The American Robin is one of the most abundant and widely distributed birds in North America. 3 states have the Robin as their state bird. Did you know that a group of Robins is called a “Round” of Robins. They are primarily ground feeders which is why you see them on the ground hopping around looking for worms so often. The males look much like the females except the females are drabber (figures). They mostly hunt for worms in grasses in the early morning and then find berries and fruit in the afternoons.

Female Robins can layup to 3 broods of chicks a season. They lay 3-5 sky blue eggs and the eggs hatch in about 14 days. They do not mate for life, but choose new mates every season. Because they feed on worms on lawns and grass, they are highly susceptible to chemicals used on lawns so they are a good indicator of too much or bad pesticides.

May 8-9-10-11 issue

Miners Lettuce

Miners Lettuce is everywhere right now, presenting itself as weeds you may want to pull out of your walkways or along fences. Consider adding it to your salad instead of tossing it in the trash or just popping it in your mouth as a snack. It’s very high in vitamin C, vitamin A and iron. It gets its’ name from the gold rush days when miners would eat it to stave off scurvy. They most likely learned this from the Native Americans. You can eat it raw as a salad, with other greens, or you can boil it like spinach. It’s very pretty and easy to identify. The photo is of miners lettuce right here in Idyllwild that I took just last week. It’s also easy to identify because it grows in clumps that look like tiny lily pads.

May 12-13-14 issue

My favorite bird in Idyllwild is the Northern Flicker. It’s just so BIG and so beautiful, and kind of elusive. You don’t see them regularly like the Stellers Jay (which is also big and beautiful but EVERYWHERE). The Flicker is like spotting a shooting star. You only spot one now and then. One might land on your suet feeder and it’s so big it sends the feeder swinging. Most of the time you’ll scare one that’s on the ground feeding and it will fly up to a branch. They are territorial like all woodpeckers so if you are lucky enough to have one frequent your property, you are indeed lucky.

They are a woodpecker, but unlike most woodpeckers, they are ground feeders. They mostly feed on ants, but also beetles, grubs, etc. They have unusually long tongues that have sticky saliva that they can probe down into ant holes. One Northern Flicker that was found had 5000 ants in his stomach. They live about 8 years and are fairly solitary or with a mate. They are the biggest bird in the woodpecker family.

May 15-16-17-18 2023 issue

A monolith is a geological feature consisting of a single massive stone or rock, such as some mountains.

Tahquitz or Lily Rock is the largest monolith south of Yosemite. El Capitan is the largest in the United States and one of the 10 largest in the world. El Capitan stands 3600 feet above the valley floor. Tahquitz has a 1000 foot face.

The Yosemite Decimal System for rating difficulty of climbing routes was actually invented here in Idyllwild on Tahquitz Rock in the 1960’s.

May 19-20-21 issue

One of the prettier birds in Idyllwild is the Spotted Towhee. It’s pronounced like the word “toe” + eeee. They are just beautiful and you will probably hear them before you see them. Their calls are very distinctive….a quick chirp then a long trilllllllllllll. Like they’re rolling their tongue. But you might also hear them when you’re out walking because you think there is a squirrel or something in your bushes. They are almost always found on the ground hopping and displacing the dirt with their feet looking for bugs. They are a little bigger than a sparrow but not as big as a robin. They have little white spots or bands on their wings and white chests.

Once you learn the easy to identify “stand out” birds in Idyllwild, you can start honing your skills on the tiny plain looking birds. There are 120 different birds that have been spotted in Idyllwild on the eBird – Mt. San Jacinto State Wilderness site. So we’ve got a long way to go.

May 22-23-24-25 issue

STATE PARKS
Did you know that in 1864 near the end of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln gave Yosemite Valley to the State of California which had only been a state for 14 years, designating the beginning of land preservation for public use. Yosemite remained a California State Park until 1906 when it became a National Park.

In the late 1800’s, logging was quickly denuding the San Jacinto Mountains and the numerous campers and visitors to the San Jacinto Mountains lobbied congress to set aside more land for public use. In 1897, President Grover Cleveland designated the San Jacinto Forest Preserve to help control all the logging going on in the area due the westward push into California.

By 1905 the U.S. Forest Service had taken shape and set aside even more land in the Idyllwild area and logging slowed except for the limited amount done to build the houses in Idyllwild for the housing boom in the 1920’s & 1930’s. Today, what you see in Idyllwild is mostly 2nd growth forest since the majority of old trees were logged in the late 1800’s – early 1900’s.

May 26-27-28, 2023 issue

One of the prettiest little birds in Idyllwild is the Dark Eyed Junco. They are one of the most common birds in North America spanning from Canada to Mexico and California to New York. I think they look like “little executioners” because of their black hooded heads. You will primarily find them on the ground. They do come to feeders, but usually hang out on the ground below them. They are about the size of a sparrow and easy to identify.

May 29-30-31, 2023 issue

Stinging Nettle

Like it’s name implies, it does sting (or itch) if brushed up against. Unlike Poison Oak or Poison Ivy, it only lasts several hours…not several days. It grows primarily down near the water, so if you’re walking along the creek, which is so beautiful and full of water at this time, wear long pants.

But did you know that it is quite edible and has been used for centuries, by the greeks then for hundreds of years by the Indians to remedy a multitude of ailments. Primarily used for joint pain & arthritis, it has also been used to boost immune systems, and improve circulation and relieve stress. It is literally a SUPER FOOD.

It is packed full of Vitamin C, A, B, Iron, potassium & magnesium.

So how do you eat it? You gather it and cook it. You can buy it in supplements, but we have such a bounty of it up here on the mountain, it is much more fun to find your own. Of course you MUST wear gloves when gathering it. Once you’ve gathered a cup or so, take it home and boil it in water or stock. Once boiled, it looks like spinach and is no longer toxic. You can make tea out of it or add it to soups , or just eat it. But it MUST be cooked first to eliminate the “sting”. You can find a multitude of recipes and websites about it online if you want to read further.

June 2-3-4 issue

The coyote is probably the most prolific animal in Idyllwild other than squirrels. They are elusive and mainly hunt during the night or early morning. You will most likely catch one crossing the highway or traveling along a street. They weigh between 18 – 50 lbs. They live appx. 10 years in the wild. They don’t always live in packs but they can. The female pups of coyotes usually stay with the family to form a family unit (pack) but males leave home around 1 year and usually hunt alone.

They mainly eat rabbits, squirrels, & other small mammals. They have an excellent sense of smell and often watch for stray cats and small dogs. If you are approached by a coyote while walking your dog, do not run. This could trigger its predatory response and give it a reason to chase you. Stand still, make yourself look big, look it in the eye, and make noise to hopefully scare it away.

They are not known for attacking people and you probably won’t encounter them during the day, but it is possible.

June 5-6-7-8 issue

This beautiful fungi is found primarily on dead or dying oak trees. It is beautiful and often comes back year after year. It is usually bright yellow or orange and supposedly it is edible once cooked, but I would caution anyone from doing it without a lot of research and caution. You can see why it’s called a “Shelf” mushroom and I’ve read that it not only can be cooked like chicken but actually tastes like chicken as well. It emerges in the late spring thru fall. It causes a rot in the tree hosting it causing it to be brittle and eventually does kill the tree it’s attached to. But it is wondrous and beautiful.

If you’ve never watched the Netflix documentary called “Fantastic Fungi”, I highly recommend it. It’s fascinating!

June 9-10-11 2023 issue

Mule Deer are what we have in Idyllwild and the southwest part of the U.S. They get their name from their large ears which are 3/4 the length of their head. Only males have antlers, and they grow a new pair each spring which is full and ready for mating season in the fall. Then each winter they shed their antlers and start over.

Mature Mule Deer weigh between 130 – 280 lbs. They live in the wild between 9-11 years. They can smell a human 1/4 mile away and can jump 6-8 feet. Their main predators are humans, coyotes, wolves & mountain lions.

Female deer or “does” have one fawn their first time birthing then 2 fawns after that. Only 50% of fawns survive labor. Mule Deer migrate up and down the mountain depending on snow levels & food availability which mean we won’t see as many during the summer due to the fact that they move up the mountain to feed when it’s warm.

June 12-13-14-15 issue

Did anyone else think this was “Wild Lilac”? I sure did. I told many people….”Oh that’s Wild Lilac”. Wrong! It’s called Chaparral Whitethorn and it’s EVERYWHERE right now! Driving up from the desert, out on walks, etc. I mention it now, first to tell you I am fallible, and second because it’s so prolific now, mainly due to the fact that it is the preferred food of Mule Deer (and Big Horn Sheep too). So it is a new flower to learn, and it goes nicely with our “Animal of the Week”.

A solstice is an event that occurs twice a year, usually June 20th or 21st, and December 21st or 22nd. The word solstice is derived from the Latin sol (“sun”) and sistere (“to stand still”), because at the solstices, the Sun “appears to stand still” before reversing direction.

The earth’s tilt never changes, but its proximity to the sun does change. It takes the earth 1 year to rotate around the sun. During that year, for 6 months OUR hemisphere (the northern) is pointed toward the sun (Spring & Summer) and for 6 months our hemisphere is pointed away from the sun (Fall & Winter). On the day of the two solstices, depending on what hemisphere you live in, you will experience the years longest day and shortest night (or shortest day and longest night on the December solstice). From the date of the June solstice in our hemisphere, our days will slowly start to get shorter and shorter until the December solstice when they will start to get longer and longer until the June solstice when it all starts over again.

The equinoxes which happen in March and September are the days of the year when the amount of daylight and night-time are equal.

So enjoy our longest day of the year this Wednesday June 21st because after Wednesday, our days will slowly start to get shorter. Happy June Solstice or in our part of the world…the first day of Summer!

June 19-20-21-22 issue

I think, one of the prettiest flowers on the hill.
Apparently, wild columbine are not unique; they exist in 48 states and the Blue Columbine is the state flower of Colorado. But here in Idyllwild ,it feels like I’ve come across a hidden jewel when I see one on a walk. I’ve only ever seen them down by the creeks. They are so ornate, delicate and beautiful. Apparently some versions are easy to plant and keep in a garden. Native Americans also used them for medicinal purposes such as staving off headaches. I couldn’t resist telling you about my very favorite flower.

June 23-24-25 issue

I know….when I first saw this bird up here in Idyllwild, I thought I was spotting a rare bird that got off course somewhere on its way to the tropics. I could not believe we had something THIS elegant up here in Idyllwild. But we do….a LOT of them! They are called Violet-Green Swallows. They inhabit the entire western section of the U.S. from Canada to Mexico on the western side of the Rockies. They actually thrive in conifer forests because they nest in already established holes in trees left by other birds and squirrels. They have also been known to help raise other birds’ babies and then once they leave, take over their nests.

