Nativity Play Dress Rehearsal

Warning--this contains spoilers! Yes, you already know the story of the Nativity, but if you didn't know which kid had which part this year and don't want to know ahead of time, come back to this blog in a couple days.

Last Christmas Desert Boy had the chance to be a sheep in the Nativity Play. He played his role so well (Baaaa) that this year he is going to be a wise man. He even had to memorize a line, which was easier for him than for me. Ah, the flexibility of young brains!

We went to the dress rehearsal today, which is a much easier place to take photos than during the actual play. We could wander around and no one cared. We also had fun watching funnier moments of the practice, like the overly dramatic Joseph dreaming about the angel Gabriel informing him that his fiancee was with child, a child of God.

The very pregnant Mary was obviously uncomfortable, continually adjusting her giant bulge.

The angels always steal the show. They are so darn cute, and they have the funniest expressions.

For instance, get a look at the two angels' faces while the other one is saying her line.

Mary and Joseph were looking a little bored by the whole thing. I imagine that during performance night their adrenaline with a huge (by our standards) audience looking on will keep them looking peppier.

Here Desert Boy makes his visit to King Herod, perched high up on his throne, with the other wise men. He is carrying gold and is appropriately dressed in the same color. He looks so cute. Just wait, you'll see. My camera wasn't doing so great in the low light conditions, but they ran through the play twice, so I had two opportunities to photograph.

The shepherds, sans sheep today, look on as the action takes place.

They sang lots of songs, and it put everyone in the Christmas spirit!

Emma really liked bobbing to the music.

She managed to pay attention for short stretches, then got wiggly, especially when I wanted to take photos of Desert Boy.

Her expressive eyebrows show a little worry. I'm not sure why.

Desert Boy continued his trek.

Desert Girl filled in for the sheep for a little while. She's not too good at sitting still, so she made the shepherds do some work.

Meanwhile the wise men are saying their lines, and Desert Boy, once encouraged to speak loudly enough, nailed his line.

Proud mama beams.

The final number is Joy to the World. It sure was a joy to watch them!

Good job, Sharon, for pulling it all together! And being so patient with the kids--not many people could do that.

We hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

Unidentified Walking Object

We live out in the desert, with clear night skies that show off the remotest corners of the universe. We live near restricted military areas where secret things are done. So strange lights in the night, a.k.a. unidentified flying objects, might raise a few eyebrows and start some rumors, but they're not all that unusual.

However, sometimes we see something else out of the ordinary. We live on a cattle ranch, a cow/calf operation. The boys sold off the last of the sheep when their dad went on vacation (when they were teenagers), so the only animals on the ranch are cows and horses and cats and dogs and some 4-H animals.

So when I was driving down the main ranch road the other day, I saw a sight that made me pull out my camera. It was an unidentified walking object.

There was something unusual. (No, it wasn't my extremely dirty windshield. That unfortunately is common.) What I saw was something small and white and following one of the cows. The cow didn't seem to mind at all.

I pulled to a stop, rolled down the window, and waited.

And I got a good view of a sheep. The sheep that has decided it wants to be a cow.

Winter Grazing

I was driving down the road the other day and was startled when I realized that out in the inversion there were not only ice-covered shrubs, but also little lumps of animals.

Thousands of sheep were nearly blending in with the landscape. I really don't know why they all had their butts pointed at me.

They just meandered about, finding their preferred food. Sheep do particularly well at grazing in the desert in the winter because they can eat snow to obtain the water they need.

One sheep was on the wrong side of the road, so we were able to get a nice closeup of it. Then it decided it didn't want our attention and ran off to join the others. You can see how they manage to stay warm with that nice, thick wool coat on.

Desert Destination: The County Fair-Part One

Saturday morning we headed into Ely for the White Pine County Fair, where we saw Cousin Clay leading his steer in preparation to show it. He had been preparing all summer for this weekend by feeding, walking, and taming his steer so that he didn't have to worry about a nearly 1,500 pound beast walking all over him. 

