then gave up and used the handsaw and the axe. Eventually though the SC clearing was pretty open, and the NC also, though I have less sense what needs to be done there. The house is getting a good wood supply (I used a LOT yesterday and today!), and we made a nice shelter-pile with the trimmings. Virgil mowed most of the half of the south field I had started,and the dry gray dead broomweed between the house and NC.

I think mowing fields of weeds and briers is good practice, as a support for the grasses that get more sun. There are still several "hammocks" of trees overgrown with briers in that south field. They are probably more sheltering than the field-ful of thin brier growth. I want to clear out some of them, but I guess not all.

Saturday I went back to Ed's. They diagnosed a flooded engine, removed the spark plug, pulled the starter several times, replaced the plug, and it started right up. Smokily. I brought it home again (via Books-a-Million, where I GOBBLED up Bujold's new Horizon.) Even I could start it Sunday afternoon.

Monday the three guys, with my participation, much more energetically than last Friday, when I was barely over my bad cold, cleared privet at the gate and made a pedestrian gate into the panhandle woods. I surveyed into the woods and located a possible site where clearing a 20' mound of privet, several small dead trees, and one live one would make a nice site, without impacting the ravine/sometime creek. V finished mowing the S field, E and S made another gate/stile from the center woods into the west half, and then we came up to the north field.

Turns out there is more land west of the bulldozed seismic track than I had realized, at the s end of it. The guys made an effort at clearing a path along the west fence, but did no more than half of it. Then E asd I inspected from the back side of the tank dam where Jorge mowed last year. We found that two of the dead pines have smashed the fence. Buddy could have been long out and gone if he wanted to slither down the dam. The seismic-study bulldozer seems to have taken out part of the cross-fence. And as far as the first surveyor's claim of an "iron rod set" in that corner, well! We really need to get our money back from him!

sleet and cardinals

2009-01-27T22:00:00.008-06:00

It sounds like perhaps the sleet is about over. It was quite noisy earlier, but there is only a faint high-pitched clatter now. This is a widespread storm covering almost all of north Texas, with possible accumulations of a half inch forecast; this on top of a glaze of ice. I am out at the Ridge writing this; I called Joy and told her where to find the ash can if they needed to get more traction.

January has had a roller-coaster of temperature. Three times this month the mercury has reached around 80°; each time it then abruptly dives for the thirties or even twenties.

The bird-feeder-watching was really excellent today as the freezing drizzle came down. Alabaster particularly seemed to think so!

My camera is not really built for wildlife photography, especially on a dim day through glass with reflections of the sky through the windows behind me. A long lens, some very fast film or CCD, and a polarized filter might be of help. Still I captured something of the feeling of the excitement of having so many birds coming, including so many of our eponymous red-birds. Several times I counted eight males at once. They are much in evidence in these snapshots, along with the chickadee I caught coming in for a landing, the wren, several goldfinches, and more.
Bluejays, mockingbirds nibbling the yaupon berries, Harris', white-crowned, and white-throated sparrows, a brown thrasher, and a towhee are also around.

Nope, the sleet's not over. The faint background noise just crescendoed back into a dominant motif. In spite of using a good deal of my new firewood (courtesy of Eddie's efforts with the new baby Husqvarna), I am also using up propane. I called today to get the tank refilled tomorrow. Hope that will last till late spring, though I guess it depends on how many cold days I spend out here. But I believe heating this house is more efficient than at 711.

great birdfeeder

2009-01-17T20:52:00.008-06:00

Here are actual photos of my birds on the new feeder, somewhat fuzzy, and taken through glass with some reflections from within the room. On the upper left and on the bottom tray are goldfinches, upper right is a titmouse, and at the lower right is a confusing superposition of a Harris' sparrow and a cardinal. They eat up the supply pretty rapidly; it looks like I may need to refill weekly or even more often. A 25-lb. sack of sunflower seeds every month won't break me. But it sure will leave a pile of seed-coats on the ground underneath!

