The Croak that Heralds Summer

A few days ago, I heard the first froggy-dude of the summer! This brave boy was not afraid to sing, despite the still-freezing nights we are having. Given that our nearest pond is only a few feet from the house, and I was bringing in firewood when I heard him, you'd think I could catch a glimpse of little Romeo....but, no.

As a veteran frog hunter, it's embarrassing to admit that it took me quite a few years to glimpse one these little guys. It was one of those early- 2000 summers and we were in drought. Our giant pond dried up. Completely. And it was only June. The poor Romeos were hopping around, not sure where to go or what to do. (It did finally rain enough that there were tadpoles that year.)

Finally, I understood why they were so hard to spot. Chorus frogs are tiny- no bigger than the last segment of your thumb! Naturally, they are mud colored, too. By May, we often have dozens singing all around our house. Their chirpy song is delightful- and its a good thing because the vibration of that chirp carries for miles.

(Photo curtesy of wiki- I did not have my telephoto that day!)

This, in contrast to the Titicaca water frog- which lives in the high, arid borderland between Bolivia and Peru in Lake Titicaca. (I just learned about them through my work with Idea Wild) These sumo-frogs weigh around 2 pounds, and measure up to 20 inches. They spend most of their time at the bottom of the 300-foot deep lake, and breathe predominantly through their skin! Over-hunting* and pollution, along with introduced trout that eat their tadpoles, have left these frogs critically endangered.

*Roughly 5,000 indigenous people live on islands of the massive Lake Titicaca, which measures 180 miles by 50 miles. Most are subsistence farmers and fishermen. They traditionally eat both fish and frogs. Some (the Uros people) have created their own islands, with floating reeds, on which they live.

I wonder what the Lake Titicaca frog sounds like? Probably not chirpy.

Downside of Solar Power

When we moved to our little house with solar power, we thought we were pretty hip. How cool is that, to generate all your own power? It didn't take long for us to realize it wasn't ALL sunshine and roses- we were initiated our first night in the place.

For starters, very few people are well versed in solar power systems and no two solar power systems are the same. So, when something goes awry, there's no one to call.

This leads to one of two things:
a supreme sense of self-empowerment, knowing that we can take care of ourselves, or
a sense of impending doom and the smell of rotting food in the second (electric) frig. (The primary frig is propane)

So, when something starts beeping, flashing, or everything shuts down, I hit the off-on button. If this doesn't work, I look to see if everything is still connected right. If it STILL isn't working, I go and do some other chore (haul wood, clean the woodstove, clean the skunk spray off the dog, it varies...) and call my husband. He's pretty handy. But, if we're both stumped, well, we do the only thing we can do - just keep trying things until something works. This can take days...

Oh, and one more thing- when it snows and the snow sticks to the solar panels, blocking the sun, like it did recently- guess who gets to go sweep them off? (How DOES the snow stick to them when they're almost perpendicular, anyway?!)

Still, the up-sides are huge. Besides being less polluting than many other forms of power, I have an excuse to go out and play in the BEAUTIFUL new, untouched snow!

Now, seriously, does anyone know why snow sticks to panels sitting almost perpendicular to the ground?

What Lurks in the Darkness?

Yesterday, we had a visitor. “Sarah” is a biology teacher at a local, experiential high school. She and her kids are documenting the natural restoration of the forest and the return of wildlife to a wildfire-burned area. Since we live in one of the many hundreds of square miles of Colorado that burned in recent years (more on that later), she has set up a handful of camera traps (motion activated cameras) and video feeds near our property.

One of the camera traps is set up next to our neighbor's spring. The other night they got this photo of a lion saddling up to the "bar":

Since the said bar is only a few hundreds yards from our house, we were intrigued.

And now I've got confirmation that the tracks I found the other day were, indeed, of the feline persuasion.

HOW do you turn on the lights?

We were starved and exhausted. We'd been moving into our bohemian mountain cabin all day, with the generous help of friends, who had just left. It was a warm November evening, and the twilight was fading fast.

