Two-tailed Swallowtail

I saw a beautiful swallowtail on our golden currant bush and couldn't resist snapping a few photos.

They came out well enough that I realized I would be able to identify the butterfly. A couple years ago I wanted to learn all the butterflies in the area, but once I learned there were more than a hundred species, I felt a bit overwhelmed and didn't learn much. Now I'm ready to try again.

When I came in the house, I went on the internet to my favorite butterflies website. One of the neatest things about the website is that it has a list of butterflies and moths by county, so that quickly narrows down what you see. I found that there were about six different swallowtails, and by checking out the photos, I learned that this one is a Two-tailed Swallowtail (Papilio multicaudata). In the photo above you can clearly see the secondary protrusion on the tail, along with the pretty blue and orange coloring near the tail.

The two-tailed swallowtail uses nectar from a variety of plants and is fairly common in western North America. I really enjoyed watching it get that nectar--the butterfly balanced delicately as it sipped the nectar, then swooped to the next flower.

One down, quite a few more to go...

Preschool Party

It's my turn to carpool to preschool once a week, and I was fortunate to be there for Elizabeth's birthday party. All the kids were so excited. Anytime you mention party, they can hardly sit still. But if they know that there's something good coming, like cupcakes, they can sit for a short while.

So many happy faces! The kids really love preschool, and it's so good for them to start learning how to interact and have some structured activities.

While they were waiting for the cupcakes, Teacher Gwendy reviewed colors with them.

Then came the special moment: cupcake time! Elizabeth was even wearing a Birthday Girl shirt with three cupcakes, so she was having a great day.

Yudneli really enjoyed the cupcakes.

The funniest was Charley, who not only finished his cupcake but licked his plate and those of the kids around him. Those were definitely some good cupcakes!

Old Fashioned Roundup--with Lee

Last weekend, the cowboys on the ranch held an old-fashioned roundup to mark and vaccinate calves. Usually this is done in the corrals with a cattle chute and a calf table, as seen in last year's post on processing calves. The old-fashioned way means that the cowboys have to go out, rope the calves and bring them to a processing area where a team does everything they need to quickly. There were 200 calves to rope. Here is a sampling of photos, with more to come in future posts.

This post focuses on Lee, our 90-year old cowboy. He was out there pretty much the whole time and was definitely one of the best ropers. It takes a bit of strength and flexibility to twirl that rope around, but he managed it time after time.

Most times the calves aren't very cooperative, and sometimes they require a bit of a chase. Lee's eyes are a bit worn out, but once he knew which calf he wanted, he could see just fine to rope it.

Once he roped the calf, it was time to bring it across the fenced area to where a crew was waiting.

The calf is preferably roped by two legs to make it easier for those processing to handle. More on processing in the next post.

I never saw Lee smile so much as during this day. He was certainly in his element. My husband reminded me that Lee won a saddle in a roping competition when he was 70, competing against all ages. Lee's wife said he enjoyed roping so much he used to take a month off each year to go do it. It's so great he had the opportunity to practice those skills again.

Here are a few more shots of Lee in action.
And here's a short video of Lee bringing in a calf, and then it being vaccinated, ear marked, and ear tagged.

Growing Fast

While the bigger kids were playing in the water the other day at the playground, we put the two babies side by side on the picnic table. It wasn't so long ago that Desert Girl looked petite next to Isaac. I guess she didn't like that, so she's been eating like crazy and has gone through a growth spurt. The puffed sleeves also give her a bit of a football player look.
She and Isaac have also learned to stick out their tongues on cue. Just kidding. They were both in very good spirits and were happy to be looking at me standing above them. And maybe they were trying to catch flies.
Here's the full body comparison. Of course they're both so busy moving their legs that it's nearly impossible to get a photo of them with straight legs while they're awake.
Okay, Grandma, hope you enjoyed this post, you said you wanted some new photos!

The Best Part of the Playground

We went to the playground the other afternoon and were delighted when a couple of Desert Boy's friends also came. They started out swinging and playing on the slides. But then the real fun began.
It was time to take a drink! And what better way to get a drink than from a spigot.
Elizabeth went first.
Desert Boy managed to get wet quickly, imagine that!
Ava thought it was great.
It was amazing how a little bit of water was so amusing to everyone.
It was nice to have it warm enough that it didn't matter if they got splashed.
After the spigot had run a little while, there was a puddle, which meant even more fun, especially since all the kids were allowed to play in it.
Splash!
The kids sure worked up a good appetite for dinner.
I'm not sure what happened here--Desert Boy needed a hug for something or other. The kids are generally good at playing together.
But they are kids, so they tussle over things like who gets the ball.
I think this was Desert Boy's way of saying that he was really tired--but he didn't want to give up the ball!

Starting the Garden

This is my garden, prepped for the year with lots of manure incorporated into the soil and a fence surrounding it. It was a good garden last year, but it took quite a bit of time to move the hoses around to water it, and by late summer the weeds had taken over. So this year I was trying to figure out what to do to make my life easier when I heard about square foot gardening. The part I liked about it most was that you plant the seeds very close together so that you don't have to water as much and weed as much.

