Labor Day Kids Rodeo at Leamardo Days, Leamington, Utah

 On Labor Day, we went to Leamington, Utah for their Leamardo Days celebration. We bought tickets for the BBQ dinner, rodeo, and raffle. We also signed up the kids to participate: Desert Girl in mutton busting and Desert Boy in calf riding.

Mutton busting (little kids riding a sheep) was up first, and one of Desert Girl's classmates also participated. He rode the sheep backwards to get a better grip, and he sure did hold on tight.

What a face! He was bound and determined to stay on.

Eventually, though, he started sliding off, but he stayed on a good while, good enough to earn $20!

He had a little jaunt walking back. He had done it!

Desert Girl was very nervous about doing this, but she wanted to give it a try. She wore her cowboy boots and cowgirl shirt and some decorated leggings (she's going through a not-liking jean phase).

That sheep moved fast, and soon she was only holding on around the sheep's neck. (That darn railing was in my way for the photos!)

And then her arms weren't even around the sheep.

She was on the ground and getting up.

She was not at all happy about the falling part of the ride. But she did better than some of the participants, who didn't really even make it out the gate. She was awarded a package of Skittles, and that helped make her feel better.

Next up was the calf money run, where a calf has tickets on it and the kids try to pull them off to earn a buck. Kids were running all over the arena, including Desert Boy.

Next up was calf riding. Desert Boy was very nervous about this.

He loaded up in the chute.

And then he was off!

I mean literally off! He had a rowdy calf.

Ouch!

He didn't like the falling part either.

He said his calf riding days are over.

Soon after was the greased pig competition. Whoever tackled the pig got to take it home. Desert Girl was motivated. She wanted a pet pig.

The kids ran around and around in circles.

This kid dove for the pig but didn't quite get it, but eventually someone did.

There were other events like barrel racing, saddle bronc, and hide racing, but I didn't get photos of those because the kids really wanted to have snow cones and we were kind of worn out from the camping adventure the night before (more on that later). After it was all said and done, Desert Girl was really glad she had done the mutton busting, and wants to do it again. She's near the weight and age limit, though, so I'm not sure she will. Desert Boy is upset he can't do mutton busting, as that seems to him a lot less painful than calf riding. I'm glad the kids got the chance to participate, and I'm quite all right if they don't decide to take up rodeoing for a hobby or career, it's not an easy sport and the chances of injury are pretty high! It was great having an event where they could give it a try.

Checking on Four GLORIA Peaks

Buck Mountain

I had most of this post written, and then, poof, it disappeared! So I'll try again!

One of my tasks this summer has been to check on dataloggers on the GLORIA peaks in Great Basin National Park. GLORIA is a world-wide program looking at how vegetation is changing on mountain tops. The basic idea is that the higher up you go, the cooler it gets. So plants that need cooler temperatures are found up high. If it gets too warm and they can't get any higher, than poof, they just disappear (like my previous text!--except not so easy to replace). GLORIA plots were installed in 2008 on Buck, Bald, Wheeler and Pyramid Peaks in the park. In 2013, they were re-read, and already changes were seen, with new plants moving in. Dataloggers were also installed, four on each peak, in each cardinal direction. The 2008 dataloggers only lasted about five years, so I was worried about the 2013 ones. Since 2016 is three years later, I figured it would be a good idea to go check on them and bring some replacements.

The first peaks tackled were Buck (about a 45-minute hike up from the Glacier overlook on the Scenic Drive) and Bald. Buck has some trees on the summit, so it makes it interesting. It also has outstanding views (see above). We found 3 of the 4 dataloggers, downloaded them all, installed new ones, and then headed across the saddle (new terrain for me!) to Bald Mountain.

Bald Mountain is our botanically most diverse mountain top, I think because it's so flat, so there is lots of nice habitat. You can see me below with Jeff Davis and Wheeler in the background.

Some of the flowers include Silene acualis (the pink one) and phlox.

Here's another alpine garden, with yellow Geum rossii and white Erigeron leiomerus and a few other things mixed in (e.g., Phlox, Astraguls kentrophyta, Poa secunda?).

Another day we tackled Wheeler Peak, the highest peak in our summit areas, at 13,063 ft. It was a warm day.

