Desert Boy Plays with a Sprinkler

Monday is usually Desert Destination day, but today we're not going far because I'm tired! So what better place to go when you're tired but the backyard.

The heat of the summer keeps us playing in water, and today we get to watch Desert Boy learning about hydraulic properties. Specifically, he's learning that when he sprays water, it gets whatever it's aimed at wet.

He seems fascinated by the water and looks for things to get wet. 

He stands up to get better leverage.

And then he's back down on the ground again. It's tough work moving water around, you know.

Oops, his aim was a little off, and Desert Boy got an unexpected splash. It's warm out, so it feels good despite the surprise.

He's not fazed by getting wet and gets right back into playing with the sprinkler. By the way, if you've never seen this kind of sprinkler, it's really cool. As the water spins around, it propels the tractor forward, so you just lay out the hose where you want the sprinkler to go and it can cover a large area.

He keeps trying to figure out what other things he can do with water.

He begins by making his vroom, vroom noises.

And finally he decides it's time to ride the tractor. The backyard turns out to be a great destination.

Name This Slimy Creature

I just want to have fun with Sunday posts, so we're going to venture into another world. Last week it was UFOs, this week it's this slimy creature. Know what it is? Here are some clues, and because I'm in a good mood, I'll include the answer at the end of the post.

I found this creature in the stream, under a rock. It likes water and it truly is slimy feeling. You can even see the reflection of that slime coat in the photo. Technically this is called the mucus, and it uses the mucus to glide along the rock. I feel smarter when I can write "technically." Do you, too? I thought so.

This critter has no arms, legs, head, heart, or brain. It must have a pretty simple life! It does have a couple spots that look like eyes, called ocelli, and they detect light. The critter doesn't like light and  moves away from it.

I can't say that it's a he or a she because it's both. It can reproduce asexually, which means no mating. But if it wants to, it can mate. Such choices.

One of the coolest things about this critter is that it can regenerate body parts. That's part of the reproduction thing. If it's split crosswise or lengthwise, it can regrow what it lost. 

So what is this thing? It's a planaria. Maybe you got to see one in high school biology class. And if not, go out to your nearest stream and look under some rocks. There's a good chance you might find one. Not that you would want to, but don't you feel that the quality of your life has improved knowing that you can? 

Have a good Sunday. I guess this post will show you that you should be out doing something other than sitting in front of the computer looking at photos of unattractive, uncharismatic, creatures. I guess I should get a life too.

A Family Hike

We needed to escape the desert heat, so we headed up high again, this time with the cousins and their parents. We drove up to 10,000 feet elevation, and right off it felt so much better. Our destination was Bald Mountain, at about 11,500 feet. It was the first attempt to climb a mountain peak for some of the cousins, and they were very excited. Or maybe you can't tell, because little girl in the foreground is trying to kick her brother. Yes, we're a peaceful and quiet family. Well, some of the time.

We didn't stay on the trail all that long, because there isn't a trail up to the top of Bald Mountain. The cousins thought it was fun to lead the way. The aspen groves gave way to the low, bent trees of limber pine and Engelmann spruce. Then the trees stopped and we walked on talus. Small patches of flowers and grasses provided bits of green in the landscape.

Although Bald Mountain is pretty high, it's not that high compared to Wheeler Peak and Jeff Davis, which you can see in the background. I like having such great views when I'm hiking, because when I'm gasping for oxygen I can always say that I'm taking a break to enjoy the view. Or to take a photograph.

I like to take lots of photographs when I'm hiking up high. So I can get lots of oxygen. This pretty flower presented a good reason to stop forcing my body against gravity. 

But I kept trudging along, and we all made it to the top. It was cold and windy, and we huddled behind a rock cairn and ate lunch. See the clouds in the background? We're still in monsoon season, so we had to eat fast because it was starting to thunder in the distance.

Here you can see more clouds. We felt kind of exposed. It was hard to believe that just a few short hours before we had been sweltering on the valley floor in the desert heat. I was proud of the cousins climbing the mountain and being such good sports about it.

Desert Boy enjoyed most of the trip. But he doesn't like to stop to take photos. After all, he doesn't need the extra oxygen! 

We thought we could get a nice family shot on top of the mountain. But Desert Boy's patience had run out, so all we have are a bunch of photos with a red-faced, crying kid. So don't look at us, just enjoy the scenery!

Fossils: A Glimpse of the Past

One of the benefits of living in the desert is that the trees don't get in the way of covering up the rock, so we can see large expanses of it. Some people might say that this is really boring, and yeah, it can be. But in certain areas, the rocks are fascinating, even to a non-geologist like me. I've been trying to learn more about geology, and in that quest have learned which layers of rock are most likely to contain fossils. I find these most fascinating because they give us glimpses of what used to live here.

