Random November Happenings

This Jerusalem cricket showed up in the work parking lot one morning. It sure is a strange looking creature! Jerusalem crickets are nocturnal, so I don't seem them often. They are native to the West.

Our local 4-H club started dog training in late October, and we have been glad to take our nine-month old puppy. All the dogs are doing well, learning how to sit, stay, and heel, and generally getting used to other dogs and taking commands.

One session even had seven dogs at it, and they did well. We will go to Ely next July for the 4-H dog show competition. Since we're starting from scratch, it's good to start these training sessions early! We're starting with obedience and then will move on to agility.

I had a quick jaunt down to Lake Mead National Recreation Area for a two-day science conference sponsored by the Mojave Desert Network Inventory and Monitoring Network. I learned some interesting things, met colleagues from nearby park, reconnected with old friends, and gave a talk about Communicating Science.

Back at the park, I accompanied a researcher into Lehman Caves who was interested in the lampenflora, or cave algae and mosses and other stuff that grows by the cave lights. In some cases it almost looks like a forest! Ugh! This is bad for the native wildlife and can also change the pH of surfaces.

My husband took the kids fishing one day, and they were quite successful.

 

4-H Achievement Night was held, and Desert Boy walked away with lots of pins. The night was organized really well so it was shorter than in the past (hurray!). 

Desert Girl has had the opportunity to meet Pip, the new horse of my brother-in-law and sister-in-law. She absolutely loves riding Pip.

I went back into the cave and found an actual plant growing among some of the algae. Sigh.

Later I went to one of the most gorgeous caves I've ever been to. The geology, particularly the mineralization, was stunning.

We oohed and aahhed as we did some monitoring. So many cool colors and forms.

 I still have a couple more posts to do from November, then I'll be ready to dive into December. The winter slowdown is sort of happening! And I like it.

April Potpourri

It's so easy for me to get behind on photos! Here are some from April. We went for a drive and saw a pronghorn. I love watching these animals, the fastest land animals in North America. They are also unusual in that they don't jump over fences, but go under them.

On this particular drive we were heading to a wet meadow area, but due to the dry winter, it looked kind of brown.

This fence post caught my eye. And in the background you can see that there isn't much snow on the mountains.

This is one of my favorite trees. Sometime I hope to go down and take a night sky photo with its silhouette.

Back at home, the kestrels have moved in and make a lot of noise.

One day I found the kestrel was excited about its catch--a lizard.

Our dog, Maggie, jumped out of the back of the truck and broke her femur. So she had surgery and was on a lot of confinement. Fortunately she's been recovering well.

We have a lot of playdates. I loved that one incorporated some music practice. These two will be performing in the spring concert next week. They will have a duet, as they're the only brass players in their school.

A couple coworkers and I led the elementary school on a wild cave trip. The kids had a great time and were delighted to have an opportunity to crawl and get muddy. One of the chaperones was surprised how we incorporated how much science into it--programming bat equipment, checking climate data, reading maps, showing geologic features. It's easy in caves, there are just so many cool scientific areas to study!

Our currant bushes bloomed, and that brought lots of pollinators, including these cool sphinx/hummingbird moths. They are not easy to photograph! They move around really fast.

I thought it was cool to see how the proboscis is curled up while it's flying.

Then it extends it to take a drink.

The flowers help provide a bullseye.

Desert Girl did a session of dog training for a friend. They were so cute! One of Desert Girl's ambitions is to become a dog trainer, so it's good to start young.

Caving friends came via a small airplane, and they let the kids sit in the cockpit. They immediately started dreaming up their adventure.

These ladies are awesome, I will have to do a whole post more about their geologic work in Lehman Caves soon.

We squeezed in some trail work on the local Sagebrush Discovery Trail. The flowers along it have been great in May (also another post!). There are still so many more rocks to move, but we're slowly making a difference. And it's always great to socialize!

One of the school events was a Young Author's Fair. Guest speaker Glenn Terry came in to do some cowboy poetry. Then the kids read each other's book that they had written for the event and did some activities. Parents and friends also get to read the kids' books, which are very entertaining.

We had a few EMS and fire calls for the month, including this vehicle fire. It had stalled, so the driver pulled it over to the side of the road, and then it caught on fire. She was able to get out safely, but the car was totally engulfed. Fortunately minimal brush caught on fire, as you can see there was some wind.

We got good practice with self-contained breathing apparatus (SCBAs). There are so many toxic fumes from a car fire that you don't want to breathe even a little of that smoke.

One last tidbit was a school field trip to the Aquarium in Draper, Utah. It's a 3.5 hour bus ride--each way--but it was worth it. Everyone had a great time and we certainly got to see things that we don't usually see in the remote desert!