Did you know that swallows get their name from the fact that they fly through the air with their mouths open catching insects? In fact, that’s all they eat, is insects. I’ve seen them dashing through the air in big open areas, but the BEST place to see them is over Lake Fulmore at dusk. They are swooping over the water catching bugs. It’s hard to see their vibrant color unless the sun hits them just right because the violet and green are iridescent and need the proper light to hit them to get their full effect. They kind of look brown and white until the sun hits them. Most of them migrate to Mexico in the winter.

Something else I learned about them, is they can go into a state of semi-hibernation called “Torper”. It’s a sleep like state they can go into when they can’t find food to save energy. Finding enough food to survive, but not too much or it will weigh them down and make them sluggish, is a balancing act. That’s why they’re always so busy.

June 30 – July 1-2, 2023 issue

I am so excited to tell you about bats, one of my favorite mammals. They are so misunderstood and feared and they should be appreciated and revered. They are the ONLY flying mammal (yes, they have belly-buttons like all mammals do). There are 1400 different species of bats and in the U.S. they ALL eat just insects. They can weigh less than a penny (The Bumblebee Bat) or as much as 2 lbs. (The Flying Fox bat). They can live more than 30 years and fly up to 100 MPH. They are very clean (they clean themselves like cats) and unlike the saying “Blind as a Bat” have excellent eyesight but they do use echolocation to locate insects because it’s night time when they hunt.

Their wings are actually modified hands with long thin fingers and stretchy thin skin in between which makes up their wings. In the tropics they are responsible for pollinating bananas, avocados and mangos. They can literally eat half their body weight in insects every single night. Farmers adore bats because they don’t have to use millions of pounds of insecticides.

In Austin Texas, there is a bridge where 1.5 million bats live underneath and at one point the town was trying to eradicate them because they didn’t understand them. After an individual started a campaign to educate people, the bats now bring 100,000 tourists a year and $10 Million in revenue to see the bats fly out from the bridge each evening on their way to hunt insects.

It just so happens that there is a Garden Club Class this Saturday on how to build a bat house to attract bats to your property to control mosquitos and other insects.(See below)

July 7-8-9- issue

“The Lemon Lily used to be prolific along streams & bogs in Idyllwild” wrote Harvey Hall, a botanist who wrote in his “Botanical Flora of the Pine Belt of the San Jacinto Mountains”. But in 1902 when Harvey wrote the words, the Lemon Lily was being decimated. Primarily from people digging up the bulbs to sell to gardeners off the hill. One person was noted to have dug up 5000 of the bulbs. Lemon Lilies have difficulty propagating because they need to be pollinated from a nearby flower, and if there aren’t any other flowers nearby, they never go to seed. Also, gophers LOVE Lemon Lillies and so do deer, so what the bulb sellers didn’t get, the gophers did. After all the logging on the hill in the late 1800’s, there weren’t as many trees to keep the mountain shady and cool, and to hold water on the hill. And as Idyllwild grew, more and more water was siphoned off the streams for human use, putting the lilies at a disadvantage. They are very slow growing taking 3-5 years to produce their first flower. All these factors have contributed to the Lemon Lily’s slow return to the mountain.

Information from “Decline of the Lemon Lily” by Dave Stith and Tom Chester.

Today, the Idyllwild Nature Center celebrates the Lemon Lily each year with efforts to restore the lily to the stream beds of Idyllwild. This weekend is the Lemon Lily Festival so stop by the Nature Center and learn and celebrate the Lemon Lily.

July 14-15-16 issue

Do you ever wonder what those chunky balls in oak trees are? They’re GALLS! An amazing feature of nature that allows insects (primarily wasps when you see these in oak trees) to inject some concoction into a tree branch and the branch will actually expand and form a rough layer for the wasp or other insect to lay it’s eggs. It’s hard so after the insects hatch, they leave, but the gall remains on the tree. Sometimes you’ll come across a tree with HUNDREDS of galls in them. And galls come in all different sizes and textures depending on what insect caused them, but here in Idyllwild, the ones in the oak trees are the most noticeable. They don’t hurt the oak tree. And the more insects we have, the more birds we have. So it all works out nicely.

July 17-18-19-20 issue

Early settlers and Native Americans all knew of the prolific wild strawberries in this valley and referred to our area as “Strawberry Valley”. There must have been streams and ponds everywhere before all the development started and where there is water in this are, there are wild strawberries.

The berries are are tiny and when I find them, I always leave them for the birds or other forest animals, even though they are absolutely edible. Almost every creek bed is prolific in strawberry plants and some get worried it’s stinging nettle, but you can see the short squat 3-leafed strawberry plants. I find them from late spring all through the summer on my walk along the fire roads out at the end of Idyllwild Arts Campus (Mountain Bike riders call this “The Hub”). This year Strawberry Creek is still running well and there’s plenty of wild strawberries to be found.

July 21-22-3 issue

I just love the name of this flower…Coyote Mint! It primarily grows in California, and in nurseries it’s sold as a ground cover that is drought resistant and can take full sun. That’s where you’ll find it in the wild…on sandy, sunny hillsides. Come to find out, it’s not only edible, but the Native Americans made a tea out of it for upset stomachs. It is recommended that you let it sit in cold water to make tea. The flowers are edible too so gather a few and toss into your salad for color and a minty taste. I think it would be beautiful floating in a pitcher of lemonade. They are blooming everywhere right now out on the trails.

July 24-25-26-27 issue

I’ve always been intrigued by the word “Twilight”. Once in a movie I heard someone say…”Twilight is when everything is in silhouette”. Turns out, the true definition is much more elaborate than that.

Twilight doesn’t start until AFTER the sun sets. It’s the amount of diminishing light remaining as the sun slips further below the horizon. There are 3 categories of Twilight:

Civil Twilight is the first 6 degrees the sun slips below the horizon. You can usually still read a book in this amount of light. You can’t see any stars. Governments use this measure to close parks and make laws.

Nautical Twilight is the next 6% and it’s named this because it’s dark enough to see the really bright stars that sailors use to navigate while they can still see the horizon..

Astronomical Twilight is the last 6% where you can see more stars. This is the period right before official night, or as dark as the nights going to get.

July 28-29-30 issue

I’ve always loved these bugs. When I was young being brought up to summer camp, we called them “Watermelon Bugs”. That is another name they’re known by but their real name is a “Ten- Lined June Beetle” Now, I’ll admit I had a hard time counting 10 lines. I thought they had 7 lines, but no….they are 10 lined beetles. They are a BIG beetle that you will find in the summertime (hence the name June-Bug). There are supposedly 4 long lines and 1-short line on each side. You count the middle line twice because when their wings spread, half of the line is on each side. Only the males can fly and have those fluffy antennae which spread out to sense the pheromones of females. They are orange & fuzzy on their underside (pick them up and check it out). They are not dangerous and do not bite. When you pick them up, their defense is a hissing noise. It scares most people into dropping them. But they are harmless and slow moving. They provide a protein packed meal to many different animals and birds so DON’T KILL THEM! Pick one up, inspect them and listen to the sound they make. Then put them back and let another hungry animal find them.

Aug 4-5-6, 2023 issue

Look how beautiful these are! Gooseberries! I found them in the burn area down by the creek about 1/2 mile from the Hub (remember that’s the dirt parking area at the very end of Tollgate, past all of Idy Arts where the mountain bikers park). They are a type of currant. Mule deer and bears love them. They have little prickly hairs all over them but I’ve read they have amazing antioxidants and a lot of vitamin C. Zoom in if you can. Since this is the very first plant I’ve ever run across, I think I’ll leave them for the deer! But they are amazing looking. Just wanted to share.

Aug 11-12-13 issue

Ever go for a walk lately and wonder what all that beautiful white ground cover is? It’s Buckwheat and it’s everywhere right now. In the fall all the white flowers will turn rust. But right now it’s an important food for primarily bees and butterflies, but also deer. They use it in drought resistant yards because it takes so little water. I always think it’s fun when you’re on a walk to be able to identify as many flowers, plants and trees that you can and add one more to your repertoire.

Aug 14-15-16-17- issue

Well, when you wake up this morning the rain “should” have subsided and the sun should be out. Congratulations, you’ve just lived through a Tropical Cyclone. Hurricanes & Typhoons are both Tropical Cyclones; the only difference is where they are formed. Hurricanes form in the Atlantic ocean and Gulf of Mexico and the western Pacific Ocean below Mexico. Typhoons are formed in the Eastern Pacific off of Asia. By the time a hurricane reaches California, the cold water it hits has toned it down to a tropical storm. No hurricane has ever actually hit California, just the remnants of hurricanes which is still very epic for California residents. The categories of hurricanes and tropical storms 1-5 have to do with how strong the winds are that go along with the storm, from 75 mph for a category 1 up to 157 mph for a category 5 which is the worst.

The biggest cause of death in a hurricane or tropical storm is from flooding and storm surge which is the high surf caused by hurricanes. The most deadly in the U.S. was The Great Hurricane of 1780 which killed 22,000 people (mostly in Puerto Rico), and more recently Hurricane Mitch which killed 11,000+ people. More recently in 2004 & 2017 appx. 3000+ people were killed in Hurricanes Jeanne & Maria.

Every year, the World Meteorological Organization chooses a list of names, alternating male names, with female names for every letter of the alphabet except Q,U,X,Y,Z (not enough names start with those letters.) The word Hurricane comes from “Hurican” which is the word for “God of Evil” from the indigenous people of the Caribbean & Florida.

By the time you’re reading this, I hope you are safe and your house has not been hit by any fallen trees. It will be a big week of clean-up for everyone here in Idyllwild.

Aug 21-22-23-24 issue

What if you knew your only purpose in life was to entertain humans until you became a meal for another animal? Well, hopefully, they don’t know because they are so darn cute! Merriam’s Chipmunk. They get their name from the chip-chip-chip sound they make. They are the smallest member of the squirrel family, and they differ from ground squirrels in that they have stripes (and they’re smaller too). They only live about 2-3 years and they are masters at gathering seeds (and distributing them in the process). One chipmunk can gather up to 165 acorns in one day. Their cheeks can expand to 3 times the size of their heads and they store more seeds and nuts than they can use in a winter.

In the winter, they go into “torpor” which is a semi hibernation but they wake up every week or so to eat. From March to November, you can see them scampering around rock piles and they are very entertaining to watch. But they are also one of the main food sources for hawks, snakes, foxes, bobcats, raccoons, & owls. House cats also love to catch and eat them.

Aug 28-29-30-31 issue

I couldn’t wait for fall because I knew this tree was going to be going to seed and it is so beautiful and unique I couldn’t wait to show you. Other than it’s spectacular “seed feathers”, it’s pretty nondescript and most people would never even notice it. It’s a Mountain Mahogany and is extremely drought resistant & very slow growing so you can’t really buy them in nurseries. A study dated one of these trees as 1350 years old so it’s right up there with the Bristlecones. The mule deer love them and the Native Americans used these tress for EVERYTHING from syphilis to burns, wounds, tuberculosis, stomach aches, etc. Because of its denseness, they also used it for making tools like arrowheads, & digging sticks. But I mostly wanted to bring it to your attention right now so you could find one and admire it covered in these Dr. Seuss style feather seed pods. It’s amazing!

