Update on the fire and the heat wave

Here's a link showing video of the fire in the Owyhee mountains of Malheur county, Oregon . The view on the video is the same as I had from my living room window here in the Spirit Ranch area. I heard on the news tonight that 70 square miles have been burnt. Amazing. The heat and dry weather combined with high winds did a nasty job but nature always restores and next spring the burnt area will probably be full of wildflowers. Most of the area is rabbit bush and some cedar and sagebrush. Hopefully there will be a lot of survivors. The fire tankers were flying in and out all day from Gowen Field in Boise http://www.museumerica.com/national-aerial-firefighting-museum-concept.html. I didn't see a sign of any smoke today so I think things are well under control.

The wind from the storm that caused this fire was gusting at least 40-50 MPH. The next night the wind from a similar storm reached gusts of 60-70 MPH here at the ranch! It did a lot of damage to the roofs in the neighborhood and knocked down a few tree's here on the property. I had a huge, half dead elm take a fall and it messed up some of the old farm vehicles here but not too badly. I spent most of the morning chasing junk out in the adjoining fields and picking up plenty of dead wood (read:firewood!)

The heat wave ended yesterday with a high of 102 degrees and today it got up to 98 degrees and is slowly going back to normal. It was rough working on the ranch and in the garden but life is good and God is good. I found myself enjoying working in the "cool" 90 degree weather today. Odd how fast we adapt to natural conditions. But, I still drank plenty of water and Gator Aid!
Take care everyone until next time..........

Crazy weather, heat, wind and a forest fire

Wow! Its 109 degrees here in the Treasure Valley! We are having quite a heat wave here in the northwest. Working in the garden past 10AM is torture. Fortunately everything is in the ground and its just maintenance such as watering and weeding. Last night I watched a thunder storm roll in from the west over the Owyhee (pronounced OH-WHY-HE) mountains and the lightening show was terrific! I saw where a particularly bright bolt struck and a minute or so later I noticed an orange light. I thought someone was 4 wheeling up in the hills so I got out my Minolta 8x to 20x zoom binoculars and set them on the tripod. Sure enough the lightening had set a wild fire. In a matter of a few hours it had spread over several thousand acres. The wind was terrific and helped it along. Today the Snake river valley is full of smoke and I can't see across the valley to the Owyhee's.
This weather reminds me of several things: be hydrated constantly! After a few hours work outside I started to feel the effects of heat sickness so I got in the shade and downed a bottle of Gator Aid. I still drink plenty of water but when you sweat a lot you loose valuable minerals and need to replace those electrolytes. Sometimes I put 1/4 teaspoon of sea salt in a quart of nice cold water. It helps replace some electrolytes but its not as efficient as Gator Aid. My trusty bandana is always soaking wet and worn around my neck cowboy fashion. This of course gets my tee shirt soaked which helps with the cooling. And I always wear a booney style hat, doctors orders because of the skin cancer and its a great shade giver as well. When its this hot and you work outside you just have to make sure you are drinking plenty of water.
The wind was gusting at around 60-70 MPH last night and when I awoke at 5AM I noticed a lot of damage here on the farm. An old dead elm finally bit the bullet and laid down. Fortunately it didn't take anything with it. There is a huge cottonwood that has a lot of dead limbs and I'm afraid its going to come down soon. If so it will only block the road until we get it cut up and moved but God help the person who has the misfortune of being under it if it falls. Several pieces of equipment were blown over and some roof damage to a shed or two but nothing really serious from the wind storm. I think the heat really gets the wind speed up as it cools in the evening. I don't know all the mechanics of weather but I think I read about this particular phenomenon somewhere.
Take care everyone and stay safe! Drink plenty of water and stay hydrated if you are out in the hot summer weather.

Idaho Fish & Game

Today was a "free" fishing day. I'm not sure but I think its a day when anyone can fish, license or not and I also believe its to get kids into the outdoors. I'm 100% behind that! Get the kids the hell away from the mind numbing TV and stupid video games! Turn off the damn cell phone and put your thumb on that Zebco, junior! Here are a few pictures I took yesterday evening on my daily walk. The boys and girls from Idaho Fish & Game were dropping net loads of trout into the local ponds at Wilson Springs. Some of the trout were 2+ pounder's!!  Sweet! I managed to get a few shots of them as they were getting accustomed to their new surroundings. By the way, I found out what species of Oriole is in the picture I posted Thursday, June 6 and updated the caption.

