The Audibon Society here in Ukiah puts on a monthly meeting with speakers. Topics are usually very interesting, but not always about birds. This month the speaker was a local geologist who studies earthquakes along our fault, the Maacama fault. It was a fascinating talk, if very difficult to hear as the speaker had a soft voice and no mic.
The Maacama fault starts at the northern end of the Hayward Fault and is a continuation of it. Both are part of the San Andreas fault. It is now thought that the Maacama fault is much deeper than the Hayward fault. It is also in much harder rock. It is a slip fault, sliding the western landmass north past the eastern side. The Maacama has many, many little sub fault lines (maybe because the fault is miles underground?) Above ground earthquakes can push land upward, and it can also spread land apart. Ukiah Valley, Redwood Valley, Willits Valley and Laytonville's Long Valley are all valleys because of the fault. On the Ranch I have ponds that are "sag" ponds where the earth has cracked and spread enough to capture water in the winter. Just on the south side of those ponds is a ridge that runs north west toward the Red Barn. I'm pretty sure that ridge is a pressure ridge pushed up (as the land behind it sagged).
Just, barely to the north of us is a place where three of the earth's plates collide. The Pacific plate, the North American plate and the Juan de Fuca/Gorda plate collide. The Pacific plate and the Juan de Fuca/Gorda plates are diving under the North American plate. In this process material from the top of the plates that are diving, is being scraped off and piled up. The scraped off material is roughly organized into three north/south bands. The hills to my west are the coastal band, the newest materials. I am in band two, the medium aged materials. To the east is another fault line (still part of the San Andreas) that marks the division of band two and three. Together the three bands make up our coastal ranges and end in the great Central Valley of California. Note that the material that isn't scraped off, but continues diving under the North American plate is providing lots of lovely material, plus friction and heat for our volcanos.
In past posts I've talked about the really wide variety of rocks in our streams. The variety is partly because of the ancient river that left water worn rocks strewn everywhere, and it is also because some of those rocks are really ancient and were part of the materials pushed up from the ocean, while others were formed by volcanic action. It is so interesting to apply the information presented to the land I know so well. Geologic time is so very different than human time.
Brief update on things I've finished these past few months and things I'm currently watching. I'm gonna try to write another general update soon, because I've been going through it and kind of isolated myself… Maybe the most relevant thing is that, somehow, The Prosecutor's Proposal took over my brain and possessed me to write again, but instead of finishing my Khemjira fic, I started a new WIP... just... this one is hornier.
Finished watching
Dramas
Wishing Upon the Shooting Stars (Taiwanese BL) – 12 episodes – Finished: June 4.
I figure, between the cooks, the gardeners, the proponents of exactly these sorts of skills, and the overlap between all three of those categories, someone on my friendslist will probably have a suggestion here.
Does anyone know a method for crushing spices when you haven't got a pestle? There are late-season pickling cucumbers around locally, I want to make my own pickling spice mix, and I have all the needed ingredients. Thank you, Penzey's. :) Mixing the spices together is not a problem, I just worry the whole lot will end up settling to the bottoms of the jars and do nothing for the actual pickles if I don't at least make the attempt to crush the spices a little finer before I stir them in.
Having learned my lesson, I'm skipping or, at least, drastically reducing the amount of hot red pepper in this batch. I rather overdid it on my last attempt and... paid for it. Dearly, details not disclosed. :/
I'm so glad that people enjoyed my post about my solar-electric system! It was the product of a very tired brain and I clearly should have had some sleep before I wrote it.
Yesterday Jim, the hay guy, brought the alfalfa hay I ordered. The barn was only marginally ready for hay, and I was really stressed about the whole thing. By dint of using my mattock to chip away at the gravel pile, I had loosened up enough gravel to take 8 or 10 wheelbarrow fulls of material in to help level the floor. Then, with Donald's help, we hastily covered the hardware cloth wire that covers the floor under the hay, with new plastic. We were frantically trying to get 4 more pallets covered with wire when the hay arrived. Fortunately Jim agreed to put off delivering the grass hay until tomorrow so I'd have enough time to finish covering the 6 more pallets I needed. Yes, the number grew.
Donald went back to SF, I got my scheduled haircut, and picked up feed for the horse. The Audibon Society meeting rounded out the day.
