Seed collection

Fall is in the Sky on the Ground and in my Nose

Tarweed, with its most incredible of smells, is bursting all around. Its first blooms tell me that Fall is near. Acorns are dropping, some with the almost neon green of youth and others with the dark brown of maturity. The wind has been knocking them out of the tree, too soon for some and just right for the others. Then, we have been witnessing the nightly spectacle of a thousand ravens fly from the valley to the foothills on their dusk time commute to roost safely somewhere up hill from us. David and I have been sitting on the front patio to watch this massive nightly migration. You can hear the wings flapping before you see them. It is incredible. We are waiting to begin seeing the tarantulas. This is the one harbinger of Fall that we have not seen yet. Probably soon!

Seed Collecting

For the past couple months, I have been seed collecting, storing up for next year. I’ve shared when I’ve had an abundance and left most for the birds, other wildlife and propagation. I plan to do a burn to rejuvinate the land and clear thatch of medusa head. These seeds will help make a good start.

Guzzler Work and Visitors

David has been busy at work on the metal building to be used to shelter tanks and collect rain water for the guzzler. I oversized it to eventually include a larger volume tank that will irrigate my next project of establishing a field of native grasses. For now, the shed holds a smaller 1,500 gallon tank to keep fresh water in the wildlife guzzler. We installed stainless steel mesh gutter screens to improve the quality of the rainwater catch. Although we took the flat area to hardpan and David and I both raked the ground to clear rocks, there were still quite a few rocks embedded in the hardpan. In order to prevent water tank punctures from those rocks, we chose to install a rubber mat floor to be a barrier between the tank and the rocky surface. Remember, water weighs 8.34 lbs per gallon. Full, the tank will weigh 12,510 lbs. That would be a lot of downward pressure onto those rocks. I want to say a very public “Thank you” to David for his tremendous work on building this building for me. It came out great and will yield up to 2,302 gallons of rain water in an average precipitation year.

We plan to build a wooden structure to cover the tank that will be linked to Guzzler 2 in the near future. Why wood and not another metal building? We are planning to build on a slope. Metal buildings need a flat surface. With wood, we can place the post on piers that will level the structure.

You may wonder why all this effort to feed some guzzlers that already have their own catchment system – wildlife and drought. We barely made it through a normal precipitation year last year with water in the guzzler. There was an inch left, and it was getting use. We lived through the drought and saw so many insects, birds and animals desperate for water. I remember placing a bird bath in the middle of the drainage during a drought. I would haul water to it and fill it up daily. Bees, flies, dragonflies and birds all flocked to it in large numbers. I never saw bees aggregate like that. It stayed with me. When I learned about guzzlers that came with their own escape ramps built in to prevent animal drownings, I started to plan them across the ranch. I also thought about how I could retain the creek water longer as well, thus the rock and log drop structures. Water is life. You really understand this during a drought.

Animals have been using the guzzlers even when the creeks have water. I am so grateful for the opportunity to make a difference in their lives and return some resource where it has been over-drafted by human activity. The guzzlers have seen so pretty cool activity over the past several weeks.

Currently in Bloom Plus Cool Seeds

There is ample nectar but not many nectar users around the house. I’ve seen some silver native bees, european honeybees, hummingbirds, and a few mournful duskywing butterflies – oh and ants too. That is about it. Still no monarchs. I check the milkweed daily and nothing. If we do not get them again, that will make three times in a row we’ve not hosted. That makes me very sad.

Not pictured are verbena, and basil. Both are in bloom. We also have a good volume of tarweed. The air smells beautiful.

More Wildlife

Oak Seedlings Update

I’ve continued watering through the season. Most of the seedlings are doing great. I’ve begun to remove the screens that saved them from grasshoppers. It seems like they feel a freedom. They come out and just feel tall and happy. It has been an emotional up and down process with some being eaten by the hoppers early on – but not so much that they had no chance to come back. In all, four seem to have been stunted by the attack. As long as they are still firmly in the ground, I will hold hope that they will come back next year. In a big shock, one of my healthiest, happiest oaks developed a thick, disgusting fungus. I took off all structures around it to give it more air. I hope the sun will kill it off. So far, it has not resolved. She is strong, and I am hopeful she will survive this.

The seedlings will be dropping their leaves soon. I still need to surround the naturally recruited seedlings, which had dwindled in number from gopher predation, with a coir pad. This will help limit grass growth around it and aid me in identification of where they are at. This is helpful so we don’t weed whack them next year.

Oak seedling with roots eaten by gophers

Transition

We began this post talking about the transition to fall. I began writing it in mid August as I was seeing signs of the change. Now, here we are well past the fall equinox. It is definitely fall – more storms and temp drops. In addition to the seasons, life continues to shift for me. My father, who I’ve cared for the last year and a half and who has lived with me for over a year, moved out to become more independent with some support in a larger city. I found myself missing him emerging from the room that was once mine, which I gave to him, and me saying “Good morning! Sleep well?” Always up first, I would be sure to have water ready for a hot cup of tea, and medications organized. Caring for someone takes organization. It is process on top of process to ensure wellness. I don’t miss the horrors of his illness and the mental, emotional and physical exhaustion, but I do miss the camaraderie. Fortunately, he is not far away. He is thriving, and we visit him at least weekly and call several times a week.

Last week, my beloved old lab Bibitrix also moved on. She had an injury that was not healing fast enough, and her body got sicker and just gave out. There are few blogs that do not contain at least one sighting of Trix – in foreground or back. She has been my steady companion for nearly 11 years and the most “solid” of all my fur babies. No issues, just enormous love, tail wags when I entered the room, closed eyes as I stroked her head. Just sweetness in a 60+ lb package of black fur. I am glad she is no longer suffering. She lived a charmed life being loved by all and benefiting from our family’s active lifestyle – traveling here and there, seeing relatives that spoiled her, swimming in gorgeous mountain waters, hiking across open rangeland and forests. She had a babysitter that would bake her organic chicken for dinner. Most nights, she ate better than me. Oh, I am taking a deep breath now to stave off tears and sigh. We love our animals so deeply. They are innocents we protect and support. It is the cycle of life, and we are never really ready to close the loop.

