January

It's been a difficult start of the the year so far. Christian's school had another lock down at his school towards the end of the school day. It's been the third time this school year. One was a live shooter situation. No shots were fired but they did find a kid on campus with a gun. One was a swatting call. This last one was maybe the same but it was weird because people from two schools in the same district were reporting shutdowns at about the same time. We couldn't find anything in the news and everybody seemed to have gotten a different story. Somebody had said that it was something actually going on across from the school at a restaurant. But that didn't explain the other school. Someone said a bomb threat, but why would you lock all the students in the school if there was a bomb threat...talk about stupid. In the end, some people just said it was another swatting call, but they didn't ever seem to have any official story in the end, which is suspicious.

Christian's dad had been in and out of the hospital for some time...he's had many complications since his initial surgery back in July of 2025. He's had strokes, seizures and all kinds of problems. Jackie wasn't really able to care for him and he ended up in an Acute Nursing Facility in November. He was able to return home in December but he wasn't doing well. We were not sure that he was going to make it to the end of the year, but he hung on. The last time we saw him, he was fading away and in pain most of the time. He didn't make it through the week. His wife wanted to wait to bury him on Valentine's Day for some reason.

While all this was going on with Christian's dad, his mom had knee replacement surgery. Aron had spent a week up there helping her out. Her cousin helped the week after that. As she was recovering, she had been dealing with a lot of abdominal pain. Aron made her go back to the hospital and ended up getting emergency gall bladder surgery...which is what Terry had at the beginning of all this mess.

The last weekend of the month, we were scheduled to go see my mom for her birthday. We ended up keeping that appointment since my sister was expected in town and Christian and I would not be available later anyway. Wendy wanted to go out to the park, so we planned a picnic. I looked for a park that we could go to that we could also do some birding. There were a couple of little parks nearby but with very little parking. Christian and I went out early to do our birding while we waited for the rest of the family to arrive.

We arrived to the first park and there was no parking at all. We called the rest of the family to let them know what was going on while we investigated the second park. That one was packed as well. We ended up just meeting them at a local park down the street from my mom. There were only a few parking spots there as well. Apparently all the Chinese gather there to do their exercises like the old Auntie's back in China. They clogged up most of the little park. By the time the rest of my family got there, there were some more parking spaces available since one of the exercise groups had just finished up. There wasn't much to do there but we tried to make the best of it.

None of the grandkids were available except for Christopher. He set up some new toys he brought, so that was kind of fun. It was pretty hot out.

Afterwards, on our way home, we ran into bumper to bumper traffic. So we got back off and decided to go look at the first park again, thinking that we could take a look around and get out of the traffic, but it was even more crowded than it was in the morning. We ended up just getting back on the road further down the way and headed home. 

We are finding it very difficult to find anywhere to go anymore. There are just too many people out and about everywhere. It is pretty miserable.

In Memoriam

On Thursday, January 29, 2026, Terry Vaughn Caldwell (78 years old), passed away after enduring a series of various health issues and complications.

He was born April 24, 1947, in Tooele, Utah. His father, Robert Denzil Caldwell was a cattle rancher, and his mother, Nora Mae Oakey was a housewife and sometimes schoolteacher. The family moved to the Bitterroot Valley (Corvallis, Montana) with their cattle as a young boy, where he graduated from Corvallis High School in 1965.

Upon graduation, he joined the US Air Force during the Vietnam War and was sent from his home in Montana, to serve at George Air Force Base in Victorville, California for 4 years.

He trucked hay for various farmers while attending the University of California Davis among other jobs. He married Cheri Ann Lenhert in 1970. In that same year, while working in a mine, he was blown up one month before his first child, Toni Ann, was born. This led to a long recovery and eventually a poor outcome from a prolonged surgery this last summer.

After graduating from University of California Davis with a Bachelor's Degree in Chemistry in 1975, he began a 36-year career as a forensic chemist working for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Terry was a life-long member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Terry’s testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was enduring, and he knew the scriptures and the Gospel well. He served the Lord in many ways including many years as a Finance Clerk. He taught his children at home with weekly family meetings and how to study the scriptures. He also instilled in his children to serve others, an appreciation for good music, good books, an honest hard day’s work, and that an education was important, but that you probably will not get it at school. Terry was a man of strong opinions, a man of many words, and he spoke with passion about things he cared about.