Some time yesterday Rose, the Azure drop coordinator called. Could I coordinate the drop today? She was not feeling well. Yes I could, it should be easy: call anyone who didn't show up and sign for the delivery. It wasn't easy, it was a circus. The truck, which is never late, was late. The driver shoveled stuff out of the truck while I tried to contact the three people who hadn't yet showed up. Two of the three arrived promptly after my call. The third was just plain weird. Perhaps 6 or 7 hundred dollars of groceries, including frozen stuff. The phone # was disconnected. Usually we would just load the stuff back on the truck and return it. Nope, not today, the driver was going on vacation and wouldn't take it. Eventually Jordan (another customer) helped me load the stuff in my car, as I lived much closer to town than he (or even Rose) did. I got the stuff home, the frozen stuff in the freezer, and went off to cover pallets.
The entire afternoon involved one phone call after another, plus a trip down the hill to take the groceries to the missing customer, and to hand the frozen deer skin off to Monique who is coordinating a hide tanning class. Also the new horse pasture tenant, Mandie, came up with her boarding contract and a check. Vaughn, our architect wanted to talk about the vent line for the downstairs laundry room. The neighbor called to tell me about the road project she is doing. It doesn't really impact me, but I was curious. It was a crazy afternoon. I did manage to get four pallets covered. I have one more pallet to do, plus working on a pallet that was covered two years ago, but needs a bunch of work to make it safe to handle. Two years ago I had help covering the pallets, and whomever did this pallet left vicious whiskers of wire sticking out everywhere. Will confess to being tired again tonight.
1. I know I'm talking about the weather like every day but it's so nice compared to last week! I can move around without instantly bursting out in sweat! It was nice and overcast all morning today even. This weekend is saying low 70s!
2. I had a doctor's appointment today which was late morning so I was already thinking of maybe requesting to work from home afterwards, and then I was kept sitting in the waiting room (not even seen by the nurse yet) for like half an hour, and after the appointment I had both labs and pharmacy, so it was like noon by the time I got home and I did just stay home after that, which was nice. Despite being promised I could WFH with this position when I originally took it, the company is now cracking down on WFH and you have to have a "good excuse" to do so.
I hadn't realized it was already flu/covid vaccine season, but the nurse asked me if I wanted a flu vaccine and I said yes and asked if I could get the covid one as well, and he said yes, so I got those both done today. Thankfully as always I have no side effects other than a slightly sore arm.
3. Prime Pizza has a new collab going and the newest flavor is mole rojo pizza with mozzarella, chorizo, thin sliced potato, cilantro, and queso fresco. It sounded amazing, so we walked over there for dinner tonight and it was just as good as I thought it would be. Definitely will have to get that again while the collab is running (I think it's through mid October).
Many of the foods we eat every day-legumes, pulses, root vegetables, even certain fruits-contain naturally occurring chemical compounds that can be harmful if consumed improperly. These are called natural toxins, and they are produced by plants, animals, and marine organisms as part of their biological defence mechanisms. Unlike synthetic contaminants such as pesticides, natural toxins are inherent to the food itself. Understanding what they are, where they occur, and how they affect the body is essential for anyone studying food safety or working in the food industry.
This used to be common if not universal knowledge, at least regarding the examples within each local foodway. Nowadays, many people cook by rote if they cook at all, and often buy things already processed. If you like to cook from scratch and/or you want to grow or forage some of your own food, then this is traditional knowledge that you need. Understand what is edible, when, and how it needs to be handled.
Be aware that genetics play in too, not just with allergies but other types of intolerances. Foods from your ancestral region are more likely to be digestible; those from other areas may or may not be for you. Approach new foods with curiosity and caution; test in small portions at first, then expand if you like and tolerate them. Pay attention to how foods make you feel, whether familiar or unfamiliar ones, and drop anything that makes you feel bad.
Mug returns. Have had the AC on most of the afternoon. Put out the garbage and the garden waste, including a top up of the linden's seedlings now overflowing the front walk.
Finished Death on the Cherwell which was OK, though I was unhappy at the ending. Currently reading Inspector Imanishi Investigates by Matsumoto Seicho. Am certain I read his Points and Lines some time back but remember nothing about it. This one is-- let us say, translated Japanese often sounds demented, and this is no exception. Maybe it's because they translated the umm conversational noise that one says in Japanese: remarks that don't have any substance in themselves but fill in gaps. Though I was quite taken aback by someone's casual remark that police officers would keep information to themselves rather than share it with the group, or even their bosses, in order to score a coup or get a rung up the organizational ladder. Maigret has cops who do that, and who come to a bad end because of it, but I'd have expected Japanese policemen to be more efficient and less individualistic.
