Desert Destination: A Forgotten Cave

Every Monday we visit a desert destination.

This weekend I had the opportunity to meet up with a bunch of cavers from Southern Nevada and go on a caving trip to a small, infrequently-visited cave. To start our trip, we parked and put on our caving gear. Even the kids had helmets and headlamps.

Our first challenge was to find the cave entrance. We hiked through the woods and eventually found an opening in the rocks that led into a nice, dark hole.

We climbed down into the hole and split up into pairs, exploring different side passages. Then we all got together to go up a steep climb into another part of the cave.

This upper section was sort of like swiss cheese, with lots of holes in the rocks. In some places we could go up or down and end up in the same place.

Jonathan found a fun little hidey-hole to peer out of and watch people go by.

The other side of the hole was a big passageway. Well, big enough for Jonathan to stretch out in. Sometimes "big" in a cave is relative.

Here's his mom in action, climbing down a steep part in the cave.

We saw a few formations, like these soda straws and stalactites, but there weren't a whole lot of formations in the cave.

This little drapery, or cave bacon, looked really cute.

The cave kept going down until passages were filled with water. From the mud coatings on the walls, it was obvious that during some times of the year, the water rises higher. 

We weren't interested in getting wet, so we headed out of the cave. This is Ricki, who enjoyed the trip.

We could see the bright sun coming in through the entrance, and it took our dark-adapted eyes a little time to adjust.

Once outside, we made sure everyone was accounted for--and that we hadn't picked up anyone extra! We dusted off our knees and headed back to the trucks, happy to have gotten some time underground.

Sunday Fun: Desert Boy Pulls the Wagon

Aunt Tana had this fun wagon down in her zoo, and as soon as Desert Boy saw it, he scampered up on it and started playing with the handle. If it has wheels, he wants to be on it!

He started making his vroom, vroom noises as he imagined he was riding along. The goats bleated in the background, making for quite an interesting cacophony of sounds.

Even though Desert Boy didn't move the wagon anywhere, he was happy. He's generally a very happy little boy.

Later we decided to play another game--Desert Boy would pull his Mama sitting on the wagon. He grabbed hold of the wagon handle and pulled with all his might. There was a little too much friction to get the wagon going, so I gave a little push with my legs.

And that made him promptly fall down. He thought it was funny.

He got up and tried again.

And quickly fell down again when I gave the wagon a little nudge. This went on and on, with Desert Boy pulling and falling, pulling and falling, and he thought it was the best game ever. Fortunately I managed to catch some of it in video mode so you can hear his laughter. Have a great day!

Dehydrating Apples

Yesterday my husband and I dehydrated some apples. Yum! Why, you might ask, do you need to dehydrate food if you live in the desert? Why can't you just put the apples out in the sun and let them dry out by themselves? If you have three to four continuous sunny days in a row over 100 degrees Fahrenheit, it will work. Out here in November, it's freezing at night and our days are getting into the 50s, so we have to figure out something else to do. An oven can work to dry fruit, but isn't very efficient, so we dug out the old electric dehydrator.

The first step to dehydrating is preparing the fruit. I cored these tasty Winesap apples. As you might notice, some of my holes aren't exact circles--my aim was a little bad!

Then you slice the apples and put them on a dehydrator sheet. Note the size of the apples and how they cover the entire sheet.

Then it's time to put the apples in the dehydrator. We set it for 145 degrees for about 16 hours.

Dehydrating is a long process.

Here's what the apples look like when they come out of the dehydrator. They are definitely a lot smaller once they've lost their water.

But the taste is more concentrated, and they are better than candy. That's saying a lot coming from a dedicated sugaraholic. We were all greedily snacking on them as we put them in bags. Yum!

Desert Boy Meets Some Goats

Desert Boy and I visited Aunt Tana's zoo yesterday, and Desert Boy had a wonderful time getting to meet some goats. Aunt Tana keeps several goats, and during the winter she welcomes the milk they produce for her family and also for any bummer calves. (Bummer calves are calves that are abandoned by their mamas and have to be fed by bottle.)

This is one of the Nubian goats. Tana knows much more about them, but she was busy playing football so Desert Boy and I just visited for fun. In a future post I'll tell you all sorts of interesting details about these goofy goats.

The goats had lots of fun making noise. Desert Boy had lots of fun making noise too.

The goats were very interested in the little person hanging out with them.

It didn't take Desert Boy long to get up close. 

I love the eyes of this goat. If it looks a little strange, it's because it doesn't have any ears.

Desert Boy got a little braver and started petting the goat.

The goat was quite happy for the attention.

Then Desert Boy started climbing the fence to get into the goat pen. Note the goat in the background carefully observing the action.

Up and up.

Almost to the top! But Desert Boy didn't go in. He hasn't figured climbing over fences yet, just climbing up. The sounds of the goats and Desert Boy were fun, so here's a short video for your enjoyment.

Wild Turkey and Other Game Birds

Happy Thanksgiving! Traditionally we associate turkeys with Thanksgiving. Thanks for checking out this blog for a slightly different take on turkeys. 

Around here, the state introduced wild turkeys (Meleagris gallopavo) a few years back. Although wild turkeys are native to large parts of North America, they aren't native to this area. Nevertheless,  the state thought it might be fun to put some in so people could go hunt them. (We'll just ignore any effects they might have on the native wildlife before I go off on a long diatribe.) The wild turkeys have flourished and now are in all sorts of places they weren't supposed to go. Although this time of year would seem to be ideal to have the hunt, the season is March -May.

Apparently bringing birds in just so they can be hunted is a fairly popular thing that state wildlife agencies do. Above is a chukar (Alectoris chukar), a bird native to Eurasia, but now found in many states in the western U.S. Every year from October through February there is a chukar hunting season and people go out and try to shoot this football-sized bird, with a daily limit of 6 (in Nevada). The birds travel in coveys of 5 to 40 birds. The chukar is the national bird of Pakistan. (You're ready for Jeopardy now.)

Another introduced game bird is the ring-necked pheasant (Phasianus colchicus). Some people near here tried to raise these in pens so they could then be released for hunters to shoot, but foxes kept getting into the pens and killed them all. This bird, originally from Asia, is one of the most sought-after game birds throughout the U.S. In Nevada, hunting season is all the month of November, so it could be a good potential replacement for the standard turkey dinner.

I figure if a bird has to be introduced, it should be something really exotic with a silly name, like this Himalayan Snowcock (Tetraogallus himalayensis). The only place it lives in the U.S. is in the Ruby Mountains in northeastern Nevada. As such, it has become a mecca for birders who want to add it to their life list without traveling to the Himalaya Mountains. Bird trips like this one are organized to go see the Himalayan snowcock. Some birders will even go so far as to hire a helicopter to get them up to the high elevations where the bird prefers to live. There's a hunting season for the snowcock, from September to November. It makes me wonder who provides more to the local economy: hunters or birders in search of this elusive bird?