Hinckley Rodeo

 In July we headed to the Hinckley Rodeo one Friday night. It had been long enough since we had been to a rodeo that Desert Girl couldn't remember the last one (she was a baby at this one). This is a small town rodeo, but it sure had plenty of excitement. The bronc riding featured a couple people we knew, and one of them won!

I'm fairly terrified watching.

They also had some events that weren't scary, like the calf money chase. They duct tape some bills onto some calves, then all the kids chase after them.

And they're off!

Of course the calves don't want to be by all these running kids, so they run away.

But eventually the kids caught up with the calves and pulled the money off.

There were more events like barrel racing and roping, but I just had my phone so didn't get great photos. The night ended with the bull riding. Here's a view from behind the chutes as the riders were getting ready.

 And then they went, trying to stay on for that magical eight seconds. I have to say I'm really glad that our kids have no desire to do this. Having them participate in a kids rodeo  a few years ago let them see more of the reality of a rodeo. Nevertheless, it's fun to go and watch occasionally.

Making Apricot Jam

 We've been blessed with a bounty of apricots this year. In fact, more apricots than we can ever remember getting. We've shared with friends and family, as there are so many that we can't use them all ourselves. We've been trying to preserve them, and the kids have been a major part of that this year. Desert Boy kind of likes it, "because that's what survivalists would do." Desert Girl is okay with it if we can listen to an audiobook while processing.

So far we've dried apricots, frozen apricots, canned apricots (I even bought a steam canner, which I like so much better than my old water bath canner), made apricot nectar, made apricot crisps, and made apricot jam. The kids can now do the canning on their own from start to finish (and will be entering some in the county fair). I figured it was time for them to learn how to make jam.

This year I've been using Ball Low or No Sugar Pectin, and I really like it. The recipe is simple: 8 cups apricots, 1 1/3 cups juice (we use orange juice), 6 Tablespoons pectin. Mix it all, mash it, and boil it.

 Then ladle into prepared (sanitized) jars. The funnel makes it much easier.

Put on lids and rings, then put on the steam canner. When the dial on the lid goes into the green zone, we set the timer for 20 minutes (time is dependent on elevation). 

Here is Desert Boy doing his batch. I had them each do their own batch.

The final product! They learned how to check if the jars sealed properly. They still have to make labels, then they will be ready to eat, give away, and enter in the fair.

The kids seem to enjoy working in the kitchen, and I sure enjoy being in there with them. They've done some nice cookoffs. And now we'll be able to enjoy the taste of apricots for many months!

Snowy Hike to Stella Lake, Great Basin National Park

 On June 23, 2019, we took a family hike to Stella Lake. Even though it was late June, about three-quarters of the trail was covered with snow!

Hiking poles really helped us out.

The aspens only had the tiniest leaves on them. 

This slope nearly has lots of flowers at this time--not this year!

Even with hiking poles we had some falls on the slippery snow.

But the kids did enjoy the snow, especially for an impromptu snowball fight!

Then we arrived at the lake. Some of the surface had melted and refrozen.

 

The kids went to the edge for a photo--and Emma fell through the ice! She flooded her boot and wasn't too happy.

We got a family photo with the snowy scene.

Then my husband and our kids sat down and took a nap!

On the way back, Desert Girl couldn't resist sledding.


I always enjoy these curved aspen trees. The bottoms are curved due to the weight of the snow pushing against them.

Through the tunnel of aspens--except it's not much of a tunnel yet!

 We didn't see many people on the trail, but the parking lot was packed!

Record Backyard Bird Year!

Killdeer

 We've been keeping track of the bird species in our back yard for many years now. For the last five years, we've had a total of 35-36 different bird species seen. That's pretty good, more than most people can get. It certainly helps that we live on a ranch near a creek with good meadow and riparian habitat within view of the house. We also have some nice, tall trees around our house.

This year we started our count on January 1. We started seeing a variety of bird species. In April we realized that we were seeing more than we had in past Aprils, and by early May we reached our 35th species!

May is a month of migration, so we knew we would surpass our record. Especially when we saw unusual birds like this osprey.

 

What a cool bird. They generally like water, as they hunt fish. We have seen them before, but they are not an annual bird.

In May, the American Kestrels returned to our yard. With their loud call, they were easy to find. And not only did we find them, we found a mated pair with a lizard for lunch! They are nesting in one of our trees, and we can't wait to see the young.


