Desert Boy Climbs the Gate

Due to the fact that we live on a ranch, we have lots of gates around to keep cows where we want them. Desert Boy is in a climbing phase and has discovered that the gates are excellent places to practice his climbing skills.

Desert Boy starts climbing, and shows a remarkable amount of coordination.

The spacing between the bars increases with each step, making it more of a challenge for a short little kid.

Nevertheless, he makes it up higher and evaluates the top bar.

To my huge surprise, he shows some restraint and doesn't get himself stuck on top of the fence. He's good at climbing up, but not so good at coming back down.

Desert Boy spent about 10 minutes climbing up and down the gate. I just happened to capture this angelic expression. It makes him look so serene, doesn't it?

Check out the video below and you'll see that he's really a bundle of energy, energy I wish I could tap into!

A Robber Fly

Today I'd like to introduce you to a Robber Fly, also known as an Assassin Fly or a Bee Killer. It belongs to the order Diptera (flies) and the Asilidae family, a huge family with 1,000 species in North America. This family is fierce, killing other insects, hence the violent common names. It's sort of like what a falcon is to other birds--out there watching and ready to dive in for the kill. The Robber Fly isn't fussy, it will eat just about any flying insect out there, including bees, wasps, dragonflies, grasshoppers, and other flies. Using its big eyes, it spots its prey, swoops down on it, and captures it mid-flight. It takes the prey to a perch and injects enzymes into the insect that immobilize it and start digesting it. Then the Robber Fly slurps up the liquid meal. Yum.

This is a male Robber Fly, probably in the genus Efferia, with 100 species in North America. Males have white bulbous claspers on the tip of the abdomen. Females have a swordlike ovipositor that extends from the abdomen and allows them to deposit eggs in dead flower heads, cracks in the soil, and other tiny spots.

The Robber Fly family can be distinguished by the "bearded" face, with lots of hair on it, and the concave top of the head between the eyes. That concave feature makes its large compound eyes seem really "buggy." The legs are strong and bristly, the better to hold onto its prey.

Do you see that sharp proboscis? Within it is a lancet, an even sharper pointy object. It allows the Robber Fly to stab its prey and inject fluids. It's reportedly sharp enough to pierce human skin, but fortunately Robber Flies haven't developed a taste for human flesh. Yet. (Insert cackling laugh here.)

Larvae overwinter in soil and emerge in the spring. It is thought that more species of Robber Flies still need to be described. Robber Flies are particularly common in sunny and arid areas and are most active during the warmer parts of the day, but I have to admit that I only noticed it for the first time this summer. It is so amazing how many different insects live so close to us and yet we know so little about them!

The 100th Post: Finding Desert Survivor

Today marks my 100th post on this blog. Wow, it's been quick! Thanks for reading--your comments have kept me going.

It seems like an appropriate time to examine how people are finding this blog. As I keep blogging, I've found that more and more people are finding this website by doing a Google search. Some of the search terms used to find it are kind of amusing:

How much does a diaper weigh? Wow, I actually have the answer to this: Size 3 saturated diaper weighs 2.5 pounds!--Thanks Desert Boy.

Harvester ant bite on a dog Henry hasn't been bitten by a harvester ant that I know about, and if I did know about it I don't think I'd worry.

Rabbit poop/deer scat/tell the difference of desert scat It's so nice to think that my blog has become a scat reference.

Footwear for hiking across the desert I don't think my blog helped them.

Desert junk Lots more to come on that soon. We have no shortage of desert junk around here.

Desert hammock Not sure what they wanted. But it makes me want to go get on the hammock and gaze into the desert sky.

Penstemon going crazy And some other flowers too.

What if you get lost in a lava tube? Just make sure you're not with brother/uncle Andrew.

So go ahead, give it a try, type in a strange term and see if you can find my blog with it. I dare you to. 

Desert Boy Makes Music

Desert Boy sometimes has to entertain himself. This is the way he did it the other night.

Canning Peaches

Our peach trees weren't impressive this year, but fortunately a lady down the road had an overabundance of peaches and was willing to share. Desert Boy and I went down to gather some (it wasn't easy because Desert Boy kept trying to climb up the ladder after me). Back home I separated peaches into ripe, not ripe, and bruised.

I put the bottles and lids through the dishwasher to prepare.

I turned on every burner on the stove and got out my big pots. Then I dug in and started processing peaches--canning them, making jam, and even making a peach pie. It was long and hot work. 

But seeing the results makes me happy. We'll have plenty of peaches and peach jam all winter long!