Processing Calves

Late spring is the time of year when our ranch processes calves. That basically means the calves get their shots, ear-marked, ear-tagged, castrated, and antibiotics, if needed.

A couple drums hold some of the needed equipment--vaccination guns and ear taggers.

The process is repeated over and over for each calf, and the team works smoothly. A calf is moved into the chute, which is tightened and laid on its side. Each calf receives several vaccinations and has its ears cut. This ear cutting is to show ownership of the calf. We don't brand calves, but use this method instead. 

When I told my husband that ear cutting didn't seem very nice, he reminded me that human circumcision is basically the same concept--removing part of the body that isn't critical for a function.

Calves are given an oral antibiotic, but since they aren't willing to just take a pill and swallowit  with a swig of water, there's a metal gadget (called a balling gun if you really wanted to know) that is put down their throat to make them take the pill.

They get a new ear tag that has an insecticide in it.

And if the calf is a male, it is castrated. But instead of whacking off those delicate parts, a rubber band is used to cut off circulation, and in a few days the reduced blood flow means that part of the body is no longer effective. The infection rate for this method is less than the Rocky Mountain oyster method.

For female calves, the process is done in less than a minute, and for male calves, just a bit longer. The chute is tipped up, and the calf jumps out.

Old Cowboy Lee came by with a sick calf he had found on the range. I love it when Lee comes by, he is just such a quintessential cowboy.

Desert Boy and I got a job while we were hanging around. We moved the newly processed calves out of the fenced area and into the bigger part of the corral where all the nervous moms were waiting.

Desert Boy enjoyed opening and closing the gate.

The moms and calves were a little confused and took some time to get sorted out. They were also very noisy, as you can hear in this video:

The calves eventually got sorted out. This calf found his mama and started doing his favorite activity--eating. Life is good again.

Carnival of the Arid #4

It's the beginning of the month, so it must be time for...Carnival of the Arid #4!

This carnival celebrates blogs about arid lands, so if you like the dry, check it out to see what else is going on around the world. 

Desert Boy Hide'n'Seek

Desert Boy loves playing hide'n'seek and is constantly looking for new places to climb in and hide himself. It doesn't matter if it's small or dark, he will still go in. The other day he tipped over the hamper and climbed in.

Sure enough, he fit just fine.

Where's Desert Boy? I'm going to have to train Henry to help me find him. 

The Bulls

There's something about visiting the bulls that's a little intimidating. Maybe it's the angry bull stare. This bull is definitely giving the 'Stay the heck away from me' look. 

Maybe it's because just on the other side of the fence is a whole corral of female cows. 

He can smell them. 

He can hear them. 

He can see them. 

He just can't get to them. 

These black angus bulls don't seem quite intimidating. They aren't standing right next to the fence that separates the cows from the bulls, so maybe they're on to something. Remove yourself from the temptation.

I stared at the bulls, and the bulls stared back at me. This one seemed quizzical and started walking towards me. 

I watched. 

I waited. 

I wanted to know what it would do. After all, for most of the year, the bull's life isn't too exciting. They eat, they sleep, and maybe they dream about the short period of the year they get to do what they've been selected for. 

Now before you go thinking that their lives are totally a bed of roses, here's a little more information. The bulls were "trich tested" this last week (they must be tested annually), with some fluid removed from a sensitive part of their anatomy and studied under a microscope to determine if they have any Trichomonas foetus protozoa. This sexually transmitted disease (yep, cows have'em too) causes the disease Trichomoniasis, which often causes miscarriages or infertility and reduces the size of the herd. There is no treatment for the disease, so there is a strong prevention program

By the way, the disease Trichomoniasis is also found in humans, but it is caused by a different protozoa, Trichomonas vaginalis. 

Please, let's get back to the bulls!

The bull took a few steps forward and stopped, still watching me. I watched him back, willing him to get closer.

But he decided sniffing the manure was a better option than getting closer to me. How do you think that makes me feel?

Desert Destination: Baker Hot Springs, Utah

Every Monday we visit a desert destination.

This past weekend I had a chance to visit a place I've wanted to go to for a long time: Baker Hot Springs, about 20 miles northwest of Delta, Utah. I had read in the very informative Millard County Tourism Guide about this hot spring, which they called a Mini-Yellowstone. I scoffed. Surely there couldn't be something that cool around. 

But I was wrong. 

As it turned out, I was really impressed with the hot spring for a number of reasons. 

It was hot. Very hot. Scalding hot. 

It smelled like sulfur, a smell that immediately transports me to Yellowstone.

And it was beautiful. 

And best of all...it had soaking pools nearby!

The reason that there is a hot spring in existence is due to the nearby Fumarole Butte, a large volcanic area that's only about 6  million years old. Apparently that is very young by geologic standards, and there is still some active magma not too far below the surface that is heating this water.

From the excellent USGS site that has lots of information about geologic features in Utah: 

Fumarole Butte is a Quaternary basaltic andesite shield volcano. It overlies minor outcrops of Tertiary basalt and rhyolite erupted 6.1 million years ago, contemporaneously with rhyolite of the Keg and Thomas range 10-30 kilometers to the north and west. Fumarole Butte has normal magnetic polarity indicating eruption during the Jaramillor event. The volcanic neck which provides the name Fumarole Butte is at the center of the volcano and rises approximately 30 meters above the gentle slope of the shield. The volcano was inundated briefly by Lake Bonneville, and there are scattered remnants of lacustrine deposits. Benches developed at the Provo level (1,463 meters). Crater Springs (also known as Baker Hot Springs and Abraham Hot Springs), on the eastern margin, produced thermal water (87-90 degrees C) at an estimated discharge rate of about 17 liters per second in the summer of 1967. 

