Egg Dyeing

We've found ourselves with a lot of eggs recently, so I decided it was time to hardboil some eggs and dye them as we get ready for Easter. I have fond memories of doing this as a kid, so I was pretty sure that Desert Boy would enjoy it too. (I think I remember the vinegar smelling a lot stronger as a kid--am I losing my sense of smell as I age?)

We started off by making three little pots of water, and Desert Boy got to choose the colors. He wanted purple, blue, and green.

He has an egg all ready to go in. One of the few uncracked eggs. Somehow we managed to crack some early on in the process.

Then he carefully lowered it into the dye.

He used crayons to color on some of the eggs before we dyed them, and that had a nice effect.

In the background, Desert Girl is waving the train tickets from the weekend adventure with the cousins. I will try to get that posted before too long. I have lots of blog material because we've been doing lots lately, but not much time to sit down and put it on the blog!

Daddy dries the egg and Desert Boy decides what to do next. The rubber band effect was also kind of cool, leaving a white spot on the egg. It would have been even better if we could have found more than one rubber band!

And here's our finished product! We might have to do it all over again, it was so much fun!

Garden Cricket

Note: If you are visiting this site from Britain or one of the commonwealths, do not expect to find a post about a game that is played in said areas. There will be no talk of wickets, tippy-go, slogging, or "last ball pending soup."

I have no idea what any of those mean.

I'm not sure that I will ever know what they mean.

Do you know what they mean? If you do, leave a comment so I can give you a virtual high five. And then we'll wonder why you know what you know.

Anyway, back to my garden cricket:
We've been busy in the garden, and there are no shortage of worms and crickets there. I think this is in the genus Gryllus, the field crickets. The Bugguide website can help you identify insects, although it helps if you have a little background in entomology to get started there. (And seriously, I mean little. I've never had an entomology class, but I'm starting to figure it out. Not just identification, either. Insects are exciting. And there are so many left to discover and name!)

I thought I'd let Desert Girl get a closer look. She was quite interested, runny nose and all. (Fortunately the runny nose is gone now. That was a constant companion for over a month this winter.)

"Aw, mom, you shouldn't give me such a yummy treat to eat!"

If you're worried, no, she didn't try to eat it. But a couple nights later we had a cricket in the kitchen, and she chased it all over for a good ten minutes, catching it and then losing it. Eventually the little cricket lost in the battle with Emzilla. So we dipped it in chocolate and ate it.

Or did we?

Turkey Vultures

Although I've been having troubles photographing the little birds, the turkey vultures are coming to our yard frequently, especially in the late afternoon and evening.

Look alive! Or they might think you're carrion and come down for a nip. I guess it would help if you smelled really bad, too.

I don't think this vulture is appreciative of me taking photos of him.

The trees are starting to leaf out (at least the poplars and ashes; the catalpas are always the latest to get their leaves). The greenery will be a welcome sight, but they do make it harder to see the birds. Time to remember what all their songs are!

Playing with Water

A couple weeks ago we had a wonderful, warm Saturday morning, and we met up with some other moms and kids in the playground. The kids went down the slides, hung out on the swings, chased each other around, and did all the normal playground stuff.

Then one of them wanted a drink. The water from the water spigot is usually delicious--cold, mountain water. On this particular day, a hose was attached to the spigot. And that hose meant it was time for even more fun.

While the bigger kids took the end of it, little Isaac and Emma found a leak in the hose that was just perfect for them. The next series of photos show them exploring the leak and figuring out how to stop it. They might be little, but they are already learning to be good at managing water!

Aha, the water is stopped with Isaac's foot.

The cat Alaska stops by to watch the little kids.

Meanwhile, here's what's going on at the end of the hose.

Aron is taking a big rock to the "construction site."

It's hard to believe we had such nice weather the kids could wear short-sleeves and sandals. It's back to snow today. It has definitely been a tumultuous spring, which I guess has made us appreciate the nice weather even more!

Backyard Biodiversity Challenge #3 - Mammals and More

How are you doing with your birds?

Since I last posted, I've noticed American robins and collared doves (which were around earlier in the winter, I just didn't notice them the days I was looking around the yard). A new bird for the year is the Yellow-headed Blackbird. They are so colorful. It's too bad they're not found in Indiana, as with their black and yellow coloring they are perfect for Purdue.

