Desert Boy and Henry Play

Desert Boy and Henry headed into the yard to enjoy some of the beautiful autumn weather a few days ago. Desert Boy really likes being pushed on his little bike. He also sometimes shuffles it along--his legs still aren't quite long enough to reach the pedals. Here he is with one of those fun expressions. 

Then he discovers a ball and heads over to it. "Ball" is another one of his first words, and he keeps repeating it over and over whenever he sees anything that remotely resembles a ball.

Henry is also fascinated with balls, so as soon as Desert Boy has it, Henry wants it. Desert Boy isn't intimidated by Henry, despite being heftily outweighed by him, and tries to keep it away. Is he successful?

Not quite, but at least he finds another ball to play with.

He throws the ball to Mama and comes to get it. Please note what Henry is doing in the background: destroying the swing! It only took him all summer to gnaw off a part of the board. If only I can train him to eat all the leaves that will be soon covering the yard.

Desert Boy the Plumber

Desert Boy the Plumber says go vote today!

Because we live out in the boonies, we actually had to vote last week because we're a mail-in district and wanted to make sure our ballots got to the county clerk's office in time. I sort of miss going to a polling place, passing the people outside on the sidewalk trying to convince you at the last minute to vote for their candidate, waiting in line, and going into the little booth and pressing the buttons to make those important choices. On the other hand, mailing a ballot in does have some perks like being able to vote wearing pajamas.

Whatever the results, it will be nice to have an end to the advertisements, excessive TV coverage, and most of all, all the phone calls. The 45-second surveys generally last several minutes, and if a survey is supposed to last 5 minutes, you better be prepared for 15. Eeesh. A couple calls have been sort of amusing: a candidate saying he is for taking the water in our valley and exporting it (hmmm, I think we are the wrong target audience for that phone call), and another for a candidate that lives in Virginia. That dialer sure got the wrong area code!

Have a good election day, and if you have any plumbing problems, Desert Boy is really good at flushing.

Desert Destination: Hunting

Every Monday we visit a desert destination.

I haven't taken many interesting trips lately, so I was searching my photos for a good place to take you on this desert destination Monday. I do have a lot of new photos of the equipment yard, my most recent destination, but I will save those for later in the month. They're providing a lot of inspiration for my novel I'm writing for NaNoWriMo, entitled "Adventures in the Junkyard." I figure that it's only appropriate that my blog provide my inspiration for my writing.

So today we're going to take a different kind of trip. It's hunting season. Elk, mule deer, and pronghorn antelope are the three big targets around here. The exact dates for hunting vary depending on the type of weapon used and the hunting unit. 

Now even though Desert Boy is dressed in the photo above in his camo pants and ball cap, we didn't really go hunting this year. My husband used to hunt, but works too much now to do it. These days my nephews hunt. I've never hunted, my family was just not into it. But every once in awhile we get to eat some venison steaks or venison stew or my absolute favorite, venison ribs. And then I sure appreciate hunters.

Today we're going on our virtual hunt. You try to figure out what animal we're hunting by the clues below.

Clue 1: the scat.

Clue 2: the footprint.

Clue 3: part of the leg and a hoof.

Clue 4: the animal eating yummy alfalfa.

Okay, you've probably guessed it, our virtual hunt is for a mule deer. Mule deer are considered to be abundant animals today, but interestingly enough, before European settlers came, they were relatively rare. It wasn't easy for the Native Americans to catch a deer, and thus they had to rely on much smaller game, like rabbits. Why are there so many deer today? One of the main reasons is that there is more food available for deer. Deer prefer grazing on shrubs rather than grasses, while livestock prefer grasses and forbs. When European settlers brought their livestock to the area, it they changed the vegetation dynamics. Livestock grazing stimulates shrub growth. It also reduces fine fuels and decreases the fire cycle, thus allowing shrubs an even better chance to grow and flourish. Of course, everything has a cycle, and if you'd like to read more about mule deer population cycles, here's a great pamphlet.

One final photo for our hunt. If you've ever wondered what a skinned deer looks like, now you have your answer. Bon appetit.

Last Fall Colors

I woke up yesterday morning and saw dark clouds over the mountains. I figured we were in for another blah day, and I was right, except for about five minutes early in the morning, when the sun peaked through some clouds just over the horizon and lit up the trees. I'd estimate that over half the leaves in town have fallen off the trees, and with the impending bad weather, more are going to fall soon. So I snapped away, trying to capture some of the last glorious color on the trees.

Even trees that have lost most of their leaves, like this elm, still looked good with that early morning light and the storm clouds in the background.

The Lombardy poplar's almost vertical branches catch a lot of the leaves as they fall off. During the winter some birds will nestle into the tree, using the leaves as insulation to help keep warm. When I walk by them, the birds fly off and I feel a little bad about disturbing them.

Here are some of our neighbor's cows, with the mountain range to the north in the background. Early morning light really highlights how rough the foothills are.

I can't help but think when I look at these beautiful leaves on the trees that soon I will be raking them into huge piles! The cows love to eat them, so I take them to the pasture. If you're asking why we just don't let the cows into the yard, the answer is simple: cow pies! 

Ramblings about Horses

Horses crack me up. They have distinct personalities, just like humans. Some are friendly and want to come over and say hi while others want to be left alone. Some like to go, go, go while others are just plain lazy. But one thing they all have in common is that they are bigger than me. Yikes! I feel kind of small and vulnerable around horses, waiting for one to step on my foot or decide to knock me over just for the fun of it. I know I need to spend more time around the horses to get more comfortable, so this was my goal one fine day.

This is Kate. The ranch often names horses after the people we buy them from. If it's a female horse, it may be named after the seller's wife. If we buy a horse that already has a name, we keep that name.

Kate's a good-natured horse who didn't mind posing for a few photos. She's really good with new riders and usually doesn't try too many tricks, like bucking or taking off at a gallop just for the fun of it.

Here's Jewel, a dependable work horse. She's all saddled and ready to go.

My sister-in-law Tana makes riding look so easy. 

My first horse ride was in Girl Scout camp the summer after third grade. I recall walking down to the stables and being told exactly what to do. The things I remember most are: 1. There are lots of flies around horse barns; 2. You should always, always mount a horse from its left side; 3. Riding a horse around and around and around in a circle while walking gets boring after awhile. 

Nevertheless, each year for the next few years afterwards, I would get all excited about my 15 minutes of riding two times during the week of camp. I imagined myself riding across the plains, chasing bison, my hair flying in the wind. I dreamed of being out on a big ranch with lots of cattle, being one with the horse as we galloped through the swaying tall grass. But I never, ever dreamed about being a jockey. I guess that thought never entered my mind.  

Over the next few years I had a couple opportunities to go on trail rides, which involved old horses walking slowly, obviously bored. Again, my mind would always race with ideas of what I was really doing. I was going up a steep mountain trail with important supplies for a scientific expedition. Or I was helping a handsome cowboy move cattle from winter to summer feeding grounds. Somehow a lot of my horse imaginations involved ranching and cattle and cowboys. Romance novels were my number one source of horse knowledge until I married my husband.

And here's my husband leading this beautiful horse, Jamie. My husband knows a fair bit about horses, but he likes to say he doesn't. He's grown up with them and has fallen off them (he doesn't like that part at all). He can ride a horse that's going faster than a walk and not panic. Nevertheless, I think the lasso is just for looks--he's never actually showed me his roping skills. Of course, he still has some secrets.