We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends and with phone calls with family. The weather was crispy but beautiful….
Check out ideas and activities to do with kids on https://mygrandmasue.wordpress.com by the author of the award-winning children’s book Grandpa, Do It! I Do It, Too!
🙂
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Family Time | Tagged: child, children, family, Family Time, fun, kids, Playing with Children, Reno, Thanksgiving | 
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Posted by mygrandmasue
Just as Grandpa Ron and I were firing up our computers for a little office work around 8 pm this evening, we had a Quail Alert! Mama Quail was quickly leading about 20 baby quail across the vast expanse of our back patio while Papa Quail waited in the rear of the family to make sure that all were safe. We never saw so many babies with only 2 adults! I ran for my camera!
I quickly got two frenzied clips of the babies. Some stayed huddled on the warm patio facing the setting sun while most darted back and forth between the bird feeder and the huddled group on the patio. Then Mama seemed to look at me and said it was time to go! You will see her briefly toward the end of the clip. Then the babies started darting toward her. So I stopped filming. Then I caught them as they fled away!
Can you do a better job of counting them? How many babies are there?
This is the second video of the baby quail visiting the bird feeder with two adult quail at 8 pm on July 2, 2010 in Reno, NV. They scurried across the patio as fast as their little feet could move! They are so cute! RUN! Babies! RUN!!
More of my blogs mentioning and photographing quails and their babies are here.
Check out ideas and activities to do with kids on https://mygrandmasue.wordpress.com by the author of the award-winning children’s book Grandpa, Do It! I Do It, Too!
🙂
1 Comment | Backyard Activities, Nature Activities, Places to Explore | Tagged: baby quail, bird watching, birdwatching, California Quail, quail, quail babies, quail baby, Reno | Permalink
Posted by mygrandmasue
Look, Nick! Reno has ’em, too! Vibram Five Fingers shoes! Check out the Reno Gazette-Journal article here! I will check the paper to see how Dr. Mel Magboo placed in today’s race! Nick is a firm believer in these shoes. Check out Barefoot Ted’s adventures…..
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Posted by mygrandmasue
Indeed, on Tuesday 131 mph winds came across the mountaintops of the Sierra Nevada causing havoc in Reno below. Winds of 97 mph were registered in southwest Reno. Our weather station registered 89 mph before we were hit by a power outage! Rats! I really wanted to know what we had! We lost 4 flat tiles and one capstone from our tile roof as far as we can tell. One pole holding up one of the weeping cherry branches was toppled. Everything else looks fine. Thank goodness!! Here’s the Reno Gazette-Journal story. Calvin Palmer blogged about it, too!
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: environment, High Winds, Lake Tahoe, Mount Rose Ski Resort, Nevada, Reno, Sierra Nevada, weather, weather station | Permalink
Posted by mygrandmasue
Reno Tahoe blog has some Earth Day ideas for the Reno area that go through the weekend. Some are family fun!
Check out more ideas and activities to do with kids on https://mygrandmasue.wordpress.com by the author of the award-winning children’s book Grandpa, Do It! I Do It, Too!
🙂
Leave a Comment » | Places to Explore | Tagged: child, family, fun, grandchildren, granddaughter, grandma, grandpa, grandparent, grandson, kids, Places to Go, Reno, Reno-Tahoe | Permalink
Posted by mygrandmasue
OK! We tried it and we liked it!! Triple Chocolate Temptation: Chocolate Cake with a Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting.
But the Sweet Strawberry Cupcake is still Number1!
Do checkout the Mix Cupcake Company website for more Twitter, Facebook and Cupcake Fairy information!
See my other blogs at https://mygrandmasue.wordpress.com 🙂
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Posted by mygrandmasue
We had great fun at our wine and cheese party tonight! After the cheeses we tried some chicken sausages, baby back ribs, roast beef slices and a marinated pork tenderloin with a wonderful spinach, orange, pecan and cheese salad. THEN we had a taste test of cupcakes:
From the Mix Cupcake Co:
Peanut Butter Chocolate Blast: Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Buttercream w/chopped Reese’s Peanut Butter cups on top.
Classic Red Velvet: Red Velvet Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting and mini dark chocolate chips.
Coconut Paradise: Coconut Cake with Vanilla Buttercream and topped w/Coconut flakes.
Sweet Strawberry: Strawberry cake with Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting.
…and then, to twist things a little….
Two flavors from Raley’s – special single cupcakes –
Red Velvet: Red Velvet Cake with a Rich Cream Cheese Center and Cream Cheese Frosting
Black Tie: White and Chocolate Marbled Cake filled and Topped with a Chocolate Whipped Icing.
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…and the winners are…..
1) Sweet Strawberry from Mix Cupcake Company
2) Peanut Butter Chocolate Blast from Mix Cupcake Company
3) Red Velvet Cake from Mix Cupcake Company with the Frosting from the Raley’s Red Velvet Cupcake!