Idaho Fish & Game truck-the long handles are for the nets they use to transfer fish from the tanks to the ponds, etc.

Idaho Fish & Game truck-thats a standard oxygen tank on the back.

Freshly stocked trout. Some nice sized fish!

More trout.

The creek and some interesting aquatic plants.

More aquatic plants.

A wider shot of the creek. Its about 3 feet deep here. That water is very clean & clear!

Excellent habitat for fish, birds, etc. That's an ash tree growing across the creek.

St. Johns:The amazing on again, off again river

I live about 10 minutes walk from the Saint Johns river here in Visalia, California. There is a well maintained walking/biking trail that follows the river for quite a ways. I walk it at least every other day if possible. Its one of my favorite areas because its semi-wild in the sense there are no structures and the plant life is pretty much left alone. Also, there is a dirt trail close to the river and you can avoid any people or bike traffic on the paved trail. The river runs west out of the Sierra Nevada mountains and then swings north towards the Pacific ocean. The amazing thing is, the powers that be, Central Valley Project Water Association., can turn the river on and off at will. The river is now controlled by the Terminus damn at lake Kaweah which is in the foothills just west of Three Rivers and Sequoia National Park. By shutting a gate, the river can be left to dry up. Amazing. The river only runs a few feet deep at the most and feeds a lot of agricultural land with irrigation pumps here and there along its length. Earlier this year it was running full bore and this was due to last winters record snow fall in the mountains. About a month ago the river was "turned off" and within less than a week a person could walk the whole length without getting the soles of your shoes wet. They've since turned it back on and its running at about a 10th of its capacity. I think the recent snow and rain in the mountains has made the lake level high enough that they can do this. When I first walked the dry river bottom I was appalled at the loss of life. Thousands of dead minnows, catfish fingerlings, frogs and millions upon millions of clams. Most of the clams are in the 1/8" to 1/4" range. The smell was pretty intense. There was the occasional crawdad remains but very few of them. I found out that they burrow way down into the sand when the river is shut down. Yesterday I saw a few huge ones in the shallow water munching on some plant life. I think the clams and fish are released from the lake in the spring. The clam obviously as eggs or larva. I did see a large flock of great egrets and some other water birds taking advantage of the receding waters when they turned off the river. At least some of the aquatic life wasn't wasted.

Polar Pure water treatment-Why the sudden price jump?

Has anyone noticed the price jump with Polar Pure Iodine crystals? The bottles used to be less than $20 and now I see they have suddenly jumped to $40 plus. Crazy. Maybe they are in short supply of Iodine? I don't think so. You can still buy it cheap on eBay. One ounce for $15. I wonder whats up?

Iodine crystals for water purification Ron Hood style

This is something I have wanted to do for a long time. I remember watching the late Ron Hood describe how he made a water purification kit with Iodine crystals and an empty bottle in one of his early video tapes. So, I bought a one ounce bottle of Iodine crystals which are 99.9% pure and several empty one ounce brown glass bottles. I like the idea of using a brown bottle since it keeps sunlight from harming the effectiveness of the Iodine.
From all the information I've read 7 or 8 grams of Iodine crystals to one one ounce bottle is the formula. Since I bought 3 one ounce bottles I'll split the Iodine crystals 4 ways (28.35 grams is an ounce). This will give me 7 grams of Iodine crystals per bottle. I'll have enough Iodine for 4 water treatment bottles. I plan on making two bottles. One for the wife's kit and one for mine.
The directions are:
Fill the bottle with water. Treated or untreated doesn't matter as long as it isn't muddy or have a bunch of junk floating in it. The treatment works faster if the solution gets warm. You can set the bottle in the sun or keep it next to your body. The Iodine crystals will saturate the water and you will not be able to tell how much crystal has dissolved into solution. Leaving the water in the bottle will not cause the water to super saturate. The Iodine stops dissolving when a limit is reached. That's the beauty of this system. You can leave the water in the bottle for the next treatment and not worry. After the water is nice and warm and has set for around 1 hour, you carefully pour off half the water from the bottle into a 1 liter/quart container of water to be treated. You must let the water set for a determined amount of time depending on the temperature of the water. See the table below. Try not to get any of the crystals into the water. This is so you don't waste them and also so you don't ingest too much of them. A little crystal won't hurt you but too much can make you sick. If you are really concerned, you can use a piece of nylon stocking over the opening of the bottle when you pour off the solution to catch any crystals. A piece of panty hose would work fine. Read all the warnings about Iodine in the information from Raems below.
My plan is to use my Bobble carbon filter to take out the iodine taste from my water. Also, I will add a bit of vitamin C to the water after the allotted treatment time to sublimate the Iodine out of solution. This should remove the taste completely.
On vitamin C for removing the Iodine taste, you only need a little bit to get the job done. If you get a chance to see the vitamin C tablets that come in the second bottle of the Portable Aqua kit, you will see how small they are. One concern I've heard about this system of water purification is that the glass bottle is a bad idea. I have carried an old Vanilla Extract bottle full of olive oil in my pack for more than ten years and its still fine and its an odd shaped flat bottle at that. The Iodine bottle is round and that makes it a little more durable. Use common sense and treat your gear good and all will be OK.
All in all I have spent $5 for the 3 bottles and $17 for the Iodine crystals. That includes shipping. Now, one bottle of Polar Pure is around $20 and I have seen it for $14 once. My 4 bottles will work out to $7.25 each. Thats a pretty good savings. I plan to use them only for the times when I can't boil my water which is my first choice. That means they should last me many, many years.

