A Muddy Little Cave

 We went with some friends into a little cave. It's been awhile since the kids have gone caving, so they were excited to venture into the unknown.

The first part of the cave was walking, but then Desert Boy found a little crawlway. The next thing I knew, he was charging down it and wanted me to follow.

 It was big for him, but not for me!

 To my surprise, Desert Girl followed. She may be a princess, but she doesn't mind getting dirty

 Our wallowing in mud was rewarded with sights of several small pools of water, something I hadn't seen before in this cave.

 Desert Girl checking out one of the pools.

 One of our friends came part way into the crawl too. Do you like Desert Girl's caving outfit? She picked it out herself.

 Soon we were out in the natural light, where we could see just how dirty we had gotten. It was a fun cave!

Sunny Sledding

 We celebrated when we got snow a few weeks back by going for a sledding trip with friends. We had enough snow that we could even sled in a gravel pit in the valley. Usually we have to go up in the mountains to sled.

Now the valleys are bare of snow, but I wanted to share these photos to send support to friends and family back East who are getting lots of snow right now!

 We had lots of smiles! It was warm enough that Desert Boy didn't want his coat anymore. I convinced him that keeping his gloves on was a really good idea.

 At first Desert Girl and Isaac were really cautious about sledding, only going down two-foot high hills. It didn't take them long to warm up to the idea, though, and their smiles made everyone happy.

 What nice teamwork coming back up the hill!

 The dogs certainly got into the action.

 Zeek thought sledding was a wonderful game.

 Desert Boy got some good instruction on turning a sled.

As the kids started showing signs of wearing out, it was time for the final moment:

hot chocolate!

What a fun afternoon.

Getting Ready for the Christmas Bird Count

Monday is our annual Christmas Bird Count for this area. It started here in 1997 and has been going on every year since, and it's been interesting learning about some of the trends (which you can see in an article in this publication).  Worldwide, the very first Christmas Bird Count was in 1900, which makes this project the longest citizen science project in existence.

To get ready, we started putting bird feed in our feeder about a week ago. It didn't take long for dark-eyed juncos and pinyon jays to find it. The pinyon jays come in a huge flock and stay until they eat everything.


They are beautiful birds, although a little aggressive so they keep out the other birds. I was surprised by how the photos I took captured them in so many stages of flight.

 A neighbor's feeder also gets the pinyon jays, but also lesser goldfinches, and at the top, a white-crowned sparrow.

To expand the citizen-science aspect of this project, I visited Desert Boy's school and put up a bird feeder for them. They are going to help watch what shows up on Christmas Bird Count day and contribute to the effort.

 They were fascinated with the binoculars I brought. We also practiced a few bird calls (e.g., Canada goose, mallard, raven, mountain chickadee, great horned owl, red-tailed hawk). I was impressed how well they knew them. Although most thought the red-tailed hawk was an eagle because that's what television dubs in--a real eagle call is rather weird and unimpressive sounding.

 Then we made bird feeders they can take home with them. First, find a pine cone, tie a string around the top, goop it up with peanut butter, then roll in bird seed. Put in a plastic bag to get home, then take out and hang up outside.

The kids seemed to really enjoy it. Hopefully they will see some neat birds at home!

If you'd like to help in your local Christmas Bird Count, it's not too late to sign up. They are lots of fun, and you can participate even if you're brand new to birding. Trust me, it's more fun to look at birds for the day than you might imagine! You can also just count birds in your yard or on a walk and submit what you find.

A Winter Trip to the Salt Flat and Sinkhole

The day before Thanksgiving Desert Boy didn't have school, so I took the morning off. Desert Girl had preschool, so I decided that after we dropped her off, we'd head to the nearby sinkhole with a stop at the salt flat on the way. Better yet, we'd take some of Desert Boy's friends.

We have a lot of salt flats, or playas, out here in the desert. The rain falls, runs down to a low spot and pools, and then evaporates. It often leaves behind salt. Sometimes the playas are hard and you can drive on them, and other times they are mushy and will cost you an expensive towing bill.