We saw lots of pollinators on flowers. I think this is a bee mimic on some Geum rossii.

At the top there were butterflies and bumblees on the phlox.

I advise everyone summiting Wheeler to walk the ridge towards Jeff Davis. The views are amazing.

I don't do selfies often, but I couldn't resist here!


I noticed some spots on the rock glacier. Turns out they are thermokarst ponds, or basically the rock glacier melting. Boo, it's getting smaller!

The amazing Parry's primrose (Primula parryi) cheered me up. For some reason it grows on this mountain, even though it's usually a riparian plant.

And a closer view.

Finding these dataloggers can be tricky, as we had no UTMs for them (we do now!). We used directions and photos to relocate them, and in some cases were trying to find matching lichen patterns.

We still had one peak left, Pyramid Peak in the middle of the park. We started at the Shoshone trailhead up Snake Creek. Because I hadn't done it for a couple whiles, we took the Dead Lake route, which is supposed to become a trail to connect into the Johnson Lake trail. It's super nice, but a lot of the flagging has blown away. The trailhead sign says the trail exists, but be prepared to do routefinding if you go for it. Dead Lake had more water in it than I expected. It's a lake in a moraine, and it can dry up to just a puddle about five feet across.

Up near Johnson Lake we ran into the Historicorps crew, who along with a park archeologist are working on rebuilding the historic cabins that miners built when they mined tungsten up by Johnson Lake. We puzzled over the extremely small door with them. Maybe some of the miners where short? In the background you can see some of the original tree stumps--the miners must have cut these in winter, as they are over ten feet tall!

We went by the lake, up the deteriorating trail to the ridge, and then were on the final approach to Pyramid Peak.

The view is exquisite looking south, with Johnson Lake and more of the South Snake Range.

The view looking north is also fabulous, with the backside of Baker and Wheeler peaks. In the foreground is Holmgrem's buckwheat (Eriogonum holmgrenii), a plant that is endemic to the South Snake Range. I always enjoy seeing it. The good news was that all the dataloggers we found downloaded just fine. They generally showed that flatter areas are more buffered from cold temperatures in the winter (probably from a snow layer), while the steeper sides of the peaks got very cold. We couldn't find all the dataloggers, but we installed new ones so we'll at least have some data.

Thanks so much to the volunteers, Hallie and Andrew, who went along on these hikes. 

It won't be long until this high country looks very different!

Kids Hike up Timber Creek

 We had some friends visiting from out of town, and Jenny and I wanted to spend time with them in the great outdoors. That meant it was time for a hike in the woods! Desert Girl took that as an opportunity to get all glamoured up. This girl makes me smile!

It was seven kids and three moms, and we started off with all the kids on the bridge.

They got to lead. Our destination? Timber Creek in Great Basin National Park. The trail starts by crossing lots of bridges, has lots of shade, and you can go until you get tired and then just head back (downhill).

The riparian area gave way to sagebrush.

Then we reached some rose bushes with ripe rose hips. We stopped to munch them and soon after some elderberries. The kids thought it was pretty fun to eat their way along the trail.

Desert Girl had brought a magnifying glass and used it to take a closer look at the caterpillars crawling around inside the tent.

Desert Boy brought his pocket knife and had fun whittling until he cut himself. He pulled a bandaid out from his survival kit and patched himself up. It's nice when they get somewhat self-sufficient like that!

 The trail got a little steeper as we climbed up to meet Timber Creek.

It is so nice to have kids hiking with kids, as they entertain themselves and whining is kept to a minimum.

We stopped for a snack break. That's an essential part of any kid hike.

Then the kids started playing with an aspen tree. I'm not quite sure what they were trying to do, but they were all working together. Teamwork!

We hiked a bit farther and then told them to go make forts in the meadow. They did that for a bit, and then it was time for hide'n seek. The tall grass made for some very good hiding spots.

And good photo opportunities!


After at least a half hour (I didn't keep track, it was so nice to just relax and not worry about time!) of free play, we hiked back.


The kids wanted to get wet in the stream, so we told them to go for it.

Some of them took that pretty seriously and got very wet!

Nothing like a dip into a cold mountain stream with friends!

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.