Adventures come in all flavors

1,  Just past sundown each evening the crickets start their nightly concert. Different species chirp different songs. When crickets chirp their calling song, the rate of chirps is temperature dependent. You can calculate the temperature by counting cricket chirps. http://www.srh.weather.gov/elp/wxcalc/cr

Individual crickets are influenced by their neighbors – they tend to chirp together. As more crickets in a small area sing together, the song becomes much louder and more influential. The chorus eventually spreads until they’re all chirping together.

Field Cricket

2.  The California drought continues.  In my neighborhood, many homes have allowed their lawns to go brown.   Here in Mediterranean climate Northern California the idea of a green lawn in unnatural anyway.  The idea of surrounding property with green grass originated with the grass enclosures within early medieval settlements used for communal grazing of livestock. 

Dry California Reservoir

The damp climate of northern Western Europe made lawns possible to grow and manage, and from there the idea was carried to parts of America. Maintaining a lawn was a statement of affluence and position.  They showed that the owner could afford to keep land that was not being used for a building, or for food production.  They were never part of the early property in the Mediterranean lands of southern Europe. As transplants have moved to California they brought with them the idea of having lawns.  Now Southern California uses vast amounts of Northern California Sierra snow water, transported in an extensive system of canals and aqueducts to provide water for their massive number of green grassy spaces.  All to be evaporated into the dry desert air.

Eurphorbia - the group is very diverse and takes many forms

What are the alternatives?  Learn about what plants grow naturally in your climate zone.  For us, we can grow a wonderful array of native plants or native plants found in Southern Europe, the Pacific coast of South America  parts of Australia and New Zealand, the coast of South Africa. Of special interest are the vast array of succulents, cactus, and Euphorbia plants.  All cactus plants are native to the Americas, and native Euphorbias fill the same ecological niche, most originated in similar habitats in Africa.  

Pick your zucchini daily!  If you forget they grow humungious!

3. To maintain a small watered section in my garden I am using one hose timers with the control powered by 2 AA Alkaline batteries.  (Timers are available in any hardware store).  They are amazing!  I begin by adding two “T” to my water faucet and add two faucets.  Attach the devise  to one of the faucet, add a hose to the other end.   Allow the other faucet to be a normal faucet.  I use ½ inch black plastic flex pipe ( it comes in 50 or 100 foot rolls), and push on plastic fittings.  

When  I place the hose where I want it to be, I use a 1/16 electric drill to make holes in the pipe where I want water.  Now the automatic times gives me 15 or 30 minutes of drip from the holes right into the root zone.  I have now a total of 3 different systems in different parts of the  yard. They turn themselves on and off each day.  Never have my zucchini, cucumbers,and green beans been so prolific and tasty. I had one on my potato crop, and for the first time ever we are having a continuous supply of really high-quality strawberries.

One of many one hose timer units - select one that fits your needs

In Peru we discovered Stevia - it is a wonderful natural plant that you can grow in your garden or it is grown and  harvested commercially, and processed into a white powder... Read about it here on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stevia... As you see it is 300 times sweeter than sugar and a totally natural product.  In Peru many people grow the plant, dry and pulverize the leaves,  and add just a bit to their tea or food.  I was inspired; and came home to find plants for sale - and they are now growing well in my garden (on one of the drip lines).  The only problem  with Stevia is using little enough - it is so intensely sweet that a tiny amount is adequate.

Stevia plants ready to transplant

My other great discovery this summer is making dried tomatoes.  Take cookie sheets, spray with non stick stuff ( PAM ), cut tomatoes a little more than ¼ inch thick and lay out on the trays.  Point at the sun and adjust as the day progresses.  It takes two days to become bone dry.  I take in at night to avoid the dew.  When finished I store in a plastic bag in the freezer.  Cooks that 'know' rave about the qualities of sun-dried tomatoes, the intense tomato taste...  The internet is full of suggestions for using Sun-dried tomatoes - here is one I find helpful http://homecooking.about.com/od/howtocookvegetables/a/sundrytomtips.htm

At the end of day one

Thunder/Lightning/Hail...and now, what's this, SUN?

Our "home"

"Pesky" camp robber Blue Jay     

Friday - Beauty upon beauty!  Few things surpass the tranquility of a walk through a high altitude Sierra meadow in July. The sun is shining, wild flowers abound, there is the smell of wild mountain herbs in the air, brooks murmur in the sunlight…There is a surprise every minute!

