Signs of Fall

Yep, it's hard to believe, but summer is fast coming to an end. I'm seeing so many signs of that around me. The rabbitbrush is blooming, putting out its beautiful yellow flowers. The are so pretty, but I find that I'm slightly allergic to them, so they stay outside. They're a happy looking flower, though, brightening the landscape when so many other flowers have lost their inflorescences and turned brown.

The rose hips on the rose bushes are bright and red. Supposedly you can make a tea from them, but I haven't tried that so far. I used to like roses until I came out here and had to bash my way through them to get to the creeks. They grow so thick that it's an adventure in getting scratched. I suppose that they beat poison ivy.

I'm hearing more and more geese as they stop by for some food and a rest as they travel south. They nearly always travel in flocks and their loud cries make me smile. The sandhill cranes seem to be flying around more now too, and my husband has called them pterodactyls so many times that now I seem to have adopted that name for them. Yikes. Many of the other birds have quieted down because they aren't looking for mates, so hearing these squawkers is refreshing. Little Desert Boy has developed an eye for spotting birds.

The yellow school bus is out and about early every morning and in the mid-afternoon, picking up and delivering the school kids. They are so excited to be back in school so they can see their friends, many of whom live far away. Aunt Tana drives one of the two buses for the community, spending several hours each day on the road to  get to the faraway ranches and three schools.

Here's one of the not-so-pleasant reminders of the end of summer: ragweed. It makes me sneeze like crazy. It's taken over the perimeter of my garden and the edges of the fields, so both my husband and I are in it daily and want to scratch our eyes out.

One of the best things about the end of summer is the cooler temperatures, especially at night, making it the perfect time to go camping. I'm still trying to convince my husband to go on a camping trip this fall. When we go camping, the most important thing is the food. We never skimp on the food. We eat more around a campfire in a day than we do in several days at home. Then we're so full we can't go hiking and just have to lay around and do nothing. That's my husband's ideal trip--eat and do nothing. He needs the rest after his busy schedule.

I'm noticing other signs of fall too, like the calves being weaned and brought into the feedyard, the brown tinge to the landscape, and a little frost on plants at higher elevations early in the morning. Fall is such a beautiful season in the desert and I'm really looking forward to it.

Driving Tractors Part III

I recently needed to find something to make Desert Boy happy, so we went and visited some tractors on the ranch. Like the first and second times we made these forays, he was absolutely beaming. 

Our first visit was to a John Deere 4755, a real powerhouse of a tractor. It gets used to pull all sorts of equipment, but on this day it was sitting empty. But not for long...

Desert Boy eagerly got up and started working the controls. Except he's a bit on the short side at 31 inches, so he can't exactly sit on the seat and work all the levers.

In the next vehicle he figured out a better way to drive, by standing on the seat. He may need to get leg extensions to work foot pedals, but it's okay with me if he doesn't drive for a few years. His attention span isn't too long.

The vehicle he's in is a John Deere grader. Our ranch roads get washboardy quickly, so a couple times a year they're graded. The grader is also used to help keep irrigation ditches clean.

Desert Boy got tired of the grader and wandered over to a bright red tractor. Once again he looks quite short in the cab, but he's alarmingly close to key level.

Here's a better view of the red tractor. It's towing the feed wagon.

We move over to another part of the lower yard and find a piece of equipment closer to Desert Boy's size. He can sit and steer. He is so happy.

You can see the glee in his expression. He thinks he's really big stuff. Never mind that his jeans are too big and about to fall off and his shoe is untied. That's just not important when you're driving ranch equipment.

So what's the piece of equipment his size? This fork lift. He is totally comfortable on it.

Despite all the neat machinery on the ranch, Desert Boy seems to be just as happy pretending he's driving this broken down lawn mower in our yard. It doesn't even have a steering wheel, but it has enough metal on it to seem like a real vehicle and warrant the full accompaniment of vroom, vroom noises.

Birthday Party at the Beach

My oldest niece had her birthday last week, and to celebrate she wanted to have a party at the beach. The beach is basically the exposed lake bottom of a nearby lake that partially dries out every summer. But we make the best of what we've got, so we'll just call it the beach! It has sand, shells, tracks, and lots of room to play. We brought out the lawn chairs, towels, swim toys, and got ready to party.

The remaining water in the lake is a huge draw, and this time of year you can walk out a hundred meters and still be only knee deep. Henry and Desert Boy were ready to take the plunge.

Some of the cousins and their friends were already in the water, racing around, playing on inner tubes and boogie boards, and just generally amusing themselves. The water was the perfect temperature for a hot desert afternoon.

While the other kids were occupied, Desert Boy grabbed his cousin's sandal. He must be taking lessons from his sidekick Henry, who is always stealing items of clothing and running away with them. He started walking and I wondered what he was going to do with the sandal. I figured that as long as he didn't start chewing on the sandal like Henry does, we'd be okay.

