Desert Boy's First 5K

 We had a great time at the Snake Valley Festival this past weekend. One of the events is the Snake Valley Slither, a 5K trail run/walk. Desert Boy decided he really wanted to do it. I wasn't so sure, as his longest race to date has been a 1 miler. But he seemed sure of himself, so I decided to let him give it a try.

He knew not to go too fast at the beginning, and he listened, doing a slow jog on gravel roads. Then we got to the trail section of the run.

 He ran short stretches, but walked quite a bit.

 He figured we had already passed the first mile back on the gravel roads (a little warning went off in my mind!). It was a bit later till we got to this really cute mile marker sign. Then everything started falling apart. His feet hurt (it didn't help that he had left his shoes out in the middle of the water fight field the day before and they were still wet!), then his legs hurt, then he asked what he got if he finished, and then he asked if someone came around to collect people who couldn't finish. Uh oh.

I encouraged him that soon we would be at the aid station and he could get a nice big drink. The last walkers caught up to us, and that was a good thing, as we could all talk together and Desert Boy was a bit more distracted.

Then we came into view of the aid station, and Desert Boy perked up. He got even happier when his friend Evan said he would walk the rest of the way with him. Suddenly it wasn't quite such a long race!

 It's always more fun to run and walk with friends!

An hour or so after he started, Desert Boy made it across the finish line. He had done it!

He got to have a smoothie as a treat. (The post-race smoothie and frappucino stand was awesome!)

The finishers and helpers. What a great way to start the morning!

And for Desert Boy, since he had done so well, he got to go to a friend's house for a few hours, making all post-race pains go away.

A Sunday Picnic

We wanted to get out of the house on the weekend, so we decided for a little picnic. Once we found our spot, we settled in. And Desert Girl made faces. She's good at those.

Desert Boy was quite contented with carving sticks with his pocket knife. He's managed to nick his fingers a few times, but overall he's been doing well with the knife.

One of the fun parts of picnics is eating foods we don't normally eat. The kids love Go-Go Squeezs, but I cringe at all the extra packaging that is thrown away. Fortunately, some enterprising companies have made refillable squeeze containers, and on Ebay I was able to get ten new ones for about $15.

After we ate, it was time for a nap. At least that's what we parents thought!

 The kids had some other ideas in mind. Eventually we told them to go climb the trees. Or something like that. Whatever we said, the next thing we knew, they were actually in the trees.

 Up, up and away!

 Desert Boy figured out how to slide down the smooth white aspen bark. It was a rather fun diversion and he did it several times.

Of course if her big brother does it, Desert Girl has to give it a try! (Even if she is wearing sparkly red dancing shoes.)

Sometimes I wonder if the picnics and hikes are worth all the effort. It's a lot of work to pack up and then clean up afterwards. But when we're in the great outdoors, something memorable usually happens, like the tree climbing on this trip. I think that makes it worth it, even if I have to go home and take a nap afterwards!

An Evening of Simple Adventures

 The other evening my husband had a meeting, so I decided that after dinner the kids and I would go for an adventure walk. The kids love adventure walks, especially when they get to choose where we go. Of course they headed to the water. It was too cold to swim, but we could try to cross the first ditch. Desert Girl, in her sparkly red shoes, decided to do it all by herself. She mostly succeeded.

 On the other side we found our next adventure, a log for balancing. It's so nice that simple things give so much pleasure!

 Next it was Desert Boy's happy moment: jumping across the creek (with an airplane magazine in hand). He backed up, took a deep breath, ran, and launched. He made it!

 We wandered under an ash tree and I couldn't help but notice that the leaves were just starting to unfold.

 They made for an interesting contrast of the newer, denser, greener leaves and the slightly older, less green background. Making this little discovery made me relax and enjoy the evening even more. I find that I am always on the quest to learn something new, and even if it's something as small as learning how ash tree leaves unfold, it makes me feel fulfilled.

 Speaking of trees, Desert Boy found one he could climb.

