A Sign of Spring--Frog Eggs

Yesterday we stopped at a desert spring to look for frog eggs. Every March, Columbia spotted frogs (and northern leopard frogs) lay eggs in waterbodies in our valley. They are very picky about where they lay their eggs--the water has to be the right temperature, depth, and velocity. 

We looked around the edges of this spring. It has just warmed up, the trees are still bare, and we haven't seen many migratory birds, so it seems too early for frogs to be going about mating and laying eggs, but that's what they do.

We looked and we looked. In some places the algae was really thick on top of the water.

Eventually, we found some Columbia spotted frog (Rana luteiventris) egg masses. The egg masses can have from 150 to 500 eggs in them. One pair of frogs lays each egg mass, so the egg masses provide a good estimate of how many frogs are in the area--just count the number of egg masses and double it.

The black embryos develop into tadpoles in a few weeks, and then the hundreds of tadpoles swim out into the spring. Mortality is really high for the little tadpoles. They are a tasty snack for fish, birds, and garter snakes. Yet enough survive to keep the frogs thriving at this spring.

Columbia spotted frogs are known for their affinity to water. When they get spooked, they disappear under water. What is amazing about this spring is that it is a long way off from any other spotted frog locations, at least ten miles. So have the frogs here survived since much wetter times (like 15,000 years ago, when there was a huge lake that covered the valley bottom)? Or do the frogs get frisky and hop across the desert from time to time?

Spring Break

For their spring break, the Society of Physics Students from Millikin University came out to our valley to enjoy the dark skies and different scenery from Illinois. One of the first things they did upon arriving was take out their many telescopes and set them up. They have a lot of neat equipment.

This is definitely not your usual spring break location (notice lack of leaves on the trees), but at least the weather for the week is predicted to be fairly warm and there's no snow on the ground. That's especially good because some of them are camping.

Here's Bobby, checking one of the telescopes that he's outfitted with a solar filter so he can look at the sun. I took a quick peek and saw the giant glowing red orb. Apparently we have just passed a solar minimum in the 11-year sunspot cycle, meaning there are very few sunspots right now. Over the next few years there should be more sunspots appearing. 

This large telescope was really heavy and required quite a bit of counterbalance weight to keep it on the tripod. The students and professors were very excited about the really dark skies out here. Being at a higher elevation means less atmosphere, so the skies are crisper and it's possible to see more stars.

Uncle Andrew is one of the participants. He's managed to have quite a few adventures this week, not too different from previous ones, where participants felt lucky to get out alive! More coming soon...

Stained Glass Windows in Visitor Center

For the second year of the artist-in residence program at Great Basin National Park, artist Kay Malouff was selected. She is a professional stained glass artist, and she offered to do a stained glass mosaic for the slanted window in the new visitor center.

Every scene includes many components of the park, from Lexington Arch, to cave formations, lizards, wildflowers, bats, and mountain scenes.

In the panel above she depicts golden aspen leaves, a bristlecone pine, the glacial moraine, and more. Every time I look at the windows I notice something new.

Towering in the sky is Wheeler Peak, with the foothills below, where a deer stands and a Kachina figure pictograph graces a rock surface.

Morning is the best time to catch the light through the stained glass window, as it faces east.

The stained glass windows certainly brighten up the visitor center and makes it a much more appealing place.

If you're an artist and interested in the program, here's more information:
The Darwin Lambert Artist-Writer in Residence offers visual and performing artists, composers, and writers the opportunity to live and work in Great Basin National Park. The selected resident stays in a small cabin in the park for a 2 to 4 weeks residency, starting in late September or early October. Besides the cabin, no other stipend is offered. Residents must donate one original piece of their work to the park’s permanent museum collection. Residents are also required to present one public program in which they describe their work in relation to the park and its natural and cultural resources. The deadline for submissions is April 1, 2009. Selection for the 2009 residency will be announced during the first two weeks of June, 2009.

For more information on the Artist-Writer in Residence program, visit www.nps.gov/grba/supportyourpark/artistinresidence.htm. Interested artists and writers may also reach the residency coordinator, Roberta Moore, at 775-234-7331 for more information.

Adventures in the Junkyard Reaches the Quarterfinals in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest!

I woke to good news this morning--my manuscript Adventures in the Junkyard has made it to the quarterfinals of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award (ABNA) contest! I quickly went in to tell my husband.

