First Visitors ~ 2010

The Wolf Clan was the first of the Clans to spend the night at the HITWRAWRA for the 2010 season. Good to see a little activity in the "Hole" once again. Several essential chores completed, the domestic water system is now ready to activate as soon as the reservoir is filled, clean up chores, but a good deal of time sitting around the "fire pit" enjoying the warmth and wood smoke.

All, I ask her to do was to mount the King Salmon on top our sign!
She was just a little upset when I mentioned,
"You don't mind working for your dinner, do you".
I mean like it only took five minutes, gave her a ladder, and by best screw gun!
What more could I do to help her?

Mid May, is a little early for the "girls" to enjoy the "Hole", they spent most of the time looking for a little warmth and love. Their comforter was only to willing to provide them a safe haven to sleep and gain a little body warmth. Way to go "Barley"!

While "Barley" was out roaming with the "boys", the girls adapted and found
that the warmth of concrete around the fire pit, was almost as good as "Barley", except for the smoke!

HITWRAWRA II

It is definitely spring! What a beautiful day to spend in the HITWRAWRA, warm, sunny, no wind and a few Eagles soaring overhead. Spring is underway, a few of the migratory species have returned for the season. This morning had coffee with Mother Bear, Blondie Bear was still hibernating. Later in the afternoon, the Beaver family also made their first appearance at the HITWRAWRA of the season. It was great seeing them and the "kits" along with their "new" pup. Had a great visit.

They were busy Beavers, showed up about a half hour after the "Cook Tent" was erected and lashed down for the season. I am not sure, but it appears that tracks were left on Messican Lane, presumably parked until Lady Eagle and myself had the "Cook Tent" set up. But that is all right, it was just good to see them, sit in the sun, and visit. Within five minutes of arrival, the "kits" were on the sand hill.

Had a good day in camp, the de-waterization system is once again stowed away, with the cistern containing about 25% capacity in storage for fire protection. Flower beds raked out, cleaned up, and historical heirlooms removed, cleaned, and re-installed for display purposes.

I would be remiss if I did not apologize to the Moose Clan: To date this season, I had not been on the "back" deck of the Moose Den. Lady Eagle put a trash can back there today and upon her return she asked if I had put the "moose poop" on the deck. I swear, I did not do it! Evidently, the front yard was not sufficient so they also used the door deck. A picture of a Moose standing at the door that would have been priceless. All Moose poop remains in same location that it deposited.

I also must apologize to the Moose for another observation that I made. The tree between the Bear Den and Wolf Den, has two large branches broke off from the snow load. However, the Moose also stripped the bark on these limbs and two other trees. However, today while cleaning up and with the snow being gone, I discovered my error. This spring would be a good time to plant a lawn between these two dens. No need for fertilizer, the rabbits have done an extremely good job. I have never seen so much rabbit poop. It is spread out over the entire area. It was only then that I realized I had blamed the wrong animal. The branches that had been stripped of all bark is 6 - 7 feet off the ground. But that is now, the trees were bent over with the snow load and with the assistance of the snow berms that were plowed, it was the rabbits that barked the trees. The Bear Creek Arbor tree also suffered the same barking as well as several others.

A few days ago, on the driveway into the Eagle Nest, I noticed three or four small spruce trees (3 to 5 feet high) the bark had been completely peeled off of the them about two feet from the ground and up about 18 inches or so. On extremely hard winters, I have seen Moose bark spruce trees if they are hungry. But why would they bark these small trees and it was like a knife was used to peel them. At first I thought perhaps a porcupine but now I am inclined to believe that this was also the work of the Rabbits standing on the driveway snow berms. I will leave these trees intact for your inspection.

However, we also enjoy seeing our little furry friends so we will not retaliate or go onto a extermination campaign. In fact, I may even plant them a garden for their summer enjoyment.

It was a good day, still some clean up work to accomplish as well as some maintenance chores, but we are open and operational. The Duck House is in great shape and open for use. Not wanting to embarrass the first user, I will not tell you their name but their initials is SB.

All is very good!

P.S. "Ole One Eye" had his first chase of the season, although flying at altitude of about 150 feet, Ruger scared him away.

P.S.S. "Epic" and "Dutch" had their first meeting, no problem despite their hormones, but I think "Dutch" realizes that "Epic" is just a puppy!

