Desert Boy Goes to Playgroup

One of the moms in the valley recently started a playgroup for the little toddlers in the area. Desert Boy enjoys going and seeing what the other kids are doing. Or sometimes they just like to stand at the door and look out at Henry.

It's really fun watching kids this age because they don't tend to interact very much; instead they do their own thing and watch the other kids. If another kid is doing something interesting, then it's time to imitate.

Desert Boy couldn't resist putting one of the orange cones on his head and walking around with it. I'm not sure what made him do it, but he thought it was fun.

The cone didn't fit quite right, so he had to hold on to it as he walked. It took some concentration.

And then, oops, it fell off. I don't think any  of the other kids thought what Desert Boy was doing was cool enough to imitate it. But despite not having any followers, I have no doubt he'll be a conehead again soon.

Rattlesnakes

A few days ago, the question was posed: Am I worried that Desert Boy might run into trouble with a rattlesnake? 

The short answer is no. 

Here's why (aka the long answer):

Right now, during the winter, Desert Boy is perfectly safe, because rattlesnakes have evolved a survival strategy to deal with cold temperatures by hibernating. They are cold-blooded creatures, meaning they can't regulate their body temperature. So if it's too cold, they take cover, and the earth provides a constant temperature for them. Likewise, if it's too hot, they also take cover.

During May through September, the Great Basin variety of rattlesnake  (Crotalus viridis lutosis) is out, but with a few precautions, chances of getting bitten are really slim. Generally a rattlesnake only bites for food or defense, so if you stay far enough away from it, there's no danger. Most snake bites are on people's hands--because they try to handle them.

If you do happen to get bitten, stay calm and go to the nearest hospital. The hospitals around here all carry antivenom. Don't use a tourniquet, and don't cut the wound and suck it out. Try to keep the injury below the level of the heart and relax as much as possible. And keep in mind there's a fairly good chance that the snake didn't inject any poison. 

One other thing that makes me feel better about Desert Boy and rattlesnakes: Henry. Our niece was once protected by her black lab from a rattlesnake (the dog got bitten when she jumped in front of the niece, but ended up being okay). I'm fairly certain Henry would do the same thing. But when it gets warmer in the spring, we'll be more careful, making sure we don't go putting our hands or feet into places we can't see. 

Looking at it from the other side, life is tough for a rattlesnake. Only about ten percent make it to sexual maturity, they rarely venture more than a few miles from their den, and competition is fierce. You can learn lots more about rattlesnakes at this website.

There are quite a few non-venomous snakes around here: gopher snakes, garter snakes, and racers, to name a few. They are all really good at helping control rodent populations, so I'm glad to have snakes around. In fact, I think I'd much rather have snakes in my neighborhood than mosquitoes. And because we live in the desert and don't have much water that mosquitoes need for breeding, I usually get fewer than five mosquito bites a year. 

Red-tailed Hawks

Yesterday morning as I was leaving the house, I noticed this pair of red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) perched high in a tree near our house. It was only about 20 degrees F, so they have their feathers fluffed out to give them extra insulation. 

Red-tailed hawks are the most common hawks in the area, and in fact they're found throughout North America. They have adapted to almost every type of habitat, from deserts to forests to urban areas. In the wild, they can live to about 20 years of age.

 
These hawks were silently watching the morning unfold, but they have sharp, piercing calls. I always giggle (or cringe) when I hear the kree-aw sound of a red-tailed hawk on television regardless of what hawk or eagle they're picturing. It's true, the red-tailed hawk has a memorable call, but come on movie and TV industry, we know the same bird isn't making the same sound in all the landscapes we're supposed to think of as wild. (Okay, I'm getting off my soapbox now.)

Female red-tailed hawks generally weigh between 2-4 pounds, while males are about 25% smaller. This is called sexual dimorphism and is common in raptors (and ducks, insects, spiders, reptiles, amphibians, and many fish).

Red-tailed hawks usually hunt from perches, swooping down to prey on small mammals, particularly small rodents. They will also occasionally eat birds, reptiles, insects, and fish. It so happens that this diet overlaps a great deal with Great Horned Owls. The owls hunt at night (and often perch on the same tree!), while the hawks hunt during the day. During twilight the battle is on.

Here's a good shot of the front and back of the red-tailed hawks. They have many color variations, called morphs that are generally categorized into light, dark, and intermediate. The morphs may be due to age, regional characteristics, and of course, genes.

Although the moon might appear far away to us, red-tailed hawks have eyes eight times more powerful than humans.

