I think we collectively and me personally have passed beyond, "is there an easier way to get beyond all these weeds?"

To, "Nope." Then, there is that hope for something other than a spring tonic of leafy greens. "Where are all those garden vegetables, like sweetcorn, melons, and red ripe tomatoes?" I mean, instead of winter's store-bought broccoli, I've got lots of Tendergreen broccoli from this year's garden. Can I add an exclamation point? ... from this year's garden!" Sure, I especially like broccoli but ... "Where are all those garden vegetables, like sweetcorn, melons, and red ripe tomatoes?" Whine.

The male goldfinch is displaying his bright summer plumage around my gardens. I'm trying to pay careful attention to his behavior so that I'll recognise him when he goes back to his drab-brown feathers. It looks real likely that we share his year-round range, here. Couldn't prove it by me ...

Charming place where you live and work, Zach. Much more grand than nerve gas and about on the same level as a walk on the Moon!

Steve

Thanks, Zach. I was thinking the same thing about posting some random pictures today. That hawk is more than likely a Swainson's. It doesn't have the "belly band" that Redtails do. I spent a couple of hours watching hawks at the arsenal a few weeks ago. If anyone here hasn't been there, I highly recommend it. It's a wonderful open space full of surprises.

Here are a few random pics from my garden.

I have deemed this the "invasive" clematis now. While I do love it, it is taking over and stifling everything else in this garden. Would you believe I cut this back to 2' above the ground in the Spring?

Here's a picture of the hardy cactus I bought from Kelly at Timberline last year. He took me into his private stash to select as close to "spineless" as one can get. I over-wintered it in this pot under the deck and was surprised that it survived. Not only did it survive, but I think it's about to bloom.

A picture of one of my hosta patches. (the upside-down golf ball basket is meant to protect it from the lawn mower). This one was taken a month ago.

That same big blue hosta taken today ready to bloom.

Do indoor pictures count? Hey! I'm still recovering from our odd weather, yesterday.

If I got it right, it was 63°f just after midnight and 51° at 3 in the afternoon, the daily high and low. By the time I came back in the house in the evening, the wind died, the rain stopped, and the sun came out ... I was not inspired to put my wet shoes back on and go out to take a picture!

Here's something that can shrug off a cold, wet and windy day:

Escarole! With chicken sausage and potato cakes ...

No, the potatoes weren't from the garden! They really could have been ... I think. Maybe, I will dig into that bed today, and see!

The escarole is left alone by the pesky slugs and flea beetles. The plants must be cold hearty because they are big, robust things this year.

The potato cakes are kinda special (sorta ). DW decided to stop at the deli the other day. She got me jalapeno poppers because I like them and mashed potatoes, because I don't care much for French fries, which were for her. There were leftovers!

So, mashed potatoes, chopped French fries and jalapeno, and an egg - it's good!

The escarole is a perfect accompaniment for my Saturday brunch. There is quite a bit in the garden. I think I'll get some beans soaking for Sunday's lunch. Escarole and bean soup!

Steve

Zack, you can post pictures like that ANYTIME. I love seeing the buffalo and the birds. You weren't exaggerating about the cheatgrass problem. Thats pretty bad my friend, matter-o-fact, it looks just this side of hopeless, as if its choking out everything being that thick and widespread. I'm wondering, if overgrazing destroyed so much prairie, seems like cheatgrass could be overgrazed early in the season. Probably not. Seems like the crappy stuff just hangs on no matter what.

I ran across this picture the other day. I was so down in the dumps after a drive we took a couple weeks ago and seeing how alarmingly widespread, dense & rampant the trees have gotten. They are as 'Thick as Cheatgrass' and it looks absolutely awful, you can no longer see the horizon from the highway in many spots, just a wall of ratty looking trees and I can remember when you could, 360 degrees in any direction. Anyway, I started googling the disappearing prairie and ran across this picture, its one I'd never seen before. It was so nice to see the buffalo you photographed.

Way off topic!

Here's your buffalo picture, TR, along with the story that goes with it. (You might need to click past an ad! I did!)

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/where-the-buffalo-no-longer-roamed-3067904/?no-ist

The buffalo were slaughtered, in large part, to force the Indians into submission and onto reservations. Here are a couple quotes from a Congressional debate!