I put some left-overs in the microwave that the last owner had left, and turned it on. The microwave hummed, and then....silence. The lights went out. We were sitting in total darkness, surrounded by piles of boxes.

This was our introduction to our solar power system.

Oh, for a flashlight! Which box were they in? And...had we damaged anything?

It turns out, we hadn't done any damage- solar systems just don't do well with microwaves- at least ours doesn't. (This works for me, because I don't use microwaves any how) They draw a lot of power- more than the system can handle, unless it's fully charged.

So, here's our set-up:
These are the panels. They commune with the sun and, sort of like a plant, make energy!

(I hope you're OK with a LOW tech explanation...)

The energy gets sent to the batteries, where it's stored.

Then, when we turn on lights, or use any power, the inverter converts the DC power from the batteries to AC power that can run our lights and appliances.

There's a charge controller in there, too. Anybody want to guess what important function it serves?

How much, how fast, and how well all depends on how big your system is. There are a gazillion ways to configure the system, and we found it well worth the expense to pay an expert to help- they have all the tinker toys to be able to make sure the system is streamlined and as efficient as possible.


In the end, we made peanut butter sandwiches and went to bed early, since we were so tired and didn't know how to bring the lights back on anyway. Tomorrow would be solar 101 lesson day.

Bear-y-go-round

I was running one summer day not far from my house, when my 90 pound german shepherd-mix, Kota, excitedly bounded past me. His buoyant enthusiasm warned me something was up, so I watched. As I came up a rise, near a large pond, I saw an adorable baby bear scurry up a tree - followed closely by Kota.

Kota stopped to look up at the little bear, disappointed that he didn't want to play.

Then mama bear showed up. Clearly she DID want to play. Round and round the pond they went, Kota's tail ringing around in glee.

Meanwhile, I stood above the pond, yelling at the top of my lungs at dog ears that could not hear. Until they did hear. After five or so revolutions around the pond, Kota began to run directly to me. I knew immediately- I was now "home base," safety zone. I bent down in my scanty summer running togs, picked up a rock in each hand, and yelled something I won't type here. I think that was the first time the bear noticed me ... and, you know, she stopped. Then looked at Kota like he was the stupidest coyote she'd ever come across, turned and disappeared.

Now, we still had to get home, and baby bear was in a tree near the road. I didn't fancy another encounter with mama bear, so we took the high road, up and over and around to get home.

Kota was so pleased with himself.

Klepto-puppy

I often can't find my jeans in the morning. Klepto-pup has commandeered them. She doesn't take my nice clothes. Only work clothes that smell like dirt, plants, firewood...which all lead to her to sweet dreams of going for a walk! (I have to whisper those words...)

She looks just a little guilty, doesn't she....

Lions on my Door Step

Living with mountain lions is a part of rural life- and I hope it always will be. I consider it a privilege and an honor to see them and do my best to respect their presence by not letting my dogs run wild and not throwing out scraps that might attract them. Nevertheless, in sharing the same habitat, we inevitably meet.

It was the dogs that first drew my attention to the lump of pine needles. They were TOO excited by it.

It was a lovely winter day. We'd been out for a walk and were nearly home when we stumbled on it. All I could see was a large mound of pine needles and dirt. Maybe 6 feet across. As I approached the mound, my curiosity piqued, I was taken aback to realize it was a deer...that had been partially BURIED. It had several large bites taken out of it's gut.

What had buried it...and where was the hunter now...?

I slowly backed away, simultaneously scanning the nearby trees. I knew instantly that I was being watched. No doubt. He was there, watching all of us. Soundlessly. The hair  on the back of my neck stood up. I couldn't see the lion in any trees near me, but I knew he was close. A lion never abandons a kill. And this one was fresh.

I walked down the hill backwards, calling the buoyant dogs after me. Home was only a hundred paces away, but it felt a mile.

Of course, I couldn't keep the dogs from investigating the lions progress with the carcass. I tried, but within a few days, I well cleaned skeleton was dragged into my front "yard," where the dogs proceeded to eat the entire thing. Oh, happy dogs.