High Desert Life

Your welcome Miss Nadia!!

Hi Rob! Thanks, I really liked them too. I was pretty proud of this series mainly because I was in a drift boat going up and down and sometimes sideways. I would have to time the shots with the action of the boat!

GG, more is coming!!! The Alaskan Sealife Center is next. It will star.......PUFFINS!

Hi SP! Thanks for following my pics!! I think they were my best yet. I thought I would break up the travelogue into parts, more blog fodder and way to many pics to post on one blog. I will have more pics that I haven't put up to WU, that I think are cute.

We did have those pop up t-storms yesterday and it looks like today also. We had a lighting started fire start up by our cabin, but the FD got it out quickly.

I did hear about the Denali mauling, don't hike by yourself in bear country!!!!

Some pretty wicked storms yesterday, lots of lightning and flooding. We had several lightning started fires by us. No internet at home, who knows how long thus will last. The wedding is today and we are on the road.

Hi Ylee, your wife can come with us on our bear encounters, you may not! Lol
White rabbits x 3 right back attcha!!

GG, that is a funny story! Bears are nice despite their reputations! I use to clean campgrounds as a summer job and they gave me an airhorn to scare the bears away. Little did they know I wanted to see bears not scare them!! I even got Brody a hat that has bear ears on it, I will post a pic of it.

Hi WTS! I am in total agreement with you on protecting our wild lands. What is so great about Alaska is their road system. Hardly any roads that is!! What causes problems for the animals in the lower 48 is to many roads, even in the Park system there are way to many roads. Many animals won't cross the roads so any kind of genetic diversity that is needed for the strength of their species is stopped right there at the road.

That is why wilderness areas are a must, but people fight it because they want easy access to it, lazy hunters for one thing, timber interest are another.

I don't get political on my blog, but I have to voice my disappointment in President Obama giving the okay for Arctic drilling. All about the winning of the election and no thought what so ever for the devastating effect this will have on the very fragile environment of the Arctic!!! Not that I am voting Republican, LOL, but frankly I don't know what to do right now. He has deregulated the wolf in Idaho and Montana and now Wyoming so now there is wholesale slaughter of these animals in Idaho and Montana. No regulations at all on the killings!!!!

The Republicans will probably go further and open up the Arctic refuge for drilling too, all about the votes. Just makes me sick!!!!!

Okay, Sunday morning rant is over. Back to a peaceful desert morning, cooler weather and for the first time I am hoping for no T-Storms to many fires started by lightning around us. In fact a couple of neighbors were fighting the last one on Thursday.

Have a super rest of your weekend!

Large fire burning directly to the south of us. Possibly Wrightwood area. When I find out where I will update.

East fork San Gabriel river, not Wrightwood. Moving quickly up hill.

Here is the plume of smoke from our side of the mountain

Thanks SP! I would make a terrible fire spotter, since I always think the fire is closer then it really is! It does look nasty in the picture doesn't it!

The State regulation for wolves in Idaho is you do have to buy a tag, up to 5 tags per hunter, 1 wolf per tag, 365 days a year season, no stopping point. That is to me no regulations!! They want to rid their state of wolves and I believe it is because the federal government put them there against the states will. So wolves lose. The only wildlife they want in idaho is what they can hunt and eat and hang on their walls. They don't want any other predator around but themselves.

I get upset with people who just want to destroy.

Now we are getting a lot of smoke from the fire, yech!!!

Hi Skye!!! :)

Hi GG! The fire seems to be slowing down, just hope no big winds get going. Smoke is our problem here, with a miserable night last night of having to close up the cabin. It was rather warm last night.

Hi WTS! Darn politicians, they never do what I want, but then they never do what they say they are going to do anyway, LOL! Have a good Labor Day yourself!

Hi SP! Thanks for the update!!!! Yes I do get concerned about fires, maybe I have already said this, but we are not allowed to rebuild if our cabin is wiped out. Los Angeles County made that a law for areas with no water a few years ago. I am not sure whether we are grandfathered in because the cabin was bought way before the law, I will have to ask Mr. P.

The lightning strike fires have been numerous this year, with the last one on Thursday afternoon. Two neighbors were fighting it but I doubt with only two of them and their only tools were shovels that they would have stopped it, but they tried!!!! We actually ordered a fire blanket, just in case we get a spot fire on our property. If we can react quick enough we would be able to put it out.

On my way home Thursday I saw several cloud to ground lightning and something that I don't remember if I ever saw before and that is the lightning flickering 3 times. Looking it up on the internet they are return strikes and there can be up to twenty of them. It was interesting to see!

Hi Karen! I figured you were busy with school starting. Glad you are back! I had a great view of Lake Tahoe from 30,000 feet coming back from our trip. It was beautiful, fires to the north of there though.

We were in a drift boat about 100 feet away from the bears at the closest point, much farther then last years bear encounter, LOL! I have a zoom that goes from 70 to 300mm, it isn't a Nikon, but it still is a fair lense!

Since I lived in Wrightwood for many years we had many black bear encounters. My front porch, back yard, across the street in the neighbors garbage! We even had a network of bear fanatics that would call each other when they sighted a bear ( I was one). None of the bears out here in the local mountains are black, they are cinnamon, or brown some have white on their chest. First BLACK bear I ever saw was in Glacier Park last year. And then a bear cub along the Kenai River this year.

The fire looks to be settling down, though we still have smoke, blah!!!! We went for a hike anyway today, I am glad I did but the smoke did bother me on the uphill climbs.

No new blog today, Sorry!! I got involved in making a slideshow with music of Brody and Kodiak for his 1st birthday. Now I should be able to send it in an email, at least I hope to do it. Oh, the music is 'The Color of the Wind' by Whitney Houston from the Disney movie Pocahontas. It came out sooooo cool.

Puffins are adorable!!!!!

Hi GG, love your comment on the Tufted Puffins, you are right they look like surfer dude puffins!

Hi Ylee! I was really happy with the bear pics. The lens did me right, plus I had a few miles of river behind me to get to be able to shoot pics when the boat was either up or down, LOL! Took me awhile to get it down right!

A word on our weather, what a monsooooooon season for us! Went out to a consulting job after work and hit one cell after another on the way home. We have received since July 1st 2.74 inches of rain!!!! Another round for today. Our 100' fire break is starting to look like a new lawn, the quail are loving it. And some of the Brittlebush are blooming!

Had a campsis vine die so we are replacing with lilacs, one Angel White and two Charles Jolly. There were some old stumps of cottonwood that the campsis vine was one, but they had rotted and fallen over and the campsis vine with them.

What you can do with a 10' by 10' raised bed garden.
350 bulbs of garlic (winter)

32 stalks of corn
3 butternut squash plants
2 acorn squash plants
2 cantalopes plants
1 watermelon plant
1 poblano pepper plant
1 jalapeno pepper plant

All bearing quite nicely!!!