Shutting it Down

Bird house #2 got made the other night. We poured some wine, B showed me how to use his Dremel tool for woodpecker holes and edges (that's really neat!). We poured more wine and I went through twigs, leaves, dried plants, feathers, acorns and tiny branches I've been collecting . . . then we poured more wine and then we poured still more wine.

We have to pack up this morning. We've basically been living at this cabin now for over 2 months. I'm saying a silent 'good-bye' to my favorite Snaggle Tree across the meadow. He stands guard over all his fallen forest mates.

I'm going to miss all the pine cones I keep collecting. I set them on the deck and within a few days spiders have created new homes in them.

I'm going to miss all my favorite rotten logs. I check them out each day or so . . . looking for good light or just new critters who have recently customized them.

I'm definitely going to miss the sunsets like this one last night. ~N

Spoiled Birds

I saw the cutest thing yesterday. I couldn't get photos of it, it happened so fast . . .

- a very young acorn woodpecker (no red crest yet) landed on our deck railing and started picking up the seeds to eat. He was busy doing his thing and enjoying the taste I guess. In a minute or so, either his mom or dad flew down to join him and picked up a few seeds to eat as well . . .

- at that point the baby started cheeping and squawking like crazy - sounded like his foot was stuck or something! The parent looked long at the kid (and ~sighed~ I bet) - then started picking up individual seeds to feed to the baby . . . one by one & one by one . . .

After the parent had landed, the baby absolutely refused to pick up his own seeds. He just made the most annoying squeaking sounds so the parent would give him undivided attention and FEED HIM seeds! Isn't that just like little kids!? ~N

Falling Stars, Mt. Laguna, CA

We drove up to the cabin late last night. It was totally black and dark in the woods when B hiked to the top of our little hill to turn on the water. We just knew he'd get eaten by a hungry mountain lion . . . but Davy Crocket pressed on . . .


We brought up some old wooden lounge chairs I meant to Freecycle months ago. They're cheap, rickety, splintery and not very comfortable, but great for a cabin. After we unpacked and settled in, about midnight we poured some wine and sat out to star gaze. The stars are amazing up here, the Milky Way is a huge white swath spreading wide across the night sky! And then a loud SNAP, CRACKLE and POP!!! - over he goes - feet up pointing to the stars, head and shoulders wacking the ground . . . but he spilled very little wine (my kinda experienced boozer). It sounded like a tall pine cracking as several of the supports in the flimsy lounge hit the dirt and threw B over.

The damages this morning . . . we couldn't see last night. I guess we're lucky nobody got impaled and bled out from splinters - but we were laughing so hard, we couldn't stop . . . brought back the old days when we were first married and had a Sunbeam Alpine sports car. The latch on the driver's seatback would fail (like just about everything else on that car eventually did) . . . we'd be driving down the freeway and WHAMMMMMMMMMM FLOOOOOP the seatback would totally disappear behind the driver. Keystone Kops. We laughed a lot then too.

We found an old star chart/wheel we used to use - brought it up last night (that's the Milky Way in blue). The top sheet rotates to the current month, day and hour (for this latitude) - it's pretty neat. The only problem is, there's SO many stars to see up here (6,000 ft) it's hard to pick out the constellations, planets, etc. ~N

The (Our) Meadow

The cabin overlooks a meadow. Once upon a time the meadow held a stable, but, purchased with drug money, IRS confiscated it and turned it over to the National Forest Service. Our gain.

Between the cabin and the meadow is a dirt road leading down a ravine and into the forest.

The light in the meadow highlights the grasses...

Filters through the trees...

And, in the late afternoon, turns the meadow a rich reddish gold.

Bordering the meadow are Jeffrey Pines. A favorite of Acorn Woodpeckers, their bark is riddled with holes into which acorns are stuffed. These 'granery trees' store acorns until the larvae infesting them hatch. Then the woodpeckers return to harvest this delicacy.

~B

A Cabin Tour

If you looked in our cabin's kitchen window - this is the reflection you might see.



This is the kitchen.


This is the living room.


This is the living area looking looking towards the kitchen in the back.

This is the front bedroom with a king size bed, desks and lots of windows to the woods.


This is the other side of the large front room with 2 twin beds for now. We have a smaller bedroom in the back of the cabin (not shown). ~N

Hot Birds

This is my newest best friend. It's been very hot today and he sits on the railing by our cabin door and scolds me if I don't put out cold water. He may be getting too friendly - about 20 minutes ago he just misjudged a window facing this computer desk. I heard a loud THUNK as he flew into it, picked himself up, shook himself off, looked embarrassed and then flew off up onto an oak branch.

This little woodpecker has been visiting all day too - hanging over the water bowl sucking up water. ~N

Dusty Sunsets

We did some back road driving last night as the sun was setting. The light in the canyons gets a mysterious eerie color (probably dust particles). Some parts of our mountains were badly burned in the Cedar Fires of 2003 and oaks and pines still haven't grown back. ~N

Too Fat to Fit

We woke up yesterday to this view outside our kitchen window --- WHAT THE. .. .!? . . . someone trying to squeeze between the planks of our tool shed.

I really freaked out, it sure looked like a rattlesnake to me - and it was BIG and it was STUCK. Maybe it even had a meal of some poor rodent (the wide belly) and then slipped down where the planks were closer together. I'm thinking - 'What do we do with a stuck rattlesnake!?'

Turns out what I thought was a head in the grass, was really a tail. I braved getting closer because this beast wasn't going anywhere too soon - but squirming like crazy . . . then I could see he didn't have any rattles on his tail . . . a gopher snake . . . but still, are these going in and out of our tool shed ----- OH ME! (he finally wriggled loose and disappeared i.n.s.i.d.e our shed!) {{{{{shiver}}}}} ~N