(Sep 4-7 issue)

Here’s a picture of a Coral Snake which lives in the South and Southeastern states. See how the red is banded by yellow? “Red to yellow, kill a fellow”.

Fun fact….a snake with “King” in its name, means it eats other snakes. The practice of eating snakes is called “Ophiophagy” (pronounced Off-Fi-O-Fa-Gee) and several animals including King Snakes eat snakes like some birds (hawks & eagles), mongooses, skunks & lizards. All are immune to venom.

(Sep 15-17 issue)

Yup….it’s almost fall. You can tell by the sight of all the Goldenrod out on the trails. It’s actually in the daisy family and if you look close, Goldenrod is clusters of tiny tiny flowers that look like little yellow daisies. It’s a very important flower for bees and butterflies at the end of summer because it provides thick nectar and pollen that helps pollinators bulk up for winter. It’s like dessert for pollinators.

It’s also very popular with humans and now is the only time you can collect it. Native Americans used it for all kinds of ailments. All parts are edible, but most people make tea out of it. You can bring leaves and flowers to a boil then let steep for 10 minutes. You’ve got Goldenrod Tea good for sore throats, urinary tract issues, and more. It’s a sign that fall is almost here!

(Sep 18-21 issue)

I was saving this animal until the fall, because that’s when we all need to be the most mindful of them. We are abundantly blessed with the large Western Gray Squirrel here in Idyllwild and they are extremely valuable to our forest.

They live about 7-8 years and females have 1 litter a year. When they are born, they are only 1 inch long. They build nests inside hollowed out trees or in nests built high in the trees with sticks, moss & fur. A group of squirrels is called a “scurry” but most of the time they are solitary. Up here, they mainly feed on the seeds of pine cones and acorns. That’s why they make such a mess during the fall getting seeds out of the pinecones. And woodpeckers are their biggest competition for acorns. They bury their seeds and nuts everywhere within their territory, and usually can’t find appx. 74% of these nuts. But that is valuable for planting new trees.

They are also an important food source for hawks, bobcats, coyotes, cougars & raccoons. Did you know their front teeth never stop growing? They wear them down constantly by chewing open pinecones and acorns. The most useful part of the squirrel is its’ tail. It is used for balance, warmth, fur for their nest, a parachute when they jump or fall, and to communicate with a potential mate or a predator. They molt their fur twice a year, from their head to their tail in the spring, and backwards from their rump to their head in the fall.

But WHY can’t they make up their minds when running across the roads causing numerous squirrel deaths, especially in the fall? Because their instinctive tactic for avoiding a predator is to confuse them by changing directions, doing a little zigzag dance. The only way you can help them make up their mind is to give a little “honk” with your horn and slow down, especially in the fall.

(Sep 22-24 issue)

Since we’re heading into the time of year where we all start looking for the beautiful colors of fall, I thought it would be fun to learn how nature actually creates all those beautiful colors.

Most of the beautiful fall colors have been there all year, but they’ve been covered up, disguised by the dominant green of chlorophyll. Chlorophyll is a green pigment, present in all green plants, responsible for the absorption of light to provide energy for photosynthesis. During the spring and summer, the increased amount of sunlight causes trees and plants to produce lots of chlorophyl. When our days start to get shorter and the temperatures drop, less and less chlorophyll is produced and we see the tree’s natural leaf color. Eventually there will be no chlorophyll produced and the leaves will die and fall off the tree. But in the process, we get the beautiful colors that we all associate with fall. It’s like we’re seeing trees in their green costumes for half the year, then we catch a glimpse of them out of their green costumes and see their “true colors” for just one brief season. The leaves fall off, and are naked during the winter, and they start the whole photosynthesis process all over again. Nature is AMAZING! Happy Fall everyone.

(Sep 25-28 issue)

By reader request, here’s what I found out about Daddy Long-Legs. First of all, they are NOT really spiders. They are arachnids, which is a family that spiders are a part of, but they are not true spiders. Daddy Long-Legs, or “Harvestmen” (their real name) do not have venom or spin silk so they don’t have webs. They only have 2 eyes whereas spiders have 8. In fact, Daddy Long-Legs have pretty poor vision and use their legs like “seeing eye canes” to probe around.

They may look creepy, but they are actually very beneficial to home dwellers. They act like tiny ROOMBAS (you know…the automated robovacs). They eat everything from dead insects to dung, fungus, etc. They are called Harvestmen because you normally start to see them in late summer and fall; harvest time! If you can tolerate them, let them be. They ARE beneficial and they don’t bite. They are harmless.

(Set. 29-Oct. 1)

Unlike our beautiful western gray tree squirrels, the California ground squirrel is NOT so loved. They live everywhere in California and Oregon, and you will never mistake a gray tree squirrel for a California ground squirrel because they are never in the trees. In fact, you won’t even see them in the winter because they hibernate. So now while the gray squirrels are going crazy collecting acorns for the winter, the ground squirrels are laying low in their Burroughs.

The females have one litter of babies a year and are considered “promiscuous” and their litters may consist of kits (baby squirrels) from several different fathers. They can live up to 6 years.

They are considered pests, especially to gardeners due to their hole digging and plant eating, but they actually serve a very important purpose, especially here in the mountains. They are food for many of our local wildlife including hawks, coyotes, bobcats, foxes & snakes. Rattlesnakes are their #1 predator. Although they are cute, they can carry disease so it’s best keep your distance.

(Oct. 2-5 issue)

It’s getting to be that time of year when you start to rake leaves from your yard. When I ran across this ADORABLE poster, I started reading about whether it’s good or bad to remove all those leaves falling off your trees.

If you have a lawn, you will most likely want to rake and remove your fallen leaves because they will keep your grass from getting sun and your lawn will die. But most people in Idyllwild do NOT have lawns, so here are the arguments for leaving those leaves right where they fall.

First of all, it’s easier than raking and much quieter than blowing. If you can mulch them up, that’s great, but even just leaving them under the trees they fall from, or raking them into other plant beds so they can dry up and get absorbed into the soil is valuable. The matter in the leaves is very beneficial and reduces the need for fertilizers. They help other plants retain moisture, keep roots warm and even keep some weeds from growing.

It’s also good for wildlife in the winter. Insects use the protection of the leaves to winter over and worms abound under layers of dead leaves becoming valuable food for birds.

I vote to leave the leaves alone!

(Oct. 6-8 issue)

Most of you are familiar with the omni-present Acorn Woodpecker, but did you know we have a more rare species living on our mountain? The White-Headed Woodpecker. We live in the southern most area they are found. They are much more quiet than their noisy acorn cousins. They eat primarily seeds from pine cones and insects from beneath the bark of pine trees. The males have a tiny red spot on the back of their head, but the females are all black with a white head.

I was first introduced to their rarity when someone from the Nature Center said I had a nesting pair in my dead oak in front of my lodge and asked if they could set up a camera. I took the picture you see here of that mother and her baby. Then a few years later, I ran into a couple of bird watchers from Canada on my morning walk who were looking specifically for a white-headed woodpecker to add to their “life list”. I told them I had a picture of one from a few years back and sent them the photo. They were thrilled!

If you haven’t started a Life List of birds for yourself, you can buy a handy book here from Amazon and start your own list today.

(Oct. 9-12 issue)

Sometimes I just pick a plant because it’s beautiful AND I love the name of it. This week’s plant is both! Py-ra-can-tha…it’s just such a cool word. It rolls off your tongue. And the pyracantha are over-FLOWING with berries this year and they are everywhere. Another name for them is “Firethorn” but I like Py-ra-can-tha.

When I was growing up, we had them in our yard and I always connected them with Christmas because my mom would pick holly from the yard and sprinkle pyracantha berries in amongst the holly. Ours were redder than these (they come in varying hues) so I always think of Christmas. They are one of the few berries that blossom well into the winter so they are vital for birds as a winter food staple.

Come to find out, they are highly recommended as an alternative to fencing because they 1) grow fast, 2) are dense and bushy, and 3) they are EXTREMELY thorny so no animal or human would dare try to get through them. Just try trimming them sometime and you’ll see what I mean.

I used to think they were poisonous, but they are not. The seeds inside them are “mildly poisonous” (is there such a thing as a mild poison?) and the fleshy part is not toxic, but could, if consumed in a large quantity, cause gastrointestinal problems. Bottom line….Don’t eat them. Just use them as security, and decorations.

Shhhhhh….There’s a beautiful Pyracantha on S. Circle about 100 yards down from Village center with a red-turning Virginia Creeper as well.

(Oct. 13 – 15 issue)

I have a rule that I don’t write about any plant or animal UNLESS we have it up here on our mountain. Well, I’m finally convinced that we DO have California Black Bears, so that’ why I’m writing about them.

Hundreds of years ago, the native bear was the Grizzly, and that’s why it’s on the California flag. Black bears didn’t get along well with Grizzlies so there weren’t many around. But due to the aggressiveness of the Grizzly, the last one in California was killed in 1924. Since that time, the Black Bears have thrived. As you may have noted, black bears are NOT always black. They come in a variety of colors from light brown to black. They don’t have humps (like Grizzlies) and they are much smaller. But they are fast and excellent climbers. They can run about 35 mph. But they are not aggressive (but you DON’T want to mess with them) and mostly just looking for food.

Females give birth to 1-3 cubs per year after they reach about 4-5 years of age. They weigh between 200 – 300 lbs. They have primarily lived in the San Bernardino mountains (Big Bear area) thanks to an over-zealous CA Parks director who moved between 20-30 bears into the mountains in 1933. Now the San Bernardinos have the majority of the Southern California bears including the Sierra Nevadas up through Yosemite. But over the past several years, we’ve had a few make it over to our mountains (see video below).

They are omnivores but primarily feed on plants, berries, nuts, etc. If you are careful while camping with your food and other “smelly” stuff, you shouldn’t have any problems. If you do encounter a bear, don’t run, stand still, make noise and look scary. Most likely they will move along.

Jon King who hikes into the San Jacinto mountains multiple times a week to update his website http://www.SanJacJon.com has confirmed that over the past few years he has personally seen 3 different bears.

Click here to see the video Jon King took up on San Jacinto trail on Sept. 14th of this year.

(Oct. 16-19 issue)

What is fall without Caramel Apples?

I love caramel apples and there are apple trees all over Idyllwild right now so it’s the perfect time. What I did NOT know was that you need to add a little milk (or some type of cream). Just a dash. I also never liked trying to un-wrap all those tiny little squares of caramels you buy in a big package but that’s all I knew. From my research, it looks like investing a little extra in “Werther’s Original Caramels” is not only more delicious, but also easier. They’re wrapped like tootsie-rolls so you just pull and twist and Voila! Add a little bit of milk, heat it in the microwave or on the stove, and dip your apples. Then as an added touch, decorate them with some optional toppings if you wish. If you don’t have popsicle sticks, just get a pretty twig, break it into the perfect sizes and wash them off. Or heck….just stick a small fork or a table knife into each apple before dredging it into the caramel. Be creative and resourceful. But don’t let the season pass you by without making some.

