The Red Baron Won

I saw the red tailed hawk (I call him the Red Baron) resting in a tree by the house today. It looks like he won his territorial right to hunt here.

The two ravens that where harassing him last week where nowhere to be found.

My Buddies the Elk

Two male elk just came through the yard. They both had fuzzy, half formed antlers.

They left behind a large, well formed pile of scat. This is different then in winter. At that time of the year they leave tight little oval pellets.

Dogfight over Lazy Z

There's been a fierce battle ragging in the air over this end of Lazy Z for the last few days.

Its the red(baron) tailed hawk against the dark raven. They soar and dive. Sometimes, you can hear the screaming feathers of the raven as he goes into a power dive. The raven also makes crowing sounds, but the hawk only occasionally lets loose with a peep.

I think the hawk is winning, but not be much. They are pretty evenly matched.

Last year, the hawk must have won, because I saw and heard him all summer.

Grow Your Own Goji Berries

We're doing a experiment around here where we are seeing if Goji Berries, which originated in the Himalayas. We've been reading all kinds of great things about them, so we have some seeds sprouting right now. We even have one plant so tiny that you almost need a magnifying glass to see it.

You can read more at How to Grow Goji Berries

Growing Goji Berries

I've been studying a lot about a super nutritionous berry that became popular because of the promotional effort of a MLM company.
Turns out it really is a most remakable berry, with even more nutritional power than blueberries.

Goji berries, also sometimes called wolfberries look like oblong, red raisins. They're not very sweet, but the have a flavor that you an quickly get used to. This happens naturally once you digest a handful and your body gives you a enthusiatic thumbs up once it's had a chance to analyze what's in them.

I've also tried the goji juice concentrate

Anyway, here's a bit more about these berries. See Goji Juice Extract
http://gojiconcentrate.googlepages.com/home

It all sounds so good that I'm going to try to grow some, although it'll take years to get any fruit from them.

Our Roadless Wonder - The PUMA way

John Carter, a neighbor up here, had this observation:

*****
The U in PUMA does mean unique.
http://dailycamera.com/news/2007/may/04/scientists-measuring-roadless-areas-by-volume/

http://dailycamera.com/videos/2007/may/03/26/

The first link is to a story in the Daily Camera. The second is acomputer-generated video prepared by USGS scientists. The idea is that theydraw pyramids based on the distance from roads. The video spans 60 years,showing the Colorado Front Range from 1937 to 1997. When you watch thevideo, the pyramids all over the map erode away, as new roads are built. Ifyou look just below and a bit to the left of the green "B" in Boulder, thereis one three-sided pyramid that endures. That's the triangle formed byMagnolia and 119.

It's one reason that I love Magnolia, it has been preserved (the "P").
John, ~ the chart guyJohn Carder,
CMTTopline Investment Graphics
Where your chart dreams come true!
www.topline-charts.com or www.chartguy.com
PO Box 2340Boulder, CO 80306-2340 USA
800.347.0157 (toll-free in the USA)
303.440.0147 (fax)

Elk Pellet fuel

We have a pellet stove in the basement. It is the primary source of heat for the house. I like the pellet stove better than our central forced air heat.

The forced air heat dries out the air, cycles on and off in an annoying manner, and most important, I consider the propane that it runs on politically incorrect.

On the other hand the pellet stove heat is steady and uses renewable wood pellets.

Therein lies the problem. This time of year all the hardware stores run out of the 40 lbs bag of pellets. So, unless you've bought ahead, it is easy to run out.

On a recent walk on the trail by the house, I had to step over some elk pellets. That got me thinking. In a recent trip to India, I noticed that the cow patties from the cows that where EVERYWHERE where quickly picked up, dried, and used as fuel. I even saw large, geometrically well contructed pills of cow dung for sale at the side of the road. Nothing goes to waste in India.

Anyway, I noticed that the elk pellets where about the same size and shape as the pellets that the pellet stove takes. I had a mad vision of putting up a portapotty that would be inviting to elk, and collecting the pellets so that they would automatically dry in the hot Colorado sun. Then, I would make my rounds, pick up the dried pellets and feed them to the pellets stove.

Humingbirds and ticks

Two days ago, I heard the first humingbird. This morning I saw the first tick. Spring is here at 8,000+ feet.

