Snoopin’ with the Snoop

Saw these today when filling up the bird bath next to the half whiskey barrel that they are in. I looked up what they are before I killed them. Does anyone recognize the little critters?

A full grown Japanese beetle flew into my face today, but was young enough to fall off and be smashed. At least, I hope I smashed it. Otherwise when it wakes up it will be nicely positioned next to my growing squashes.

This has the shape and size of a Japanese Beetle, but has not yet emerged from the ground.

I had hoped with the summer coming much later than usual (just this week, and it came with 95 degree >50% humidity days, with four Rate 11’s [a special program offered by our electricity provider that cuts off the electricity for no more than 2 hours between 4-6pm on excessive heat days] in a row), that perhaps they had all died off. I still hope that there won’t be so damn many of them, eating our trees to shreds, eating my rosebrambles to shreds…

The picture to the left is not the one that flew into my face, but one I uncovered while moving my firepit. I had double-lined the firepit with bricks when I first dug it two years ago, and this was beneath the second brick. What I assume is the younger larval stage of a Japanese Beetle was under another brick, but after looking at larvae on the internet, think the younger one may be a stag beetle larvae. [

Is this a Japanese Beetle larva?

]

Japanese beetles don’t like tansy, but tansy’s a weed that is impossible to get rid of without chemicals. (I assume this only because they do not attack the rose bush that is near the tansy.) Regardless, I’m probably going to be shredding tansy and garlic and cayenne peppers and dousing them with it again this year. So far I have seen no damage to the plants from giving them the stinky bath. Sometimes, I go along the plants and drown the beetles, let them sit in the Sun for weeks, and then add them to the garlic/tansy/cayenne mixture. Stinky multiplied!

Observation date: 5/3/09
Number of species: 3

[Last edit: 6 May 2009 @ 20:36 to remove location info and format data.]

Location: Home
Observation date: 4/8/09
Number of species: 5

Downy Woodpecker – Picoides pubescens 1
Blue Jay – Cyanocitta cristata 2 Assume a male and a female as they were foraging together and if flew away apart would fly back to each other
Brown Thrasher – Toxostoma rufum 1
European Starling – Sturnus vulgaris 5
Common Grackle – Quiscalus quiscula 3

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Republic trash services. =(

We’ve completed four trash, or partial trash, tours now, and the consistent factor is that whenever we need a dumpster, and Republic says they’ll have it there by X o’clock, it usually arrives at X+3 or more o’clock. Picking up trash and piling it on the ground next to where you want the dumpster placed becomes annoying by your fourth time. Instead of picking up once and finishing your job, we get to do it twice or more, depending on the availability and proximity of our trucks to where we’re working. This tour, cleaning out the area that is the Eglington Preserve on the N side of Vegas in Aliente, Republic managed to lose the work order on Tuesday, delaying the arrival of the dumpster until Wednesday. The preserve is currently surrounded by a construction zone and will eventually be a nature area for blind and uneducated Vegas suburbians. We grumbled much about cleaning up an area to make it nice for those who destroy the desert landscape and participate in the trashing of it in the first place. We decided it’d be much more educational to leave the trash and let them do the dirty work of cleaning it up.

Since a survey of the trash in the Preserve had not been completed before we arrived to work, we weren’t sure on the volume of trash in the 300 acres, and Adam guestimated it at coming close to filling a 20-cubic-foot dumpster. We definitely could have filled a 28-cubic-foot dumpster. Adam and Melody, and Tommy and Hillary found a truck bed that someone left in the area before it became a preserve, and since the desert wildlife had converted it into nice habitat, they left it. Excusing the truck bed, some items we found that did not fit into the small dumpster were a refrigerator and multiple rolls of old carpet.

Also on Wednesday, Jon, Tommy, and I saw one of the elusive desert tortoises.