Yes, we have cougars in Idyllwild. You are VERY unlikely to ever see one, but they are here. The photo below is a screen shot from a local Pine Cove resident’s security camera just a week ago. The last attack in California was in Orange County in 2004 of a bike rider who was fixing something on his bike during a ride. They are “ambush animals” which means they sit and wait for their prey to come by. They mostly take down deer and other various small animals. You might be surprised to hear they are NOT the top of the food chain. They will relinquish a kill to a bear or a pack of wolves or coyotes if necessary. They are very solitary and also crepuscular. Now there’s a word….it comes from the latin word for twilight and means they hunt at dusk and dawn.

They have the distinction of being the mammal with the most names. Depending on where you are, they may be called cougars, pumas, mountain lions, panthers, catamounts, American lions, Mexican lions, etc.

They are present all the way from the Yukon in Canada down through South America, but only on the western section of the United States and Canada. They were hunted to extinction in the eastern U.S. and Canada with the exception of panthers in Florida. They ARE a protected species in the United States and it is illegal to hunt or kill them. I have been here 30 years and have never seen one, but it’s amazing to know we have them!

With Halloween just around the corner, I saved this amazing bird for just this season. The Turkey Vulture. This photo was taken here in Idyllwild by Frazier Drake.

Turkey Vultures are so named because their heads look like wild turkeys. They don’t have feathers on their heads so they don’t get bits of decaying flesh stuck to their feathers. They ONLY eat dead animals and have an amazing sense of smell which allows them to smell the gasses of decaying animals from as far away as a mile. They are the largest of the vultures but are not dangerous to pets or humans. They are actually extremely important to the ecosystem because they clean up the dead carcasses left behind. They roost in trees at night with other birds, but hunt for dead animals alone during the day. They are migratory and are primarily in our area during the summertime. Did you know that a group of turkey vultures is called a “kettle of vultures”? Happy halloween everyone!

(Oct. 27-28-29 issue)

Just in time for Halloween…The Western Screech Owl.

I kept hearing this fascinating sound at night like a fluttering coo. Then a reader asked if I would highlight the Screech Owl which they knew we had here in Idyllwild. THAT WAS MY SOUND! I was overjoyed to learn what I’d been hearing in my trees at night.

Western Screech Owls live in forested areas primarily, but sometimes deserts and even near cities. They are small owls; about the size of a pair of binoculars. They are completely nocturnal so you won’t see them in daytime unless you hear a ruckus from a group of song birds trying to get one to move out of their tree. They nest in tree hollows and eat mice, voles, rats, bats, and even occasionally a rabbit. Also insects and other crawly things. One of the most interesting things about owls is they puke out pellets which are undigested balls of bones, hair, nails, etc that their system cannot digest. You can buy pellets online HERE for an interesting biology project (shhhh…you don’t need to have kids to enjoy and learn from this) and HERE is the link to the charts that help you identify what the bird has eaten.

Other fascinating things about owls are, their ears are asymentrical (not evenly lined up) to help them pinpoint sounds. Their eyes are tubes instead of eyeballs like humans. This helps them see for long distances like a pair of binoculars. Because their eyes don’t move around, they have to move their heads and that’s why their necks are designed to rotate 270 degrees (that’s the same as if we could turn our heads around 3/4 of a circle). Their feathers are also specially designed to make their flight almost silent which makes them excellent night time hunters. The best way to experience a screech owl, is to listen carefully at night. Here’s a link to a video of what you’re listening for.

San Jacinto Peak (10,834 ft.) is the highest point on our mountain range which is the San Jacinto Mountains. The range was named after Saint Hyacinth (San Jacinto in Spanish) in 1878 by The Wheeler Survey Group (a group commissioned by the U.S. government to survey the west after the Civil War.) In 1897, a USGS topographer (someone who studies and describes the physical features of an area) named Edmond Perkins, spent a summer measuring the mountains. He was deciding between 2 women to marry at the time, and so he named the 2nd tallest peak, Jean Peak (10,670 ft.) for the woman he eventually married and Marion Peak (10,362) for his girlfriend.

San Jacinto Peak is the 6th greatest “topographically prominent” peak in the contiguous U.S. But more importantly, it is the largest gain in elevation over the shortest distance of anywhere in the United States. The change in altitude from the floor of the Palm Springs Valley on the Northern escarpment is more than 10,000 feet in 7 miles. Escarpment is the name of the rock formation (in this case, San Jacinto Peak) that was formed millions of years ago by earth quake faults pushing up on rock. The tram station on the Palm Springs side sits at 8,516 ft. Many people think the tram goes up to the top of San Jacinto Peak. It does not.

There are 3 basic routes to hike to San Jacinto Peak. The easiest is to start from the top of the Palm Springs Tram (6 miles & 2,318 ft. in elevation change). The next easiest is from Humber Park in Idyllwild which is 7.4 miles (1-way) and an elevation change of 4,125 ft.). The shortest and hardest is from the Marion Mountain Trail out near Black Mountain Rd. This route is 5.6 miles long with an elevation change of 4,500 ft. but much harder due to the shorter distance.

There is a rock building at the top of San Jacinto Peak that was built by the CCC (Civilian Conservation Core) in 1935. The CCC was a government program designed to put young men back to work after the depression.

(Nov.4-5-6)

Did you know that humming birds are the smallest bird in existence? The smallest humming bird is the Bee Humming Bird and is appx. 2.5 inches. The average is about 5 inches and weighs less than a nickel. They are the only bird that can fly backwards and even upside down. They can fly up to 30 mph. Their hearts beat about 1200 beats per minute and their wings beat from 50 – 200 beats per second depending their flight. The sound of their wings moving so fast is what gives them their name….they hum. They have the highest metabolism of any vertebrate. Humming birds need to eat 1/2 their body weight in nectar and bugs every day. They don’t suck nectar like some think; they actually lick or lap the nectar from flowers, and yes they eat bugs too. And guess what one of their main predators is? The praying mantis! Bigger birds, snakes, cats and hawks often get the eggs or babies right out of the nests. Humming Bird eggs are smaller than a jelly bean. But if they survive, they can live 3-5 years.

We have several humming bird species in Idyllwild and most do not migrate (the Rufous Humming Bird travels through Idyllwild on its 4000 mile migration from Alaska to Mexico). Did you know that it’s dangerous to make humming bird food with anything other than plain white sugar? Yup…honey, sweetness, organic brown sugar…all bad for humming birds. So if you want a constant show outside your window, get a hummingbird feeder and a giant bag of white sugar (food coloring is not necessary or recommended). Click here for the recipe.

And check out this cool little video of a humming bird pool party.

Rose Hips are ripe and on the vine everywhere in Idyllwild waiting to be picked. They are the “fruit part” of the wild rose bushes that line the creek beds. You can walk along Strawberry Creek, or there’s a huge amount of them down past the Idy Arts treatment plant in the burn area on the Fire Road.

They are super healthful for you. Choke full of Vitamin C, and known for centuries to be used for arthritis, and to combat flu. They are natural immune boosters. You can dry them and store them for later in the year, or use them fresh in hot tea right now. If you’re really energetic and experimental, you can also make rose hip syrup, jam or oil.

Just pick a bowl full, take them home and remove the little flower part from the end. Wash them and you’re ready to dry them for later use or pop them into water to make tea as-is.

Rose hip Tea

Healing tea made with rose hips

• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Cook Time: 20 minutes

INGREDIENTS

1/2 cup (A handful of) rosehip 

• 5 or 6 cups of water
• 1 tablespoon honey

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Pour water in a saucepan with a lid or a teapot. Throw the rosehips into it. Put the lid on.
2. Bring it to boil and let it simmer over medium low heat for 15-20 minutes or until it has a nice color and taste. 
3. Serve it in cups sweetened with a little honey.
4. If you would like to drink it cold, pour all into a jug, mix it with honey and chill it in the refrigerator until cold.

(Nov. 10-11-12 issue)

I like the word “endemic”. It sounds like something we should be afraid of like a pandemic, but “endemic” comes from the greek word for people of a certain district. So endemic means that these things are belonging to or native to a particular area. And yes, our mountains, the San Jacintos, have several species of plants and a few insects that are “endemic” to only our mountains. Cool! You can only find the following here in the San Jacinto Mountains…

San Jacinto Shieldback Katydid:
Katydids are in the cricket family and not the grasshopper family. They sing like crickets, have very long antennae like crickets, and have their ears right below their knees like crickets (weird)! But nowhere else on earth do they have THIS Katydid. I’ve seen it somewhere on FB where someone’s asking…”Does anyone know what this is?” Now you know… a San Jacinto Shieldback katydid.

Tahquitz Mousetail

We actually have 11 “endemic” plants in the San Jacinto mountains. Most have technical names and no pictures, so I chose this one. It lives high up in the San Jacinto mountains (above 8000 ft.) and grows out of the cracks in big rocks. It’s called the Tahquitz Mousetail or “Ivesia callida” and ONLY lives on our mountain.

(Nov. 13-14-15 issue)

There’s nothing like pumpkins to remind us it’s fall. But did you know the fascinating history of pumpkins? First of all, they are a fruit, not a vegetable. They have seeds (appx. 500 per pumpkin). They are the oldest cultivated plant in North America. There is evidence that pumpkins were grown 7000 years ago. The Native Americans were growing pumpkins way before they were growing beans or corn. Every part of a pumpkin is edible (flower, seed, skin & flesh) and they are VERY nutritious. They contain Vitamin C, E, B6, Iron, fiber & potassium. They can help reduce the risk of cancer, obesity, diabetes & heart disease.

There are 150 different varieties of pumpkins and the state that grows the most is Illinois (That’s where Libby is headquartered). Jack-O-Lanterns were brought over by the Irish immigrants, but they originally made them out of turnips or potatoes until they were introduced to the pumpkin and found it to be much more suitable for their carved creations with a chunk of coal inside. The largest pumpkin ever produced in the U.S. was in 2018 and weighed 2,528 lbs.

When the pilgrims arrived and were introduced to pumpkins, the Native Americans made a “pumpkin pie” that was literally a carved out pumpkin filled with a milk & honey custard concoction that was cooked inside a pumpkin. If you’d like to make a traditional pumpkin pie, the recipe is below.

Original Pumpkin Pie
The way the Pilgrims made it!

Most people associate Thanksgiving with the pilgrims, but most don’t know the whole story. The pilgrims landed at Plymouth Rock in the winter of 1620. About 50% of them perished from malnutrition and other ailments during that first winter in America. In the fall of 1621, the 40 survivors joined about 90 Wampanoag Indians to share in a 3-day feast celebrating the harvest, and to give thanks for their new land. Turkey was not even on the menu. Deer, oysters, lobster, and a variety of vegetables and roots.

