SLOweather

Today’s moon is 10 days old and rises at 2:25 PM PST. It will be fairly high in the sky after sunset, and at 67%, it should lend a bit of light to tonight’s Trick or Treat activities, although the temperature will be cool, probably in the 50s. Today’s NWS forecast high is only 62, with partly cloudy skies for this afternoon and early evening.

Up at dawn today…

and up to Cuesta Ridge to see the sites.

Toyon Berries and Morro Rock…

A patrol line of quail…

Leather Oak (Quercus Durata) and acorn

Tassajera Canyon, looking east from Tassajera Peak…

High voltage tower and valley fog…

Daylight Saving Time ends Sunday morning at 2AM. Don’t forget to set your clocks and watches back.

Due to the high temperatures, low humidities, and winds, Red Flag warnings from the National Weather Service extend from north of the Bay Area to the Mexican border today.

Then, tonight, SLO County’s interior valleys and the Cuyama Valley have their first freeze warning of the season, for predicted low temperatures of 26 -30 degrees F.

This is interesting…

I was cruising CNN.com tonight, and, under Business 2.0, clicked on a link for the “Top 10 cities: Where to buy now”

The only location listed in the Southwest is 6. San Luis Obispo, CA

“SLO-Town, as the locals call it, is on the development fast track. It’s in the middle of the last semi-rural stretch of central California coastline, and it’s also home to the state’s rising star of wine production, Paso Robles, where even French vintners are buying property.

“The Median home price in Paso Robles has shot up by more than 100% since 2000. And according to local developer Peter Laughlin, commercial land has skyrocketed from $3 to $20 a square foot since 2001.

“Yet the natural amenities, proximity to Southern California, and relatively low prices support forecasts of a continuing surge. Thousands of retirement-age boomers, it’s said, will sell their SoCal homes for cheaper digs in SLO. Anti-development sentiment also helps. “They’re not zoning quickly enough for the demand,” Laughlin says. “Either they have to allow more homes or prices will go through the roof.”

“CAUTION: Prices are already getting ahead of job and income growth.”

Most of the other cites are in the south; Florida (3), Georgia, Texas and North Carolina.

On the other hand, the break down of the 10 Where Not To Buy cities was also pretty interesting:

1. Stockton
2. Merced
4. Fresno
5. Vallejo/Fairfield, CA
7. Bakersfield, CA
8. Sacramento, CA

3 more of the top 10 “Where Not To Buy”s are still in the southwest:

3. Reno/Sparks, NV
6. Las Vegas, NV
10. Tucson, AZ

We were up before dawn this morning. It was foggy out, and this birdhouse on a fence post was backlit by a street light. I shot this with a digital camera with an LCD view finder, so it was pretty hard to locate the image and I wasn’t sure if the focus would be OK. The exposure was a half-second, so I braced the camera against the door frame.

Here’s the same picture after being run through Paint Shop Pro’s One Step Photo Fix…

It’s interesting to see how the character of the picture changed with a little manipulation.

I went to the site and reset the camera this afternoon, and it’s working again. It looks as if the cams are due for a little TLC and cleaning. There are spiderwebs in front of the enclosure windows. I’m going to try to get that done before the rains starts.

It looks like the main SLOweather cam needs to be rebooted. I’ll try to get up to the hilltop in the next day or two to reset it.

Yesterday, I decided to go for a walk around our 10 acres. It turned out to be an interesting excursion.

I gathered acorns for sprouting and planting, and took pictures of the fall season.

Honeysuckle berries…

the coyote bush in bloom…

and a California fuchsia in bloom…

Down in creek bottom in the woods, I was startled by a mule deer carcass. It was already mostly stripped. After I left the woods, I walked the fenceline along the lower road. At the far end, by the woodpile, I heard singing. There was a man down the road a bit, a little beyond our fence corner, singing Amazing Grace. When a walker or biker would pass, he’d stop and greet them, and then pick up with the lyrics again where he left off.

Today, Katie and I went down to the campsite for a Sunday afternoon of wine and a fire. While we were there, the deer carcass attracted a turkey vulture or buzzard. It was fascinating to watch him check us out as he approached the feast. It took him (or her) a good 15 minutes to cover the last 75 feet as he slowly moved from the treetops down through the branches to ground level to dine.

NOAA has released their Dec-Feb 2006 winter outlook. In short, we have equal chances of cooler, normal, or warmer temperatures:

and a greater than 33% chance of a wetter winter:

Chalk it up to El Nino.