pinecone

pine cone is code for i spent all day in the office and didn't get to take a picture until my evening walk around the neighborhood...so i took a picture of a pine cone.  I know, its a long and obscure code, but it is what it is...what can ya do about it?

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working hard..

I hug trees.  Especially 100 year old incense cedars.

I found this guy today...its a Misumena Vatia I think; they can change colors to light yellow and dark yellow depending on the surface they're on.  This guy was on a Tiger Lilly, so he was bright!

Wildflowers!  I can't identify these, but they're perrty!  

A beautiful doe stopped by to say hello too!

This is my job.  I walk around in the woods and make sure streams are healthy.  Then I try to ID flowers and bugs for fun!  

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big day

today was a big day: at work i did rapid stream assessments and hiked cascade creek from 89 down to Tahoe in an effort to locate any unhealthy areas that might need attention.  Then after work I bought a craigslist cheapo mountain bike (not awesome, but far better than what i had).  And then, while we were in the garage playing with my new bike i looked out across the street and saw first a coyote and then my first Tahoe bear.  He was slinking across the neighbors yard, right across the street!  Silly boy didn't notice that the neighbor was sitting in his chair in his driveway, not 10 feet from the bear.  When I said "is that a bear?" to my roommate he turned around, jumped up, and chased the big lug off his property and up a tree in the vacant lot next to his house.  Sadly I didn't get a picture of the bear or the coyote, but I did take this one at work:

and its alright i guess....not a bear or anything though...

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Suzy Lake

This morning Reyna and I hiked up to Suzy Lake in the Desolation Wilderness.  It was a beautiful hike to a beautiful lake that was a lot more secluded than Lake Tahoe.  The best part?  We packed in Reyna's inflatable raft and small hand pump and floated around in the lake on a little boat!

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heavenly

(this is for yesterday, today's will be posted later today)

Last night was the 20th anniversary gala fundraiser for the Tahoe Baikal Institute and I was invited to rub elbows with donors.  There was a silent Auction, signature drinks, and the best part, it was held at the top of the tram at the lodge at Heavenly ski resort; so we spent the evening out on the balcony enjoying the fabulous band and watch the sun set over Lake Tahoe. Heres my favorite shot of the night:

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long day

i'm too tired to even try to post anything better than this crappy black and white is snapped outside of the Tahoe Environmental Research Center today while I was waiting for someone to let me into the lab to pick up my veg samples.  here it is...

now its time to sleeeeeep.

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top 10 reasons to visit me in Tahoe!

Got up for sunrise this morning (after a nearly sleepless night thanks to the two large dogs outside my bedroom door barking their little hearts out at the howling coyotes outside...all night long...) and my roomy and i hit the road for Emerald Bay to watch the sunrise...here are some of my favorite shots from the morning:

Ten:

moonshine and waterfall

Nine:

Emerald Bay

Eight:

all of Emerald Bay

Seven:

little lighter now...

Six:

Sunshine!

Five:

professional photogs sell pictures that look like this in tourist traps all over Tahoe for like $100 a pop, and i'm giving you this one for free....you're welcome :o)

Four:

sometimes i have to pinch myself to make sure i'm not imagining how gorgeous this place is

Three:

a stop at the beach on the way home...6 am is the time to go, we had the whole place to ourselves!

Two:

footprints in the sand

One:

LT baby!  

Obviously those are only ten, and they may not even be the top ten exactly, there are definitely more...but anyway theres a taste!  I love weekends!  Back to work tomorrow, but today, I am free!

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fabulously foggy hills

Sunshine and foggy trees, somewhere before Echo Summit on Highway 50...

Snowfall and cliff faces, somewhere after Echo Summit on Highway 50...

These are taken within probably 20 minutes of each other this morning, the only difference between them: 1 or 2 thousand vertical feet.  

California's weird.

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south lake tahoe...aka my soon to be new home

taken from my moving vehicle today on my way down the mountain.  just lovely isn't it?

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in the field...

I worked from 6:30 am to 6:30 pm today, helping out with the IMS program at work (an irrigation management program provided to Ag customers).  I spent the day cruising from vineyard to orchard to vineyard again, using a neutron probe to monitor soil moisture levels with my colleague.  I saw quail, turkeys, llamas, tons of deer, several very sweet and very friendly dogs, and even dozens of peacocks being kept as pets at 2 different vineyards.  We crossed the oldest suspension bridge in California (so i'm told) and this is the view of the river canyon that bridge spans.  The river you see is the South Fork American (a watershed very close to my heart, as I have done most of my learning out here thus far on and in this very watershed).  River levels are historically much higher than this (you can see where the water level used to be, the tops of the bare rock) but these days its running much lower because of upstream dams and a series of drought years.  At least now, for four hours a day, 6 days a week, all summer long, the dams are required to release a minimum of 1500 cfs (guestimate, since i don't have the actual value right here, but its close to this) for the rafting companies.  Rafters got these levels guaranteed years ago, and without it i'm sure they'd all be out of business by now.  Theres so much more I could share about this river, but I'm not all that sure you folks are that interested so I'll leave some for later.  

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Up to Winterland!

I've never lived anywhere quite like this before, where a brief one hour drive will take you up several thousand feet in elevation, to a town where its still winter.  I hopped up to south lake tahoe today, took my photo of the day through my windshield on the way up.  So pretty!

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what the H-E-doublehockeysticks?!?!

sooooooo.....it was 75 last week.  and then this morning....i woke up to this:

Do you think they're going to make it?

oh my pooooor babies!

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sorry stowe...lake placid still wins

taken out of a moving vehicle...and still gorgeous.

this one was an accident...just a random snap before we went into the trees and lost the view, but i think its lovely.

life is a winding road.

especially mine.

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