If you need help identifying birds, there are several great websites, including the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Anyway, keep recording your birds. Your list should grow substantially over the next few weeks!

And here's Backyard Biodiversity Challenge #3:
What mammals, amphibians, and fish live in or visit your backyard?

It might be hard to see the mammals, but perhaps you can find sign of them. Rabbit pellets? Raccoons knocking over garbage cans? Gopher holes? Mouse droppings in the garage?

Are you hearing any spring peepers? This is a great time of year to listen for frogs.

Unless you have a pond or stream in your backyard, it might be difficult to get anything from this class of organisms. But hey, once in awhile it's nice to have an easy category!

Four Bars and a Church

There's new construction in our little hamlet, and since we don't see much construction, it's pretty exciting. Just last week the hole was dug to make room for a church in town.

My husband grew up in this town, and he remembers there being five bars in town and no church.

For some years, LDS (Mormon) services were held in the old high school. More recently, the community church and Catholic services have been held in the community center. But now, due to a generous donation and dedicated community members, we are going to have a bona fide church.

They had the forms out to pour the foundation.

The church won't be big, but it's going to be highly visible.

Just a week later, noticeable progress has been made. The foundation has been poured, and they're about ready to put up the walls.

It will be neat to follow the progress. The plan is to have the church finished by the first of June.
Although I have to wonder if all this spring snow might slow them down a bit. They've been out working in the not-so-great weather, so perhaps they will make their goal.

So what has happened to those five bars of my husband's younger days?

Well, two are still operating. Three have closed. And two different ones are now operating. So we'll be a town with four bars and a church.

Swimming in Winter

We needed groceries and I had a really strong yearning to go to thrift stores, so we packed up and headed to Cedar City yesterday. The forecast was not good, but we decided to try anyway, and went through several snow squalls on the way, but the roads were in pretty good shape.

We found wonderful treasures at both the Catholic Thrift Store and DI (Desert Industries thrift store). The Catholic Thrift Store had a flyer about a yard sale to benefit the Japan tsunami victims. So we headed to it (held indoors because it was snowing), and found even more things we couldn't live without. There's nothing like going into a thrift store or yard sale not needing anything but coming away with something that you suddenly realize will make your life more complete (or cluttered).

After lunch and grocery shopping, it was time for a trip to the Cedar City Aquatic Center. My friend Chandra had told me about it, and I couldn't wait to go. We got our day passes, changed in the immense locker rooms, and then went out to the pool area.

We were totally amazed. Before us was a huge leisure pool, with basically a playground set in two feet of water. Behind it were three lanes for laps and a lazy river. In one corner was a four-story water slide. Over on the side was a little play area for toddlers in about six inches-one foot of water.

And that wasn't all!

There was also a hot tub for age 14 and up and a competition pool for lap swimming with eight lanes.

In the summer there's an outdoor pool with diving boards.

I didn't take my camera inside, so I don't have any photos (which is sad, but I'm not sure if I could have kept my camera dry!). Here's a photo from the Iron County newspaper that gives you a little taste of the pool, looking from the lazy river over the hot tub to the big play area:

It was a Saturday afternoon so pretty crowded, but it was still so much fun. Desert Boy went down the slides countless times. I did some laps to help get ready for a triathlon in May. I had to try out the big waterslide, too (it was fun but dark). Desert Girl started out standing in ankle-deep water, a bit stunned at all the commotion. By the end, she was eagerly going down the kiddie slide and even getting her head wet. My husband loved the hot tub and found that the pool water was pleasantly warm.

We'll definitely be heading back! It's across from the middle school up on the hill near Walmart, and adult admission is $4.50. They have a website to check out hours and fees.

We don't see much water in the desert, so when we do, we definitely get excited!

Footprints

We are getting a little tired of all the snow, but to look on the bright side of things, Desert Girl is still fascinated with it.

Here she is doing a little happy dance out in the snow.

Then she started realizing that she was making footprints and decided it would be great fun to walk all over some fresh snow and make lots of new footprints.

It's wonderful when the entertainment is cheap!