Flashback to Dec 21, 2006

At times in the last 2 1/2 months, it has seemed that a glacer, formerly known as our driveway, would singlehandedly turn the tide on gobal warming and be the nucleus of a new ice age.

But yesterday, I made a significant discovery that suggests I'm a little premature in calling for a permanent winter up here.

At the bottom of the driveway, where the glacer spills onto lazy Z Rd, I spied a tatered piece of green plastic. I dug it out of the ice and read the date on the frozen newspaper that was inside the green plastic bag: December 21, 2006.

That was the date of the first of a series of snowstorms that brought in enough snow so that I could have my own private ski slope for the last couple of months.

Perhaps spring will arrive after all.

The Horned Owl Vs. the Flock of Ravens

After living up here long enough, you know that whenever a large flock of ravens gathers, there there is food nearby. Usually, it means that something has died...

So I pulled on my over boots and post holed through 2 feet of snow into the direction of the noisy flock of ravens.

As I got to the epicenter, I saw a white owl fly off. It was hugging the ground because it was carrying something heavy away.

A closer inspection of the area that the owl came from showed a spot of blood and tufts of rabbit fur. Evidently, a rabbit had hopped out from its home under a log and onto a snow bank. It presumably was sniffing the air for signs of spring, because there was nothing but a deep blanket of white in all directions.

Perhaps the rabbit was to hungry to go on, because the owl, also hungry did not miss its chance.

As the owl flew away, the large flock of raven followed it. But they stayed safely out of reach by staying up above the tree tops.

The ravens must have been hungry too, but they where not about to become owl dinner as well.

The Ridge Elk

Starting right after the first big snow storm, I've been seeing elk prints up on the Winiger Ridge. At first the elk had a hard time finding a patch of grass, so they actually had to dig down through the snow to find some food.

Gradually, the wind and the sun cleared some grassy patches, especially on the sunny south east slopes.

Today, I saw a herd of over 30 elk on the grassy slopes below the ridge.

I spooked them, and the ran up over the ridge and into the safety of the dense forest on the north side of the ridge.

I thought to myself that is was a huge amount weight (30 elk) to move around, powered by nothing but grass.

Tame Deer

Here are some delightful pictures of a herd of tame deer that share the woods and yeard with a family. http://www.pelorian.com/deer.html

A couple of years ago, I had a deer that considered its "home" to be the front porch of the barn.

Recommendation for a new plower

Hi PUMA

I am out of one of my two huge long drifts and down to the
road. This was thanks to a new plower I met. Wonderful guy named
Patrick McCarthy. He charges $75 an hour and no trip time and did a
great job with his pick up and snowplow.

His phone number is 303-241-6567.

Terry

My Neighbor Gives Great Advice About the Local Weather Forcast

Here is some great info about the weather from a neighbor:

The U.S. Weather Bureau for the metro Denver area is
located in Boulder, and has more people working the
forecasts than anyone else. Go to:

Weather.gov

The buttons give a variety of information. The official
forecast is gotten by pushing "Zone Forecast" (then
use your browers "Find" function to search for "Ned").
This forecast is updated several times a day, but most
significantly around 4 a.m. and 4 p.m. (only in
unusual circumstances, like today, is it updated
more frequently).

The "Short term forecast" is updated every 3 hours
or so and is more immediate. Look for the part that
includes Nederland. During calm periods, nothing
is posted here.

During periods of potentially bad weather situations,
click on the "Warnings and Advisories" button. During
threatening situations, this is updated every 6 hours
or so. An alternative is the "Special Weather" button,
which is often changed during morning hours more
frequently than the "Warnings...".

For those who really want to understand what to
believe about the official forecasts, the really
special button is "Forecast Discussion". While
this discussion (be sure to go to the Denver
discussion, rather than Grand Junction, Pueblo,
or Goodland) is filled with abbreviations and
technical jargon, the forecasters let their hair
down and tell you about their confidence (or lack
thereof) of the forecasts. Anyone can get the gist
of what's in their minds, behind the official
forecasts, despite the jargon.