43rd Congress, 1st
Session, H.R. 921, June 1874

"I believe it would be a great step forward in the
civilization of the Indians and the preservation of peace on the border if
there was not a buffalo in existence.”

~ Mr. Throckmorton

"I hope, sir, there is no humanitarian sentimentality that
would induce legislation for the protection of the buffalo, and that we shall
look at it and treat it as a practical question. The only individual whose interests seem to
be sufficiently provided for and protected by this bill are the Indians. If the theory upon which the Government is
now treating the Indian is a proper one [“civilizing” them], and I am inclined
to believe it is the best, the sooner we get rid of the buffalo entirely the
better it will be for the Indian and for the white man too."

~ Mr. Hancock

-------------------------------------

On topic!

ZACH! As always, I LOVE your pictures! Would that we all were able to work in such an amazing environment as you do!

Skybird

Steve... Unfortunately, you're right. There is no "easy" solution" to the weed problem. I have got to say though, the sheer scope of it that I encounter out there makes the dandelions in my garden seem not so bad. Now that the bindweed has started to bloom, we have whole tracts that, from a distance, look like they are covered in snow. My job is mostly to build fences, much less frustrating. Most things are more charming than what occurred at this site. Though, much of it necessary. Rocky Mountain Arsenal was originally built to produce explosives for use in WWII. As unpleasant as that seems, the alternative seems more so. However, now that we won both the Second World and Cold War, the need for mass production of those types of weapons has been reduced. The Army leased the site to some pest and herbicide companies for a while, then they went away and it became a superfund site. Then in the 80's or 90's someone found bald eagles liked to use it as a winter roost, so the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service got involved and now its a wildlife refuge... I'd say we've made some progress since 1945:

The refuge complex we currently manage out of the Arsenal includes Two Ponds NWR (just south of Standley Lake in Arvada) but also another site with a checkered past: Rocky Flats, which was the site of nuclear weapon manufacturing facility. That one is not yet open to the public.

I think everyone should come out and see the Arsenal, too Mama. I think it has a really interesting history and looking at all the old pictures really is kind of spooky. None of the old buildings are left, they all got tore down except for a couple admin and maintenance buildings we took over from the Army.

I like that clematis, Mama, even if it is "invasive." We had one for a few years that never grew. I tore it out not too long ago. I have been ave searching all over for some cold hardy cactus, like some of the opuntia's, but I have not been successful so far, your's looks amazing and once it blooms I can't wait to see what it looks like. I love cactus flowers. Those hostas look fantastic, too! Not many years around here that hostas don't look like they got caught in Elmer Fudd's crosshairs is it?

It sounds like you guys are having a June like we had last year Steve...Really living up to the "June gloom" moniker. A week or so ago I saw south central Oregon was under a freeze warning... That was quite a shocker to see. Those pancakes sure look good, I will have to remember that for when the cold and gloom returns for us...all too soon.

The ones thing about cheat, TR, is that it is a winter annual. It cures and dies back early on and so it will be replaced with possibly more desirable plants later this season. It does feel hopeless though and as for grazing, I don't know of any animal that eats it at any stage. Hopeless... but it must not be because our range techs are out there "fighting the good fight" every single day. I joined them once, about 3-4 hours of spraying weeds was enough to last me the rest of the season. At least when I'm putting up fence, I can see the progress I have made. The weed situation... chasing our tails it seems.

What a long way we have come since those times. We now have a National Bison Herd in Montana (the original stock for ours at the Arsenal) and the bison was just very recently (as in just in the past couple months) named the National Animal of the U.S.

Timberline may be gone, but Kelly isn't!

http://www.coldhardycactus.com/

http://www.coldhardycactus.com/opuntia.php

I didn't know the bison was our national animal! When did that happen? When I was in Yellowstone in '05 there were so many buffalo you couldn't even drive down the roads. It was fun! When I went back in '12 there were only a few here and there. No fun! Part of the reason I went back was to see them again. It's not that they're gone--they were just "hiding," and with all that space they can do it pretty effectively! When my parents brought us out here for a vacation when I was six (1949) we stopped at the buffalo overlook on U. S. 6 (now I-70!) out around El Rancho/Chief Hosa, so that herd has been there for a LONG time. There's another herd up at Custer State Park at Rapid City, and there are a few Indian tribes that have their own herds now too. Apparently in the 1800s they were down from an estimated 60,000,000 to only about 300 in the whole country! I really am glad they didn't succeed in killing ALL of them! They're amazing animals! I don't remember the name of it, but there's a PBS documentary about a guy who was afraid the buffalo really were going extinct and made it his job to be sure they didn't! It was back in the early 1900s I think, or maybe it was the end of the 1800s. If you ever get a chance to see it, it was really good.

