Monday, March 9, 2009

Fire

I promised some videos of fire, so here they are.

Hazen spent the entire day away from me on the other side of a 2200 acre burn, but I did manage to sneak a video. Hopefully I can get on another burn at Blanding where I can get some decent footage and spend some real time with my Husband. I always liked buring with him.

In one of the clips, you can hear what sounds like firecrakers going off in the distance. Those were 50 caliber blanks from miliatry training that they had in late December. It sounded like world war 3.

Enjoy!


Monday, March 2, 2009

So... It's March.


It’s been fairly quiet this week around the old house as I stayed at home and Hazen spent the week teaching at Engine Academy. The cold weather keeps making it’s way down from the north to give us a few days of freezing. All the outdoor plants that are not cold hardy have finally given up the ghost. I told Hazen that I want to replant our dead citrus with plums to see if we get a better result. Our sad little lemon and orange trees have completely frozen over and dropped all their leaves. I don’t think they’ll be coming back.

Musket was too high of weight to fly on Saturday and Sunday was full of high wind gusts and rain. Oh well. Only four more weekends to hunt and then she goes up for the season. I’m getting a little worried though, for some other falconers have seen small groups already starting to migrate, and Musket could easily get swept up in one of those sudden urges to move this time of year. I’m going to keep her in treed areas so she does not get a chance to go up into a good soar. Hopefully that will keep her with me for the next year.

I have reduced the size of my rabbitry by two does. My original breeder girls have found new homes, one as hawk food and the other as a beloved pet to a friend who is crazy about animals. She’ll have a good home, and I’m happy for her, she is an awfully sweet girl. The other who was not so fortunate, was not quite pet quality, and though I tried to find her a home, it fell through. With a heavy heart, I asked Hazen to do the deed, and he humanely killed her for me. Ultimately, it’s a good thing. That one rabbit was eating enough for the rest of my herd; she had a roll of fat under her chin and would push the other babies aside to shovel food into her mouth! It’s still not easy, but I’m getting better at separating myself from the cute factor of baby rabbits and the necessity of fresh, hormone-free food for my predator.

This week will see the return of the Mitchell Clan to our home to again block the trash-pile that has taken over my neighbor’s yard. I have all the parts to enhance our electric fence and I have been told that my hedge plants should arrive sometime in March. She won’t like it, but it is time to do what we need to do so I can start enjoying my yard again.

All and all things have been pretty quiet. I have had the chance to get out and do some prescribed burning the past few weeks. I’ll have another chance to do that again this week, and I’ll try to get some nice movies of fire. Ahh.. fieldwork… delightful!

TTFN