Today we hiked a 5 mile loop in the twenty lake basin above Saddlebag lake– just ourside the bounds of Yosemite park..  I have seldom seen such a variety of prime wildflowers – old friend – columbines, arnica, shooting stars, lupines ( in their many varieties), mariposa lilies, monkey flowers, Indian paintbrushes, on and on!  Such joy!  I am surprised that there is still a snow pack and Conness glacier still exist (although a fragment of its former self), despite our dry winter.

The horizontal 'crack' shows that this is an active glacier - it has moved 'this much' since last winter

At the end of this blog you will find the recipe for the best trail food ever - rusks - they are so hard it is necessary to take the days supply-  moisten with water over them before you leave camp ( but shake off excess water), carry in a sealed plastic bag.  They will keep "forever"as long as dry - they are just right if moistened .

View outside our tent front door

      Yesterday was exciting but in a different way – we hiked to a lake in the neighborhood of Mono pass.  The morning was glorious – also filled with great variety of wild flowers.  The big storm of the previous day had left plants lush and flowers perky!  About 2 in the afternoon we noticed the clouds gather – (and they do so quickly in the high Sierra) .

Gathering clouds - 2 PM

By 3 pm  light rain started falling – OK,  we put on our rain gear and kept hiking.  By 4 pm the rain turned to hail- first small and then the size of small marbles.  I want to report to you  - that ½ inch hail hitting you on the head is painful!  Also I noticed that hail bounces when it hits the ground – rebounding into the air by 14 inches.  Seeing a meadow with many bouncing hail  stones is like being inside a popcorn popper!  We returned to our car – shed our rain gear – and returned to camp… to find the evening dry enough to cook dinner and enjoy the evening.

Our camp after the 2 inch rain storm

     Saturday – The trail up to Gardinsky Lake is intense!... the trail is a very rapid ascent to a high plateau with a jewel of a lake in the midst of meadows and rocks, a few low growing willows, and more variety of  flowers than "you can shake a stick at"!  I prefer hiking with Judy, but sometimes she wants a quiet day, and she was put off by this very steep climb - Once I reached the lake, I had it to myself - me and the breeze and the water sounds, Marmot chirps around me in the talus slopes... Walking around the lake I discovered good snow packs melting drop by drop to feed the lake.  

Above Saddlebags Lake

View across from Gardinsky - in normal years this is white with snow in July and August

     I have heard the discussion so many times - "Why do we do this to ourselves?"  Many high trails are very tough.  The legs complain, breathing is difficult, I have to be sure of my footing on rocky steep slippery trails...  My body goes into slower motion the higher I climb...The "why" is easy for me - there is such satisfaction for me in  pushing through to reach the height -to see the high lands where so many beautiful things are to be found.  It is a "high" like no other experience.

The music of flowing water

     Wednesday - Here I sit beside a high mountain lake - I am held captive by the glacially formed cliffs of North Peak rising before me- we are several miles deep into the 'high country' - In this moment I sit on an immense glacially formed boulder.  We just shared a delicious trail lunch, the sun feels warm on my skin, the breeze is cool, The lake ripples at my feet and in the surrounding rocks I hear many forms of falling and flowing water.  This is a land of granite, water, ice, green growing things in the meadows, flowers abound! Time does not exist! I feel an intense peace.

Rare Alpine Lily - found by Judy!

Columbines - the best ever this year!

     There has been and is a problem on this Tuolumne trip that is only getting worse.  Judy suffers from Asthma - and the condition is normally controlled by her prescriptions.  In the rush to get away she left home a critical drug,  Now it is apparent that her breathing is becoming more and more a problem - especially at high altitude and at night.  My wife is a stubborn woman - and troubled as she is, she too has a deep love of the high mountains, and is very reluctant to cut the trip short - but it is apparent that we must.  It is the fault of the high altitude, the cold air, and smokey campgrounds.  So Thursday we did it - we left our beloved high country for another year.  I felt a growing anxiety going with her on high distant hikes, especially when sudden problems developed... It has been a good trip and we have stored up plenty of mental images and tales to tell.  So we leave it for the marmots and the picas.

