A Change in View

We don't see a lot of water out in the desert, so when we do find it, it really catches our eye. Here's a peaceful stream on the valley bottom, meandering through the sagebrush and meadows. This is how I usually see this stream, a small section at a time. But once in awhile, I have the opportunity to go up in a small airplane and see things from a different perspective.

Here's part of the same stream from the air. Now I can see that it meanders much more than it looked like from the ground. I love looking at meandering streams, thinking about how the water moves one way and then the next.

From a bit further away, you can see that this is quite an extensive stream complex. Some of the water helps feed wet meadows. Those little black dots are cows grazing on the meadows. We're too far away to see the many birds that also use the meadows, like Great Blue Herons, Mallards, Long-billed Curlews, Killdeer, and Egrets.

Finally we can see a tree along the stream. It's a Russian olive tree, which is nonnative, but nevertheless it sure breaks up the scenery. It appears that the natural riparian (streamside) vegetation for this stream is small plants. No saplings are growing anywhere. Still the stream provides a home to five native fish species that have been around for thousands of years since a Pleistocene lake was part of this desert. The stream is quite productive, and obviously the fish and other aquatic organisms have evolved to deal with the lack of shade from trees.

I like the deep bends in the stream. Because it is primarily spring-fed, it doesn't experience large floods and thus the water keeps moving at about the same height and speed year after year. Therefore it is different from rivers that do have flooding that cuts through weak sections of soil to create oxbows (u-shaped sections of water cut off from the main stream). This stream sort of reminds me of my life, moving through all sorts of twists and turns, but keeps chugging on.

Monsoon Weather

It's late summer, and that means in many North American desert areas it's monsoon season. Giant clouds build up over the mountains, get excited, and send down lightning bolts and deafening thunder. Every once in awhile the clouds even release some moisture and we get some rain.

Monsoon weather is found across the globe. We generally have monsoons during July and August, when winds blow moisture from Mexico and Arizona up towards our direction. The winds heat up as they cross the hot land, and when enough moisture is present in the air, the combination creates clouds. These clouds build and build, forming large thunderheads. They are really cool to watch, but they also can make mountain hiking dangerous due to the increased lightning activity.

 
Here are some actual rain drops hitting the windshield! Of course the wipers don't work that well on our desert vehicles, because the hot sun makes the rubber on the windshield wiper blades crack and we use them so infrequently that we forget to replace them.

During one recent monsoon rain shower, I went out in the garden to weed. My garden has been terrific at growing weeds but so-so at growing what I planted. The cloud cover and gentle sprinkles made for a perfect temperature to make my garden look more respectable. Meanwhile, Desert Boy and Henry were playing in the sand and then in a muddy puddle. I figured we had better try to clean up Desert Boy, especially because he was wearing a white onesie and now had a very black behind. So we went to clean up any self-respecting person does: we went to the kiddie pool! Here's a 22 second video of Desert Boy cleaning up in the pool, with a little help from Henry.

Following the dip in the kiddie pool, sure enough, Desert Boy was much cleaner.
He was also sporting some extra curves with his bulging diaper. And that's how we end up when we begin discussing monsoon weather!

Desert Destination: Kane Spring

Out in the desert, between two roads, is a solitary Russian olive tree. Russian olive trees only grow where there is water, so I knew there had to be some water there. I even learned the name of the spring that was supporting the tree, but it took many years to finally go visit it. And then last week, I did.

The first thing I saw when we got out of the truck was the sign reading Kane Spr and the old watering trough, now empty. This didn't look too promising. Was the spring still around?

I started circling around the tree and eventually came to a wet area with lots of watercress. Being an ecologist, I pulled up a handful and began examining the roots to see what little critters I could find.

After just a moment searching, I found what I was hoping to find, a tiny springsnail. The water in this spring had been flowing for thousands of years, because this little snail certainly couldn't have crawled from the nearest spring, which was probably at least five miles away.

The spring channel led to this little pond. I was amazed that I hadn't seen it in the first place! The vegetation around it grows so tall that you can't see it from where we parked. 

A large bird flew by, letting us know that the spring wasn't home just for springsnails. It looked like an owl, and I started searching for sign. See the background of the photo? There isn't a single tree in sight.

