Text 9720, 124 rader
Skriven 2008-01-10 08:48:49 av Roy Witt (1:397/22)
   Kommentar till text 9712 av Ward Dossche (2:292/854)
Ärende: Cats
============
10 Jan 08 12:04, Ward Dossche wrote to Roy Witt:


 RW>> and ursus americanus cinnamomum...Ward should be familiar with
 RW>> these, as their habitat includes western Montana.

 WD> I know about them, but never saw them. Only the real dark-brown
 WD> near-black colour.

 WD> The lastone I saw was on Aug.28 last year trying to sneak into camp.
 WD> His photo is at

 WD>      http://welcome.homedns.org/black.jpg

That picture looks like you woke him up...

 WD> Young animal, maybe 3-4 years old. We scared him away.

 WD> We also had a grizzly come nearby, but he was only interested in
 WD> filling himself with berries. Several patches of Glacier Park were
 WD> closed, not exactly for the bear-danger but not to disturb them while
 WD> they were eating and fattening in preparation for winter denning.
 WD> Here's a photo of that grizzly ... at a safe distance:

 WD>     http://welcome.homedns.org/grizzly.jpg

 WD> Here's what I consider a safe-distance with a grizzly ... same bear,
 WD> same location, same angle, same moment ... no zoom:

 WD>     http://welcome.homedns.org/safe.jpg

That's awfully close...

 WD> Not that such a distance would matter much for such an adult animal,
 WD> but there were other people who would run slower than me, so ... ;-)

:o)

 RW>> We also have Elk and Moose. Elk as far south as New Mexico. And
 RW>> they're in abundance.

 WD> Moose? There's not an abundance of feeding grounds for them there,

There is, but they don't come this far south.

 WD>  is there? I've never seen moose when they were not near a watery
 WD> source

Right. Although I said that the Elk come as far south as New Mexico...and
that would be in the mountains, not the desert. Moose are northern state
animals, like Montana, Maine and upper Michigan, probably other Canadian
border states too.

 WD> and I picture myself Texas as hot and dry most of the time.

Far from it, in most of Texas. This little burg sits on top of the Edwards
Aquifier, which is above it's normal level right now. It's at 680+ plus
feet in height, but they never tell you how many acre feet of water that
is.

Texas has several major rivers running through it to the Gulf coast. They
have a current flow as high as 3000cfm (cubic feet per minute) during the
rainy season and about 650/cfm in the dry season. It was running at
over 5000cfm this last spring and summer, when we experienced a very wet
rainy season. And yet, 2006 was a relatively dry summer with normal flows.

The bend in the Guadalupe, just up stream from here has been known to run
over it's banks, taking many homes down river to the Gulf.

Fortunately, we were visiting here in 1998 and 2002 when that happened, so
we knew not to buy 'on' the river, nor in the flood plain. November of
2004 we were once again here when the Guadalupe flowed more water than
usual (people drowned in it), but didn't flood like the other two times.
Even so, you couldn't put a boat in at the public boat ramps, as they were
flooded and the water flow was too high.

The Rio Grande is pretty much dried up because of the water conservation
programs, except you can go to Del Rio, TX and have some fun on the man
made resevoir there. It's huge. The river's natural flow is only 1/20 the
volume of the Colorado River, and less than 1/100 that of the Mississippi.

Austin has Lake Travis, which is quite large and is also man made with the
Colorado river running through it to the gulf (enters the gulf west of
Houston). My SIL tells me that he has a boat now and they recreate on the
lake. (Wish they'd concentrate on making grandchildren though)

You can ask Mike Luthor about the Brazos, which starts somewhere in New
Mexico and runs through Bryan on down to the gulf...it has many
tributaries.

Then there is the Red River, which makes up most of the Texas/Oklahoma
border.

The Comal river starts at Comal Springs in Landa Park, up in New
Braunfels. It's a short run to where it empties into the Guadalupe, but
it's a popular place for families to tube in a quiet but pretty setting.
New Braunfels also has a large 'water park' the Schliterbahn, where people
from all around and out of state come to play. They have a German castle
and they speak German there, so they also get many germans at the park.
Not to mention that NB originated as a German colony and was started with
the money of a Prince Solms, from Braunfels in Germany.

Last but certainly not least is the San Marcos river that begins at a
spring about 16 miles north of here and runs it's own course to the gulf.
In the spring, there is a tradition that 'tubbers' ride the river all the
way from San Marcos to the gulf.

Yes, Texas gets hot, but the rivers and lakes help to take your mind off
of it. Wish I could say the same about the mosquitos...I grew up with
mosquitos and had forgotten all about them in the 38 years I spent in
California. California has none, except in the desert along the Colorado
river. Our first year in Texas, it took us a while to figure out how to
cope with them again. Unlike the northern mosquitos of Illinois, these
Texas mosquitos don't let you know when they're biting you.

You're probably thinking of west Texas when you think hot and dry. El
Paso, Big Bend, Del Rio, Laredo and Brownsville are hot and dry.

                R\%/itt



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