Lake Tahoe Archives

Posted on June 3, 2010 by Barb — 3 Comments

Quick Thoughts from our World

The ebooks are finished. Our school year is officially over. Summer has begun.

Harvesting oregano and making some bundles to dry was first on the list. We also picked another quart of strawberries, a few peas, a couple of stray carrots, and the last of the spinach.

We planted zinnias, cosmos, Shasta daisies, Ireland Bells, more cilantro, moonflowers, and lots of seedlings. We were able to get all our seedlings into the ground: pumpkin, acorn squash, zucchini, tomatoes, a variety of peppers, dill, and a variety of sunflowers. It makes me tired just thinking about all that we planted. Now the weather needs to stay warm and I need to keep my eyes on all my babies. My husband and boys were such a great help this week in the garden.

Weeding and pruning the butterfly garden was next on the list.

Here is another photo. If you click over to Flickr for either of these photos, I have made notes telling you what we have planted there.

One last angle of the butterfly garden.

Checking the garden beds and seeing what is growing is always a fun task this time of year. We have a few big mulleins growing along the fence.

Our baby Western scrub jay is flying now and he regularly sits outside our window waiting for his mother.

Moving from our garden now to our other adventures.

Several long hikes this past week…one hike where we saw the snake and some that were not so exciting. Here is the predominant wildflower on our hiking trail right now, Purple Chinese Houses.

We also went on a long bike ride and the boys had a blast.

My oldest son and I shared some photo moments at the lake when we stopped for a break.

Sand angels and Canadian geese….sounds good to me, except for the sand in the shoes.

I had to stop my bike and take a photo of this phlox alongside the trail. It was just too pretty to pass by.

So I think that catches me up for the last week or so in our world. I love this time of year. We have two Outdoor Hour Challenges to finish up but they will be posted soon. I have emailed out all the orders for ebooks that I have received so if you ordered and did not receive your files, please email me and let me know. I am really looking forward to starting the summer series of challenges with our family.

Barb-Harmony Art Mom

Posted on March 12, 2010 by Barb — 4 Comments

Winter Series Challenge For Mammals: A Hike and a Study of the Douglas Squirrel

Yesterday we were able to take a hike out in the snow at our favorite spot. It felt like spring and the sun warmed my neck in a welcome way. I realized I can smell the forest again. This is the first time I noted that during winter there are far less fragrances in the air. Yesterday we smelled the piney woods fragrance of the evergreens in the warming sun. It smelled delicious.

We tried to focus on finding signs of mammals on our hike as part of the Winter Series Challenge for mammals.

The squirrels have been busy munching on cones.

Isn’t this just the most wonderful cone you have seen in a long time?

The snow is melting a little on this familiar hike. The beaver dam is still visible with all the leaves gone from the trees and bushes.

Here you can see the snow pulling away from the creek water and exposing the grasses underneath. It feels like spring here for the first time.

I am thinking these are dog tracks but perhaps coyote since we have seen them in this area before.

Now these I am pretty sure are rabbit tracks…or perhaps snowshoe hare tracks.

We spotted this trail of tracks to the left of the snowy log and if you look carefully you can see them disappear in the distance. I have no idea who made them but they were fun to see and to talk about.

Here are some more tracks down by an icy spot on the creek.

We came home and decided to look up and learn about a mammal from our field guide. There are quite a few to choose from that live in this particular area, but we chose the Douglas squirrel (or Chickaree). We often hear squirrels in the trees and now we know that in this particular area, the only tree squirrel is the Douglas squirrel. They have a chattering sound that is distinct, making it easier to identify even if we don’t actually see them in the trees. Our mammal field guide says that they are active all year long, but they still store a winter cache of cones. We also learned that the piles of leftovers where a squirrel eats are called middens. There is an actual name for those piles we see under trees!

We used this online book to learn more about our local mammals: Nature Guide to…
Wikipedia Article: Douglas squirrel
Link to its tracks at BearTracker: Douglas squirrel
This site has some great images: Nature Works

“Nature has made him master forester and committed most of her coniferous crops to his paws. Probably over fifty percent of all the cones ripened on the Sierra are cut off and handled by the Douglas alone, and of those of the Big Trees perhaps ninety percent pass through his hands.”
John Muir on Douglas squirrels, The Mountains of California.

Isn’t that interesting? I love when we take a few minutes to learn a little more about something in our nature study that really is meaningful and will help us understand our local environment better.

