Weather Balloon

We have had lots of weather balloon sightings in the past couple of months. Here is one that we saw last week. It is certainly a weather balloon, and has a distinct balloon shape.

El Nino Beginneth?

According to the spritely Mark Ronchetti, TV Weather Man for KRQE, this will be an El Nino year. Last night he warned us of our first sign of an early winter storm... I was too busy cheering on Jordan (Winner of BB11) to notice the weather.

But after being woken up repeatedly by uncharacteristic LOUD thunder and the power going on and off, I realized that Mark had mentioned the storm.

This morning, there is, indeed, snow on SF Baldy and out in Truchas (I think it is Truchas-- I call it "Tuchas" ). It's DAMN cold, and currently the mountains are concealed in a solid fog-- you can see patches of it rolling in from the photos.

Of Mice... and Moss

Look who was living under the old aerobics step! So much for my clean-up efforts today. I was hoping to make the area where I photograph critters a little more attractive, but I will give these guys a day or two to find a better home.
Some better photos of tree moss.

Above: The terrarium-friendly moss I discovered after the rainstorm went right back to being ugly and brown after a few dry days!

I am giving this moss a try in one of my terrariums. It's got a nice sage green color and a cool shaggy texture.

Legs Sneaks a Drink

Here is some video I took of Legs. You do not usually see coyotes drinking a lot of water, but this particular coyote drinks a LOT every day!

Woke Up This Mornin'... Got Myself a Finch Bag

Pictured at top: To the left is the home-made Finch Feeder bag, to the far right, you will see the Walmart-purchased finch feeder. Read on to see how I made the finch bag!

Above is the ready-to use Finch bag.

Below, see a close-up of the bag I made from stockings.

Word must have gotten out in the Goldfinch Community that Sunflowers were on the menu around here! My Black Sunflower crop this year was being decimated by goldfinches, and my attempts to ply them with plenty of boring yellow sunflowers did not work this time around. No sir. Not only did they eat dozens of yellow sunflowers, they developed a taste for the Black variety as well. So much for next Spring's profits on the sale of Moulin Rouge Black Sunflowers!

So I got a finch bag, thinking this will give those devilish sunflower-munchers something to chomp on instead of my plants. WRONG! I ended up with 10 times as many goldfinches-- where before I only had 4 or so, I now have an entire flock of dozens.

The bag shown in the picture is a ready-made bag which I purchased at WalMart for about $5-$6-- it included the seed. Not wanting to drive all the way back to WalMart for more finch-bags, I made some more of my own.

Finch-Bag Making:

Supplies:

1 bag Thistle Seed

pantyhose feet in a light color/knee-high stockings will work too

rubber bands, twine or string

sharp object for poking holes

I happened to have lots of pink ballet tights which I am not currently using, so I cut the foot/ankle portions out of a pair of tights for the body of the bag. You could also use white or a light color of those knee-high trouser socks. Anything which is light in color and has a mesh type weave will work. Old lingerie-washing bags or other light colored mesh bags are perfect.

I then filled the tights with seed, packing it tightly. You want the seeds to "poke out" of the weave to entice the finches.

I tied the top of the hose with some string-- you can use anything so long as it won't hurt the birds. I would not recommend twist-ties or anything metal.

Then I tied a long piece of twine to the top of the bag. I tied the bag to a stumpy protrusion on a pinion tree and wound the bag around the tree until it came to rest on the tree-- the panty hose sort of velcro'ed themselves to the tree. This makes the bag more stable for finches to feed. Then I stabbed the bag repeatedly with a meat fork which was very satisfying on a number of levels. Do not make the holes so large that the seeds spill out.

After you poke some holes, you will want to squeeze the bag a bit to get the seeds to pop out in an inviting manner. At this point, you have a finch-ready seed bag.

Note that I did position my home-made bag against a tree to make it easier for the finches to climb aboard. The homemade bag close-up also demonstrates the seeds poking out which is really vital if you want finches to feed from the bag!

An advantage to the homemade bag is this: The larger the holes of the mesh, the faster seeds will spill out. I would estimate that 1/3 of the seeds placed in the store-bought bag spill onto the ground. With the bag I made, very few seeds are wasted.

Moss Mania After a Rainstorm

Out of sheer boredom and because I have a house which is too dark to sustain most houseplants, I have recently taken to making terrariums. I know-- "how very 5th grade science project" of me.

Drawn in by the creations of Etsy seller "BeadStyle", I purchased one of her do-it-yourself terrariums. I was hooked. As soon as she told me I could add native plants to the assortment provided in the kit, I was already combing the property in search of things to add.

The photos below are of plants which are unidentified (by me) and which are growing on my property... as soon as I identify them, I will know whether or not I can add them to an indoor habitat. Any assistance in identifying them would be awesome!

The moss-ball formations which have broken free of the ground make for easy collecting! This was what I first noticed while hunting for plants to add to my terrarium. I am assuming the moss breaks free in light-weight balls so that it can "travel" to new places?

Another area of "loose balls".... so to speak.

Above: Moss-clumps with coyote scat. This moss tends to grow in areas where coyotes do their business.

While out hunting for moss to terrarium-ify, I noticed something very cool. The weird brown dried-mud-looking clumpy moss stuff which is everywhere somehow turned into very springy little clumps of green moss!

The brown yucky looking crust-blobs not only turned green in many places after our rainstorm yesterday, but I also noticed that small balls of the moss popped free of the ground. The balls are made up of tiny star-shaped green leaves.

Above, is an area where you can see both dormant and active moss-balls. The moss-cluster areas also tend to accumulate an assortment of other little plants. I am guessing that this is because the moss prevents soil erosion and holds moisture.

The photo above is what the mossy areas usually look like : just crusty areas of brown blobby gunk. Not too attractive, right?

One of the trees that overhangs the moss field has at least 6 different types of tree-moss.
Different angle of the same moss-covered tree. Lousy time of day to be photographing, but I will certainly add more pictures soon of this particular tree and its green booty.

The Google Ads... SAP?

While attempting to make my blog look more exciting, I enabled the google ad-thingy on this blog. For some reason, the SAP "socially alienated person" anti-smoking ad seems to find itself on my page every day.

How does google decide where this "SAP" ad goes, pray tell? I am a smoker. My mom is a smoker. My sister is a smoker. Most of the people I know are smokers.

The only reason a smoker might tend to find herself "socially alienated" these days is on account of all the nonsensical legislation prohibiting smoking from virtually every known location.

When at a restaurant, for instance, smokers must now rush outside to hide whilst smoking. At which point, the "socially alienated person" is prone to bumping into other smokers conducting similar activities.

So while it may be argued that smokers' habits could potentially alienate them from the non-smokers, it opens up a whole new universe of pals-- other smokers. Many times I have met very nice people whose acquaintance I would never have made had I not been sneaking a smoke. Many entertaining, informative, and inspirational conversations have I had with my comrade smokers.

Smoking is not good for one's health. This is true. But many of us smoke. And when we smoke, as now must, in a location far AWAY from the non-smokers, rather than feeling a sense of social alienation, it has become a sure fire way to meet new people.

"FLYNN" Earrings

The "FLYNN" earrings are made with Bone Batik beads from Africa, copper Bali spacers, niobium french wires, Vintage Chocolate Patina chain, miyuki beads and yummy Swarovski Crystals in mint alabaster.

Part of my Rustic Fall Collection! See them here.

Northern Flicker

I do not see these guys too frequently, but this morning, a Northern Flicker was taking a drink at the coyote-depleted water tub. Hopefully, he ate a whole bunch of icky bugs while he was in the area!