Desert Destination: Cave Lake's Fire and Ice Show

January 17-18 were the dates of the annual Fire and Ice Show at Cave Lake near Ely, Nevada. The fire consists of a huge fireworks show and an historic black powder cannon being shot off "as often as possible." The ice covers Cave Lake and is the scene of ice fishing and ice sculptures, with a top prize of $1,000.

I think those ice fishing outnumbered those ice sculpting, and people of all ages participated in both. I asked one fisherman how thick the ice was--we've had unusually warm weather the past two weeks--and he said 12 to 14 inches. 

Here's an ice sculpture in progress. We toured about 2 1/2 hours before the quitting time, when the sculptures would be judged. This is a sculpture of a man riding a horse. Not shown in this picture is the same scene but going in the opposite direction. I'm guessing these ice sculptors were fairly experienced, bringing plywood to keep off the wind. But the weather was really pleasant--the ice sculptors just wished there was more snow.

This scene has a bed/recliner, fireplace, a tree, and a couple other things. We'll revisit this scene at the end of the post and see what they've accomplished in 45 minutes.

This is a rendering of the Hoover Dam. A huge group came up from Las Vegas to work on it. They said if they won the top prize, it would pay for their hotel rooms next year. The Fire and Ice Show has been in the Top 100 Events for both 2008 and 2009.

We wondered why paths were shoveled out on the ice, and before long we got our answer--the ATV-towed wagon. We couldn't resist a ride around the lake. 

Some of the ice sculptures were still in the blobby phase. 

Others were pretty much done, like this steam locomotive.

Here's a mouse watching a cat catching a mouse and some catnip in front of it. The sculptors are busy shoveling snow around their creation.

An ice cream sundae. yum.

I think this is the doughboy. Or maybe the monster in Ghostbusters crashing through skyscrapers. I was fascinated by the process of making the ice sculptures. Buckets, shovels, sleds, heaters (to warm up water), ice augers (to get lake water), chairs, ladders, and concrete finishing tools were the most popular tools to make the ice creations.

Here are some cute penguins, part of a bigger sea scene.

The Hoover Dam is getting bigger. The columns were starting to tilt a little, but they just kept patching them up.

The tree is looking a lot more like a tree that we saw in the first scene.

Walking around could be a little slippery.

Next year we'll have to bring a sled--kids loved being pulled around. And people were sledding off the hills all around the lake, playing ice bowling, and generally having a great time. It was a wonderful day to be out and about. Now if I can just convince a bunch of friends and family to join me in ice sculpting next winter, maybe we can try for that prize!

Here's a video from last year's Fire and Ice Show from another blog:

Sheepherder's Party

This weekend we went to the Sheepherder's Party out on the Utah/Nevada stateline. This area, generally called the West Desert, has been a big winter sheepherding area for over a century. This party is put on to encourage sheepherders, sheep owners, and others involved in the sheep industry to celebrate their heritage and to take a break from the mundane routines of winter.

Denys Koyle, owner of the Border Inn, organized the event, which went from Friday evening to the wee hours of Saturday night. Friday night was a dinner and sheepherder's stories; Saturday was a pancake breakfast, presentation by Sour Dough Slim, a dinner, and the sheepherder's ball, with lots of good music to kick up your heels to. 

Nevada Governor Jim Gibbons opened the program Friday evening with remarks.

Some of the actual sheepherders came. There aren't so many of them anymore as transportation has improved. Nevertheless, they still do a lot of the sheepherding the old-fashioned way, living in small sheep camps, riding horses to move the sheep, and having only their border collies and sheep dogs for company most of the time. At one point most of the sheepherders were Basque, but today they are all from Peru. 

Sourdough Slim showed off his excellent musical abilities and sense of humor.

The program included those of all ages, including young Melanie singing a pretty song in her pink cowgirl hat.

This gentleman showed off a quilt his made. He explained that he wore the elbows out of his wool shirts, and they would mysteriously disappear from the closet. He wanted his wife just to cut the sleeves off to make short-sleeved summer shirts, but she used them to make this beautiful quilt--her 100th quilt!

The emcee was the hilarious Hank Vogler. His son got up to take his turn at filling the room with hot air.

No program is complete without a little cowboy poetry. Here is the Sheepherder's Lament by Jack Ingram, about the difficulties of getting a wife while herding sheep:

And then came something new for me: cowboy yodeling. I really enjoyed it. If you want to hear more, Sourdough Slim will be performing at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada the end of January, or you can get CDs from his website.