Now that's a big bug

This bug landed on the living room window. The black circle next to it is a quarter that I taped to the window. The body of the bug was about 2.5 inches long.

Pine Beetles in the Colorado Rockies

Thanks Jenifer for some great research on Pine Beetles:

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Dear Friends,
We are all aware of the beetle epidemic on the Western Slope. Anyone
who has driven I-70 westward has seen it.
In our own area, we need to be aware of the condition of our trees.
Over-crowded, stressed, or damaged trees are vulnerable.

Living pines should not be trimmed or cut between approximately
beginning of June to approximately September, as beetles are attracted
to the scent of sap.
Wood (and probably anything else) should not be stacked against living
trees.
Beetles don't acknowledge property lines. We must work together as
residents of Magnolia to protect our forest. Stay alert, communicate
with your neighbors. Know the signs of beetle presence. Know how to
determine whether beetle presence in a tree has been repulsed by the
tree, or is killing it. Not all attacked trees succumb! Healthy trees
can expel beetles in a flood of sap.

If you have concerns, call the Colorado State Forest Service
(303-823-5774), and/or a neighbor who has experience with beetle
management. Dan Metzger is one such person.

Here are some websites with info on Pine Beetles.

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05528.html
http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/fidls/we_pine_beetle/wpb.htm
http://www.barkbeetles.org/mountain/fidl2.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_pine_beetle


Best,
Jennifer

Large, Shaggy Dog or Black Bear?

A black bear that looked like a large dog walked across our long deck a few minutes ago at twilight.

My New Friend, A Lonely Dove

This is the kind of self-indulgent entries that blogs are famous for.

As I was walking up my very long and steep driveway this morning, a dove flew in front of me. I live high up in the Rocky Mountains, surrounded by national forest. Doves are not native around here. A couple of hours later, I'd made a new friend, who you can see sitting on my shoulder.

I called over to my neighbor, who once had brough up some doves from Denver. He told me that this last, lonely dove had been hanging around there, but he was afraid that it would soon become Red tailed Hawk food.

Perhaps my new friend figures that if its friends with me, then the hawk won't get it. I hope she's right, because after getting a expert ear cleaning from her, I'm starting to like this bird.

The Grand Yellow Green Pollen Cloud Finali

There are some hazards to living high up in the Rockies that you don't find out about until you're actually living here.

In the winter, there are the large stinging clouds of swirling snow.

Right now, we are just coming to the end to the large gritty clouds of yellow green pine pollen. ON warm days (>80 F) like today the pine pollen gets ready in the calm morning air.

Then, as the first gust of afternoon wind blow across the hillside, the pollen takes flight, and forms huge yellow green clouds.

These clouds coat everything with a thick, gritty, yellow-green coat. This pollen keeps blowing around until it is finally washed down by a afternoon thunderstorm, like we just had.

We had similar situation last weekend. The whole process was interrupted by a cold snap that we had right after the weekend.

Hopefully, this is the end of pollen season. It takes weeks for the pollen coat to disappear from surfaces.

Finally back online

In my previous post I mentioned a bad wind storm. It knocked out our internet connection shortly after the post until this morning.

It's been stange weather. We had a hard frost last night, and I had to bring in all the house plants that did not have the good sense to come in on their own.

Wind and Snow

It has been quite windy today, as illustrated by this knocked over Aspen tree.

It also looks like its trying to snow over Thorodin.

Suggestions for a bear proof bird feeder

This morning, I heard the dogs in the neighborhood go crazy with howling an yowling. "Must be the bear" I thought to myself. Sure enough, I saw bags of scattered trash when I went throuhg the epicenter of the yowling a few hours latter.

Another bear related note: --
A neighbor suggests this for a bear proof feeder:

Hi Everyone,

A few years ago, we used a pulley system like the one mentioned here
to keep our birdfeeders out of reach of the bears. It worked for
about a year but then the bears started to figure it out. The first
bear to figure it out climbed up a tree until he was higher than the
metal cord that we had running between two trees (about 15 ft off the
ground). Then, he jumped down and grabbed the cord as he fell. This
method worked for him but it was a long jump down. We put the pulley
system back together, and the next bear (or maybe the same bear)
figured out which rope lowered the feeders. He pawed at it until he
got the feeders to fall.

We abandoned the pulley system at that point, and my husband
constructed a new system. We have a 15 ft tall metal pole sunk in
concrete, and 4 arms coming off of it near the top. There's a feeder
on each arm. We have an electric fence (3 fence posts with wires
going around them making a circle with diameter of about 2-3 ft)
around the base of the pole. We have a long pole with a hook on the
end to put feeders up on the arms (or take them down). This system
has now worked for 2.5 years or so. We've observed bears (in the
daytime) trying to get at our feeders, and they get completely
spooked when they touch the electric fence (it's not a huge shock -
we've touched it to see what it feels like). From what we've
observed, each bear never tries again after getting shocked once.

If anyone else is interested in setting up a system like this, I
could take some pictures and post them. My husband could provide
technical details. We really like this system because we can leave
the feeders out all the time with no worries that we're helping
corrupt bears.