He found joy and pain in politics, family history, listening to music, playing the guitar and singing, good books and poetry, guns, surfing, and studying the scriptures. He is even published. After his retirement from the DEA, he wrote a book called “Chasing the Dragon.”

He married Cheri Ann Lenhert in 1970. They had 5 children (Toni, Christian, Aron, Mark and Garth). He later married two more times. Always the optimist, he didn't exactly have the best judgement in women.

Terry leaves behind his third wife of 21 years, Jacqueline Briscoe, his children from his first wife Cheri Lenhert: Toni Cantrell (Pierson), Christian Caldwell (Wileen), Aron Hafen (Kraig), daughter-in-law Danielle Sones Caldwell (Mark), thirteen grandchildren and fourteen great-grandchildren, and his sister Linda (Thomas) Caldwell-Mitchell.

He was preceded in death by two of his sons, Garth Caldwell, and Mark Caldwell, sister Carol Caldwell, his brother Tony Caldwell, and sister Anne Campbell. Terry Caldwell wanted to be remembered for loving the Lord, doing his duty at church as best as he could, and wanting to keep his family on straight and narrow path.

Funeral services will be held on February 14th at 10:30 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day-Saints located at 527 9th St. Ramona, California.

Ramona Grasslands

Towards the end of the month, we went for a visit with Christian's dad. He was going to be busy in the late morning and we didn't want him to change his schedule. His wife hired a companion to take him out for a walk and chat with him. We decided to head over to the Ramona Grasslands to do some birding beforehand. This was basically Christian's backyard during most of his childhood in Ramona while they were building their house. This was also before this was even made into a Preserve.

The place seemed fairly crowded but since we needed to kill some time, we proceeded into the Preserve.

The place was beautiful, but the peace was definitely broken up by a steady stream of loud mouthed idiots. Talking, yelling, gossiping at the top of their lungs, oblivious to their surroundings. I wish these people would take their walks in the mall or at least some normal public park, as it would be more fitting. There was even a drugged out weirdo talking to himself as he plodded down the trail.

The place was certainly beautiful but difficult to enjoy with the constant interruptions. We found one spot that was just teaming of all manner of animals. It was really neat. The most abundant bird in the park seemed to be the Acorn Woodpeckers. There seemed to be a whole flock of them there. The most elusive was the Western Meadowlarks. You could hear them, but they were pretty difficult to capture. We did get a few pictures of them but by in large, most were nearly invisible.

By the time we finally got a little more comfortable there and found a side trail that was a little less crowded, we discovered that it was getting late and we had to make our way back out for our visit with Terry.

We did not have a very productive visit. Terry was barely conscious most of the time. We spoke to him on and off briefly, tried to make him comfortable. He is practically skin and bones at this point. Christian just tried to talk to him so that he can hear his voice but Jackie kept prattled on half the time asking Terry inane questions over and over and not listening enough to hear his answers. We hoped that she would have taken the opportunity to go do something else while we sat with Terry but she never did. She had only left momentarily in the very beginning but we had to call her back because Terry wanted to sit up and we didn't know how to move him without hurting him.

At some point, Terry seemed to just want to sleep, so we left him to it. They had wanted us to take his Trooper away but they didn't have any of the paperwork to go with it and we didn't want to take it without being able to do anything with it and so we left it there.

It was just a very frustrating and heartbreaking situation. His decline over this past year has been crazy. I feel that most of his health issues were exacerbated by lack of proper care starting with his heart problems during the pandemic. At this point, we know that he does not have much longer on this earth.

San Joachin Marsh

One weekend, we decided to go in search of shorebirds and decided to go to the Bolsa Chica Ecological Preserve. Unfortunately, when we got there, there was no parking. There are two parking lots and both were not just filled but double parked. We didn't know what was going on. They must have been having some event that we were not aware of. We tried to search for access at some of the other marshes along the beach without much luck. The beaches were packed as well as we were having more summer like weather.

We ended up back at the San Joachin Marsh, otherwise we might have just had to turn around and go home. 

We did not spend quite as much time at the first pool this time and managed to get through more of the Sanctuary. We found five more lifers along the way.

