Demise of My Friend the Birch

    A few days ago I had to do the honorable thing and cut down my friend the paper birch. I moved to this place in 1970 and the birch was a nicely established young tree. Over the years I have enjoyed it's color , shade, shelter and company. Birch have very bright yellow fall leaves and a good pleasant summer green leaf. Birch have dense branches and leaves so provide excellent shade. Shelter from winds and rain have been provided by my birch. The company of my birch has been enjoyed for 42 years. Whenever I came home the birch was standing tall to welcome me.

     Over the years the birch has fought off  leaf miners and gone through a few droughts. Birch do not have a long life span and this one had lived past its normal life span. In other words it was a very elderly tree. Lastly the birch leaf borer attached the tree and this time the tree did not have the strength to fight off the infestation. Bit by bit , branch by branch the birch lurched into a decrepit state until it was time to take it down. This is the tree that had a branch break off and break my car window and trunk.

Last minutes of a long life

    So recently my friend David came over to take down the birch. David was supposed to get the wood but he declined as he didn't want to get the birch borer in his tree. Fortunately neighbors across the street came to my rescue and took the wood and most of the bigger branches for their outside stove. They were extremely helpful and helped in the total clean up of the tree,

More branches to clean up

    So there we are cleaning up the branches and wood.

Branches to be cleaned up

    The tall stump is left so that we can carve a simple sculpture on it and put our house number on it. 

Good neighbor Barb and the stump

    So another old friend has passed and gone.

    

Summer Has Been a Drag

    I don't know about you but this summer is starting to seem like it's been terribly long. Why? They haven't changed the number of days. So I started to look for some reasons  why the summer seems so long. Usually summers are too short.

   We've had some odd weather here. We had a cold spring with lots of cloud and wind. Our summer has been a mixture of hot and really hot. Along with the heat we've had rain and thunder showers. 

   Now I like a good old 20 C (70 F) summer...something that is reliable. None of all this variety. With a good steady temperature you can get into the flow of things with work and play.

    But what I really think has made this summer seem long is some out of the ordinary weather in late winter early spring. Some of the blogs I follow were reporting temperatures which were far from the ordinary. The hot spell people had was very early in spring.   People were not only showing plants growing but blooming. People were remarking about the unusual weather. Now there was a cool spell after this early warm weather but it didn't slow things down.. 

    I think the early warm weather that other bloggers reported in the east got me thinking about summer much before summer arrived here. I had it in my head that summer was here but it was not. 

   So sorry folks, I'm blaming you for me thinking that summer is really dragging by. 

   I know how I'll get even. I'll start talking about winter. I hope it comes early so that I can really have some effect. 

   But first , let's all enjoy what's left of summer.

My Rabbits Are Gone !

     Today when I checked to see if my family was still here,  I could find nothing. Now everybody knew this was going to happen but I have to tell you anyway.

    Rhubarb boy disappeared about 8 days ago. Whenever I walked by the rhubarb patch, Rhubarb Boy would pop out and look at me.  Now I didn't clean up my rhubarb patch because I didn't want to disturb him.

    Bleeding Heart girl disappeared about 3 days ago. She was not in her usual place and I couldn't find her. 

   Tomato Boy was here yesterday but he was pretty antsy. He moved back and forth in the tomato patch and he had not done this before so I knew something was up. This morning I couldn't find Tomato Boy. I watered my tomatoes thoroughly but nobody went skittering down the row to get away from the water.

   Now these little guys did no damage.  Many of you were worried about this. The mother has probably taken them to another quiet place and hidden them. When they leave their mother they will probably move out of the area.

    I have been trying to get pictures to show the size after 18 days but I did not get a good shot. What I did get was a good example of how they can find cover to hide from everybody else.

Young jack rabbit at 17 days old.

    I learned much by watching these characters. I had many misconceptions about how they behaved when they were young. The material you read varies wildly. I'm also quite sure that the behavior of each litter is somewhat different.

   So I enjoyed my visitors and was finally able to cut my grass, clean the rhubarb patch and really soak the tomatoes.

Bunny #3 is Discovered

      I found bunny #1 in my tomatoes the day after his birth on July 23rd. I've been trying to avoid watering him when I water tomatoes. This morning I checked tomato patch very carefully. He wasn't in his favorite spot. So I thought he's a big boy I guess he left my yard. I began energetically watering my tomatoes. You guessed it. Bunny # 1 got watered again.


     I accidentally found bunny # 2 when I was cleaning up the rhubarb patch. I see him occasionally as I walk by.


     Today I scared up bunny number 3 and it was a little more violent than the other two. I was cutting grass and got about 2 m from the large bleeding heart and a terrified little bunny left in a hurry. He went about 8 or 9 m  over to the tomatoes and found some cover. What a surprise! I had guessed that all four would be in the yard. I wasn't going to search for them and I'm surprised that I found them.


