Desert Destination: The "Equipment" Yard

Today we're going to take a trip to a place that is in every desert valley, near every desert town: the "equipment" yard. My husband told me to put the quotes around equipment. You see, most people would call this a junk yard. But one person's junk is another person's equipment. Or something like that.

Near the entrance of the "equipment" yard is this sign. Hang on, we'll zoom in.

This sign means keep your hands off the equipment. The ranch uses a lot of old parts from the equipment that's stored out there, and is willing to prosecute anyone stealing or damaging the property out there. 

Ready to go take a look? Grab your hat and let's go for a ride.

First off we see this old Studebaker livestock truck, and next to it a 1953 GMC (the truck that my husband learned to drive--it didn't have brakes even at that point).

The paint job held up well on this old ton-and-a-half Chevrolet, which used to be a spray truck. Henry is having fun looking around too. 

Next we come across this Jeep Wagoneer left by a ranch hand. The interior is a good place to keep junk. Oops, I mean equipment.

Here's a Dodge van with moon hubcaps (on the back). Otherwise known as the loveshack. 

This is an AMC Pacer. The ranch needed some metal so my brother-in-law cut the roof off, but it caught on fire during the process and burned impressively.

Among all the old vehicle carcasses are some useful ranch equipment, like these water troughs, stored upside down to keep the dirt out and the wind from catching them and blowing them away. Desert Boy thought they were a great place to play hide and seek.

This VW bug was abandoned up on forest land and needed a happy place to retire. It sort of looks like it's even smiling. It knows it's in good company.

This mud-test hole rig still works! It's used to drill a small well hole to see if it's feasible to drill a bigger well.

Desert Boy found something to drive--the remains of an old bale wagon.

These old combines have found their final resting place. Until a part is needed and they suddenly provide a very important function to keep the current ranch going. 

A visit to the "equipment" yard is always a good time. My husband likes to reminisce about the vehicles out there. Each one has a story. We've just touched on the surface today, but don't worry, we'll be back again to see what other treasures are hanging out under the desert sun. 

An Important Lesson

If you've been following this blog, you know that Desert Boy loves to climb. He'll climb anything; I found him halfway up the piano yesterday. Earlier in the week he started climbing the fence above. I pulled him off and showed him what barbed wire is and made him touch it. Think he'll understand the significance of this lesson?

More Than You Wanted to Know about Scat

I have spent a lot of time looking at scat, and if you'd like to learn the basics of how to differentiate some common types of scat, see this post. Today we'll go into a little more details about some of the scat found in the area. I've gone to the trouble of trying to draw some of the scat, although these pictures are not to scale. Mouse scat is nowhere near as large as mountain lion scat. Really.

Let's start with some of the bigger scat. Bigger animals leave bigger scat, and the biggest one in our area is the mountain lion. Much of the information that follows was obtained from the excellent book Scats and Tracks of the Desert Southwest by James C. Halfpenny along with observations I've made over several years (do I really want to admit that?). 

Carnivore Scat

Mountain lion scat

Mountain lion scat is usually about 1.25 inches in diameter, with pieces up to 4 inches long. The ends are blunt as is common for cats, although a drier diet produces more tapered ends. Like house cats, mountain lions occasionally bury their scat, with dirt scrapings around the scat. Bones and hair are usually obvious in the scat.

Bobcat scat

Bobcat scat also usually has blunt ends, but it is much smaller than lion scat, with a diameter of only 0.8 inches. Pieces can be three inches long, and dry scat falls apart. Bobcats sometimes cover their scat with dirt and other debris.

Coyote scat

Coyote scat usually has tapered ends as is common in the dog family. The scat is often dark in color but may be brown or gray with lots of hair and bones depending on the diet. Coyotes occasionally scratch near their scat piles to mark territory. Diameter is 0.6 inches and length about 3 inches.

Gray fox scat

Gray fox scat is also tapered and can look very similar to coyote scat, with a diameter of 0.6 inches. Length is generally about two inches long. Scat color varies depending on diet, and may include more plant and berry material than coyote.

Skunk scat

Skunk scat also has blunt ends, but is smaller than mountain lion or bobcat scat, with a diameter of 0.25 to 0.75 inches. Length can extend from 1.5 to 5 inches. Insects are often a large part of a skunk diet and may be present in the scat, along with bird feathers, mouse fur, and carrion.

Weasel scat

Weasel scat is not easy to find. It's only 0.1 inches in diameter, but can be 1.5 inches long. It looks like a wavy, black cord with hair-like ends.

