Mystery Solved... Maybe?

Two years ago we decided to install a fountain in the back yard, partly for our enjoyment and partly to provide a reliable water source for the birds that visit our shrubbery and bird feeders.  We had had a birdbath in the garden for some years, but we called it our "bird repelling fountain" because birds seemed reluctant to have anything to do with it.

We finally realized that the basin was too deep to interest the birds, even if we put rocks in the bottom of the basin, although in this picture clearly somebody, probably a largish canine somebody of the coyote variety, was interested in the water and knocked it over.  Since there was no pump, the water in it did not move and we had no desire to breed mosquitoes.

Old Birdbath--Somebody Wanted the Water

So we decided to put in a tower fountain with a pump so the water would circulate through it.  We found one we liked that had several levels so that the water bubbles up through the levels to the top level and then trickles down the sides to the basin at the base of the tower.  The guys who installed it had told us we could add some rocks to control the amount of bubbling from the top.

Tower Fountain, Complete With Birds

Things work reasonable well most of the time and the birds seem to love it, but last summer and again this year for the last couple of weeks, large quantities of water have vanished from the fountain overnight, almost every night.  We were baffled as to why so much water was disappearing.  Evaporation?  A pack of thirsty coyotes?  Raccoon bacchanalia?   Communal crow bathing?   Possibly a two-legged critter coming up through the canyon in search of water?  That last thought was a little unsettling.

Evaporation seemed unlikely since the water levels didn't change much during the hottest part of the summer days.  The water level would go down a little during the heat of hot summer days, but most of it seemed to go at night.  We knew that coyotes visit the garden from time to time--we've found piles of poop and other evidence of their presence, but it seemed unlikely that they would be here every night.

We were so curious that Cindy gave me a trail camera for Christmas.  The camera has a motion sensor and infrared capability, so I set it up in hopes of finding the solution to the mystery, but.... nada, nothing, no varmints.  A few curious birds seemed interested in the new shiny thing, and a few California Ground Squirrels visited the fountain for water, but nothing else.  We knew that the infrared feature worked, because we used the camera to film a curious neighbor cat who was coming to the door to taunt our cats, but the camera picked up nothing in the back yard at night.

We had noticed that there were often large splashes of water outside the bottom basin that didn't seem to be accounted for by bird activity, so Cindy decided to unplug the fountain, let the water settle down and then plug it back in the other morning.  The result was a geyser that shot up into the air, splashing large quantities of water out over the side.

So now it looks like either there is something about the fountain as it is presently configured that makes the water shoot up like that.  We'll just have to figure out whether it's calcium deposits that have built up, or the way the rocks are arranged, or what it is that's causing this.

My favorite theory was the Raccoon bacchanalia, but that's not what the evidence showed.  It's something of a letdown--maybe, as Pogo says, "we have met the enemy and it is us."

   

Three Sisters Garden Experiment

This year Cindy decided to try a "Three Sisters" garden using a companion planting philosophy drawn from several different Native American cultures.  The three sisters are pole beans, squash and corn.  The beans contribute nitrogen to the soil, the corn provides an upright structure for the bean tendrils to climb, and the large leaves of the squash plants keep the roots of all the plants shaded and cool in the heat of summer.  https://www.groworganic.com/organic-gardening/articles/three-sisters-companion-planting-method

That's the theory, anyway.

It started well enough; Cindy was pleased that all the plants germinated.

Everything Came Up!

And they grew.

"The Corn Is As High..."

And they grew some more.

Corn Flower

The corn produced its flowers, and the beans produced, well, ... beans.  Lots of beans.  Lots and lots of beans.

Cindy And Our Friend Lisa With Beans.  Lots of Beans

It began to look a bit like a jungle in that raised bed.

We had some of the corn last night for dinner.  It was sweet, but not too sweet, and juicy.  I think Cindy was pleased with it--she grew up in Northern Indiana, and if there's one thing an Indiana girl knows, it's corn, although I hadn't realized that this was the first time she had ever actually grown corn.

Apparently the corn is pollinated by the wind, which needs to reach every kernel to fertilize it, so the wind must have done its job well.  The beans were clearly pretty happy with the arrangement, but I'm not sure if we got any squash.  The squash flowers are pollinated by bees, who carry pollen from the male flowers to the female flowers.  Unfortunately, that means that both the male and female flowers need to be open at the same time; since the flowers only last for one day, that means timing is everything, and if they don't get pollinated there's no fruit produced.  In this bed the plants were so dense that it was difficult to see if there were any flowers.

And now it's almost done for the season.

End of the Season

Corn Silk!

Good Snake/Bad Snake

People in our urban neighborhood have been finding snakes in their yards lately.  It's always a startling experience, and the question is:  is this a good (harmless) snake, or a bad (poisonous) snake?

Unfortunately, many people don't know how to tell the difference and react by killing beneficial snakes.

This is one of the good ones, either a Pacific Gopher Snake, Phouphis catenifer catenifer, or a San Diego Gopher Snake, Phouphis catenifer annectens:  Gopher Snake Identification.  We found him sunning himself on our garden wall a couple of months ago, so I was able to get a couple of good pictures, including ones of his head and neck and body pattern.

These snakes live on small rodents, such as rats, mice and ground squirrels, as well as lizards, birds and even other snakes.   When they feel threatened, Gopher Snakes may hiss and shake their tails, which may lead whatever is threatening the snake to assume it's a rattlesnake and leave it alone.  Unfortunately, many humans buy the deception and just kill it .

We recognized this one as a beneficial snake and just left him to go about his gopher and rat eradicating business.