We have lots of exposures of sedimentary rocks (the type of rock where fossils are found), but because the rocks were laid down at different time periods and under different conditions, the fossils can be very diverse even within the same mountain range. There are also some sedimentary rocks that have no fossils at all, so it's good to have a guidebook or two. I've spent some time looking for fossils in the wrong rock type and that's no fun.

Here are some really cool fossils that look like they're coming right out of the rock. Many of the creatures that lived in the seas hundreds of millions of years ago no longer exist, but some have relatives that we still see today. I still have lots of work to do to be able to identify the fossils. With over 200 different fossils in this valley alone, it's nice to know I won't get bored.

Here are some more fossils that look like they're popping out of the rock. The one in the middle looks like a shell you might find on the beach.

These fossils are in the rock and have such pretty patterns. It's fun to think back to the time when this was all water and not a dry desert!

Second Crop

My husband is working long(er) days now because it's time for the second crop of alfalfa to be cut and baled. This summer they'll be cutting three crops of alfalfa due to the cold spring. On years with warmer springs and more precipitation, we can get four crops. Alfalfa is a perennial crop that can grow 3 to 12 years. It's in the pea family and produces a pretty purple flower.

Here's my husband showing my soon-to-be sister-in-law (hurray!) how to check hay. After the hay is cut and laid into piles called windrows, it has to dry. When the moisture is just right, about 8% to 16%, then it's time to bale the hay. My husband knows a couple tricks of how to test for that moisture content without using a moisture probe.

Here's a view from above of the windrows. I just love looking at fields from above, especially at harvest time. The symmetry of the rows just looks so nice to me. Maybe because they are so orderly, and I certainly don't have much order in the rest of my life!

The balers go round and round the pivot fields, depositing the nice rectangular bales of hay. We use a couple different-sized balers. Small balers make bales weighing 100-120 pounds, and these are mostly sold to horse owners. Large balers make bales weighing about 10 times that amount, and these bales go to our cattle and other cattle owners. 

Timing the harvest is really important. You want to cut the alfalfa while it still has a high protein content. At the same time, we're dealing with monsoon weather, so those afternoon rainstorms can get the hay wet and decrease the protein and make it too wet to bale. Hay with higher protein content can be sold at a higher price to dairies. My husband wants me to add that we are helping to produce the milk you drink! 

Here's another one of those orderly overhead field shots. The windrower and balers can't go entirely around the pivot because the pivot itself blocks the way, so part of the field gets cut in a different direction.

Soon after the bales are made, a balewagon goes around and picks up the bales and puts it into stacks. It is a great sight to see these finished bales of alfalfa hay. It's an even better sight to see them get loaded onto trucks and drive away!

Desert Boy Plays in a Puddle

We haven't been experiencing the effects of Hurricane Eduard or the tornadoes of the Midwest, but we did have a nice dowsing monsoon rain this afternoon. After the rain stopped, Desert Boy, Henry, and I headed out for a walk. Before long we found this nice puddle, and I just had to let Desert Boy have some fun.

I have fond memories as a kid going out after storms and unclogging sewers. We don't have any sewers around here, but the water is still a big attraction. At first Desert Boy is content to walk in the puddle.

He starts picking up rocks and throwing them into the water. I figure this might go on for awhile and settle back to enjoy the show.

I sure wish I could squat like that! He throws rocks into the puddle, gets them out, throws them again.

Henry isn't too far away, investigating the smells.

Desert Boy loves to play in the water, and he usually isn't content to stay very dry...

...so before long he's sitting in the puddle. Like the little wave he creates as he plops down? He doesn't make a sound, but a content look appears on his face. Now he can really play. 

He twists and turns in the water. I'm just grateful that he's not trying to blow bubbles. I should mention that this puddle is along the side of the main road through town, so everyone who is going by is going extra slow and giving us strange looks. I'm sure more than one thought, "What is that crazy mom doing, letting her kid play in a mud puddle?"

I like to think that I'm just letting Desert Boy expand his horizons in a supervised activity. I know I can wash the clothes. And this is only his third outfit for the day--he's been going through four outfits a day recently, so it's no big deal.

This is one of Desert Boy's mischievous looks. I wonder what's going through his little head right now.

And here's another one of those looks. In about 15 years he will be sweeping the girls off their feet with looks like these.

Finally Desert Boy goes too far and starts eating the mud in the mud puddle. It's time to leave. But we'll be back after another rainstorm!

