Quick update -- and a new addition to the kitchen

© 2017 Joshua Stark

Back here for a quick update:

Still raining.

No joke, the rain is not letting up here in California.  As a result, many critters are accessing habitat they'd been locked out of for a decade, including our amazing King salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha).  Here's a great Capitol Public Radio report on the floodplain known as the Yolo Bypass.

I was blessed to get to hunt this stretch of water on the final weekend of duck season with a good friend.  It made for a great adventure -- canoeing in with dog and decoys, the sky full of birds (most of them juuuust out of reach), and the weather perfect California -- 50 degrees and sunny, with 40 degree water.

My friend managed three ducks, and I, one, but we had more opportunities than just these -- including a great chance at a pair of mallards (I whiffed), a pair of canvasbacks (I whiffed, and still kick myself for it), and Canada geese (they must have been wearing kevlar).  He was kind enough to give me his birds (I think he was done cleaning birds for the year).

It wasn't fast shooting, but it kept on and on, and it varied.  A flight of pintail drakes came ripping overhead.  My pal reeled in a pair of geese with a call like he had 'em on a line. A few times, we'd be watching flocks of wigeons, pintails, or flights of diver ducks three or four hundred yards out, when suddenly six or eight teal would come screaming in about two feet off the water to land right in our decoys.  

It was a great, great day, especially for this river rat who loves the marsh, and who got to be a part of it. We even saw a mink. Thanks, Ryan!

Back home and a week later, I'm still reflecting on that wonderful day.

Oh, I also picked up a new item for the kitchen:

An extraordinary deal!  It's a whole new world for me...

 I've never, ever owned a stand mixer before.  It's a dream long-deferred, because these suckers ain't cheap.  But it was a great deal, on the 575 watt model, which is what I'd been holding out for.

Tonight I'm breaking it in, probably with either a soda bread, gingerbread, or maybe an acorn cake. 

Let me know your ideas for using a stand mixer -- what should I do? What accessories? Any interesting tip and tricks, send 'em my way.  

On drought

California's drought continues apace, and I'm sure we will soon see the standard cries to the residential water user to conserve! conserve!

I'm not buying it.

I've written about water at my old blog, "Ethics and the Environment" (if interested, read here).

Basically, California's borders are arbitrary, geographically speaking, and so to speak about a "California" water crisis is akin to speaking about an "Eastern Seaboard" water crisis, or some other similarly sized region.

Sadly, our attempts to conserve water via State mandate only ask for a 20% reduction in urban use, which constitutes roughly 5% of total human water use in the State.  If every municipality were to hit their 20% mark, we would conserve about half of all the water that goes just to almonds in California.  That is to say, we wouldn't do diddly-squat to really positively impact the drought on a "California" scale.

However, we most definitely harm local plants and animals by merely cutting back on water use without taking into account our own local watersheds and ecosystems. (Also, consider that "local" is on a California scale: some of the Trinity River, for example, waters Los Angeles some 600 miles to the South).

For example:  My little region has many small riparian corridors that provide habitat for a number of species, including ducks.  Last year, many folks cut back on watering their yards, which resulted in diminished water for their small, local corridors.  Ducks, finding inadequate habitat, went somewhere; my guess is that they were pushed into smaller patches of protected wetlands, where the higher water temperatures (from warmer climate+less runoff into them from the upstream corridors) contributed to unhealthy conditions.  It seems to me that higher concentrations of ducks would exacerbate the rapid spread of deadly diseases, such as the avian botulism that struck the Klamath Basin last year.

If, instead, people had continued to water their lawns in riparian corridors, would the subsequent runoff (with higher humidity and higher water levels) have helped to sustain local populations of ducks (not to mention the myriad other, at times endemic, species of plants, bugs and animals)?

Though my pond is ended, I will continue to provide water for drinking and for bathing for my local birds. 

New Year's Resolutions, and a technical question about composting

© 2011 Joshua Stark

I'm a sucker for resolutions... yes, even though I rarely keep them.  I love lists, first of all, and I love the potential that comes from a new time. 

So, I resolve to: make a duck-proof greens garden; tie 10 or so flies per week; make some wooden doohickey per week; get grass growing again in the back yard (long story, suffice it to say that I now understand that topsoil really is only a few inches deep); and bathe my dog at least once per week. 

The last one is really important, as Irma is getting on in years, and spends cold nights inside.  If I can get her stank under control, as well as her long hair, she stands a chance of getting to stay indoors even longer, and I like that notion.  She's been a wonderful dog, maybe the best dog I've ever owned, and I want her last years to be comfortable. 

