Wildflowers

Every spring, whether the rain is plentiful or sparse, the hills around my home sprout into flower.  The picture included here shows a hillside with several patches of a rather common plant, one we call Fiddleneck.

This picture was taken in my back field, about 300 yards northwest of my house.  The ridge with the Fiddleneck on it is between my home and Springville.  The big boulder on top of the left (west) end of the ridge has a vague similarity to a snail, so this ridge is called Snailhead.

The rain season this year has been very unusual, to say the least.  We have an annual average in this area of 12.0 inches. Our first rainfall this season came in the month of September, but was only 0.27 inches.  November was dry all month, and December might as well have been.  January wasn't too bad, and February was a little short.  But look out March.  Around here we've been calling it a "miracle March"

Sep 0.27
Oct 0.71
Nov 0.00
Dec 0.11
Jan 1.95
Feb 0.78
Mar 6.21
Apr 0.63

The total rainfall to date is 10.66 inches. This is close enough to our average 12.0 inches to be able to easily grow grass for the cattle.

When we start into spring, one of the pleasures in the Sierra Nevada Foothills is the growth of wildflowers.  Every year, depending at least partly on the timing of the rains, the flowers differ in the amount of color, and the location of the plants.

On slopes where the Fiddleneck proliferates, it isn't unusual to see a few Poppys blooming.  They show up as a much darker orange, and not as yellow.  But so far this area seems to be strictly Fiddleneck. And, this year, it is appearing on slopes where I have not noticed it before

Snake Season

Where we live in the foothills, it is not unusual for us to have rattlesnakes visit us on our hilltop.  This requires us to watch where we put our feet and where we walk. Every spring when it begins to warm up, we know the snakes have come out of their winter holes, and are hunting for a meal.

This past week, I put Bob, our hired man, to work weeding and digging up some junky plants. My wife was getting ready to leave the house.  I stepped into the house to talk to her about the rest of the day.

When I started out the back door, I met Bob.  He was looking very serious.  "What's wrong Bob?"

"I just killed a rattlesnake in those weeds."

"Did you see him first, or did he surprise you?"

"If those weeds hadn't been so thick and heavy, when he struck, he might have hit my boot."

And what is even worse, I walked out through those same weeds the day before to pick some oranges to take in the house. I thought about the idea of a snake being in there, but then decided it was too cool for snakes quite yet.

I was raised on this hilltop, and grew up working on a ranch. We went out into the hills riding, and it wasn't unusual to see a rattler now and then. And you can bet we watched where we walked, especially around places that could hide a waiting snake.

One summer I worked at a boys camp in the mountains as the Wrangler.  My job was to care for the horses, pack the boys' luggage from the trailhead to camp, then take the individual counselors and their small group of campers on trail rides.  That summer I killed eight snakes in the mountains, and another four when I came home to the ranch in the fall.  It seemed everywhere I looked I found another snake.