A rolling stone gathers no...

They say a rolling stone gathers no moss (I think), so we must not have any rolling stones here at Sage Creek Ranch.  Today's post is about moss, lichen and fungi.  

Before I talk about the photos, a little riff on what it took to upload them.  I am using a new version (the beta) for Adobe LightRoom 3 to catalog and play with my photos.  Two issues - the first is that I had never used LR2 - so I didn't know what I was doing or how to really utilize the program.  The second is that for some reason, it takes an inordinate amount of time to process even one photo.  Sigh.  These photos were taken yesterday morning (before the snow fell), but it's taken me until today to figure out the presets, how to save, where to find them once I have, how to get them uploaded to the blog (because the program put them in a different format than the one the blog likes).  All that said however, I really like LR3 beta.  It does a gorgeous job.

This is some sort of mushroom.  It is bright orange - especially against the rainy, dark sky.  I've only seen it growing on dead wood.

I loved the stone below because of all the kinds of lichen and the variety of color... (the color is un-retouched in the photo).

All of these shots are within .5 miles of the house... with the rain and the damp, the beautiful lichen is everywhere!  When we lived in Minnesota, I never pictured Texas as "green" - but there is a lot more green than I could have imagined here in the Cross Timbers region.  We love it here.

Dead things are especially good for sprouting some lichen.

This is my favorite photo of the bunch - a little bouquet of lichen inside the lichen.  And some of the lichen has died - but look at the beauty of the tree bark as well.  The deep green lichen looks like little stars.  

This moss always looks like hair to me.  

This tree trunk has been growing lichen since we moved here in '06 - sometimes it's a little greener than at other times, but it always has some sort of moss on it.  

I haven't taken any photos since the snow fell yesterday, but they'll be coming.

Oh - the bird feeders got filled the other day and the cardinals and chickadees have started coming back, so there'll be some new photos of our flocks shortly.

Find some awe-inspiring beauty to behold today.

iBird South

Oh yes!  Just purchased this to support our efforts to find and catalog the birds that we're attracting to share the land with us!  Loving it!  (This is an iPhone App).

Creating Habitats

I know - it's been forever since I've posted.  My daughter is threatening to take my blog off her posted "favorites" unless I post more often.  I guess I could threaten to stop posting AT ALL... But it would help motivate me (you know, a little peer pressure ) if there were more 'followers' - so if you haven't clicked the "follow" box in the middle of the right hand column, just go ahead and do that now...

Really though, I just need to get out on the land more often.  The truth is I just haven't wanted to go out and take pictures in what has been an unseasonably cold winter here.  Really.  Having mostly grown up in Minnesota, you'd think the cold here in Texas wouldn't be any issue at all. Nope.  It's too darn cold here for me lately.  I like 50's and 60's (well, 70's are the best, but I'll take 50's and 60's in the winter).

We've been at work on building our wildlife refuge here at Sage Creek Ranch.  There are a number of things to do to create an attractive habitat for the animals here.  The wildlife here consists of deer, turkey, squirrels, rabbits, quail, dove, songbirds, raptors, red and gray fox, coyote, bobcat, raccoon, wild hogs, opossum, armadillo, waterfowl and various rodent, reptile and amphibian species.  And, the occasional mountain lion.  We haven't seen any armadillos on the land, but we've either seen all the others or their evidence.

We're in the Cross Timbers and Prairie region of Texas.  It's the closest thing to Minnesota terrain we could come by...

We're very excited - we found a flock of doves have moved into the roof of our loafing shed.  Unfortunately, every time I get close enough to take a photo, I startle them and they fly away.  The loafing shed is now fenced, rather than open.  We fenced it to house visiting dogs, but the visiting dogs tend to get spoiled and do not have to spend any time in the loafing shed.  The good news is that, without any dogs, the birds are free to nest mostly undisturbed there.  There're somewhere around 6-8 birds living there.

Given our commitment to encourage wildlife here, we've planted all of our fruit and vegetable gardens in containers.  That way, we minimize any runoff. Although we only use organic fertilizers and sprays, so we'd probably be okay without the containers if we wanted to.  Tim just got another huge load of the tall, white containers that we like for our fruit plants.

"It should be noted that no less than 40% of any given habitat be made up of heavy brush cover for optimum wildlife production" (T. Haley - 1996).  We have 10% open field; 35% partial clearing; 5% ponds/ tanks/ streams/ wetlands; 50% heavy cover.

