Cindy's First Outing

March 28, 2020

Cindy had her hip replacement ten days ago.  She is already starting to walk around the kitchen without her walker and often washes the dishes. She is back to working from home part-time. (She will be working from home until this is over. )

Today we went on a driving expedition to Fort Hunter Liggett, where she works.  We took a lot of side roads to look for birds and elk. No elk showed themselves, though. 

We went to a pond on the base and Cindy got out and walked on a gravel road with her walker. We also enjoyed eating a little lunch there. 

I love the long view of lowlands and hills

First year bald eagle

Same bird showing off his huge bill

One of a few huge rock outcroppings

Yellow violets

I can never get enough of the beautiful patterns of the hills and draws

A very cheerful flower that is almost through blooming

Eurasian collared dove

Owl clover

Lupines are makeing huge patches of color

This was one of the only two plants of this species we saw

These were on a shrub but feel like nightshade family plants

Blooming shrub

Another long view

This flower was the size of a fingernail

We explored down a dirt road to find this relic

One of two shrikes I saw

A western meadowlark refusing to look at me

The William Randal Hurst Hacienda - of course we could not see the inside today

A single great-tailed grackle  at the pond- kind of unexpected to see one by itself

Ground squirrels were abundant

A very old California sycamore

On the personal front, we are hunkering down as the Corvid-19 infections continue to increase in our area. We don't yet know how extensive the infections will be, but they are predicted to get quite high. I am the only person going around people to do our shopping.  It takes several visits to get everything on our list since there are a lot of missing goods. Albertsons is disinfecting the carts and the belts between customers and had the floor marked for when we stand in line so we stay apart. And everybody is being careful to wait for another person to leave an area before moving into it. California county and state leaders are managing it to the best of their ability without much help from the federal government. 

I'm grateful that I got to come help Cindy.  I am not allowed back on the refuge until this is over so I'm homeless. Cindy says I can stay here even after she is all well. 

Working Tour to Elephant Rocks

March 7, 2020

When I signed up to help with the bus tours, two of them looked really interesting. One was the tour of Blanca Wetlands - see last post - and the other was a tour  to Elephant Rocks with a promise of a little history as well as a demo of flint knapping.  So this was another official working trip but filled with personal enjoyment.

Our leader was Shawn Noonan, from the BLM.  He recruited two helpers from the bureau, but I never wrote down their names so I'll have to try and document them later. I think our guide on the hike was Clayton. I didn't get to the knapping demonstration until after the knapper was introduced.

We got a little of the history of the site. It all began with the mother of all volcanic eruptions, that is the largest EVER, spewing about 3,107 cubic miles of magma in a magnitude 9 or better eruption,  about 27 million years ago. This produced the Fish Canyon tuff, which has been weathering ever since.  The weathered rocks look like herds of elephants, hence its name. The monolithic boulders stretch for five miles.

About 15,000 years ago, this site was used by monstrous grazers, including the columbian mammoth, which stood up to fourteen feet tall and whose tusks were up to 16 feet long. Joining them were the huge Extinct Bison grazing in herds across the landscape.  Word is that there are rocks polished by those huge mammoths, ten or more feet above ground. Today the grazers are mostly mule deer and elk.

Our leader, Shawn helping a visitor get the layout of the area

Shawn talking to us about the area

The talk from the knapper, about the kinds of rocks used for tools, with examples on the table

Knapper, starting to demonstrate how to make a point

Safety is important He caught most of his shards in the bin

He also made is knapping tools 

Closeup of a chip that will become a point

We divided into two groups to go on the guided hikes

I was a little late to catch the best light on the beautiful sceenery

I think our leader is named Clayton.  He made us understand the area much better

Hiking with interpretative stops was great. 

The only child on the tour was this nine year old who reminded me of a puppy gambling back and forth across our trail

Took this picture when almost back from the hike

Shawn looking at the interpretative display on the large ungulates that once roamed here

This was another great tour. It is also a pretty good birding area in the spring and summer and holds some species not found in the lower parts of the valley.

On a personal note, I'm finally taking time to write this - after thinking it was in the queue, on March 25, 2020. It now seems like a dream or something that happened years ago. Since then, we have really been impacted by the virus.  I was just getting instructions to work alone from Fish and Wildlife, when my friend, Cindy, posted that she had just lost her scheduled caregiver that she had lined up for her recuperating period of hip surgery. I talked to my boss and got permission to go stay in California for at least three weeks. I quickly packed up, finished my current assignments, then drove most of a night and a day to reach her. She had gotten her surgery while I was in route, and then got out of the hospital the following afternoon.  I rushed to stock up on groceries before going to pick her up.

Today I learned that I can't come back to the refuge until all this is over, so I'll be stuck in California for the foreseeable future. And yes, Cindy is making remarkable progress, says she is hurting less and moving better than before the surgery, and is working half time from home.

California Playing - Tour to San Simeon, California

Saturday, March 21, 2020

My life took a few changes over the last several days. On the same day, that the Refuge made changes to keep us all apart, due to the pandemic, my friend, Cindy, told me that yes, she COULD use my help for up to six weeks to take care of her after hip surgery.  I had to finish up some of my assigned chores and get packed to leave. She had her surgery cancelled and then was called back to be told that it was still on. I finally got myself off Tuesday evening and drove for 16 of the next 20 hours to get to her house Wednesday evening and let myself in. I barely got in my food and clothes before crashing. I texted Cindy and had a short conversion with her before I was comatose.

I got up the next morning to inventory her food, make some menus, and build a grocery list. I got to Albertsons to find it full of people with a checkout line that wound to the back of the store and with many shelves bare of items. While I was standing in line, Cindy texted me that she was getting out of the hospital a day early and that I needed to come talk to her physical therapist. I rushed home, put up the perishable groceries, grabbed Cindy's walker, and headed to the hospital, about forty minutes away. 

I got her home and then fixed her meals and brought her stuff as needed. But she is making a great recovery and even made her own breakfast this (Saturday) morning. She also suggested that I go off on a tour to enjoy the California coast, about a half-hour away. And Saturday was to be the only day we could expect sun for several days.

So I gathered up all the information pages she had prepared for me and started off in the gray day, still hoping the sun would soon burn off all the clouds. That didn't happen but the light changed all the time and I had a wonderful day of discovery.

One of my first views of the Pacific ocean

Western Gull- the main gulls I saw

California ground squirrel

Whimbrel

Based on the website on them, these are this years pups.  They fast for 8-10 weeks before leaving - and they are on a six mile stretch of beach in about this density. 

They are cute blobs

This guy had dug himself in

I tried to do some studies of faces - but most were asleep

The vultures were tearing into what seemed to be an erosion tube. 

Peace

I saw a few brown pelicans

None of the seals were lively for long - most awake times lasted less than two minutes

Piedras Blancas Light Station - you can only meet and go on a tour but they were shut down due to the pandemic

The light was better on the way back so I stopped along CA Hwy. 46 (Green Valley Road) for the most amazing sceenery

I think one can find almost any shade of green in this countryside now

This road has maybe twenty vineries, standing shoulder to shoulder I pulled off on an entrance to take this picture

I'm looking forward to another outing near the end of the week, when the rains stop - this time with Cindy. She has only used Tylenol for pain since she came home from the hospital and will be ready for an adventure as soon as we get a nice day.