People Around the Ranch - part 1 of 3

Ranch Scenery - May 2014

Heat Wave

In celebration of this week's heatwave, and to keep us from missing Zach too much (he's away all week), the girls and I picked up a pizza from Nick's, and had a swim/dinner at Lake Temescal. It was perrrrfect! 

The News: Soccer Rocker

Found this on a desk as I was cleaning up - probably written a few weeks ago around the time of Clara's first game, when she made that awesome sign. I love how supportive Molly is of her little sister, and I know she's working really hard on that. I'm so proud of her!

Animals on the Ranch

We saw loads of animals on the ranch this weekend, and some evidence of unidentified animals.
Here's Manny & Bella, looking beautiful & romping:

If you look closely in the next two pictures, you might be able to spot the lizard that Molly & I found (most likely some kind of Alligator Lizard, based on my internet research).

There seem to be lots of these fun Redwinged Blackbirds - an obvious and easy to identify bird. Molly's small bird guide indicates that it's just the males with the red shoulders, but it doesn't include a picture of the female. It also notes that they are marsh birds, nesting in reeds and cattails (which is why we saw so many by the stock ponds), and flocking in the Fall-Winter-Spring.

Next up are some unidentified traces of animals: scat and bones. Best guess on the big scat is bear, based on it's size, the amount of plant material, and a lot of conjecture. The smaller scat, with it's manzanita berries, is perhaps coyote. There's a lot of that around the ranch.