Here's some information from a company in Canada that makes an Iodine crystal purification bottle. This is a link to their site: http://www.raems.com/webad/USP.html

"USP Iodine in 1 Ounce bottle 
Each amber bottle contains 8 grams of USP Resublimated Iodine Crystals.  It may be reused to treat up to 5000 quarts. Once the crystals are dissolved, the bottle is finished. This may take years! Each fill of the bottle will give you a saturated solution of 8 ppm (parts per million). This solution strength will disinfect water according to the following table:

           Temperature       41F / 5 C       59F / 15C        86F / 30C

              Time in            60                  30                    15
              minutes

Iodine is light sensitive and must always be stored in a dark bottle. It works best if the water is over 68° F (21° C). Iodine has been shown to be more effective than chlorine-based treatments in inactivating Giardia cysts. It is important to note that you are using the iodine solution to treat the water, not the iodine 
crystals. The concentration of iodine in a crystal is poisonous and can burn tissue or eyes.  Fill the bottle with some of the water to be treated, cap it, shake, and let it sit for a few minutes.  Decant the solution ( not the crystals) into a one quart ( 1 litre) container holding water to be treated. Let the treated water stand 
  for 30 minutes before drinking. In order to destroy Giardia cysts, the drinking water must be at least 68° F (20° C). Be aware that some people are allergic to iodine and cannot use it as a form of water purification. Persons with thyroid problems or on lithum, women over fifty, and pregnant women should consult their physician prior to using iodine for purification. Also, some people who are allergic to shellfish are also allergic to iodine. If someone cannot use iodine, use either a chlorine-based product or a non-iodine-based filter, such as the PUR Hiker Microfilter, MSR WaterWorks, or the Katadyn Water Filter.
Always ensure the bottle is tightly capped, as iodine crystals sublime into the air quite quickly, and may stain surrounding items. They will also cause corroding of most metals. Leaving water in the bottle is okay, and will not create a superstrong solution. Any residual iodine aroma in the treated water may be neutralized by adding drink crystals containing vitamin C."

Here's more info from a different site:

"USP-grade resublimed Iodine Crystals (Kahn-Vassher solution, Polar Pure)

This system incorporates a bottle of poorly soluble iodine crystals and is one of the best systems for treating small amounts of water, since it is relatively effective and has an indefinite shelf life.  This is probably the most reliable iodine treatment system available to backpackers and is widely used by mountaineers traveling abroad.

Glass is the only appropriate material for storing aqueous iodine solutions.  The main disadvantage of this is the potential of a full bottle freezing an breaking.  This can often be avoided by placing the bottle in your shirt, sleeping with it in your bag or only half filing it prior to nightfall.

Once water is added to your crystals, the water quickly (up to an hour) becomes saturated with iodine.  This saturated iodine solution is then added to your drinking water.

Since the amount of iodine saturated in water is dependant on the temperature of the solution, you should take into account the temperature of the solution to determine how much of it to add to the water you would like to treat.  The Polar Pure bottle and a thermometer on it for dose calculation for 4 mg/L.  The following chart shows how many capfuls (Polar Pure) of saturated solution are needed to treat water:

Temperature of Solution	Capfuls per Quart (Liter)
95° F (35° C)	1.2
86° F (30° C)	1.3
77° F (25° C)	1.5
68° F (20° C)	2
59° F (15° C)	2.5
50° F (10° C)	3.5
41° F (5° C)	4

Saturation of iodine is increased if you keep the bottle warm by keeping it in your packet or setting it out in the sun prior to use.