Otherwise am on a reread of The Fifth Elephant, whose cops are much more to my taste.
A new database shows how the design of a road decides whether travel money stays in a community or leaves it.
Basically, big chains suck money out of the local economy; they're parasites. Independent stores, restaurants, hotels, and other amenities keep most of the tourist money in that town.
We got the call from Andy this afternoon; he's been offered the job. Finally. The weight that's been on his shoulders, on Emily's, on Bob's and mine, has lifted. It's not just the financial security, it's acknowledgement by people who aren't his loved ones that he's worth a job, that he's a worthy adult and family provider. Those things are pretty much as important to him as the money and the position.
Mind you, they are trying to pull a bait and switch; when they interviewed him, they told him the salary would be a given amount. Today they told him the salary was a good deal less - still much higher than his previous job, but still a scuzzy move. He told us he's going to give a counter to them tomorrow and point out his experience as a team leader.
If they don't go for the upgrade, he says he's still going to take the job for all the right reasons, but I'm hoping they respect his counter and go for it.
I'm still smiling, and the call came hours ago. I am elated and so's Bob.
(I'd planned on posting about the interesting situation with my esophagus, including fun with esophagram con barium but I think I'll do that tomorrow.)
Slow Horses: ( season 6, episode 1 spoilers ) I'm glad this show is back! Somehow it is not subject to the weird neuroses keeping me from watching new seasons of like, everything. I just want more! *hands*
*
Current Mood:pleased
Current Music:What Have I Done to Deserve This? - Pet Shop Boys feat. Dusty Springfield
Monday night saw me on about four hours' sleep and a couple hours' naps during the day. I'd felt sore, but it wasn't until I got into bed I started shivering and feeling feverish. I woke up from REM sleep a couple of times, which was proof I'd done more than doze, but it didn't last long enough to feel rested.
It made it pretty easy to get through the meeting with the career counselor, though. I told her I was loopy from the flu and COVID jab, so we discussed our mutual goals.
Today, I had a moment of looking at a shared document, wondering aloud if I could do something, then dismissed it. She asked what it was - which was to figure out how to make it so copy/paste defaulted to the document's font - and I said it wasn't worth talking about, we had other stuff. She asked again, and I said it wasn't worth talking about.
We managed to get an application off, at least. So the day has that going for it.
Big yard news! The Northern Cardinal pair's second clutch actually produced two babies! For a long time I'd suspected there were two, but they looked the same and were never together. But now they're molting into their adult plumage (both patchy-red teen boys) so I can tell them apart, and I have seen them together as well. I'm surprised they're still around because the first baby the pair had this year moved on fairly quickly, but the twins are very much not doing that. The dad used to be the one who fed them the most, but now he wants nothing to do with them—maybe because they're boys, he feels they're potential competitors? But they're still following their mom around begging her to bring them seeds and suet from the feeders, which they don't seem to understand how to use by themselves yet. (Young birds often have trouble with feeders.) Left: Awkward teen. Right: Molting mom (and other son lurking behind). The adult cardinals have both been molting heavily, and at times they've been nearly bald. (Not quite Bloödcheëp level, but close.)
Since my last update I've also added three or four birds to my life list, depending on how you count.
Blue-winged Teal, a group of three paddling in a muddy wetland and doing a lot of helpful flapping to show off their chalk-blue wing patches and assure me that they weren't something else. This had been a bit of a nemesis bird for me so I was pleased to see them!
Lesser Yellowlegs, also being helpful as there were Greater Yellowlegs around too so I could compare them!
Common Nighthawk, a flock swooping around hunting bugs in the evening. In shape and behavior they're like swallows, but huge! I am pretty sure I had seen these guys on their annual migration through the area before I started my life list, but I hadn't added them because I wasn't sure about a particular place or time I saw them, so it's good to get them on there. (Note that they are in the nightjar family, related to my namesake.)
During my Boston trip I had some domestic Graylag Geese on my eBird reports, which caused the Merlin app to add the species to my life list there, though eBird itself categorizes them as escapees so they don't count on there. This is kind of a gray area (no pun intended). eBird will add domestic birds to your life list if they're feral populations free-breeding in the wild such as urban Rock Pigeons, but it seems like the domestic Graylags in Boston are an established feral population as well, so who's to say.
