Desert Boy Plays From a Wigwam on the Piano

Desert Boy started taking piano lessons from a different teacher (meaning not me!) at the beginning of September. He's loving it and practices usually without being asked. Sometimes he needs a little extra encouragement, and being videoed is a great motivation for him.

Here he is playing "From a Wigwam." I'll post again in a month or two and you can see what progress he's made.

Making Our Own PVC Chicken Feeder

Our chickens are doing really well. The rooster crows every morning, and I look forward to the cock-a-doodle-doos. The hens still aren't laying, despite giving them more calcium, putting a golf ball in a nest box "to give them the idea" and putting a light in the coop on a timer so that they get an extra couple hours of daylight every day. From my research on the Internet, it looks like they grow a big wattle right before they start to lay, which one of the hens has done. (A wattle is the red part under the bill.) Otherwise, although 5-6 months to lay is average, it does take some of them 12 months. I guess we'll just keep waiting (if you have any good ideas, let me know!)

Despite the lack of eggs, we're really enjoying the chickens. They are very messy, though, and I was getting tired of them spilling their chicken feed everywhere from the metal chicken trays. I looked around the Internet a bit to figure out a better solution and decided on PVC feeders. I didn't follow any one plan, but got ideas from several and went to the hardware store. I bought two 3 ft long sections of 3 -inch PVC pipe, two Y joints, and two caps of different types.

The design was simple enough for Desert Boy to assemble: stick the pipe into the Y-joint. We added a lid for the bottom, put it on a brick in the coop, tried to secure it as best we could, poured in chicken feed (the newly-acquired canning funnel helped!), and then put on a lid just to keep anything else out. Assembly was less than ten minutes.

We also made one for the run, and for this one we used the sturdier cap for the top and the plug for the joint to keep rain out.

Here's Desert Boy filling up the PVC. We only need to do that once a week or so.

The chickens seem to be very happy eating out of the new feeders, and the mess is greatly reduced. Success!

Floods and Mud

Sunday afternoon we went out to see some of the flood damage on the North Snake Range. We've had some major cloudbursts from the long monsoon season this year, and it seemed that several of them centered over the same drainages, some of which happened to burn in the Hampton Fire. The combination of burn and flood has transported lots of mud for miles and miles. In the photo above, we visited a house that had mud carry the aluminum cans away from the bin.

Desert Boy couldn't wait to go swing on the tire swing. As he ran towards it, we warned him that was something different.

"What?" he asked.

"You'll find out."

When he got to the swing and saw that the ground was now pressing against he, he understood better. The ground level was now higher. No swinging now!

Heavy equipment has been brought in to try and divert future floods from inundating the home, but a lot more work still needs to be done. Up on the bench the alluvial fans have fresh material on them for miles out of the canyons. Even canyons that didn't burn have greatly extended alluvial fans. We saw lots of evidence of overland flow (where water flows over the land instead of going into channels).

The Hampton Creek channel has been partially dug out, partially eroded. We didn't stay long because the clouds in the background were threatening.

This buried cable sign had been buried by a couple feet of mud.

 We really wanted to go up in the canyons, but the approaching thunderstorm convinced us that we had better take the safer route and head home. That turned out to be a good idea, as when my husband returned the next day, he found several places where water and mud had run across the Gandy Road.

Maybe next time we can see more of the flood damage.

In the meantime, here are photos posted on the new blog, Life on the Ranch. If you check out some other posts, you may see some familiar things!

Fall Colors in Great Basin National Park

 The colors are changing up high in the mountains, and we really wanted to go see them before they fell off. So after school one day, we loaded up and headed up the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive in Great Basin National Park.

It was a partly cloudy day, and when the sun came out, it was magical. Even when the sun wasn't out, the colors were so vibrant.

Our first mini hike was to the amphitheater.

The trees were in full yellow.

Then we went for a quick jaunt on the nature trail, where we had a snack at every bench. The trail is only about 1/4 mile long and there are many benches, so I guess I shouldn't say there was anything quick about it. Nevertheless, it didn't take that much time.

Then it was time to head for a walk around Wheeler Peak Campground. Actually, the kids ran most of the time. They had a lot of energy.

When they found this tree stump, they wanted to pose.

A different tree stump.

Some of the leavers were really red. I love it when they turn that way.

When we got to the big meadow in the middle of the campground, we let the kids run. They slowed a little to climb up the boulder in the middle.

It and nearby rocks became "launching pads," and the kids jumped off them repeatedly.

All that running worked up a thirst, so we stopped at a water spigot.

Then it was time for the forest adventure, which involved balancing on logs while crossing the creek...

…and climbing trees...

…and choosing which way to go. This was Carmela's first visit up here, and she loved all the colors.

We repeatedly crossed the creek. I told the kids to stay dry, as I didn't have extra clothes with me, and amazingly they listened.

It was a very fun afternoon, and spending time with friends made it even more fun!

I almost forgot the sibling carry. They really had a lot of energy!

There's supposed to be a big storm coming in this weekend with the snow level at 8,500 ft, so a lot of the leaves will fall off soon. It's been a really nice September, though, so we can't complain!

Have you seen good fall colors this year?

Take It to the Lake - 2014 Race

On Saturday the kids and I headed to Cave Lake for the third annual Take It to the Lake Race sponsored by the Ely Outdoor Enthusiasts. This was my third time to race; in 2012 I did the half marathon, last year the 10k, and this year the 10k. The kids were there for the Kids Fun Run, a mile-long race. Overall there were many more participants this year than last.

The race course changed from the previous years; instead of getting bussed to a starting point and running nearly the entire race uphill, we started at the lake and ran downhill and then turned around and back uphill. I liked that better.

The 10k race started at 8:30 am and my goal was to be back in time for the kids run at 9:30. However, due to a serious lack of training (my longest run was 3 miles, and I didn't even run the whole thing), I finished in 1:04, so missed the start of the kids run. However, that time was good enough to put me in third place for the female finishers. And our friend Clint won the overall 10k! Way to go!

After the run, I "took it to the lake" and plunged myself into Cave Lake to cool off (I had been wanting to do that the past two years and finally worked up the courage to do it this year and it felt so good!). Then I went in search of the kids.

Desert Boy was running well.

He had quite a determined look on his face for this photo!

I had to go quite a bit farther to find Desert Girl, who was hanging out with friends and alternating walking and running. Some year they won't be last. But they're having fun, and that's what matters!

And they all got medals a the finish line, which they treasured.

Perhaps their favorite part was the mud foot bath after the race.

Some of the kids took a full plunge, although the lake was on the cold side.

We all had a good time and enjoyed the BBQ lunch and raffle afterwards. Maybe next year I will find the time to train a little better. At least I'm now trained up for a race I just heard about--a triathlon in Delta, Utah on October 4. Desert Boy will give it a go as his first triathlon--stay tuned to see how that goes!