Otters hold hands

The skinny is otter hold hands when they sleep so they will not float apart...how cute is that?

Zamarind Tree

I know a person who lives out here in the hinterlands of Duvall who is a tad odd I won't name him for mutual protection. I suppose you could say he is a hill-billy or some such. He is always moving around and is quite secretive. So today I thought I spied his latest bivouac across the valley through some trees and attempted to drive there. I didn't make it because eventually I was barred by a large threatening gate, the trip however, was not a total loss.

I stumbled across a zamarind tree which I haven't seen now in some years. In fact many people claim these trees do not exist at all and put them in the same category as he sasquatch! There are many secrets though in the pacific Northwest we do not chose to share with every johnny-come-lately. In the distant past we native northwesterners felt we were all in the same row boat together pulling for a common purpose. Now there are so many California transplants, carpet-baggers, and people who wear bright clothing it is harder and harder to know whom to trust. So the "special spots" for the getting of rare mushrooms, the top secret fishing holes, the rich metal detecting areas, are like gold now and passed down through families.

The local Snoqualmie Indians used the zamarind fruit for a type of pemmican, mixed with salmon it was a super food for long treks to the coast. Cagey pioneers used it for pies and deserts, and it was said some distilled it for a particularly vision producing moonshine. it has long been said the zamarind is a relative of the tamarind tree http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=tamarind&rlz=1R2ADRA_enUS356&wrapid=tlif12939258932561&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1916&bih=895
which you most likely have heard of. This area is almost rain forest like it has a kind of micro climate there I conjecture. Needless to say, I tried to knock some of the pod-like fruit down but I would have needed a ladder.... swinging a branch didn't get the job done except for a vicious fore-arm scratch and a bewildering tumble through the icy brush.

S0 look at these photos, if you think they are photo-shopped they are not. I just hope when I go back I can find this spot again, because places like this are pure gold. Of course it goes without saying someone may have already beat me to the delicious fruit of the zamarind tree!

They love to live on the centerline!!

Sturgeon

A guy took these pics last Thursday at a mudflat north of Everett.He estimated there were 1500 sturgeon stuck in the ditch.Looks like its time to go fishing

Amidst the the roller coaster of life these days, an occasional reminder of the wonders of life and why we do this work doesn't hurt. To that end, please check out the attached pictures described below -- and probably quite accurately -- as the "most fascinating Puget Sound sturgeon event of the decade"! It's amazing! A little background on sturgeon: - a fascinating species that we know very little about...and even less about their utilization of Puget sound or port Susan bay - these are white sturgeon (green sturgeon also exist here, but in much smaller numbers) - there are three known breeding populations - Columbia, Fraser, Sacramento - they come to places like port Susan to forage, often schooling up to do so - they live for a long time, often not reaching maturation until their late teens, early twenties I spoke to the WDFW biologist referred to below and he provided the following info: -

these pictures were taken last Thursday from the area south of Juniper Beach (Livingston Bay side of Port Susan, probably on the Riviera tract) - he thinks most survived being trapped in the channel, with a few big ones perishing. He found 8 dead ones in an extensive survey yesterday, all in the 6-10 foot range - only Columbia origin fish have been documented in Port Susan, although others, particularly Fraser fish are probably here - he thinks the Skagit and other bays may get similar utilization, but they just haven't been discovered there as much

Big Boy

Sent from a friend.

Yes these babies get big I almost hit one over by Addy, coming around a corner driving a small car. Yes we have these creatures in Washington again. I also saw one on the Colville indian reservation last year.