 And of course if Desert Boy did it, Desert Girl had to also. They played on the tree for a long time. The sun had dipped far below the mountains and it was time to head home.

 But first we had to throw in a few more leaps across another ditch, including one that didn't go quite as planned. But alas, only one leg was wet, so all was fine.

I'm hoping for lots more adventure walks (and jumps!) this summer.

What kind of simple adventures do you like to have?

Desert Destination: Death Valley--Golden Canyon & Salt Creek

 Our Death Valley adventure continued after Badwater with a jaunt to Golden Canyon. This is one of the easiest canyons to hike, so I thought it would be perfect for the kids. But it turned out I had a rather whiny kid who did not want to hike, no matter what. I tried to distract him by pointing out the pavement--a road used to go up Golden Canyon, but a flash flood in 1976 that dumped over two inches of rain undermined the road and washed most of it out. That distraction lasted all of about 2.3 seconds.

 I noticed some people duck into a side canyon ahead of us, and we took their cue. It was really cool, and Desert Girl and I had so much fun going up the narrow passage. Mr. Whiny? He hung out near the entrance, pouting.

 Next we found a little cave under some boulders, which I checked out to look for snakes--it would be a perfect place for them to escape the heat. When I didn't see any, I let the kids go in. Desert Girl was up for the challenge, but not Desert Boy.

 Finally I found something that really distracted him--a climbing wall. Here the sedimentary layers have been steeply tilted, making for some fun, but crumbly scrambling.

That distraction changed Desert Boy's attitude. He was now ready to have some fun, so we played the shadow game, trying to stay in the shade of the canyon. If we ran out of shade, we would try to get to the next bit of shade in ten seconds or we would melt. It was a good game and got us up to a part of the canyon that was rather straight and wide and didn't look so interesting. We decided this would be a good place to turn around. But first--one more side trip into a side canyon.

 The canyon was narrow enough we could touch both walls at the same time.

 It had some fun climbing obstacles (and the dry waterfall in the photo above wasn't quite as steep as the photo makes it look!).

 Finally we got to a place where it was a little too tough for us to continue. (Plus we had run out of bandaids.) So we took some photos and headed back down, enjoying a game of hide 'n seek along the way. My advice for Golden Canyon? It's one of the most popular hikes in Death Valley because it's so easy to get to and not too difficult. If you want to get away from the crowds, just slip into one of the many side canyons--they are fun and you don't know what you will find!

By the time we finished, it was time for lunch and swimming. I was lucky in that some teenage girls who had been lounging around the pool for a week were ready for a distraction and played with the kids for a long time. They even taught Desert Boy how to dive. It was great, and I appreciated some relaxation time.

 In the late afternoon we went to Salt Creek to look at the pupfish. Spring is mating time, and we saw thousands of pupfish in the creek. The kids thought it was really cool.

 Desert Boy shows with his fingers how big the fish are.

 A blurry, colorful pupfish. It is so amazing that this fish can survive in such a harsh locale. In fact, thinking about the huge lake, Lake Manly, that used to fill Death Valley and that had many fish species in it, kind of blows my mind.

Salt Creek was an excellent late afternoon stop. Then it was back to our campsite for some more relaxing. We went to bed early, as we wanted to get up early the next morning to pack up and see the sand dunes on our way across Death Valley.

A Little Archery Practice

 With the warmer weather, it's certainly easier to get outside more often. Desert Boy wanted to go out and practice with his bow and arrows that he got for Christmas. He had made his own target.

Ready...

 ...aim...

 ...fire! He did quite well and challenged me to a little competition. I stood farther away and was challenged! I need to practice more.

 Desert Boy really wants to be able to shoot the birds. We have a lot of non-native European starlings and Eurasian collared doves around our house, so if he does shoot them, that would be a good thing. And the collared doves are big enough to eat! I don't think we'll be cooking up anything real soon.

 He's determined to be good, though. He needs to spend some time with his Uncle Matt!

 Desert Girl wanted to try. We quickly she figured out she wasn't quite big enough, but she was a good helper retrieving arrows.

