Getting Ready to Shear Sheep

 Yesterday afternoon the clouds were so pretty and I had sheep on my mind (perhaps due to seeing the sheep in the ranching exhibit a few days ago). I decided we would take a little trip to see if the sheep shearers were getting set up. We found plenty of sheep in the general area, along with their faithful guard dogs. We also found some activity at the sheep-shearing corral. So we got out and headed over to see what was happening.

 They were really nice and let Desert Boy get on the horse. Desert Boy couldn't remember riding a horse (although he did several times when he was younger). He loved it. I think part of the reason he was so excited to be on a horse is that his friend Ava is totally into horses and talks about them all the time.

 Desert Boy was all smiles for his little ride.

 Thanks so much for giving him a ride! That five minutes was so memorable to him.

 After Edwin teased us about if we had come to work or not, he got on his horse and headed out to gather some sheep.

 That gave us time to look around. They were unloading panels and setting them up to make a chute that came from the recently-arrived sheep shearing trailer.

 Here's the chute, where the sheep can be easily counted, vaccinated, and whatever else needs to be done.

 Here's a view of the purple sheep shearing trailer. It has seven doors with ramps leading down into stalls. This is where the sheep go after they're sheared.

 Morgan was a sweetheart and showed us around. This is the inside of the shearing trailer. Above each shearing station is a little motor that operates the cutting blade.

 When Desert Boy found some wool, he came up with all sorts of ideas of what to do with it. He is creative. Maybe not practical, but why not dream big? Or with some of his ideas, small? He was ready to make some doll clothes from this piece of wool. He figured pressing the wool flat would work well.

 Off in the distance we could see the sheep moving this way.

 A couple of boys were on foot helping Edwin move the sheep. Sheep are apparently much easier to herd than cattle.

 It was so much fun watching. But then we weren't just watching. Morgan said we could help move the sheep, so we tried to keep them going towards the corral.

 They plan to shear about 1000 sheep here, and these are the first couple hundred in the corral. They stay the night in the corral as it's easier to shear them when they don't have full bellies. I love the sheep dog's expression in the photo above.

 Some of the sheep were just as curious about us as we were about them.

 Edwin went out to get more sheep, and Desert Girl took the time to admire Morgan's colorful fingernails. She was really impressed with them.

 Desert Boy went and hung out with the older boys for awhile.

 Then he discovered some bones, and from then on, everyone was on bone-finding duty. This is not a task to be taken lightly. We went to the other side of the corral to pick up more bones than I really wanted to take home. But Desert Boy was already planning his next dinosaurs.

 Edwin and the sheep gradually approached, with the storm clouds looming in the background.

 I like how the leading edge of the sheep and the leading edge of the storm nearly intersect.

 We tried again to help get the sheep into the corral, but we weren't the best help around. Some of the sheep tried making a run for it.

 Edwin brought them back around.

 Morgan helped get them moving in the right direction.

They were added to the group, making the inner corral full of sheep. Hopefully the weather will cooperate (wet wool is difficult to shear), and it will be a good couple days of shearing!

Clouds

The clouds have been great lately, huge and puffy, with various rainshowers gently touching the land. It doesn't seem like we've gotten much rain, but there's always rain somewhere. It helps that we can easily see about 40 miles to the mountains on the other side of the valley, and even more than that when we look north, where the valley slopes down.

I couldn't resist playing with some of the new photo effects on Picasa. This is cross process.

Here's Holga-ish.

This is museum matte.

Here's Lomo-ish.

And here's my dear babysitter, making the kids not want to come home!

But then we had a grand afternoon adventure, which hopefully I'll get to post about tomorrow.

A Special Attraction at the Ranching Exhibit

 I was passing the ranching exhibit, an open-air building with panels about ranching heritage, when I noticed that the exhibit had a special visitor: a sheep! I screeched to a halt (okay, not really, but allow me some poetic license here!), backed up (which it's very handy that the highway isn't busy and I could do that), turned into the parking lot, pulled out my camera, jumped out of the van, and snapped a photo.

 The sheep didn't look like it was in a hurry, so I switched to my telephoto lens and zoomed in. The sheep looked at me once in awhile. Otherwise it didn't seem concerned by my presence.


As I moved around to get a different angle, the sheep decided maybe it was time to leave. That's when I noticed the fantastic iron art up in the building. I've seen it many times before, and every time I marvel at it. It's beautiful and so well done.


In particular I noticed the windmill, which has recently been repaired. It actually turns! Our windy spring has been giving it a good workout, I'm sure. Do you see the cat next to the barn? It's those little details that make this iron art outstanding.

The middle panel shows cowboys moving longhorn cattle, the traditional cattle first brought to the Great Basin, with a wagon pulled by mules following. Just take a look at the lasso, swinging tails, and different movements of the cattle.

The third and last panel has the sheepherder checking on his sheep, with a faithful dog just behind him and the sheep wagon (with spokes in the wheels!) awaiting his return. My photos don't really do the art justice--this is a place you just need to stop at and spend some time admiring. It's about half-way up the hill to Great Basin National Park.

The sheepherder did come later in the day and collect the errant sheep. April is the month when the sheep shearers come and give the sheep a haircut. A most noticeable haircut!

Frisco's Charcoal Ovens

 A few weeks ago we decided to stop at Frisco, a ghost town with a lot of mining history, since the friends we were traveling with had never visited. I wrote about Frisco's history in this post from 2008. (It was good for me to reread, as I had forgotten a lot of it. Which is one of the reasons I started a blog in the first place, so I could help myself remember all these fun little things that I learn!)

 Five charcoal ovens are at the site, and  a couple of them are still in really good condition.

 The kids. I like the sepia--almost makes it look old-fashioned. If you just ignore the fleece, puffy jackets, character t-shirts, velcro shoes, zip off pants, embroidered jeans, etc. These kids are probably a little too clean to be kids living in a mining village.

 The charcoal ovens are a lot of fun to photograph.

 However, the kids didn't want to stay there. They wanted to explore some of the old buildings.

 This roof looks out of place on the ground. What happened to the rest of the building?

 Here's the group peeking in.

 Turns out there's a cellar underneath the roof, with some fun light on the wall from holes in the roof.

Here Evan, Desert Boy, Desert Girl, and Anna check out a foundation, with the ovens in the background. There's so much more to explore in this area! The old railroad bed looks like it could be a fun hike. Every time I visit a ghost town, I try to imagine what life was like. My overwhelming feeling is that it was a lot harder than today.

Happy Easter!

Hope you have a blessed and wonderful Easter! We've had great fun preparing for it--getting out the fancy clothes to go to church, dyeing eggs, and a couple practice Easter egg hunts. Desert Girl has significantly improved her finding ability and will be a worthy challenger to her brother this year.