The new square foot gardening calls for building boxes 4 foot by 4 foot x 6 inches and filling them with 1/3 compost, 1/3 vermiculite, and 1/3 peat moss. Since my husband had already gone to so much work preparing the garden soil and I have very limited construction skills, I made a few changes. I found an old window frame that would make a 4 foot by 3 foot frame, pounded a few nails into it and tied baling twine across it. Having those 1 foot by 1 foot grids really helps visualize everything. I could only find small bags of vermiculite, so I got a couple to start my first square, but I'm hoping I'll be able to locate bigger bags, 4 cubic feet. I found some peat moss, then learned that peat moss is not considered environmentally friendly because it comes from the wetlands in Canada and takes thousands of years to form. Apparently a good substitute is coir, made of coconut husks, so I'll have to look for that.

I stirred the vermiculite and peat moss into the soil on my 4 x 3 plot. I also put down some weed guard as part of my path in the garden. By planting seeds so closely together, I suddenly have a lot more garden to make use of! I may be able to get enough tomatoes to can and corn to freeze. But fortunately those are warm weather crops, and I still have time to plan!

My first square is mostly for cool weather plants, my spinach, carrots, onions, peas, lettuce, beets. I'll also give some wildflowers a try, wildflowers that I'll harvest just like my veggies, but instead of eating them, I'll bring them into my kitchen to give it a splash of color.

We only got the carrots and spinach planted on the first day, sixteen carrots spaced two inches apart in a 4 x 4 grid and four spinach (I could have done nine spinach, but four is plenty). That's enough for a first crop of those two veggies.

Desert Boy's job was to water. He still needs a few pointers, but he seems willing to practice!

We didn't get around to planting more due to naps and other activities, but that was okay, it gave me time to plan. I got some more information about companion planting, or which plants grow best next to each other on a different square gardening page. Emily advocated drawing out your garden plan, so I did, and I have to admit it was really fun. So this is what our first box will look like. I'll have to wait to put in the beans and pumpkin, but figured that with the fence already behind the frame, I should use it to its greatest advantage.

So today, more planting and putting some mulch on top of the weed guard to make a nice path. Soon I'll go on a scavenger hunt to look for more old window and door frames to make some additional "boxes." This is turning into a really fun project! And I'll probably know what I'm growing. In the past I planted seeds in rows and then forgot what I planted and the weeds came up first, which made it a little challenging sometimes to figure out what were the weeds and what were the plants.

How is your garden doing? Do you have any special tips or tricks to make the garden work easier and more productive?

Spring Planting

My sweet husband prepared our garden soil, and even though it was a bit on the cool side, I couldn't resist planting some seeds. Desert Boy and Grandma Sylvia put in the onions.

Desert Boy was more excited about watering than putting in the onions. Since we planted this row I've heard about square foot gardening, where you plant in compact grids to reduce weeds and water consumption but maximize the harvest. I am going to give it a try in at least part of the garden. Last year the weeds really overtook me. They grew so fast that I was afraid if I stayed in the garden too long I might end up tied up in bindweed. I'm getting images in my head from Little Shop of Horrors just thinking about it!

I've never had a lot of luck with starting seeds indoors, mainly because I forget to water them for several days at some point, but hopefully Desert Boy's fascination with watering will help me out here. I neglected to label what we planted, and even though I thought I could remember, I've already forgotten. So we will have mystery sprouts appearing.

I think it will be a fun summer in the garden!

Happy Thoughts

We were out driving in the early evening and I just had to stop and take this photo. Even though we're not out of winter yet (more snow is supposed to arrive in a few days), I'm getting really excited by all the little signs of spring. The fields are starting to green up, the snow is retreating higher up the mountains, flowers are starting to appear, the days are so much longer, and the temperature is quite pleasant. We've been spending more time outside, and it's wonderful. We've been working on a couple outside projects that I'll post about soon. One is a little crazy. But that's okay, spring is also a time for new beginnings, even for crazy projects.

Easter Fun

When we woke up on Easter morning, we were surprised to see several new inches of snow on the ground. We had a little Easter egg hunt in the house, where Desert Boy hid most of the eggs and I hid his Easter bag (since we didn't have a basket, and he didn't care). Then we took turns finding things. I'm not sure who had more fun. I certainly enjoyed being a kid again and eating candy for breakfast. Desert Boy enjoyed getting a couple new books but didn't know what to think of the Playdoh.

With a little extra sugar in our systems, it was time to get all dressed up to go to church. I still remember standing in front of our house as a kid for the Easter photo. That always seemed to be one of the few times that we'd get all dressed up, and we had to take advantage of it for posterity's sake!

In the afternoon, we went over to celebrate Easter with a delicious dinner.
Aunt Tana and Desert Girl enjoyed each other's company. We are really enjoying Desert Girl's smiling stage.

Desert Boy was super excited because his cousin Clay had hid eggs for him. At first he wanted to open the eggs, because he was used to plastic eggs. We had to explain that these were hardboiled eggs. He said, "Oh," and thunked each egg into the bag. Amazingly four of the thirteen eggs didn't crack.

Desert Boy required a little help finding the eggs, but he thought it was great. And the eggs were very nicely decorated.
You can see the look of concentration on Desert Boy's face.
Inside he was happy to help peel the hardboiled eggs. Then he was ready for candy--I'm afraid he's inherited my sweet tooth.

Hope you had a super Easter! It's so nice to celebrate life and family and all the simple pleasures of being alive.