Hope you had a good April and are enjoying May!

Chicken Update--Skunks, Eggs, and a New Dog

A little to my surprise, we successfully raised six chicks into pullets (teenagers) and then into hens. Desert Girl spends a lot of time with the chickens, and she can catch them pretty easily. She's also the best chicken herder in the family.

One day we were out walking and saw a skunk in the nearby meadow. On no! Skunks killed most of our last round of chickens, so we don't like them too much.

When I called for my husband, he was already chasing another skunk. It turned out they had used a nearby wood pile as a den. We've killed quite a few skunks this summer, but we still smell more.

I thought our hens would start laying in July, and fortunately they did. They weren't the most consistent layers, with sometimes only one or two eggs a day in the middle to latter part of the month. We did get some fun surprises, like double-yolked eggs (the one on the left in the photo above). 

When new or old friends come to visit, Desert Girl loves to show them the chickens. Kids who have never gathered eggs or touched a chicken are in for a treat. Here the girls play in the back of the truck with a chicken, who put up with it amazingly well.

We adopted a dog from a rescue shelter in early August. She's not quite a year old and it was apparent from the start that she would need some training around the chickens. We kept them separate, with either the dog or the chickens ranging free in the yard at one time. Then, one day when we were at the nearby swimming pool, the dog disappeared and returned with a chicken. It was obvious she wanted to play with it, but instead she killed it. Another day three chickens got loose from the chicken run, so when I came back from exercising the dog, she immediately went crazy about a loose chicken and killed that one too. We thought we would try and discipline her by tying the chicken to her collar. She looked appropriately shamed for awhile. Then she chewed the chicken off. 

Fortunately some friends loaned us a shock collar, and we're making more progress with that. It will still be a long time before the chickens and dog can conmingle, but maybe someday.

In the meantime, we try to give all our animals some good quality time. And those chicken eggs sure are delicious! The hens have turned out to be great layers, laying every day. I enjoy seeing them wander through the yard, and when we come out of the house they often run over to see if we have a treat for them.

Farewell, Sweet Henry

It is with great sadness that I say that yesterday we had our sweet dog Henry put down. He was full of cancer and each day was having a much harder time. He's been such a part of our lives the last eight years. It's going to be difficult not to see him when I wake up in the morning or come home or go for a run or eat the scraps after dinner or go for an adventure walk. We will miss him a lot. I wanted to remember the good times with him, so I started going through photos, pulling the older ones from my blog and the newer ones from my computer (some have also been on the blog).

We got Henry when Desert Boy was one year old; we wanted them to be buddies. And they sure were. Henry helped Desert Boy walk a little faster so that he wouldn't get caught.


Desert Boy tried to ride Henry. That never went too well.

Desert Boy fed Henry his dog food a lot during the years. Desert Boy also fed himself the dog food.

We had a lot of apricots one summer, but they kept disappearing. It took me a while to realize that both Desert Boy and Henry were eating them.


Henry always loved to chase the cows. But sometimes he would be calm enough to have a moment with them.



As a black lab, Henry loved the water. He was in it a lot.


It didn't matter if the water was ice cold, he still enjoyed it.

Along came Desert Girl, and Henry helped protect her too.

Henry was part of the family, ready to be in the family photos.

As he grew bigger, we built him a bigger dog house.

He liked it.

So did the kids.

We honored Henry by making a new dinosaur and christening it Henryosaurus.

Henry like to be with us for bike rides.

I think he would have liked to have gone on the school bus when the kids headed off to school.

Henry was an outside dog, and he loved nature. Here he checks out a little snake.

And although he loved to chase rabbits, when he encountered this baby one, he just sniffed at it.

Henry came on walks with us all the time (photo credit: Peter and Sarah Schenk).

He loved swimming and fetching sticks.

And although he wasn't so fond of work, he went along for the company.

Henry went hiking with us high in the mountains, delighted when we found patches of snow.

He summited several peaks, including Mount Moriah and the North Schell Peak.

So high up!

He sure saw some spectacular scenery.

He also went into slot canyons.

He came on numerous camping trips and when I would get up in the morning to take photos, he came along. Here he is stretching out on Ibex.

And he was part of my shadow selfie.

For the last year, he hadn't been moving quite as well, but up until a couple months ago, he could still do a 3-mile run with me. Except that he just ran three miles, whereas in the past he would run about double that as he sniffed in the sagebrush and made loops and played. He was such a loyal dog, always there for us.

 Last weekend we took him for his last hike. It wasn't easy for him, but we could tell he really enjoyed being outside and with his family.

So long, Henry. 

Thanks for being there for us. 

It's been a great run. You will be missed.