Jim Anderson

This is one of those "damned if you, damned if you don't" moments. I'd rather no one knew of what I'm about to share with you, but I know, in my heart-of-hearts, if I don't tell you about this you're going to hear and see it on TV or someone in The Bulletin will put […]

“Hey Jim,” my email read. “How about a Source article describing the nature and intent of winter flies? They come into our houses—fly slow and stupidly and do not feed—and within a day or two, they die. When they keel over, they seem almost completely dehydrated and they actually crumble to dust and body parts […]

This memo recently appeared on thewebsite of the Oregon High Desert Grotto chapter of the National Speleological Society (NSS) — a not for profit organization whose members study, explore and conserve cave and karst resources; protect access to caves; encourage responsible management of caves and their unique environments; and promote responsible caving. There has been […]

Backyard birds, as most everyone throughout our beautiful Oregon Country knows, are a very special part of our lives. Aside from the turkey vultures, jays and robins pooping on motor vehicles, and the woodpeckers that try to pound their way into the house, most of the bird population is welcome near our homes. There are […]

If there’s a greenhouse in your backyard still going, and you’re finding holes in your tomatoes the following may shed some light on what’s going on—if not—save it for next growing season.
“Jim!” My wife, Sue, exclaimed one morning after she opened the greenhouse and starting watering. “There’s something eating holes in our tomatoes!”
Sue enough, when I went to take a look, there was an obvious finger-sized hole in the top of a beautiful green beefsteak tomato growing on the vines we have strung up in the greenhouse; and we began the search for the beast causing it.

“And why do you think that is.

Our elusive folding door spider, and its home.
So there I was last week, walking out the back door of the church in Sisters, and one of the children said, “Look at that spider, Jim!” And I did. Wow, it was something! A big powerful looking brute with massive “jaws” and armed with long black fangs. I shot the picture below (I keep my camera with me at all the times because kids don’t miss a thing) and sent it to my good friend, entomologist Eric Eaton, who knows everything about any thing with six or eight legs that flies, creeps and crawls on the Earth.
Eric immediately responded and said it was in the Family, Antrodiaetidae, (that’s a mouthful, isn’t it?) It comes out as, Antrow-deeah-tee-de-ah, which made it a folding door spider, and that rang a bell.

OK, time to quit complaining about the smoke, the cost, loss of timber, damages to the watershed and Cascades ecosystem, the lost scenic values and all the other negative things about wildfire.
It’s over; it’s done. There ain’t no goin’ back.
As of the end of September, no one seemed to have an idea how the Pole Creek Fire started. However, it is rumored a “warming fire” may be to blame. The first responder apparently found two trees burning. That number jumped to 4, then to 8, etc., etc.

The busy arachnid outside your window is doing good work
This, Oh, Best Beloved, is my favorite time of year—our back yards are full of Charlottes, aka the orb weaver spider. If truth be known, we could not get along as well as we do on this beautiful Old Earth, without all the Charlottes and her relatives that build their silken orbs on our porches, backyards, barns, chicken houses and shrubs.
If you have ever taken the time to inspect Charlotte’s Web, you will discover one does not have to read E. B. White’s beautiful book to see she eats hundreds and hundreds of harmful insects—flies, moths and wasps in particular.