Sorry for not posting anything for a while – my computer crashed very badly (total system rebuild) and we were also on a weeks vacation since my last post. I spent most of the last week trying to get all my software reloaded and associated with all the correct data. I had my people trimming Mexican Fan Palms while I was gone, but we still had a bigger backlog of work when I returned!
I have some photos of the area we visited, but first I want to show you a picture from a job I did shortly before we left. I was approached by a member of a local church who said that they had a problem with bats getting inside their sanctuary! He wondered if my lift could get up to the peak of the roof so that expanding foam insulation could be sprayed into the cracks. It sounded possible, so I came over one afternoon after we finished our tree work. There were a lot of cracks completely through the brick veneer where creatures could get inside. I used 3 cans of foam to fill them. The lift made things easy! In the picture it looks like I’m pretty close to the power lines coming into the building but it is an illusion, I was more than 10ft away.
Using the Spiderlift to fill cracks in the wall to keep bats out of the church!
We went to northern Nevada for our vacation and spent a week in Jarbidge, a very small and isolated town in the mountains. On the way up and on the way back, we stopped at Eureka NV for church and to visit friends. While there we had the opportunity to go to the north end of the valley to see a “salt” or alkali flat that stretches for miles.
alkali flat in the Diamond Valley where we stopped to collect Tiger Beetles.
Jarbidge is a very historic mining town, where gold and silver were discovered in the early 1900′s. It is located along the Jarbidge River just 8 miles from the Idaho State line. Here is a picture of the East Fork of the Jarbidge River.
Canyon of the East Fork of the Jarbidge River looking south.
A very generous friend gave us the use of one of his cabins (which in itself was historic) and a Polaris Ranger to run around with.
The cabin we stayed in.
We looked around the area all week, taking short hikes and enjoying the cool weather and the river. We found the place where miners came down into the canyon and crossed a tributary on their way to Jarbidge before the current road was built. Here is all that remains of the bridge:
Remains of old bridge.
Most of the trees we encountered in the area were completely different from what we have in the Sonoran Desert, but there were Cottonwoods along the river. The Chokecherries were blooming profusely, promising a good crop for jelly-makers! We got up into the coniferous forest on one day trip to see the snowdrifts which still blocked the road into Jarbidge from the south.
I was able to collect a few tiger beetles, some Buprestids (mostly on flowers) and two species of Cerambycids. The lone scarab was a metallic green Dichelonyx that flew in front of my near the bridge shown above. It was not a tremendously profitable collecting trip, but that was not the objective!
Now we’re back into the heat of summer. The California Fan Palms will be ready to trim after July 15, and we have a lot of work to get done before then! I’ve also been asked some questions about Queen Palms by a homeowners association in Scottsdale – I’ll share with you what I learn once I get all the answers!
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