However, it's important as we continue to clear some of the brush and the unwanted vegetation that we build up areas of ground cover for the rabbits, quail, turkey and small mammals. The photos below show some of the areas where we've intentionally put brush for the animals.

In this photo, you can see some of the cutting that's getting done.  The cutting makes the area more park-like for the humans and gives more sunlight to the plants that will feed the animals we're looking to attract.

We need to pay attention to this particular area of ground cover.  It's important to watch how much cover is easily combustible - so Tim frequently turns the branches; picks up the ones that would make good fire wood and adds new twigs and branches.

We are also working at attracting additional songbirds.  This is one of the feeders we have placed around the ranch.  As you can see, the birds have eaten every bit of the food!

Walking around, looking at the front garden, I noticed that we're having a bit of an early spring.  Almost all of the plants have little blooms, like the yellow rose below.

Below is a view of the park-like area that the girls and I started cleaning out last fall (Betty's birthday party was a fabulous excuse to get out there and clean up the woods) and Tim has been continuing to clear it to fill our firewood needs.

You'll note though, that the baby swing is empty.  It needs grandchildren.

Merry After-Christmas!

What a lovely Christmas season it's been this year! We've had beautiful, white snow; we've had ice - we've had a winter here in north Texas!

Of course, I'm ready for it to be over now (that's why we live in Texas now rather than our former home state of Minnesota!).

We had a wonderful Christmas day - and my orchid chose that particular morning to send up its first bloom of the season.

I'm demo-ing a new set of plug-ins for my photo editing software (thanks OnOne!) So far, I really like them. I'll probably be trying some new things out in the photos I post here.

Yesterday the boys and I took a little tour with the camera to see what we could see in our cold and frozen yard. Humphrey tried to take a drink from their "watering dish" (yes, unfortunately, my fountain is the perfect height for a watering dish for the dogs). Too bad for him, it was frozen over.

The bench hasn't been sat in for quite a while now. Well, maybe the cats have been sitting in it.

I'm surprised at how much snow there is still. Usually the snow melts in no more than one day here. But not this time. This morning it was only 25 degrees. The pipes in our pavilion froze (okay, we don't really have pipes. We have a hose that's connected to the faucets in the pavilion and the outside of the house -- but still, it does provide running water) so we didn't have any running water out there on Christmas. Fortunately, the heating units worked wonderfully and even without water, we were toasty and roasty between the fireplace and the heaters.

It's time to get back out the book for wildlife management and see what there is to do to prepare for the coming year.

Humphrey, Louise and Sherman

Happy New Year!

reTreat Day for Women - Nov 8th

Last Sunday, we hosted reTreat Day (for women) at Sage Creek Ranch. I've been thinking for a while that people needed more time in quiet solitude (or at least I know I need to take that time - and take it deliberately. The truth is that living out here, I get lots of quiet time. But I don't deliberately let it rejuvenate me or replenish me or nourish my soul frequently enough).

Tim and I were on a spiritual retreat about a month ago. The site the retreat was held at was near Brennan, TX. At one point Tim said to me - "You know the place we actually live is even prettier and more special than what we're enjoying here."

That got me to thinking that I could share the loveliness of our 55 acres with others for a day once in a while. Which led to inviting women to come join me on November 8th, 2009 for a day of reflection and silence.

Tim and I (mostly Tim) did some prep work for the event. Tim drew maps so people could find their way around the property and did some outside clean-up work. I enrolled Tiffany Bednar and Audra Whatley to come and offer massage and acupuncture treatments for those who wanted to enjoy body work as well as the outdoors.

The photos below are some that I captured on that day.

These stone steps led from the Pavilion to the patio. We put them in hurriedly before we hosted Betty's 75th bday party in September. I love stone.

I got these benches from my dear friend Carrie's furniture business.

The ladies relaxed both in the yard as well as in the Pavilion.

Sherman and Humphrey relaxed as well when they weren't out walking with our visitors. It was hard work to make them relax, but, as you can see here, it was achieved.

Reading, knitting, soaking up the energy of the space. Delicious

Any place makes a great spot for a nap.

Soaking in as well as sharing the sacred energy of earth.

I learned how delightful it is to share my space when I'm not having to entertain people. I didn't realize how much I 'ramp up' or generate a kind of "performing" energy when I have people to my home. People took care of themselves - had everything they needed - and I got to have community here at my home without using up all my psychic fuel doing so. This will definitely make a difference for me in any other entertaining we do here.