I love you with all my heart and miss you so much. May your spirit be frolicking in open lands, swimming and getting lots of belly rubs and food – your favorites.

Flowers, Oaks and Rangeland Care

We have gotten lucky. The grasshoppers have not stripped everything. Their population exploded, especially near the riparian areas, then, all of the sudden, they abated. The hoppers had started eating their way up the hill. They hit some of my outlying plots hard, but then stayed away from the habitat closer to the hilltop. The oaks planted on the lower Spring Creek area and those down hill from the hilltop were not so fortunate. They were eaten, but quick action with screen boxes saved some. Several have come back and are leafing out again. I gave out a loud yip when I saw that. I had felt so dejected. I still lament the loss of the other trees. It is difficult to get a blue oak to grow under my specific conditions – heat, grasshoppers, gophers. Every year lost is one year less with young trees. I have to do better.

Since my last post, I have been focused on watering the oaks every five days. Having this cadence seems to be a recipe for success. It helps me not only keep them hydrated, but to trouble shoot any issues they may be having. The remarkably cool weather, for a July, has been helping give these trees a chance. I love them so much, and want them to thrive.

Lower Spring Creek: Bottom center right, oak comes back from hoppers

With the hoppers having abated, David and I have been slowly releasing the plants we covered in screen boxes. They have done very well. We are keeping the oaks in screen boxes just in case. I will plan to lift those in September. Thank you again to David and Sam for making those so quickly!

Blooms

Blooming on July 13 when I began this post and mostly still blooming now are pacific asters, datura, sunflowers, matilla poppy, California poppy, narrowleaf milkweed, California fuchsia rabbit brush, black-eyed susan, marigold, sulfur buckeye, and worm wood. There were a couple small blooms on the white sage, basil and other garden items.

Yellow flower is a magnet for fly type pollinators

Ranch Maintenance

One of the things I love about living on a ranch is that there is always something to do. David and I finally got to the fallen trees and water gaps on Odom Creek. After one of the last major storms this past winter, high winds blew down several branches and dead trees. Two fell on the Odom Creek riparian exclusion fence, making the fence slack. High waters from a rain event took the tin blocking cattle access through the water gaps (areas where the creek flows through between two stream banks under a fence crossing the creek) and deposited them downstream. I retrieved them soon after the storm but did not replace them until several months later due to other issues requiring my attention.

With the tin down, it opened a small pathway for cattle to get into the exclusion. Grass and creek plants that typically grow inside the exclusion area were nowhere to be found. Adding to this was the large number of grasshoppers near the riparian areas this year. Thistle, which the cattle normally leave alone due to their spiky, tough exterior, were stripped to skeletons. Both contributed to no vinegar weed (another favorite), less watercress, no milkweed and no thistle nectar.

Wildlife

Although I’ve not see as much wildlife as I have in the past, there have still been some beautiful encounters. Running across the road in the near area, and sadly no photos, I have seen coyote, a bobcat and bunnies. Below are other friends.

As plants begin to die back and set their seeds, I have been out collecting. I never collect more than 10% of what is available. I share with the birds as well as leaving plenty to grow the next generation.

Rainwater Catchment Building Continues

One of our ongoing projects has been to create a fresh, ongoing supply of water to the wildlife guzzlers. Recall, we built a small overhang over the guzzlers to catch more rainwater than if they were left out on their own with their beveled tops. The overhang also acts as shade to decrease evaporation from the unit. Some years, the water captured lasts the entire year. During droughts, the water has run out by late August. To prevent running out, but to also inflow more fresh water, we are building a larger rainwater catchment up hill to gravity feed into the guzzler. The tank is 1500 gallons and will be under a metal building to protect it from sun exposure and heat gain. David has been working on it and will likely be done a week from this post. I am very excited to keep water flowing throughout the hot months. The guzzler has become a very busy place with ground and song birds, raccoons and one feisty feral cat. Thank you to the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) EQUIP program, US Fish and Wildlife Partners Program and Point Blue Roots Program for believing in this work and supporting it.

Ranch poodle Pongie plays on the supplies

Fire Danger Ever Present

Living in the new norm of ever present fire danger feels unsettling. When I was a child growing up in the Sierras, fires were part of life, but rarely major conflagrations. There was more water then and less people. I never worried, and I don’t recall my parents worrying the way I do now.

This year and last, we had a nice, steady stream of rain events that kept the soil moist longer into the summer. This year, in fact, David and I both noticed that all the oaks look healthy and happy. Their leaves have stayed on and are a vibrant green. Fresh, well-formed acorns are setting now. July has been much cooler, and that has helped the mature trees too.

Even with these positive signs, I still cross my fingers that a major fire will not rip through the land. Through my work in natural resources, I can see the massive investments by the state in fuels reduction and stewardship. Communities are working hard, year-round to be better care-takers of the land. The problems of over 100 years of fire suppression, population growth in wildland areas, more efficient ag tech to suck water from the land and climate change shifting temps into record levels are all massive issues to overcome. The pace and scale needs to be even greater – and as importantly, if we do not tackle the root causes, we will be constantly fighting an uphill battle. Stewardship, care for the land, being in good relation is not work; it is life. It is an ongoing relationship where a thoughtful existence results in abundance and health in an environment where we can all live – nature relatives, humans – and thrive.