The New Playground

Desert Boy and a Tractor

When we went down to the ranch shop the other day, we saw this huge MacDon M200 tractor, and Desert Boy got very excited. He hasn't done too much scampering onto tractors lately.

He figured a way to climb up, irrigating boots and all. It might not look too elegant, but it worked. It's true that when there's a will, there's a way, especially for a headstrong two-year old who knows no limits.

The only problem is that he can't quite open the door by himself.

Once the door is open, he knows just what to do--get in the seat, put a hand on the steering wheel, and turn the key. Yikes! I had to jump in and turn the key back the other direction.

He manages to look all angelic while he's doing this. He was quite disappointed when I told him we weren't actually going to drive the tractor.

Here's a view of the tractor from the front. Yikes, it sure is big! Some of the alfalfa is mature and ready for the first cutting, so Desert Boy may soon get a chance to ride in a moving tractor.

Hanging out with Micki

The other day we went up and visited Micki, who absolutely adores Desert Boy. She taught him some dancing moves and showed him how to snap his fingers. He thought that was pretty cool and imitated as best he could.

He's a good sport. Plus Micki has some fun toys, and he knows exactly where they are kept and makes a beeline for them as soon as we go inside. And outside she has a swing, which he also remembers and mentions anytime I say Micki's name.

But I'd say Micki totally won over Desert Boy when she let him make a real phone call and talk on the phone. He's already practicing for his teenage years. 

Up Higher on the Mountain

We've had some warmer weather, and I'm amazed how fast the snow has been melting. The snow level is already about 9800 feet, which seems fairly high for mid-May. It means it's easy to go up on the mountain without extra gear. Some of the aspens are just starting to leaf out.

And if we look closer, we can see a red-naped sapsucker working on a new home.

The flowers are out in full force, like this mountain butterweed (Senecio integerrimus). It's newly recognized common name is lambstongue ragwort. Sorry, but that's just not a good name for such a pretty flower!

I like the symmetry of the flowers.

Hidden down on the ground are mats of leaves with little whitish things hiding amongst them.

Upon closer inspection I can see some flowers hiding out among the three-leaved clover. This is a native species of clover, hollyleaf clover (Trifolium gymnocarpon). 

Another good indication that it's warmer is that the creeks are rising fast. The one above is a tributary that usually looks like it has a trickle of water going over that log.

Here's a link to a different creek not too far away that shows how it's gone from 1 cubic foot per second (cfs) to 15 cfs in about a month's time: Lehman Creek gage. It will get even higher before it peaks. 

Summer's coming, ready or not!

Desert Destination: Ibex Hardpan

Located adjacent to the Ibex Crags is the Ibex Hardpan, also called the Tule Valley Hardpan. This is a dry lakebed (well, most of the time), suitable for events such as golf practice, observing the dark night sky, setting land-speed records, doing wheelies, plane fly-ins, and biking.

I took the above photo biking no-hands and not worrying where I was going. It's really fun to bike on a hardpan. 

We wanted to explore some parts of this hardpan, and a bike is a perfect way to do it without expending too much energy yet going slow enough to enjoy the scenery.

We also found a dirt road going up aways from the hardpan and took it for a bit.

We saw some more neat rock formations. But then it was time to go back to the hardpan.

Because we were in search of something unexpected...

...like water! Someone had used bulldozers to dig shallow pits on the lakebed, where the water gathered and cattle and wildlife could come and drink it. As soon as we found it, Desert Boy wanted to play in it. So we took off his shoes and pants and let him go at it.

It was slimy, with a high clay content. But that didn't stop him.

He wandered in and out of the puddles, miraculously not falling down. I say miraculous because we didn't have any extra diapers with us.

But then the cracked surface of the hardpan called to Desert Boy. The texture is fascinating, and it seems to go on almost endlessly.

He ran away from us before we had a chance to take off his helmet. We let him run as far as he wanted (after all, we had bikes and could catch up even if he decided to run forever).

Sometimes it almost looked like he was walking on air.

We also decided that the reason that aliens all seem to look like squat little beings with big green heads is that the first artist saw little toddlers running around with their green bike helmets on and didn't know what to make of them.

If you want to see what a little bobble head flapping his arms looks like, take a look at the video below. There's no soundtrack to it, so turn up your favorite music--or listen to how quiet it is out on the desert.