Woo hoo! Company!

Sunday morning was really overcast.  Gracie and I had breakfast out on the deck as there were big occasional drops of rain falling from the sky.  I figured as soon as I settled myself out there with my oats and coffee the clouds would open up and dump on me.  I wasn't far off in my prediction.  It started.  It stopped.  But then it rained for real for just a short time.  Did I mention I had washed the car?  Humph.













As it was a cool morning I decided to bake...dark chocolate chip cookies.  Larry is going to strangle me.  I haven't baked cookies at all this year and I decided to get all Martha Stewart while he's out of town...tee hee.  I froze most of them.  Really.  I did!

Auntie Annie and Uncle Bob

Sunday afternoon my company arrived!  Woo hoo!  Sad that Larry couldn't be here though.  Larry's Uncle Bob and Aunt Annie stopped on their way home from a quick trip up to Vancouver, WA.  They live in Pahrump, NV, I think of them as Hawaiian desert flowers...hahaha.  They had been meaning to get here to see our new digs and like for most of us life keeps throwing up detours.  Same goes for us, we haven't made it back down there since we've nested here.

Taking pictures of a deer.  Look at that weird
white spirally thing on the right upper edge of this picture.
Must be a bat, or else a weird other dimensional flying land fish.

Anyhow, we had a wonderful visit.  The weather was perfect and the smoke stayed away so we could really enjoy the deck and garden.  Uncle explored about every inch of the two acres and took pictures and video.  He was looking hard for a snake but never found one.  The turkeys showed up their second night to put on their roosting in the pines show.

Monday afternoon Annie and I were visiting on the deck and we started to notice the vulture shadows getting big and close.  They were swooping low through the front yard.  One came right at us and Annie and I both thought it was coming under the deck roof to join us and at the last second it lifted over the roof.  Crazy.  A short time later an acquaintance that had driven past into the court and back out saw us on the deck and stopped.  He wanted to let me know there was a dead fawn in the dip by the road and next to our drive.  Crap.  None of us had seen it.

Uncle was having an afternoon siesta inside, so Annie and I went over to assess the situation.  Yup, dead.  Starting to bloat, but didn't smell unless we got real close, rigor too.  I figured it had been hit by a car, which is sad as people should be going so slow along this drive that they should be able to stop or at least barely tap one of these crazy animals.  The babies get all discombobulated when a car comes along, they can never decide which way to go.  Oh well.

I called Larry to find out about rope locations, because I figured we were going to have to drag it somewhere, it was too close to the house and the drive.  The vultures were going to certainly find it but they get shy and fly off when a car or people get too close and the sooner they do their business the better!

Uncle being the crazy investigator of all things natural just walked right over to it and grabbed an ear and picked up the head.  Ick.  He said it wasn't that heavy so I went off for the wheelbarrow.  He and Annie had looked it over by the time I got back and Annie saw a bruise on it's side and it's front leg was broken so it had clearly been hit by something.  Uncle goofed a bit like hunter's do after a kill, funny man.  Then he put the carcass in the wheelbarrow and off we went for the far corner of our property where he dumped it.  About an hour before nightfall the vultures found where we had moved it and were getting busy with their meal and the clean up.  I told Bob and Annie...do we provide entertainment or what?!











Annie and Bob left very early Tuesday morning.  I was gone most of the afternoon, but the vultures kept busy all day.  Between them, a couple of neighborhood dogs that run around and whatever wild animals were about on Monday night by twenty four hours later there was nothing but some leg bones with a couple of hooves and a short distance away the rib cage.  Good job by the clean up crew!  The circle of life.  The vultures are such huge birds and it is fascinating to watch them swoop through and land in the trees, on the ground or wherever they choose to wait their turn.  You can hear the wind through their feathers.  One sounded like his wings needed a little grease.

Uncle showing Larry that he was eating
one of the asian pears.  They are getting ripe and juicy and
Larry is missing them.

Tuesday morning we were socked in here with smoke from the Rim fire down by Yosemite.  Yesterday and today it comes and goes but hasn't been too bad.  The fire between here and Tahoe, the American fire, is mostly contained, though until all the hot spots are out there will continue to be smoke from the fire.  The Rim fire is huge and only partially contained, burning up some history down there as I understand it.  The fire that Larry is at, the Corral complex has a bit of containment but is still a long way from being over too.  August in California.

All is good with Larry.  He emailed me some photos of the heli base, maybe I'll get some posted here today or tomorrow.

I aim to keep the guests happy.  They told me
how they picked their tomatoes every day, and I wanted
them to feel at home...hahahaha!

Hamming it up on the trailcam!

This is giving perspective of the size of the Rim Fire.
That is really big!  I got this from the Sac weather service.