I was out in the back yard, refilling the bird seed feeders, when I heard a commotion overhead.
Something like 40+ crows milling about!
I think that qualifies as a “murder!”
Category Archives: Forever Home
122 Days
Today is Day #122 in our new house, our Forever Home. Four months, tomorrow.
Not every day, but MOST days I’ll be somewhere here or see something and just stop dead in my tracks and have a, “DAMN! WE LIVE HERE! **THIS** is our house!” moment.
It’s cool. I like it. I hope someday each of you gets to know that feeling, or its equivelant in some other way.
Last night in the pouring rain, shortly after seeing “our” owl, I stopped to look and feel this view. This is the interior courtyard, with my office on the right.
It’s open to the sky, so the rain was pouring in. There are a couple of downspouts that were overflowing and gushing, and the orange porch lighting contrasting with the deep blue of the dusk, cloudy sky, was magnificent.
Insert “DAMN! WE LIVE HERE!” awe-filled feeling.
Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Weather
Hesperia Owl
As mentioned, I’ve seen an owl out on the cinder block wall in the back yard and on the pergola a couple of times, always when it’s dark or just getting there, but I’ve never gotten any pictures.
Not today!
It was after sunset and raining pretty hard, but not yet dark. There it was, and there it stayed for quite a while.
Lousy quality photo due to the low light and high magnification, but there was some nice video opportunities.
Welcome to the Forever Home, my Great Horned Owl friend! I’m looking forward to seeing and hearing you on a regular basis!
Filed under Birds, Critters, Forever Home, Photography, Video
First Harvest
The new Forever Home has two small fruit trees in the back. The apples are very small, barely bigger than ping pong ball, and almost all of them have been pecked at by birds and critters. I won’t be trying any of them.
But the pears!
They’re not as big as the ones in the store, but they’ve gotten close to that size, and they’re turning from green to yellow.
And there are a LOT of them. Almost all with spots of bird crap on them, but very few with chunks eaten away.
I figured they were getting ripe when they started falling to the ground. THOSE started getting munched on by the squirrels and crows and scrub jays pretty quickly.
The first harvest was small, but brought a sense of adventure!
Today I ate the first of our crop – NOT BAD! (Especially after they were all washed to remove the bird droppings…) Still juicy, a bit more tart and less sweet than the store-bought pears, but very, very edible!
Filed under Forever Home, Photography
Clear In The East Tonight
More cloudy, cool, windy, drizzly, with another larger storm coming on Thursday and Friday, but tonight when I went out it had gotten crystal clear in the east. Orion was high, along with all of the other bright winter constellations.
A simple iPhone shot, setting it down on a garden hose box and getting a 30-second exposure. The brightest object, in the lower left, is Jupiter, with Castor and Pollux in Gemini above and to the left of it. Orion’s in the center right and you can clearly see the nebula that’s the center “star” in the “sword.” The “V” shape of Taurus is just to the right of center at the top edge, and the bright star in the lower right, just above the pergola and clouds, is Sirius.
With the chill (it’s down into the upper 30’s right now) it’s not surprising to smell wood smoke on the breeze as a lot of folks are using their fireplaces.
And of course, off in this direction, are the sounds of freight train whistles.
Yep, we done picked a good one for a Forever Home!
Filed under Astronomy, Forever Home, Photography, Weather
No Context For You – November 15th
No thunderstorms, no gully-washers, no frog-drowners, but it sure has been raining steady for most of the last 24-hours. I’ve seen reports of some debris flows and mudslides on some local canyon and mountain roads, but we’re fine. Plus, like a big chunk of SoCal residents, we’re hunkered down and not going anywhere today.
I do notice that we’ve lost all of our mountains. The low clouds, rain, and fog have hidden them all. I’m hoping when they re-appear we’ll have some more bright, white, snowcapped peaks.
Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Weather
Trains In The Night
One thing I’ve heard a lot in the last few nights working outside after dark, and again while I was sitting outside listening to the rain, are the train whistles off in the distance.
Talk about a legendary and well-earned trope, the touchstone of countless country-western ballads. That lonesome call off in the distance, a few million metric tons of freight heading off through the night to an undefined someplace off over the horizon.
The proximity of this neighborhood to two separate main rail lines between SoCal and points east was a big factor on choosing it for me. There were a handful of other houses we looked at which were NEXT TO the train tracks, and while that had a certain attraction, really FEELING them rumble by and having the horns rattling the windows, I was also conscious of some of the potential downside to that after the novelty wore off.
Here we’re about two miles away in separate directions, there are railcams online where I can see what’s coming and going, and I can hear them off in the distance, even when I’m inside. It’s a comforting sound as I’m falling asleep at night, and a little source of joy repeatedly through the day.
And again, tonight when I was out on the porch, sitting and listening to the substantial rain shower pounding on the tin roof of the porch, running off into puddles out on the turn and rocks, it was wonderful to hear the train sounding off.
It’s one of the little pleasures.
Gotta take ’em where you can find them!
Filed under Forever Home, Paul
Proof Of Life – November 13th
I’m alive. No picture, I didn’t even have time or the energy today to take one.
Okay, I lied, now there’s a picture.
I’m exhausted, but we’re ready for the rain. All of the stuff that came out of storage two weeks ago and got stacked up in the back yard is now sorted and either in the house or on the back porch under a roof. We’ll see if that’s good enough.
I also hit (-ish) all of the critical deadlines at work and there aren’t any meetings tomorrow, and there’s nothing on the schedule at all for this weekend, so after a whole slew of busy days with way too much physical and mental labor and way too little sleep, there will be (I’m praying! at least as much as a confirmed athiest for the past 50+ years can be) a few days to kick back and sit my ass on the couch for a nap or two (or five).
Too old for this nonsense.
Filed under Forever Home, Paul
Clouds – No Aurora
There’s a week-long rain storm moving in tomorrow night and I still have piles of boxes outside, so it’s a priority to get them moved inside, or at least under the roof on the back porch.
While everyone else has been looking at aurora from a huge solar storm, we’re just getting clouds. (To be fair, we’re also so far south that if we’re seeing aurora, there are probably satellites getting fricasseed, so it’s a trade off.)
Very pretty and dramatic looking clouds to be sure, especially around sunset and into the early evening.
I’m once again in “feeling like I’ve gone 15 rounds with Mike Tyson” mode – 69 is really, REALLY too old for this shit, but my stupid brain still thinks I’m 29 for some reason and I’m six-foot tall and bulletproof, at least until I try to stand up and start crying and whimpering.
Stupid brain.
Filed under Forever Home, Photography, Sunsets, Weather
Other Critter Neighbors
In addition to the squirrels (or whatever they are) burrowing under the pergola, and the flocks of wrens, finches, hummingbirds, and scrub jays all feeding at the feeders hanging from the top, we also have some bigger raptors that regularly roost on top of the pergola, particularly at night.
I haven’t caught any of them on camera yet (they spook easily) but I’ve seen the owl(s) several times.
Even if I can’t catch them live, it’s obvious where they like to roost when looking out over the back wall for dinner, or where they bring dinner to feast in peace. The little bits of rodents and small birds, and what appears to be a significant amount of (probably) rabbit fur indicate that the owls are well fed.
It’s sort of a mess – but that’s why we bought a power washer. Now I just need to find the time to assemble it…
Filed under Birds, Critters, Forever Home, Photography
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 