Henry Finds a Treasure

Henry loves going out on runs and walks because he can explore the smells of the neighborhood. We go out everyday, and yesterday Henry found gold. Okay, it wasn't real gold, but to him it was probably even better than the doggy equivalent of gold.
He found a deer leg, including the hoof. And he decided to bring it home. Oh, lucky me. It seems normal for dogs to chew on things, but that hoof just gets me. Why is that part so attractive to a dog?
Henry doesn't waste any time getting down to business. He's chewing away.
But he senses that I'm close, and puts a protective paw over that deer hoof. After all, I might want to steal away his treasure. 

Desert Boy Rides a Horse

It's summertime, which means it's time to move the cows around different meadows and pastures as the feed allows. Aunt Tana helps move the cattle, and we saw her yesterday on her beautiful horse Jewel. She offered to take Desert Boy  for a ride.
Here's Aunt Tana with her dogs, Heidi and Tippy. They don't get along well with Henry. I think they sense that he's just a play dog and they know that they are work dogs, able to do important things like getting cattle to go where they want.
Aunt Tana starts by giving Desert Boy a lesson. She's an excellent rider, unlike me. In my dreams I'm an excellent rider, but in reality I get fairly nervous if we go faster than a walk.
Desert Boy quickly catches on and sows no fear being on top of the big horse by himself.
Desert Boy sees the cattle coming. Aunt Tana had ridden ahead to open the gate so they could come through. The horse has miraculously sprouted two more legs in this photo.
Desert Boy gets ready for the action.
He reaches for the other rein. He doesn't have much time to act, there's a storm coming in.
He's got the reins now and is ready to go. Maybe next time we'll put some shoes on him.
And there they are, a bunch of cattle in the background. They're moving in the right direction and all is well with the world.
Mission accomplished, Desert Boy scans the horizon, looking for his next task.

Don't Try This

If you've been following this blog, you know that you should not go hiking with my brother. This video will show you why. Uncle Andrew hiked in the summer heat down the Bright Angel Trail to Plateau Point at the Grand Canyon. 

He had previously done a down to the river and back to the rim trip, so had "been there done that." (And it wasn't even too hard for him.) So this time around he wanted to show people what the trail was like. Instead of taking a video camera, he took a photo every 4 or 5 steps down the 6-mile long trail, which ends at a beautiful scenic area overlooking the river. 

For you purists who say that the Grand Canyon isn't in one of the four North American deserts, you're right, the rim is in the Colorado Plateau. But watch the vegetation change and become more desert-like as Uncle Andrew descends 3,000 feet from the rim into 115 degrees Fahrenheit in about 3 minutes. It might make you a little dizzy, but at least you can stay cool.


So where should Uncle Andrew go hiking next and would you like to go with him?

Learning to Drive

Learning  to drive is always a rite of passage. For me, it was a terrifying experience when I was 15 years old and in driver's ed class. The instructor figured everyone had already driven, so he put me on the street and said go, not bothering to find out that I had never even sat behind the wheel of a parked car. After nearly sideswiping a whole line of cars and making him so nervous that his face was wet with perspiration, he decided maybe we needed to learn in an empty parking lot. I couldn't have agreed more. 

When it came time to take my driving ed test with him, he flunked me before I even took the test. But I could perform in a high stress situation and passed with flying colors (well, he only had to use the instructor brake once). So he had to unflunk me and then I got to terrify my parents as I put in my hours before I could get a license to drive on my own.

Out in the desert, learning to drive is a little easier. There aren't the inconveniences of parked cars. And there are plenty of roads. And living on a ranch, young'uns are encouraged to drive at an early age so they can help move the tractor to the other side of the field. My husband learned to drive when he was five. That does seem like a very early age, but he had his older brother to help him. His older brother was six. 

Last week the California cousins came for a visit, and my sister-in-law decided that it was time for her oldest daughter to learn how to drive. She got behind the wheel of her cousin's work truck and before long was driving it, only slightly scaring her mother. It was a stick shift, which really impressed me, because that took me forever to learn how to drive. 

Desert Boy didn't want to be left out of the fun. Here he is practicing with his Pony Express Rider cousin (update on the ride coming soon). His cousin is laughing because Desert Boy already knows he needs to shift. While he's "driving" he makes vroom, vroom noises.

And now that we get a wider view, you can see he is ready to live it up, taking his cute California cousins for a ride. I'm already sweating the real driving!

What do you remember from your first driving experience?

What is a Desert?

I've been writing about deserts for awhile, but it seems that it might be a good idea to define what a desert is. The most basic definition is that a desert is an area that is moisture deficient; more water evaporates than is received. Another definition, more quantitative in nature, says areas that receive no water for at least 12 consecutive months are extremely arid lands, those that receive less than 10 inches (less than 250 mm) a year are arid lands, and those that receive 10-20 inches (250-500 mm) a year are semiarid lands (steppes rather than deserts).

One of the characteristics of deserts is that they have large temperature fluctuations due to the lack of humidity. Daytime and nighttime temperatures may vary by over 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 deg C). (Keep that in mind if you're packing for a trip to the desert!)

Deserts are not necessarily hot. Antarctica classifies as a desert because of the small amount of precipitation it receives. In fact, over one-third of the land masses on our planet are considered to be deserts. Sand covers only about 20 percent of deserts, with a variety of soils, bare rock, and even ice constituting the other desert bottoms.

The word desert is derived from the Latin desertum, which means "unpopulated place." That was largely true at one time, but due to humans creating diversions and developing the combustible engine that pumps groundwater up to the surface, over 500 million people live in the deserts. Desert cities include Phoenix, Arizona; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Greater Los Angeles area, California; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Juarez, Mexico; and many others.

Although at first it might appear that few plants and animals live in deserts, biodiversity is often high. Animals might not be readily seen because some spend part of their lives in burrows to escape temperatures that are not conducive to their lifestyles, while others are primarily active at night. Some animals (like kangaroo rats) have evolved to be able to live without drinking water by creating water during metabolic processes when they digest food. Plants are often drought- or salt-tolerant to be able to withstand the harsh conditions. Some desert plants have long taproots to be able to reach underground water.

Humans have adapted to survive in the desert by being nomadic to find food and water sources. Traditional desert dwellers include the Bedouin, Tuareg Tribe, and Pueblo people, who live in hot deserts, and the Inuits, who live in a cold desert. Many more people have moved to the desert in the last 75 years due to the invention of air-conditioning and highly engineered water systems.