In the 1820’s, a woman named Sarah Josepha Hale who was widowed with 5 children, began writing stories about the pilgrim’s festival in the 1600’s directly from a diary her father had handed down to her over generations. She could trace her roots back to the original pilgrims at Plymouth and her efforts to educate herself and her 5 children led her to publish many articles beseeching governors and finally Presidents to set aside an official day of thanks that the entire nation would celebrate, second only to Independence Day which was July 4th. Finally, in an effort to bring the nation together during the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln finally declared Thanksgiving to be the last Thursday of the month in 1863. In 1941, President Roosevelt officially changed it to the 4th Thursday of the month; Thursday because it wouldn’t interfere with any church services.

Today there are 17 countries that have a day of thanksgiving, all celebrated on different days and in different ways, many influenced by the American celebration.

Average Americans consume between 3000 – 4000 calories during Thanksgiving dinner, the reason most people need a long nap following the abundant meal (NOT the tryptophan in the turkey). Green bean casserole was invented by the Campbell’s Soup test kitchen in the 1950’s, and the Pumpkin Pie as we know it today didn’t become popular until the early 1800’s when the english immigrants brought their love of everything in a pie shell to the celebration and the pie we know today emerged as the standard. Originally it was a custard baked inside a pumpkin shell.

One last interesting fact…Jingle Bells was originally written as a Thanksgiving song and was named “One Horse Open Sleigh” about traveling to relatives houses for Thanksgiving, but was quickly turned into a Christmas favorite and renamed “Jingle Bells”

(Nov. 20-21-22-23 issue)

I know most of you reading Good Morning Idyllwild are experienced mountain folk, but for the few who are new to the mountain, here are some tips for building and maintaining a great fire.

My first piece of advice is, gather all the pine cones you can NOW while they’re falling off the trees and are dry and sappy. I know you’re thinking, “that’s not good for my chimney or flu” but you’re not going to use enough to get build up of any significance. Go ahead and gather them now so you’re ready to use them. Be sure to gather several giant Coulter pine cones. They are SPECTACULAR in a fire.

Now you’re ready to build your fire.

• Build your fire as far back inside your fireplace as possible.
• If your fireplace is cold, you might want to make a sword out of newspapers, light it on fire and hold it up inside the flu/chimney as far as possible to get the draft going.
• Crumple about a dozen pieces of newspaper into loose balls and stuff them under the grate if you have one. Make sure there is plenty of space around the papers (excess ash should be moved to the back or sides – you don’t need a perfectly clean ash-free fireplace ).
• On top of the grate (above the balls of newspaper) lay a log cabin of kindling. twigs, pine needles, dried leaves, small scraps of wood, fire starter block, etc.
• On top of this, lay several small pine cones.
• On top of this, lay some very dry small pieces of wood, again in a log cabin style or a teepee style. Do NOT put any BIG pieces of wood on yet.
• Once you’ve got this basic fire starting structure, go ahead and light the paper balls in the bottom at several different places.
• As your fire gets going and your pine cones are glowing, add more small “split” logs to your structure (teepee or log cabin).

Here are a few tips for trouble shooting, safety & beauty…

• If you start to get smoke in the room, make sure your fire is as far back in the fireplace as possible. Many people build their fires out close to the front of a fireplace and the smoke just comes out into the room. If your smoke isn’t going up the chimney very well, consider using the newspaper sword lit on fire again to get the draft going up the chimney better.
• Do NOT use lighter fluid or gasoline. This is tempting but it’s a true sign you’re a flat-lander. You could end up having a house fire. It’s not smart!
• Do not use wet wood, very heavy wood (it’s probably still green) or un-split wood. You will have a hard time being successful with any of these.
• If you’re a novice, use pine to start out. It burns fast but easily so for un-experienced fire-builders, it’s easier. Once you get the hang of it, oak, cedar, or even small pieces of manzanita burn very hot and long, but you need to add it after your fire is going well.
• Pine cones, especially the gigantic Coulter Pine Cones are magnificent in a fire later in the evening. They burn slow and get all glowy in your fire. You only need one. You can find them by driving around or hiking around and looking up. If you see a spindly pine tree with giant pine cones, they’ll be at the base waiting for you.
• You do NOT need to clean out the ash in your fireplace after every fire. In fact, more house fires are started from improperly removing ashes than any other way. Ashes can be warm and active for 4-5 days after a fire is out. If you were to burn a fire every night, then maybe once a week would be wise to remove ash. if you make a fire only on weekends, maybe once a month. The MOST IMPORTANT PART OF REMOVING ASH IS DO NOT PUT IT IN ANYTHING OTHER THAN A METAL BUCKET. I used to be an Innkeeper and I’ve seen people put ash in plastic trashcans, cardboard boxes, and plastic bags thinking it was out.
• When your metal can is full, the dump has a special place for ashes to be dumped. Please do not empty it into a dumpster that you find in town. I’ve seen many fires start this way.

(Nov. 24-25-26 Issue)

Winter will be here soon Dec. 21st to be exact. We may get our first snow this Thursday. Here’s a reminder of things you MAY want to do to make sure you are ready for any kind of winter we may get.

• Have your heater serviced & cleaned.
• Have your propane tank topped off
• Have your chimney cleaned if it has been more than 2 years.
• Reverse your ceiling fans so they push the warm air down.
• Inspect your doors to see if you need new weatherstripping.
• Wrap any exposed outside pipes so they don’t freeze.
• Clean your gutters.
• Gather extra pine cones for fire starters.
• Get your snow shovels out.
• Buy extra salt or snow-melt.
• Buy a handy-dandy windshield cover so you’re not scraping ice off in the morning. Click here
• Split wood & cover so it’s ready.

(Nov. 27 -28-29-30 Issue)

How did a plant that can kill a tree as big as an oak, become a popular Christmas symbol? Mistletoe is a parasitic plant, which means it derives some or all of its nutrients from a host plant that it attaches to. There are hundreds of species and they all attach to a tree by way of birds eating the berries then dropping or pooping them out in trees. The seeds are very sticky and once they stick to a tree, they attach themselves to branches and start to grow off the tree and get their nutrients from that tree. They don’t always kill the tree, but they can, if enough mistletoe has attached so the tree eventually suffers malnutrition.

How it came to be associated with Christmas is complicated. Since the days of the roman empire and before, it was a sign of virility and fertility due to it being so green and vibrant in the winter when the trees it thrived in looked dead. The association persisted, and eventually in the 1700 & 1800’s, because it was closely associated with love & fertility, the english tradition of being allowed to kiss any woman caught standing under the mistletoe was popularized and it was thought to be bad luck if a woman avoided the kiss. It was first seen in print in “A Christmas Carol” in 1843. We are lucky here in Idyllwild if we want to use it to decorate, because most oaks in Idyllwild are FULL of it. May your season be full of peace & lots of love…and mistletoe kisses!

(Dec. 8-9-10 issue)

Acorns are the “fruit” of Oak Trees. There are more than 70 species of Oaks in the U.S. and all of them produce acorns. Historically, acorns were an important food source for almost all Native American people and many other cultures around the world, but now human consumption of acorns is a time consuming process that only a few pursue. Trisha Pilkington here in Idyllwild offered a class in the fall on how to process acorns. But today, the most important use of acorns is by our wildlife. The crop of acorns an oak produces every year varies and helps determine the population of many species.

About every 3 years, all the oaks in an area will have a “mast” year. Mast means the “nuts of forest trees” and years where the trees are producing huge crops of nuts is called a “mast year”. 2023 has been a mast year as evidenced by the huge amount of acorns everywhere. This mast year means there will be plenty of nuts for the wildlife plus extra that will end up growing into trees. Because of all the acorns this year, wildlife will survive and thrive. It’s nature’s way of controlling the wildlife population. More acorns means more deer, more mice, more owls thanks to more mice, etc. Mother nature is very smart.

Something fun to do is to learn to use acorn caps as an “Emergency Whistle”. They work great and they’re easy to find out on the trail and keep in your pocket “just in case”. They can be really loud. You just need an acorn cap (they’re actually called cupules). The size and shape of the cap determines the tone of your whistle. Try different shapes once you learn to whistle with them. If you teach a child, they’ll love it, but will most likely drive you crazy. Click on the video below. Hopefully it works. It’s my first attempt at making and adding a video.

I know….you grew up calling them “Lady Bugs”, but apparently there is an official bug category, and Lady Beetles are not in it (you go ahead and call them whatever you want). They were named “Lady Beetles” back in the middle ages (400 AD – 1400 AD) when a bunch of farmers in Europe were being overrun with aphids in their crops. They prayed about it and a bunch of red Beatles showed up to eat them and they named them “Lady Beatles” after the Virgin Mary. They are for the most part good because they eat thousands of aphids which are pests in any garden. But when it gets cold, they hibernate (officially it’s called diapause in the insect world). They gather in huge groups to keep each other warm and congregate at the base of plants, on logs, or sometimes inside homes. This is when they become pests. It can be amazing to find them here in Idyllwild in huge groups “wintering over”. They only live about a year or so and use these wintering over group sleep-overs to stay warm and find mates.

Some people on FB have warned residents that what they are seeing are actually “Asian Lady Beetles” and not true Lady Beatles and that the Asian version is bad. Actually, there are over 450 different species and many, including the Asian Lady Beatle have been imported from other countries because they ALL eat lots of aphids which are always pests to gardeners. The Asian version have a little different marking and often different colorings (orange or even beige) but they are no more pests than the red version if they are staying outside and doing their job. As far as biting…all Lady Beetles can bite….they don’t usually, but they can. They can also “bleed” if they are threatened which is called “reflexive bleeding” which means they can squeeze blood out through the joints in their legs to ward off predators from eating them. They are brightly colored to warn predators that they do not taste good!

There is an organization called the “Lost Ladybug Project” that tracks the different species in the U.S. and they welcome everyone’s help. If you take a photo of any Lady Beatle you see, send it into this website to help keep track of the native species. Click here to submit your photos.

One of the funnest facts I found was, in 1999, 4 Lady Beetles were taken into space along with a bunch of aphids to see how predators and prey reacted in zero gravity. The Lady Beetles names? John, Paul, Ringo & George!

(Dec. 15-16-17 issue)

Christmas Trees:
Evergreen trees have been worshiped for centuries because they “remain green” in the winter and early Greeks and Egyptians often decorated with evergreen boughs to ward off evil spirits when the nights were long (solstice?). The Germans were credited with bringing actual trees into their houses and decorating them with fruit and other things, possibly an off-shoot of the Tree of Life celebration which happened in December. In America, the first Governor of Massachusetts in the 1600’s outlawed any celebration of Christmas thinking it pagan, but with more and more immigrants, the European traditions came into the country in full force and as early as 1747 a german community had a community tree decorated in the center of town. By the 1800’s, Queen Victoria embraced the tradition of bringing a live tree inside and decorating it, and with her blessing, the tradition took off.