We brought our lunch but we had left it in the car. At some point, we were hungry and thirsty and was working our way back to the car, but we kept getting distracted with some bird or other so it took quite some time for us to actually make it back to the car.

San Jacinto Wildlife Area

While Christian was still on his break, we decided to go back to the San Jacinto Wildlife Area. When we got there, we found out that it was "technically" closed for hunting. Apparently, they are closed both on Wednesdays and Saturdays for hunting and fishing. The last time we went was on a Saturday afternoon. We did hear gunshots but we thought that the hunting area was in a different section near the gun club only. Apparently not as the place was swarming with hunters in camo.

No one seemed to mind that we were there and since we drove all the way out there, we decided to take a quick look around and see the lay of the land. We stayed on the driving trail and drove through past where we were last time, looking for the lake access. We saw groups of hunters walking around or setting up their blinds. We saw a few birds here and there and mostly stayed in the car to snap a few pictures but we did get out at the first pond when we were done to walk a bit as there were no hunters in this area.

So, despite not staying long and not really being able to get out of the car most of the time, we still managed to get some nice pictures and collected four lifers to boot! One day, we need to make it out here on a day that is not for hunting!

San Joachin Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary

After several days trying to recover from the drive back from Idaho and possibly fighting off sickness once again, we decided to get out for a bit to get some pictures, fresh air and sunshine. We headed out to the San Joachin Marsh and Wildlife Sanctuary in Orange County. It is actually a water treatment plant. 

There were a lot of different birds here. We spent a lot of time chasing some of the smaller birds in through trees and bushes with varying success. We only really took pictures into one of the ponds although we peeked into two others. They were mostly surrounded by a lot of reeds and there were not a ton of birds in them.

There were quite a few people going up and down the trails...which was pretty irritating since the birds are already skittish and the people were not quietly walking and enjoying what the preserve offers but using it as their local park to play or jog through...which scared the birds away.

The pond we spent a lot of time at was not quite quiet and serene either as big groups of people came through together. I don't know if it was like a tour bus or what but it took them some time to get through our area. Some seemed to be birders so they at least seemed to be quieter and more respectful of their surroundings that the riffraff at Whitewater. 

The shorebirds and the Red-tailed Hawk were not really disturbed by the people going through though. We didn't want to stay out there too long though and get caught up in the afternoon traffic of people returning home from work, so we cut the day somewhat short. We only managed to see a fraction of the place, so we will definitely be back.

We started our birding journey in the last quarter of this year, after getting my long telephoto lens for my birthday. We had collected a few bird pictures throughout the years here and there as part of the nature photography we enjoyed. After compiling and sorting through all our pictures, we have nearly a hundred and thirty birds on our life list!

Idamaho

Shortly before Christmas, we made the long and painful drive up to Idaho to see the girls. Since the gas is much more reasonably priced outside of the state, we did not drive below the speed limit at a crawl to save as much gas as possible as we have done in the past. We just don't have the stamina for it anymore. We don't bother stopping for fast food. It's all crap now and expensive to boot.

We made it up to Idaho in record time. The girls made us dinner while we got unpacked and settled in. Luckily, all the roommates went home for the holidays and we were able to be a little more comfortable hanging out at their apartment with them. 

They did get their Christmas presents early this year so there were no gifts to open except for their stockings.

They still got to open early. One, because we didn't want to wait...and two, because we thought they could use some of it while we were there.

On top of this, Caitlyn got a new upgrade to her camera once again because Christian moved up to a mirrorless camera for his Birthday/Christmas present. Emily got his old zoom lens.

And since the girls didn't have any other ideas or plans of what to do, we took them birding the next day! We got a later start than we had intended so we stayed close to home and checked out a neighborhood Nature Park first.

It wasn't really big and there wasn't a ton to do there but we still managed to get several more lifers none-the-less. Next, we headed out to Egin Lake. It's a seasonal lake. It is currently dry. It was kind of windy and cold, so there wasn't much to find. Plus there were a ton of people on the OHV trails making a racket nearby. We only found some American Robins and European Starlings in the trees. We left when it started raining a bit.

We decided to call it a day and head home to grab a late lunch. Afterwards, Christian took a quick nap while the girls and I headed to the market to prepare for Christmas and the next few days of our visit. We made some Winter Solstice Soup for dinner. 

On Christmas morning, we walked around the campus to see what kinds of birds we could find in the gardens there.