Face of North Peak

'Elephant Heads' at their prime ( look until you see the trunk)

The frames of Judy's glasses broken due to her stepping on them - repaired with 'mole skin' - it worked !

Glacial erratic - Granite boulder deposited by the melting ice on top of metamorphic rock

Rusks 6/4/14

This recipe is highly flexible – add what you have or leave out the ‘extras’

·      Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

1.5 cups unbleached white flour 1.5 cups whole wheat bread flour

1/3 cup each: artificial sweetener (1/3 t Stevia) or 1/3 cup sugar, sunflower seeds, dried cranberries

1 C ground flax, All Bran

1 tsp salt,

2 tsp coriander, cardamom, ginger

2/3 c date granules

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

½  C almonds, sesame, poppy seeds

-----

1/4 cup oil

1 egg

¾ cup yogurt     

1.3 C milk                                                                                      

½ tsp pure vanilla extract

·      In a large mixing bowl, thoroughly mix the dry ingredients.

·      Combine all the wet ingredients, pour them into the dry ingredients, and stir until you have a soft dough, similar to biscuit dough.

·      Turn the dough onto a well-floured surface and roll or pat it to about a ½ inch thickness.

·      Bake the rusks on buttered baking sheet for about 25 minutes until the tops are crisping and browning a little.

·      Loosely pile the rusks on a baking sheet and keep them in a 200 degree oven all day or all night (about 12 hours) to dry.

·      The finished rusks should be very dry and hard. Cool and store in an airtight container.

·      Rusks will keep for weeks.

Divide into 32  round flat “cookies” about ½ inch thick before baking

Bake

                                                            

Notes from Tuolumne Meadows July 2014

1.  Monday - Thunder growls and the barks with a voice that shakes the skies!  ...Not once but repeatedly much of the afternoon.  I love it!   I almost wish that I could believe that it was dragons roaring or Norse gods at play.   The scientific explanation seems to lack pizzazz. We got enough rain to moisten some of the dry soil.  By evening the sun was back.

2.  Tuesday -Judy reading a book, I set off for Dog Lake -it's about an hour and a half walk uphill.  Once there I walked around its perimeter.  It was mixed forests, sedge bogs, and alpine grasses.  Meadows were adrift with clouds of dragonflies - their transparent wings reflecting the sunlight as they circle and dive above the meadow flowers. Birds here are quite fearless of humans and study us with interest as we pass through their world.

3.  "May you sleep like a stone -and wake like fresh bread". This Russian folk-saying describes us here.  We sleep with the gentle river song in our ears and wake to the songs of birds.  Most days, after long hours of 'adventure' we are ready for sleep soon after the sun goes down and are up making coffee by 6:30 when the sun returns. We are such softies - we each have a comfortable air mattress and a big yellow REI tent-that claims to be a four person tent...but fits the two of us nicely (and we are not big people).

4.  I love the fact that I am away from all electronic "noise" here...no news, no music, no internet ...it is a treat.  It take a few days for me to disconnect from " things that need to be done" and to give myself permission to "lean and loaf at my ease and observe a blade of summer grass" (in the words of Walt Whitman).    Every day I get better at it

5.  After lunch -I am writing this sitting beside our flowing river, lupines blooming around my chair. But what's this? It's starting to rain...and hard…Time to beat a hasty retreat to the tent- where Judy is taking a nap.   I quickly gathered up items in danger from the rain and threw them in the car.   In the tent, it rained hard, then harder, then a torrent... The wind shook the tent as if to blow us high away into a tree!  Overhead there were wild thunder crashes and lightning to light up the dark sky...then it started with the hail thundering on our tent roof! Judy and I through the whole thing was a wonderful display of nature - bur hoping that nature wouldn't come flowing into the tent!  I had built an advance drainage channel to deflect water from the tent -and that worked quite well. Just as quickly as its arrival, the rain is gone-us with a soggy campsite and all of Judy's clothes hanging on a line completely soaked ...but no real damage...    It was about 2 inches of rain in a one-hour period.

6.  Wednesday – came to Lee Vining to dry stuff out in the Laundromat.  After a nice meal we started back to our tent – to be turned back – “another rock slide” they said – and it would be 3 or 4 hours before they could open it.  So we have returned to Lee Vining as refugees.

7.  The weather report for the week is not encouraging - so much for "the great drought" - not here...