Candy Canes:
The most common story of the origin of the Candy Cane comes from Germany in the 1670’s when a choir master had them made by a local candy maker to keep his boys quiet during a living nativity. The choir master asked that the candy sticks be bent to look like a shepherds crook to remind the kids of the shepherds who came to see the baby Jesus.

Originally they were thought to have been made pure white and later the red stripes were added to signify the blood of Christ and his sacrifice.
Watch this fun video to see how Candy Canes are made. Click Here.

XMAS:
Some people think it’s disrespectful to use the term XMAS but it actually has a fascinating history. It comes from the early greeks. X was often used as a secret code for someone being a Christian. X is the first letter in the greek word Χριστός (Chrīstos) which is the greek word for Christ. The “mas” was a shortened version of mass as in a Christmas Mass religious ceremony so XMAS was used in the 1500’s as a legitimate term for Christmas.

Santa Clause:
The legend of Santa started with a Saint born in 270 AD named Saint Nicholas or Sinterklass (in Dutch). He was the patron saint of children. He had a white beard and a red cape and gave children gifts. His death has been celebrated for 2000 years in December and the Dutch, who colonized New York just 3 years after the pilgrims arrived, brought Sinterklass (Santa Clause) with them. The English had Father Christmas and the puritans didn’t want any Christmas celebrations (too wild and crazy). Eventually so many stories and books were written about the Santa Character, that by the 1800’s, his character was set in stone.

In the 1930’s a Swedish/American artist fine-tuned the image of Santa Clause for the Coca-Cola company which featured it in mass advertising solidifying our current version of Santa. His character is always associated with charity, giving & children.

Christmas Stockings:
This tradition also comes from the European Saint Nicholas. The legend goes that Saint Nicholas knew a very poor father who had 3 daughters and could barely feed them, much less provide them a dowry so they could be married. Saint Nicholas knew that the father was too proud to accept charity so he secretly filled the daughter’s socks that were hung by the hearth with gold coins. This is why kids today hang stockings along the fireplace in hopes that when St. Nicholas (Santa) visits, he will leave little gifts & candy in their stockings as well.

Leaving out Milk & Cookies:
It seems leaving a snack for Santa, Kris Kringle, or whatever name they have for the mythical bringer of the gifts has been going on a very long time. The snack differs depending on what part of the world you live in. In England they leave out a mince pie & sherry, in Ireland, Christmas pudding and Guinness (Beer), and in Italy they leave little oranges called Clementines. In Australia they leave cookies and a cold beer since it’s summer during Christmas. And in Japan, they almost always leave Santa some Kentucky Fried Chicken since that’s the most popular Christmas dinner in Japan.

There is no disputing that leaving milk and cookies in America got it’s strong start during the depression in the 1930’s when parents were so strapped for cash but wanted to instill in their children the lesson of giving, no matter how much you had and to be grateful for whatever presents Santa brought.

(Dec. 25-26-27-28 issue)

Did you ever wonder how people in other parts of the world celebrate the New Year? Here are some of the more interesting traditions around the world.

In Scotland, Christmas was banned for 400 years so the partying moved to the last day of the year which the Scots refer to as Hogmanay (pronounced Hog-ma-nay). Did you know the song Auld Lang Syne comes from Scotland? 

In the Philippines, wearing round shapes is good luck so many people wear polka dots. They also eat round fruits such as grapes, oranges, & watermelons for good luck.

In Brazil, people wear white and jump into the ocean in their white clothes at midnight.

In Mexico, they like to stroll around the block or sometimes just around the house with an empty suitcase which is to signify a year filled with travel and new experiences.

In Greece, pomegranates play an important role and houses will hang pomegranates, a sign of prosperity and fertility in their houses, then smash them against a door at midnight. The juicer the pomegranate, the better the year ahead.

In Cuba, people gather all the bad energy and evil spirits in a bucket of dirty water and throw it out the front door or out a window at midnight signifying a clean start to the new year.

In Russia, they observe the last 12 seconds of the old year in silence and remember the year’s most important events and make wishes for the new year.

In Ireland, besides starting the year with a freshly cleaned house, they also set an empty place at the dinner table for any loved ones lost during the year.

In Italy and Spain, it’s considered good luck to wear red underwear, so everyone has red underwear to wear on this day.

In Japan they visit a temple on New Years day and exchange their old lucky charms for new ones for the upcoming year.

Remember how I told you that Lady Beatles (Lady Bugs) hibernate up here in clusters (Dec. 15th GMI)? Well just last week one of my friends who Mountain bikes told me about finding a big cluster of them along the trail and I asked if she had taken a photo. Sure enough….here they are along our trails. Keep your eyes peeled. Zoom in if you can and see the clusters above and to the right of the log as well. Stay cozy little Lady Beatles!

Fun fact: a group of Lady Beatles is called a “loveliness of lady beatles”.

(Jan. 5-11 2024 issue)

Known as the acrobats of the bird world, these tiny birds are numerous in our forests. They are highly social and always hang out in a little community. Even when they are nesting, they have friends and family who help watch the nest and bring food. They are the smallest birds in the nuthatch family and you will often see them in trees hopping DOWN the tree. Unlike Woodpeckers who need their tails to balance and can only go UP, the nuthatch can climb up, down or sideways across a tree’s bark looking for bugs or stowing seeds in crevices of pine trees for later retrieval.

In the winter, they utilize 3 different techniques for surviving cold weather: 1) They huddle together in groups, sometimes up to 100 birds, 2) They make their winter nests inside tree cavities, and 3) they go into “torper” which is a semi-hibernation state that lowers their metabolism so they use less energy.

Fun fact: a group of nuthatches is called a “Jam of Nuthatches”

When you think of snowflakes, you think of the picture below. But did you know that only about 1 in 100,000 snowflakes ends up looking like the idyllic snowflake? Snowflakes form WAY up in the cloudy cold atmosphere with a spec of dust that water vapor attaches to. As the dust spec with water attached to it falls at different speeds through different densities of water vapor, the crystals build up and form a hexagon shape . From here, as it continues to fall, the arms of the hexagon continue to grow (See diagram above). It takes about 15-40 minutes for a complex snowflake to form as it falls through the atmosphere at 1-4 mph. Most end up being just a blob of ice crystals, but 1 in a 100,000 are beautiful perfect, never the same beautiful flakes.

In 1885, a 20 year old farmer named Wilson Bentley in Vermont, photographed the first snowflake. He took more than 6000 photos of snowflakes over his lifetime and was known in his community as “Snowflake Bentley”. Ironically, he died from phenumonia that he got in a snowstorm at the age of 66. His photographs are now in the Smithsonian Museum. The photo on the left in the black is one of his photographs.

If you’d like to watch a short video on how snowflakes are formed, click here.

Jan. 19-25, 2024 issue)

If you didn’t notice, the halfway point of winter is coming up tomorrow (Saturday Feb. 3rd this year). That’s basically why Groundhog Day was invented…to give people something fun to think about while they’re trying to survive winter.

In ancient Roman times, hibernating animals were used to predict when winter would end. But they didn’t have groundhogs…they used hedgehogs. After the fall of the Roman Empire, this tradition was combined with a Christian holiday around the same time called “Candlemas” where folks in Europe took a candle to church to have it blessed which they felt would bring their households blessings for the remainder of the winter. When German immigrants brought their traditions to America in the 1700’s, primarily to the Pennsylvania dutch region, there were no hedgehogs so groundhogs were the closest thing to them (in Canada they use marmots). Groundhogs are giant chunky squirrel type animals that hibernate. Legend says if a groundhog pokes its head out on Groundhog Day (the halfway point in winter) and it’s snowy, cold, or it sees its shadow, we’re in for at least 6 more weeks of hard winter. But if it pokes its head out and it’s sunny, warm and no shadow, we’re headed for an early spring in about 4 weeks. Of course the predictions are rarely correct, but it gives everyone something fun to talk about and makes us realize that we’ve made it halfway through winter.

Here’s a fun little video on Groundhog Day. Click Here.

(Jan 2 – 8, 2024 issue)

George Washington was not only the first U.S. President, but he was the only U.S. President unanimously voted in. He served 2 terms, then voluntarily stepped down.

Washington established a “Cabinet” of advisors that numbered only 4: Secretary of State (Thomas Jefferson), Secretary of the Treasury (Alexander Hamilton) Secretary of War, & Attorney General. He knew he needed trusted advisors to govern successfully.

He led the Continental Army against Britan for 7 years and contributed to the forming of the U.S. Constitution. He kept us out of war when Britain & France were fighting during the French Revolution and also established the first U.S. Bank.

Washington never lived in “Washington D.C.” but he chose the 10 acre plot and helped design the layout and plans for the separate district that now serves as our Capital. He died just short of 3 years after leaving the presidency at age 67.

Abraham Lincoln is consistently ranked as one of the top 3 Presidents of all time. He is known for holding the country together during the Civil War & ending slavery.

He was the tallest U.S. President standing 6’4″. He was the first President to have a beard, the first to have his inauguration photographed (John Wilkes Booth, his assassin can be seen in this photo), the first President to be born outside the original 13 states, the first president to be assassinated (there have been 4), and the ONLY president to have a patent.

He was self educated and neither his mother or father could read or write. Before his political career, Lincoln spent time as a surveyor, shop keeper, boat navigator, lawyer & postmaster. He had 4 children and only 1 lived to adulthood. He was 56 years old when he was assasinated.

Feb. 16-22, 2024 issue

We all know there are thousands of man-made satellites in space, but the Moon is our only natural satellite. Before Galileo in 1610, we didn’t know any other moons existed so we just called it “the moon”. But now that we know there are many planets that have moons like Mars that has 2 moons, Jupiter which has 3 moons, and Saturn which has 9 moons orbiting them, we refer to our moon with a capital “M”. Of all the moons we are aware of, our Moon is the 5th largest. And our Moon, is about 1/4 the size of the earth. When you look at the moon and the sun, they look about the same size, but that’s because the moon is 400 times closer to us than the sun. The sun is 400 times bigger than the moon.

The moon was formed about 4.5 billion years ago when another planet crashed into the earth and all the debris from that crash stayed in the earths orbit, eventually forming the Moon. The moon has no atmosphere and not much gravity, but because of the gravitational forces of the earth, the moon is locked into the same rotation pattern as the earth so we are always seeing the same side of the moon; the near side. Think of it as a couple ballroom dancing together. Even when they turn, they are always facing each other. The Moon actually has no light. Its’ surface is reflective like asphalt and the light we see is the sun’s light reflecting back to us. During its monthly rotation, it blocks the sun so that’s why we see different phases of it (waxing crescent, waning gibbous, new and full moons). Temperatures on the moon range from 225 degrees in the day down to -298 degrees at night.

