Found Another One

I found another large puff ball today. It weighted in at 1 pound, 4.2 ounces.

Into the cooking pot it goes.

The Aspens are turning

A Goji Juice Project

People have been asking for the "good stuff" that is in Goji Berries for a couple of years now.

But what shocked me is when I discovered that Goji Juice cannot possibly contain the most important active ingredient from the Goji Berry, namely the Goji Polysaccharides.

Once I understood this, I had to write up about it. You can see the result at BetterThanGojiJuice.com

I talked to the first person that bought from the site. He was even more excited than I was about my discovery.

Puff Ball Find of the Decade

Today we found a 1pound 13 ounce puff ball. That's a really big mushroom! ... and I know from experience that it is still solid and good, not to ripe yet.

It's the biggest puff ball I've seen around here in a decade.

I also found some smaller puff balls as well. It all totalled 2 pounds, 5.4 ounces of good mushrooms. (I left the overripe ones where I found them, still rooted. You can tell by giving them a light squeeze if they are already to far gone)

What are these mushrooms?

As best as I can tell they belong to the Lentinellus family. But the gills don't look very serrated. Click on the picture for a larger view.

http://www.mushroomexpert.com/lentinellus.html

The 3 turkeys of Winiger Ridge

While on a late afternoon walk up on the ridge, I saw a flock of 3 turkeys. They would not let me get any closer then about 25 feet. I got the feeling that they where related, but I could not tell what the relationship was.

Organic Goji Slim n' Trim

This is a project I've been working on.

Goji berries are getting more and more popular... but not everyone likes the taste... or wants to carry around a odd looking dried fruit.

That's why I think the time is right for Goji in a bottle. ... and of course, everyone wants yet another weight loss product to try.

See what I mean at Organic Goji Slim N' Trim

What I did this summer

It's been a while since I did a post.

Well... I've been busy traveling this summer.

You can see a very few of the 1000+ pictures I took this summer here.

Dummy and the Bear

At about 4 am, I awoke from a light sleep because I heard heavy footsteps on the deck. Then I heard heavy footsteps on the ground below the deck.

My curiosity got the better of me and I grabbed a flashlight and carefully (it might be a bear!) opened the door.

Whatever it was ran off to the right and was gone before I could shine the flashlight beam in that direction.

At about 7, we saw a large, dark brown bear wandering around the yard. (So it WAS a bear that I heard!)


I got over a dozen pictures of it over about a 10 minute period before it wandered off at about 2 mph across the meadow to the west. The bear clearly knew I was there, but seemed indifferent, except to look my way a few times.

What kept the bear around for over 3 hours? Last night, I had thoughtlessly tossed a few remaining bites of rice from my cold dinner over the deck.

I won't be doing that again.

P.S. This bear was not interested in the hummingbird feeders, unlike the bear of the May 25, 2007 post. It did however bite into a plastic gallon jug that had just water in it once.

Tick Resources

My neighbor Jennifer found the following 2 great resources about ticks:

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/72109.htm
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/insect/05593.html

So that's what a fresh elk skull looks like

I was taking a walk this afternoon on my usual trail, and there, right in the middle of the trail, was a fresh elk skull. It was so fresh, that the brains looked like they where still inside the skull. There was no sight of the rest of the skeleton.

My guess is that a coyotes took down the elk. They don't look like they have jaws strong enough to crush an elk skull. On the other hand mountain lion or bear would have crushed the skull to get to the brains.

Then, perhaps a dog picked up the skull and dropped it on the trail after getting tired of it.

Other random observations:
* I just heard the first thunder of the season
* a couple of days ago, I was outside heard a familiar melodious chrip. I looked over to the barn and, indeed, there was Mr. Bluebird.

Positive Handyman Reference

The following comment was added to the post I did about a local handyman. I have reprinted it here so that it is easier to find.

---

Bonnie S. has left a new comment on your post "Local to Magnolia Handyman Available":

Dear Neighbors,
I saw on Mike Seiler's blog a request for a post about Van Hunt's handyman work.

When I hired Van Hunt last year to do some work, I was grateful that:
--he shows up at the time agreed to

--he brings his own good ideas for improving the projects we work on as I like people who work with me to offer that
--He is skilled and when he doesn't know something is ready to acknowledge that he doesn't yet willing to discuss ways to accomplish it

I recommend him as a handyman. He charges reasonable prices and is effective in his work. He is also quite skilled at packing moving trucks and gardening help.

So if you have projects you want to tackle with someone's help, do call on him.

tick, Tick, TICK... BOOM!

tick, Tick, TICK...

BOOM!

Alright. I admit that above is a cheap shot.

Yesterday I found the first tick of the season on my ankle. The body was about .1 inches in size.

Beware.

I Know to Much

Warning - True confessions:

I was just asked a question on a social networking site, "What do you know a lot about?"

My Answer:

I know a lot about... about... a whole lot of things. Seems like I spend way to much time reading. I sometimes feel like all the stuff I know is like a all the parts in a lumber yard. I keep acquiring more "stuff" (facts, really) but don't spend enough time using it to build my success.

I guess my fantasy is that at some point my "lumbar yard" will spontaneously explode because it is sooooo overstuffed. Then, as everything falls back down after being blown sky high, it will spontaneously assemble itself into a castle of success that will put the Disney Kingdom castle to shame.

OK. Maybe I'm just weird to imagine this, but do any other overeducated information hogs out there wish that this could actually come true?

Local to Magnolia Handyman Available

I find that it is sometimes hard to get handyman type help up here. So I'd like to welcome Van Hunt (see below) to our local labor pool

The following post came through on the PUMA list today. Please leave a comment to this blog post if you use Van Hunt and let us have your impression of him.
________________________________________________________________

I am Van Hunt, living on Forsythe Road, and I am available for general labor and other kinds of help - for example, house and/or pet sitting, any kind of tree and firewood work (I have my own chainsaw), outdoor spring clean-up, garage or shed organizing, hauling (I have a truck), general handyman work, and/or anything you can think of. I can provide local references, no job too small, reasonable rates.

Please call 303 449 9237 or email accoaone (at) gmail.com

Let us work together for our mutual advantage

The Bears are Back

A couple of neighbors have reported seeing bear tracks in the last two days.

The Birds Are Back

A swirl of clouds came through this afternoon.

What was so striking is that right after the clouds rolled in, that there was suddenly a flurry of birds EVERYWHERE.

Nutty woodpeckers, "humingbird feeder" (see previous post) woodpecker, chic-a-dees, lots of robins, and finally, "our" hawk even lighted on his favorite perch.

"Plan B"

Google and Virgin Galactic are now taking applications for people wanting to help colonize Mars.

Mars, here I come!

... that's "Plan B" in case things get to weird on this little swirly blue and white marble we call home.

The Moose Are Coming!

About 5 years, ago, I was camping west of the Divide, not to far away from here.

I was surprised to see a Cow Moose and her baby munching their way through a swamp at about 10,000 feet.

Now comes word from a neighbor (Jennifer) that she's spotted a momma Moose and her yearling right here in the neighborhood last night.

Excel Energy Bird Cams

As a regular reader of my blog, you've noticed that I like to keep up with natural phenomena in the Colorado Rockies area.

I just came across this cool set of birding webcams

I'm sure this is a nice little public relations move for Xcel Energy, but, as the old saying goes, "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth."

Anyway, enough blabbing, here's the link:
Birding Webcams