For example: last week's storm was confidently
predicted 48 hours in advance, and the "Discussion"
indicated confidence that the storm would happen in
the way it actually did. This storm, that seems
to be ending in our area, had great uncertainty
for the last 5 days. If you read the
"Discussion", it was clear that this meteorological
situation was unprecedented, involved inherently
unpredictable aspects, and the official forecasts
were extremely uncertain. For us, added to the
general uncertainty, is the fact (apparent from
the Discussions) that we have been on the western
fringes of the storm. If it had moved (and, still,
if it might move) a hundred miles to the west, we
could get a lot more snow. But if it moves a
hundred miles to the east in Kansas/Oklahoma,
then we're finished with the snow.

No matter how much you might like Mike Nelson's
personality, he is mainly just giving a "popular"
account of this official forecast. Some media
outlets subscribe to other services (like Accuweather)
which, I believe, are less reliable. For the March
2003 7-foot storm, United Airlines relied on
Accuweather, which predicted snow flurries for
Denver, and flew all its planes into DIA to be
stranded. I relied on the Weather Bureau, which
predicted a possible "storm-of-the-century" in its
forecast "Discussion" 36 hours before the first
flake fell, so I loaded up with supplies. Somne
media simply aren't savvy. KUNC radio, for
example, hasn't figured out when the new forecasts
are issued. So KUNC reported around 5 o'clock
that we would get another foot of snow tonight,m
relying on the official forecast written before
dawn and not realizing that the usual afternoon
forecast (available between 3 and 4 pm) had
downgraded the snow forecast.

I hope this is helpful. Although I am a professional
astronomer, I actually have a Master's Degree
in meteorology and have long been interested in
the weather...so there is a bit of professional
backing to my recommendations.

For the next few days, however, we're happily
stranded by all the snow in our driveway.

Happy New Year!

Clark (& Y) Chapman

3 feet of snow and counting

Earlier today I measured 21 inches of new snow and a total of almost 3 feet of snow. And there is supposed to be more on the way.

I heard that you'd have to go back to 1913 to find another instance of two back to back snow storms like this.

In Boulder, they have the concept of a 100 year flood for the flood plane.

Up here, we seem to be experiencing a "100 year" snow.

Plowing the driveway using heavy equipment

As I mentioned in yesterdays post, when the snow gets to deep, its time to call in the heavy equipment. We called High Country Excavating because they've given us a fair deal in the past.
The neighbor that usually does our driveway was stranded coming back from Florida, so the snow got to be 2 feet deep in the driveway. This is very difficult for a regular residential grade snowplow to handle.
If you look carefully at the opening sequence in the video below, you'll see that the front end loader had to PUSH his way UP the driveway using the backhoe. This is obviously not a maneuver that is available to a pickup based snowplow.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas.

Here is a response I sent to the Puma email list after Terry Greenberg asked about plowing services:

---

Hi Terry and all,

This is starting to feel like the storm that started on March 15,2003. Contract residential plowing services could not handle it. It took earth moving equipment to dig me and a bunch of neighbors out.

The problem is that standard plowing equipment can't handle more than about a foot of snow. We're working our way up here to two feet now. Once you've got more than a foot, it becomes difficult for a residential snow plow to get through, especially on long uphill driveways.

I just put in my call to High Country Excavating. Last time, spring came to the rescue. The snow may not get as deep this time, but its not even Christmas yet.

Who wants to fess up to singing "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" ONE TO MANY TIMES!?!

- Mike

Thorodin in the news

Yeah.

Thorodin made the news. It's just a little bit about hiking Thorodin in the Fiday December 15 edition on page 3B of the local Daily Camera, but its something.

The problem with climbing Thorodin is that the one trail to the top was blocked of years a go by a zealous land owner at the trail head. Another possible route goes up a private jeep track that has a "no tresspassing" sign. The jeep track is used to maintain the 2 story antenna farm that is on the top of Star Peak (part of Thorodin)

The suggested trail in the Camera article starts at Panorama Point in Golden Gate State park. It then suggests a moderate bushwack 1.5 miles and 1200 foot elevation gain to the top. It recommend the hike because of the view. I'll second that recommendation.

A friendly neighbors experience and advice about mountain lions

Dear Pumites All:


Over here at Twin Sisters we have regular mountain lion presence as well. Tracks mainly, but also, scat and occaisional sightings and even one encounter.