He was soon in the show arena with six other steers. They walked them around in circles so the judge could inspect them, then lined them up one way and then another way.

I was very surprised to find that only seven steers had been entered in the fair. My husband explained that there aren't as many ranches anymore. That's certainly true--Southern Nevada Water Authority bought nearly all the ranches in Spring Valley in the last few years, taking away the opportunity of many young kids to get experience with farm animals and showmanship. It's one of the many unintended consequences of a huge water grab.

Cousin Alyshia had better control of her steer than she did just a few weeks ago. She obviously made good progress, and all her hours with the steer paid off.

It might have helped slightly that Alyshia's steer followed Clay's around and around. They already knew each other and felt comfortable. The steers didn't bat an eye when they passed the bleachers, which were filled with spectators.

Although the morning started off cool, the temperatures soon escalated into the high 90s. It made it much more of a challenge to stay cool and calm, but Alyshia managed to get a Reserve Grand Champion for showmanship. Way to go, Alyshia!

Meanwhile, Cousin Caleb was getting some words of advice from his dad for showing his lamb, Tony. 

Desert Boy liked petting Tony's soft wool.

Then Caleb let Desert Boy help walk Tony around. Desert Boy was enthralled with the experience. It won't be all that long until Desert Boy has his own sheep. I suppose I should try to learn a thing or two about sheep before then. At this point I think my knowledge would fill a thimble.

Although there was just one class of steers, there were many more sheep entries. They were divided into juniors, intermediates, and seniors.

The pigs were shown in a separate arena. We didn't get a chance to watch them there, but we did visit them in their barn. I love looking at the pigs. Apparently so did Desert Boy and Cousin Kayli.

Hey, look Mama, I'm right next to a big ole' pig!

I think Desert Boy would have brought that pig home with him if I had let him. 

But there was a way to distract Desert Boy--

--the bouncy castle! Desert Boy begged and begged to go into it, and finally it was time. He and Kayli jumped and jumped, scaled the ladders to go up to the high level,

and went down the big slide! They had a great time and ended up all sweaty with big smiles. 

I'm out of energy today, but tomorrow there will be more about the exhibit halls, auction, and booths. Although the White Pine County fair is small, it was fun!

Desert Destination: The County Fair

This last weekend we went to the local county fair. It's not real large, partly because we live in the desert and there aren't that many people here, but it's still fun. We wanted to make sure that Desert Boy got to see some of the animals and to support the cousins who had entered several animals.

We went over to see one of the cousins get her sheep ready for auction. She won a blue ribbon the day before. 

When it was her turn, she took the lamb into the auction arena and walked him back and forth to show off his best side. I'm not quite sure what that best side was, but maybe the person who bought him knows. The ranch bought some animals from the auction to help support the 4-H program. Sometimes it's hard for the kids to say goodbye to their animals, especially after they've spent so much time raising them. But the money they earn from the auction often goes into a special account and helps them pay for college.

Other cousins and Desert Boy are in the stands in the auction arena. Desert Boy manages to get their attention. He likes attention a lot.

Later we get to see this beautiful cousin's steer. The steer didn't particularly like other people, but he was well-behaved for her.

Nearby were these goats, belonging to a different cousin.

She's so young that she's in the Cloverbuds, a  junior 4-H program. She was the only one to have goats at the fair this year, so when she showed one of them on Saturday she and the goat had the arena to themselves.

Nearby were some sheep in the pen. They look so soft. It's fun to listen to them go Baaa. I obviously don't know much about sheep. 

Then we headed to the pig barn. I think pigs are so cool. Well, actually they look a little hot here in the 90+ degree heat. But they've got nice places to lay down.

This was one of the largest pigs, probably over 400 pounds. I don't think I would want to get anywhere near it!!

Desert Boy checks out one of the smaller pigs with his cousin. She's encouraging him to pet the pig, but he's not too sure about it. He's never been this close to pigs in his life.

We'll end with a bit of piggy love. I always enjoy going to the fair and am glad that the cousins are getting such great experience. It won't be that many years before they're showing Desert Boy (and me) how to care for and show animals. 

