Little Dudes: Spotted Bat (Euderma maculatum)

Michael Durham Photography has a plethora of great wildlife photos posted on his blog, which I encourage you to check out. This post with the Spotted Bat really caught my attention.

Here are some of the photos, click here for the rest. Oh and remember you can click on the photos to get bigger versions.





Enjoy little spotted furry flying dudes,

Bp

[all picture credits at Michael Durham's site]

Take a baby Mushrooming! Take a class on taking your bebeh mushrooming!

What have I been doing you ask? Well, getting out and mushrooming as often as I can. Since I'm home with the Bebeh 3 days a week, we just take her along.

Some very helpful, patient and kind friends and I have made two trips up into the Oregon Cascades for mushrooms in the last two weeks. The first trip was dry and sunny and provided us with those lovely, early-season tan chanterelles. Dry and clean and perfect for pasta.

The second trip was much colder (in the low 40's) and wet, and we really had to bushwhack to get in. The baby was an absolute trooper, got swaddled up and conked out for an hour once we got into good mushrooming territory. Thanks to Canukistani Kate not only for the pictures but for being on Nap Duty both trips.

As for the class, here is the info from Arctos School of Herbal and Botanical Studies:

Mama/Papa and Babe Mushroom Outing with Missy Rohs
Tuesday, October 6, 10am-4pm

By special request, this excursion is geared towards parents with little ones. The day is a little shorter, and we won't be away from the car for more than an hour and a half at a time. This parent- and baby-friendly hunt will focus on delicious edible mushrooms like Chanterelles and Matsutake. Our hope is that we'll not only find an array of beautiful fungi, but score a basketful to take home and savor! Bring sturdy hiking shoes, water, and lunch.

Carpool will meet in SE Portland. Register by Oct. 3rd by emailing missy@arctosschool.org.
Cost: $35 per adult (sliding scale available) -- kids under 10 are free!







Enjoy sharing your life with little ones,

Bp

[huge thanks to Canukistani Kate for not only the pictures, but all the baby holding]

My Housemate is better than Yours: The Rose Wall

T. is rocking the garden this year.

Check out this noise -- a beautifully executed rose wall behind the bee hive on the South side of the house. Seems he set it up right, and chose the right varieties to make it happen. Just amazing.

What can I say, my Housemate is better than yours. Sorry, but it's true.






Enjoy friends who help make your life immeasurably better,

Bp

Saturday Morning Awesome: Stills

Since I don't have any moving-picture awesomeness, I thought I'd provide two stills.

This first one is so awesome I have a hard time looking directly at it for any length of time -- it burns with awesomeness. I, unfortunately, have no attribution. My source was a Facebook group called "I have to pee when I get home." Basically an enormous compendium of intartube randomness.

I know that's a lot to take in, I'll leave it at that.



Another unattributed photograph posted at xx-xy.org (whatever that is) that rocks so hard I had to share it. It's also begging for a caption, but I won't put ya'll through that.



Enjoy following the quirks of the kids these days,

Bp

Sorry for no post today -- but, IT'S A GIRL!!!

See my doctor's note on the right for why I missed my allotted post today: Her name is Vivian, and she was 9 lbs. 15 Oz. 21" long. She's quite a little peanut.

Bp

Spring starts for the garden -- plants and animals

We lose our breakfast nook in certain seasons. Spring is a big one -- it's a nice south-facing 3-windowed space, practically a greenhouse. T. does his starts there and begins the hardening process, and this year we have chicks too.

The starts in the picture are too numerous to name -- but a good mix of veggies and flowers.

The wee ones are a mix of Australorps, a very pretty black chicken with green iridescence in the feathers, very steady laying breed; Silver-laced Wyandottes, a hearty laying hen with amazingly beautiful plumage; and the special rare-breed, Delawares. Looks like the new generational theme in the flock is black and white formal.

Whenever we raise chicks, we raise many more than we'll ever need because there are always folks looking for pullets later in the season. Plus, our friends up on the mountain have a ravening band of mutt chickens in a big forest enclosure, and any new breed to add to the mix just makes their flock hybrids stronger. There's always room for more up there.

And we have the roughest chore too -- to pick up and play with the chicks a lot as they're growing up. It's a tough one, but we suck it up and do it. We've found that the adult chickens are so much easier to deal with if the chicks get handled and talked to a lot. Jobs like catching them to clip wings and check feet are much less noisy and dramatic.





Enjoy bad photography of lovely spring garden tasks,

Bp

Beautiful photoset of Mount Mabu

My friend Babs sent me a link to this Guardian.uk photoset of Mt. Mabu exploration in Mozambique. It has been relatively un-studied and promises to contain many biological treasures. Check out that little dude in the second photo there, gorgeous.






