Leaf Piles

Don't forget the photo caption contest below--entries due by Thursday 6 p.m. PDT.

As you can see from the above photo, our yard is full of leaves. And it also contains a little boy trying to mount his puppy. But we'll ignore that for the moment. We have trees all around the yard. The catalpas lost their leaves first, then the elms and silver poplars. The Lombardy poplars and apricot trees still have some leaves hanging on.

I raked lots of big piles of leaves. There's something a little odd about this one--can you tell?

Desert Boy has discovered he loves to be covered up with leaves. He just laughs and laughs.

Here he is emerging.

And now he's free!

After I rake the piles, I put them in the back of the truck and drive down to the meadow, where I dump them in a pile for the deer and cows to eat.

It looks like a fun pile to jump into, doesn't it? So I did, and landed on a sharp stick. Somehow leaf piles are always a lot more fun as a kid.

Prescribed Fire

Yesterday this was the sight when I looked up at the mountain--lots of smoke rising into the air. If it seems a little late in the season to have a wildfire you're right, most of the wildland fires here occur from July through September, during monsoon season when we have a lot of dry lightning. This smoke is from a prescribed fire. Firefighters lit piles of slash on fire to reduce the fuel load in the woods. 

The idea of a prescribed fire is that the amount of fuel can be reduced safely, so that when a wildland fire occurs, it won't burn as hot and will be more controllable. Wildland fires used to occur a lot more often than they do now, probably because whenever we see smoke we (that's a societal we), tend to panic and want to make the smoke stop. As a result, in a lot of places throughout the West, the fuel load is so high that when a fire starts, it becomes a raging inferno and costs hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of dollars to put out. Spending a little more money setting prescribed fires in strategic locations will result in saving a lot of money trying to extinguish out-of-control fires.

Seeing the smoke up on the mountain brought back some memories for me.

Here's a different prescribed fire up on the mountain a few years ago. The firefighter (me) is wearing Nomex (flame retardant) pants and shirt, leather gloves, safety helmet, and leather boots. I'm carrying a drip torch, which allows fuel to be spread at a steady rate. 

Here's a safety meeting at the fire. Safety is of utmost concern at every fire. In order to have a prescribed fire, weather conditions have to be just right, enough fire-trained personnel have to be present including a burn boss (a person who has had additional training in setting and managing fires), and the paperwork all has to be signed.

Winter is a great time to have a prescribed fire, because the snow keeps the fire from spreading too far. The goal of this prescribed fire was to burn slash piles. The forest had been thinned a couple years earlier, and the wood stacked into large piles to dry out.

Having several piles rather than one enormous one helps keep the fire more controlled.

Nonetheless, there can be a little extra excitement from time to time, like this live tree catching on fire from the slash pile next to it. Not to worry, a firefighter is keeping a close eye on it.

Probably the best thing about being a firefighter is that you get to be close to fire and see the beauty of it. The colors are amazing, the heat is intense, and the smell takes you back to many evenings spent around the campfire.

Eventually the fire reduces the piles of wood to piles of ash surrounded by slightly melted snow. The next summer, the gaps in the forest will help slow or stop a wildland fire if it happens to occur there. If you're interested in learning more about wildland fire, check out the National Interagency Fire Center website.

Last Fall Colors

I woke up yesterday morning and saw dark clouds over the mountains. I figured we were in for another blah day, and I was right, except for about five minutes early in the morning, when the sun peaked through some clouds just over the horizon and lit up the trees. I'd estimate that over half the leaves in town have fallen off the trees, and with the impending bad weather, more are going to fall soon. So I snapped away, trying to capture some of the last glorious color on the trees.

Even trees that have lost most of their leaves, like this elm, still looked good with that early morning light and the storm clouds in the background.

The Lombardy poplar's almost vertical branches catch a lot of the leaves as they fall off. During the winter some birds will nestle into the tree, using the leaves as insulation to help keep warm. When I walk by them, the birds fly off and I feel a little bad about disturbing them.

Here are some of our neighbor's cows, with the mountain range to the north in the background. Early morning light really highlights how rough the foothills are.

I can't help but think when I look at these beautiful leaves on the trees that soon I will be raking them into huge piles! The cows love to eat them, so I take them to the pasture. If you're asking why we just don't let the cows into the yard, the answer is simple: cow pies! 