Claire

Mountain Lions Sited on the Neighborhood on Saturday

Just a quick report on a great wildlife sighting from a Neighbor:

Brian and I saw three mountaint lions on Magnolia this past Saturday night
about 11:30 pm. The cats were in the road as we came up, roughly 2.25 mile
mark. We guess it was a mom and cubs since they were traveling together,
but don't know for sure. Got a solid look at one, two dropped off the road
quickly but the long black tipped tails are unmistakeable!

Save Forsythe Falls

I took a walk down to Forsythe Falls today.

I wanted see how far above the current level of Gross Reservoir it was. I eyeballed it, but I suspect that there is only about 30 feet between the current full level of Gross Reservoir and the bottom of Forsythe falls. Raising the level of Gross Reservoir will destroy this beautiful falls.

I have posted three pictures for posterity.

More Bear issues in the Neighborhood

Hi All:
Last weekend -- during the DAY a bear must have come on my deck and destroyed the bird feeders and on the other side of the house dismantled the hummingbird feeder. I want to feed the birds but I am not gonna do that anymore as it attracts the bears so much. I would love to have a bird feeder on a pully system between two trees but I bet the bear will pull on the roper or chain. Any suggestions from clever humans???
Terry

At 09:10 PM 6/1/2007, greg joder wrote:
>Hi everyone,>>The bear, or a bear, that has been around here for the last couple >weeks just tried climbing onto my deck (9:00 p.m.) - we could see >its feet, paws and face! My dog and cats went crazy!>>Just took in the feeders too (no trash out). Keep an eye out!
>>greg
http://www.wildmagnolia.org/phpbb/

Contact Xcel with your power flucuation problems

In regard to my previous blog, another neighbor suggests:
I just talked to a full-service agent at Xcel, andshe recommends that everyone who has noticedrecent fluctuations in electric service shouldphone so that they can understand the magnitudeof the problem and the region affected. She saysthat the number to call is 1-800-895-1999, andselect "outage". If you don't get through to areal person, just select nothing and after about6 prompts, it will ring a real person. Ask thatperson for a full-service agent.We also suspect that we may have had damage tosome of our electrical equipment, even though itwas connected to a UPS (that has been frequentlycycling on-and-off the last few days).

Lighting Caused Power Blips

In a message dated 5/31/2007 9:10:37 A.M. Mountain Daylight Time, savitar@mric.net writes:
Has anyone been experiencing electrical service fluctuations lately? We've been have several episodes of flickering lights, and the computer UPS battery backup systems clicking & coming on. I don't know if it's surges or momentary loss of power. I'm wondering if it's our service only, or if others nearby have experienced anything similar. It's happening at different times of the day, and even when we are not using much electricity.
I read someplace that one Mt. Evans, which is actually visible from my location on Lazy Z, is world famous for the number of lightning strikes it gets.

A lighting storm some distance away can still effect our power here because of the way that the power lines run as they distribute power.

The moral of the story here is that the lighting around here is intense enough that it interferes with our electricity. However, you may just want to check that a recent storm did not blow a tree against the power line to your house. I've had that happen too.

I have included a picture above of the relative number of lighting stikes in Colorado over a 6 year period. I have called out Mt Evans. Boulder County is the rectangle above it with the ragged left edge and a notch half way along its southern boarder. We're just one County away from Mt. Evans.
P.S. Welcome to the joys of living "way out there" at the end of the line, so to speak.

702-835-1108 Harassment

If you are reading this, it probably means only one thing. You've been getting harassing phone calls from 702-835-1108. The caller ID says "CyberneticSyste" There is a Cybernetic Systems in Henderson, Nevada.

If you call the (702) 835-1108 number, there is a recording with an unbelievalble story about this being a "toll free testing service" for Service Bureau Networks. This is of course, different from what the caller ID claims. BUT if you Google that number you get an earful about a disreputable company, Telespammer

Service Bureau Networks seems to also be known as Telseven according to the posts. There are claims on the forum that people have been charged just for calling numbers associated with Telseven.

Don't bother talking to the voice that says "wrong number." It is just a recording. You can tell because there is no hang up sound. Also the timing and intonation is exactly identical each time.

We've been getting 6 or 7 of these annoying phone calls a day for the last 3 days.

Please EMAIL ME at
702harassment@gmail.com and let me know that you've been getting them too. I'm trying to figure out what the scam is.

If there is enough interest, a class action lawsuit might be in order, as well as complaints to the FTC and FCC Those links go directly to the complaint proceedures, so have fun.

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Special note to the heartless scum behind this harassment: It's not good for your mental health to annoy a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) expert. That's putting it nicely.

You'll find yourself with thousands of dollars of legal bills in short order. Harassing me and other people who contact me can get VERY expensive very quickly.

Trust me, you really don't want to go there.

Don't say you've not been warned. Please CONTACT ME if you wish to nip your punishing legal expenses in the bud.

Bear, Part II

There have been four bear sightings in the last 12 hours here on Lazy Z.

I'm bringing in the hummingbird feeder.

This is what happened last year.







Case Study

Last Frost of the Season?

It snowed yesterday and then it looked like it was going to freeze last night.

It was a good thing that I took in the house plants that did not seem to have the good sense to come in on their own.

It made it down to 28 F last night.

However, in a conversation with a hummingbird this morning by the hummingbird feader, I found out that this should be the last frost.

But I'm keeping in the house plants for another night, just in case.

The Elk Are Back... Again

I just saw a group of about 8 bull elk grazing their way through the snowy yard.

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.