Enjoy the planet showering us with new living beauties, still,

Bp

[photo credits in linked slideshow]

Happy Birthday Pops!

Quick personal note -- my father is approximately 8 meelion years old as of yesterday (technical problems stopped me from posting this on the 17th).

Here is a picture that captures his inner child perfectly.

Happy Birthday Dad, I Love You (you big geek),

Bp

[photo via Thomas Daniel]

Dogsmile

Working dogs strike me as the happiest dogs. Here is a picture of a bird dog happily working her butt off. You can't tell me dogs don't smile.

Thanks to Stu for taking me out chasing birds this last week and giving me the chance to see his pups do their thing. It was a blast.



Enjoy watching trained professionals ply their craft,

Bp

Nuking a blog: The 17 Gardens of the Outer Nethers

I really loved the name of that blog. It was Doc Ock's kid who walked around our property when he was 8 years old, and afterward announced that he had counted 17 whole gardens in our yard. I started to correct him and say "those are beds, like parts of gardens" but then stopped myself. "Yep, you are exactly right, there are 17 gardens here!"

Anyway, in the Summer of 2007, I was a young and impetuous blogger and thought that I would need a separate blog as an occasional place to post the tons and tons of garden photos I was planning to take. As it turns out, I needed to finish school, and work, and take care of the house, as WELL AS blog. So that blog is no longer needed. I'll post all the garden related posts here instead.

Below, pictures of the front yard, the front gate, and one of T's amazing bouquets -- all from The 17 Gardens of the Outer Nethers blog, 2007.





Enjoy realizing that even more of your interests can be accommodated by a single, personal blog,

Bp

Photo essay: creating a "Mushroom Tree"

As I mentioned last month, we are going to attempt to grow wild mushrooms in our back yard. I ordered 300 plugs of Chicken of the Woods spawn from Fungi Perfecti.

The first picture is of the bag of plug spawn.


The second is the back of the bag, showing a healthy bunch of plugs.


The third is looking into the bag, seeing a nice, healthy cottony network of mycelium around all the plugs. The instructions were to let the box and spawn sit for up to a month before using so the mycelium could recover from the shipping. When it looked this way, I decided it was ready to go.


The next picture shows a 5/16" drillbit and a few holes in the "diamond" pattern suggested in the 10-page booklet supplied by Fungi Perfecti. The bit was around 4 1/2" long, and I was shooting for a distance of 3-4" between holes -- so used it as a rough measure.


Next is 4 plugs set in the holes, and only the top one pounded in. I used a finish hammer for this, as I couldn't find our rubber mallet.

Next is a typical "field" of plugs. My impression is that you want fields like this, as opposed to thin runs in the wood. The plug spawn grows out from the spot where it was introduced until it reaches the next one growing out from another location. When the mycelium reach each other, they bind up and support each other's growth -- so wide fields of plugs are better than thin paths.


The last picture is the incipient Mushroom Tree itself. I did a nice wide collar of plugs about 4' off the ground all around the trunk (out of reach of chickens, who I think would go after the young mushrooms), then a nice wide stripe all the way up the front to a collar around the top. When it blooms (anywhere from 6-12 months from now), it's going to look totally cool.

Chicken of the Woods (Laetiporus sulphureus) mushrooms are not only edible, but really bright and beautiful -- check out these links for good pictures: Wikipedia, American Mushrooms.com, and some doozies from the New Jersey Mycological Association.

Enjoy creating edible art in your garden,

Bp

Too Late

We like to call this photo "A little too little, a little too late." The Wife's 2nd trimester belly next to an ironic mailing we just received.

We crack ourselves up.



Enjoy being let into our house's bizarre sense of humor,

Bp

Election Map Cake -- inspired by The Wife

The Wife has convinced her boss's daughter (a PhD in poli sci who lives in D.C.) to make an Election Map Cake. It will be frosted as the election results come in (except for the stalwarts that she already decided to call, as you can see), and then eaten when the results are final.

The Wife is very proud she convinced someone to make this, and demanded I post a picture. Here ya go hun.



Enjoy wifely demands,

Bp

Major Herp sighting: Coast giant salamander , Dicamptodon tenebrosus

Look at that handsome Fella!

I was so excited when a mushroom picking friend spotted this "little dude" when we were in the woods. I had just walked past it, in fact. At first, I thought it was a Cope's giant salamander (Dicamptodon copei), but on closer inspection I do believe it was a Coast giant salamander (Dicamptodon tenebrosus). Make sure to click on the thumbnail photos to get a better look at this handsome dude(ette).

I call this a major herp sighting -- but that only applies to me and my excitement level. These guys aren't rare, but they can be rare to spot due to their reclusiveness and camouflage. "Real" herp experts in this region probably see them on a regular basis.

