Staycation Part Deux

After a few days of reflection, and cleaning, Husbandman and I drove up to the snow and then down to the dunes for some plant watching, if that is even a real thing, and bird watching. Yes, that's right, not only do we live on the ocean but we live close enough to an area that it snows every year that we can visit both on the same day.
Check out the hot dune restoration action taking place.
Funny Story: Friends of the Dunes has been attempting a full scale re-establishment of native species to the dunes, which requires the removal of invasive European Beach Grass. However, FOTD has been hampered in their efforts by a lawsuit from a nearby resident who believes that the removal of said grass will expose his home to tsunami dangers. I guess I should mention here that the Manila Peninsula where this is taking place is a quarter-mile wide strip of sand in between Humboldt Bay and the Pacific Ocean, if this man thinks that some beach grass will protect his home from tsunami, well, that's just something special right there.
And now back to the daily grind. Another nice thing about working with animals is that they actually are happy to see you when you've been gone for a while.

Happy Birthday to a Real Classy Lady

Happy Birthday Momma. You are awesome and we love you very much.

Brew

I almost forgot to mention that Husbandman won second place in the Co-Op Home Brew contest with his Stout. I should also mention that this was his first brew contest and his first brew from scratch via his own recipe.
What can't this guy do? On our trip to Oregon he helped a little old woman whose children had left her alone in the car at a beach for 4 hours, then yesterday when we were walking around town he helped a woman with her wheelchair. I have quite possibly married the most wonderful guy in the world.

Staycation

So Husbandman and I took the week off with plans to travel down to Sacramento to look for a place to rent while he's working for the Forest Service this summer. But we didn't go. Instead we've devoted the week to cleaning out the house and exploring our little gem of a region.
On Tuesday we drove up to Oregon, and when I say we went to Oregon I mean that we took five hours to drive 90 miles because we stopped every chance we got to explore places we haven't been before in Crescent City and barely over the border.
No we didn't see any damn whales, despite the fact that there was an article about the large amount of grey whales at the mouth of the Klamath. See any whales here? Cuz I sure didn't.

A Little Kitteh Tenderness

Ah Clyde. If you come to my work you will see a lot of animals, Clyde is not one of these. A reclusive, un-trusting, gangly, mangly tom cat, Clyde never comes out when public is nearby, having suffered some mysterious but lasting slight in his pre-zoo life, Clyde stalks rodents and hides in bushes or outbuildings during the day. After knowing him for 5 years he now lets me pick him up, often bursting from a bush where he has been snoozing or stalking, greeting me with "meh!" "Meh" Meh". Love this guy.

Friday

Often when I'm talking to friends who I haven't seen in a while, and that generally means all my friends, I explain that I have been out of touch because I'm always at work. Actually that's not true. I wake up in the morning, catch the bus, walk up to work, work all day, walk down to the bus, ride the bus home, clean up around the house a little, eat, read, watch a movie, fall asleep. Lather, rinse, repeat. So a more truthful answer would be "well, I haven't been around because I'm either on the bus, walking, at work, or hanging out with Husbandman for the few precious hours before I have to wake up and do it all again." But then I would just sound like I'm wining, which I happen to be very good at thankyouverymuch, but try not to do too often.
A Bonus: Husbandman and I have the same job for the most part so we can switch shifts if the need arises. Today we had a conversation that went a little something like this:
Me: "So are you going to work tonight or do you want me to?"
Him: "What do you want?"
Me: "It doesn't matter to me, I can work or you can"
Him: "Do you want me to work for you?"
Me: "I don't mind working, really, but if you want to, that's cool."
Him: "Okay, I'll work, because you want me to."
Me: "If you don't want to work I'll do it, really I don't mind"
Him: "You want me to work so I'll do it"
Me, slightly agitated: "No! That's not what I'm saying! I'm perfectly cool with working today, I was expecting to!
All I was asking is if you wanted to work or not!"
Him: "Ha Ha Ha, I love messing with you, sorry, it's just so easy"
Me: "So are you working or am I?"
Him: "Yeah, I'll work, no problem"

It's a miracle we can get anything done without a minor stroke on my part.

Of Humminbirds and Coots

Husbandman has been working on his Senior project for the past few weeks, and so most of our attention has been directed at coots and marshlands and cackling geese and honking geese and quiet geese as well.
Today during lunch I came into the office and one of the keepers, who has another job rescuing wildlife, was busy rescuing an Allan's hummingbird that had smacked into the cafe window.
I'm beat. Samosas for dinner and a few more chapters of "She's Come Undone" by Wally Lamb (one of those books I've read so many times the pages in the middle are coming, well, undone) will chill me out.
Next week is Spring Break, woot.
The hummingbird was fine, by the way.

Another Beautiful Day

The Hammond Hole

We live in Humboldt County, one of the more beautiful areas I have ever lived, and subsequently we love to go out and hike and explore and watch birds and all that crap. Today, we explored the fairly recently addition to the Hammond Trail, which we live very close to. Achille likes to look for rough skinned newts in the puddles along the trail, I like to watch for birds.
Up until last year the Hammond Trail ended just north of the Mad River mouth, now it extends well past the airport and ends at Little River Beach. I believe the path is on the site of a logging train for the Hammond Lumber Mill, but I could very well be mistaken.
One of the new features to our little trail is a half mile interpretive loop that displays the restoration of salmon habitat in Widow White Creek, very cool. And no, we didn't see any whales.
But I did see:
Red-tailed Haw
Red Legged Hawk
Belted Kingfisher
Common Merganser
Song Sparrow
Dark-Eyed Junco
Common Raven
White Crowned Sparrow
Ruby Crowned Kinglet
Swainson's Thrush
Winter Wren -----new to my lifer list

Zaftig

I know how you feel, buddy.

The shorter, hairier love of my life.

Meet Jerry.
Jerry, a crossbreed goat with a droopy lip and a propensity to cause trouble lives at the zoo. I love this goat, not in the way that would get me fired, but in the affection someone feels towards a leeward uncle or Jackie Gleason as a child. And when I say Jackie Gleason, I of course mean Jackie Coogan.

Well, let's just see how long I can keep this up

Achille and I have been birding on Sunday's lately. If we have money we get up around 10, go to Ramone's or Wildberrie's for breakfast and then head out to the Arcata Marsh or the Humboldt Wildlife Refuge.
I never thought I would get into birding, but, well, I did. I'm a birder, just without a silly hat.
Today we saw a peregrine falcon and a couple of meadowlarks, cha-ching! Two whole new birds for my lifer list.