I've had a number of requests to include men, and so, on December 13th, reTreat day will be for People. After we do December 13th, I'll see if I want to continue an open day, go back to women only, alternate - or how I'll want to proceed.

We are entering into what is a stressful and busy season for many of us. Be sure to find time and space for silence and peace.

Dew-ly Noted

Gorgeous this morning! And a happy November to you too!

I remembered my camera today. The dew was truly outstanding. It wasn't that early that the boys and I set out on our jaunt. I wouldn't have expected to see any dew since it was around 8am.

We take a walk most every morning. I like it. They like it. And Louise likes it. When I walk outside for the first time in the morning, Sherman starts dancing around. He loves "The Walk". Humphrey comes and presses his nose into my hand for his morning love. He matches his pace to mine so I'll keep petting him until he's full enough of love to walk on his own.

In the photo below, there are thousands of drops of dew that are glistening in the morning sun. It would have been easier to see if I'd had the macro lens, but unfortunately, I didn't.

The areas that look they have snow on them below are the areas still covered with the dew.

The areas most in the shade didn't have dew at all. These two shots were taken as I come out of the woods from the trail into the field. I was surprised to see the color change in the tall grasses from the pale, golden yellow they've been. In the sun they now look red. As we move into winter they'll turn gray.

Back at the house, I happened to look into the woods and realized the sun was perfectly lined up with our little rock pile of respect. We learned about these pilings when we were in Hawaii many years ago. There, they put up the stone piles as a sign of respect for their elders who've passed away.

We haven't had too many trees really turn colorful this fall. Of course, it IS Dallas area, so we shouldn't much expect that, right? However, this morning, I noticed this tree right there in the driveway - just shouting "I'VE COME OUT!".

If you live in the Dallas area, enjoy the weather today. It is completely and absolutely perfect.

Pigs Feet and iPhones

I took the dogs (and the cat) for a walk this morning on the 50 acres. What a lovely morning to take a walk! It was a little chilly - only 45 F, but that's a nice temp for a brisk walk and the dogs love it at that temp. Or at least they are friskier when it's that temperature.

Ms. Louise, the grandmother cat, loves to go for a walk. It's just really odd. I've never had a cat that could tolerate doing what the dogs were doing - AND - actually seem to enjoy it. She tends to walk just off the path. I think she feels somewhat safer in the tall grass than on the exposed pathway. And, it keeps her from getting run over by the dogs. If she gets too far behind she'll meow to let me know that she's not with us and we should wait. However, I've discovered that if I stop and wait for her, she slows down her pace substantially. So, now, when I hear her meow, I tell her she needs to sprint. In the summer when it's hot, she will find a tree to sit in and just wait for us until we come back rather than sprint. But, this morning she was just like the dogs - frisky and happy to trot.

I had a thought as I was walking that I should have brought my camera with me. The mist rising from the pond was wonderful, the light was great and the colors are different than the last time we walked this path.

Then I realized I had my phone with me! I always try to carry my phone when I go for a walk. Considering all the potholes, the coyotes, the mountain lions and the hunters, it just seems prudent to carry it. And since I have a camera phone now, I realized I could take photos with that.

It does slay me to use the camera on the phone since it's nowhere near the quality of my camera, but when in a pinch, use whatcha got.

This is the front pond in the morning sun.

This is Louise determining how best to get around the water issue (without getting wet). The dogs just jumped right on through it.

Sherman was lead dog this morning and he's sitting on up on the hill waiting for us to catch up.

I was trying to capture the mist rising from the water this morning. I'm not sure the iPhone can adequately capture it.

The trail in the sunlight. The sun had just broken over the tops of the trees. Making everything glow. I sometimes forget to notice that glow - but it is truly Living Daylight.

And for the first half of our title today --- I saw fresh pig tracks. I was happy to have my iPhone with me. Considering the rain, these prints are most likely from last night or early this morning. They weren't huge, so these are probably one of the pigletts that is now growing up. But they weren't big enough for a sow, so they're most likely those of a "teenager".

In this shot, you can see them coming and going. They tend to like the trail as much as we do.

This shots shows them coming up from the lake onto our property.

This shot shows them going back into the woods and down to the lake area.

Check for pigs on your property. You never know when somethin's strange... in your neighborhood... and whooya gonna call? (In honor of Halloween today!)