Humans have always been captivated by the Moon, but in 1959, the Soviet Union made the first manned space flight around the moon, but did not land. There have only been 12 humans ever to set foot on the moon, and they have all been American. Four other countries, Russia, China, Japan & India have all landed robotic exploration vehicles on the moon. It was the Indian spacecraft that successfully mapped ice on the poles of the moon informing us that water is present on the moon but mostly at the 2 poles where it gets very little sunlight and is very cold (appx. -410 degrees). As a matter of fact, just yesterday the U.S. landed the 1st spacecraft in 50 years on the south pole of the Moon and is going to spend about 7 days doing tests before the 2 week “lunar night” starts which makes it too cold for it to remain on the Moon at this location.

Why aren’t countries going to the moon today? The entire cost of the Apollo program was $25 billion (That’s counting the 7 trips to the moon, with 6 of them landing astornauts on the moon – Apollo 13 didn’t make it….see the movie). Today that same program adjusted for inflation would cost appx. $152 billion. But the U.S. is working on it and has hopes of returning to the moon in 2026.

Feb. 23-29, 2024 issue

I thought the moon was fascinating and complex? It doesn’t even come close to being as complex as stars. Stars are, for me, the most unfathomable object that I have attempted to learn about. We take them for granted because they are little pin pricks of sparkly light in the night sky that we gaze upon. Sailors have used them for hundreds of years to navigate the seas. But just start to learn about them, and you will quickly be overwhelmed. Here are some amazing things I learned about stars:

• Our universe (just ours) has approximately 1 SEPTILLION (that’s 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) stars in it. (Our Milky Way which is only 1 arm of our universe, has 7 billion stars).
• Stars are born out of combining clouds of gas and dust that form into seething balls of hot gas that live from 1-100 billion years. Each star has a life cycle that can last a few million to trillions of years before it dies. During their life, they have a chemical dance of pressure that exerts outward pressure in, and inward pressure out so the star doesn’t collapse on itself. This exchange of pressure and energy is the “glow” that we see. Eventually, all stars die (in billions of years), explode and collapse in on themselves and that’s what “Black Holes” are; dead stars. The debris floats around in space and can form planets or other stars. It’s hard to get your head around.
• The sun is the closest and the ONLY star in our galaxy and is considered a “medium sized” star. There are many stars bigger than our sun and many smaller than our sun. The gravity from our star (The Sun) holds all the planets in our galaxy together in our orbit around our sun.
• Every sun is a star, but not every star is a sun. A star has to be big enough to pull other stars and planets into its’ orbit to be considered a sun.
• Our Sun (denoted with a capital “S”) is 4.6 billion years old now and is expected to live several billion more years. It is 93 million miles away from our earth and it’s the closest and only Sun in our galaxy. There are galaxies with more than 1 sun.
• You can only see about 2000 – 2500 of the stars that are actually out there with your eyes.
• The closest star to us other than our sun is called “Proxima Centauri” and is 24 trillion miles away. If we traveled by jet, that would take 5 million years to get to it.
• The light we see from a star, left that star approximately 10,000 years ago. That’s how long it took that light to reach us here on earth.
• The brightest star we can see is called “Deneb” and is 2 Quadrillion miles away.

The next time you’re outside looking up at the stars, I bet you will think just a little deeper about how amazing our universe is, and how little we know about it. It’s MIND-BOGGLING!

March 1-7, 2024 issue

Twice a year we go back and forth about the benefits and challenges of changing our clocks. Why can’t we decide?

In 1916, Germany enacted Daylight Savings Time during WWI in order to have more daylight at the end of the day. Most all of Europe followed their lead, and the U.S. followed the crowd in 1918. Farmers hated DST because it meant there was less daylight in the morning when their cows needed milking and after WWI, areas either opted in or opted out. It was very confusing. In 1966, the federal government made it law that all states had to observe Daylight Savings (changing of the clocks twice a year) but Arizona, due to the unusually hot temperatures in the summer, got an exemption from the federal government NOT to change so they and Hawaii (because Hawaii is so close to the equator that the amount of daylight doesn’t change much) were allowed NOT to change their clocks back and forth. The rest of the states were mandated by law to change from DST in spring back to standard time in the fall.

People have always complained, and most states have tried to enact laws allowing them to decide on one or the other, but it just can’t ever be approved. Only about 20% of people actually like changing time twice a year, but of the 80% that want it to be one or the other, 40% want it to always be standard time (more daylight in the early morning) and 30% want to always be on Daylight Savings (more daylight at the end of the day). The other 10% are undecided which one they would like better. It actually came close to becoming one or the other in 2022 when the Senate passed a Bill called the “Sunshine Protection Act”, but because it also had to be passed in Congress, and it just can’t seem to get enough of a following one way or the other, STILL nothing is happening. About 40 states have passed laws deciding to do away with all this clock changing, but as long as it remains a federal law, the states are not allowed to make the change.

March 8 – 14, 2024 issue

The history of St. Patrick’s Day is fascinating. St. Patrick was not Irish, he was English. Born in Britian in 390 when England was under Roman rule, he was kidnapped by Irish pirates at age 16, and held as a slave in Ireland for 6 years. While a slave, he became deeply devoted to his Christian faith, and after a dream telling him to escape, he travelled 200 miles and found passage on a ship back to England. Reunited with his family, he studied to be in the priesthood and again had a dream where the people who had enslaved him in Ireland were calling him back. He returned to preach the gospel in 433 and was a bishop in Ireland until his death on March 17th, 461. He was considered one of the most successful Christian missionaries ever. Officially his death was celebrated in Ireland as a solemn religious holiday as early as the 1600’s..

Before the American revolution, Irish soldiers serving in the British army marched together on March 17th 1757 and formed a society to help Irish immigrants. Then in 1845 with the great potato famine in Ireland, a huge number of Irish immigrants came to America seeking a better life. Many settled in Boston where the Charitable Irish Society helped them acclimate to American life. They would march in large groups to church on March 17th in what would eventually become competing St. Patrick’s Day parades. America has more Irish immigrants than any other country in the world.

It wasn’t until the 1950’s and the influence of television that the Irish saw all the fun being had in America with their holiday. It was still frowned upon to drink on this holiday in Ireland as late as the 1970’s but in the 1990’s to promote tourism, the Irish government began promoting their own holiday in the “American” style.

Shamrocks come from the Irish word “seamrog” which means little clover. St, Patrick was known for using the clover as a symbol to teach about the holy trinity in the Christian religion. It normally only has 3 leaves but 1 in 10,000 has a mutated 4th leaf (a 4-leaf clover) and it is considered very lucky to find one of these. If you find one and give it away, supposedly it will double your luck.

Leprechauns are a product of Ireland dating to the 8th century. They are considered fairies and famous for being the shoemakers of the fairy world. They hide from humans, live under bridges or in caves, and are very protective of their “pots of gold” which is their payment for making shoes for all the fairies. It has long been told that if you can catch a leprechaun, you can force him (for there are no female leprechauns) to tell you where he hides his gold. Usually this is at the end of a rainbow, which can’t be found because a rainbow is an illusion that hangs in the sky between the sun, the rain, and your eyes. If you say something is “at the end of a rainbow” it means it’s impossible to achieve.

March 15 – 21, 2024 issue

Easter, whose name comes from the Germanic goddess of spring named “Eostre” is a Christian holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the first century 33 AD. It is also referred to as Pascha which comes from being connected to the Jewish holiday “Passover”. When Jesus was crucified and resurrected, people were celebrating Passover, which is the Jewish holiday that celebrates the Jewish people being released from slavery in Egypt. There are so many symbols that crossover between the Jewish Passover, the Christian Easter, and the start of spring, that the 3 are intricately intertwined.

Easter is and has always been a “moveable feast” which means its date moves every year. It is the 1st Sunday, AFTER the full moon, AFTER the spring equinox (which is March 19, 20, or 21st).

There are appx. 2.4 billion or 31.6% of the world’s population that considers themselves Christian. It is the largest religion in the world and for most of history has been a religious holiday. It was not until the 19th century that it started to meld with the celebration of spring and the various symbols of both spring and Easter started to co-mingle. But like most holidays, it started out primarily religious and thanks to commercialization and immigration across the globe, different ways of celebrating have been adopted by many different cultures.

The egg has always been a sign of fertility and associated with spring. Early Christians were prohibited from eating eggs during Lent (the season of fasting leading up to Easter) so when Lent ended, everyone could eat eggs again. They were often given to the church as offerings, or to the poor. The tradition of dying them seemed to have started in the area of Mesopotamia which is current day Iraq, Kuwait, Turkey and Syria. They would dye the eggs red to symbolize the blood of Christ. Giving them to Children didn’t become popular until the 16th century and began in Germany. By then, they were dying them all kinds of kid-friendly colors. Germany is also responsible for the beginnings of the Easter Bunny…

In Germany in the 1700’s parents told their children of a magic hare (bunny) that laid colored eggs and if the child had been good, (sound familiar), the bunny would come and leave colored eggs, candy and small toys in the little baskets the children would make and leave out the night before. This tradition was brought to America by the germans when they immigrated in the beginnings of our nation. So the symbols, signs and traditions are a complex mingling of religious, cultural, and commercial. Happy Easter everyone.

Just for fun…Click here to see how Peeps are made:

The Trail:

In anticipation of the town filling with hikers, here’s a mini-course on everything you wondered about the Pacific Crest Trail. First of all, everyone refers to it as the PCT. It was conceived in the 1930’s as a long-distance trail similar to the 2,200 mile Appalachian Trail in the East (AT), but was not formally finished until 1993. The PCT is 2,653 miles long and stretches from the border of Mexico to the border of Canada through 3 states, 25 National Forests & 7 National Parks. It travels along the ridge of the Sierra Nevada and the Cascade mountains and is broken into 29 “sections” of which Idyllwild is in section “2” appx. 179 miles from the southern terminus. The elevation change along the trail is from 110 feet above sea level in Oregon, to 13,153 feet near Mt. Whitney in California. The PCT is one of the 3 trails that make up the “Triple Crown” of long distance hiking: The Appalachian Trail (2,200 miles), the Continental Divide Trail (3,028 miles), and the PCT (2,653 miles). The PCT passes by Idyllwild at the top of Devil’s Slide Trail, and the San Jacinto Mountains are one of the most difficult portions of the trail, partly because so many people get this far on the trail, and partly because this section passes through both hot desert and snowy dangerous mountain portions. Only about 5% of those attempting to do the entire trail start in Canada and go southbound (they are called SOBO’s). So the great majority start at the Mexican border around April and head north. Thousands of people hike portions or entire sections of the PCT, but only those who apply for a permit to do more than 500 miles are kept track of. These are called “Thru-Hikers”.

