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Borrego Springs, CA

Monday, December 29, 2014

Guess what this is

Things aren’t exactly what you would call exciting around here right now, so there hasn’t been much to blog about.  I had one lady show up for my bird tour on Sunday.  Her husband was also supposed to come, but the 33* temps kept him in bed instead.  We had a good time anyway, and as we got out of the vehicle to observe the beaver slide, I found this near the edge of pond #5.

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The bony remains of something.  It looked like a jaw bone to us with back facing ‘teeth’.  Can you guess what it is?

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It wasn’t very big as you can see by this ordinary paper clip next to it.  Being a weekend, no staff or biologists were around for us to ask for their opinion.  Fellow volunteer Linda started investigating on the internet, and was guessing it was the jaw of a reptile.  Another visitor to the VC in the afternoon thought it was the beak of a merganser.  I had no idea, but thought it was too small for a merganser, and I’m not sure that bird’s beaks are actually bones.

Nate, the refuge manager, came in today, took one look at the bones and said it was part of the skeleton of an Asian carp… part of its spine.  A fish bone?  (He’s managed a fish hatchery in his career.)  That was sure a surprise to me, and being a carp, rather disappointing.  I was hoping for something more exotic than a carp.Sad smile

Several people have asked for the recipe for raisin gravy.  It’s quite easy actually.  I score my ham before baking and coat the outside with cloves, ground mustard, and brown sugar.  I put some water in the bottom of the roasting pan, and just bake the ham.  About an hour before the ham is done, I put a couple of handfuls of raisins into the water and drippings in the bottom of the pan.  When the ham is taken out to rest before carving, I boil the drippings (with raisins), mix up some cornstarch with cold water, and whisk everything in the pan on top of the stove until it thickens a bit.  That’s it!  It’s not a thick gravy, but very tasty.

This afternoon as I was working the VC, a gentleman came in.  After other visitors had left, he asked me if I was Emma.  Ha!  I knew by that right away who he was.  He had to be a blog reader, and I just had a feeling that he was Bob of McQ Travels.  I said, “No, my name is Judy, but I have a dog named Emma, and I bet you have two little white dogs.”  He wanted to know how I knew that, and I told him I read his blog. Small world.

I talked him into going on next Sunday’s bird tour so he could try to get some more of his fabulous bird pictures.  I sure hope the weather and the birds cooperate for him next week.

Thanks for stopping by… talk to you later,  Judy

18 comments:

  1. Boy you stumped me with the jaw bone. Love that Bob called you Emma. That's wonderful! Hope the weather is great for your tour next week.

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  2. Nice that you can answer to either, Emma or Judy! At least you know you're "famous" from your blog!

    That jaw bone stumped me, too.

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  3. That made me smile when Bob called you Emma.......I remember when you so graciously told me no you were Judy and Emma was your dog. See you in a few weeks.

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  4. I think the fun was in mystery of what it could be. A several hour wait to finally know what it was. How fun!

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  5. Larry always calls you Emma. I've given up trying to explain it. I'll say something like "did you read Judy's blog today about..." and he'll say "who?" and when I tell him he says "oh, I thought her name was Emma."

    Every. Single. Time. :-)

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  6. We have a real problem with Asian Carp back home in Illinois..and they jump like crazy...even jump INTO people's boats! Problem is they are driving out the fish native to the areas...Could be one of those, but I didn't realize they had migrated West..Go West Young Carp.

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  7. I love seeing the two photos... it looks so vicious in the first one... and the 2nd one shows its real size.... not quite the lethal weapon it appeared to be ;-)

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  8. For the first month or so of reading your blog I thought of you as Emma too. But once I got it straight in my head, I remembered Emma is the dog!

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  9. Same thing happens in our household as in Pam's who commented up above!

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  10. my first thought was of a spine on a catfish but was also surprised by the grand reveal...

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  11. Patches and I have met people that we will see again and most of them can remember her name but not mine. That is understandable however, she is much more outgoing than I am and makes a better impression.

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  12. My imagination was running wild until I read about the carp. Dang the bad luck.

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  13. When I was backpacking on the Appalachian Trail in 1997, I met another hiker who asked me if I was Gypsy. I said yes, and how did you recognize me. She said "Oh, I didn't recognize you but I spotted your dog Smoky."

    I think if would be kind of fun to escort just one visitor on a tour - that is, if the one visitor was truly interested in what they were seeing.

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  14. A man who was parked next to us in Yuma a few years ago asked if we were PHYLLEN. Yup. No idea how he knew. Ain't it lovely to be famous?????

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  15. Emma is famous! The writer is not always as famous! The carp spine had me fooled completely!

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  16. For some reason I have a hard time remember a persons name but I can usually remember their dogs name.
    We call you Emma sometimes too!

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  17. We are more likely to remember the names of the pets, sad to say.

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