The temperature was just below freezing, so I was hoping that it would stay that way. I was a little concerned that if the snow melted it could make the playa just mushy enough that I would get stuck. With four kids. Miles from the nearest person. I told myself if that did happen, it would be an adventure they'd remember. 

This playa has a dug out spot that collects water. We went over to look for wildlife and found some deep snow and a little ice. I had to work hard to convince the kids not to step on the weak ice. I didn't want our outing to end in the first five minutes due to a soaked, cold kid!

Fortunately they listened and soon were running free across the playa. That's one of the best things about a playa. It's a wide, open space, and you can go anywhere you want.

While the kids ran, I looked for patterns in the snow and ice. 

These patterns were quite a bit different from the ones I found in the spring when I visited this same playa.

Meanwhile, Henry was busy rolling on the snow. You can see Ava's boots in the photo. She was rolling around too.

Desert Boy tried to make a snow angel, but the snow was a little too hard.

I found it kind of funny that the kids chose to lay down on a cold surface.

We all agreed after awhile that it was time to head to our next destination: the sinkhole. When I had first asked Desert Boy if he wanted to go to the sinkhole, he enthusiastically agreed.

"I want to go. We can look for snakes."

I smiled inside. Yes, the sinkhole is a major snake haven. But it was winter, and our likelihood of finding snakes was very small. In fact, this was the perfect time to take a bunch of kids there.

We parked by the fence and found a place to cross it.

Then I had the kids line up for a "before" photo.

Soon they were charging down. I had told them as we were pulling up that we were going to the bottom, and none of them argued. They were ready for some outdoor time.

The mixture of snow and hard ground made for some interesting falls, but we all made it down unscathed.

Then the real fun began: finding snake skins! The snakes shed their skins as they grow, and we found snake skins all over. The kids soon began a friendly little competition to find the most.

They all left with a pile of snake skins and big grins.

I knew the trip was a success when the next day one of the friends asked me, "Where are we going today?"

Soon, my little friend, we will go out again!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Here are some things we've done to get in the proper spirit.

1. Turkey shoot.
Nope, we don't shoot turkeys (although that is very tempting, especially since the non-native ones introduced here a few years ago are wreaking havoc on the ecosystem). We went to our local Turkey Shoot (a fundraiser) and shot at targets; the winners took home turkeys.

We let the kids participate, as where we live guns are important tools for getting your food. We want them to respect guns and learn how to use them properly. The turkey shoot turned out to be a very family friendly event, and we enjoyed spending time with each other outdoors. Bonus: we did some good shooting.

2. Turkey dissection.

Well, since we won some turkeys, we had to check one out more thoroughly. The giblets were our area of focus. We looked up information on the neck (tasty for soups), gizzard (special organ at top of stomach to grind up grain since turkeys don't have teeth), liver (largest organ), and heart. Then we dissected the organs. The kids thought it was really cool.

Here's pre-dissection. I did take a post-dissection photo, but what's the fun in showing that when you can try doing it for yourself!

Looking forward to eating some turkey tomorrow! Have a super holiday and weekend!

Fall Leaves

The weather was great earlier in the week, so we've been raking up leaves. We got some extra help to move the leaves out of the yard. That involved loading the leaves into the back of the pickup, driving them to the meadow, and dumping them out in a low place far enough away that they won't blow back in our yard. The kids did a great job getting the leaves out of the truck.

 Well, at least the older kids did!

 The younger ones were good observers. (Like Desert Girl's leaf raking outfit? That girl likes to dress up for every occasion!)

 Henry took a rather laid back approach to the whole thing, too.

Once the leaves were out of the truck, it was time for the fun to begin.

 Jumping time!
(The blue flagging tape is from an earlier game of tie each other up. It was educational. Sort of.)

 I have to say, frilly dresses make for the best jumping photos!

Ava got some air on this jump!

It was a fun diversion, and so nice to have a treat at the end of a task!