Oops! Sometimes walking in the snow can be difficult.

Desert Girl is no quitter. She got up and started right back to work making more footprints. She's gotten a lot better on uneven ground, but still has that cute little drunken sailor walk.

More snow coming tonight...

My Backyard Birds-Part 1

So what birds have seen in your backyard?

I hope you're keeping a list, because this is just the beginning of some fun bird watching, and over the next couple of months our lists are going to grow considerably (hence the Part 1 of this blog post title).

Is this one of the birds you've seen?
Turkey vultures are found all across the U.S., with year-round habitat in the southern part up through the Midwest, and summer habitat everywhere else. We see them in this area primarily in the spring and fall, although from time to time in the summer we also spot them. With the turbulent spring weather we've been having, they've been having a grand old time soaring in the wind. Turkey vultures might be considered good clean-up birds--they take care of those messes like road kill for us. (Kingdom: Animalia; Phylum: Chordata; Class: Aves; Order: Falconiformes; Family: Cathartidae; Cathartes aura).

I've been hearing lots of the sweet calls of the Western Meadowlark (Animalia; Chordata; Aves; Passeriformes; Passeridae; Sturnella neglecta). They're one of the earlier birds to breed in the spring time, and they are very common around the ranch calling for a mate from fence posts and the top of sagebush. The Eastern Meadowlark is found in the eastern U.S., with hybrids in the middle of the country.

Killdeer have been hopping around. Henry really likes to chase them, but despite that, every year they return to near our yard. Killdeer (Animalia; Chordata; Aves; Charadiiformes; Charadriidae; Charadius vociferus) have an appropriate species name. Vociferus is Latin for loud, and killdeer run around and fly saying what sounds like "kill deer, kill deer." They are known for pretending to have a broken wing and dragging their wing on the ground to distract predators from their nests on the ground. They're found all over North America.

Yesterday I heard sandhill cranes. My husband calls these flying pterodactyls, as they are so big and seem so prehistoric. Sandhill cranes (Animalia; Chordata; Aves; Gruiformes; Gruidae; Grus canadensis) are found in much of North America. Sandhill cranes remind me of family visits to a game preserve to see great displays. (The link has some fantastic photos my sister-in-law took. As you can see from the lack of photos in this post, photographing birds is not my forte.)

Birds that have been around all winter that I mustn't forget include:
(If you are following the classification scheme, you know that these are all Animalia; Chordata; Aves; so I will just omit that part.)

Red-shafted flicker (Piciformes; Picidae; Colaptes auratus), that likes to make holes in trees and our house;
Black-billed magpie (Passeriformes; Corvidae; Pica pica), with its super long tail and black-and-white distinctive coloring;
Common raven (Passieriformes; Corvidae; Corvus corax), the ubiquitous bird around the ranch
European starling (Passeriformes; Sturnidae; Sturnus vulgaris), the annoying invader from Europe.
Dark-eyed junco (Passeriformes; Passeridae; Junco hyemalis), with its distinctive outer white tail feathers.

And now we have snow again, so it might be a day or two before the bird sightings pick up. I hope you're seeing some interesting birds in your yard!

Figuring out Where Things Belong a.k.a. Classification

As we're doing the biodiversity surveys of our backyards, something to keep in mind is how does everything fit together?

There are several ways to think about that, but today we'll concentrate on classification. In other words, how is everything related to everything else?

Good old Aristotle, that Greek philosopher from a LONG time ago, laid the roots (pun intended) for modern day scientific classification, including using the terms 'Genus' and 'Species.'

Then a long (but not LONG) time ago, a dude named Linnaeus put most everything was put into either the plant or animal kingdom. That was fairly simple.

"Hey, organism, do you move?"

"Yes, then you must be an animal."

But of course there are always a few organisms that don't quite fit the mold (pun intended), so over the decades, classification schemes changed, with some lumping and some splitting. I won't go into details. If you want the details, click here.

Today, we're left with the modern version of classification. First, a diagram from a K-12 school that I really like for its simplicity:

So we still have plants and animals, but we also have fungi, bacterium, and protoctista. Note that sometimes the Protoctista are called Protista and that the Bacterium are also called Monera

In the middle of the star is the way we do the organization:
Kingdom
Phylum
Class
Order
Family
Genus
Species

You probably had to memorize these for ninth grade science. What words did you use to remember the acronym: KPCOFGS?

