Death Valley View November 2011

Sites on the Way to Buck Rock Lookout

Gotta love the view of the backcountry!  And the still blooming wildflowers.

 

The lookout sits atop Buck Rock as a sentinel on watch.

 

Hmmm, bovine roadblock!

Mooooooove out of the way!

 

I never tire of the shades of green that one find in the forests and hills…Here is a meadow of “skunk cabbage.”

On the Lookout!!!

Spent the day here in training for fire lookout detection at Delilah Lookout, elevation 5,156 ft. and about 80 stairs!  What a view!!!  I learned about 100 landmark features! (or so it seemed) and got to practice with the Osborne fire finder and learning more of the ropes of being a volunteer fire lookout!  It was great!

 

Here I practice taking the wind and temperature reading with a cool instrument called a Kestrel.  It was briskly blowing that day.  As you can see bye the cloudy sky there was a storm approaching.

 

Here you see the Osborne fire finder where the azimuth in degrees and minutes can be determined (sometimes, if you can see the base of the fire!)  A lookout must be just that always on the lookout and continually watching.

Another important aspect of the duties of a fire lookout are to keep other lookouts informed of what has happened when you were on watch.  A detailed record log of traffic and fires and other observations is made in addition to a daily journal of events.  In this way hopefully there will be no repeat reporting of a fire that has already been seen.  As you can see, some spend the night here…I think that would be awesome to see the evening fade and the night stars from the lookout and the coming of the dawn the next day.  Sign me up! LOL

The Beauty of Buckeyes!

Glorious Buckeyes are in bloom!  These crazy trees only grow about four months of the year.  Such stunning green they give in the early spring!  Next the spires begin to grow and fill until….

They blossom in this incredible show of beauty for a few short weeks.  The lower in altitude the earlier the show so we get to enjoy them longer as we travel up and down the mountain. 

 

The white blobs are everywhere on the hillsides…This doesn’t last long until the leaves dry up and turn a rusty brown and the tree is dormant till next spring!  Then we see blobs of dead looking rusty colored trees on the hillsides! LOL

Check out our Mountain Adventure Walk!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Visit at Grandma and Grandpa's house!

Fun times with Jaden and Grandpa!

Reed knows that bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios will always be ready for him when he visits!

 

Never is a visit complete without a ride on the cart with faithful chauffeur, Grandpa!  Up the hill they go!

Gosh, can't believe that Reed is almost five and Jaden is nearing two!  Where does the time go?

Spring, Garden Tour and Metal Art!

Oh happy spring!  I just have to add this one!

 

Poppies cover the hillside!

 

Here is our "uphill" church!

 

Baby blue eyes sparkle in the sun!

 

Amazing...metal art!

 

LOL, I told you we lived in the hills! 

 

Probably at least a mile of this kind of fence greeted us at the Metcalf Ranch.

Here is the artist of all this metal art....  Lyell Metcalf

 

No kidding...this is Lyell's outdoor shower!

 

Another Metcalf original creation!

Thanks for the great delight of seeing "patina" at its best!

Great Spring Pics

Spring comes and goes quickly in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada's.  At the end of March poppies are seen across the valley here but some grass is already starting to turn brown.

Redsmom and I at the nature trail behind the Bear Mountain Library.  What a beautiful flowering tree!

Such beautiful pines in bloom?

Lovely flowering crabapple!

Perennial lupine bushes cover the mountainside.

Poppies and lupine and popcorn flowers.e

I'm long overdue in getting these pics on the blog!  On Friday, March 27th I was blessed to have Redsmom from the chat room join me for a whirlwind two days!  We had SO much fun!

 

  Here you see Redsmom as she sees snow for the first time in her life!  How fun to be there to see her amazed at how cold it felt and see her eyes light up when she saw it so white.  God was gracious and kept all this snow safe and sound for her almost a week in Icebox Canyon.

On Saturday we took the day to tour the Squaw Valley Garden Tour.  It was so beautiful.  This place had flowers and the most amazing metal work I've ever seen. 

 

 

Redsmom could not believe our acorn filled pine tree compliments of the woodpeckers.  Here she points at all the thousands of acorns poked in the millions of holes they have pecked in this tall pine tree up on our mountain.  Thanks for coming Redsmom!  Come again soon!

Happy Valentine's Day to all of you! Enjoy what we did today! Take time to love your family! Our son and daughter-in-law do such a great job of that very thing! Hope you love these pics of the Valentine Snowman!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Snow Much Fun!

Jaden and Reed, too cute, wait for time to go out and play in the snow. An up close of these precious exuberant faces.

 

Lisa and Ray enjoy the snow, too.  Lisa had last night off, Yeah!  And we all waited for the snow.  Ray woke me up at 12:30 to tell me it had begun!   He's still a kid at heart!

 

Little Jaden sure has a bad cold...and didn't feel good at all.  This was about as excited as she got today in the snow and spent most of the time on mom's lap.

 

Ray and Reed having a snow hug!

 

Boy and dog enjoy the big rock in the meadow!

 

Snow fun all done, time for hot spiced apple cider.  Tye leads them in from the meadow!

Grandkids...so much fun!

Wow...Jaden at 18 months and Reed at 4 1/2....time flies!

On the Rhodes again...our friends Glen and Irela head out.

Glen and Irela headed out a day before we did.  This year they had a new to them rig...and are hopeful to make it up the mountain by themselves to see us!  Last year Steve drove down Pete and hauled up their bigger heavier trailer.

Tye says good-bye.  He thought Glen was the best!  Each day Glen would take him for a bike ride...Well actually Glen rode and Tye ran!

 

 

 

 

Hmmm, Grandma here said she needed a grandkid "fix" but Grandpa sure looks like he's enjoying himself.  Gotta love the sheets hangin' over the windows.  That's the way we keep warm in the cold mountain air along with hay bales around the bottom of the rig.