Dragonfly Ranch

We get right up to the edge of the water, and then we can’t bring ourselves to take the plunge.

It’s only 8:15 but the temperature is almost 90 already. The chickens are preparing to sit out the heat in their dirt holes.

Signs like this pop up outside the supermarket whenever there’s a fire.

This close.

The yellow area on the map is the so-called “fire advisement” area. People in this area are not under immediate threat or warning, but are supposed to be on constant alert for changes in the fire’s status.

Because (so far) this is a Mariposa County fire only, the yellow area stops exactly at the Mariposa/Madera County line, which is 11 miles north of us. The fire, of course, is not going to stop at the county line when it gets there.

Here is a live link to the map, so you can check what things look like at the time you read this.

https://arcg.is/STL1u0

Ok, so like I was watching a couple of my gray/blue dragonflies around the pool and it occurred to me that they were being quite friendly with each other. Which then got me to wondering about how dragonflies mate. Which led me to the information below.

But the best thing is that today I actually saw my two dragonflies in the act. Couldn’t get their picture but you gotta love the love.

Sent from my iPad

As of Friday afternoon, July 22, we have another fire about 25 miles north of us — the Oak Fire. After a little over 24 hours it’s already at 11,900 acres. That’s almost 20 square miles.

https://www.fire.ca.gov/incidents/2022/7/22/oak-fire/

I took the car photo as we were driving home from Fresno about 2:30 this afternoon, July 23. I took the other photo from our porch at 8:00 pm, about twenty minutes before posting this.

The hottest day of the summer so far. The chickens take refuge in the shade, either in a watering hole like this or in a dust bowl that they scrape for themselves out of the dirt.

We bought the raised growing bed last year, but had little success with it because of insufficient water. This year I hooked up a fairly elaborate irrigation system. The white hose connects to a hose bib with a timer on it, and the whole bed gets watered four times a day — every six hours, day and night. That seems to be what it takes.

Quail are common around here, but they’re so shy it’s hard to get a good photo. Today a covey came marching past the kitchen window, so I raced to get the camera that has a zoom lens. I caught these stragglers from thirty yards away by sneaking around the corner of the craft house.

Fruit production is completely random here. I’ve neglected the grapes this year shamefully. I forgot to prune them in the spring and gave them no extra water — in fact, I’ve barely remembered to check occasionally to see that their irrigation hasn’t broken down. Yet while the apple, pear, and stone fruit languish, the grapes have been quietly thriving. Go figure.