And this is one of the dangerous ones, probably a Southern Pacific Rattlesnake, Crotalus oreganus helleri. 

The next door neighbor found this guy curled up under some leaves when she was cleaning up her yard.  It was chilly that day, so they were able to use a shovel to just pick him up, still coiled, and get him into the box.  They called Project Wildlife, which is now part of the San Diego Humane Society, who sent Animal Control officers out to collect the snake.  We had assumed that the snake was just a baby since it was pretty small, but the officers said that the number of rattles on its tail indicated that it was about one year old.  They said the snake would be released in an uninhabited area.

So how can you tell the difference between the beneficial snake and the dangerous one?  For one thing, the Gopher Snake has a slender, glossy body and a pointed tail with no rattles, while the rattlesnake's body is thicker, not glossy, and with a blunt tail ending in a series of rattles.  The Gopher Snake's head is only slightly larger than its neck, while the rattlesnake's neck is narrower and its head is triangular.

Here's a good comparison:

Nobody likes surprises, so it's best to stay alert, make some noise and let these guys get out of your way.

Another Booch Bombing

We've been making kombucha fairly successfully for many months now, experimenting with various types of tea for the base and with many different flavorings.

Yesterday I was preparing the tea for my next batch, waiting for Cindy to bring hers in so I could re-use the SCOBY*, when I heard, "Help, help, HELP" coming from her office.  The plastic spigot on the gallon jar she was using had failed spectacularly, shooting the spigot outward and spewing kombucha all over the floor of her office and the hallway.  Worse yet, she had tried to stem the flow with her hand and the jagged glass around the spigot opening had sliced four out of five of her fingers, so the blood was flowing as freely as the kombucha.

Don't Get A Jar With A Cheap Plastic Spigot For Your Booch

We got the mess on the floors cleaned up and Cindy patched up, but she was really bummed at losing that batch, because she had planned to flavor it with herbs and grapefruit juice.

So I had her drink the grapefruit juice instead to help her body recover from the shock, and we'll get a new jar (maybe with a spigot intended for brewing) and make a new batch.




________________________
* SCOBY is an acronym for Symbiotic Culture of Bacteria and Yeast.  The bacteria and yeast consume the tea and the sugar to produce the beneficial probiotics in the finished product.  Provided you actually get to the finished stage, of course.

For more information on brewing kombucha, check out the information at Kombucha Kamp.

Stinkhorn Revisited

It turns out that the Stinkhorn eggs we found yesterday are not Phallus impudicus, but rather Phallus hadriani.  According to the Mushroom Expert, the difference is in the color of the egg; impudicus is yellowish and hadriani is purplish.

Also, the smell is apparently one of decaying flesh, not dog poop as I previously thought.

So... a phallic mushroom that smells of decaying carrion and attracts flies?  Who wouldn't want that in their garden?

Ugh.

We didn't wait for it to "bloom"--Cindy dug up all of them she could find and put them in the trash.

Stinkhorn

Cindy came out into the garage where I was making glass beads a little while ago and asked me to come look at something she found while she was weeding the garden on the side of the house and asked me what I thought it was.

I said, "Effetre's Evil Devitrifying Purple, Creations is Messy's Eggplant, Simply Berry, Heffalump and maybe some Thai Orchid."

She said, "No, not glass, is it animal, vegetable or mineral?"

Oh.

Stinkhorn Egg

Turns out it's a fungus, Phallus impudicus, commonly called Stinkhorn.  It starts with an egg like the one above, then grows into a cup from which the phallus-like stinkhorn erupts.  It apparently smells like um, poop, and attracts flies that spread its spores so that the fungus can reproduce.  The foul smell can apparently permeate your entire garden with its stench.

About to Erupt?  

The egg in the photo above is apparently just about to erupt and send the horn upward.  That egg was about two inches in diameter and at least two inches tall, with a clear, slimy, gelatinous substance on top.

I think we found it just in time.  It's definitely NOT something you'd want in your garden.

Unless maybe you have no sense of smell and you hate your neighbors.

Family Mystery Solved

Cindy's family is of German origin.  I mean like 99.9% German --there might be a Swede or two somewhere in the deep end of the gene pool, but pretty much all German, so one of the family traditions is baking Stollen for Christmas.

After Cindy's mom died, her Dad took up the task of baking the Stollen and Cindy often assisted Lou when we were back in Ft. Wayne for the holidays.  Some years it went well, and othe years they struggled with it and the Stollen turned out kind of dense and flat.

Since Lou has been gone, Cindy has been baking the Stollen and sending it out to the various family members for Christmas.  Last year's batch was voted one of the best ever.

This year we had to hunt for the appropriate fruit cake-type candied fruit, but finally found some at Ralph's, and she started the baking yesterday, after carefully soaking the candied fruit overnight in Southern Comfort, according to her Dad's handwritten notes on the old family recipe.

The yeast was lively and it looked like everything was going well.  Except that it didn't rise.  Hours went by and it still didn't rise.

Cindy couldn't figure it out--the yeast was lively and everything looked good until she added the candied fruit.  Candied fruit soaked in alcohol.  Alcohol that kills bacteria.  Bacteria such as.... yeast.

Finally the lightbulb went on.  The Southern Comfort had killed off most of the yeast that should have caused the dough to rise.  Last year she had forgotten to soak the candied fruit overnight, so it only had a small amount of alcohol and the yeast did its work, and the Stollen was wonderful.

So she salvaged the batch by turning it into Christmas biscotti, and made a hasty trip back to Ralph's for more candied fruit and more yeast to make the Stollen.

Christmas Biscotti, anyone?

Stollen Cooling