Rabbitbrush Seeds

Despite our early snow, the bright yellow flowers of the gray rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus nauseosus) linger, lighting up an otherwise drab landscape.

Many of the flowers are releasing seeds in the autumn. They are dispersed by the wind, and can travel up to 165 yards according to the Forest Service database.

Because this plant is wind-pollinated, it causes allergies in many people. Usually I'm one of those people, but for some reason this year I'm not, and I suddenly enjoy rabbitbrush a lot more.

The tufted seeds look so pretty with backlighting. The seeds only survive one year, and although they don't seem picky about the winter temperatures, they have a narrow range of moistures that will allow them to germinate after the winter snow melts.

Rabbitbrush is always a late-blooming shrub, signifying the end of summer. 

Usually the flowers have disappeared before the snow flies, but not this year! 

Fall Colors

Yesterday Desert Boy and I went in search of some fall colors, and we had wonderful success. We saw this beautiful butterfly on the leaves of a shrub. I was trying out my new camera and couldn't resist taking a photo. Hurray for 18x optical zoom--it is really easy to frame photos. This particular photo didn't need any cropping.

Later in the day we headed up high. We don't have many deciduous trees here in the desert, even in the mountains, so fall colors usually aren't especially dramatic. Nevertheless, the aspen trees provide little dashes of color amidst the dark green of the surrounding evergreens.

Aspen trees are often clones, so all the trees in a particular grove will turn the same shade of color at the same time. The scientific name for quaking aspen is Populus tremuloides. I've always liked the word tremuloides, which sounds sort of like trembling. The heart-shaped leaves are supported on small stems, so even the slightest breeze makes them rustle.

As we walked near the trees, a few leaves fluttered to the ground. The temperature was perfect, and it was a delight to be outside. Soon a yellow carpet will be covering the forest floor, and not long after that, a layer of cold, white snow will top the delicate leaves. 

For now, though, we just enjoyed the vibrant trees. They just made me feel happy! It was hard to leave and head down the mountain to home, but at least we have a few photos to remind us of nature's fantastic color show.

Learning to Differentiate White Fir and Douglas-Fir

To find trees in the desert, we often have to go up in the mountains. I grew up in the Midwest, so every once in awhile I get a yearning to see those tall plants that block the view. Yep, I have to admit that after living out in the desert for seven years and absorbing all the wide-open spaces, being surrounded by a lot of trees can make me almost claustrophobic!

One way I can get around that is to pay attention to the trees that are surrounding me. Today we're going to look at two in the Pine Family (Pinaceae) that are very similar--white fir (Abies concolor) and Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii). Right off the bat I want to point out a couple things. First, both trees have fir as part of their common name, but Douglas-fir has a hypen; that's because it's not a true fir, it's in a different genus. In addition, pseudo means false.

A couple other things about the names: Douglas-fir is named for David Douglas, a Scottish botanist who first cultivated Douglas-fir. The scientific species name, menziesii, is named for a competing botanist, Archibald Menzies, also from Scotland. I guess this is a case where they found a win-win solution. (If only the politicians could learn a lesson from the naturalists.)

Both white fir and Douglas-fir are medium-sized conifers, living at similar elevations. With just a little close observing, it doesn't take long to tell them apart. White firs have grayer needles (on the left in the photo above), and they are spaced out along the stem. Douglas-fir needles are brighter green in color and look like they have been packed onto the stem.

Looking closer at the needles (it's so fun to have macro and cropping capabilities!), you can see that the white fir needles come straight off the stem at a nearly right angle. The needles themselves often curve slightly.

The Douglas-fir needles bend as they come off the stem. It sort of looks like they started growing in one direction (upwards) and then decided, naw, let's go out to the side, then we don't have to stand up so straight. The Douglas-fir needles are the "bad posture" needles, slumping.

What's the tree in the photo above? Alright, I admit I'm a firm believer that in order to actually remember something, you have to be challenged to make it stick in your memory. (Maybe that's why I'm not a teacher, I would drive everyone nuts!) If you guessed Douglas-fir, you're right! Beware, there is another quiz coming up. Hey, keep reading, it's not like I'm going to give you a grade or anything.

Okay, let's look at the pine cones. Since I'm often looking at the trail when I'm hiking, the pine cones are often the first thing that lets me know what trees are around. White firs have small cones that are rather plain looking. These cones are generally in clusters at the tops of the trees. Douglas-firs have little projections that come out of the pine cones and are slightly larger.