You probably didn't have access to this cool website, which suggests acronyms for you to use.
For example, would you use:

1. Kids Playing Chicken on Freeways Get Smashed
2. King Phil Cleans Octopi For Gene Simmons
3. Keep Paying Casey Off For Gun Sales

You can leave your answer in the comments. Or perhaps you have a better one.

So this is how it works. Everything fits into a kingdom. Then each kingdom has several phyla (the plural of phylum; yes, those years of Latin in high school did actually teach me something!).
The phyla contain classes, and so on.


The diagram above shows how a leopard is classified. It is a member of the Kingdom Animalia (it does move!), Phylum Chordata (it has a backbone), Class Mammalia (air breathing vertebrate animals with hair, 3 ear bones, and working mammary glands in females), Order Carnivoa (placental mammals and meat eaters), Family Felidae (the cats), Genus Panthera, and Species pardus.

No other animal but the leopard is known as Panthera pardus. (Typically the Genus and species names are italicized. Genus is capitalized, species is not. And plural of genus is genera. (Latin was a more complicated language than English.))

Here's another view of how the kingdoms fit together:


Does anyone else find it slightly unnerving that humans (and all animals) are more related to fungi than plants?

If you're read this far, give yourself a pat on the back. I'll leave you with a little picture. Have a good day. Where ever you fit into it!

Expanding the Treehouse

Although Desert Boy and I still go and visit the old tree house (and remember the slide fondly; and sit on stumps and talk about life; and discuss the one-step ladder used to get up onto it), Desert Boy was ready to further construction on his new tree house.

So he talked to his Daddy and convinced him to help out. That was a good idea, as Daddy had some creative ideas. He brought back a couple of palettes to make walls, along with other assorted wood. He even bought nails that were the right length. What a novel idea!

Desert Boy was eager to help. Nothing on the tree house is level or straight, so attaching walls was a bit of a challenge.

A side brace helped. Then another wall went up, and the two walls were attached with a top brace. It was starting to look like a real tree house! But Desert Boy wanted more.

He wanted a roof.

He got a roof. Not just any roof, but a special sun roof for the tree house! We do things in style around here!

Finally it was time to paint, the part Desert Boy has been talking about for days. He did a little--but still has a long ways to go. He also wants to make signs. I think that might be a good activity to keep him occupied for hours in the upcoming weeks.

Dirt is Good

My helpers aerating the soil in the garden. We've planted some peas, spinach, and red beets. It's probably too early for the spinach and red beets, but we just planted one square each. We're back to the Square Foot Gardening method. It worked well enough last year and I really like the tidiness of the system. Not that I'm a particularly tidy gardener. As we were cleaning up the garden, we found onions, carrots, and red beets from last year. All still edible. And the cilantro has done a good job of reseeding itself.

Check out Desert Girl's irrigating boots. She was the only one in the family that didn't have irrigating boots, and I just couldn't resist. I imagine that she'll get some pretty good use out of them this summer.

Desert Girl is building up her immunity by eating some dirt. Dirt is good.

Backyard Biodiversity Challenge #2

Do you have your trees figured out? Even if you don't have them all named, you can assign Tree1, Tree2, Tree3, etc. to the ones you don't know and keep working on figuring them out.

While you're enjoying the trees, it's time to start Backyard Biodiversity Challenge #2:

WHAT BIRDS DO YOU SEE IN YOUR YARD?

We're in migratory bird season, which means that there are a lot of birds making their way from the warmer southern climes to their breeding grounds up north.

In fact, I noticed lots of snow birds on the road this week. Snow birds=RVs that spend the winter in the south and the summer in the north. People have already learned a lot from birds! (Sorry, I couldn't help digressing.)

One thing you might want to do as you write down the birds you see (and yes, I strongly recommend writing them down in a dedicated biodiversity journal) is to note when you first saw them in 2011. Then you can compare that with another year (assuming you'll keep doing this!) and see if the birds are coming earlier or later or not at all. These records can actually prove to be quite important. Ornithology, the study of birds, is heavily reliant upon amateur observations, and many databases are comprised primarily of sightings from citizen scientists.

