Clouds

The clouds have been great lately, huge and puffy, with various rainshowers gently touching the land. It doesn't seem like we've gotten much rain, but there's always rain somewhere. It helps that we can easily see about 40 miles to the mountains on the other side of the valley, and even more than that when we look north, where the valley slopes down.

I couldn't resist playing with some of the new photo effects on Picasa. This is cross process.

Here's Holga-ish.

This is museum matte.

Here's Lomo-ish.

And here's my dear babysitter, making the kids not want to come home!

But then we had a grand afternoon adventure, which hopefully I'll get to post about tomorrow.

A Special Attraction at the Ranching Exhibit

 I was passing the ranching exhibit, an open-air building with panels about ranching heritage, when I noticed that the exhibit had a special visitor: a sheep! I screeched to a halt (okay, not really, but allow me some poetic license here!), backed up (which it's very handy that the highway isn't busy and I could do that), turned into the parking lot, pulled out my camera, jumped out of the van, and snapped a photo.

 The sheep didn't look like it was in a hurry, so I switched to my telephoto lens and zoomed in. The sheep looked at me once in awhile. Otherwise it didn't seem concerned by my presence.


As I moved around to get a different angle, the sheep decided maybe it was time to leave. That's when I noticed the fantastic iron art up in the building. I've seen it many times before, and every time I marvel at it. It's beautiful and so well done.


In particular I noticed the windmill, which has recently been repaired. It actually turns! Our windy spring has been giving it a good workout, I'm sure. Do you see the cat next to the barn? It's those little details that make this iron art outstanding.

The middle panel shows cowboys moving longhorn cattle, the traditional cattle first brought to the Great Basin, with a wagon pulled by mules following. Just take a look at the lasso, swinging tails, and different movements of the cattle.

The third and last panel has the sheepherder checking on his sheep, with a faithful dog just behind him and the sheep wagon (with spokes in the wheels!) awaiting his return. My photos don't really do the art justice--this is a place you just need to stop at and spend some time admiring. It's about half-way up the hill to Great Basin National Park.

The sheepherder did come later in the day and collect the errant sheep. April is the month when the sheep shearers come and give the sheep a haircut. A most noticeable haircut!

Frisco's Charcoal Ovens

 A few weeks ago we decided to stop at Frisco, a ghost town with a lot of mining history, since the friends we were traveling with had never visited. I wrote about Frisco's history in this post from 2008. (It was good for me to reread, as I had forgotten a lot of it. Which is one of the reasons I started a blog in the first place, so I could help myself remember all these fun little things that I learn!)

 Five charcoal ovens are at the site, and  a couple of them are still in really good condition.

 The kids. I like the sepia--almost makes it look old-fashioned. If you just ignore the fleece, puffy jackets, character t-shirts, velcro shoes, zip off pants, embroidered jeans, etc. These kids are probably a little too clean to be kids living in a mining village.

 The charcoal ovens are a lot of fun to photograph.

 However, the kids didn't want to stay there. They wanted to explore some of the old buildings.

 This roof looks out of place on the ground. What happened to the rest of the building?

 Here's the group peeking in.

 Turns out there's a cellar underneath the roof, with some fun light on the wall from holes in the roof.

Here Evan, Desert Boy, Desert Girl, and Anna check out a foundation, with the ovens in the background. There's so much more to explore in this area! The old railroad bed looks like it could be a fun hike. Every time I visit a ghost town, I try to imagine what life was like. My overwhelming feeling is that it was a lot harder than today.

Happy Easter!

Hope you have a blessed and wonderful Easter! We've had great fun preparing for it--getting out the fancy clothes to go to church, dyeing eggs, and a couple practice Easter egg hunts. Desert Girl has significantly improved her finding ability and will be a worthy challenger to her brother this year.

The Surprise in the Garden

Sorry, no photos today--seriously lacking some free time!

But a quick story:
Yesterday the kids and I were in the garden, watering seeds that we had previously planted. I was delighted to see some of the peas poking up through the dirt. Then, as I was working manure into another garden plot, I noticed a splash of green that wasn't a weed. I called the kids over.

"Look! Do you see that green?" I asked.

"Yes," they said, trying to figure out why I was so excited.

"Do you know what it is?"

"No. What is it?" (Okay, are conversations aren't always the most stimulating.)

"Dig around and you'll see."

So Desert Boy started digging. "A carrot!"

It was a mature carrot, and after some digging, he released it from its winter home. The carrot was in good shape, so we took it inside, and washed it. We were supposed to save it for dinner, but somehow Desert Girl managed to grab it as we went our for a bike ride and toted it with for the next hour, taking a couple bites. Then she dropped it and Desert Boy found it, brought it back to the house, washed it, and ate the rest of it.

I have to say, I was mighty impressed that he waited to eat the rest of it until he washed it.

That's the story of our surprise carrot. The kids really want to find some more surprise vegetables in the garden. I think it might be a little while. But then, you never know.