The cardinals often pose in the late afternoon sunlight. I may do some thinning of the yaupon, privet, hackberry, plum thicket, but I will certainly leave plenty of perches.

I have heard the s-s-see, s-s-see of waxwings, though I haven't looked the right direction to see them yet. These are the yaupon berries that draw them. (These are last year's, but there is a good crop this year also, somewhat unusually; often a poor crop alternates with a good crop.) A flock of waxwings will descend in a flurry onto the yaupons and stuff themselves madly with berries, then on some signal they will swirl up into the bare oak, where they will sit motionless, all facing the same direction, for 20 minutes, digesting. Any lawn furniture below will be liberally purple-spotted.

just about perfect

2009-01-10T15:14:00.003-06:00

Sitting in the Ridge living room, nice fire in the fireplace, Agate purring in my lap (Tut curled asleep with her nose under her paw in another chair, Alabaster on the futon-sofa), watching the birds at the splendid new feeder. Chickadees, titmice, goldfinches, Carolina wren, white-crowned sparrow, Harris' sparrows, brown thrasher, cardinals, blue jay, mockingbird. Down by the tank I saw a great blue heron.

It is a real major pain that, when a flicker of motion draws my attention from the computer to the window, I have to push my reading glasses out of the way to be able to see. And it's hard to type with a lapful of cat noodging the laptop off the lap. And I'm SUPPOSED to be making jewelry. Well, I'm about to, I guess.

yuletide weather

2008-12-23T02:07:00.003-06:00

Here's a kind of cute entry in a blog on weather underground, a worldwide summary of tomorrow's weather with particular emphasis on whether snow-covered rooftops will make things easy for the reindeer. flying reindeer forecast

A week or so ago things were topsy-turvy; it was 28° here and 58° in Lincoln. This early morning however it is 31° here and 7° there.

I am sitting in front of the remains of my evening's fire, which is pretty much gone, so I will soon head for bed.

Eddie and I worked at the Ridge today, and cleaned almost all the windows, which made a HUGE difference. I have been putting out sunflower seed for about three days now, and there are many birds in evidence. Eddie was pretty impressed by four male cardinals at once in the back yard. I told him that's why it's called Red-bird Ridge, a name he had never really paid attention to before. People have become so used to meaningless street-names and subdivision names, that it doesn't even occur to them to look for real meaning in a placename any more.

Benthic update

2008-12-09T14:08:00.003-06:00

Haven't been keeping records too well, but I can add in 4-1/2 hours of ID time this morning, and 5 hours collecting last Tuesday. Gay St. last week was very disappointing, though there was plenty of water. But Jackson, oh my! Blackflies, dragonflies, dayflies, damselflies, flatworms, scuds -- I didn't even finish sorting, much less ID everything this morning. There were 308 blackfly larvae.

The last two days were balmy. A cold front arrived last night. THe temp was 65 at midnight and going down steadily since then. It's forty now and predicted in the 20s tonight.

waiting for Ike

2008-09-13T07:28:00.006-05:00

There really is a "calm before the storm." 7:30 am, the sun is presumably just up behind the thick overcast, humidity 80%, all quiet and still. Going to be a few more hours till the storm reaches here with more than clouds.

I looked at the Houston area accumulated rain radar. I have never before seen the colors for 6, 8 10, or 12" on such a plot!

Virgil and I cleaned the roofs and downspouts yesterday, put a bit of acrylic patch compound in the presumed source of the leak in the office roof, and spread a hopeful layer of asphalt over Shanna and Larry's bay window. I meant to clean off the shelf behind the gray fence, and haven't, so things might blow there.

They have increased the forecast speed of the storm as it moves north, shortening the estimated time it will be dumping on us.

7:50 - A breeze is developing.

8:10 - According to the radar, the first little band of rain is about to manifest itself.

More later.