As amphibians go here in the NW, this guy definitely is a giant. Check out the size compared to my friend's hand. He was a good 10 - 12" long, and hefty. He didn't move a whit when we were surrounding him and talking and pointing and snapping photos. It was quite a sighting, I was very excited.

So, technically this is a "little dudes" post, but a Big Little Dudes one. If I weren't mushroom picking at the time, I'd tell you where I spotted him. As it is, you will have to pry the information from my cold, dead fingers.

Enjoy unusual wildlife sightings in our beautiful Pacific N.W. rainforests,

Bp

[photos by the lovely Alethea]

Awesome Woody Guthrie photo

I love this photo, and just wanted to post it. Not much more to say, if you want to know more about Woody Guthrie there is your link. I also think he looks (acts) a lot like Billy Bragg here, who I also enjoy.



Enjoy effective activist artists of the past,

Bp

[photo credit in linked website]

Flying Bulldog

When in doubt, or angst, or on the horns of a quandary -- create art. Here is a nice little collage a fellow Qi Gong student, Leslie Huddart, made this election season. I thought ya'll would appreciate it.
Enjoy the cathartic work of talented friends,

Bp

Pressing issues of the day: kitch lighting placement

So our happy household is getting together tonight to have a real, official house meeting. There are many items on the agenda, but the newest one I thought the most entertaining.

I scored this incredibly fabulous, nearly tasteless, shiny light fixture from some friends who were doing a remodel. It's made of bad fake brass, and there's one missing link in the crystal dome that I fixed with a twist of copper wire.

The pressing question is:



Is the best place for this light fixture? In the stairwell - semi hidden?

Or does it need a more central location, like the dining room, so it can truly shine.

Are we more embarrassed or entertained by it is, basically, the meat of the matter.

Enjoy the frivolous aspects of life,

Bp

Addendum: I've decided to make a poll and get your input -- click away. [I'm using a new poll generator, so probably isn't going to look too hot. I apologize to my graphic designer friends ahead of time]

Stu having an Apocalypse Now flashback

Here is Stud Farmhand doing his best Captain Benjamin L. Willard impersonation in the middle of a wheat field. I love this shot. Muse is a great traveling companion for stuff like this.





Enjoy live-action movie references captured in time, and in the bald,

Bp

Canukistani operative spots waterfall ninja at Latourelle falls

Although top secret, a small but elite force of Canukistani nationals are visiting the house. Among them MAY be Yuri, my prize operative.

We were reviewing the grandeur of the Columbia River Gorge on an undisclosed day in the near past, when Yuri spotted a man in a wet suit coming down the trail toward Latourelle falls. He looked at us, and said "we're going back to the falls, we have to know." We turned around, and Muse the official tour photographer gathered this data. I love that picture above... very cool.

Here is the waterfall ninja in his tentative, dangerous approach. Imagine what would happen should a pebble, or even a small boulder, be in the water flow.












































Enjoy nutbags unintentionally entertaining your international visitors and proving that Portland is, in fact, staying weird,

Bp

There and Back Again, The Wife and Hanbleceya Camp '08

The Wife returned from her Hanbleceya yesterday safe and sound, happy, healthy and sun burned. For folks who don't know what that word up there means, here is a post where I talk a little bit about the Hanbleceya ceremony as performed by the Redwind family that we are a part of.

The first picture is The Wife heading out before the trip. Check out those fine digs eh? What can we say, it's not a fashion show. Anything you wear out there needs to be able to be torn and soot-smeared and rolled in dirt without concern.

This next picture is all her gear, which T. dubbed "The Mound of Adventure." Now this much stuff might seem excessive to folks if you're thinking about this as a camping trip. But it's far from a camping trip. For those 'going up on the hill' (the fasters) there is a bunch of ceremonial accoutrement that are needed. For those going out to support camp, there is a lot of comfort needed. This is more like a work camp than a camping trip -- many times you put in 12 - 14+ hour days taking care of all the things that need to happen, so you want a nice comfortable home base to rest your bones in afterwards.

"After" pictures aren't really necessary, as I can provide them with just a few words. For the Mound of Adventure, just roll everything around in a fine fine desert dust and add burrs to anything that's made of fabric. The Wife has a sunburned face and a smile that won't go away. Her eyes are ablaze from her experience, and she is more vibrant and healthier than I've seen her in years (which is saying something, she's never been a wilting lily). She's doing great.

Finally, I couldn't resist, is a picture of that finely worn-in knife sheath that The Wife acquired recently. Always the slave to fashion, she was the Belle of the Ball in that thing, and will be again at Sun Dance camp in a week or so.