Another cool thing about getting into the habit of observing the birds in your yard is that you don't have to travel far, but some of the birds have come from or are heading thousands of miles away.

So leave a note--what birds are you seeing? And what birds have traveled/will travel the farthest?

My Backyard Trees

First off, what is a backyard?

For some people this is easy to define--it's the yard around their house. But what if you live in an apartment in the city on the twenty-eighth floor? If there's a nearby park, you can call that your backyard. Or your friend's yard out in the suburbs. Or the greater area. You can decide what to call your backyard for the Biodiversity Challenge.

So have you figured out what trees are in your yard? I was a little surprised when I listed mine: ash, elm, two different looking junipers, catalpa, apricot, peach, Lombardy poplar and white poplar. What surprised me? There are quite a few different species of ashes, elms, and junipers, and I'm not entirely sure what we have. I'm going to have to take a closer look.

That might not be the easiest right now, given that the trees have no leaves on them, but there are clues. Last year's leaves, the bark, the height, the shape, and more can be very helpful. Or I can just wait a few weeks!

Are the trees in your yard native? From a biodiversity standpoint, that's the best. Sadly, none of the trees in my yard are native. The only native trees around here at this elevation grow next to the creeks. If there isn't water, we don't have trees, we just have shrubs or grasses or other plants. I think it's very important to find out if species are native or not, so I encourage you as you make your list to put asterisks next to the species that are non-native.

Okay, I want to find out more about what's in your yard! Please leave a comment about the trees you find there, or what tree you would like to plant in your yard and why.

Backyard Biodiversity Challenge #1

Ready to explore what lives around you?

I hope so, because we're about to embark on the Backyard Biodiversity Challenge!

Together we can learn about the fantastic species that live close at hand.

I've just started doing some research about doing backyard biodiversity, and there are a variety of articles out there that I'm reading. There will be posts about biodiversity and how organisms are grouped, but I like to jump in with both feet, so here goes:

Challenge #1: What species of trees live in your yard?

Take a tour of your yard and write (or draw) what they are. If you have some that you don't know (I just realized we have an ornamental juniper that I'm not sure about), then see if you can find a tree i.d. book and figure it out. Maybe there's a neighbor who's good with trees, or a local cooperative extension agent that can help you. If all else fails, send me an email at desertsurvivorATlive.com, and I'll see if I can be of any help.

Our objective for the Backyard Biodiversity Challenge is to better appreciate what lives all around us.

Taking a little extra time to see what's so close to us will help us to see the wider world and the myriad of connections that make everything work.

So stop reading and head out into your yard!

Meeting E.O. Wilson

Most of the week while I was in New Orleans I wasn't seeing cool sights, but rather was in the Sheraton Hotel attending the George Wright Society biennial meeting. The George Wright Society focuses on preserving protected places, such as national parks.

There were countless great talks, and it was a bit overwhelming with about 16 concurrent sessions. I found out more about forest health issues, geographical information systems, hydrology, White Nose Syndrome, park management, and much more.

The highlight of the conference was when I was in a biodiversity session, and half-way through, Edward O. Wilson from Harvard University walked into the room. He listened to our discussion and had some very pertinent comments at the end. After the session ended, a bunch of us science geeks swarmed him like a rock star. I got his autograph and a photo of me standing next to him.


If you haven't heard of E.O. Wilson, here are a few things about him:

• He coauthored a paper about Island Biogeography that helps explains why there are fewer species on islands that are small and far away from the mainland
  
• He is an expert on ants, having started as a young child identifying them
• He has won two Pulitzer prizes, for On Human Nature (1979) and The Ants (1990)
• If he had to live his life over, he said he would focus on microbial biology
• He studied the social behavior of ants, which helped him found the field of sociobiology
• He found that if ants disappeared, so would humans
• He is a champion of learning about the biodiversity around us, and encourages people to go out and find what lives in their backyard.

I happened to have a flyer for our Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, and ants) Bioblitz that I'm helping to organize, so I was sure to invite him to it. Yeah, the chances of him coming are less than one percent. But I'm an optimist! And just meeting him makes me want to go out and find what lives in my yard. So here's a heads up for the topic of some upcoming posts...