Later (much later, I write this in January 2009, since I never got back to the post) -- We never had any significant wind, nor even much rain, though areas further east did. As the weather bands came rotating around to the west side of the storm, they just evaporated and disappeared. Places in Arkansas lost power for days, and Kieren and Jon's beach house vanished completely off its foundation; Amy had no power for almost 6 days, but nothing happened here.

beep-beep!

2008-08-09T18:22:00.004-05:00

Unfortunatly no pics for an interesting episode.

I worked out at the Ridge with Virgil and his friend John today, cleaning out the west part of the shop. I came up to the house toward the end of the morning, after they had had a break in the shade of the living room and had left the front door fairly wide open. As I came up the walk, I heard a fairly loud, uncoordinated-sounding noise in the house. I called -- no answer. I went in and discovered a roadrunner in the plant window, skirmishing around from side to side, trying to get out!

John was in the yard, and I called him in to see if he could help, but he mostly just stood there, exclaiming over the size of the bird. Seen close up, it did look pretty big! I got the net from the dining room, but wasn't sure just what to do with it. The bird was brushing around between the glass and the plants, occasionally uttering a breathy "hoh!" As I poked carefully with the net, it got over to the left by the stones, facing the stairs, and caught sight of the wide-open doorway. Beep-beep-gone!

today, I'm in love with Edouard

2008-08-06T09:24:00.003-05:00

or at least his effects. He slid on past south of us, and the wings of rain just didn't quite reach out this far, but it's CLOUDY. And cool! 9:30 in the morning and still under 80°. AAaaaaahhhhh.

Yesterday I went out with the benthic invertebrate monitoring crew for the first time in months. I need to get to the notebook and chalk up 3.5 hours collecting, as well as 2.5 hours working on the poster last week.

John and Adelaide and I went to Burning Tree and Woodrow. Burning Tree had a skinny little groove of a channel between the pools but no actual flow. Woodrow had a modest flow and a real riffle. Also I saw SIX turtles.

We have returned to approximately our original, pre-Todd, collecting protocol. We make three 1-sq-ft sweeps of the benthos, in a pool, up the bank, and in a riffle. We mingle all three in a white pan and then pick on-site. An occasional pebble or seed may get tossed in, if we can't quite tell if it's an animal or not, but essentially it's a clean sample to take back to the lab. We're meeting next Tuesday at 9 to do the ID.

summer wins

2008-08-02T15:56:00.003-05:00

OK, after writing the last post, and while trying to get the pictures to upload properly, I got hot enough to officially abandon the dining room and living room. The thermostat is set up as high as it goes (90°), and I have closed the doors and retreated to the middle room and library, with the little wall unit AC turned on, and a fan.

I don't know what running this unit will do to the electricity bill. If it were one of the new high-efficiency ones, I would figure that it had to be cheaper, even if it runs more hours, than the whole-house unit. But it's old. I guess I could go down and read the meter and keep some records.

Anyway right now I am fairly comfortable. Walking out into the living room is a definite hot change. Maybe I should get more thermometers if I really want to know what is going on. The one by Isabel's closet door here reads 85°, the same as it did when I first turned this unit on. The main AC thermostat's thermometer is way inaccurate, I have known since it was installed. Also very vague, with marks every 5 or 10 degrees.

OK. 102° outside, still and hot but somwhat cooler in east part of house, thermostat says 87°, cooler in here and thermometer says 85°. But I don't know that I trust the accuracy of any of those numbers.

The electric meter at 4pm read 50177. All that's on are the small AC, a couple of fans, fridge, and computer setup.

Numbers:
Last month I used about 66 Kwh per day. This month I have cut it to around 50. That is STILL over 2000 watts being pulled all the time. How many watts does that AC use? The current electric rate appears to be about 12.1¢ per Kwh. At this rate my next bill should be more like $210, down from $279 (allowing the $19 garbage and recycling fee and the sales tax). I was hoping for more savings from my turning the thermostat up, but I guess I have forgotten to reset it after Ellen leaves several times. I'll check it tomorrow afternoon and see what's happening.

more summer

2008-08-02T14:22:00.006-05:00

The forecast just keeps inching up. Now they are saying 104° today and 106° tomorrow and Monday.