We also got a few other animals while we were out. Mostly some fox squirrels which are a lot cuter than the ones we see around here. My favorite birds were the Black-capped Chickadees. I was ecstatic to get another chance of photographing them. We originally got them at the Nature Park but was not completely happy with the results of my efforts.

The problem is that the cutest birds are the smallest and either shyest or just won't ever sit still for a moment. They flit around tirelessly and are so hard to capture. Not only are they always on the move, but they move in and out of the shadows and spend much of their time in the thickest trees/bushes that make it difficult to capture, much less focus on.

Afterwards, we went home to work on other things. The girls cut down and decorated their own personal Christmas trees :)

We had picked up a rib roast for dinner. We made some cinnamon rolls as well for dessert. Afterwards, we decided to get some fresh air and walk around a bit after our big heavy meal and decided to go look for some Christmas lights to practice using our cameras with. We started with just going down the main street in town.

There were too many people lurking around still and most of the interactions we've had with people in Idaho has not been very good. We've decided that Idaho drivers are even worse than those from Utah, if you can believe that. We decided to go back and finish up on campus where it is at least a bit quieter.

When we finally got back to the girls' apartment. We were ready for dessert.

There was still no snow to be had. It has been raining on and off during our visit so far. The next day was a bit darker and cloudier than it has been so we were much more likely to get more rain that day. We decided to risk it and go out anyway to see if we can get lucky and get a pocket of dry weather. We went to check out Mud Lake. It is supposed to be a decent place to go birding. We could not find ready access to the lake where we could definitely see birds. We drove around a bit but it was a bit wet out. We finally pulled over to a spot where we thought we could access the lake but the initial departure from the road was steep and slippery/muddy. Christian and I ran out to see what we could discover. Emily was driving and Caitlyn was really cold for some reason. 

The place had definite promise, but it started raining again before we could even get to the lake and the birds took off flying. Apparently, while we were gone, Emily decided to follow us but before she got too far, she already saw the gigantic flocks of Tundra Swan taking off and decided to just go back to the car since it started raining again. I think we would like to attempt it again if we go back up at a different time of year.

Emily didn't sleep very well the night before so she took a nap after lunch. I trimmed Caitlyn's hair as she had cut it on her own while she's been away and she wasn't entirely happy with the shape of it. After which, Christian and Caitlyn went to run some errands and I took the opportunity to shower after cleaning up and puttering around in the kitchen. I finally got Emily up after a while and we made some Chex Mix. Emily had also started a boule of sourdough bread. She's been making no-knead bread lately and we brought her some sourdough starter to see if she liked that. All her roommates have been ecstatic to help polish off all her fresh baked bread.

By the time we finished dinner, I was pretty wiped out and ended up going to bed early. Everyone else has been taking naps on and off during the visit except me and I think I just needed to crash at some point. Christian was helping Caitlyn back-up her computer files and Emily was working on Dark Table. She was waiting to put her bread in the oven as it was going a little slower since it was a little colder that night. I was a little upset to have had to cut the evening short as it was going to be our last evening there, but I was too tired to do anything.

The next morning, we got an early start as we were headed home and it would be a very long drive. We brought camping gear in case we wanted to stop along the way, but the weather was not going to cooperate. We got a few pieces of Emily's bread for the road. We would be lucky if we can get out of Idaho before the roads got icy. In fact, we hit snow by the time we got to Pocatello along with a horrible head wind. That was probably the worst of the weather. We hit patches of light snow and rain, along with cloudy patches with even a few patches of sun on and off through Idaho and Utah. We evidently just missed some heavier weather patterns in some areas. 

Traffic mostly flowed until we got outside of Las Vegas. At that point, it turned into a nightmare. The 15 freeway became a parking lot. The first obstacle was a semi-truck that evidently hit the middle divider and flipped itself over on the other side. We started moving a bit after that but not for long. After many miles of stop and go traffic mostly due to the moronic drivers in the passing lane going slower than the people on the slower lanes or going at the exact same speed as everyone else making it impossible to get by, we couldn't take it any more and decided to get off the freeway and take some of the smaller roads through the desert. It would take us down a longer route, but at least we would be moving and less aggravated. Needless to say, it took many hours more to get home than to drive to Idaho in the first place.