Dragonfly Ranch

I sent the following message just now to our congressman, Tom McClintock:

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“President Trump has admitted that his campaign violated the law and broke his oath of office by soliciting damaging information from Russia about his opponent (his tweet of 8/5/2018, 5:35 am). In light of the oath you took to support the Constitution, what are you doing about this?”

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For a bit of context:

McClintock released the following statement on January 30, 2017, after Trump’s first attempt at a Muslim ban:

“There is no unconditional right to enter the United States, and the President has a sworn responsibility to assure that those entering our country are not hostile to our Constitution, our people, or the rule of law.”

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On Congressman McClintock’s web site, I was asked to choose what topic my message concerned. I chose “Crime”.

Took another SMQA workshop yesterday. Once I get the other blocks done and fill it up with embellishments, it will be a wall hanging. Will keep you updated on my progress.

Sent from my iPad

Black-Headed Grosbeak on the water feature

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California Quail on the brush pile

The last time we had a daily high temperature below 100 degrees was more than three weeks ago, on July 6. I guess we can be grateful that it hasn’t gotten above 107 yet. Last year we hit 112 on two separate days.

The sunflowers, at least, don’t seem to mind the heat. The top of the post in the photo is 5 1/2 feet above the soil, so I guess we have an 8-foot sunflower here.

http://www.californiaherps.com/lizards/pages/s.o.biseriatus.html

This little guy somehow found himself in the living room, so I captured him in a plastic drinking glass and moved him outside.

The bottom of the glass is 2 1/2 inches in diameter, so he’s about half adult size.

The smoke from the Ferguson Fire hangs in the sky.

If you’re interested in following the Ferguson fire (the one now burning near Yosemite but not threatening us — yet), the best place I know is this Web site:

https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/5927/

It’s updated frequently, and it has very good maps showing the areas that are within the fire boundary, the areas outside the boundary that have been evacuated, and the areas that are under warning that evacuation may be necessary soon.

Unfortunately, the maps don’t make it easy to see how close the fire is to us. The best thing to know is that the fire remains well north of Highway 49 between Oakhurst and Mariposa. If it moves south of Highway 49, we need to start worrying.

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This is the sun rising through the smoke and haze at 7:30 this morning.

The Ferguson fire outside Yosemite is about 25 miles directly north of us and not a threat, but we can smell its smoke in the early morning, and it has affected the air quality for many miles around.

It doesn’t help us or the firefighters that it’s hot and dry. As I write this at 2:00 pm, the temperature at the ranch is 103 and the humidity is 21%.

…to find the perfect souvenir gift.