He rolled over in bed and said, "Great. Couldn't you have waited an hour to tell me?"

It was 4:30 a.m., early even by his standards, but something like that couldn't wait any longer.  I went back to bed and fell asleep promptly, dreaming sweet dreams. He went back to sleep, too, because I later heard him telling his alarm clock it was supposed to go off.

The ABNA contest was open for entries the first week of February, and they received thousands of entries. Then the entries were winnowed down to the top 2,000 based on a 250-word pitch about the story. These were further narrowed down by an excerpt of the beginning of the book to 500 quarterfinalists.

Now those excerpts are available for the public to read and review on Amazon.com. (I have the link to my excerpt at the end of this post.)

My story is called Adventures in the Junkyard, and the reason I'm telling you all about it is because the initial idea came from a blog post I did about the junkyard. So I guess blogging can have far-reaching effects! 

Adventures in the Junkyard is about a twelve-year old girl who goes down to her family's junkyard, and when she gets into a vehicle is transported back to that vehicle's most memorable moment.

Her first experience is in this 1953 GMC truck. What do you think could be the most memorable moment for it? How will she deal with time traveling?

If you'd like to learn more, take a ride over to the site and check out Adventures in the Junkyard, in the Fantasy category, at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001UG3C4Y.   Thanks!

New Exhibits in Great Basin Visitor Center

In 2006, a new visitor center opened at Great Basin National Park, down in the town of Baker. The old visitor center, up at Lehman Caves, is still open, but focuses on caves, while the new one looks at the entire Great Basin region. It took time and money to get the exhibits, but they've finally arrived and are really neat.

The visitor center is the building on the right, and the resource center, which includes a classroom, lab, office space, and a small library, on the left. Jeff Davis Peak, part of Great Basin National Park, is in the background.

One of the first things you see when you enter the exhibit area is this life-like bristlecone pine tree. It looks very much like the old-growth bristlecone pines found up near the Wheeler cirque and rock glacier at over 10,000 feet high. These trees are known to live over 4,000 years, but only in harsh conditions. In addition, only a small part of the tree is alive, like the exhibit shows.

There's a wall with cultural exhibits, looking at how the Fremont and Shoshone cultures lived. There is also this sheep camp exhibit, complete with the border collie lying underneath it. Kids love looking at the dog.

Another wall has exhibits about the different life zones that are found from the valley floor all the way up to the mountain tops.

Desert Boy was fascinated with the stream exhibit, which was down at his level and had fish. He can say "fish," which probably was part of the reason he liked it so much. I have to admit, having a small child made me look at exhibits in a totally different way. 

This rattlesnake made a few people jump. It stayed put, though.

There were some cutaways that showed what lives in the ground, which in the desert is quite a lot. The sagebrush vole is one of the creatures that hides from the temperature extremes in a burrow.

Here are some gigantic ants that look a little creepy.

Each exhibit has birds included with it. There's so much more to see, but I figure if I show it all, then you won't have an excuse to go and see it for yourself! To find out when the Great Basin Visitor Center is open, call 775-234-7331.

And if you have a little one, ask where the toy drawer is. They have puppets of all different sizes that don't even mind someone riding them.

Baby Calves

The heifers are nearly done calving, and it won't be long until the cute little baby calves are turning into teenagers. I'm a sucker for the baby calves, so I have lots of pictures of them! Here's number 77. Each calf gets the same number as his or her mama, so when they're being moved from pasture to pasture it's easier to keep track of them. Although the older range cows are often better at pairing up, heifers can easily get confused and lose track of their little ones. (Perhaps that same phenomenon applies to humans and is why Desert Boy made it to the post office five minutes ahead of me yesterday.)

And there are quite a few little ones. Unlike some earlier photos where they were chasing each other around, on this day they seemed to be resting. I must have missed the play session.

The additional hay is to help keep the calves warmer and drier, because when they are first born they are all wet. When a stiff wind is blowing on a cold night, it doesn't take long for a calf to get chilled. 

Here's a wet calf--it is only a few hours old. It still looks so unsure of the world and is sticking close to mom.

Mom eats on. The calf looks slightly less worried.

Mom is keeping a close eye on me. Never get between a cow and her calf--that's a good way to get trampled by a 1,000 pound beast. Yet the cow is very gentle with her brand new calf. And this calf is still getting accustomed to an entirely different environment. Do you see the umbilical cord hanging down from the calf?