Here he's tossed the sandal into the water and is watching what it does. You can see the inquisitive look on his face. I think he will take after his Daddy in trying out lots of experiments just for the fun of it.

Then he finds one of the inner tubes the kids have abandoned and decides to put the sandal into the inner tube. 

He climbs in after it and finds a nice place to sit and relax. 

Meanwhile, the other kids have gotten bored just playing in the water and have started a huge mud fight. It goes on for what seems like forever, and they don't get tired of chasing each other around and throwing huge clumps of mud.

Cousin Tractor Buddy is nearly coated with mud and seems happy about it.

Of course Desert Boy can't stay away from all the commotion and goes to check it out. Mud!? He's happy to play too and soon his feet and hands are coated in mud.

And then the inevitable--he has to taste it. Yum, mud must be good because he got quite upset when I picked him up and moved him out of the mud zone. 

We went back to the party area and he soon forgot about the mud once he began eating Cheetos and watermelon. That's a balanced diet, right? It was a wonderful afternoon and a great spot for a party. 

How to Find Water in the Desert

Your car broke down and now you're wandering through the desert (even though you should have stayed with your car, but we'll ignore that for now). You've run out of water and wonder what you can possibly do to find some to quench your overpowering thirst. You take out your laptop with your satellite connection and find this blog, which has the answer. Thank goodness, you will survive!

It's just a matter of becoming acquainted with the right plant. In this case it's a shrub called black greasewood (Sarcobatus vermiculatus). Greasewood has a long tap root and reaches down to the water table. Sometimes this tap root can grow more than 20 feet deep, but often it's less than 10 feet deep, especially when you see quite a few greasewood plants as in the photo above.

Greasewood grows in many areas of the Western North America and is easy to spot with its bright green color. It usually is found in the cold deserts and on slightly saline soil. 

In this photo we can see the small staminate flowers on the greasewood plant, looking like little cones. The pistillate flowers are generally found in leaf axils below the staminate flowers, and wind pollinates the plant. Winged seeds can blow almost one-half mile away.

Not all is nice with greasewood, though. It has sharp thorns that can puncture a tire, so if you're driving near it, watch out. These thorns help protect the plant from overgrazing.

One of the neat things about greasewood is that the leaves are deciduous, so they fall off in the winter or when it is too dry. The plant then becomes rather dreary looking in the nearly monochrome desert vegetation community. If you happen to get lost in winter you'll have to look a little more to find this shrub. When you do, start digging. You probably think I'm just saying this for fun and it's all theoretical, but it really works. My husband has dug in several greasewood stands to develop springs for cattle, and nearly always he's found water. 

So I don't recommend going out and getting lost in the desert and running out of water, but just in case you do, you'll know what to do. Just make sure you have a shovel in your survival kit so you don't ruin your nails. Or even better, use a backhoe like my husband.

Desert Destination: The County Fair

This last weekend we went to the local county fair. It's not real large, partly because we live in the desert and there aren't that many people here, but it's still fun. We wanted to make sure that Desert Boy got to see some of the animals and to support the cousins who had entered several animals.

We went over to see one of the cousins get her sheep ready for auction. She won a blue ribbon the day before. 

When it was her turn, she took the lamb into the auction arena and walked him back and forth to show off his best side. I'm not quite sure what that best side was, but maybe the person who bought him knows. The ranch bought some animals from the auction to help support the 4-H program. Sometimes it's hard for the kids to say goodbye to their animals, especially after they've spent so much time raising them. But the money they earn from the auction often goes into a special account and helps them pay for college.

Other cousins and Desert Boy are in the stands in the auction arena. Desert Boy manages to get their attention. He likes attention a lot.

Later we get to see this beautiful cousin's steer. The steer didn't particularly like other people, but he was well-behaved for her.

Nearby were these goats, belonging to a different cousin.

She's so young that she's in the Cloverbuds, a  junior 4-H program. She was the only one to have goats at the fair this year, so when she showed one of them on Saturday she and the goat had the arena to themselves.

Nearby were some sheep in the pen. They look so soft. It's fun to listen to them go Baaa. I obviously don't know much about sheep. 

Then we headed to the pig barn. I think pigs are so cool. Well, actually they look a little hot here in the 90+ degree heat. But they've got nice places to lay down.

This was one of the largest pigs, probably over 400 pounds. I don't think I would want to get anywhere near it!!

Desert Boy checks out one of the smaller pigs with his cousin. She's encouraging him to pet the pig, but he's not too sure about it. He's never been this close to pigs in his life.

We'll end with a bit of piggy love. I always enjoy going to the fair and am glad that the cousins are getting such great experience. It won't be that many years before they're showing Desert Boy (and me) how to care for and show animals.