 What good kids! (When they aren't fighting :)

The next challenge was to climb a tree. I told Desert Boy I didn't think it was such a good idea, especially in cowboy boots, but he decided to go for it anyway. I was anticipating some tree rash, wails,  and bandaids.

He made it up fairly high, but bark really isn't the best climbing material.

 So he made a wise decision and jumped off.

The third outside activity took place while I went into the house for a few minutes. Desert Boy found a rope, tied his sister's hands together, threw the other end of the rope over a branch, and then started pulling on it in an attempt to get her up into the tree. I was glued to the window and didn't have my camera handy, so unfortunately didn't get any photos of this experiential learning. Again, I was waiting for loud cries, but in less than a minute it became apparent to Desert Boy that he just wasn't going to be able to pull his sister up in the tree (he only weighs about 5 more pounds than she does). She was quick to get the rope off her wrists and go off to do something by herself. I think they both learned a lot from that little experiment. I will be sure not to teach Desert Boy how to use pulleys and mechanical advantage--we do have enough equipment around here that he could get his sister into the tree by himself!

Hurray for outside time!

Four Eggxperiments

I've recently learned about Pinterest and set up a Desert Survivor Pinterest account that has lots of things from this blog and other blogs. One of the things I like about it is that I can get ideas for healthy recipes and kids' science experiments easily. I found one post that had 10 egg experiments and clicked through to the website. I also looked around at some other websites to get additional ideas. In the end, we decided to do four egg experiments (Desert Boy called them eggxperiments) yesterday. This is a long post. But it's fun!

Eggxperiment #1: Stand on eggs
Hypothesis: Standing on raw eggs will crush them and make a huge mess
(Desert Boy was even getting cleaning supplies ready before we began. He totally didn't think this would work.) Idea from this website.


Eggs are strong, but are they that strong? We decided to find out.

Desert Boy thought I was crazy when I told him to step on the eggs.

Step 1: Get raw eggs. I thought we had a lot, but it turned out we only had part of a carton. Oh well, my kids have little feet.

Step 2: Try to make sure all the eggs are about the same height.

Step 3: Have your test subject put a foot lightly on the eggs.

Step 4: Transfer weight to the eggs. See what happens!


The eggs didn't break.
Desert Girl wanted to give it a try too.

The eggs didn't break under her weight either. (Do you like her backpack? She likes to pretend she's in school.)

So if you have enough eggs, the eggshells are strong enough to support your weight (at least if you weigh 40 pounds or less). But what about just one egg? Is it strong enough to support 40 pounds? We decided to give it a try.

We were all a little nervous about this one.

But, as it turned out, the egg didn't break! We may have to try this again next year to see if a few extra pounds make a difference. For now, though, we had to reject our hypothesis. Standing on eggs did not break them and make a huge mess (for which I was quite grateful).

So why didn't the eggs break? Eggs are natural examples of arches, one of the strongest forms in nature and in modern architecture. The arch distributes the compressive forces, which means that the weight is spread out and not focused in one spot.


Eggxperiment #2: Break a raw egg with your hands
Hypothesis: With bare hands, it will be possible to squeeze an egg so hard that it breaks.

Kids like making messes, so these eggxperiments trying to make messes are extra fun. For this one, we wanted to break an egg with our hands.

Step 1: Put a raw egg into a Ziploc bag (or put cling wrap all around it). Make sure the egg doesn't have any cracks in it.

Step 2: Squeeze the egg as hard as you can.

Desert Boy is trying really, really hard to break it!

It's still not breaking!

Desert Girl wanted a try, too. She couldn't break it either.

So how about some teamwork?

Even with double the power, they still couldn't break the egg.

Is the Ziploc bag creating some magical field? Hmm, we can take it off and try breaking it over the sink.

Once again, we couldn't get the egg to break. So we'll reject this hypothesis too. With bare hands, we weren't able to squeeze an egg so hard that it would break.

Again, the arch shape of the eggshell is providing strength. A chicken eggshell is made of 95-97% calcium carbonate supported by a protein matrix. The older the hen laying the egg, the weaker the eggshell. But it's still stronger than you might think!


