Farm Life

We have been so busy working in the garden, preparing for summer growing season. Yesterday, as we were preparing the fence for the garden, I found this lizard under leaves and debris. It is a blue tailed skink. So, cute. It's blue tail is to protect the more vulnerable parts of it's body, and it will break off as a deterrant if attacked. It will regrow, but usually not in the bright blue color.

This is a Black widow spider, also encountered yesterday, in the fence clearing process. She has a red hourglass on her underbelly, but we were unable to get a good picture of it, she wouldn't sit still for pictures. I have found that usually I will find her eggsack first and that lets me know that there is a widow near by. Their egg sacks contain 100-400 eggs, but only 30 will survive. Female black widows live up to 5 years. This one was pretty big, and I am guessing fairly old, though we cut her lifespan sharply after this picture was taken. Contrary to popular belief, females rarely if ever eat the males after mating. Their venom is extremely potent, 15 times more powerful than a rattlesnake's venom. Luckily they inject only a small amount of venom, and the bites are rarely deadly. It will be very unpleasant however. I hope to never know how unpleasant.

Since this picture was taken, we have built a small greenhouse in the garden, and have added irrigation. We keep intending to plant our root veggies, but we always get sidetracked with work to do. Soon, we will get some plants in the ground. We have started tomatoes, and other veggies indoors already.

This is our stray kitty, acquired in Bend, and moved out to Gazelle. She is adjusting nicely. She is learning bird calls. You can catch her any day, laying in the flower garden watching the songbirds. Attempting her own mimic of their calls.

This is the orchard, next to the barn. I have no idea what kind of tree this is. In fact we don't know what any of them are. It's kind of exciting. As we wait for them to, hopefully, fruit, they are all a mystery.

If it is said that there is a shortage of bees, not here. On a warm sunny day, there is buzzing throughout the garden. The fruit trees almost appear to be in motion with the swarm of bees around it, pollinating the trees. A neighbor has bee boxes, and they've positioned them right at the edge of their property facing ours, so we get the benefits of all of their bees, and they get the benefits of our garden's pollen. If you look closely at the picture you might be able to see the pollen sacs on their back legs, where they collect the pollen that they will take to the hive. This would be a female worker bee, all the worker bees are females.

Ah, now on to the baby chicks. We got these last week. They are growing so fast. They already have tail feathers, and their wings can spread now. We have 6 baby chicks, Auracana's, Rhode Island reds and Bard Rocks. Two of the chickens will lay green eggs. They are super cute and one of our favorite projects. We have been trying to introduce the dogs to them, so they won't eat them, but it's not going well. Sid has put them in his mouth twice, as if to carry them away to play with them, not to the chicks benefit I'm sure... So, he is no longer allowed to see them. We are told that they will start to lay eggs in 3 months, and during laying season, they will lay an egg a day.

Lastly, we found this toad while weeding the flower beds. Soon we will post pics of hummingbirds. We have a feeder outside the kitchen window, and even in the colder weather we have seen at least 2 a day. They are either green or red.

Bend, "ORYGUN"

We went to Bend last weekend (I'm a little late getting this up) We were supposed to go rafting with Sarah, above, and Michael, below, but the weather decided against it. It snowed and was super windy and cold.
So, instead we made the rounds about town and had a great visit with friends. Unfortunately, we forgot to bring our camera with us most of the time so we are limited with pics, but it was a blast. Thank you to all our friends who opened their homes to us while we were there visiting.
This is our first night in town with Sarah and Michael Jo, lamenting the rafting trip that wouldn't come to be....

We were surprised how big Bend had gotten, or maybe just how big it seemed after living in the stix for a while. Not only are we remote here, but there really isn't a town bigger than 3000 people unless you drive an hour, which we never do... So, it was a fun trip to the big city.
We had dinner with our good friends Sarah and John at Toomies our favorite restaurant in Bend, caught up on all the gossip around town. Sarah just got into OHSU's Physician Assistant program, "Congratulations Sarah" She will leave John, in Bend while she goes to Portland to be a student for 2 years. Luckily John, is looking forward to "getting his fort back" and seeing her on the weekends.

Next stop, Kyle and Corey's house, where they built a chill pad for us to sleep in. Luxury at it's finest. The new guest house features all a guest could want, including a comfortable bed. We were ready to move back. They also have the cutest "sucker" baby ever (a sucker baby is one that is so perfect, it sucker's you into having a child, only to discover your child is not of same temperment), in photo above... Big Ben is maybe the sweetest child ever, excluding sister's child Addrienne. We went cross country skiing, more appropriate than the slated rafting trip, in the snow, it was cold. We had a super fun time. Kyle and Zach, not pictured, had a great time, and I'm sure will have even more fun when they see each other next time, do to the involvement of bikes. Zach has missed Kyle, they are both super active, and spend alot of time climbing hills together.
Also not pictured, Zach hung with his good buddy Tim, formerly of the well known band Rodentula... Who have played at the famous, Shang Hai Jos. They rocked out.