Skybird

P.S. "Spooky" doesn't quite adequately describe that Arsenal pic, Zach, but I sure can't think of a better one!

Thanks for the historical pictures, quotes and commentary, too.

What it seems to me is that progress has been made by creativity in the Arsenal's use. Creating takes effort. Neglect and just blowing something up can be lots cheaper. Perhaps a path forward for future generations has been found.

Destruction and violence and lots of destructive initiative was taken by "volunteers" in the Olde West. History is replete with these extracurricular examples. Often, these local militias, or whatever, got themselves in trouble. As often as not, the official security, the military, was opposed to the volunteers initiatives against the Natives.

I recently looked up the original meaning of "renegade," a word that was a favorite for some on the frontier. It's from Spanish "renegado," from, re- + negāre, to deny. See, to deny again. But, the authoritarians were insistent that the Indians be denied what made possible their livelihood. The renegade denied the need for change. Force, violence ensued.

A typical situation might be apparent for the "civilizing" success with just simple numbers. The Snoqualmie tribe wasn't hunting buffalo but the loss of resources was just as devastating. From an estimated 4,000 population pre-historically to about 600 after decades of contact with civilization, today. Of course, the Snoqualmie had neighbors who ceased to exist ... oh, I might just as well say, "who all died, men, women and children."

Steve

Yeah, hes got some cool looking stuff on his cactus website, but it seems every time I look he's sold out! One day things might line up for me haha.

Heres another good picture (these are all from the Library of Congress website)

This is the South Gate (which is not a public gate). If you take Havana all the way north to 56th, it dead ends right into where this gate house once stood.

Here it is today:

These pictures aren't nearly as eerie as some of ones some people at work have from when they first arrived there in the 90's and started the clean up. If you've ever seen pictures of Chernobyl, you would be hard pressed to distinguish one from the other.

On Monday, May 9th 2016 the President signed the legislation making the bison our national mammal (correction from above, the bald eagle is and has been, our national animal). I think the National Bison Herd in Dixon, Montana ( which was started in 1908 and is manged by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service) is the parent stock for many/most (all?) of the bison on public lands and by Indian Tribes (both the F&WS and Bureau of Indian Affairs are headed by the Department of the Interior). The one at Chief Hosa I believe is privately owned but I am pretty sure that's where the ones at Custer SP are from and the small herd they recently introduced up on some Larimer County Open Space north of Ft. Collins. Ft. Niobrara NWR in northern Nebraska also has a bison herd, but I think most bison in the United States are held on private ranches. In addition to the National Bison Herd, I also believe different agencies/sites/private parties do share between each other as well, if the herd gets too large for the area they have for example.

"Perhaps a path forward for future generations has been found."

Today it seems the "creative" solution for transforming the land Steve, is ripping it out with a bulldozer, covering the scar with cement and planting a building on it. One of the biggest fears in the "conservation world" is that, as more generations are raised in cities, their connection to the land is lost and the value placed on conservation shrinks. Eventually, this country will be led by an entire group of people who's entire "growing up" experience was behind screen. By the time people of my son's generation are old enough to vote and hold office, I wonder, how much of their tax dollars are they going to be willing to spend on preserving and conserving the land? When few, if any of the people have ever spent any time in the great outdoors, the value of those great outdoors decreases exponentially. Aldo Leopold lamented that he was glad that he would "never be young without wild country to be young in." The wilderness has been virtually, if not literally, completely conquered, what is the next phase...I shudder to think.

The PBS documentary I saw was "The Buffalo King." PBS has changed what you can watch online--without paying for it!--and I couldn't find the whole show online now on PBS or on Youtube. It was originally aired in December of 2013. Hope it's rerun again sometime!