Eggxperiment #3: Make an egg float
Hypothesis: If we add enough salt to water, it will make an egg float.

One way to have a floating egg is to have an old egg. If an egg is older than 4 weeks old, it is more likely to float because the eggshell is somewhat porous and the water vapor and gases slowly leave the eggshell.

But how can you make a fresh egg float? It's all about density. Is it easier to float in fresh water or the ocean (or Great Salt Lake)? Desert Boy remembered that it was easier to float in the ocean, because it has salt in it. So we wanted to make the egg float by adding salt.

Step 1: Put a raw egg in a bowl of water. Watch it sink to the bottom.

Step 2: Start adding salt.

Step 3: Stir in salt. (I realized after we started that if I had used warm water, the salt would dissolve faster).

Step 4: Keep adding salt (we had to add about 6 Tablespoons).

Finally, the egg floats! We didn't have to reject this hypothesis. Our experiment turned out how we expected.

If I had to do this again, I would use a narrower, taller glass container and pour the salt in faster (maybe a quarter cup at the beginning to get things going), plus use warm water.


Eggxperiment #4: Squeeze a hard-boiled egg into a bottle without pushing it with our hands
Hypothesis: No way! We will not be able to fit an egg into a bottle with a mouth that is narrower than the egg

We saved the best eggxperiment for last. Could we get a hard-boiled egg into a bottle that had a neck narrower than the egg? Desert Boy doesn't think so.

Step 1: Get a bottle with a neck just slightly narrower than your hardboiled egg. (We used a plastic bottle, but all other instructions I've seen say a glass bottle).

Step 2: Put a little oil around the rim of the bottle.

Step 3: Light two matches and put into bottle.

Step 4: Put a peeled hard-boiled egg immediately on top of bottle.

We made a video of our first attempt:

It didn't work! I feel it's important to share that we don't always have success with our science experiments. Should you give up if it doesn't work? No way! We thought about what happened--the matches went out. Maybe we needed something that burned better. So we revised step 3.

New Step 3: Light a strip of paper on fire and place in bottle.

Here are our results:

Hurray, it worked! In fact, it was quite impressive how fast that hard boiled egg was sucked into the bottle. Some of the egg white even sheared off. (Did you see that in the video? If not, watch again, it's cool.)

So why does this happen? Air pressure is the short answer (and the one Desert Boy remembers). The longer version is that when you heat a gas, it expands. The air in the bottle is expanding with the lit paper and matches, and some of that escapes past the egg sitting on the top. Once the fire is out, the air cools. Because some of the air molecules had escaped the bottle, there are fewer to occupy the same space, creating a small vacuum. The outside air pressure is stronger, and it pushes that egg into the bottle.

I'm guessing with just the two matches we didn't have enough air molecules leave the bottle, thus the vacuum wasn't strong enough to pull the egg into the bottle. With the more flammable paper, more air was displaced. Did you notice that the egg didn't start moving till the flame was out? (I didn't at first, I had to watch it again!)

So we rejected our hypothesis. We really could get an egg into a bottle with a narrower neck.

Well, that was so much fun that we had to try a little twist on it, which I found in Naked Eggs and Flying Potatoes: Unforgettable Experiments That Make Science Fun (Steve Spangler Science). This time we put two birthday candles on the top of an egg, lit them, and put the bottle on top. We tried to suck the egg up into the bottle.

Alas, that didn't work. We tried three times. The egg went partially into the bottle, but not all the way. I'm not sure if it's because this hard-boiled egg was slightly rounder, or if it's because we live over a mile above sea level and the air molecules aren't as dense here, or if it's something else entirely. We'll be trying this again another day.

So what do you do with the hardboiled egg? Make a bunny! (See this pictorial to learn how.)

Now we have a connection between bunnies and eggs.

Have fun with your eggs! (Coming soon--how to dye your hard-boiled eggs with homemade, non-toxic dyes).

Have any other eggxperiments we should try?