There have been dozens of Robins (Turdus migratorius) bouncing around the yard and in the oak tree outside my office window. There was also a Nuttall's Woodpecker (I think) in the office oak for a few moments too.

I just planted my garlic. From the north to the south: California Red, California Pink, German Red, Early California. Nothing fancy; just what they had at our local farmers markets.

Today's lesson in Entomology

OK, this something is I've never seen let alone found, or should I say that Obi found.  This is apparently a carrion or burying beetle (genus Nicrophorus;  about the size of a bumblebee) with  pinhead-sized phoretic mites covering it.  Phoretic, from phoresy which is "an association in which one animal clings to another to ensure movement from place to place". The beetle and mite relationship is commensal so, except for making the beetle so top heavy it could barely walk, the mites are not harming the beetle.  In fact, the mites go with the beetle to feed on fly larvae that are also attracted to the beetle's carrion dinner.  So, in a way, they share the food. Yikes!

I think I have finally identified one of the birds that for me, marks the arrival of fall by the arrival of their song around the property.  I believe my 'fall song' bird is the Golden-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia atricapilla). A very close approximation of what we hear each fall can be found here.

The other two birds that mark the arrival of fall for me are the Northern Flicker (previous post) and the American Kestrel (Falco sparverius). I saw my first Kestrel yesterday afternoon on the power lines at the corner of Stony Point and Jewett.

Northern Flickers

© Sam Wilson

First fall sighting of two Northern Flickers (Colaptes auratus).  They were both flying from the west Pines to the north Pines.

New England Sugar Pie Pumpkins

We harvested 24 New England Sugar Pie pumpkins yesterday.  That's pretty good considering the gophers killed all 18 hills that I had planted in June.  Most of the plants had set fruit before the gopher attacks though.  I'll be making pumpkin pie, of course but, I'll also be trying out Laurie Mount's cupcake recipe and maybe a savory pumpkin soup too.

Sonoma Aroma

Well, it's that time of year when I recall signing a document at the closing my property purchase here on PG.  The document was called the "SONOMA COUNTY RIGHT TO FARM ORDINANCE" which states that the County allows and encourages agricultural activity.  This area does have it's 'natural' and 'agricultural' smells pretty much all year round.  A smell I adore when compared to the olfactory deadening NOx of Santa Clara Valley from whence I came.  But, this time of year, the agricultural activity folks do it up big by spreading their stored manure slurry onto hundreds (thousands?) of acres of pasture to fertilize it for the benefit of next year's grazing. I've heard it called 'Sonoma Aroma' but I think that's an acknowledgment to the general agricultural smell of these parts. No, the Fall stench produce by the dairy farmers pumping out their manure ponds and are spreading it around the fields is almost more than even I can appreciate. Luckily, it's only a few weeks out of the year...

First twenty pounds of tomatoes canned

Seems to me that it was supposed to be sunny and a little cooler today but now I see that we have a chance of rain in the forecast for tomorrow.  If this cloudy, breezy, 72° current weather continues I'd say we have more than a chance of our first rain of the season tomorrow.  Time to cover the 'drying' firewood...

We also picked twenty pounds of tomatoes and have pressure canned 7 quarts.

As seen on Google...

June 2011

    Here's the vegetable garden in early June(?) as seen on Google. The corn patch rows are visible but we can't see the corn sprouts. Google has updated their images of our area three times over the last few months which makes me think that I should write the year and month in rocks on the ground. If nothing else, I'll be saving the images as time goes by.

Is it corn yet?

...And speaking of corn. The silks are starting to turn brown but the husks don't feel very full yet.  I haven't checked any kernels for milk, clear milk means the ear isn't ripe so,...

Native Bees

Augochlorella aurata on a Cosmos

I tried for over an hour to get a good clear and focused image of one of these 'Sweat Bees' but, as the morning warmed, they became more energetic to the point that it looked like they were spending most of their time flying around with each other rather than visiting the Cosmos.

The etymological origins of Augochlorella aurata: Aug, to enhance, Latin; Chlorella from the Greek word chloros meaning green and ella, the diminutive; Aurātus ‘gilded, golden’, perfect passive participle of aurō ‘gild, overlay with gold’, from aurum ‘gold’.

Firewood

Brother John and I have cut down and split three (recently dead or dying) oaks and one pine tree.  There is a large oak that leans toward the Bothello's barn so, I'm going to try to get help felling this one from our tree guy Nick.  I'm also going to try to get Nick to take down the dying pine that shades my solar panels from October to March.  The extra electricity production should pay for the tree work in about four months.  Other than that, we still have some cutting and stacking of kindling to do before we're ready for a warm winter.

Squash May Safely Grow

Well Thomomys (said with my best Ronnie Reagan voice), destroyer of Patty Pans, it took four days but, I gotcha... The score is now 8 to 13.

What's the GVG score?

As of today, the gardeners versus the gophers (GVG) score is 7 to 13.  What this means is, I have tried to end their garden destroying lives 20 times while succeeding only 7 times, and this is my best year.  Anyone who wants to discuss the moral aspects of garden gopherocide please don't hesitate to speak up.

The Shredder's Back

I turned the compost this morning.  It's the first compost pile made with our shredder.  The shredder has been sitting in the shack for over eleven years but, now that I've got the $25 Craig's List engine installed, our old shredder is working again like a (really noisy) charm.

Too hot to be outside on this spare the air day

Leia says, "It's too hot!"

Well, I thought the puppies and I needed some fresh air so, out to the vegetable garden with us. It's over 90° and oddly quiet, except for the Lesser Goldfinches (Carduelis psaltria) cavorting in the Cosmos. We lasted long enough to water a wilting Rudbeckia. Now we're back in my 72° office...

We're back...

Joanne is out standing in her field...

It's been awhile but we're back and this year with one of our best gardens ever.