We were caked out so we have to wait till tomorrow to try the Mix Cupcake:
Triple Chocolate Temptation: Chocolate Cake with a Dark Chocolate Cream Cheese Frosting.
Do checkout the Mix Cupcake Company website for more Twitter, Facebook and Cupcake Fairy information!
See my other blogs at https://mygrandmasue.wordpress.com 🙂
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: food, Mix Cupcake Company, Reno | Permalink
Posted by mygrandmasue
We always like to take a walk around our land on the first morning we are back in Reno. Today was no exception. Looks like all the plants made it through the winter. Most are budding out. One daffodil is blooming. The rest are still pushing out leaves and a few buds. We might get snow on Wednesday, so I hope it is only a brief cold front. Here are pictures of some of the wildflowers already blooming in the “wild part” (or native area or non-landscaped area) of our land.
Yellow (I think) Buttercups or Cinquefoil. I think they are Buttercups because they do not have five green sepals under the yellow petals. However, I don’t think the leaves look like either plant. They are very short and close to the ground. They are always the first to bloom in the spring.
The violets are also profusely blooming in large patches and clumps.
The tiny Yarrow get taller in the weeks to come.
See my earlier blog Possible Plethora of Wildflowers from last Spring for a list of flower identification books. We concentrate on ones for the Great Basin and Tahoe area.
See my other blogs at https://mygrandmasue.wordpress.com 🙂
Leave a Comment » | Nature Activities, Places to Explore, Uncategorized | Tagged: High Desert Wildflowers, Nevada, Reno, The Great Outdoors | Permalink
Posted by mygrandmasue
The Orange County Register (6 March 2010) ran an article Barn Owl webcam a surprise hit about the webcam at Starr Ranch Sanctuary. That got me googling for more barn owl info and I found some very interesting links!
We thought we had a barn owl that loves to perch on our chimney in Reno, almost always at night but sometimes at dusk. There is another one in the neighborhood that answers his/her calls. It’s neat but also seems to follow the old Apache Indian folklore of predicting a death. According to the same owl mythology link in the Sierras (where Reno is), native Indians believed the Great Horned Owl captured the souls of the dead and carried them to the underworld. Thanks to the recordings of the different owl calls on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology site, we now realize it is a Great Horned Owl. We reviewed all the recordings on the owl pages and “our owl” call is exactly like the one recorded for the Great Horned Owl – only it can go on and on and on and on….. Ah, according to the Oregon Zoo, mating season can be as early as February – so maybe that was the reason! It was February that loooong night of owl calls. I also learned that the female has the lower voice, but the response was too faint to distinguish which was lower…. 🙂
Here’s a radio show dedicated to birds called Birdnote.
The Hungry Owl Project has a camsite and photos as well.
I have other birding blogs and other child activities at https://mygrandmasue.wordpress.com 😮
1 Comment | Backyard Activities, Nature Activities | Tagged: Audubon Society, Barn Owl, child, children, grandchild, grandchildren, granddaughter, grandma, grandpa, grandparent, grandson, Great Horned Owl, Hungry Owl Project, kids, Oregon Zoo, owl, owl calls, owl webcam, owls, portland, Reno, Starr Ranch Santuary | Permalink
Posted by mygrandmasue
With all the snow we got in the last several days, this article by Maggie O’Neil of the Reno Gazette-Journal is quite timely! Check out For tubing adventures, it’s all downhill for reviews of the local resorts: Boreal Mountain Resort, Donner Ski Ranch, Granlibakken Ski and Snowboard, Heavenly Mountain Resort, Kirkwood Mountain Resort, Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort, Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort, Soda Springs Mountain Resort, Squaw Valley USA, and Tahoe Donner. There are other links here at NewToReno.com Winter Sports.
Check out the Reno-Tahoe website on your own – here’s the tubing page. For organized trips check out Sierra Adventures.
Personally, I liked the kids activities at Soda Springs the best – especially the tubing carousels at Planet Snow Kids.
For more ideas and activities, check out my other blogs at https://mygrandmasue.wordpress.com 🙂
Leave a Comment » | Nature Activities, Sport Activity | Tagged: Boreal Mountain Resort, child, Donner Ski Ranch, family, fun, grandchild, grandchildren, granddaughter, grandma, grandpa, grandparent, grandson, Granlibakken Ski and Snowboard, Heavenly Mountain Resort, kids, Kirkwood Mountain Resort, Mountain Resorts, Northstar-at-Tahoe Resort, Places to Go, Playing with Children, Reno, Reno area, Reno Snow Activities, Reno-Tahoe, Reno/Tahoe, Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort, Snow Activities, Soda Springs Mountain Resort, Squaw Valley USA, Tahoe Donner, Tubing | Permalink
Posted by mygrandmasue
MyGrandmaSue 