Now for the technical question.  I simply cannot hot compost, I've accepted that.  We also get pounds and pounds and pounds of duff from our three gigantic trees, which we often just pile in the leaf bin and send away.  This breaks my heart, of course.  A few weeks ago, then, I tried just a leaf pile, but I quickly realized a problem.

We grow mosquitos. 

We live in a wetlands/riparian habitat zone, and mosquitos love it here.  The wet leaves are, unfortunately, providing quite the breeding ground, and to make matters worse, we have a problem with West Nile virus. 

I'm not afraid of the virus for me or my family - it's as typical, and as potent, as the cold or flu - I'm afraid for our magpie population.  You see, California has the only population of yellow-billed magpies on Earth (Pica nuttalli), and magpies are particularly susceptible to West Nile, even for a corvid.  As far as I know, there hasn't been found a single magpie that can survive the virus. 

So here's the question:  For all you leaf composters, how do you deal with mosquitos?

Thanks for any help.

Finishing raised beds, and planting

© 2010 Joshua Stark

The backyard is looking less like it was hit by a bomb, and more like a garden-in-waiting.  Here it is, with the latest raised bed (about $25 in materials).  Note the new pond liner, too.

I should explain the strange-looking structures in the back, I suppose.  On the left is my 'cleanin' tub', for cleaning fish and game, but that isn't it's permanent location.  The tower of crates to the right in the background is my worm-bin, high enough for the ducks not to raid it, and with a rock on it to keep other animals out.

Speaking of the worm-bin, we looked in it today, and although it had become home to a crowd of ants (which I will hopefully take care of by just moving stuff around a bit more), it had also shown good worm activity.  I'm hoping my two tiny contributions of worms (100 worms, total, give or take) will start to reap benefits, as they reproduce.  In researching worms, (those of you who know me don't blink at that statement), I found out that their eggs hatch in 21 days.  Hopefully, they've been laying a lot of eggs.

The bed on the right in the back has been planted with corn, cucumbers, gourds, radishes, bok choy, and lettuce.  I'm hoping to plant the next bed with onions, tomatoes, peppers, basil, and other friendlies.

The big front bed, just behind the pond, will get some nice perennial flowers, along with some herbs and a few other plants (not sure yet).  The pond edges will get some waterplants, mostly horsetails and tules and sedges - things that the ducks won't eat.  We hope.

Immediately to the left of the pond will be a higher water feature, where I hope to keep duckweed to supplement the ducks.  I had an interesting encounter trying to get duckweed at a local nursery... they accidentally gave me water fern, and neither of us were smart enough to know the difference.  But, the ducks sure did.  Water fern is as invasive as duckweed, but ducks don't like to eat it, so I don't want it. 

We also found a surprise under our giant redwood tree when we came home one day:

Yes, that's a graphic description of a half-eaten striper on our lawn.  Judging from the bite marks, I agree with my brother-in-law's suggestion that it was dropped by an osprey.  Pretty cool!  And gross, too, I suppose.  Also, it probably would have just barely been legal, (18 inches), so it was a good-sized fish.

What a night... mapaches.

Never underestimate the power of a plate of pork chop hash and the thought of two raccoons sitting in the walnut tree directly above your duck house to keep you awake and thoughtful all night. About 2:30 in the morning Alka-Seltzer felt pretty good in reigning in the former, but the latter... let's just say, me and my great dog Irma took turns peering into the tree at four flashing eyes, and barking.

Update, a picture... don't let the cuteness fool you.

What did I just eat?!?

Last week, I caught my first American shad on the American river (you can read that story at my Enviroethics blog). Right now, the cleaned fish is in our freezer, awaiting the day I will have enough time to either have built a smoker from Alton Brown's idea, or enough courage to try Hank Shaw's inspired honegiri method for taking care of the bones.

However, I did try a recipe from John McPhee's book "Founding Fish." Really, it wasn't a recipe, as much as, "roll it in some flour, salt and pepper it, and fry it like an egg." And American shad are known for their eggs, called roe. But I caught a buck shad, so no roe.

Yep, I ate that.

Shad milt. And it was good, although the consistency was a tad too reminiscent of fried eggs for my taste. Actually, it was a bit anticlimactic, as it tasted like really, really good, subtle fish, and nothing else. Actually, as far as a fish taste goes, it was just about perfect.

I'll eat more in the future, I'm sure, and if people can get over the idea, and if they like egg consistency (which most do), then this is a great meal, a special meal.

Can you do it?