Pheromones, Pine Beetles, and more about fires.

I talked with the Wyoming Dept. of Forestry today.  Apparently, the state deals with private landowners, not the forest service.  I’m definitely going to go for ordering pheromones for my trees. Paul in the department told me that, yes!, the grizzlies do use the Limber Pine nuts as well as the Pinus albicaulus.  He also [...]

Wolves, turkeys and free attention

A cacophony of sounds coincided this evening in one unexplainable happening.
I was outside at dusk when the turkeys in the forest started making a huge ruckus.  The last time such a noise came from them, a large hawk flew out of the forest.  But tonight was crazier.  Not only were the turkeys in a frenzy, [...]

Dancing Bear

I just had to post this.  Too funny.  I always love the warnings at the end.
Several years ago they were collaring wolves in the valley and I ran into a signage on the trail that read “”Caution.  Live Traps. Gray wolves are being trapped in this area for radio collars.  The traps are leg traps.  [...]

Bluebirds

I’m told we’re having typical March weather–one day its snowing and the next its 50 degrees and sunny.  But it must be spring because I’ve seen mountain bluebirds.  The previous owners built nesting boxes and put them all around.  I decided to check all the boxes, fix them up and clean them out.
I’m not a [...]

The Thompson Cabin

A few summers ago,  my cabin’s original owners’ son, T___, came visiting from West Virginia.  He is a surveyor and had some maps of the Clark’s Fork Canyon.
“There’s a box canyon over here”  he pointed out, “with an old cabin sitting by the river.  They call it ‘the Thompson Cabin’ cause old man Thompson lived [...]

This is love

“Little things that will change you forever, may appear from way out of the blue, making fools of everybody who don’t understand.”  __George Harrison
When I decided to purchase my cabin, I’d only been on the property for one hour.  It was 3pm and I was about to return to California on a 5pm flight.  The [...]

When a good fire is a bad fire. Grizzlies and pine nuts

I’ve been working with a small chain saw on the trees around my upper cabin.  Most of my 6 acres is on a plateau above the main cabin.  That arcreage butts up to Shoshone National Forest.  The original owner of my cabin, Doc Firor, deeded that area to Nature Conservancy who gave it to the [...]

Good fires

If you live in the GYE (Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem), you probably know your trees.  You need to, because most people burn wood here for heat.  And each type of wood burns different, with more or less heat and more or less ash.
Being a horticulturist, I know my trees.  But conifers are hard.  I’ve taken three [...]

Coyotes and Communists

Oregon Basin is sagebrush desert surrounded by sandstone formations outside of Cody.  It’s desert hiking with so many things to explore.  I’ve only been there a few times.  Its a maze of BLM dirt roads, mostly used for oil and gas explorations.  One of the oldest oil fields in Wyoming, coal was also mined here [...]

The bighorn sheep of Little Bald Ridge

The ranch manager told me yesterday that the three wolves who were shot last summer for cattle predation were terribly mangy.  Mange is the latest big problem with wolves in the GYC.  Mange is a mite that burrows into the skin of an animal, causing it to scratch.  It doesn’t kill the wolf, but in [...]