Great Horned Owls at the Connected Lakes

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Two of the owlets left the nest today.

One was still in the nest this afternoon.

Look at those feathers!

They needed them. It was windy, as you'll see below.

The video above does get close up towards the middle.

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O.o

Yawn...


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Link to pictures of the 2012 owlets

and another link to the 2011 owlets.

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No Thoroughfare Trail and Bighorn Sheep

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Today we went for a walk on the No Thoroughfare Trail in the Colorado National Monument near Grand Junction, Colorado. Signs of Spring were everywhere. The special treat was spotting a group of six bighorn sheep passing by the first pond on the trail.

Closeup using my cell phone held up to a pair of binoculars.

Click on the pic above to see the whole group.

Looking out towards the trail...

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There were several different types of bright flowers already blooming along the trail.

A few species of wild bees could be seen droning around.

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Digging wasp alongside the trail.

One of several lizards that crossed our path.

A caterpillar tent in the brush.

A beetle (Paracotalpa sp.) on another caterpillar nest.

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We Don't Need No Stinkin' Miranda Warning!

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This will be an unpopular way of thinking. So be it.

I know that it has been a reality for a while now, but I had not been aware until the last week that the government could "legally" choose not to provide the Miranda Warning to a U.S. citizen if the information it was seeking was not going to be used in court.

To be sure, there are times when the public would consider its interests served by not requiring authorities to tell a suspect that they have the right to remain silent. But what are the broader implications for the American citizens of the future, not guilty of any crime other than opposition to the status quo, or the rare(?) cases of mistaken identity or unjust interrogation?

If you don't have the right to remain silent, interrogators will feel much more justified to use whatever force they deem appropriate to get you to talk. If you don't have the right to avoid compelled self-incrimination, why should the police stop interrogating you, even when you insist that you are innocent? Granted, sometimes we all want to make somebody talk, but how much power are we willing to cede to the government to make us talk when we don't want to, or when we truly have nothing to say?

Most government officials are not out to quash opposition using any means necessary. Most police officers truly do want to serve and protect the citizenry. But, checks and balances are there to keep potential abusers of power honest and accountable. We don't know today who might take advantage of the many loopholes we've incrementally provided the government of tomorrow to "deal with" voices of discontent.

You may say, "the government should rightfully have this power, if they're questioning somebody (using whatever methods they deem appropriate), that person probably deserves whatever treatment they get," or you might say, "the government can look into my life however closely they want... who really has any privacy in this day and age anyway," or "who am I to question a decision made by the Supreme Court?" If that is really how you feel on this issue, the dormant activist in me would say that you're a sheep, and the ghost wolf is on the prowl, all dressed up in the shepherd's clothing that we the people have wrapped around it.

~ MRM

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Dying Easter Eggs With Onion Peels

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Rachael discovered a website online the other day demonstrating how to create onion-skin-dyed Easter Eggs. We thought that it looked like a neat idea, and decided that we would give it a try.

I have found a couple of additional websites since that seem to offer some ideas that would probably improve upon the results that we had, but as you can see from the picture above, even our eggs turned out with some very attractive, whimsical designs. I'll include the links with alternative methods at the end of this post.

The very first thing that we did was gather some leaves, stems, and flowers from local plants along one of the local hiking trails.

Next we went to the store and bought the rest of the necessary supplies:

Eggs...

Flowers:

Red and yellow onions (with lots of dry skins):

And some sewing thread, of which I didn't get a picture.

Next, we collected all of the thin yellow and red onion skins that we could.We kept them separated because the red skins are said to dye the eggs much darker than the yellow.

After that we picked plant parts that we thought might create neat patterns.

We used plates with covered with a wet paper towel as our work surfaces. Then we used a spray bottle to wet the eggs and the plant parts so that the plant pieces would stick to the eggs.

A second method, which we found mentioned on another website, was to use a pair of hose to help keep the leaves and flowers in place.

The next step was to wrap the eggs with onion skins, trying to keep the plants in their intended places. This was probably the only challenging step in the whole project. After we had completed our project, we found a website that suggested soaking the onion skins for 15-20 minutes before wrapping the eggs. This is probably a good idea.

As we wrapped the eggs with the onion skins, the next step was to "fix" the skins in place by wrapping them in a cocoon made of sewing thread.

Now we had several egg cocoons to boil in the left over onion skins.

We made a separate pot for the yellow skins and for the red skins so that we could observe the difference between the finished results.

Next we put the eggs into the boiling water for 15 minutes.

* Note: Other websites that we have found since have recommended boiling the water with the onion skins for 20 minutes before putting the eggs in to create a darker dye, and to leave the eggs in the dyed water until it cools so that they have longer to absorb the dye. We also saw later that one website suggested adding a few tablespoons of vinegar to the onion skin "dye." Based on our results, we'll try each of these suggestions next time.

Finally, it was time to unwrap the eggs, and to view the finished product.

* Note: We put our eggs into the water as soon as it started boiling, and placed them into cold water immediately after their 15 minute boil. Our results were subtle, but based on some of the pictures in the links I've included below, you can see that boiling the onion skins for 20 minutes before adding the eggs, and then allowing the eggs to cool in the onion dyed water, can create a much more dramatic effect.

At the end of the day, we wound up with some cool Easter eggs, and a nice bouquet of leftover flowers to boot.

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Some links to check out before beginning your onion-dying project:

http://www.simplynotable.com/2012/dying-imprinted-easter-eggs-with-onion-skins/

http://www.seriouseats.com/2010/04/how-to-dye-easter-eggs-naturally-without-a-box-onion-skins-beets-cabbage.html

http://www.vintagesavoirfaire.com/2012/04/how-to-color-easter-eggs-with-onion-skins/

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