Up in the tree was a large nest, but I couldn't see anything in it.

The owl came back and landed on a tree branch. I could see that it was a long-eared owl. Wow! This desert spring was definitely worth the stop.

Desert Boy Helps Irrigate

The meadow near our house was extremely dry, so the other day my good husband went out to irrigate it. Of course Desert Boy had to tag along to see what was going on. If it involves water, he's there. 

Desert Boy and Henry both seem to be carefully examining the irrigation ditch. It was a new ditch and quite nice, but I'm not sure what it was that caught their attention.

Apparently Desert Boy decided he needed a closer look and climbed over the dirt berm. And if Desert Boy is going in the water, Henry had to go in too. He's a nice loyal dog.

It doesn't take long for Desert Boy to get some mud on his leg. He doesn't fuss about this at all.

Instead, he takes care of the dirt by sitting down for a mud bath. I love my son, he will be a brilliant problem-solver someday.

Henry gets distracted and runs off. So much for being a loyal dog. We'll still keep him though.

When I look back to Desert Boy, I notice he has his back to me and his hands in the dirt. That can only mean one thing. You've guessed it, he's eating dirt again. Holy canoli. This kid is going to end up having a full complement of soil bacteria in his gut. Hopefully that will be good for something someday.

Fortunately he finds a distraction, a large dirt wad that would be fun to roll into the ditch. After all, if he can fill in the nice, new ditch that Daddy just made, he would have accomplished something. 

And success, the big dirt wad is in the ditch, getting eroded away. I scoop it out and we repeat the process. And then Desert Boy starts throwing rocks into the ditch until I haul him off to wash him down with the garden hose. I'm sure Daddy appreciated all the help. 

Springs in the Desert

Out in the desert, you come to expect miles and miles of dry land. Every once in awhile you come across some water, and that water is a welcome sight.

The water provides water to drink, a resting spot for waterfowl, and home to fish, frogs, and other aquatic organisms.

The green in the foreground of this picture is watercress (Nasturtium officinale). Watercress only grows where water is present year round and in specific water conditions. In some desert springs, it is an important substrate for snails.

This tiny springsnail (Pyrgulopsis species) is one found on the watercress. It doesn't look like much, but it shows that the spring may have been around for thousands of years. I explain a little more about the life of a springsnail in this post.

Viewed from above, springs stand out in stark contrast to the surrounding bleak desert vegetation. Desert animals learn where the springs are and know how far they can go from their water sources and still survive.

Perhaps even skunks! Skunk Spring is located in an especially dry area.

Sometimes springs are developed to provide a water source for wildlife and livestock. To develop a spring, an area with greasewood is usually dug up, a collecting area and pipe installed, and the water flows downhill into a tub or other collector.

Not all desert springs are totally isolated. This spring helps feed a creek that leads into a lake.

Desert springs are hotspots of diversity. After all, who wouldn't like to live by a little water? They are also particularly vulnerable to changes in the water table. If these little green patches dry up, it could be many, many miles to the next water source. That's a scary thought when it's a hot, dry summer day and you've run out of water!

Desert Boy and Henry Go for a Swim

It's getting really hot here, into the 90s every day, which I realize isn't as hot as say, Phoenix, but it's still hot for me. And for Henry. And for Desert Boy. So the other day we went for a walk to the little pond near our house. We like the pond a lot, and had been there a few days earlier. It's a settling pond where the stream water goes before it's sent down a long pipe to the irrigation pivots in the fields below. As the stream water suddenly loses velocity, sand and gravel drop out of it, so the pond has gradually gotten a lot shallower. That makes it wonderful for us to go wade around.

Henry obviously remembered how much fun the pond was, because as we approached it, he took a flying leap and jumped in. Except it wasn't the shallow part, it was a deep part over his head, and he hasn't decided that he knows how to swim yet. He's a labrador retriever, so I thought it was sort of wired into his DNA, plus I did see him do the doggy paddle one other time when he got a little deep. But this time, he panicked and was trying to scramble out of the pond, but the edge was too steep and he was stuck. So recalling all my training from my lifeguard days, I walked over to the edge, grabbed his collar, and hauled him out. My reward was him shaking the water off him and getting me all wet.