This was a great challenge for us this time around.

Posted on January 30, 2010 by Barb — 3 Comments

Bright Shiny Day Snowshoe Hike

The sun was out and we jumped on the chance to go to the snow for some fun and refreshment.

Let’s just say it was breathtaking….far too awesome for words.
(Not sure if you are on an email subscription if the video shows up, but you can click over to my blog and view a 30 second video of the landscape.)

It was so quiet and we had the whole place to ourselves. This is the best kind of hike…time to enjoy the quiet and the beauty. Look at those cattails. It reminds me that in the summer this place is hopping with red-winged blackbirds and egrets. This day we saw nuthatches, mountain chickadees, and a raven. It was surprisingly quiet.

The beavers have actually dammed up the regular waterway and it is now flowing around the right side instead of straight through. Fascinating.

Some of the creek is actually all covered over with snow…you can see openings where the water is frozen over. As many years as we have been coming here in the winter, we have never seen this before.

Not very many tracks in the snow this time…

As usual, we end up spreading out and just taking the trail at our own pace. We are usually all within eyesight of each other but keeping a nice distance in between.

As much as I hate to miss a day of regular schoolwork, we really needed this day to wander out in the sunshine and fresh air.

Posted on December 26, 2009 by Barb — 2 Comments

Winter Day Hike: Animal Tracks

It was a day of hiking in the aspens and pines….there is something so refreshing about hiking in the snow on a sunny day. The light must be different or perhaps it is the air. Whatever it is about winter hikes, I feel more alive. The indoor life does not suit me very well and getting the chance to spend a few hours hiking with my family makes me smile even now just thinking about our time outdoors.

Although there were no other hikers on the trail this time, we knew there were other living creatures near-by. The snow recorded their activity for us. We always have a great time imagining who the tracks belong to and then discussing what they may have been doing out here in the woods.

Many times as we hike along we spread out and have some alone time. I love to walk and pay attention to the crunching of the snow under my boots. There were a few birds that showed their faces while we walked and a few that just let us know they were there by knocking on the tree or whistling a little tune.

These ducks don’t seem to mind the cold, cold water.

Our Bird List for the Day:
Mallard ducks
Ravens
Steller’s jays
Red-breasted nuthatches

The creek was flowing along with crystal clear water, much deeper this time of year than in the summer and fall. We observed lots of tracks on the other side of the bank….big tracks where it looks like someone came to get a drink perhaps.

I told the boys to be on the lookout for interesting tracks in the snow and if they found some to call me over. These are the “dinosaur” tracks they found….very funny.

Seriously though, this photo shows the most interesting and most abundant track we noticed through the trees. It looks like footprints with something that made a line to the side….a tail perhaps? I would love to know what made this track in the snow.

Maybe this is why I love winter hikes so much….there is an air of mystery and awe to them that I love and crave. We are looking forward to more snowy hikes in the near future.

Posted on October 12, 2009 by Barb — 8 Comments

Goldenrod Afternoon-Or Not-Learned Something New

All of the photos above were taken last week on our quest for goldenrod. Turns out after reading up and doing some investigation and actually helping another OH Challenge family to identify a mystery flower, I learned that this is not goldenrod but rather rabbitbrush.

We spent quite a bit of time looking at and comparing photos with our field guide and on Calflora.org. Turns out to be something new to us….Rabbitbrush.

We had a sample of the flower and that really helped us when it got right down to making a firm identification.

We decided to turn to the chrysanthemum for our formal nature study this week and we talked about composite flowers and made a journal entry.

I think we were still successful and learned so much about our local wildflowers. We spent a glorious afternoon on a perfect autumn day together outdoors as a family.

Hat Tip to Alex for the new Flickr tool to make the mosaic with photos. Thanks!

Posted on September 29, 2009 by Barb — 6 Comments

Early Autumn: First of Many Walks

We took a long walk today to enjoy the last of the hot afternoons…we know they will be coming to an end soon. Here are a few things I want to share from our day.

This is a sure sign that autumn is coming quickly. The aspens are beginning to change color and the wind makes them shimmer and shake.

The Kokanee salmon are spawning and their green and red color is brilliant in the clear creek water.

The creek is very shallow and the salmon come here to lay their eggs and die. This becomes a habitat for eagles and bears and ducks this time of year. Can you guess why?