A January Hike

 It was a beautiful Friday afternoon and I had spent too much time sitting all week, so I took the afternoon off to go hiking with the kids. Desert Boy was glad to go out, but had a couple tears because he wanted to have friends go hiking with us, and they were all busy with other activities.

 I'm not sure what Desert Girl was thinking. She was keeping warm in her coat. Not that it was all that cold--it was upwards of 50 degrees.

I wasn't entirely sure where to go, but ultimately decided to go towards a canyon not too far from our house. I couldn't get too wild, as I was driving the low-clearance two-wheel drive soccer mom van.

 On the way I spotted a large bird and noticed it had a white head. Brakes!! We stopped to admire the beautiful bald eagle. We usually have a couple that spend the winter near us, and it's always so cool to see them.

Then we continued on our way, and instead of going up into the canyon, decided to climb a "mountain" that juts up from the bench on the way up to the canyon. The "mountain" doesn't have a name, but when I deigned to call it a hill, Desert Boy was quick to disagree.
"That's a big mountain," he said.
Okay, I wasn't going to disagree.
"Do you think we can climb it?"
"Yes."
Good. Because I knew he could. But it would be better if we wanted to.
Before we started the hiking challenge, we had the fording the creek challenge. In the low-clearance two-wheel drive soccer mom van.

Momentum was our friend, and we made it across. Good thing, too. It would have been really embarassing to have to go for help and tell someone we had gotten the van stuck in the middle of the creek.

 Before I had gotten out of the van and Desert Girl strapped on me and the camera ready, Desert Boy and Henry had charged up the mountain. This mountain is known for lots of rattlesnakes in the summer, so it was nice to be climbing it in winter and not have to worry about them at all.

 When I finally caught up to Desert Boy, he was trying to scale the sharp limestone on a "huge" cliff. He made a good start of it, but eventually slid right down the face of it. He skinned part of his hand, getting a "blood owie." Then it was time for more tears because I didn't have a bandaid with me. I know, what an unprepared mom I was!

I convinced him we could continue, and despite great protestations, we ascended.

 We could measure our progress by how much smaller the sheep camp below looked.

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 Yep, it's tough to climb a mountain with a blood owie. Really tough.

 I was amazed that there wasn't any snow. And looking up the canyon, we could hardly see snow at the higher elevations.

 We hadn't gotten too far when the kids decided it was snack time or else. So we plopped down and they happily sipped and munched away. Afterwards they were slightly more willing to continue.

 They got much more excited when we found some fossils.

 Here I am holding one for scale.

 Then the whole mindset for the hike changed. Now we were on a mission to find cool fossils.

 And cool caves. This one was big enough for the kids to climb into it.

 It turned out it had a sunroof so I could look down at them. We found several other little holes to investigate, and Desert Girl got really good at spotting them. Unfortunately my camera battery died and the spare was back in the low-clearance two-wheel drive soccer mom van, so the photo taking part of the trip was over.

We made it to the peak and enjoyed the view. Then Desert Boy was really concerned about how we were going to get back down. I told him there was a special way. And lucky for me, there was. We went down a little gully, and on the way, we saw some bones. Desert Boy entered his dinosaur paleontologist mode and immediately declared we had discovered some dinosaur bones. He asked if he could take them home. I told him that if he carried them, he could. Then we found more bones. And more. It turned out that the gully was full of sheep bones, including some recent deaths with lots of wool all around them. Desert Boy had to pick and choose what he wanted and filled up his backpack. He decided he was going to make an Emmasaurus with that day's finds, and then we might have to go back to gather more to make a Henryosaurus and a Daddyosaurus and a Mommyosaurus.

 Here are some bones he had at the end, while he's looking at a large sheep dog with a blood-covered face that came up to check us out. Fortunately she was very friendly. I tried not to dwell too much on why her fur was blood red. It wasn't too appealing.

 I tried out my new camera lens.

Hurray, we survived the mountain! Then we went home and promptly all took a nap.