It's That Time of Year

 I saw lots of cows out in the meadow near the road, and then I noticed that these cows were sporting an accessory. Do you see it?

 I'm not talking about the mismatched earrings. Although I kind of like that fashion, and I could really make it work. What I'm talking about is the piece of orange tape across the top of their tails.

 They seem rather nonchalant about the tape.

The heifers (female cows that have never given birth) are fed a feed additive to help synchronize their heat (reproductive cycle). Then they are taken off the feed additive, given a drug and a gray tape is put on the tail head (top of the tail). The cows mount each other when they are going into heat, which scratches off the gray and shows the orange. In this way, the cowboys can easily detect which cows are in heat. Within a day, they are artifically inseminated (AI'd).

In the old days (like when my husband was 15 years younger), he helped detect the cows that were in heat by watching them all day and as long into the night as possible. If he saw a cow mounting another one, he would shoot the one being mounted with a paintball gun. After awhile, the cowboys would come out and separate the marked ones.

It wasn't always easy using the paintball gun from a distance and from a horse. In addition, my husband remembers the old method was rather boring. It would also seem to rain a lot, making it an even more unpleasant chore, so this new method is much appreciated.

After the heifers were AI'd, they went out to the meadow. If the AI'ing doesn't work (about 20% of the time it doesn't), they will get to be visited by a cleanup bull in the near future.

If you want to learn more about the whole process (in more detail than you might want--but where else are you going to read this stuff?), than check out this previous blog post.

What Do You Do When You're Five?

 A few months ago when we were at the library, Desert Boy wanted to get a library card. The librarian said he had to be five. This brought on a lot of tears, but I promised him that he would go to the library and get his card as soon as we could.

 So the day after his birthday, we went to town and went to the library. We filled out the form to get the library card.

 He has a special pouch for the library card.

 He chose some books (about trains) and I found a Hank the Cowdog audiobook (thanks for the recommendation, John, they have been a hit!)

The library card worked, so Desert Boy is in business. Hopefully he does better than his mama with getting his books back on time!

Wind Farm Update

I posted about the Spring Valley wind farm in March and had some request for updates. Here we go...

This is what it looked like heading down from Sacramento Pass into Spring Valley on April 8. The towers had expanded greatly.

The whole first row (of five rows) was completed. One wind mill is not quite in line. I'm sure there's a story behind that, and maybe some day I can find out. Ely High School took some field trips out to the wind farm in April, so I'm hoping that there will be a public field trip available to learn more about it.

More construction scenes, taken from the highway.

We still are seeing police escorts and oversize loads frequently. Apparently the wind has made the wind project about 25 days behind schedule. That means they will still be transporting parts for another three weeks. (I am hearing all this information second or third hand, so if someone knows better, please leave a comment!)

Getting behind these oversize loads over the mountain passes means that it will take an extra half hour over each pass.


Here is what Spring Valley looks like as of April 29. Over half of the wind mills are constructed, with many more partially up.

These are the second and third rows of the wind turbines.

Spring Valley sure looks a lot different.

I think I'll leave it at that.

A Birthday Celebration

We have a five-year old in the house now. He knows a lot. About trains. About airplanes. About cars and trucks. And about everything else. He is happy to share his copious knowledge. He is a hoot!

Desert Boy wanted a BIG birthday party so Sunday evening we had friends and family over. The weather cooperated and we were able to have it outside.

The following photos are a little out of order as they upload alphabetically and I didn't feel like renaming them after I had named them. Of course, the party was a bit chaotic, so it's only right that the photos reflect that!

Ava and the pinata. The pinata was a huge hit (ha, ha!). Thanks to our wonderful babysitter for bringing it.

The big kids had no problem entertaining themselves.

Blow those candles out!

Emptying the pinata. My husband gets very nervous around pinatas. Or more correctly, he gets nervous around kids with deadly weapons swinging wildly while others dive for candy.

It looks like Charlie and Sam were having a good conversation.

Desert Girl enjoyed her cake. That was after she ate all the candy off one cake and we had to redecorate it.

The cakes were supposed to look like trains. Desert Boy wanted plain frosting and lots of candy and helped decorate them. He was happy, so I was happy.

Isaac and Desert Girl had a good time.

Young GQ.

Back to the pinata.

Besides the pinata, the only semi-organized activity we got to was the obstacle course, which included the cardboard cave. The cave was definitely kid-sized--I tried to go through it but had to back up.

It was a great evening, and Desert Boy loved it.

Now he's ready for his next party.

Up to the Snow

 I'm taking fire training this weekend, so I took Friday off so I could spend more time with the kids. We decided to go up the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive at Great Basin National Park, as the road had recently opened and I was eager to look at the high country. Anna and Evan joined us, and on the ride up I thought the trees looked funny. We took a second look and found that they had icicles on them! We pulled over to take a closer look.

 Apparently the weather had been just right after our recent snow to make these wonderful decorations on nearly all the trees. It was spectacular.

 We had thought about walking the quarter-mile nature trail, but we weren't the best equipped for snow, so opted instead for the recently plowed but still closed Wheeler Peak Campground.

 The kids liked finding their very own icicles.

 The walking was easy until we  got to a shaded, icy patch.

 We found that it was so icy because the creek had jumped its banks and was making a new channel through the snow. The kids threw snowballs into the water and watched them float downstream.

 The water had carved a two-foot canyon through the snow and ice. It was moving fast and sure looked cold!

 Around on the other side of the meadow we found a bit of color.

 The snow might have only melted in this spot a few days ago, but the plantainleaf buttercup (Ranunculus alismifolius) couldn't wait to catch some rays.

 The aspens didn't look like they were even thinking about leafing out. Even so, this spring is so different from last year! We had so much more snow and cold all the way into June last year, and this year the campground is already plowed out before May.

 On the way back (amid complaints from Desert Boy that he was starving--I think he's going through a growth spurt!), we wrote our names in the snow and made footprints. Desert Girl and Evan had their shoes on the wrong feet, so their footprints were a little strange looking.

 Finding the biggest icicle was a fun diversion.

Then we made it back for a big snack break. Afterwards we weren't quite ready to leave. We still had to take out the sled.

 The boys nearly crashed on their first run together.

 Evan doesn't look too sure of this bigger hill. It's slightly higher than the picnic table behind them that's mostly covered with snow.

 Then Desert Girl decided she wanted to get in on the fun.

 Their expressions are priceless!

 I'm not sure if these kids know how lucky they are! I grew up in such a flat spot that I called a three-foot high rock on the other side of the block my mountain. These kids have such an awesome backyard!

It's cooled off this weekend, but I don't think the snow will be around for much longer. This could be the last sledding trip for awhile. It was great to have one more winter adventure and then descend 5,000 feet in elevation and enjoy the warm spring weather.

Hope you're having a good weekend!