More of the Yetman Trail and Yard Work

Yesterday we went out on a hike in the lowlands because it was so steeeeeeeenking windy.  We decided to go out towards the Yetman trail and walk through the valley formed by the Bobcat and Ringtail ridges.  Our end point was the same as the other day's hike.  It's a very pleasant walk through the desert.

There were poppies planted by nature.

The number of saguaro cactus is just amazing.  Clearly they are very happy here.

Can you see the crested cactus?  Look center in the photo.

A larger view.  Not only is he crested, he's wavy.

Someone spent a fair amount of time and effort building this cairn.  The balanced rocks are pretty slick.

It was enough hike.  The feet were yelping a bit.

Today was a rest day.  Hah!  We dug in the dirt.  The first task was to remove a 20 year old bougainvillea that was near death.  It had been planted under a down spout, and I think excessive water did him in.  I'm glad it's gone, covering him during the freezes was a pain because of said down spout and the post behind him.  Now we have a minimalist tableau.

Next up was the removal of the Pygmy Date Palm.  It was the wrong plant in the wrong place and was being burned alive by too much sun.  We put a King Sago Palm in instead.  I really like the way they look.  They're very toxic to dogs, which we don't have.  It's a King because it's a male plant.  They're slow growing, and the males don't get as big as the females.  Hopefully it will do better.  If not, we'll try something else.

The Hop Seeds are blooming more.  They have a weird growth pattern.  If you trim them back, that's where they'll sprout new growth.  So far, we're just letting them grow.  They are wildly excited about being watered.  It doesn't take much, but they look so much better than when we bought the house.

The neighbor's Mountain Laurel is blooming.  They're a great hedge plant, and the deer do not like them.  We may replace the sour orange trees with a couple of these.  They have three plants, two are blooming on the front side and one is blooming on the back.  Plants are weird.

This is a volunteer Saguaro I found under the bougainvillea we took out.  He's about 1.5 inches tall and is about 10 years old.  I moved him, and hopefully he'll like his new location.  Baby cactus need shade, if you look under all of the Palo Verde trees in the desert you'll find baby Cardons and Saguaros.  Eventually they grow up and kill the nurse tree.  They're ungrateful wretches.

We were out in the yard a lot, bothering Her Majesty the hummingbird.  We made an effort to walk the long way around the house and stay out of her sight, but there was some disturbance of her.  I was out in front, trying to balance a rock I found on top of the decorative boulder when she approached me and flew around my head a couple of times.  Then she moved to where she was just off my elbow and hovered.  I'm pretty sure that was her telling me that I should just move along so she could get some incubating done.  I moved.