If you click this photo it will enlarge and you will see the outline of a bear at the bottom of the photo among the trees. She was on the other side of the creek sharing a salmon with her baby. We gave her a lot of space and the few of us that were there snapped a few photos and left her in peace.

The whole afternoon was picture postcard perfect.

The Pussy Paws are golden and the Rabbitbrush is golden and the pines are green and the sky is blue……where are my paints?

This was a great afternoon and I feel so refreshed.

Posted on July 18, 2009 by Barb — 2 Comments

Out on the Bike Trail Again

It was a hot summer day at our house and we were trying to think of ways to escape the heat. We decided to head up the mountain where it was about twenty degrees cooler and take a bike ride and have a picnic. (Another very crooked horizon in this photo….I had my little camera and the viewing screen is nothing but glare sometimes in the bright sun so I have no idea if what I am shooting is crooked or not.)

The trail was fairly crowded with others that shared our idea to cool off. We pedaled about eight miles round trip but since the temperatures were so much cooler, it was very enjoyable.

We mostly stayed in the forest but at one point we veered over to the lake and sat in the shade and had a drink.

Along the trail there were patches of Indian Paintbrush blooming like orange pokers tucked in and around the green grasses.

This pretty pink flower was blooming as well.

This was the first time I noticed this particular sign on a tree near where we stopped to picnic. I thought the graphic was rather clever.

It just so happened that this guy was trying to find a meal as well. He checked out under our table but then decided to dig little holes to see what he could munch on.

I actually was able to get rather close to take this photo since he was occupied with something tasty. He is a Golden-mantled ground squirrel….which looks like a chipmunk but with no stripes on his head.

We had a very refreshing day on the bike trail and there were plenty of interesting things to keep us entertained.

Posted on July 6, 2009 by Barb — 1 Comment

Emerald Bay: Day Hike with the Boys

Summer afternoon hike at the lake…not just any lake but a sparkling alpine lake.

The trail is narrow and winds along the shore of the bay. I talked to another hiker along the trail and he was telling me he thinks the view on this trail is in his “top ten” views in the world. It is amazingly gorgeous. The colors of the water are so blue and the mountains, still with a little snow on the tops, are majestic. (The horizon line in this photo is so crooked that it really bothers me but I love this photo of my youngest stopped in the middle of the trail, taking in the panorama.)

It was nice to have my oldest son along since he is a photographer as well. He captured some great shots of the water and the surrounding mountains. We gave each other photography tips and support. He is such a tech guy and I am very much *not* a tech person but photography is a language that we speak in common.

This was a new wildflower to us…so bright pink. I had an inkling it was some kind of penstemon. I came home and looked it up and sure enough, Cliff Penstemon or Rock Penstemon-Penstemon rupicola, figwort family.

Here is the waterfall at the end of the trail. This was a 1.7 mile hike from the trailhead which runs Emerald Bay Campground to Eagle Falls. The falls were hard to capture in a photograph because the sun was behind them at this point late in the afternoon. You can imagine the waterfall roaring and the mist blowing over to us, cooling us off. It was very refreshing.

From the waterfall we hiked down to the shore of the lake to wade in the water and have a snack. The beach had a dozen or so Canada Geese. Look at those feet! They are really big birds with really big feet.

After we hiked back to the car, we drove to our favorite beach to have a picnic dinner. There were lots and lots of Mule’s ear blooming. We enjoyed our food and then walked along the shore one last time before heading home for the day.

One last photo for those that wonder about bears….here is the sign at the place we had our picnic.

No bears on this day. We have encountered bears before in this area and we agree with what the sign says, “Appreciate the experience and move on….”. The bears we have seen in the wild are usually too busy doing other stuff to take much heed of our presence. It is usually a pleasant experience and not one to be feared.

What a refreshing, fun afternoon and evening. We all are looking forward to our next trip to the lake.

Posted on May 25, 2009 by Barb — 3 Comments

Cascade Falls: Getting Away From the Crowds

This weekend we took an afternoon trip to hike up to a waterfall. If you read my post about nature study in ripples, we were rippling out about an hour’s drive from our house and then hiking up one mile into the Desolation Wilderness.

The challenge on this afternoon was to find a place to park. We actually had planned on hiking to a different waterfall a few miles down the road but there were no parking places. Not only were there no spaces left, but all available space alongside the narrow highway was filled. We were disappointed but determined. I love the age of cell phones. We found a place where we had cell coverage and phoned Amanda. She had opted to stay home on this particular afternoon and she was happy to look up an alternate hike for us in the area. She picked a good one and we were able to find a space at the trailhead of this hike after waiting a few minutes for someone to leave.