HITWRAWRA Update

NOTICE: Effective this date, Messican Lane is now open to through traffic. However, Messican Lane is not a thoroughfare, therefore you will need to turn around, back up, or go into 4 wheel drive to access the Old Sterling Highway. On Messican Lane, you can expect occasional flooding from Upper Kroc Lake to Lower Kroc Lake. The annual snow pack on Messican Lane has been eliminated.

The Bowl area of HITWRAWRA and surrounding slopes is now clear of all snow with the exception of John's Glacier. Base of the Bowl area is 63% dry with the outer fringes still showing dampened soil to a dept of 7.3 inches.

Bronco Lane remains blocked due to the extension of the de-waterization line from the water collection point to the distribution point. This closure will be removed on May 8th at 1043 local time. Bronco Lane remains rutted and pot holed which contain moisture, recommend that drivers use caution and adhere to the 5 mph speed limits.

Over All Assessment: The cleanest break up that we have experienced. No major flooding, no landslides, water distribution center worked our extremely well and above expectations. Trees in the area of the Bear and Wold Den will need some chain saw work. Snow loads broke several large branches and the Moose population did a great job in stripping the bark on several trees. Everything really does look good and should have a easy set up.

Had to laugh, I surveyed the exteriors of each cabin to see how they wintered. I could not help but notice that the front yard of the Moose Wallow was littered with "Moose Pellets". However, there were none around any of the other cabins. It was like the Moose knew where they were suppose to poop. I hope to preserve the area until the Moose Clan can return and clean up their own yard!

Talked to Ranger Bill twice in the last couple of days, he was in Boise or enroute when I talked with him. Tonight, he should be speeding to the west coast. I would not be surprised to see Ranger Bill and Dana come riding in one day this spring. Something about "sourdough cakes topped with spoon fudge".

In the event my birth children do not keep track of trivial things so that they can tell their children today is the 70th Birthday of Brother Larry Harrington, a.k.a Uncle Larry, a.k.a. Great Uncle Larry, a.k.a. Great, Great Uncle Larry. You know, I should really get a birthday card and have Natalie and Riley sign it to their Great, Great Uncle. He is always giving me crap about being a grandpa!

On a sad note, William "Bill" Overton passed away this past Tuesday, he was living in Olympia, Washington.

That is all!

How Safe Are You

You do not know me, I could live next door to you! I am a very mean person, I could be a stalker, a rapist, burglar, child molester, or any other weirdo that seems to be plaguing our society. You cannot trust me, I gather information from you and use it to my advantage, either to fulfill my personal desires or simply to sell your name and personal data to marketing firms. Would you invite me into your home?

Recently, I joined Facebook to socialize and stay in touch with my family and good friends. After being on the social network for a few days, I realized that all of a sudden I am seeing postings from people who I really have no great desire to talk to, let alone associate with.

A couple of days ago, after giving it some thought I decided to conduct an experiment. Currently, on my "Friends List", I have thirty six (36) names, including family. It is either that I do not have many friends or I am picky of my friends. The experiment was simple, to see how much personal data I could gather on each of you and your families. Not a difficult task to accomplish. Out of my 36 friends, I easily acquired 36 email addresses. From those 36 email addresses I was able to translate those to 24 street addresses or phone numbers by using a variety of Internet people search programs. From data that I collected, I know the number of children you have, their email addresses, street addresses, age, and in twelve cases what schools they attend. By reading your daily postings, I know what men work away from home on extended shifts, those women whom are single, and when you are away from home on a trip. Out of thirty that are employable age, I know where twenty eight of you work.

Out of everyone on my friend list, I have hundreds of pictures of you, your family, including your children. From your profile list and your postings, I could easily form a profile on each of you.

I do not mean this to scare you to death, but in the world we live in today, danger could be living next door. You are trusting, like I am, but then I gave it some thought and did a little more collection of data. I have 36 friends on Facebook, but each of those friends have other contacts that I do not know, yet they have access to my information including my family members. The number is startling. From the 36 friends that I maintain, 4,135 individuals have access to my information. They are friends of friends that can and do post on our inner circle of friends. The number of friends that those individuals have would be astronomical. If I can gather 4,135 unknowns out of just 36 friends, how many do have lurking in the background that you know nothing about.

Spend a few minutes and go through your "Friend List" then go their profile and see how many friends they have, whom you do not know anything about. It is scary how fast the list multiples.
Again to make my point from my prospective: 36 Friends = 4,135 People of which I do not know 4,099 of them or anything about them. "A Thought To Ponder"