January 6, 2012

Cat print next to a Jesse print

I took this photo Wednesday on our north ridge during our daily afternoon walk.  After checking our animal tracks book, we believe it is a cougar (mountain lion).  Those aren't claws, just pointy toe pads.  Wednesday morning when the dogs went out after breakfast, Dinga came back really spooked and would not go back outside.  Needless to say, we will be packing a gun whenever we go out.  I think the main reason we have seen more coyotes, and now the cougar tracks, is because winter has been mild so far.  The deer are still Up Here, when they have normally moved further down the mountain.  It is not unusual to see cat tracks in the canyon, we just have never seen them this close to the house (roughly 300 ft).  And we most likely do not have to be concerned, as they are nocturnal and do not like to be near humans.  Nevertheless. . .

We checked the game cam Wednesday and there were only three photos on it with no animals or people in them.  I think we may have mounted it too high for the slope of the land because we should have tripped it on our walks.  So we moved it to a tree that is near the V in our road that goes up and around the south ridge where we see deer tracks almost every day.  Will check it again on Saturday.  If we don't have anything by then, there is obviously something we don't understand about operating it.

The weather warmed up to 34 degrees on Wednesday with quite a breeze.  Thursday morning was a much cooler 26, so all the melted snow had frozen.  We still had ice underneath the snow and now it's one big skating rink.  Fortunately our new Snowtrax for the bottom of our boots have little spikes on them.  JB plans to go Down There next week and may have to use MAX instead of the Jeep.

I met our resident frog Thursday morning - in the dining area!  He is not the 12" giant I had imagined and he's certainly no candidate for Calaveras, but he is the largest tree frog I've seen Up Here.  It is too cold right now to put him outside, so I just dropped him back down into the crawl space.  We are leaving the trap door open 24/7, so that is how he got up into the house.  If he grows any bigger, he won't be able to squeeze through the grate that we have over the opening.  But I'm sure we'll be meeting again.

JB has been baking this week.  He made GF focaccia bread on Wednesday that has rosemary, parmesan and sea salt on top of it and is scrumptious.  He made a sourdough starter on Thursday.  It has to set for 48 hours before it can be used, so hopefully tomorrow he can made some bread or biscuits.  I have decided to eat more gluten free from now on, so I won't be buying any wheat bread.  GF bread is really too expensive to buy on a regular basis, so we will be baking our own more often.

With the cold and cloudy weather, we have decided to turn off the inverter when we go to bed.  Helps to save on the energy.  So I will not be posting until it starts getting light out, after 7:30 a.m. PST.

Thought for the day:  If life is just a joke, the question still remains: for whose amusement?   Ashleigh Brilliant