Snake Patrol

With summer in full swing, the snakes are out in full force. Last Thursday morning, the dogs discovered a small bull snake behind the log bench on our patio. These snakes are "good" to have around because they are non-poisonous & rumor has it that they eat rattlesnakes. Ryan tossed the little guy over the fence and sent him on his merry way.
The next day, the dogs found a small rattlesnake in the flower bed! Unfortunately, this snake was not so lucky. We do have a special fence to keep the snakes out, but we seem to have a hole somewhere. Good thing Gunner & Lucy are always on patrol!

Little Fawn

We see a lot of mule deer at the ranch but it's pretty rare to see a fawn. We actually saw 2 babies all spotted up, but the 2nd one took off into the scrub brush before I could snap a picture.

What is that?!?!

I was in the garage one evening and heard a bird flapping its wings. It seemed to be trapped behind a stack of boxes up on our shelf. I climbed up onto the car and peered over expecting to rescue a sweet little song bird. But instead I saw this strange, bizarre creature from the fire swamp!! It was not sweet at all and instantly began hissing at me! I slowly removed the boxes to free the bird. . .which turned out to be a Common Poorwill - a night hawk. The thing continued its attempts to frighten me by opening its wings & huge mouth. After snapping these photos I opened the garage and left the little vulture to fend for itself.

Snake Season

Well, it's that time of year again. . . snake season! Sometimes I don't know how we would survive at the ranch without our dogs! The second we have a breach in the snake fence, Gunner lets us know with his unmistakable "snake alarm bark." This time it was a couple of racer snakes mating just inside the fence behind the shed in the garden. We left them alone for the time being because they are harmless to us and will help with the rodent problem in the garden. Plus they are climbing snakes so our snake fence can't really keep them out. If they venture outside the garden into the main fenced area around the house, we have no doubt that Gunner will let us know.

Feathered Friends

Sunday was an amazing 75 degree sunny day... followed by a week of windy cold weather. But spring is on its way. The tulips are poking their leaves out and the birds are getting more active. Our favorite new feathered visitor is the Meadowlark (the yellow breasted bird pictured below). We hear the Meadowlark's melodious song frequently, but they rarely come up to the house. About 2 weeks ago I started putting corn on the ground for the birds. The scrub jays love it... and to my surprise so do the Meadowlarks. They come right up to the back door and sing to their hearts desire! A cute little robin stopped by to see what all of the commotion was about.

New Year's Day

On New Year's Day, we had our families up to the ranch to celebrate and play games. It was a great day... We watched the Rose Parade, ate Cindy's famous Chex Mix, and Samuel rolled over for the first time! We also took a walk around the ranch and Ollie (and Josh) fed carrots our neighborhood horses.

Wild Turkey at the Ranch

Believe it or not, on Christmas day we spotted a flock of 12-13 wild turkey at the ranch. We couldn't get close enough to get any close-up photos... but this will give you the basic idea. Soon after we saw them, they retreated back up the mountain.

Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park

We went up to Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park with Greg and Libby to enjoy the fall colors. We drove up Trailridge Road to take in all of the views and fed some chipmunks.

The boys fished for a bit while Libby & I relaxed.
On the way out we saw hundreds of elk. These below are the "outcast" males.

The dominant male in the center back is bugling to his harem of 50-75 ladies.

Bizarre Moth

We have a lot of unique moths here, but this is one of the more bizarre ones. It was huge too... about 2 inches wide.

Mr. Toad

We have a resident toad at the ranch. He comes out every evening after dark and licks the moths off of our screen door. He has become quite comfortable with Ryan and I... especially since one our evening highlights is throwing moths in front of his face so we can watch his tongue lap them up. Try it sometime! It's quite entertaining.

Bathing in Pollen

The prickly pear are in full bloom now and bees are having a pollen bathing frenzy! They literally swim in the flower... rolling, dipping, & diving into the pollen.

New Camera Lens!

I just splurged on a new lens... for weddings of course! It is absolutely amazing and extremely versatile. It's a 17-70mm zoom, wide angle, wide aperature, macro lens... meaning it's excels in every area where a standard lens struggles. It's great for low light, high light, up close, far away, and everything in between. Let the fun begin!!

Rattlesnake Season

Last summer, Josh & Ryan spent many laborious hours installing a rattlesnake fence to keep the snakes away from the house. Well, to our surprise Gunner discovered a trespasser INSIDE the fence today. Apparently a rabbit had a burrowed under the fence leaving a way in.

George the Mouse

Every couple days I water our compost pile to keep it from drying out. This morning I discovered a little mouse who was eating to his hearts desire on a rotten mango. Ryan named him George. The compost pile is about 50 yards from the house. With all of the resident mice at the ranch, we choose to look at the positive side... at least it's drawing the critters away from the house.

Rabbits Beware

Gunner flaunts another victory!!

Lover's Point

Of the many places that we stopped on Friday, Lover's Point was one of my favorites. We were able to enjoy the views and the wildlife. Pictured below is a sea otter feeding in the kelp forest and a harbor seal who ventured up toward us curiously.

Monarch Butterflies

On Thursday night we stayed the night at the Butterfly Inn just south of Monterey. Directly behind the inn was a monarch butterfly wintering habitat. It's quite amazing really... Most monarchs live only 4 to 6 weeks, but every 4th generation lives 8+ months! This generation flies south for the winter. The monarchs who reside west of the Rockies fly to the California coast for the winter and this was one of their prefered spots - lucky us! Those east of the Rockies fly to central Mexico.

Gunner the Rabbit Hunter

Gunner hates rabbits more than anything else in the world. With one kill under his belt, every morning is a new opportunity for success. Last Saturday morning, he cornered a rabbit out by the garage. The bunny climbed up under the siding on the house. Ryan stumbled upon the incident and finished the job for Gunner with the pellet gun. Gunner was ecstatic to say the least!

Our 2nd Anniversary Camping Trip

Ryan & I celebrated our 2nd anniversary on July 2nd! We finally got away to celebrate last weekend with a 2 day camping excursion. We drove up into the Poudre Canyon and camped on the Larimer River the first night.
The next day we drove down to Long Draw Reservoir, hiked in with the canoe, and fished with dry flies. At one point Ryan & I caught a trout at the same time!

Long Draw Reservoir is just northwest of Rocky Mountain National Park. In the course of one day we saw 6 moose - including a newborn & 2 adolescents sparing.
On Saturday, we drove up Cameron Pass and went to Joe Wright Creek where we caught cutthroat trout & grayling. We sat at the same spot for hours and caught the same fish repeatedly. It was one of most fun days we've had since we moved here! Believe it or not, I fished through rain and even hail! But of course, weather changes pretty fast in the mountains.

I'm sure a few of you have heard of grayling. They have the most amazing teal sailfin that flashes in the water as they swim. Ryan says that grayling live in only the clearest mountain streams. They are salmonids - the family of salmon, trout & char. As you can tell, Ryan has been educating me in fishing background as well as technique.