    These little guys are about four times the size when they were born  and they are now 13 days old. I can't get pictures as they are tightly under cover. I am also surprised that they have stayed in one spot. I always thought they moved around. So these little guys have taught me much about their life stages.

The Bunnies are Still Here

     Eight days ago I reported on the birth of four jack rabbits in my Yard. I further posted about one of the liverets (babies) I found in the yard. This little guy is still sitting in my tomatoes and my wife's afraid he's going to die. Don't worry his Mommy knows where he is and comes back every night to feed him. He has tripled his size so he's doing well.


    I had always thought and read that these little guys left the area of their birth. I thought they traveled more  so I'm very surprised to see this guy holding his spot in my tomato patch. I watered him a couple of times and then he found a secure spot. I checked on him several  times a day. I found he was terrified of the garden hose when I tried to fill the bird bath. I'm painting the fascia on the house. I put up a very noisy ladder. When I checked the little guy was gone so I was a little sad that he had disappeared on me. This morning I found him right back in his favorite spot.


    I have a large overgrown rhubarb patch and I started to clean it up this morning and suddenly there was a second bunny. I suspicioned that they would all be in the yard but I wasn't going to search for them. 


    Now Colin in Australia is going to be chortling with glee as he has been forecasting dire problems from these little guys. The jack rabbits that I'm observing are not rabbits but hares. These guys are born fully furred with their eyes open. Rabbits when born are not covered with fur and their eyes are closed. The jack rabbit is fairly large compared to rabbits. 


    So these little guys never cease to surprise me. At about age two weeks they start to move more. Nursing stops at about thirty days. 

Uranium: It's Frantic History

     I'm reading a very interesting book right now that  a geologist friend gave to me.  It's called  Uranium  : War energy, and the rock that shaped the world and it's by Tom Zoellner.


    I admit that my knowledge of uranium is somewhat limited. I've never read anything that's in any depth. My knowledge comes from news and that can be sketchy.


   When we were kids in school in the 40's and 50's we were told that if there was an atomic attack we were to go under our desks. I was not old enough to remember the Hiroshima attack. To put it bluntly as little kids during the cold war we were frightened as we didn't understand the situation and our governments were only too willing to feed the public fear of an atomic attack.


    So now to the book. This book tells the story of uranium from the time it was discovered to the present day. The first large uranium mines were in Africa. People did not know what this mysterious mineral was like. The Dutch mining company employed slave labor to get the uranium out of the ground. Another location was in eastern Europe were German prisoners were forced to mine the stuff. There was no concept of what danger there was in uranium. The ore was reduced to a more pure form and became more hazardous. The stuff was shipped around the world in barrels.


    Physicists discovered that the substance could be used to make a very powerful bomb. The United States wanted to use the bomb to end the Second World War but they did not have enough uranium to get the substance needed to produce a bomb. They were worried that the Germans would produce a bomb. What surprised me is that much uranium was found in New Mexico. The mining was primitive operation. There were small deposits and some was dug out by hand and trucked to a large processing plant. All of this was done without any idea that the product was hazardous.


    The first bombs made were tested and the developers were very impressed with the big bang. There was no idea of the dangers of radiation. People were very close to the detonation site. They were only concentrating on the power.


   Since the cold war there has been more emphasis on producing electrical power and trying to back away from the abbyss of total destruction.


  I think we are still at the beginning working with and controlling uranium. We have not discovered any way of safely disposing of the substance once it's been used.


   So for an interesting and understandable account I recommend that you take a look at  this book.

Guess What: Part II

     I love tomatoes and so I baby my tomatoes. I've loved tomatoes since I was a little kid. I'd come home from school and stick three of four tomatoes in my pocket and eat them like apples. I water them with a watering can so that water doesn't get on the blooms. Fussy? I know I am. 


     Today I was watering about 1:00 P M and all of a sudden something moved under a tomato. After I recovered from the shock I saw that it was one of the baby rabbits. So there I was pouring water on a poor little baby rabbit. I'm not a very nice guy! He moved less than a meter and then froze. I ran in the house for my camera and got some poor shots of an awesome two day old rabbit . So this is Part II.

Little guy after a bit of  an unexpected shower.

I don't think anybody can see me!

Nice and shady in here.

Nobody will ever see me here.

    If you read my last post I pompously said that all the baby rabbits had left my yard!! You won't believe a word I say after this. I've completely blown my credibility. So now I will go out on a limb and say that the babies  are all probably in my yard somewhere. I did look around but didn't find anything. When I got back home this afternoon the little guy had disappeared.


    And here I thought I was finished with my baby rabbits?