I had another swim in the lake yesterday evening. It was nice, and I got some good exercise (my shoulders and legs are sort of sore today). But it wasn't as nice as last week; the air was just too warm. My cool didn't last really even until I got home. The air was too hot along the freeway. Maybe I should see about a county-road route. I'm sure those six lanes of concrete are holding a lot more heat than 2 lanes between fields.

I have been thinking about going back to Zilly-boy (Isle du Bois Park, for you furriners) instead of Johnson Branch. There are a lot more people there, but the steep wooded ridge with the shaded tables is so nice, and catches breezes so well.

It does help a bit that I got about 2/3 of my hair chopped off Thursday evening.

I spent the time before I swam last night working on something for me, not for sale. I got five of the seven charms affixed to my Diet Diary bracelet, and they are fairly fun. I am lacking Kokopeli for exercise, because I haven't found the charms, and the grains assemblage, which will be a white rice pearl, a mauve one, and a 2mm tigereye (millet?). They are sort of long and jangly, and the buffalo's legs get hooked with other loops sometimes.

I have never been used to wearing a charm bracelet, and I probably won't wear this one most of the time, just keep it handy. It is being quite useful for fun record-keeping without the HOURS I used to spend working on my spreadsheet. And since starting to really pay attention, I have lost three pounds. Now if I can only get into exercise mode.

It's too damn hot!

more rain!

2008-08-01T08:36:00.004-05:00

Well, the forecast kinda missed this! Not only did we get a short, sharp thunderstorm Wednesday evening -- 1/2" or rain or more for some, though only about a quarter here -- but it started occasionally drizzling sometime after 1 am last night, which is still going on now at 8:30. It didn't cool things down much; it's barely under 80, but the cloud cover is SO welcome. The forecast for today is ONLY 99° . I note that while it is 78° here, it is 74° in Lincoln, 73° in midafternoon in Oslo, 85° in Houston, 75° in Boaz, and 56° (grrrr) at 6 am in Oakland. Oh, and Kieren has 73° in Chicago.

The photo is of the thunderstorm yesterday, pictured out the living-room window, with interesting distortions due to the sheets of water running irregularly down the glass.

ghost of Dolly, crying

2008-07-30T08:14:00.003-05:00

Well, hurray for the ghost of Hurricane Dolly. When she came ashore down in Brownsville, no moisture or even clouds to speak of made it up here. But over the last week she has drifted up the Rio Grande Valley, across the Panhandle, and along between Oklahoma and Kansas. There she joined up with some instability, and wonder of wonders, produced some off-and-on rain from 6 to 8 this morning. Not much, maybe an eighth of an inch, but it's something. And the clouds that kept the temperature to only 96 or 97 yesterday when another 103 was forecast, they were pretty welcome too.

It sure doesn't look like much on the radar. Going by usual occurrences, I would have expected the clouds to develop a hole that slid right over Denton. And last night the forecast only said 10% chance, though that's upped to 30% this morning, I see.

Well, anyway, we aren't going to get skunked entirely for the month of July, like I thought -- the last decent rain was a inch and a half the last weekend of June. I feel sort of like that old headline from July 20, 1969: "Man on the Moon! Besides, it rained"

ugh ... indubitably high summer

2008-07-26T11:29:00.003-05:00

301 am CDT.
Yesterday evening's 500 mb analysis shows the upper level ridge is now firmly situated right on top of North Texas. Unanimous agreement exists among the model forecasts - showing little change to the overall synoptic pattern for the next few days. The upper level ridge will remain stationary over the region...but gradually weaken as 500 mb heights fall about 6dm. As a result...the hottest temperatures will occur early in the forecast period...with a very slight cooling trend taking place during the work week. Needless to say...rain chances will be slim to none over the next seven days as upper level energy tracks up and over the ridge across the Central Plains and into the Midwest.

