http://besidethestream.com Country life at 7,000 feet Thu, 03 Jul 2008 05:56:50 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The squirrel came back and started tunneling the potatoes, and that was the end of that.  If something eats my lettuces, I can say shoo.  It messed around with Bob's potatoes, though, and he called Department of Wildlife that morning to see if he could shoot it.  He was told, sure.  So he set the trap ... http://besidethestream.com/a-dead-squirrel/2008/07/02/   We've past high flow for the year, and the boulder didn't shift. On April 15th it was covered, and on March 23 the water was about the same level as it was today.  It'll take a heck of a season to move that rock downstream. The railroad bridge in Durango was swept away in the flood of 1911, ... http://besidethestream.com/streamflow/2008/07/02/ West of the Mississippi, the right to use water in a stream or river is real property that is bought and sold like a house or a car.   If you own property with a ditch or a stream running through it, you can't touch a drop unless you buy water rights.  This ... http://besidethestream.com/ditch-diversions/2008/07/01/ My walking onions are about to take a hike.  These are also called tree onions, top-setting onions, or Egyptian onions.  They're originally from Canada, and became popular in kitchen gardens in the 1790s.  Instead of making seeds, the flowers turn into little bulbils that drop off and form a new plant.  It's kind of a standard-looking onion flower but ... http://besidethestream.com/walking-onions/2008/06/30/ If you like chartreuse, you'll love this bug.   It's a grasshopper nymph.  Grasshoppers hatch from eggs, and cast off their exoskeleton time and again before they become adults.  All of the little grasshoppers are called nymphs, but when you get more precise a nymph goes through five different instars before it becomes an adult.   You can tell from ... http://besidethestream.com/a-grasshopper-instar/2008/06/27/ Last night Sam said, you need to take some pictures of this sky. So I did. The next morning we had the first good rain in a month.  http://besidethestream.com/a-strange-twilight/2008/06/27/ I looked out the window around dawn, and there were 20 little Dutch boys in grey pantaloons racing around the back field.  The chickens had staged a break-out. They got out in a corner where a few staples were missing.  They stretched out the wire and left blood and feathers behind in their desire to be ... http://besidethestream.com/the-chickens-staged-a-break-out/2008/06/26/ Bob thought it'd be no problem to catch that squirrel.  He went to grad school at Harvard, for Pete's sake.  He was sure that he could outwit a rodent.  But he was wrong.  So he declared Peace.  No chickenwire, no mesh, no traps and of course the squirrel suddenly disappeared.  Funny thing how declaring peace ... http://besidethestream.com/garden-peace/2008/06/25/ Animas River Days slalom races were held on Saturday.  This is a paddling town, and these kids are fast. World class fast. This path goes beside the rapids and the race course is set right on this stretch of river.   People leave their boats and gear on the grass until it's time for their ... http://besidethestream.com/a-kayak-slalom-race/2008/06/24/ The Animas River Days, a weekend celebration of the Animas River, kicked off Friday evening with a raft parade.  I think there were about sixty boats and lots more kayaks. Dory men led the parade.  These dories are used to go down the Grand Canyon, and they're the same type of wooden boats as the ones ... http://besidethestream.com/a-raft-parade/2008/06/22/