Kenzie Allen, Cloud Missives. This was a birthday present that came with a content warning, and rightly so: some of the topics of these poems are harrowing, and the language is vivid enough to highlight rather than blunt them. Which is a good thing. But proceed with caution.
Attar, The Conference of the Birds. A twelfth century allegorical poem, featuring a great many conversations between symbolic birds and quite a lot of focus on what it means to be a good person living a good life, many of the conclusions of which are absolutely opposite my own, but still of interest to see how another time and culture developed them.
Rachel Carney, Octopus Mind. Mostly poems about dyspraxia, mostly the sort of poems that very much come right out and say what they're about. There are some fairly high highs in this collection for me but also some fairly low lows.
Victoria Chang, Tree of Knowledge. Of the three poetry collections I read this fortnight, this was the one that was most "my thing," most vividly natural with a confident personal voice.
Agatha Christie, The Clocks. Kindle. The cats in this book did not rise to the level of Bob the dog but were still very reasonable cats, it was clear she had met cats and made observation of them. Anyway it was a reasonably cromulent Christie mystery if you want one of those.
Deva Fagan, The Delta Codex. A middle grade science fiction novel with a young heroine trying to make sense of her own memories and milieu on a hostile planet whose hostility is at least in part its humans. I really liked this.
Dorothy Canfield Fisher, The Home-Maker. Kindle. This is a fascinating novel from the mid-1920s, the premise of which is: what if people who are unhappy with their currently assigned gender roles got to swap and were much better suited for the opposite gender roles? And it's very interesting to watch her construct that for her time, but I found the ending very unsatisfying (horrifying actually). Also, and crucially, I know someone who treated her family exactly like the mother in this book treated her family at the beginning...and had a major career the whole time. So I had a very hard time thinking that "just get her a job she finds engaging!" was going to be enough.
Dana Frank, The Long Honduran Night: Resistance, Terror, and the United States in the Aftermath of the Coup. Kindle. This was a personal account of the author's involvement with activism on behalf of Honduran civil liberties, in the US and Honduras. She was very clear about it being her perspective, her experiences, not a universal account with any linguistic pretense of objectivity. I still--therefore? still?--learned a lot from it. It was about as much fun as you'd expect, but I can't really imagine that Honduras 2008-2024 is going to be a "fun" topic no matter how you spin it.
Kate Heartfield, Mercutio. I felt like I am the person sitting next to the target audience for this book, with its Dante/Faerie/Romeo and Juliet hook. I still enjoyed it, but I think all I need to say is that combination of three things and several of my friends will make undignified noises in their haste to go get a copy. Some books sell themselves, accurately.
Vera Keller, The Interlopers: Early Stuart Projects and the Undisciplining of Knowledge. Keller has a lot of interesting things to say about the pre-Civil War Stuart era of the formation of science and specifically about authority, access, who is able to investigate which topics and speak to them and how and with what support. Really good stuff about an aspect of this transformative era I hadn't seen treated head-on before.
Premee Mohamed, Wickhills. A city fantasy (not urban fantasy, that means something else), a spy novel, a citywide Gothic, this balances so many genres so well. I was captivated, I definitely recommend it.
Anthony Quinn, Curtain Call. A 1930s murder mystery with a fairly large cast allowed their own perspective. The ending wasn't quite as solid as the rest for me. Endings are hard. But I'm definitely interested in Quinn's other novels.
Tore Skeie, The Wolf Age: The Vikings, the Anglo-Saxons, and the Battle for the North Sea Empire. I think if this book had had a different subtitle, I would have prioritized it less and been less disappointed in it. Because I am deeply interested in the North Sea milieu, I am deeply interested in that as a connected world, and this...was not particularly more about that than any other book about the Viking Age. It spent a lot of time on Europe, it even did the obligatory Vikings In Byzantium Oh My, it was not at all better at joining the dots about what was going on along different bits of the North Sea at any given time. It was fine. There are better books at what it's doing, but it's fine.
Francesca Tinti, Europe and the Anglo-Saxons. Kindle. This is a short monograph talking about how and where the Anglo-Saxons had cultural and religious impact on continental Europe, and it, by contrast, is doing something that isn't done enough, doing it reasonably well, and then getting on with life.
Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina. Specifically I read the Rosamund Bartlett translation, which I would recommend, because she extensively researched and footnoted all the things that I think of as "texture," all the metaphors about beekeeping and birds and things that are very specific to Tolstoy. That's what I loved about this book. Plot and characters, not so much; portrait of a milieu, absolutely worth the price of admission.
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