For treating Giardia, it is recommended that you warm the bottle and use a double dose to 8mg/L for 90-120 minutes.

The original system system described by Kahn and Visscher in 1975 incorporates a 30cc (1 fl oz) bottle, paper lined bakelite cap, and 2-8 g USP grad resublimed iodine crystals.  The bottle is filled, shaken and left to stand for at least one hour.  At a temperature of 68°F (20°C), which can be maintained by placing the bottle in a shirt pocket, half a bottle (15cc) of saturated iodine solution should be able to treat one liter (quart) with about 9mg/L of iodine.  One 30cc (1 fl oz) bottle is enough to treat 2 liters of water.

Other guidelines recommend 13 ml (2.5 teaspoons) of saturated iodine solution pee quart (liter) of clear water or 25 ml (5 teaspoons) per quart (liter) of cloudy water.

It is important to note that the 4-8 grams of crystals used constitutes a potential lethal human dose if consumed all at once.  Because of this, the bottles supplied with Polar Pure are designed to trap the crystals when the iodine solution is poured out.  DIY backpackers should use a strainer insert in their bottles to prevent accidental pouring of crystals into your water.  These crystals can be purchased from a pharmacy.  Because of the poisoning potential, this system should not be entrusted with children."

This is from a most excellent site with a very informative write up on water purification. Here's the link to that site: http://zenbackpacking.net/WaterFilterPurifierTreatment.htm

By the way, if you don't have Ron Hoods priceless DVD's on survival, you should buy them. It would really help Karen and Jesse at this time in their lives. They need all the financial help they can get. Heres a link:
http://survival.instantestore.net/default.cfm

Here's what the Iodine crystals look like for the curious. This is the picture supplied by the seller on eBay. http://cgi.ebay.com/1oz-28-4g-pure-elemental-iodine-crystals-/280648667761?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4157f6d271

A good reason to practice water purification

Here's a short video I took to show what lives in a drop of water. Magnification is 100x. This is typical of most water you find in the wild. Its also available on You Tube and here's the link; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pphn08NjTDE




Here are a few still photos of different water creatures. The first three show a species of Vorticella connected by fine threads to the root of a Lemna (duckweed). The first photo shows a few Lemna "infants" floating to the left and at the bottom. Vorticella feeds on tiny creatures such as Paramecium, Volvox, and others which you can see in the above video. These are 100x magnification.These creatures can all be removed with a good water filter. Moving water does not contain the same abundance of life forms as still water. If I were drinking water from this pond I would use a good pre filter to keep my filter elements clean.









This photo shows the larva stag of Cyclops or similar species, a tiny crustacean. Again its 100x magnification.




This photo shows a Diatom or Desmid. I'm not certain which or its species name. More Vorticella at the bottom left.

"C" ration can water filter

Heres a water filter we made in survival class while I was in the Army. I designed this in 1977 while stationed at Fort Huachuca, Arizona. It works great for removing the nasty taste from water you may find in the desert or dry areas. I'm not too sure it removes any pathogens. We used Iodine tablets for water purification. I hate the taste of the stuff so I made one of these up and it worked like a charm. If you don't know what a "C" ration is let me explain. They were tasty meals that came in small cans. There we several different menu's called "B" units. The cans contained things like ham and eggs, ham and lima beans ( we had a special name for these that I won't use in this blog), chicken and noodles, turkey loaf (very similar to turkey spam), etc. The little cans of peanut butter, jelly, and cheese spread looked like shoe polish. As a matter of fact, the contents TASTED like shoe polish! To be fair, some of the food was decent and we learned all kinds of different ways to spice it up and supplement it. In 1973 I received a box of "C" rats at Fort Dix, New Jersey during a training exercise. The date on the box was 1967. I ate them and they were good.
Since finding a "C" rat can is highly unlikely, a soda can or "Campbells Soup" size can will work fine. The "C" rat main meal can is halfway in size between a tomato paste can and a soup can.
The best way to view this drawing is to click on the image and it should enlarge or right click and save image to a file on your computer.

By the way, don't forget your "John Wayne"! Any Vets out there will know what this means.