Tuesday:

The Mojave Green (Crotalus scutulatus) is the most poisonous rattlesnake in the Mojave, and as with all young rattlesnakes, the young one is the most dangerous. Adults have learned to control the release of venom on a strike to conserve it for hunting, but the youth have not realized this, so when they attack, they release it all. Adam showed us a young mojave green he came quite close to—he had been weeding on the other side of the bush for a half hour before he noticed it—and once again reminded us not to wear both of our headphones if we choose to listen to IPods, Zunes, or other music devices while working. (Note: Adam doesn’t, but many of use do.) Later, Melody saw a 2nd (huge this time) rattler. (Perhaps the small rattler was not quite as young as we assumed; apparently the young are born in July and August…)

Dusk is falling, and the wind is strong. Given the two rattlers spotted today, I think any nighttime wanderings of mine will fall off for a bit. I have only my small LED light with me, because the one that Brendan lent me is a power-sucker. For the first time, I brought no tent on a tour but just my sleeping bag. The weather is colder than I expected, because of the chill from the wind and our elevation, but at least I brought both layers of my City Year coat. When I get home to Illinois, I want to rebuild the firepit in the garden, especially now that I know what I’m doing. The “campsite” I chose has a fire ring. I had decided to sleep next to it, but the wind is so stiff that I created a lean-to from a pallett I found next to the fire, leaning it against the cedar I’m sleeping under, and braced by a close-by yucca. Gotta watch that I don’t impale my head on a branch of the yucca when I lay my head on my pillow.

… All tucked in now. I forgot my hat, but the NCC sweatshirt is hooded. I think I’m facing NE, so I should get some good sun in the morning. Regardless, I’m setting my alarm. Now, the wind is changing directions a bit from my left to from the open area at my feet. Oh well, my bag is rated to 0 degrees.

Wednesday:

My sleeping pad blew away. I don’t want to buy another one this late in the six months and have to lug or ship it home when I go. Maybe I’ll just use the Big Timber (Slumberjack) as a pad though it is much heavier and bulkier to bring on a tour. I want to bring both my fleece blankets next tour—one to drape if need be for a wind block and one to sleep with. The ground isn’t as cold at night anymore, so sleeping without a pad may not be too uncomfortable, but the rocks would make it so.

I will miss the Nevada night sky and the lack of humidity to grey out the stars. Night falls, peace fills.

Thursday:

Melody figured out she is strong enough to lift me, and when we stopped to wash the trucks on the way back to the field station on Thursday, she and Megan attempted to throw me in a dumpster. I wriggled free. Later she said she wasn’t really going to toss me in, but I’m sure Megan would have. Ha, ha.

When in doubt, follow the cow path. Yep, today the cattle footprints led us down to our campsite from off of a high plateau. We had found a massive stand of Athel around 2 pm, and had to make sure that we were back at camp before dark fell at 4:30p. When 3:30p rolled around, we had the choice between navigating the mud and salt cedar by following the river home, or by going up and down the slopes and hoping that there was a quick way down to the campsite. (On Map 3 » of the LMNRA, the port-a-potty we passed about mid-day is marked if you look south of Rd 113.)

I had been up on the left side of the camp on the rocks along the river when we arrived at camp the first day and was certain that we’d hook up with those rocks and be able to find our way down. Our path did not meet those rocks; we were higher; but the cows showed us. I wonder if we were perhaps following a goat path as some places were narrow for me to walk, and I’m a skinny person to begin with, much less in comparison with a cow.

The Athel we are eradicating looks like a pine (as opposed to cedar or juniper) but is actually a flowering plant, and it makes the wind sound the same whushshhsh as the trees back home. Our 10-person crew has split into two groups this tour, enabling us to cover more area. My coworkers and I hiked between four and six miles today along the high water mark where Athel grows in the land around Fisherman’s Cove. Rarely does Athel root anywhere lower or higher than the high water mark, according to our project partner.

In one bay area where we worked, I felt as if I were underwater the entire time I was in a particular spot and felt quite unsettled. After moving on to a different tree, the feeling faded.