Here we are hiking down the trail. We were so surprised after seeing all the cars at the parking area that we did not see but a handful of people on the trail with us. Sigh, fresh air and space.

This was our goal, a series of cascading waterfalls. This part of the trail is along a steep ridge with very uneven rocks to hike up. You do not want to lose your concentration on this part of the trail.

The thing about hiking in the high country over big slabs of granite is that sometimes you have to be very observant in order to know which way to go. Someone was very helpful and left this line of rocks that pointed the way to the next section of the trail. We could hear the waterfall by this point so we knew the general direction but it was nice to have confirmation.

Success! Here we are at the top of the waterfall. Springtime is such a great time for waterfalls. My hubby and I sat on a log and just soaked in the sounds and the sights while all three of our sons scrambled and hopped and climbed up over the boulders and up the waterfall.

This photo was accompanied by me hollering a stream of warnings.

“Don’t fall in the water.”
“You don’t have extra shoes.”
“Rocks are slippery when they are wet.”
My personal favorite, “If you fall in, I’m not coming in after you.”

Someone always has to go higher than someone else. No names mentioned.

Something that happens in the high country at this time of year are afternoon thundershowers. We had checked the weather before leaving for the hike and it had warned of possible thunderstorms moving in late in the afternoon. We kept our eye on the horizon as we hiked and the clouds did build up a little at one point but no storm on this afternoon.

The lichen on the rocks was so beautiful. The color really stands out on the granite.

This is a really bad photo (taken into the sun) of my boys climbing up a dead tree. This area looks as if it received quite few lightning strikes in the past because of all the single burned trees. It is very exposed and on the east side of the mountain and I really would not want to be up here during a storm. The boys enjoyed the view from up their tree and wanted me to take a photo of them.

At this elevation and at this time of year, there are not too many wildflowers. We did see this one growing in the cracks of the granite in a few places. The splash of green with the white and yellow flowers amidst all the grayness was a delight.

Here is one of the trail markers. For some reason we didn’t find this one very helpful, although we knew we had not strayed too far off the trail.

We had a great afternoon and were home in time to grill some burgers. I will confess that I was not in the mood to hike on this afternoon and wanted to stay home but the boys wanted to “do something”. I know they are just wanting to get out when they suggest a hike because they know that I rarely turn down an opportunity to hit the trail.

Thanks boys for encouraging me to get outside and experiencing this amazing spot so close to home.

Posted on May 9, 2009 by Barb — 3 Comments

Music While We Walked, Catkins to Look At, and a Squirrel Entertainer

Click this photo! Gorgeous!

We had a unique experience the other day out on a walk in an area where at this time of year there are very few other people. It was a quiet, bird watching sort of day as we hiked along until one section of the trail where I swore I heard music. We all stopped and listened and sure enough, far in the distance we could hear music playing….I thought banjo music. We had no idea where the music was coming from. We were pretty far from the parking area, we had only seen one other person the whole afternoon, and I was fairly sure it was someone actually playing the music since it sort of started and stopped and wasn’t like it was a CD or something like that.

music while we walked

We rounded one bend in the trail and we had our answer. You can listen for yourself here in this very short video. (I felt really weird taking a video but I was sure we would want to remind ourselves of this in the future…it made us smile.)

We did eventually catch up to these two walking along and they were just out enjoying the spring weather, making some music. I have no idea what kind of instrument he was playing. It looked to be homemade. It sort of looked like a guitar/banjo/cigar box stringed instrument.

Sometimes I feel like playing music when I am out on a hike too. No, I won’t be doing it anytime soon.

Here is a little friend that entertained us on this afternoon as well.

California ground squirrel….he was posing for us for a very long time.

We also had a chance to observe up close the catkins of the Quaking aspens. This is something new and interesting that I want to do some more research about…..the boys were not impressed with this subject but I will do research on my own. 🙂

The photo at the top of the page is a bunch of catkins hanging on the tree. Aren’t they pretty?

Something I learned about the Quaking aspen is that is the preferred food of the beaver. It makes total sense to me since this is where we saw the beaver’s dam and there is an abundance of aspens. I love making connections.

Tag: Lake Tahoe