2015 Stream Insects BioBlitz

 This year's BioBlitz at Great Basin National Park featured Stream Insects. Dr. Boris Kondratieff from Colorado State University came as the lead taxonomist and gave the opening workshop.

Then it was time to head out to Upper Lehman picnic area to practice catching stream insects.

Those who had never seen them before were quite surprised.

We also had experts who were trying to find unusual specimens.

One of the most entertaining aspects was watching Dr. Kondratieff and Dr. Nelson speak Latin as they batted species identifications back and forth. 

With some specimens collected, it was time to sort.

Then we split up into a couple groups to tackle different streams.

Despite the rain, everyone persevered and found a variety of critters.

The next day the sun came out. Some groups hiked up high into the snow, others drove to remote locations in the park, and our group traveled along Snake Creek. We started at the end of the road.

We were missing the picnic tables from the day before!

As we moved down the stream we encountered different organisms, particularly in the springs, where the number of juicy cranefly larvae were quite numerous.

The afternoon brought some interpretive programs, which the kids just loved. I was so grateful to my mother-in-law for sharing the experience with them.

They enjoyed making their own insect in an activity called Frankenbug.

Sunday was also a beautiful day, with short morning field trips.


Then it was time for lunch and wrapping it all up with the preliminary results. Many stream insects were identified to species level, and some larvae were taken back to the lab to see what they would hatch into.

It was a fascinating BioBlitz, and I'm sure some people will never think of streams in quite the same way again!

Field Day 2015

 The day before school gets out is Field Day, a day of outdoor fun for the elementary schools. Enough preschoolers were there they got to have a race too. Looks like they were talking as they raced!

One of the classic favorites is the three-legged race.

And then the wheelbarrow race.

These two couldn't get enough of it.

Sometimes coordination required a mother's help!

Look who's back at it!

Balancing an egg on a spoon was also a fun race.

The preschoolers quickly figured out some strategies to keep the egg better balanced, like holding the spoon up higher.

Or using two hands!

The obstacle course was lots of fun.

And the long jump provides some great action photos.

We had a delicious lunch and then the kids went on to relays in the afternoon. It's such a fun tradition and the weather was perfect for it this year. Next year Desert Girl and Isaac will be participating officially. Wow!

April Happenings

 As I went through my April photos, I realized I had a lot of odds and ends that I hadn't blogged about but wanted to include for when I print out my blog book for the year. April was a fairly busy month, with a train ride, t-ball, lots of bike riding (including Desert Girl without training wheels), cave rescue class, junior cave scientists, and lots of bird sightings. We also had wonderful clouds, although most of them didn't produce much in the way of precipitation.

Fortunately we had clear skies for the lunar eclipse. Generally I only take Milky Way photos during the new moon, but with the eclipse, it was dark enough I could get the galaxy (plus some light pollution from Las Vegas) plus the eclipsed moon all in one shot).

The moon turned so red during the eclipse. It was really beautiful, and I was glad I had gotten up to witness it. (If you didn't, there's another lunar eclipse in September!)

The photograph-the-full-moon challenge is going well, although I feel like in some ways I've reached the limitations of my equipment. But I will try to keep getting full moon photos in interesting locations. The next full moon is coming soon!

The kids were so excited Easter morning. We had a little Easter egg hunt in the house.

Then we got all dressed up to go to church. The kids sure clean up well!

And since we don't get enough of these, we did a family photo.

Later Desert Girl got a haircut because she was having trouble taking care of her longer hair and I was no longer willing to battle. She got a super cute haircut from Chandra. She has been taking really good care of it. And then last night she cut her own bangs quite noticeably. Sigh. Actually I laughed, which didn't make Desert Girl happy. I'll post a photo soon.

I have about four hours of EMT training every month to keep up my continuing education hours. This was one of the trainings, about pediatric emergencies taught by a pediatric nurse. It was really good training.

In the same location not much later we had a fun baby shower. It's so great to be welcoming a new baby into our community!

One of our frequent destinations is the post office parking lot, where we ride bikes, run around, and play on wagons. This photo must have been taken during spirit week, on pajama day.

The kids and I take various adventure walks. They love climbing trees, jumping over the creek, and building forts. And Desert Boy is very much into guns. I try not to roll my eyes too much.

The great horned owls are frequently in the yard. We welcome them. They are much preferable mousers than the mama skunk with her four young I saw last night.

Although we had such a dry winter, we did get a little extra snow in April, worrying us because all the fruit trees had blossomed so early. The snow looked pretty on the willows.

It's hard to believe May is almost over now. Maybe I'll catch up with it a little sooner than April!

Our Little Solar System is Restored!

 A year and a half ago the kids and I made a little solar system in the neighborhood. It was so neat to see the scale of the solar system over two and a half miles. Those outer gas planets sure are far apart!! It was also mind-blowing to me when I asked an astronomer where the end of the road would be and he said it would still be in our solar system, in the Oort cloud, a comet-forming area way far away from Planet Earth.

Unfortunately, last fall someone removed the further reaches of the solar system, Saturn to Makemake. (They missed Eris, which is easy to miss!) I had several people tell me we should redo the solar system, and eventually I found the time to find the boards, paint the background, paint the names, gather planets, have my husband cut the boards, and go hang everything up. On the "hang up" day, we decided we would go check on everything, and Desert Girl was the photographer for the day.

The sun, which to scale would be so huge would require a massive board that we don't have, is just partially represented. It's hanging in there, but is in need of a little TLC. Desert Girl also had fun photographing the nearby fish. I guess they would be called sunfish? Ha.

Okay, so do you know the order of the planets in our solar system? Without further ado, here they are:

Having fun with wire cutters

Pausing for a selfie

Ceres is a relatively new dwarf planet, found in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter

We'll see if Saturn's rings stay on better this time!

Pluto has a really fun ball for its representation (and a little on the large side, but we didn't have many options!). It's across from the Ranching Exhibit, so easy to check out.

Haumea

Makemake

We didn't quite make it out to Eris (well, it is so far away, and our spaceship was running low on fuel), so here's the photo from 2013.

And, oops, did you notice our mistake? We reversed Haumea and Makemake from last time, but it turns out we may be more accurate now, as Makemake's orbit is longer than Haumea's (310 years vs 285 years), according to this table. And Eris? Well, it takes 557 years to get around the sun once!

We hope this model solar system will encourage people to learn more about the bigger picture of where we live. I also find it a great place to ponder when I'm facing something difficult. As I travel from planet to planet, it helps put things in perspective. My problem is really, really tiny in the scope of things.

Great Basin National Park is offering astronomy programs every Saturday night, and once Memorial Day rolls around, the programs will be every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday nights. They are a great way to learn even more about the amazing world--no make that the amazing solar system/galaxy/universe.

By the way, the Little Solar System is open to additions. Want to put in a spaceship? How about a UFO? There's already a great comet. Add anything you like, this is a community project, open to making it better!