The Hikers:

In the early years of the PCT, less than 200 people applied for permits to do the entire trail. After the book and movie “WILD” came out in 2014, the number of permits jumped 320%. In 2022 4,125 permits were given, but the all time high was in 2019 right before the pandemic where 4,725 permits were granted. About 25% of these hikers actually make it to the end. It takes an average of 5 months to do the entire trail, and that is doing 15 – 20 miles per day. The record holder for the fastest time is 46 days set by a Belgian runner. It’s a balancing acct between leaving too early and hitting too much snow in the San Jacinto’s, San Bernardino’s, and the rest of the Sierra’s, and leaving too late and encountering difficulty with the desert heat and finding sufficient water. The average age of the hikers is 20 -40 but there are many over 60 who attempt the trail, and a handful of children. The youngest was 4 years old. Most hikers have taken a 6 month break from work, or recently retired or may be in between jobs. Some even work from the trail. They usually prepare for the hike for 6 months prior to taking off, many traveling from other countries. They mail “supply packages” to post offices along the trail in small towns like Idyllwild, and often have to seek medical attention or new supplies along their route.

Having been an Innkeeper for 29 years, and my husband often drives hikers to airports or other locations, we have been lucky to get to talk with many of these hikers and they are very interesting people. They ALL have a story, and come from very diverse backgrounds and have different reasons for doing the PCT. Doctors, Engineers, students, retirees, etc. We met an Olympian who had medaled in both Summer and Winter Olympics in speed skating and road biking, and was doing the PCT southbound for her 2nd time IN A DRESS! She was amazing. I would encourage you to say hi and chat with a couple in the next 2 months as they pass through Idyllwild. They are grateful for the smallest kindness and you will get to hear their story of what brought them on their adventure.

April 5-11, 2024 Issue

In honor of Earth day this week, let’s talk about “Earth”. This famous image taken from Apollo 17 in 1972 is called “The Blue Marble” Our planet is the only planet in our solar system that can be inhabited due to the fact that we have an abundance of liquid water (70% of our planet is covered in water; 30% in land). Of all that water, 97% is salt water. The earth measures an average of 7,918 miles in diameter. It isn’t completely round but ellipsoid; it is 27 miles wider at the equator than it is at the poles. It is spinning 1,000 mph (which takes 1 day to complete it’s rotation) and is circling the sun at the rate of 67,000 mph (which takes 1 year to make a complete orbit) but you’d never know it. Gravity keeps us safely attached to the ground & the gaseous atmosphere around us protects us from harmful rays and regulates the temperature. .

Our planet is about 4.5 million years old and humans have been here for the last 200,000 years. The current population is 8.1 billion and you can watch it grow if you click here. Millions of years ago, there was only 1 giant land mass and due to tectonic plates sliding, bumping and grinding, our 7 primary continents formed; Asia, Africa, Europe, North America, South America, Australia & Antarctica. Yes, Antarctica at the south pole is land. The Arctic, at the north pole is all ice. But did you know that Antarctica at the south pole is the colder of the two? That’s right, the south pole ranges from -18 degrees in the summer to -76 in the winter whereas the north pole ranges from 32 degrees in the summer to -40 in the winter. I would not have guessed that. Antarctica is the coldest & windiest place on earth, and Death Valley, California is the hottest (134 .1 degrees is the record).

Most of us think that Mount Everest is the tallest mountain on our planet at 29,032 feet, but actually if you measure from base to tip, it’s Mona Kea in Hawaii which is a volcano that is half submerged underwater. It is 33,500 feet tall. The deepest place on earth is a trench under the ocean near Guam called the Mariana Trench and it is 36,200 feet deep. Although our world coastlines only account for 10% of our total land, 40% of all the earth’s population live on coastlines. The densest population in the world is Tokyo, Japan and the least populated is Greenland.

For more fun this Earth Day, watch the short 3 minute video below from National Geographic, and explore anywhere your heart desires on Google Earth. There’s a link below. Happy Earth Day!

Click here to watch a short 3 min. video about our earth.

I wanted to do a column on gardening in Idyllwild since it seems to be “growing” in popularity, but my husband and I are brand new gardeners, so I had to find an EXPERT…and I did! Bob Greenamyer who helped to found Victory Gardens San Diego before moving to Idyllwild and becoming an integral part of the community and especially the gardening community, was kind enough to answer some questions I thought everyone in Idyllwild who doesn’t garden, but would like to, would want to know.

• Why is organic gardening important or valuable? 
  Gardening is beneficial in a variety of ways: 
  
  A. For your health: organic vegetables that you grow have maximum freshness, you avoid ingesting toxic agricultural chemicals, there are more nutrients in organic produce. There can also be less wage labor needed to purchase food.
  
  B. For ecological reasons: You reduce transportation costs of commercially produced food, there are no pesticides used, vast acreage used for commercial farming is freed up for returning to a balanced ecosystem
  
  C. For spiritual or emotional reasons: physically experiencing our connection with the Earth, our kinship with plants; gardening has been found to be an emotionally restorative, healing activity. Growing your own food or plants is deeply satisfying.

• What unique challenges do we have up here on the “hill”? What advantages do we have? The range of temperatures and seasonal extremes we experience on the “hill” shorten our growing season, getting a late “Mother’s Day snow can be depressing! But by paying attention to your own micro-climate, you can determine where plants will thrive. While not unique to Idyllwild, garden critters like gophers, voles, moles, fungus, and others are a challenge to garden success. Having an integrated pest management plan will help keep the food you grow in your tummy and not others.

• For someone just starting out, what plants do you recommend starting with to feel successful? Observe your neighborhood. What plants seem to grow well there? What are your neighbors growing? What native plants are in your area? These are all clues to what will grow well where you live. If you want to grow vegetables, fruits, or herbs, observe how much sun your yard gets. Six to eight hours of sun is required for sun loving plants like tomatoes, cucumbers, squashes and other flowering fruits and vegetables will be a good choice. Leafy greens like chard, kale and lettuces might like a bit more shade. A great book for anyone starting to garden on the “hill” is “Basic Guide to Mountain Gardening” by Toni Berthelotte, one of Idyllwild’s premier gardeners. It’s available at our monthly garden club meetings and serves as a bible for gardeners on the hill.

• Do you recommend raised beds or can you be just as successful having your garden in the ground? There are benefits and drawbacks to raised beds, in-ground beds, and gardening in containers. In ground beds allow you greater flexibly of the shape of your garden bed. Water retention is better with an in-ground bed. Soil is less protected from erosion with an in-ground bed and can be more susceptible to vertebrate pests. There’s also more bending and stooping working in an in-ground bed. Raised Beds hold soil in place, and you completely control the soil quality. Soil will warm earlier in Spring. It’s easier to protect against vertebrate pests. Raised beds can be more expensive due to the material costs of building the bed and buying soil to fill it. Water retention can be reduced due to more exposure to heat above ground. Container Gardens allow for flexibility in location as these can be on decks, in the ground and can be moved as sun conditions dictate. Very good for small space gardening. There are added costs for pots and soil. Black nursery pots can get hot and increases water usage. Plants can get root bound.

• What are some unexpected benefits that you didn’t realize until you started gardening?  The greatest unexpected benefit I found was the creation of a community feeling. Everyone at our community garden has common interests; a love of the outdoors, growing your own food, and a desire to share knowledge with each other. Other unexpected benefits were the need to slow down, to hear birds sing, to watch the annual cycle of plant growth in more detail. I’m at peace when I’m in the garden.

Anything else you’d love the people in Idyllwild who don’t currently have a garden to know about gardening? Gardening is extremely enjoyable and fulfilling in a slow-paced, natural way. I would encourage everyone to join our Idyllwild Garden Club. We are an active, diverse group dedicated to the beautification and garden education of our community. Check out our website idyllwildgardenclub.com to find out more about our programs, meetings

April 26 – May 2nd, 2024 issue)

Did you know that Cinco de Mayo is a primarily an American Celebration, Not a Mexican celebration? Like St. Patrick’s Day, it’s the Americans that find a niche involving the immigrants to this country and capitalize on it.

The 5th of May was the date that Mexico won a big battle against France in 1862 who was trying to take over Mexico. Mexico had borrowed a lot of money from France, England and Spain to fight internal civil wars and the war against the U.S. over Texas and California. When they claimed they couldn’t pay their debt, France decided to try to take them over. May 5th, 1862 or “Cinco De Mayo” was the day Mexico defeated the french and eventually France gave up. It was the last time a European country had tried to colonize a portion of the Americas. Mexico had already won its independence in 1821 from Spain which had ruled them for 300 years. Today, Mexican Independence Day celebrating their independence from Spain is the biggest celebration in Mexico. But Mexican gold miners in California, upon hearing of the win against France in 1862, started shooting off their guns and celebrating.

In the 1950’s the beer companies started capitalizing on the Cinco De Mayo celebration and highlighting Mexican culture, cuisine & heritage. Since the 1980’s, Mexican nationals have been the #1 group of immigrants to the United States so Cinco de Mayo continues to be a giant celebration in the U.S. In the last census, 26% of residents in Idyllwild marked they were of Latin American decent. Nation wide, 19% of the total population of the United States is of Hispanic descent. Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone.

(May 3-9, 2024 issue)

Mother’s Day and Lilacs just seem to go hand in hand…especially if you live in Idyllwild. Did you know that Mother’s Day was originally started by a woman in West Virginia as a way to not only celebrate mother’s, but bring former union and confederate soldiers together? Anna Reeves Jarvis had been teaching “mothering classes” in West Virginia prior to the Civil War. After the war, she implemented “Mother’s Friendship Day” to bring soldiers together. After her death in 1905, her daughter started a letter writing campaign to the U.S. Government to designate a Sunday in May to visit your mother. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson finally declared the 2nd Sunday of May as an official holiday. After it became official, the flower & greeting card business began to commercialize it, and believe it or not, Anna’s daughter (also named Anna) was arrested for disorderly conduct in 1925 protesting the commercialization of Mother’s Day. She wanted it to be a sentimental holiday, not a commercial holiday. She actively fought to have it removed as a national holiday right up until her death in 1948.

Common Lilacs (Syringa vulgaris)

These flowers were brought over in the 1700’s from Europe and cultivated all over the United States. They only bloom for a few weeks, usually in May in a variety of colors from white to magenta and a variety of pinks and light blues in between. They are extremely fragrant, and some of the most fragrant are cultivated in France and used to make perfumes. Many towns in the U.S. have their own “official lilac” as registered with the International Lilac Society. Many of those “official lilacs” were cultivated right here in Idyllwild, as you will see, Idyllwild has a very interesting history with Lilacs.

California Wild Lilacs (Ceanothus)

You have probably been noticing all the beautiful bushy purple flowers along the highway lately… they are Wild Lilacs. They are very hearty and drought resistant. They are endemic (specific) to California and a tasty treat for butterflies and other animals at this time of year. They are edible if you feel like picking some for your salads. The Historical Society’s garden has several beautiful Wild Lilacs blooming right now. It’s free to visit and meander around. Bring a picnic and sit on the picnic tables.



May 10-16, 2024 issue