Coyotes

Our chicken coop is silent and all our chickens gone. Coyotes got them.

Early Friday morning as I was getting ready for work, I heard the dog barking the kind of bark that means someone or something is in the yard. I walked out to see a coyote in the chicken coop holding a brown chicken in its mouth. I yelled at the coyote and it ran out of the coop still with the bird. Eventually it dropped the chicken, jumped the fence and it ran down the street. I checked the coop and all six of our chickens were gone.

We know there are coyotes in the area and know that neighbors have lost pets. We've been very careful about protecting the chickens and our cats too. But Thursday night apparently the coop door didn't completely latch shut. One mistake on one night was all the opportunity the coyotes needed. It is sad to lose Big Bertha, Brit and the others. And its sad to walk by an empty quiet coop.

Cogswell/Rhoades House -- from East Pasadena to Porterville to Disneyland

The main residence at the Sierra Madre Villa was this Victorian home built in 1874 by noted artist William Cogswell and his son in law, William Porter Rhoades. Back in the late 1800’s, “the Villa” was world famous as a resort hotel.

The hotel and the Cogswell/Rhoades house are long gone from Pasadena. But, part of the old Victorian house still survives at The Happiest Place on Earth. Here’s the story:

In the mid-1940’s, the Cogswell/Rhoades house was sold to an up and coming studio in nearby Burbank – the Walt Disney Studio. Disney moved the house up to Porterville where it was used on the set of So Dear to My Heart, a 1948 movie. They modified the old Victorian into a general store and the house appears in the movie as Grundy’s Mercantile.

You probably recognize So Dear to My Heart as Burl Ives’ first full length film. But, it was also one of Disney’s first live action films. So Dear to My Heart contains both live action and cartoon characters that appear every so often during the movie. The movie is great family fare – entertaining with a pronounced moral to the story. My kids both liked it.

Not long after So Dear to My Heart, Disney embarked on building his theme park in Orange County. Park visitors would enter the park on a street that recalled town centers from a time gone by. As Walt Disney described it, "Main Street, U.S.A. is America at the turn of the century - the crossroads of an era. The gas lamps and the electric lamps, the horse drawn car and the auto car. Main Street is everyone's hometown...the heartland of America.”

As related by the Villaloa Neighborhood History Society, after So Dear to My Heart was filmed, Disney removed the decorative Victorian trim from the old Cogswell/Rhoades home and placed in storage for later use. The trim quickly found a place on the turn of the century buildings that line Disneyland's Main Street. Seems kind of fitting that trim from the Cogswell/Rhoades home that dates back to Pasadena's pioneer days and recalls the bygone era of the Sierra Madre Villa, was saved and is being re-used on Main Street USA.

The photo is interesting. Its a scan of a glass magic lantern slide. The slide was the work of Los Angeles photographer Frederick Hamer Maude and was probably made around 1890. If you click on the photo, the Victorian trim comes into better focus.

Acorn Woodpecker

A few weeks ago we watched this acorn woodpecker working away on the power pole in front of our house. The Eaton Canyon Nature Center has a great website that lists the birds, reptiles and animals that live in our area. The acorn woodpecker, and two other woodpecker varieties are common here. Acorn woodpeckers eat insects and, surprise, acorns. They drill holes in trees and even power poles where they store their acorns. Acorn woodpeckers live in extended family groups and are territorial as a group. So, it looks like we have a group of woodpeckers living around here. Now, I'll be watching the power pole to see who else flies in for dinner.

Growing Tomatoes

We did a lot of work to prepare for a garden this year -- rototilling, weeding, amending, weeding. Did I mention weeding? Actually, I've enjoyed working with the dirt. The tomatoes have been in since early April and we're starting to see some good results.

Cats 4 Moles 0

Over the long weekend, our cats caught four moles. Moles use their front facing paws and claws to dig and eat mostly earthworms which they paralyze with a toxin in their saliva. They live their entire lives underground except when they leave the nest in early adulthood to find their own homes. It may be that these moles were searching for a new home when our cats got them. We don't generally see moles, but I'll be watching for them now.

Victory Park on Memorial Day

Victory Park was dedicated by the Pasadena War Memorial Committee on May 25, 1952, "as a living memorial to those who fell in World War II." Seems a very fitting dedication for the most used public space in east Pasadena. This "V" shaped rose garden is at the corner of Paloma St. and Altadena Dr. In the center of the "V" is the Gold Star Mothers' Flagpole and this plaque:

On Memorial Day, we remember and honor those brave men and women who gave the ultimate sacrifice for our nation. I imagine that when Victory Park was dedicated 56 years ago there were many in attendance who knew some of the more than 400,000 Americans who died in WW II.

And certainly some of those in attendance were mothers of soldiers who did not return home. This plaque and flagpole were provided by those Gold Star Mothers. American Gold Star Mothers was formed in the aftermath of WWI by mothers whose sons or daughters died in the war. It was wartime tradition for families to hang a blue star in their window for family members serving in the Armed Forces. Families honored those who died in war by covering the blue star with a gold star. As described on the Gold Star Moms' site, the Gold Star represents the "honor and glory accorded the person for his supreme sacrifice in offering for his country the last full measure of devotion, and pride of the family in this sacrifice."

Some websites to check this Memorial Day: Vietnam Veterans Memorial, National WWII Memorial, Pasadena Public Memorials and American Gold Star Mothers.

Camping at Gould Mesa

Last weekend my son and I went on an overnight campout with his scout den to Gould Mesa. The campground is about a mile north of JPL in the Arroyo Seco. The weather was hot and I saw four snakes over the two day trip. This is a rattler that was coiled in the shade of a post right outside the privy that serves the campground. The most interesting snake I saw was a striped racer snake that darted out of a bush chasing a mouse. The chase ensued down the trail until the mouse darted back into a bush and with the snake in pursuit. Watching the chase was fun, but the chaser and chasee were out of sight before I could get my camera out.

The stream is across the trail from camp and was welcome relief to the weekend's 100 degree heat. Nightime was also cool with a light breeze drifting through our mostly mesh tent.

Maybe the best thing about living in Pasadena how close we are to natural settings like this. The Arroyo Seco, Millard Canyon, Eaton Canyon - we have hiked these areas over and over and it never gets old. I am always amazed at the natural beauty that is so available to us who live in the ever more urban Pasadena.