Getting Hot on the Playa

Ready to experience the desert? My husband was on Sunday, so we headed out to this huge playa about 45 miles from our house. We have plenty of playas closer to our house, but he wanted to go to this particular one because it is a wet playa year round. Not that you can tell by the photo above. In some years it does have water on it, but that water evaporates or seeps down into the soil. Most of the playas near us are wet in the winter and spring and dry out in the summer and have a hard enough surface that you can drive on it. 

Here's the sign next to the playa. It says "WARNING STOP!!! Lake Bed is NOT DRY! Proceeding past this sign will result in getting stuck. $500. minimum recovery fee will be charged to rescue your vehicle. [Bullet hole, bullet hole] Sheriff's Posse"

My husband on the surface is a hard-working rancher. Underneath he is a mad scientist with lots of crazy experiments to try out. His experiments are usually kind of fun, so Desert Boy and I went along for the ride. But when we got out of the truck it was 99 degrees. And once we stepped out onto the playa, with all those sun rays being reflected back to us, it was much hotter.

I trudged along behind, looking at the tracks on the playa. There were some deer and coyote tracks, but mostly there were car tracks--or ruts in some cases. Obviously not everyone heeded the sign's advice.

I found a clear example of this when I came across these boards. Someone had gotten stuck and used the boards to try to get extra traction. Hopefully it worked for them, otherwise they had a big towing bill to pay.

And these three wheel tracks? They were from Desert Boy's stroller. I wonder if anyone else will wander out on the playa and be puzzled by the strange tracks. You can barely make out my husband from here. I had really fallen behind. I don't do so well in hot weather.

Finally I caught up and Desert Boy seemed to be enjoying the view from his stroller. I had enough though, and I wheeled him back to the truck, where we turned on the air conditioner, ate chips, and watched my husband run (run!) from one location to another on the playa. I was praying I wouldn't have to go out and rescue him. If I did, I was hoping that I could load him in the stroller and wheel him back.

Forty-five minutes later my husband came back, beaming as he talked about soil properties and conductance and a bunch of stuff I didn't really understand. I asked him if the heat bothered him. He said no, he just worked up a good sweat and then the wind cooled him off as the sweat evaporated. I told him I could tell he had been sweating a lot due to his odor. He said it wasn't him, it was his clothes! Good golly. You're lucky that they haven't invented share-a-smell over the internet or you know that I'd be sharing the smell with you too. You're probably content with the pictures--the desert is really beautiful, especially when seen from a nice, cool climate.

Desert Destination: Scotty's Castle, Death Valley

It's been really hot lately, so today we're going to take a trip down memory lane to when I worked in the hottest place in North America, in Death Valley. Temperatures there can exceed 130 degrees Fahrenheit. This extremely hot temperature is for the valley bottom, part of which is below sea level. Much of the 3.2 million acre park is at higher elevations and thus is slightly cooler. Still, I wouldn't recommend a trip there this weekend; put this idea away for a fall or spring trip.

Scotty's Castle is located near the north end of the park. The mansion was built in the 1920s by a Chicago businessman, Walter Johnson, and his wife. They wanted a winter getaway in a dry climate, and during one trip to the area met Death Valley Scotty, a talkative scoundrel who convinced them to settle in that area. They spared no expense as they built a main building and several outbuildings on 2,500 acres. Springs provided an oasis with welcome shade and cooler temperatures.

The clock tower had state of the art features in it. Unfortunately they didn't get around to finishing the swimming pool in front of the castle. By the way, although the Johnsons called their property Death Valley Ranch, nearly everyone else called it Scotty's Castle, for after the Johnson's death, Scotty took it over for a time. The Johnsons never seemed to resent Scotty's presence but enjoyed his storytelling and company.

The tour guides dress up in 1930s clothing and give living history tours through the buildings, transporting you back in time. Yes, that's me, if you were wondering. It was winter and cool, so I wore a cape over my vintage clothing, including stockings with seams and a garter belt (not that I showed that off). My character was Abigail Fox, a spy looking for the gold mine that was rumored to be hidden within Scotty's Castle. I had a lot of fun with the character.

The house tours show the opulence and workmanship that was put in to every room. Here's a rattlesnake light fixture in the kitchen. Scotty loved making up stories about the house, so there were always plenty of tales to tell.

Here are some beautiful baskets made by the local Timbisha-Shoshone women. If you're ever out in Death Valley, I'd recommend taking the tour of Scotty's Castle. It is a strange experience out in the middle of the desert.


And one last shot, an overview of the castle grounds. You can see how stark the background looks, with sparse vegetation. But the palm trees in the foreground made the immediate area seem like a great getaway.