The program is about "Scotty Philip, the Man Who Saved the Buffalo."

http://www.philipsouthdakota.com/other_7.html

Scotty Philip's herd was originally started in either 1881 or 1883 (depending on the site!) by a guy named Pete Dupree, and when he died Scotty bought them and in 1901 herded them to land near Fort Pierre. This is the herd the Custer State Park buffalo came from. So since Scotty started his herd in 1901, and the National Bison Herd in Montana was started in 1908, I wonder if possibly some of those buffalo came from Scotty's herd too! Didn't run into any info about that!

This (simplistic!) site has some of the dates.

http://www.sd4history.com/Unit3/buffalolesson3.htm

If the "Chief Hosa herd" is privately owned, I'm REALLY surprised it's been out there for so many years. Just never thought about who owns it!

Thanks for the "national mammal" info! I didn't hear anything about that! I just love it when the TV news is about what's "trending" online!!!

I wonder if--I HOPE--the generations that are growing up In Concrete might have an Equal and Opposite Reaction, and wind up craving places to "be" in Nature, and actually be more willing to help preserve whatever is left more than a lot of people are nowadays. I'll be long gone by then--but--I hope.....

Skybird

P.S. The BIA, or Office of Indian Affairs as it was first called, was under the War Department in the early 1800s. It wasn't until 1849 when the "OIA" was transferred to the newly created Dept. of the Interior, and there was a big ruckus by the folks who wanted to keep the Indians under the War Department! Between 1849 and 1870 Congress tried several times to transfer control back to the War Department. It wasn't until 1947 that the name was officially changed to the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

ZachS. z5 Jefferson County, Colorado said, "Today it seems the "creative" solution for transforming the land Steve, is ripping it out with a bulldozer, covering the scar with cement and planting a building on it. One of the biggest fears in the "conservation world" is that, as more generations are raised in cities, their connection to the land is lost and the value placed on conservation shrinks. Eventually, this country will be led by an entire group of people who's entire "growing up" experience was behind screen. By the time people of my son's generation are old enough to vote and hold office, I wonder, how much of their tax dollars are they going to be willing to spend on preserving and conserving the land? When few, if any of the people have ever spent any time in the great outdoors, the value of those great outdoors decreases exponentially. Aldo Leopold lamented that he was glad that he would "never be young without wild country to be young in." The wilderness has been virtually, if not literally, completely conquered, what is the next phase...I shudder to think."

Yes, I've been thinking about this. First, I'm a little surprised/not surprised that this comment comes from a part of the country where surveys show our fittest population. Okay, people in Colorado enjoy their outdoors! However, just square miles on the near-vertical aren't saving you from development fears, are they?

Our worldwide problems and notably US environmental problems sure hinge on population growth. Tying our economy so tightly to more growth makes almost zero sense to me.

Many years ago, I read a sci-fi novel about a future Earth with like one person per continent. Wow, black and white thinking! Anyway, these individuals had access to huge amounts of energy, tapping and using robotic automation to "create" whatever their little hearts desired. Crazy! Yeah, most of them were miserably lonely but didn't really have the sense to know it.

People like to be where people like to be. Yogi Berra was wrong about places so crowded that nobody wants to go there ... and, this from a guy who lives a modern version of life as a recluse.

We have this crazy economy where the "burdens" are shunned and must be shared by more and more people!! It just ain't fair to have those high taxes on the jawbcreaters we so admire and depend on! We need to spread the burdens on a new and HUGE younger generation or us seniors can never retire! Sarcasm here ... but, layering it on people at or near minimum wage ... gosh! What are we thinking?

Cut things like social security and other programs ... better have 20 kids so they can still need you, still feed you - when you're 64 ... 74.

Steve

Kelly Grummons has a great selection of cold hardy cactus and agave.
I've been recommending him for years to people who come by here and ask where to find cactus that will grow down here, even in Oklahoma.

Kelly calls this one 'Mesa Sky'. He says "It gets the best pears of all the prickly pears" or something to that effect. I agree. They look like red wooden spools.

Zach, I included the bottom picture to show you something. If you press the photo it will enlarge and you can see the color and size difference between the regular Blue Grama & Blonde Ambition. The one in front of the blue agave is the regular B.G. The greener, larger ones planted in this area are Blonde Ambition. Frankly, I like the regular plain jane's better, in fact I like them a whole lot better. They have that light yellowish color that contrasts nicely, are smaller, have finer leaves, are more compact and they get cute and all curly looking when dry. The Blonde Ambition on the other hand have grown dramatically in size since this photo was taken in mid June and they are BIG. You mentioned wanting some but if you get them, be sure to space them wide. Maybe its a personal preference thing but just thought you might be interested.