We had a great time, thanks to everyone who made it a great visit, and to those we missed, next time.... We'll be back for Erica and Paul's Wedding. It's going to be a blast. Until then, come visit.
Oh and a posting wouldn't be a posting with out a beautiful picture of Mount Shasta....

Home on the range

Mom and Dad Hanis came to visit this week. It was great to see them. We had a great visit, hanging out.

The only day I had to go to work on the visit, the men decided to walk the wheel line on the lower 40, where Sid and Nica made an exciting new discovery.... Zach and dad couldn't figure out what the dogs were chasing, and then decided it was probably a paper bag that had was blowing in the wind, as all they could see was this flitting white and black. When blam the dogs hit the ground as if they had been shot, and started rolling in the grass. Wimpering and rolling. The men ran to the dogs to make sure they were ok, but could only get within 50 ft of them when they smelled it.... SKUNKS!! Nica and sid got to see the bottom of the watering trough, dad and zach got a bonding experience, and I got a pass... one day I was glad to be at work. Turns out the remedy is, 1 bottle of peroxide, 3 tbs baking soda, 1 tbs dr. bronners soap, avoid the eyes, rinse thoroughly.

It's looking like a nasty storm is on the way, they are calling for snow this week, and so many of our plants are already in bloom... I will be busy putting buckets over my favorite flowers today.
We are planning a ho-down for Z Scott's 30th birthday on August the 23rd... a Saturday... Hope to see you here.
love Z and R

Sunday River Maine

Zach just got back from Sunday River Maine, where he took 2 of the students he had been coaching all season to compete in Nationals. They had a great time. The college put them up in a pimpy hotel by night and by day they terrorized the ski slopes of Maine... You can see how frightening these 3 Cali kids must have been to an unsuspecting east coast. See them at the base of the abominable snow-woman? We're told it's the worlds largest.

John Villani getting ready for the big race.

Becca racing down the slopes

Victory, they came home with 2 medals. John Villani took 3rd place in Giant Slalom and Becca took first place in Giant Slalom. Not bad for a little unknown Northern California College from the town of Weed.
It was a great way to end the season, and it went off without a hitch, except for the flat tire in the rental car that eventually led to missing their plane, which led to the great race from Maine to Boston, to Salt Lake City, to Sacramento. Which ended in Mt. Shasta early in the morning, completing one of the longest days of Zach's life. We are headed up to Bend in 2 weeks, hope to see all our Oregonian homeys...
lots of love, ZandR

these are a few of my favorite things....

The first flowers from our garden.



My new friend Dawn and her boyfriend John, are introducing me to climbing.



my first 5.9, yeah

March Madness

Hello friends,
Here we are, in March. We have been great. Zach has been doing a lot of back country riding and these are pictures from an undisclosed location here in NorCal. They had a great day. Just the 4 of them, fresh tracks all day. I on the other hand was at work...

Zach is currently in Sunday River Maine with a couple of his highest ranking students, for Nationals. He will be there all week. I talked to him today and it sounds like he is having a blast. We will have more pics to post when he gets back.
I have been gardening a ton, we rototilled our lower garden, veggies for days... I have been snowboarding, climbing, which is new for me... super fun... working, working... miss everyone... love Z and R




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dirt don't hurt

So, here I am again with my hands all day in the dirt. So, much work. My back is sore, my arms ache from pulling the weeds... the never ending weeds. The sun is out again, with warmth I haven't felt since fall. Sweat and dirt, in a t-shirt. Dogs running laps around the garden. Iris' are starting to pop up. Little white flowers that look like bells are the first to grace our garden. Next I think will be daffodils, they are just on the verge of opening up. One more sunny day.
On the hills around our house, still blankets of snow, but here only warm dirt, and birds. So many birds. We filled the birdbath with water, and we have not been disappointed. They sit on the fence beside it and take turns. Splashing so much water, it's hard to believe there is enough water left to bathe. They jump in and hop up and down. Bright yellow little birds mostly, and some mountain bluebirds, which are electric blue. They chirp and sing, and sit in the tree tops surrounding me.
Today while I was trimming the butterfly trees back I heard a high pitched scream. Looking up there were 3 Red tailed Hawks circling above. Circling round and round, legs stretched down, as if to hold something while in flight, but nothing in their claws. I looked around, for a moment wondering if they were coming for me. Beautiful, big, powerful birds.
Thinking of powerful birds... 2 days ago Zach and I saw a bald eagle circling a field near the house. Those are big... they sit 3 feet tall, wing spans of 6 feet.
It's getting dark and I am getting increasingly tired. I am sitting on the porch watching the sun cast a familiar alpen glow over mount shasta. We are west of the mountain. So, in the evening it casts a glow on the mountain as the sun drops behind the coastal mountains. The air is getting an icy chill, a sharp contrast from the warm day. Reminding me that it is not yet Spring. I will soon go inside and make a fire to keep warm.


Zach went snowmobiling today with friends. They were going to ride the Eddy's, a mountain range to the South-west of us.
We are both great. Zach will go back to mammoth mountain this weekend with the snowboard team.
We hope to make it up to Bend for a visit soon. The temperature gets cold fast in the evening... I am heading inside.