The rain has kept the creeks and ephemeral streams running. The water level in the ground has probably gone up… this is very important in a low-rainfall area such as ours.
Tao Teh Ching
Chapter 8
The highest goodness is like water.
Water effortlessly benefits all things without struggling.
It is content to flow to the low places that people scorn.
In this way water is in accordance with the Tao.
Therefore:
In dwelling, live close to the Earth.
For the mind, depth should be sought.
In conflict, be fair and righteous.
In government, self-mastery, competence and timing is preferred.
The sage does not strive,
Therefore no one can strive against him.
We had a neighbor call us… she heard an injured dog, or perhaps a coyote that had been yelping near her house… being afraid a dog was caught in a fence-line or injured by the troublesome coyotes, she called us and asked me to go take a look….
The path near the neighbors
First I had to go through the woods between our houses…. you can see this game path has not had much traffic in recent months. With the rains, the animals have gone higher into the hills for the lusher grasses on the slopes. In the summertime they stay more under the cover of the trees where the water may still run, and there are green plants to eat. In the summertime the slopes are dry and barren.
Over or under the log
You can go over or under the log… depending on your size.
game trail
Further on I came to a game trail.. this one has more activity… there is a spring near here….
lush hillside meadow
I had to make a detour off the path to avoid a large patch of poison oak that the path wove through. Even though the virulence of the plant is diminished in the winter due to rains washing the oil off the bare branches, I usually try to avoid it.
the spring flows over the rocks
Here we see the water flowing over the shale rocks.. this photo does not show the scale… the six foot drop this water is taking…
succulents in the rocks
These are some local and native wild succulents. They are growing out from the Miocene-age shale deposits. This was the floor of an ocean long ago. But the rock strata of another continental plate slid under ours, and lifted this one high above the sea… some of our neighbors will find seashell fossils in their rocks. I’ve gotten some indications.. but nothing really nice.
succulents and a 'nurse plant'
A lot of plants like to have a ‘nurse-plant’ growing to their south while young. In our arid and dry environment this can mean the difference between dying from the sun and heat as a baby plant, or squeaking by in the partial shade of a larger plant that will give enough shade to keep the frying summer sun off you. By the time the baby plant is well established and better able to survive, the nurse plant will be getting thin, and eventually dying… this will help furnish a natural mulch around the ‘baby’ plant. Timing and location are critical in nature. Off by a heartbeat, or a foot can mean the difference between life and death.
I never did find the animal… I suspect it was a coyote which moved on as I neared.
Cereus peruvianus and Agave americana in our front yard
Chica by a puddle
The trees reflected in the puddle by rocky and Chica
Euphorbia resinifera (poison arrow) plant
Old Man of the Andes Cactus
Old Lady Cactus
Manzanita
We had a lot of rain in December. At one point we got some ten inches of rain in a week. This is about one third of our usual yearly rainfall. We were forced indoors most of the month… but there were a day or two here and there that allowed us to get some air and take a walk around. One of those days I took these photos…. while walking around our house.
We’ve been getting lashed with our version of storms the last two weeks straight. Oh yes, we’ve gotten a few days with little or no rain here and there.. and we’re happy for that as continued rain would have resulted in much more flooding. As it is, there have been many California locations hit by small amounts of flooding. But in general we don’t get the widespread flooding of many places in the Mississippi watershed or drainage. California flooding is more likely to be confined to a neighborhood along the base of a hillside, or alongside a creek.
Here are some photos I took of the local area around Nipomo on the 23rd of December 2010. Toppled trees, muddy roads, high winds, and green hills show colorfully.
Here’s some photos I took in Christmas Eve 2010. This was a year that we got our winter rain a bit early… the rains first came in September this year rather than the usual November. And we got near-record rainfall that ended just days before these photos were taken… we got some 9 inches of rain in five days. Usually our hills are just starting to turn green in December.. but this year they started turning green in late October.
We got hit with a pretty good sized storm.. probably the biggest load of rain we’ve gotten in a few days in the last ten years. We got about nine inches of rain in five days. This is about one third of our usual yearly rainfall totals.
Overall, it’s been a fairly moist autumn for us this year… we’ve been getting rain for about three months now.. and we haven’t even irrigated for the last two months. In the winter we like to reduce watering so the plants have less stored water susceptible to freezing.
All of this water stored in the soil has led to a growth of mushrooms every time we get a couple of storms roll in (they usually come in twos and threes). We went awanderin’ today and got some photos of some mushrooms behind the house. These ones are growing on an oak stump.
It’s windy today…. One of the trees up the hill from us fell over. It’s been dead and diseased for two years now… but in a hard spot to get to due to the slope. Since it is a bit remote from the house, it seemed simpler and safer to leave it stand until it falls over in a storm. Cutting a decayed tree is very risky, and in this instance is made so much worse by the difficulty of the terrain. There’s no buildings nearby.. so now that it has fallen down I’ll be able to drag it downhill to a flat spot and cut it up safely. I was outside watching the storm and the winds when I heard the crack of the tree as it broke… I looked up just as it was hitting the ground.
