On June 1st, I hiked with friend Ruth up Cascade Head from Knight Park. The goal was to check for Black Oystercatchers (BLOY) at the one site I can see from that trail. Usually, I drive in from Hwy 101 on a forest service road, but that road washed out two years ago and I haven't been able to get in since.
The hike up is long and steep but we did get to where I can see north to the nesting area... where there were no BLOY in sight.
The views from that trail are lovely, though. The Thumb, where I mostly monitor BLOY, is visible in this photo, with the rocks where the BLOY nest below and to the right (west):
The hike down was painful and taught me a painful lesson: trim toenails before hiking down steep trails and wear snug hiking boots. I had done neither. As a result, I have been mincing around in roomy crocs and fat socks to cushion my very black and blue and painful big toes.
But life goes on and I was able to do my usual pick up hay bales and put them on the hay wagon for Johnny to stack. And then put them from wagon onto hay elevator. Friend Mary drove the tractor. Photos in a previous blog post.
The BLOY at Road's End still needed monitoring on the weeks when co-monitor Casey could not go. So I minced my way up the steep trail on June 9th and saw the one chick that Casey had reported finding.The adult is on the left side of the photo. The chick is on the right side facing away.
On June 11th a friend from Washington and his two Japanese exchange students visited and I hiked them through our woods that had not had trails cleared yet this year. It was very brushy. We all survived but I vowed to clear trails. On June 24th, I mowed arboretum and woodland trails, got the mower stuck and had to get Johnny to help get me unstuck.
The garden has been difficult thanks to the weather and my sore feet. But I made compost mounds in the garden for corn, also for cucumbers, and planted a line of pumpkins around the perimeter in the one strip Johnny managed to till, sort of. I replanted tomatoes in tires every few days as they died. Some of them are finally taking off and looking like they may live... and hopefully someday produce tomatoes. It's a tough year.
The hooves on Nightingale, our one surviving horse, have been getting long and I've been either too sick, too busy, or too sore to trim them. So I put on very big, very sturdy boots and worked on her fronts June 16. That changed the angle of her pasterns dramatically and she was walking tenderly on hard ground for a few days. On June 24, I attempted the rear hooves but managed only to even them up a bit... they have been breaking off unevenly but hopefully will wear down evenly now.
Meanwhile, Johnny has been busy with a pile of projects. I'll try to get to some of those in another blog post. And we both still do Ren Yuan (a form of Qi Gong) on Sunday morning with a group of friends... a great way to start the week emotionally and physically.
Tomorrow, June 26, I'm off to The Thumb again, with toes still recovering. Casey could not find the chick last week, so I'm hoping it was just in hiding and will reappear tomorrow. Hope springs eternal, as my mother always said...
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