Country living

No, we didn't get cows. These are the neighbor's cows, back for a visit. Again. For the 50 millionth time.
Jasmine knows they shouldn't be here, and chases them. That scares the cows, and when they're scared they have a little runny-poop problem.
Maybe it's a defense mechanism and they're hoping that the pursuer will slip on it. Maybe it makes them lighter and it's easier to flee. In any case, Jasmine was a little too close. You can't see it well in this picture, but she has it all over her right side.
So guess what I spent a lot of time doing yesterday. Thanks a lot, neighbor.

Mt Rainier Route Photos

The heavy snowfall from last week slowed a number of teams, many have not made the summit. Since we're lite on route conditions, I'll share these recent climbing route photos. Here is the Nisqually Cleaver taken on May 30th.

There are a number of climbers at Camp Muir this weekend, none have reported successful ascents. One Seattle party spent 15 hours pushing the route in from Camp Schurman, while another team summited on Liberty Ridge Thursday/Friday. The "Liberty" team took quite a bit of extra time and had to spend at least one night on top... They radioed from Camp Schurman on Saturday to report that one member had 7 digits with frostbite! We remind climbers not to underestimate how physically difficult it is to climb Liberty Ridge.
Photo by Mike Gauthier

After a Tough Day with...

...Barbara at obedience, Sierra and I needed to do some serious hangin' at the Country Club.

On the way there, we slept after slaking our thirst with copious amounts of water. Jumping and chasing after things we don't have a fondness for definitely tires us out. Madame Chauffeur, more water back here!

I curled my big bod up into a tiny ball on this little seat, while Sierra tried to
find a good place to chill.
Oh yeah... Avalon came along too. She has her own personal fan - pffffff. After a nice swim and our own cool version of a round of golf, we hung out in the lounge... er... on one of the lounges.
Ha Cha Cha! Hey, Waiter - over here! Two orders of Bully sticks with sides of water and plenty of ice cubes, please!
Hey! Where'd everybuddy go? Where's da Sis?

( From Mom: Bafana Bafana! Congrats on the great game yesterday - and the opening ceremonies were magnaminously awesome - looking forward to more "football"!!! - Slowly, slowly, we will begin catching up - apologies for our lack of commenting lately...)

Balanced Ice

This was one heck of a beautiful piece of ice, and it sure was a lot of fun (and a challenge!) to photograph. It was a challenge because it rested atop a 6 foot high pile of plate ice that at it's core was solid ice, but on the surface was not. The surface was lined with loose plate ice anywhere from 1 to 3 inches thick. I had to scramble to the top of this ice pile in order to get this photo with this perspective from my wide-angle lens. It was kind of like trying to climb an extremely steep sand dune... for each step up I slid almost a complete step back down, except this wasn't soft sand. It was cold, hard ice that with each step broke into a million pieces. Eventually, though, I made it to the top of the mound and got up close and personal with this piece of ice. The formation you see here was only about two feet across, and I was only about two feet away from it with my 17mm lens. The way the sky was reflecting within the ice was awesome, to say the least. I sure do love this time of year, it affords countless unique opportunities for photos!

Wedding Day!

Jessica and I got married today! We had a beautiful ceremony filled with friends, family and love. It really was a perfect day. We'd like to extend our thanks to all those that helped make this day perfectfor us. We appreciate and love you all!

Special thanks to Timothy Young for officiating, Staci Drouillard for the incredible cake and our friend Paul for taking beautiful photos throughout the day! And a very special thanks to Carah Thomas, Rod Dockan and Al Oikari of Cook County's Most Wanted for providing the awesome music for our ceremony. You guys were incredible and we totally loved the "Joy of My Life" song... you guys are the best! Thank You :-)

Hummingbird vine

My sister was sold this plant labeled as Hummingbird Vine.
I knew right away that it wasn't what most people call Hummingbird Vine. (That would be Cypress Vine, Ipomoea quamoclit, shown below.)

I suspect that what she bought was actually Campsis radicans, a.k.a. Trumpet Vine, Trumpet Creeper, or (my favorite) Cow Itch.
Looking around the internet, some people do apparently call the first plant Hummingbird Vine. But it's certainly not the preferred name. Not here, anyway.
I was all ready to blame Walmart or Lowe's for the mistake, and tell her to demand a refund. But it turns out she bought the plant from the Birmingham Botanical Garden's plant sale. (Whoops.)
Trumpet Vine is native here, but many people consider it invasive in the garden.
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Cypress vine photo by Janice Waltzer via Flickr.

Late Summer Pest: Foliar Nematodes

As disturbing as it may sound, there are microscopic roundworms called nematodes all around our natural environment. They live in the soil, on roots, in leaves and in many other unexpected places. The ones that I always think about as unbelievable and icky are the nematodes that can be found in bottles of unpasteurized pepper vinegar. They are benign to you and me, but just the idea that they could be there makes me cringe. (Are y'all now going to reconsider before you sprinkle your collards with pepper vinegar this fall? I'm still going to use it.....it's like thinking about sharks when you are swimming in the ocean. You just can't think about it.)

My favorite nematodes (as we've established, I am a geek) are the Foliar Nematodes. Each nematode swims into a stomate in a film of surface water and feeds on the leaves within a leaf cell. Once they have eaten all of the carbohydrates from within an area, they swim out of the stomate and into another area of the leaf (They can't chew through the tough leaf veins).
I found nematodes last week on Hostas while I was scouting a nursery. Here is what the damage looks like:The darker areas are show where the nematodes have already been. The lighter yellow-green areas are where they are now.
Hostas are monocots, so the leaf veins run parallel to each other. This explains the pattern of damage that they cause on Hostas.
On dicots the damage is different, as seen on this Viburnum leaf. The injury has more of a stained glass effect because of the netted vein pattern. To diagnose foliar nematodes, you simply cut out a tiny square from an area that is discolored (not brown) and put it in a glass dish with some water. I use a watch glass.
When you look through a dissecting scope, you will see clear nematodes swimming out of the leaf edges and into the water.So what's the big deal about nematodes? Well, foliar nematodes cause leaf damage, stunting and impact the overall health and vigor of the plant. And they are hard to treat.
If you have a nursery or greenhouse, throw away badly infested plants. Spray the rest of the crop with Pylon at the high rate (2 applications, one week apart).
If you are a homeowner, do not buy plants with this type of damage. These nematodes have the ability to live for several years in a state called anhydrobiosis where they dry down completely and go dormant. As soon as moisture returns and conditions are right, they revive themselves and infest plants. You could put an infested leaf in an envelope, file it on a shelf and rehydrate the nematodes years later! Not exactly fair, yet very interesting.