Fallen Monterey pine
Fallen Monterey pine
So it seems like a time to read quotes about wind…
“It was the noise Of ancient trees falling while all was still Before the storm, in the long interval Between the gathering clouds and that light breeze Which Germans call the Wind’s bride.” ~Charles Godfrey Leland
“It’s a warm wind, the west wind, full of birds’ cries; I never hear the west wind but tears are in my eyes. For it comes from the west lands, the old brown hills, And April’s in the West wind, and daffodils.” ~John Masefield
“If you reveal your secrets to the wind, you should not blame the wind for revealing them to the trees.” ~Kahlil Gibran
“It’s not far back to sanity, At least it’s not for me, And when the wind is right you can sail away, And find serenity” ~Christopher Cross
“I close my eyes and bath in the beauty of poetry / When I speak/My lips feel cold - The autumn wind.” Basho
”Lo! The poor Indian, whose untutored mind sees God in clouds, or hears him in the wind.” ~Alexander Pope
“It can be seen that a great inflexible army will fall under it’s own weight, just as a stiff unyielding tree will break in the wind” ~Lao Tzu
“If a man does not know to what port he is steering, no wind is favorable to him.” ~Seneca
“Adversity is like a strong wind. It tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that we see ourselves as we really are.” ~Arthur Gorden
“Good timber does not grow with ease; the stronger the wind, the stronger the trees.” ~John Willard Marriott
Country Wisdom: “If wind comes before rain, it doesn’t mean much. But if rain comes before wind, tighten your tarps”
“I was born on the prairies where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of the sun. I was born where there were no enclosures.” ~Geronimo
Country Wisdom: “The fellow who pays attention to the wind never sows his seeds; the one who watches the clouds never harvests his crop”
“In the bleak midwinter, Frosty wind made moan, Earth stood hard as iron, Water like a stone; Snow had fallen, snow on snow, Snow on snow, In the bleak midwinter, Long ago.” ~ Christina Rossetti
“If there is no wind, row”- Latin proverb
“A certain amount of opposition is a great help to a man. Kites rise against, not with, the wind.” ~Lewis Mumford
The local tarantulas come out of their burrows every fall….
There are a couple of roads known for waves of tarantulas roaming across and down the road… one local surf-spot is called ‘Tarantula Point’ due to the number of spiders seen there.
We know they are males in search of a mate. They time their searches with the coming of rain, so that the eggs have the proper humidity levels.
I’ve held many tarantulas through the years…. some of them will walk from hand to hand, and can be shown to other people to show them they really have nothing to fear from these VERY interesting little creatures. Tarantulas do you no harm, there is no need to fear or to kill them. Only once have I been bitten by one.. and it was a hurt spider that had one leg stuck forever pointing at the sky…. our cats found it and were using the stuck leg as a handle with which to pick the spider up and run with him until he grabbed at them and scared them enough that they’d drop him… then they’d run back and pick him up again and toss him. I took him from the cats to rescue him…. he sat on my hand… that one leg pointing at the sky… his big fangs came out (they are surprisingly large and a shocking violet hue)…. his fangs gently stroked backwards along my skin three times, then he rared his head back, and brought down his head driving the fangs into my skin…. the entire time I was transfixed watching his actions… and when the fangs began their journey into my skin I shook him off… I suffered no injury other than two pinholes which each exuded one drop of blood apiece, like a miniature vampire bite.
The local deer are forming a temporary family. The male is after the female, but in a bit of an uncommon twist, he is allowing the little fawn to accompany him. These local male deer are usually loners, and I’ve never seen a fawn follow a buck day after day. Someone who didn’t know these deer as much might consider them a family… and yes, I suppose they are.. but the male is usually further up in the hills, further from people, and safer. It’s deer season here, people are roaming these hills looking for him and his ilk. He’s safe here… but there’s a ring of fire around this place…. a little refuge oasis for deer and quail.
1. This is an update to let you know that Mike Zimmerman, candidate for the 4th District Supervisor, will be meeting with the NiHA Steering Committee this Thursday (Oct 14) at 12:00 for lunch at the Mayor’s Place on Tefft. We will be discussing Mike’s position on the proposed Laetitia development and their subsequent plans for water usage. You are invited to join us if you like. We will be posting the results of this meeting, just as we did for our meeting with Paul Teixeira.
2. Just to clarify…NiHA does not intend to endorse any particular candidate for Supervisor. We only intend to inform our members of each candidate’s position on the Laetitia issue.
3. For those of you that donated to our cause…Thank you! Please know that your money has been used for only one purpose . . . to hire an attorney to represent us in our battle with Laetitia. Peter Candy of Santa Barbara was hired for this reason and we now have enough funds to carry us through to the point when the Planning Commission meets to make a ruling on the Laetitia development.
4. The SLO Times recently published an article on the lack of well water in Paso Robles…a similar situation to ours. Please read this<http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2010/10/07/1320187/water-basin-hastoomany-hands-in.html> to learn more about how there can only be trouble ahead when more water is coming out of the ground than is going in.
