Bone Canyon and a Couple Surprises

 This afternoon Desert Boy really wanted to go to Bone Canyon. That's the canyon we went to in January that left such an impression and resulted in Henryosaurus. So off we went, with a big bucket so we could collect LOTS of bones.

 It was a windy, warm afternoon, so we didn't even need jackets. This time Desert Girl had to do lots more of the hiking. She's getting stronger.

 It didn't take long to start finding bones. You can see Desert Boy was in the right mood with the shirt he was wearing!

 What would you create out of these bones?

I really liked this backbone, but it looked a little too fresh. We decided no fresh--or even slightly fresh--bones today. I think that's a good policy.

 While I was up on the rocks looking for fun camera angles, I noticed a flash of color. My first native wildflower for the year! I was so excited! What is it? I still need to look it up!

 We continued up higher, Desert Girl enjoying the rocks.

 The kids were good, even though we forgot the snacks.

 I had thought we might just go a little way into Bone Canyon and turn around, but we were having such a good time that we kept going up and up.

Like Desert Girl's hair? Her babysitter can do amazing things with it!

 Finally we reached the (almost) top. It was really windy.

 I enjoyed the views. The desert still looks really brown.

But under a bush I found a bright spot of color: a little twinpod (or bladderpod), a member of the mustard family.

 We didn't go all the way to the top because Desert Boy spotted a cave and wanted to investigate. So we headed over. Even Henry came to check it out.

 Desert Boy thinks it looks pretty cool.

 Desert Girl is ready to explore.

Alas, the cave only went back about eight feet, so it didn't take long to see it all.

 More views of the basin and nearby town.

 Since I had been taking all the photos, I asked my husband to take one of me and the kids.

I had to explain what this was to Desert Boy, as he didn't know what a snakeskin out in the wild looked like. We didn't see any snakes or lizards out on our hike, although they have been spotted already this year.

We continued down the canyon, and I saw that it narrowed considerably. It also looked quite steep. I was a bit concerned as we had two young kids with us.

Sure enough, it got to a point where we couldn't continue--unless we had a rope!
Fortunately we were able to back track and find another way down.

This is the bottom of the drop. Someday we'll have to go back and do a through canyoneering trip!

Our adventure wasn't quite over yet. Just down the rocks we saw another opening.

 Another cave! It went back a little farther, but not far enough to need a flashlight.

It was cool looking out the entrance.

Right in the entrance was the biggest active packrat nest I've ever seen. It was kind of cool, with all sorts of bones mixed in with the branches.

So we all went home happy after a fun adventure. Another day we'll have to sort out our bucket of bones and see what creature we come up with!

Dress Up Time

It's time for a silly, light-hearted post to put a smile on your face (especially if you've been following the water news the last couple of days related to the Southern Nevada pipeline).

 We have a dress up box, and the other day Desert Boy decided to try out some new duds. Then he sang.
He is good at making noise, and he was quite enamored with his new look and voice. He called me to observe.

 He said he was a professor. I never did figure out what he was a professor of. I don't think that part mattered.

 Desert Girl sometimes dresses up, too, but this day she just wanted to have her photo taken while she was in her regular clothes.

 Desert Boy continued his act. I'm glad there are theatrical opportunities for him out here in the desert, as he sure likes to role play! Hopefully he will get early intervention to improve his singing voice so he doesn't end up like his mother and father, who when they start singing, people can't get ear plugs in fast enough.

 Ah, yes, one more photo.

But then it's time to change. What will come out of the costume box next?

Why, it's Super Desert Hero to the rescue!

Stay tuned for the next adventure...

Volcano Hill

 We have a large mound of dirt in our yard, and I thought it might be the perfect place to try out our volcanoes, as I didn't want to repeat the inside explosion. Desert Girl was happy to dig.

Desert Boy was given the task of burying some plastic bottles, aka magma chambers.

 Then his friend Neto came over to help with the volcano eruption. I mixed a little food coloring in with the vinegar to give it some extra oomph.

 I never did find the exact proportions of baking soda to vinegar we were supposed to be using, so I just guessed. I also had the kids make a "forest" on the hill.

 Eruption time! Looks like the forest was spared.

That was so much fun we had to do it again and again until we had used up all the baking soda and vinegar.

 A few days later, after resupplying, Ava came over and we had to show her volcano hill.

 The kids were looking forward to what would happen.

 Ava and Desert Girl don't look so sure about the eruption, but Desert Boy is clearly enjoying the mess.

We kept going with more explosions. We are still trying to perfect the technique and see a two-foot high explosion. So if you have any ideas, let us know. In the meantime, we'll keep experimenting. It's nice to be outdoors!

Wind turbines going up in Spring Valley

They are making fast progress on the Spring Valley wind farm in eastern Nevada. We were amazed to see so many towers up. The plan is to put up sixty-six 2.3 MW Siemens turbines over 7,673 acres of public land.  This will be Nevada's first wind farm.

For the record, I think that wind energy is great. It's renewable and it's fairly clean. However, this wind farm is poorly sited, with a cave that is an important migratory stopover for over a million bats each year only a few miles away. I talk more about the cave in this post, so I won't dwell on that here.

The cranes are enormous, although they don't look that big in this photo. I looked up the specs for Siemens 2.3 MW turbines. I'm not sure what model they're using, but here's more info on the 113. The 113 model means that the diameter of the rotor is 113 m (about 350 ft--longer than a football field!) Each of the three blades is 55 m (~160 ft) long. The swept area is 10,000 meters squared. The rotation speed is 6-13 rotations per minute (that seems fast to me for such a huge rotor!).

This type of windmill gets very little power when the wind is less than 5 meters/second (11 miles per hour), and in fact the cut-in wind speed (minimum wind speed at which a wind turbine will generate usable power) is 3 meters/second (7 miles per hour). Nominal power is at 12-13 meters/second (27-29 mph). The hub height for each tower is 99.5 m (over 300 feet) or site specific.

So those cranes have to lift a nacelle (cover housing that houses the generator and all the other parts for turning the blades) on top of a tower that is taller than a football field. The nacelle weighs 73,000 kg (160,000 pounds). The generator that must also be lifted to the top of the tower weighs 66,700 kg (147,000 pounds). Three blades must also be lifted that high. That means those are some powerful cranes!

We've been seeing trucks carrying the blades go past on Highway 6 & 50. They usually travel three blades at a time, sometimes with some other assorted parts (like the nacelle or generator or tower parts). In Utah, each truck has a vehicle behind it and in front of it announcing an oversized load. They also have a police escort in front of and behind each of the semis. So for three blades, there are six Utah highway patrol vehicles!

On the Nevada side, I haven't seen the Nevada highway patrol escorting the oversized vehicles.

To get a little perspective of how long these vehicles are, check out the above photo. How many of those pickups could you place alongside the semi and trailer?

I couldn't manage to safely get a photo of the blades traveling down the highway, but when I saw them parked I just had to pull over and take a closer look.

Here's the view from the back. You can see that the blades are not straight, they curve.

Here's me next to one for scale.

These are where the blades attach onto the nacelle.

Yesterday it was too windy to put up the wind turbines (isn't that slightly ironic?). So there were six blades and a couple other parts parked at the Border Inn. If you figure a semi driver and two pilot car drivers per truck, that means 24 people got stranded at the Border Inn for the St. Patrick's Day party. It certainly turned out to be a big party!

Update

Probably time for an updated family photo. Well, this is really a photo of a photo taken at the winter carnival. As you can see, we survived, greatly aided by our sword finesse!

Here are more scenes from the carnival from one of my favorite blogs.