The calf is starting to explore a little more. And mom is still eating. Do you wonder what she's so intent on eating? There's no green hay in sight.

She's eating the placenta. It's full of nutrients and apparently she wants them. If she doesn't eat the placenta, there are plenty of other animals that will: eagles, coyotes, ravens, and dogs. 

If you're groaning, keep in mind this is a nature blog. I'm just showing it how it is!

Sledding Date

Our snow is melting rapidly, so I figured I better get this photo up before it's all gone. Desert Boy and his friend "Aya" weren't too sure about the snow on this sledding trip, but I have a feeling that by the time next sledding season rolls around, we won't be able to keep them out of the snow!

A Visit to the Old Junkyard

Although most of the old vehicles are in the big, nearly one-acre equipment yard on the ranch, that's not the only place they are. There's an old equipment yard (aka junkyard) that we explored a little bit when our truck was stuck and we had to walk back to get the backhoe. 

Because it's older, the vehicles in it are even more interesting, like this pink and white Buick Special. It has such wonderful lines.

Even with a mangled hood and brush growing up all around it, this old beauty manages to exude classiness.

Do you know what my favorite part of this car is? Go ahead and guess. In fact, you can (just barely) see it in the photo above.

My favorite part is this hood ornament. Isn't it just the coolest? I don't think I've ever seen one more interesting. I'm not quite sure why there's a plane as a hood ornament except to suggest the speediness of the car. Anyway, I'm sold. I would buy this car just for the hood ornament.

(Hint to automakers: start putting cool hood ornaments on cars and your sales will increase. Oh, yeah, and make them more fuel efficient, too.)

Not all the vehicles in the junkyard are so charismatic, like this old truck. Nevertheless, it has an interesting story. After its life as a regular truck ended, it was modified by turning the seat and steering wheel around. I'm not kidding. It became a homemade loader, with the steering in the rear. 

You can see it a little better in this photo. The part on the left used to be the hood and instrument panel, but then it became the backend. The hood used to be the cowl from a Cessna 172 that wrecked on a nearby road.

The story on the plane is better than the story of the truck. The pilot landed on a nearby road that led up the mountain. He tried to take off by going uphill, but the road was too steep. He couldn't gain enough elevation, and when he tried to turn, the wing caught the ground and flipped the plane. The pilot was fine and went on to wreck other planes and helicopters. He's still alive today and actually provides our high speed internet.

This Chevy Nomad has definitely seen better days. It was a good car, though, because even after it lost its usefulness as a station wagon, the lights, tires, and many parts were removed to use in other vehicles. 

Even the inside was gutted to use parts for other vehicles.

Some of the vehicles were hard to find because of all the brush, like this old Pontiac.

This car also has something extra-cool about it. You can see the hood clearly in the photo above, so you know it's not a hood ornament.

It's this Indian fuel cap. It's those extra details that make these cars so fun to explore!

Northern Nevada Railway

In honor of Desert Boy's fascination with "choo-choos," today we'll take a look at the Northern Nevada Railway, headquartered in Ely, Nevada. The East Ely Depot is now a gift store and offices, and is a commanding presence next to the railroad tracks.

This looks like a snowplow car. We haven't had real huge snowstorms this winter, but enough that snow would occasionally have to be plowed off the tracks. A variety of train cars are located behind the East Ely depot on the tracks. This is where train trips start.

The Nevada Northern Railway includes a work yard, a museum, and the so-called Ghost Train. The train has two different routes, one towards the north and one towards the west. There are two different types of locomotives: steam and diesel. Steam locomotives are difficult to maintain, but a dedicated cadre of volunteers keep Engine #93 puffing away.

Although they have some specialty trains run in the winter, the main season begins April 11. 

Isn't this caboose beautiful? I love the yellow color. Kennecott is the name of a local mine, and mines are what brought the railroad here in the first place. Today trucks transport ore to market, but the railroad is still maintained around the Ely area. It's a great way to step (or ride) back in history.

Here's the diesel locomotive, ready to pull. On this particular day we spent our time around the rail yard, but you can be assured there will be future train posts. Desert Boy will make sure of that. 

If you'd like to learn more about the Nevada Northern Railway, check out their informative website!