The soaking pools consist of three small pools, each of which can hold about two people stretching out or more if you don't mind sharing. Apparently at one time someone wanted to make a little resort out this way, but I guess it was just too desolate to make a go of it.

Here you can see the pools with Fumarole Butte in the background. When we arrived, a local was there to explain the heating and cooling system for the pools. We were lucky to have him help us, because even though it sounds simple, it would have taken us awhile to figure out. 

The water from the natural hot pool runs down a little creek and is diverted into a channel on the north side of the pools. This water is extremely hot, so hot that if you fell into just that water you would need to take a trip to the hospital. In fact, the local said there can be problems with people coming out to party and drinking too much and falling into this extremely hot water.

Amazingly, there is a cool-water spring that emerges just a little to the west of the hot spring (between the spring and the butte). This cool-water spring is smaller, but it provides enough water that with a little plumbing, the perfect temperature can be achieved in the soaking pools. The local told us that it takes about 20 minutes to cool down a pool that is too hot, but only about 15 seconds to heat it up, so we kept that in mind as we experimented. 

There are short pieces of PVC pipe that can channel the cool water over the hot water ditch and into the soaking pools, and pieces of discarded clothing and towels to act as dams to keep the hot water from entering the soaking pools. 

Surrounding the area is a variety of vegetation and wildlife, including this kingbird. I saw my first kingbird of the season last week and am glad to welcome this noisy species back.

Surrounding the big hot spring is a lot of knee-high vegetation, and the day was just cool enough that the steam rising off the water provided a nice contrast.

In this photo you can see both the steam and the Fumarole Butte in the background. I didn't realize it until I got home and pulled up a Google Earth map that the spring area is much more extensive than can be seen from the parking area.

After an enjoyable soak, I headed up the channel to find the source of the hot water. What I found were several hot springs. One had a lot of algae growing on the top. 

Another was burbling up from a crack in the earth's surface, with an especially strong odor of sulfur.

Another springhead was darker blue. The hotter the water, the darker it is due to the different types of bacteria that live at different temperatures. The cooler water had lots of orange bacteria, but cool is relative--it was still hot enough to burn a person.

And hot enough to kill a sheep. This wool and pile of bones was next to the hot spring channel.

Here's a view of the channel looking south, towards the soaking pools.

There are some salt cedar (Tamarix ramosissima) trees around the area, but they appear to have been treated with the very successful salt cedar leaf beetle (Diorhabda elongata),  which defoliated them. I found one tiny patch of greenery growing back, but it's so nice that the salt cedar haven't grown so thick as to prevent access to the area.

There are a lot of minerals in this hot water, and it appears that they are building some travertine along the hot spring channel. It takes on fascinating forms.

For the most part, the spring was relatively clean, although there was some trash downstream and some beer cans by a firepit that looked like it was from the night before. Occasionally folks clean out the soaking pools, which can get algae-filled and slimy and get a lot of sediment in them. Depending on the last time the pools were cleaned may dictate the conditions--and how much you enjoy your soaking. 

Hopefully people who visit this cool hot spring area respect it--otherwise it won't be worth visiting. 

Pick up a Millard County Tourism Guide and you'll find some photos, a description, and maps of Millard County that will help you get to the hot springs. The basic directions are get on the Brush-Wellman Road, go about 11 or 12 miles west of the power plant, and turn on a good gravel road that is before the huge volcanic plateau (Fumarole Butte). Head north just over seven miles, and the springs are on the east side of the road.

Desert Boy Visits the Horses

Desert Boy loves to go visit the "neigh-neighs." That means horse in toddlerspeak. We've been working on him learning to stay on his side of the fence, even though he can climb under or over the gate.

He presses up as close to the fence as he can and whispers to the horse. This is Scooter, by the way, a strange looking horse that is often friendly with kids.

Sure enough, Scooter understands what Desert Boy wants and comes closer for a friendly pat.

Then Desert Boy gets distracted and tries out some tires. Whaddya know, he fits!

After awhile, that gets old, so he's off to look for other distractions.

He finds another "neigh-neigh" and beckons to it.

The horse comes over. Even though he's small, Desert Boy knows how to get along with the animals!

King of the Manure Pile

My little baby is turning two today. I think that even though he's standing on top of a pile of manure and grinning about it, he might turn out okay.

Spring Birds and a

It's been fun seeing more flashes of color in the trees. Yesterday I saw that the goldfinches had regained their brilliant yellow feathers as they prepare for breeding season. They hang out around this area all winter, but turn a dull gray with just a touch of yellow. Now they're back to their magnificence. They're hanging out in mixed flocks with pine siskins, but before too long the pine siskins will be able to move up into the pines, where they'll make their nests.

Black-billed magpies stay here year-round, but here's one with a bit of vegetation in its mouth, presumably for a nest. It can take them up to 40 days to make their large nests.

Magpies, with their long tail and strong contrasting black and white feathers, are an easily recognizable sign that you're not in Kansas anymore. Actually, they do live in Kansas--but they don't live east of the Mississippi. This member of the crow family only lives in western North America.

Less conspicuous in color but noisier are the yellow-rumped warblers. All of the warblers head south for the winter, and the yellow-rumped is one of the first to return, often before it is warm.

The little patches of yellow on its rump, under the wing, and under the chin make it fairly easy to identify.

And along with the birds decorating the spring landscape, the snakes have left their dens. This is the common garter snake, the most widespread reptile in North America. They are harmless and eat everything from insects to small mammals to fish. In the West, they are often found near water.

Garter snakes have fascinating life histories. Well, it's time to head back outside and see what else is going on!