I went up to Ray Roberts last evening for a pleasant hour making part of a new little girl's size bracelet in yellow, orange, and red, and a half hour's paddle in the water at dusk. I felt wonderfully cool and clean up till about an hour ago, when I was out adjusting the soakerhose on the front sidewalk iris bed (unused for a year) and got all sweaty in the sun. I should have started watering the front bank before this; half the redbud leaves are brown.

We had a decent thunderstorm the last weekend of June, and essentially nothing in July - 4 one-hundredths. Looks like that will be it for the month. Hurricane Dolly was no help; she went too far south, and that dratted summertime "ridge of high pressure" just sits there and blocks any relief.

This of course is normal. It happens, more or less severely, every summer. But every summer it somehow catches me by surprise. We DO have summer thunderstorms. The actual normal rain for July and for August is I believe a couple of inches. But I don't know that we have ever gotten that much rain in both months in the same summer. (Wonder how I could research that, hmmm?)

Oh, well. It's July. It's hot.

one left, and mom

2008-07-06T15:44:00.003-05:00

Well, the spring of the kitties may almost be over. The two gray guys got adopted from Petco, and Tabby-spot and Ruffie have found homes from the Cupboard flyer. I put in another Craigslist ad last night and have four inquiries.
I'll be sad to see her go, she's SUCH a little cutie, and I have invested an awful lot of time and effort (and cash) in getting the little thing this big even. But truly I need to have just my two cats, And maybe if I get set up at the Ridge I can occasionally foster some upstairs. Put a screen door at the entrance to the big room, maybe, so they could have the room and porch, and I could see through the door before I opened it.

Mama Tut is NOISILY in heat, almost all the time. And she is licking and chewing her back so it is all covered with raw spots. I wonder if she could be allergic to Revolution? Anyway, I'm calling in the morning for appointments for her and Floof; hope I can get her maneuvered into the carrier. How long after spaying do the hormones die out?

a little "weather"

2008-06-17T11:32:00.005-05:00

in the sense of "rough weather." After a long string of hot muggy days (101° on Father's Day) we just got swiped by the tail end of a Red River storm. We had a very brief period of strong north gusts, and a not-much-longer rain. At least it has filled the rain barrel and cooled the air — it's 72° now, which is wonderful.

The radar looks like the tip end of the storm may have reached as far as Argyle. I hope so. The blackberries are coming on, but they really need a good soaking to fill out. They are pretty small now, even the few ripe ones at the ends of the clusters.

My new workers, John, Bill, and Hector, spent two days last week clearing out the prospective site downhill from Mark's studio. It was a lot of work because of the old fence buried in briars and blackberries. So far I only have one picture, 'cause my camera batteries went ker-flooey.

They also got the little freezer outside and dumped. So sad. It had, among other contents, a whole unopened turkey! And now it's getting rained on. At least, for the berries' sakes, I hope so.

Jess R. is coming at 2:30 to see about adopting Tabby-Spot. And Little Floof is going to the vet at 5 to see why she's not growing. Only 33 ounces at very nearly three months. And Tut seems to be in heat (AGAIN).

11:50 — the rain has stopped.

saving water (and gas)

2008-06-13T00:24:00.004-05:00

This post is not about the general subject of water conservation, though that is always a good thing. This is a very specific calendar reference for me of the dates the plumber came.

Monday he fixed the powder room toilet fill-valve and cutoff, so there is silence in the powder room, and replaced the lavatory faucet in the shower, ditto. Amy and I went to Lowe's and got a pretty decent faucet, not the cheapest, but at $42, far from the most expensive.

Tuesday he replaced Jeff's sink faucet upstairs. That had not been leaking, but Jeff had been having to turn it on and off with the cutoff valve.

Wednesday Ray came by to see about whether the exterior board under the bay window could be removed for Sawyer to get to the kitchen sink faucet, and ended up replacing the faucet himself, with a little help from me. Yay, Ray! Yay for hot water!!! Ellen will be ecstatic on Sunday.

