Miscellaneous May

 Once again I have lots of miscellaneous photos for the month. Since my filing system is Year and then Month and then Event, it makes it easy for me to find these photos. My brother Ed came out in May and we took a drive up the Scenic Drive in Great Basin National Park. The road was closed at Mather Overlook, so we stopped there and shivered. It was fun to have some rain.

Down lower, Ed was able to enjoy the trampoline with the kids.

Desert Boy turned 11 and we celebrated with an Escape Room challenge. Even though it was aimed at kids, it was hard for them to solve, and there was definitely some frustration.

With a few clues, they were all able to escape.

Desert Boy really enjoys birthday parties. We'll see if he can practice enough to learn a couple songs on the ukelele.

Jenny showed amazing balance skills on the steel drum.

At work, we did a cave rescue practice, starting outside through an obstacle course.

Then we headed into the cave for a scenario.

We also spent lots of time at the settling pond, aka swimming hole. The mountain stream water is still cold, but that doesn't stop the kids. Having extra pool toys has allowed them more time on the water.

We helped briefly on a highway cleanup project.

Desert Girl and I got matching dresses from Svaha. They sell science-related apparel. We're wearing the cross-section of coral reef dresses.  (Click this link if you want to try them out and save 15% and help me earn some points to get discounts.)

Our rhubarb did well this year, and Desert Girl brought home a coupon from school that was an offer to make a rhubarb crisp. I took her up on it and it was delicious!

Desert Girl reached a milestone with her First Communion.

 Afterwards we went and looked for garnets at Garnet Hill and found a nice assortment.

We kept an eye on the owls. And Mama Owl, pictured below, kept a close eye on her two owlets and on us. To our amazement, all 7 of our chickens survived the backyard inhabitants.

We got 4-H t-shirts for our club and helped do a service project at a local cemetery to put out flowers for Memorial Day weekend.

Even though I was dreading the work, we got a small garden planted. This part followed the Square-Foot-Gardening method, where everything is planted densely to decrease weeds. Then I put down ag bag on the rest of the garden and made small holes for plants to keep weeds down there. Finally, I put a sprinkler on an automatic timer. So overall, the garden is relatively easy to maintain. We've been eating lettuce, spinach, cilantro, and peas out of it so far.

The end of school meant it was time for Field Day, a track and field event.

The events are so much fun to watch.

It also marked the retirement of the school custodian. He will be missed! Happy retirement!

Yikes, May is always a busy month. June doesn't have as many special activities, so we'll be focusing on play dates, sleepovers, and swimming. Hurray!

April Happenings

 As I went through my April photos, I realized I had a lot of odds and ends that I hadn't blogged about but wanted to include for when I print out my blog book for the year. April was a fairly busy month, with a train ride, t-ball, lots of bike riding (including Desert Girl without training wheels), cave rescue class, junior cave scientists, and lots of bird sightings. We also had wonderful clouds, although most of them didn't produce much in the way of precipitation.

Fortunately we had clear skies for the lunar eclipse. Generally I only take Milky Way photos during the new moon, but with the eclipse, it was dark enough I could get the galaxy (plus some light pollution from Las Vegas) plus the eclipsed moon all in one shot).

The moon turned so red during the eclipse. It was really beautiful, and I was glad I had gotten up to witness it. (If you didn't, there's another lunar eclipse in September!)

The photograph-the-full-moon challenge is going well, although I feel like in some ways I've reached the limitations of my equipment. But I will try to keep getting full moon photos in interesting locations. The next full moon is coming soon!

The kids were so excited Easter morning. We had a little Easter egg hunt in the house.

Then we got all dressed up to go to church. The kids sure clean up well!

And since we don't get enough of these, we did a family photo.

Later Desert Girl got a haircut because she was having trouble taking care of her longer hair and I was no longer willing to battle. She got a super cute haircut from Chandra. She has been taking really good care of it. And then last night she cut her own bangs quite noticeably. Sigh. Actually I laughed, which didn't make Desert Girl happy. I'll post a photo soon.

I have about four hours of EMT training every month to keep up my continuing education hours. This was one of the trainings, about pediatric emergencies taught by a pediatric nurse. It was really good training.

In the same location not much later we had a fun baby shower. It's so great to be welcoming a new baby into our community!

One of our frequent destinations is the post office parking lot, where we ride bikes, run around, and play on wagons. This photo must have been taken during spirit week, on pajama day.

The kids and I take various adventure walks. They love climbing trees, jumping over the creek, and building forts. And Desert Boy is very much into guns. I try not to roll my eyes too much.

The great horned owls are frequently in the yard. We welcome them. They are much preferable mousers than the mama skunk with her four young I saw last night.

Although we had such a dry winter, we did get a little extra snow in April, worrying us because all the fruit trees had blossomed so early. The snow looked pretty on the willows.

It's hard to believe May is almost over now. Maybe I'll catch up with it a little sooner than April!

Sonoran Desert

 I haven't spent much time in the Sonoran Desert, so when I had an opportunity to visit recently, I was very excited. The Sonoran Desert is home to the iconic saguaro cactus and over 2,000 species of plants.

The Sonoran Desert includes the state of Sonora in Mexico plus part of Baja California, as well as a tiny bit of southern California and a fair portion of southern Arizona.

Tucson, Arizona is a great place to see saguaro cacti. My friend Sarah asked if I would help teach a cave rescue class one evening while I was there, and I happily agreed. My eyes bugged out as we approached the training facility: the hillsides were covered with saguaro.

The class went well.

It was for the Southern Arizona Rescue Association. I like that they have saguaro on their logo. And I just had to snap a photo with the juxtaposition of a skeleton and "save lives" in the same frame.

I woke up early my last day, and before I went to the airport, I went to Saguaro National Park. They have a west unit and an east unit. I entered the east unit at opening time, 7 am.

I was promptly wowed by the expanse of beautiful flowers, tall cacti, and shrubby trees.

 

I quickly learned that there used to be a lot more cacti in this area, but due to prolonged freezing temperatures many years ago, the cactus forest had shrunk. This particular cacti looked a little worse for the wear.

There's so much I have to learn about saguaro biology!

For this trip, my goal was just to enjoy the company of saguaros and the surrounding vegetation. A network of trails makes it easy to do that.

I learned that many saguaro grow next to nurse trees, which protect them from wind and heat and help them get extra nutrients. Palo verde is one of the most common trees.

Saguaro cacti aren't the only cacti around here. Here is a barrel cactus, possibly a fishhook one. At least the spines resemble fish hooks!

The mixture of prickly pear, cholla, and saguaro of various shapes made me smile.

This saguaro had a bunch of holes in it, which birds will use for nesting. If you don't have tall trees, you learn to adapt!

This is a crested saguaro. Not many of them take this form, but it sure is eye-catching.

I didn't have time to hike far, but I went a short way on several trails just to get a taste of them. On this rocky trail I found ocotillo blooming, a different kind of cholla (there are several kinds in the park), and a carpet of yellow wildflowers.

I took so many photos! I'm just sharing the best here, as a teaser to go explore more. I couldn't stay long, and my time in the park was over long before I wanted it to be.

 

This sign was in the visitor center, and I found it really cool. These saguaro are long-living!

I'd like to make Tucson a family destination, there is just so much to see and do in the nearby area, including Saguaro National Park, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Pima Air and Space Museum, Kartchner Caverns, and much more. Have you been to this area? Do you have any suggestions?