Let's take another look at the Douglas-fir pine cone. These cones are often described as having mouse tails sticking out of the scales. Okay, naturalists say that. Botanists say that the cones have a long tridentine bract that protrudes prominently above each scale. Say that three times with your eyes closed and while balancing on one leg.  Back to the mouse tails--a Native American myth says that it's just not the tail, but also the little hind legs sticking out of the scale, because a forest fire was approaching and the little mice took sanctuary in the pine cones.

Another way to tell these two trees apart is the bark. Take a close look at the photo above and below, and then make a guess as to which is which. The last photo on the post has an extra clue as to which they are. I'll leave it to you to puzzle out in the comments and will chime in later with the correct answer. 

Douglas-fir is an important timber tree and is often used in construction to carry heavy loads and for homebuilt-aircraft. It's also the most common Christmas tree sold in the U.S. White fir isn't as valuable a timber tree due to weaker, knottier wood. It grows readily in shaded areas on a variety of soils, and in our area is much more common than Douglas-fir.

Rabbitbrush Golden Flowers Make My Eyes Pop Out

Oh my, the gray rabbitbrush (Chrysothamnus nauseosus) is blooming and it is gorgeous. The yellow of the flowers is so vibrant that it just blows me away. So to sweeten your  Friday, I thought I'd show you some pretty pictures.

Sometimes when I look at the rabbitbrush, I have to take a second look. Is that color for real? Am I just imagining how bright it is, how much it pops out from the surrounding drab vegetation?  I think the crisp late summer air also makes it brighter and sharper.

Looking at the beautiful color almost makes me forget that this plant causes me several days of misery due to allergies. Almost. Okay, it's out of my mind, back to just looking at the pretty flowers.

Not many other flowers are blooming this time of year, so the rabbitbrush can claim most of the attention. It's good that it's so showy and worthy of that attention!

Gray rabbitbrush is also known as rubber rabbitbrush and indeed a small amount of rubber can be made from it. During World War II the perennial shrub was studied as a substitute for commercial rubber, but alas, it was not a viable option. The pulverized wood and bark have been used by Native Americans for chewing gum.

And one more photo just for kicks. (Did I mention I like taking photos?) Okay, back to the serious stuff. For some reason I feel compelled to share a little more information so that I can stay true to my theme Desert Survivor. How does gray rabbitbrush do so well in the desert? One of its adaptations is having the leaves and stems covered with trichomes, felt-like growths that help reduce transpiration and insulate it from extreme temperatures. 

And there you have it. Now head outside and enjoy the colors!

My Least Favorite Weed

When I go walking around the yard now, late in summer, I sometimes throw my hands up in despair because it pretty much seems that the weeds have taken over everything. There's ragweed  (Ambrosia artemisifolia) and Russian thistle (Salsola kali) and bindweed (Convulvus arvensis) and halogeton (Halogeton glomerulus) and cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum). But of all the terrible weeds I see, there's one that gets my heart pounding and my fingers itching to pull it as quick as possible--puncture vine (Tribulus terrestris), also known as goathead or caltrop.

The cute ferny leaves and pretty yellow flowers are deceiving, making it seem like a friendly plant. Puncture vine is in the Zygophyllaceae family, also known as the creosote bush family. My husband's favorite plant is creosote bush, so how is it possible that my least favorite plant is in the same family? 

Puncture vine is originally from the Mediterranean, but it has spread quickly. These trailing tendrils make it obvious why someone decided to call it a vine. What about the puncture part? Take a look at this next photo.

These little green fruits are fairly innocuous early in the summer, but the heat and dryness of hot days makes them get harder and harder...

...until they turn into sharp brown thorns that break apart and make even more sharp brown thorns. These thorns are so sharp that I've gotten a flat bicycle tire, a flat stroller tire, and a flat wheelbarrow tire. Needless to say, all of these tires now contain Slime.

While I was photographing the puncture vine, Desert Boy took a fall, landing right on top of a mass of it. He started crying immediately and I think he's joined me in calling this his least favorite weed.

Here are a couple of the thorns stuck in his hand. The seeds remain viable for three to seven years, so even though I have pulled every plant that I've seen in the yard, I'll probably have to keep after them for years. And unfortunately there are plenty of seeds just outside our yard.

What's your least favorite weed?