So then today (well, yesterday by now) Sawyer came back and fixed Alex's lavatory and toilet and Stephen's sink that dripped under the drain at 610. I knew Alex's lav wouldn't shut off, but I didn't realize that what he actually meant was that the hot water ran in a strong stream continually. No WONDER the water and gas bills have been high at 610.

All fixed. Blessed silence, and still water meters. The whole thing came to about two months rent from one apartment. I think the lower bills at 610 will pay for it in three months.

flowering stinging-thorn

2008-06-02T10:56:00.007-05:00

I spent a few minutes at Red-bird Ridge this morning, taking pictures of some of the early summer wildflowers. I have missed the spiderworts completely; the solanum, horsemint, and pincushion daisy are getting started.

The bull-nettle has been blooming for some weeks. There are still lots of white fragrant flowers, but the central ones in every inflorescence have withered, or given rise to horrifically spined green capsules about 5 cm long. Cnidoscolus texanum is the scientific name. "Cnido" - stinging, and "scolus" - thorn, in Greek. And boy, do they sting!

I took some photos, but I think I want to go out again and make a real study of the plant — get some leaf photos and spiny close-ups, and then do a set of three small prints for Etsy. Probably a waste of time, but who knows?

Remarkably, a Latin American species of the genus, Cnidoscolus chayamansa, is widely used as a food plant, and is said to have higher nutritional values than chard or spinach.

It was pleasant at the Ridge at 8am. Sunny and clear, but still with lots of long shady shadows cast by the trees in the early sun, and only in the mid-70s. It's 84° now at 11am, and going up into the 90s all this week. The electric bill is gonna be a bugger this month. I don't ever want to think about the 610 water bill - gotta call Sawyer today.

KITTENS ready to be adopted TODAY

2008-05-26T18:11:00.007-05:00

I'm having a fun time (NOT) with Craigslist today; it "ghosted" my ad -- told me it was published, but it never appeared. I'm trying to fix it, but I may have to either wait two days, or slim it down to bare bones. If I do, I will direct people to the original copy of it here.

Five lively kittens are 8 weeks old and ready for new homes.

I would really like for them to be adopted in pairs, but all the bigger ones are certainly able now to go solo. They are the three males who are tabby-striped grey or charcoal on their backs. The littlest female has just made it to 22 ounces (big brothers are over two pounds each) and I believe she needs her mama for a few more weeks; if you want her and could temporarily give a home to her mom too, that would work.

I'm hoping to also find a quiet home for mom after she is spayed; she was feral but was handled and fed when she was a kitten two years ago, and she is becoming pretty accustomed to indoor care -- she will be a sweet pet in a gentle, peaceful home. She's a pretty little cat, white with her ears and the back of her head.Please don't make me put any ofthem back outside in the feral jungle!

Mom has had her shots; the kittens had their first set May 14, and will need to get the follow-ups mid-June and mid-July. (It's quite affordable at the clinic in Denton.) I will get the big guys neutered this week; the smaller females aren't big enough yet.

I need to know that they will be spayed; the whole reason for raising these kittens was to remove one line of ferals from my back woods (It's been a joy, but I would HATE to think that the job wasn't finished; I would rather keep them longer and get it done myself.) The Humane Society will reimburse $25 of the $35 spaying cost.

The illustrated genealogical history, sort of, of this line of cats for the last two years is on this blog; go to the entry named "feral-and-ex-feral-cats" and also to "growth."

growth

2008-05-19T13:25:00.004-05:00

Kittens are growing up. I had the whole basketful of them out on the couch a couple of weeks ago, when they were 5 weeks old. Agate and Alabaster inspected, and were NOT impressed.

They have all been to the clinic now for their first shots and a gulp of dewormer. The tech said, when I said they had been inside their whole lives, "Kittens are born with worms." Since her worm medicine, little miss teeny-cat, who was stuck at 15 ounces, has made it up to 19.

Mom doesn't offer to let them nurse very often any more, but every now and then they pile on. Here it looks like little tabby-spot is trying out nutrition by osmosis.