Roz came home around midnight a few years ago, to find that a mountain lion had treed a racoon or something right in our parking lot. It was roaring, and stayed at the base of the tree forat least a half an hour. A thrilling basso profundo roar, a bit like the Metro Goldwin lion. I was listening out the upstairs window. Roz stayed put in her car. Finally, a long time after the lion stopped roaring, Roz made a dash for the house.


Another time I was gazing idly out the bedroom window at the meadow in the moonlight, 10 pm or so, when suddenly one, then two more deer came tearing across the meadow, east to west, just above the garden, followed immediately by the long, low to the ground outline of a mountain lion, long tail out behind. The whole group was moving at top top speed, the lion maybe thirty yards behind the three deer. Just past the garden the deer cut an impossibly abrupt left turn, downhill, which the lion matched as best he could, (I think he lost some ground to them), then the whole show disappered down below our barn, and that was the last I saw of them. The whole thing was in complete silence. I found a few tracks in the morning, to confirm I hadn't been dreaming, but I am a very lazy tracker, easily bored, so I didn't try to map it all out.


Anyway, we see tracks, every year a handful or so of times up on Twin Sisters. Most recently, ten days ago in one of the fresh snows.


The Antidote to Lions. Roz and I gradually became a little uncomfortable about this definite presence of lions, particularly since we often hike alone, and at dusk. So we have taken to sometimes carrying a super potent can of pepper spray with us. My limited research on this subject leads me to believe that this pepper spray is the best thing you can do for yourself in case of a real life lion encounter. I think this is the consensus among wildlife biologists as well.


The spray was designed as an antidote to grizzly bears, and is used most frequently in Alaska, where almost everyone carries it in the back country. You can buy it at McGuckins for about $40 a can.


VDAP Pepper Power- Bear Deterrent.


Of course it would be useless if you were surprised in an ambush, and it could be counter productive if there was significant wind moving agaInst you. But in a lot of mt lion encounters, wind isn't a problem, and there's plenty of time to get organized to defend yourself. In such cases the spray could make a real difference.


I find it sort of comforting to have along in a back pocket, whenever I think to bring it. And as for muggers, gangs, or maurauding packs of wild dogs or wolves, you're covered.


Well, that's the news from Twin Sisters, John & Roz McClellan

Re: [puma-news] New Mt. Lion

On Mountain Lions.....thank you, Yvonne, on the update from Colleen,

I have been seeing signs of lions in this area for several years...
tracks, scat and kill signs. I have frequently seen their scat along 68
and Cumberland, as well as up around Forsythe and the elk trails through
the woods near Winiger. Two years ago I watched a lion as it walked
through the woods by my studio on a bright, spring afternoon. Beautiful.
Females can breed any time of year....having no set season. Although
they can roam very large distances, they tend to hang around when there
is ample food (resident deer, elk....even an occassional bobcat, raccoon,
rabbit, mouse, or ground squirrel). They are known to hunt during
anytime of the day or night, tending to ambush their prey and therefore
preferring lots of brush or rock outcroppings for cover. When I am out
hiking in these types of areas, I just try to remember to be extra aware.
They do not like to associate with other lions (except for mating), and
are very territorial, I think it would be unusual if there is more than
this one in the area.....at least on most occassions.

I feel so fortunate to live in an area where lions co-exist alongside
me......with so many of Nature's predators being villified and destroyed,
I remain somewhat hopeful whenever I am reminded of their presence here.

Sharon Ticehurst

On Fri, 17 Nov 2006 14:21:22 -0700 George Blakey <ysgb@earthlink.net>
writes:
> Hi all,
> Colleen Canon wanted me to send out an email just to let neighbors
> know
> that in our area of Aspen Meadows and down 68, she has been seeing a
>
> very large lion that usually doesn't hang around here. As they are
> out
> all the time it is good to be aware and not paranoid about this.
> She has seen it at her house around 6:30 P.M. and said that one of
> her
> horses has been trying to dig it's way out of the enclosure down in
> the
> lower meadow, she will be leaving it free for now.
> She thinks that since West Magnolia has been closed to the hunters
> this
> year and that there has been a lot of killing of deer/elk? up behind
> us
> that the lion may have been drawn by the smell, also don't know when
>
> their mating season is, but that could be an affect as well.
> Just a heads up for those who enjoy a walk in the evening.
>
> Yvonne Short
>
>
>