It's Branding Time!

 May is the traditional month for branding, but we got started earlier this year to avoid the heat that's likely to come. (And by "we" I mean my ranching family, I had nothing to do with it.)

Brandings are fun, because the cowboys and cowgirls like to do it the traditional way, roping the calves. This takes more time and people, but uses traditional cowboy skills. For this branding, cowboys were roping one calf at a time, and bringing them back to a harness type device that kept the calf in place.


The horses are well trained to move just when told and also to stay still while the calf is being processed.


A happy new recruit doing the beginner's job--loading ear tags.

Once the calf is in position, it receives its vaccinations, an ear tag that has pesticide on it to keep the fleas away, ears cut (instead of actual branding with a hot iron), a rubber band around delicate parts if it's a male to keep it from becoming a bull, and a mark on the forehead to indicate that it's done.

Brandings are fun to watch, as there is so much going on all at once, and so much skill on display. It's also fun to get a glimpse back into what life used to be like before all these modern day accoutrements.

Brandings are also an opportunity for family and friends to get together.

Young people learn skills from the more experienced.

And there are beautiful horses!

Have you ever tried roping? Desert Boy got a lasso for a birthday and we've practiced around the yard. We all need a lot more practice! Thinking of lassoing on a moving horse makes me admire the talent these folks have even more.

This calf made me laugh. Her expression makes it look like she's just out for a little ride.

Fortunately the weather was fantastic for this branding.

We couldn't stay too long due to other obligations. But in a later post we'll return to another branding, where the kids got to help out!

Nesting Owls

One afternoon while the wind was blowing hard, I was picking up sticks in the yard. I noticed a feather moving up in the crotch of a big poplar tree. I looked closer. And lo and behold, I saw a Great Horned Owl sitting there.

Now, we frequently have owls in our yard, but they usually fly away when we get within 20 meters. This one stayed. A hint of a suspicion starting forming in my mind. The next day I went back out, and she was still there. Now I was convinced. This was a mama Great Horned Owl, and she was sitting on her eggs.


I looked up information about nesting Great Horned Owls and found some really interesting information from a Cornell Lab of Ornithology bird cam site. The owl lays 1-4 eggs, each one a few days apart. Then she sits on (incubates) them for 30-37 days. During this time, she stays on the nest for pretty much the whole time, as she has a special featherless brood patch that keeps the eggs warm. Her mate catches food and brings it to her.


I was expecting to be watching the well-camoflauged mama for a few weeks. But just one week later, I saw some extra movement in the nest. An owlet had hatched!

It was small, but the beak was easy to distinguish. And by the way, I'm taking all these photos with a zoom lens at 400mm, a crop sensor camera, and then cropping the photos in post-processing. So even though it looks like I'm right there, I'm standing way back.

Just the next night, the owlet looked so much bigger. The owls are born covered in white down. About a week later, they start getting some colored feathers. At three weeks they will start developing ear tufts. And at 6-7 weeks, they will leave the nest.

Mama owl has her back to the owlet; she seems to change position a lot. And while I was watching there was a little bit of activity on the side. Another owlet! I couldn't get a good photo due to low light levels, but I'll share a photo soon.

It's so much fun to have all this activity right in the backyard. We've had owls nest nearby, but never right in the yard (to our knowledge). Stay tuned for more owl photos!

The First Annual Old Capitol Storytelling Festival

 We received a note home from school in early March saying there would be a First Annual Old Capitol Storytelling Festival. We weren't quite sure what to expect, but they were having two nights of concerts/storytelling in our area, plus a storytelling contest for the school kids.

First off, the Old Capitol refers to Fillmore, Utah, which was the first capitol of the state of Utah. And before the state of Utah was declared, it was the Territory of Utah, which not only included all of Utah, but most of Nevada, and parts of Colorado and Wyoming.


We talked with the kids, and Desert Girl decided she wanted to enter the storytelling contest. She started practicing right away for a maximum of a five-minute-long story, and she decided to talk about camping at Ibex playa.

On Sunday night, we went to EskDale High School, where we listened to the orchestra play beautifully.

Then it was time for some stories. This night's theme was about different religions and beliefs, and I found it quite interesting.

