Woodland, California: 

...a very interesting maintenance-of-way train: a truck/crane on a flatcar. Straps, chain binders, blocks of wood everywhere.  Love how the truck's outriggers are blocked up on the deck of the flatcar.  The flatcar itself it is interesting--I think it had (originally) a bulkhead on each end that would have been the same height as the locomotive, SERA 134--which itself is an ex-Santa Fe GP7 loco that was rebuilt by the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe at the locomotive shops in Topeka, Kansas and now has its own distinctive characteristics.  Plenty to geek out on. They were replacing crossties on the old Sacramento Northern trestle over the Yolo bypass.  

...also a neat Southern Pacific-style high-level switch stand.

Alien plants & beaver poop

What look like long, brown alien leaves are actually matted algae that are drying out.
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Alien plants & beaver poop

The beavers have been as busy as, um, beavers--chopping down trees and eating bark. This one looks like it was too big to be dragged away to the dam (damnit!) and was eaten en situ.
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Alien plants & beaver poop

...and this, with all the woodchips in it, may be beaver poop.
Excuse me, beaver scat.
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<Edit: rearranged these last three posts into order. Obviously, it would be better if they threaded into the same post all by themselves, but no. Be sure to check out my blog where I do nothing but complain about Blogger...>

Wide-view of wider river

I just want to share the sweepingness of it all.

Any suggestions on how best to share odd pics like this? It's easy to stitch images from my phone together (like this 180-degree shot), but much harder to display...  

Neither am I pleased with the upload--as the original consisted of several 3MP shots, the resolution was quite high. Not anymore :-/ ...what happened?

hmmmm...

EDIT: here is the link for the original-size picture.  you can right-click "Save Link As..."
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSzAozCQKnynxNL-Kb6J6Y0CB8eQ8RS8ZYgZAK2gYlYPpzJbPZ8qwVQcL0Z5gxGmsltE1d3YbtnWqsPmEZay7VX1wot7Hwq7OvkGjF3Aq7fO8Qb4JhhaHsG00JhkspKeAxEE6WxQE1Ip0/s0/IMG00337-20110325-1820%252520Stitch%252520-%252520Copy.jpg

I like my phone--even if I hardly ever use it as an actual phone.

Honestly, it's amazing that this level of technology is finally mainstream.  I can already tell that I'm a technological throwback because I still like having a qwerty interface with buttons (no matter how small)--but buttons are, like,  so 2008.

Retroactive post!

hmmmm... I haven't posted for a little while.  Quick!--make it look like I've been persistently prolific!

(Blogger>Post Options+Scheduled at retroactive date = better than time travel!)