So, I looked it up, the herd at Chief Hosa Pass is owned by Denver Mountain Parks (of Red Rocks Ampitheater fame), who also manage a herd in Douglas County at Daniels Park. I still believe that most bison in the United States are managed in private herds however.

These guys aren't, and you can come by whenever you like and see them...assuming they are near the road like they were the other day when I was driving into work.

As far as the future of conservation is concerned... I am a pessimist. I can't help it, and to be perfectly honest, if I knew how frustrating and depressing that this line of work was when I got into it, I might have chosen a different career path. The truth as I see it is that public interest is not willing to go much beyond anything outside of preserving a few small spots here and there where they can go see what nature was supposed be like. Places like Rocky Mountain Arsenal are really nothing more than a museum. They are too small and fragmented to serve much of an ecological function and their purpose is merely to give people a glimpse of nature, of what was here before, kind of like those "living history" places.

However, just square miles on the near-vertical aren't saving you from development fears, are they?"

I just saw an advertisement for a brand new condo development in Grand Lake, vertical space doesn't seem to pose much of a challenge to developers and engineers. But hey, as long as they slap a few water saving features and a solar panel on it, it's "green" development, so it's GOOD for the environment. Never mind that when they are finally finished, there will be no environment left to worry about anyways. Nevertheless, I'm sure all the creatures that have nowhere left to live will appreciate the fact that we were thinking about them when we tore up their homes.

On a POSITIVE NOTE, those are GORGEOUS cacti, TR! I'm turning green (and yellow, orange, red, and pink) with envy over all of those! Absolutely stunning! I do have both "wild" blue grama and blonde ambition. I think I like "wild" better as well, but often I'm lazy and don't feel like starting from seed, lol. Plus, if I'm looking for something with a little more size, the BA is nice rather than planting 15 of the smaller wild ones haha.

Zach, the only way I've been able to deal with the futility of trying to do something in the face of so many obstacles is to think of geological time and past civilizations. The fact is, its so bad we have reached the desperate point of restoration & conservation and that is the problem. The prairie was conquered, the 'war' is long over and it has been for some time. A minority of people who care can try as best they can in the face of indifference, lack of funds and the onslaught of building but it seems like a loosing battle. Here in Oklahoma we have what we can brag is the largest Tall Grass Prairie Preserve in the Wichita Mts with a 'target sized' summer herd of buffalo numbering at 2600 that must be reduced through selling off to 1,950 each winter. That's considered a big herd but when you think of what once was you know its pathetic. This little 23,000 acreage must be diligently maintained but again, that it needs to be maintained by humans at all is the problem, anyway so it seems to me.

You are correct, most herds are privately owned and I'm grateful someone stepped in before it was too late but we will never see the real thing visiting these places, the best we can expect is to get an idea of what once was.

The down side to growing cactus isn't what most people expect or fear -- bumping into one. That rarely happens. Its the way the glochids easily shed and get all over the ground or in leaves of other plants or fallen leaves or end up in trowel handles or hoses. I like the texture of the really vicious looking spiny ones, the spinier the better because most of those spines have really nice color and look great in late afternoon sunlight or moonlight. Most people are afraid of the spiny ones but its not the big mean spines that get you, its the glochids. I wear yellow dishwashing gloves when cleaning around them and that part isn't so bad because I'm prepared for the glochids. Otherwise, they have to be the most self sufficient, easiest to grow plant on the planet and come May and June, its quite a show, IMO they put roses to shame. A prickly pear grown in a pot will never do well because the roots can't grow right, the roots naturally grow very shallowly and spread laterally for several feet in all directions anchoring the plant. Confined in a pot, a prickly pear is being tortured as much as a caged animal, I think of it as cruelty when I see that. Plant it in the ground however and zoom! They grow quite fast and bloom like crazy.

Zach, here is a picture of the cactus blooming today.

By the way, I can probably make you one if you want. I'm sure it will propagate.

I have bumped into many a cactus TR haha. Last year doing trail maintenance I sat on them it seems more regularly than a person ought.

Love it Mama! if you're willing to part with one of those pads I won't say no haha.