I think I may have just heard a cow. Something made a strange noise.

I’m quite thirsty. Where did I put my water bottle?

My toes have been cold all day, probably from a lack of circulation from the combination of layered socks and my shoes. Now that my shoes are off, my toes are still cold from the air. The rest of my body is absorbing the chill, so I will end for tonight. Oh, I really want my own hatchet, by the way.

We’re camped out at Fisherman’s Cove for this tour, which is off of road 113 from Mesquite, NV. 113 is a 4×4 access only road and dead-ends in the Cove, which is quite near the Muddy Virgin River, and in high water years is under water. Map of the Overton Arm » of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area shows Rd 113.

I’m trying to negotiate my way into being on the southern crew as a member of the staff since I can no longer be an Americorps member after this term is over. Chad said it rarely happens, but it has happened, and I see no good reason why it shouldn’t be available for me. Adam would be my supe on the Southern Crew, and he said he’d love to have our entire crew with him. I’m very much in love with my job. We’ll see if “in love” becomes “love.” I don’t want a leadership position within a crew yet but would not be against taking one on at a later date.

The land out here is open range. (The Bundy’s again.) They are quite possessive of land that the government took back from them from lack of paying taxes or something like that, and they are listed as an environmental hazard on our daily safety sheet (in jest). We saw some of their cattle on the way out here, and our kitchen is set up on some cattle footprints. Well-traveled cow paths mark some of the easiest routes to the river.

I am getting chilled, and my throat is asking for sleep.

We’re not camping out this week since we have only 3 days, but our project is clearing out an illegal dump. Thanks goodness I got to come home and take a shower! Apparently, lots of people dump their dogs out in the area, and there are bleached bones. I found an entire skeleton. Not sure it’s a dog, but it was some sort of creature that looked like it could be a dog. Vertebrae are so fascinating…. I’m thinking of bleaching it and putting it together like a puzzle. I also found 2 books, 2 planters, an awesome pair of size 6M shoes, some hangers, and some other stuff I don’t currently remember. Project Clean is ahead before I take any of that stuff into the house!

2007 Nov 11 (Sun) Written by hand in letter format to my sister. Mostly copied here.

Yesterday night I just wanted to crash. Half of us had to go back and replace the temporary screens we had installed on the first days of the 4-day tour (Oct29-Nov1) with the tripis (treepees). I composed an acrostic yesterday, but I’m not sure I can recall it completely. Installing the tripis was rough enough as a go-along with the planting, but oddly enough, disturbed-by-water desert soil is just as cement-forming as Illinois clay soil is! I have a new cut on the side of my right pinky, so writing hurts.

Tripi
Rough
Intense
Painful
Intellectual

Intellectual because of figuring out HOW to insert it in rock. A tripi is a cone with three metal legs at least 9 inches long.

It sprinkled today. We seeded purple threeawn, globe mallow, a desert marigold, and chia. Apparently, a tablespoon of chia was enough to keep the Apaches alive when they were on the warpath. Good to know, if I could identify the plant and seeds. The BLM chose threeawn because the wild burros won’t eat it.

We finished at 11:30am today and went on an “educational” hike to Ice Box Canyon. The temperature in the Ice Box was a nice midwestern September/late August evening.

My pack doubles as a pillow, if I keep the top of it relatively empty except of spare clothes. I don’t bring many clothes – just my uniform and a change of clothes for around camp, and my pajamas, and of course rain gear. But the raingear stays in my daypack. What’s the use of bringing it if it’s stuck at camp when I’m in the field?

I’ve been thinking of bringing a fleece blanket to curl up in around the fire. That sentence did not flow right. I want to curl up in a fleece blanket while sitting at the campfire. The gold sweater doesn’t block the wind well enough for my comfort.

Nighttime slumber is much warmer in jeans than my pajama pants. That reminds me — I will also be packing long underwear, since it finally arrived with my Carhartts last Friday.