New Orleans for Kids

Bourbon Street is probably not the place to take your kids, unless they're too young to remember what they see (which hopefully mine fall into that category!). Fortunately, there are plenty of things to do around the New Orleans area that are great for kids, like the streetcars, ferry ride, visiting the National Park Service areas New Orleans Jazz and Jean LaFitte, and just enjoying the various scenes in Jackson Square.

If you want to mix some natural science education in with the fun, the Audubon Institute has an aquarium, insectarium, IMAX theatre, and zoo. Admission to each on its own is a little pricey, but you can get a combo ticket to all of them for $40 for adults and $25 for kids and seniors.

The aquarium, insectarium, and IMAX theatre are all located near Canal Street and the Mississippi River, so if you're staying near there can be seen in a couple hours each (or a long lunch hour). The lines for tickets at the aquarium were the longest; if you can buy them elsewhere, you can then just walk in the front doors and avoid the ticket line.

The aquarium was very busy, but with little kids and short attention spans, we weren't going to have time to read much anyhow. You enter under a tank, which is kind of cool. Desert Boy was fascinated with the sting rays. He later got to pet one, which was a highlight of the day.

A stingray's mouth is a little odd. Just saying.

Most of the exhibits house warm water aquatic species, but they did have a penguin exhibit.

Desert Girl was particularly enthralled.

We also enjoyed the seahorses, Amazon adventure, play area, and Mississippi River section.

These cool looking fish are paddlefish, found in the Mississippi River. They get to be several feet long and are so neat!

Next was a trip to the IMAX, but I had to get back to my meetings, so I don't have any insight into that. Apparently it was a good napping spot for a couple grandkids and a grandparent. They run three different movies, and they all sounded interesting.

Another day it was time for a quick jaunt into the Insectarium. Desert Girl sported her "I Love Dirt" bib. It was quite appropriate. She also enjoyed playing with her beads.

The Insectarium opened in 2008 and is the largest museum dedicated to insects only in the U.S.

They had a dark, underground section, where humans were reduced to the size of insects. The ants looked huge!

There were bugs of all kinds--and Desert Boy sure enjoyed this one!

Then we headed to the insect cafe, where we had our choice of cinnamon bug crunch, cajun crickets, southwest waxworms, vanilla covered crickets, mealworm salsa, and more.

I tried a couple different things. Not the best, but not the worst, either. It's worth keeping in mind that insects are an important protein source for some people in the world.

The Eat a Bug Cookbook is available for anyone who wants recipes.

Would you eat this cricket?

We really enjoyed the 6-minute insect movie which had lots of special effects. There were all sorts of hands-on exhibits, and I appreciated this Audubon place more than the others. The final part was a walk through a Japanese butterfly garden. Before all the schoolkids came through, it was quite tranquil and calming.

The zoo is located out by the Garden District, and we took Bus 11 to get there and the St. Charles Streetcar to return. It was interesting seeing all the beads on the wires and trees left from the Mardi Gras parades.

The petting zoo was a fave.

Desert Girl by an old fish fountain. (She really liked those beads!)

Desert Boy was so excited to find a live oak to climb. So were a lot of other kids!

We saw all sorts of animals, but the highlight was Monkey Hill, a play area for kids with this spiderweb, a big hill, and more.

The more included this water attraction. We had packed spare clothes for Desert Boy, and knowing that it was going to be a hot day, that included a swimsuit. He was delighted to get wet. So was Desert Girl. We spent about an hour there. I guess we needed a water park more than a zoo!

The zoo had great seafood gumbo, served in the swamp section. The alligators were lazing about.

Until one chomped on Desert Boy!

We walked around the small swamp. I would have loved to have gone and seen the real swamp, but there wasn't enough time to do it all. Our friends did go out to the swamp, and I can't wait to see their photos!

March was about perfect weather. I can't imagine visiting New Orleans in summer, it must be really uncomfortable. Nearly all the animals at the zoo were warm weather animals. The zoo is huge; we got too tired before we had a chance to see it all. I guess we'll just have to go back someday!