And just when I thought it was over...

... a new plume of smoke bellowed from the mountainside and blocked out the sun.

A selection of photos from the last 7 days

So my sister and her family came into town for a weeklong visit.  The following photos are just a few that were taken during their week here.

Lake Tahoe: Moie and Alana on the North Rim Trail Hike

Evolution

So, the frogs turned out to be Pacific Tree Frogs and the toads I think are Western Toads.

Another Fire....this one is worse, and a lot closer...

This fire started around 11am I think, its been burning and spreading for over 3 hours.
This fire is visible from our backyard but is thankfully on the south side of I-80, which it
will have to cross before it threatens our house.  The Reno PD and FD have 4th street
blocked west of McCarran and it doesn't look good for structures in that area.  We took
a drive to see how close we could get to the fire....

FIRE

Another fire in the mountains.  This one is much closer.  The planes and helicopters are flying
 over our house and dumping water and fire retardant on the mountainside...

EGG > TADPOLE > POLYWOG > FROG (OR TOAD)

These tads were netted at the park yesterday.  I know there are at least 2 different species here, but
maybe up to 4.  If it is only 2, we have some sort of toad (black ones) and some sort of frog (greenish
ones).  I plan to care for them until they turn into froglets, and then release them from were they came.
I was very surprised to find these tadpoles in a shallow stream that is drying up at a nearby park where
we walk CeCe. Being mostly high desert, I didn't think the ecosystem here could even support
amphibians.  After I gathered them up in a net and brought them home, I noticed there was one dead one.
Within about 15 minutes, the other tadpoles canibalized the dead one.  It was COMPLETELY gone in about
20 minutes...pretty amazing.

Quick Animal Update

Linda took this photo of Meana and Tuna entangled today.
I have never seen them this snuggled before.
Ridiculous, and ridiculously cute at the same time.