Henry didn't want to get back in the water, but I figured he better get over his fear right away. So we went down to the shallow part and I threw sticks into the water for him to chase. No way, he was stubbornly staying on shore. So I walked into the water and called him. Then I looked up and saw that Desert Boy was managing to climb out of his stroller, despite being strapped in. I got out of the water, grabbed Desert Boy, got back in, and called Henry again. Seeing his pal in the water did the trick, and Henry leapt into the water and began splashing around, getting us a lot wetter than we wanted to be. Than I wanted to be. Desert Boy loved it.

Playing in Water

Summer means it's time to play with water! It all started with Daddy taking Nature Boy irrigating. Nature Boy had lots of fun, coming home entirely coated with mud. We got out the little swimming pool and the hose.
Notice the mud around his mouth. No matter how many times we tell him not to, he still eats dirt and mud!
Nature Boy, sporting a lovely farmer's tan, did most of the work of filling the pool. He thought the hose was terrific fun. He was already soaking wet, so we didn't care how much wetter he got.
And when it got deep enough, he crawled right in, with his trusty sidekick close by.
We had so much fun in the morning that we had to come out again in the afternoon for some more fun.

The added benefit of playing with the hose is that our scraggly grass and trees got a little extra moisture. It's stream water and cold, but Nature Boy didn't seem to mind. I put my feet in for a couple minutes and that's all I could take.
Henry is back to his old tricks of tackling his buddy. Henry was good about staying out of the pool, but he wanted to be close to all the action.
The two share a special moment.
And they're both good about posing for Mama.

But I swear I didn't have Nature Boy pose for this picture. When I turned and saw him doing this I cracked up so much I could hardly hold the camera still. 

Going around in Circles

When I came out to the desert, I had certain preconceived notions, like there would be lots of cacti (nope), that it would be really hot (yep, at least in summer), that it would be boring (nope), and there would be lots of wide, open spaces with big skies and few people (yep). At least that last part is true where I live. And the reason is that there just isn't much water. In the state of Nevada, only 11% of the land is private, and most of that is near water. The early settlers knew that they couldn't survive without it, so they put down their roots in those wet places.

They planted gardens and orchards to feed themselves, and they planted fields in order to feed their livestock during the winter months. With not enough precipitation to have the fields grow on their own, the settlers diverted streams to water the fields. This so-called flood irrigation used simple technology at first. Today it is more complex, using laser levels to get the fields to the right slope and time-operated gates to allow water onto the field for a certain amount of time. Generally flood irrigation is time consuming, requiring people to move water around. Wildlife flock to the open water on the fields. 

As technology improved, hand lines became popular to spread the water more efficiently. Basically these are pipes with sprinkler heads placed along the pipes. The pipes latch together, so when a different section needs to be watered, the pipe is taken apart and moved. Slightly less work intensive are wheel lines, which have a small motor that move the pipes across the field. 

Two wheel lines can be seen in this photo. The small specks in the middle of the field are pronghorn antelope enjoying an easy meal.

Technology improved, and center pivot irrigation was born. The large circle fields that you can see from airplanes are the pivots. A tower in the middle of the field is the central point, and the water is sent through a galvanized steel pipe that is supported by trusses mounted on wheeled towers that go around and around. Sprinklers are spaced along the pipe. Pivots generally cover 90 to 180 acres.
When I first came out here, I wondered why the water was going all day long. Why not just water at night, when there would be less evaporation? It turns out that it can take up to seven days for a pivot to make a complete circle, and in order to get enough water on the fields, the water has to run both day and night.
To help reduce the amount of evaporation, hoses called goosenecks extend down from the water pipe to spray water closer to the ground. As the pivot moves around the field, water in the center sprays for less time than on the outer spans so that the entire field is watered evenly. Even by using water more sparingly, there are still few people who live out here in this rural area, due to the scarcity of water. Despite the internet and phones that make life seem "civilized," it still feels a little old-fashioned to live in a place that has the same population as it did roughly 150 years ago. 

Tomorrow: Nature Boy on tractors