Not far from our house is a tiny reservoir. Desert Boy and I went down one day and found this beautiful Black-Necked Stilt. It's not counted on our Backyard Bird list, but I just had to show off this beauty.

As the sun set, the reflections were amazing.


 This photo is a little ways from our house, but it shows behind the red-tailed hawk the very snowy mountains. I think the extra water, plus the kids getting older and being able to identify more birds, very helpful to our elevated number.

Here's a red-tailed hawk in our yard.

My goal is to keep the sidebar list updated (although in doing this post, I found I hadn't been so good at that!). On my phone, I can't see the sidebar list, so here it is, what we've seen in our backyard so far:

1. Common Raven (1.1.19)

2. Black-billed Magpie (1.1.19)

3. Pinyon Jay (1.1.19)

4. Chicken (1.1.19)

5. European Starling (1.1.19)

6. Northern Flicker (1.3.19)

7. Eurasian Collared Dove (1.7.19)

8. Dark-eyed Junco (1.8.19)

9. American Robin (1.8.19)

10. Great Horned Owl (1.9.19)

11. House Sparrow (1.10.19)

12. Bald Eagle (2.17.19)

13. Red-tailed Hawk (3.1.19)

14. Canada Goose (3.2.19)

15. Sandhill Crane (3.4.19)

16. Killdeer (3.24.19)

17. Turkey Vulture (3.24.19)

18. American Kestrel (3.30.19)

19. Western Meadowlark (3.30.19)

20. Pine Siskin (4.8.19)

21. American Goldfinch (4.12.19)

22. Yellow-rumped Warbler (4.14.19)

23. Sharp-shinned Hawk (4.15.19)

24. Great Blue Heron (4.23.19)

25. Barn Swallow (4.27.19)

26. Western Kingbird (4.27.19)

27. Brewer's Blackbird (4.26.19)

28. Yellow Warbler (4.27.19)

29. Mallard (4.27.19)

30. Yellow-headed Blackbird (4.27.19)

31. Rough-winged Swallow (4.27.19)

32. Osprey (5.6.19)

33. Bullock's Oriole (5.2.19)

34. Northern Mockingbird (5.10.19)

35. Hummingbird (4.12.19)

36. Western Wood-Pewee (5.12.19)

37. Thrush (Swainson's or Hermit) (5.12.19)

38. Western Tanager (5.12.19)

39. Western Bluebird (5.12.19)

40. Cattle Egret (5.24.19)

41. Common Nighthawk (6.7.19)

42. Common Poorwill (6.7.19)

43. Long-billed Curlew (6.12.19)

And even though they aren't wild birds, I have to say that our chickens are pretty amazing! Aren't they cute?

I hope your backyard birding is going well too! 

An Underwater Trip through Duckwater Hot Spring, Nevada

 The kids are always delighted when I say, "Let's go to Duckwater!" That's because they love going to the largest geothermal spring in Nevada, Big Warm Spring on Duckwater Shoshone Reservation. It's located about an hour and fifteen minutes southwest of Ely, Nevada. The water is a very pleasant 91-93 degrees Fahrenheit. You can learn lots more about the spring at this previous blog post.

We went in March, and although the air temperatures were chilly, we felt great in the water. We brought an underwater camera. Here's a view of the deepest part, with a hole leading into the bowels of the earth.

And here's Desert Girl, ready to go on an adventure floating downstream from the springhead.

And here's Desert Boy, also ready to go.

Apart from the springhead, most of the water is not particularly deep. There's a sandy bottom to start with, and algae on the sides of the channel. 

 

If you look at the bottom near where the channel starts, you can see little vents where more water is coming up from below.

Desert Girl went with a pool noodle to help on her float, and I have to say it was a nice addition. If you look at the bottom of the photo, you can see where the silty bottom has been stirred up.

Meanwhile, this is what it looks like on the surface. It sure is a different world underwater!

 A bit further on the kids spotted a can at the bottom of a deeper section.

Then it became a challenge to dive down and retrieve the can.

The viewing platform was nearby.

I switched it up for a bit and enjoyed the above water views.

And then it was back to underwater. The algae changed, becoming more filamentous.

It was also obvious that fewer people came this far.

 Cool-looking algae!

Now we were near the USGS stream gauge. 

Approaching from underwater.

Another view of approaching.

 They wanted to continue, so we kept on drifting.

 Another kind of algae.

We were at a diversion.

It looked like we could keep going, so we did!

We wanted to get to the waterfall, but it seemed like it would take forever. 

So we got out and walked back. The elusive waterfall will have to wait for another day!