Various speakers talked about different belief/religious systems.

One pastor couldn't make it in person, but had recorded a video. He lives in Salt Lake City and drives down to Delta every weekend for his congregation. Except when he does missions in Africa, and then he preaches via video, so it was very apropos.

On Monday night we went to the Border Inn for the last night of the Old Capitol Storytelling Festival.

Clive Romney, who had visited the schools earlier in the day, provided some entertainment.

Then the two winners of the storytelling contest told their stories. Desert Girl's teacher was so glad that only two kids had wanted to tell stories this year, as it made it very easy to judge!

Desert Girl did a great job, talking about how when we took an old camper out to Ibex playa and a window broke, Dad fixed it with "marshmallow glue." The next time we camped there, we just took a tent. The wind blew so hard that night it broke the tent poles and pushed the tent down on us. "Mom cheated and got out of the tent with her sleeping bag and slept on the other side of the rock."

Desert Girl then concluded talking about how the next day we went to the Leamington Rodeo, where she competed in mutton bustin'. She wasn't so good at it, and it hurt when she fell off, but she did get some Skittles for her efforts.

The kids got their prizes, which made them very happy.

Then it was time for the adult storytellers. Delaine talked about the Massacres in the Swamp Cedars.

Dave told a few stories about experiences around the area.

And Denys had fun relaying some family history.

It was very enjoyable to listen to live entertainment. Next year both the kids say they will compete in the storytelling contest. They have until next March to figure out their stories. For more information, check out the Old Capitol Storytelling Festival website.

Yellow-bellied Marmots Are Out

 The kids and I went up Baker Creek Road in Great Basin National Park one day after school to see if the yellow-bellied marmots (Marmota flaviventris) were out. And lucky for us, they were easy to spot.

We traded in the van for an SUV that has a moonroof, and the kids had fun checking the marmots out through it.

Oh my, these are cute animals! Marmots are burrowing rodents. They also spend a lot of time out sunning themselves.

They weigh between 3.5 and 11 pounds, generally the lightest in early spring and the heaviest in late summer or early fall. Males weigh more than females.

Is this one doing yoga?

The marmots will live in colonies of up to 20 animals, with a dominant male. They eat a variety of plants, and occasionally insects and bird eggs. Coyotes are their major predator. Marmots seem to really like to dig into the road base, so they are frequently found on the Baker Creek road. They don't like to move, which makes it easier to take photos of them.

But that also means they get run over. So the park installed these Marmot Crossing signs. Can you find the marmot in the photo?

Marmots can live up to 15 years. They are one of the longest hibernating animals around. At this location, they typically come out of hibernation in March and go back in July, although the young will reawaken in September to eat more.

You can learn more about marmots here. Although they're supposed to whistle in alarm, I've never heard the ones along Baker Creek road do that.

Return to the Fire

 A couple weeks ago, the kids and I headed after school to Strawberry Creek, a place that had a big fire a couple of years ago. I was curious how things were recovering. The road is now open to the campground area in the pinyon-juniper area, although all the camping amenities have been removed because it's not that great an area to camp in right now, with everything black and no shade.

We stopped outside the park boundary and the kids headed towards the creek while I went up the ridge. I heard so many birds as I was walking. Finally I got a photo of one--a mountain bluebird.

Up on the ridge I found this metal lying against the tree. I'm not sure what it was.

I think this is a female Cassin's finch.

I really enjoy walking in burned areas. The meadow down near the creek made a stark contrast with the grey hillside behind it.


After awhile I headed back down to the creek. I found a lot more vegetation on the less steep slopes, like this American vetch (Vicia americana).

The Basin Wildrye was recovering nicely. That's the tallest native grass around, and I'll be writing a lot more about it this summer as I have a project to restore it.

I found the kids happily playing in the trees, Desert Girl with a hatchet and Desert Boy trying to fit something together. They seem to be happy to be outside, as long as they don't have to hike too far.

The Oregon grape made a bright contrast with all the black.

 But my happiest moment was seeing this little sagebrush. Not so long ago, all this area was dominated by sagebrush. It's so great to see it coming back.

They did lots of aerial seeding in this burned area, so hopefully we'll continue to see lots more vegetation and regeneration of the land.