Herbivore Scat

Deer Scat

Elk are the largest herbivores in our area, followed by deer. Their scat is nearly identical in shape, but elk scat pellets are 0.5 inches in diameter and deer scat pellets are 0.3 inches in diameter. When the scat is moist, the pellets stick together. A drier diet allows the pellets to scatter when reaching the ground. The typical shape is called nipple-dimple, with a pointed end and a concave end, but drier scat is oval-shaped.

Rabbit scat

Rabbit scat is brown, round, and about 0.3 inches in diameter. Both the black-tailed jackrabbit and the desert cottontail also produce a black, semiliquid scat that they usually reingest for the remaining nutrients.

Porcupine scat

Porcupine scat can be pellets or strings of pellets that are connected by fibers. In the winter, scat is often redder from feeding on conifers, and in the summer, brown to black from eating herbs and shrubs.

Chipmunk scat

Squirrel and chipmunk scat is very similar, with small, unconnected ovals. Squirrel scat is 0.2 inches in diameter and chipmunk scat 0.1 inches in diameter.

Mouse scat

Mouse, pocket mouse, and vole scat all looks virtually identical: dark, small, oval, and unconnected. Voles have the distinction of leaving thousands of scat pellets in tennis-ball sized latrines. 

And that's it for today! But I'll be back again with more photos and info about the wonderful array of scat found in the desert southwest. I hope you'll be back again too!

Curious Cows

Yesterday afternoon we went for a little walk behind our house. The cows were out in the pasture and, as cows often are, were eager for a little entertainment. Not the Hollywood type of entertainment, but just something to make their day a little more interesting. Like a visit from Henry and Desert Boy.

Sometimes Henry chases cows, despite my attempts to make him stop, so I wasn't too certain how he'd act when he started approaching the cows. He paused and looked like he was going to be calmer. Maybe that's because I made him run two miles, chasing the truck to the babysitters and back. Perhaps I'll start running again soon, but in the meantime, I find the current exercise program for Henry very easy for me!

Back to the scene at hand. Henry and the lead cow assess each other.

They cautiously approach.

They reassess. I can only wonder what's going through their minds right now.

Henry takes a few more steps forward. The cow stares.

Henry makes a final few steps and then retreats. He's no working cow dog, after all.

Now we have the attention of the small herd, and they start approaching us as a whole. It takes a little getting used to to stare down a few tons of beef cattle.

Especially when they have some belligerent faces.

And drool. 

And give you a mean, intimidating stare. But I know better, these cows are just looking for some fun, and it is a little hard to take a cow seriously when she has hay hanging out of her mouth.

Still, though, when they lower their heads and take a few more steps closer, I have to take a deep breath and remember that with a shout and stomp of my feet I can make them all scattter.

Desert Boy stays pretty close to Mama, but he's very interested in these beefy bovines.

Hey, Ma, this is cool. Thanks for letting me take a walk!

And then Henry reappears, and Desert Boy gets distracted, as you can see in the video below. Notice how the cows just watch the whole thing. It's a good life.

The School Bus

We went down to the lower yard yesterday afternoon and discovered a couple school buses down there. What are school buses doing on a ranch? Nope, it wasn't a school field trip. And no, we don't use them to transport people around. A local school district was excessing old stuff, and the ranch decided that there were enough good parts on the school buses to make it worth the while to bid and haul them back.

It took a little work to unload this big school bus. It still looks good on the outside, but its engine and seats aren't the way they used to be.

Nevertheless, walking down the aisle of the school bus brought back so many memories. Band trips with wonderful friends and our "deep" conversations, singing on our way to swim meets, and school field trips that opened up a whole new world to kids from a small town. I also remembered the spit ball fights, singing '99 bottles of beer on the wall' to pass the time, and the silly jokes we played. The back of the bus was the coolest place to sit because it meant you were the furthest away from the adult, the bus driver. Nowadays, whenever I get on a bus I usually like to sit up front because it's not as bumpy. I guess that's another sign of getting old.

Desert Boy was with me, and of course he had to "drive" the school bus. He scrambled up on to the seat without any help from me and started the trip.

But with his short attention span, it wasn't long until he was looking out the window. 

Last week Desert Boy started saying the word bus. He loves to repeat it over and over and over. B-u-s. B-u-s. B-u-s. B-u-s. He even gets out a good "s" sound. He's so proud he can say it, he calls most every big vehicle he sees a B-u-s. Before long, he won't only be saying bus, he'll also be getting on the bus to go to school. 

He might have to grow a little more, though, so he doesn't have to sit down to get off the bus!