Guest Post at Money Saving Mom

I have a guest blog post on Money Saving Mom today with some Money-Saving Camping Tips. Hope you have a chance to check it out! We're getting to my favorite time of year to camp, and I'm looking forward to spending a few more nights under the stars.

Hot Feet

(This post is sponsored by Reef. The writing is all my own; and I freely admit that I wear flip flops almost every day of the year!)

I've lived in the desert for over twelve years now, and like the plants and animals that live here, I've had to make some adaptations to how I survive. This is a harsh environment, with a dry and windy climate, hot summers, cold winters, and plenty of prickly things that aren't fun to step on. In order to make it liveable, I need more chapstick, more lotion, more sunscreen, and shoes that let my feet breathe!

While I wear hiking boots all day at work, the first thing I do when I get home is take them off. Then I slip on my sandals or flip flops for the rest of the day. (I might go barefoot for a little while in the house, but my delicate feet (ha!) need some extra protection outside. And we do try to go outside everyday to enjoy the fresh air and great views and to keep the kids active.

I have to admit that I don't have just one pair of flip flops and sandals. How many do you have? I have several pairs. I'm not sure if I want to admit just how many! I might not be Imelda Marcos, but my shoe shelf is overflowing. After all, sandals and flip flops come in various colors, with different embellishments, assorted heel heights (check out the Reef Krystal Star Wedding flip flops), and with footbeds that vary from totally flat to some that make you feel like you're walking on a cloud (such as the Reef Dreams Prints).

Flip flops are pretty much my go-to shoes. They are so comfortable and durable. In fact, it's a little sad in winter when I have to put them away in my closet! Of course, that just makes me think about a vacation to the beach where I can put those flip flops back on, enjoy the salty air and breeze on my face. And if I'm totally honest, I still wear the flip flops around the house in winter.

The kids are getting an early start appreciating flip flops. I don't think they care so much about letting their feet breathe, they just want to find the shoe they can get on the fastest to get out the door! (Not having to tie shoe laces makes them extra appealing.)

The desert environment makes me especially appreciate flip flops, but I'd be wearing them wherever I lived. I don't think I'll every be without a pair of flip flops. In fact, after looking at the Reef website, I'm already dreaming about my next pair. So what's on your feet right now?

Late Summer Wildflower Adaptations

 I was riding my bike up the big hill rather slowly, so I had time to notice little flashes of color. What? Not trash, but little flowers blooming in the disturbed area on the road shoulder. What could they be? I'm not so good at unclipping my bike shoes (which can make for some spectacular falls), so I came back a little while later and revisited the area to take a closer look.

Here's what I found: little pink flowers, less than an inch across called small wirelettuce (Stephanomeria exigua), and they grow primarily in the western U.S., but for some reason they are also present in New York state. They are part of the Sunflower family (Asteraceae).

 Seeing these flowers made me think hard about the later-blooming flowers. They are providing food for insects after many other flowers have finished blooming. In order to flower, they have to save enough energy and withstand the harsh summer conditions of extreme heat and sometimes extreme dryness. These late bloomers are the endurance flowers of the wild.

 Small wirelettuce can take different forms, and I sure found that the case where I searched. The specimen above was dense in the middle with longer shoots out to the sides.

 Then I found a little ball clump only about four inches high. What a cool name for a plant!

Then I noticed a more subtle flower, a white one on a plant that stood a foot or two high. It looked vaguely familiar, but it took me two days to finally figure it out: coyote tobacco (Nicotina attenuata). It's part of the Solanaceae Family, the same family that tomatoes belong to.

This plant has lots of interesting characteristics. It likes to grow in disturbed areas, but since invasive plants also like disturbed areas, it may be declining.

Coyote tobacco has white flowers about 1/2 inch wide, extending over an inch from the sepals. But you might not see it like this if you look in the middle of the day, because it blooms from dusk to dawn. That happens to be when its main pollinator, hawkmoths, are active.

Christopher Columbus took tobacco back to the Old World from his trips to the New World, and it soon grew in popularity as an ornamental. But tobacco took on a whole new significance when in 1560 Jean Nicot from Portugal took some powdered tobacco to France for the Queen's son to help relieve his migraine headaches. It worked, and soon became known as a cure-all. Its popularity spread, until studies hundreds of years later showed that it's not quite the cure-all it was once thought. (Hmm, that might be the understatement of the month.) The scientific name, Nicotina is based on Nicot's name and attenuata refers to the thin, or narrow, leaves. (From Southwest Wildflowers)

Native Americans have long used the plant.

And one more late summer plant today, one that is hard not to miss:

 Curlycup gumweed (Grindelia squarrosa). This bright yellow flower grows along roadsides and other disturbed places. It's a biennial, flowering in its second year and then dying (but I've also read it can be an annual or perennial--what an adaptive plant!). It's called gumweed because it's a rather sticky plant. I've never really liked it, but after reading up on it a little more, I have some grudging respect for it now. Something cool about it is that the leaves turn at right angles to the sun, making it a compass plant.

That icky gummy part? Some people have used it as chewing gum!

Curlycup gumweed also has a long list of medicinal properties used by Native Americans: it's been used to help with asthma and bronchitis (and is still an ingredient in homeopathic cough remedies) and can be used to treat poison oak and ivy rashes. It's also been used as both a sedative and stimulant. 

So this is what happens when I slow down (even if it takes a steep hill to make me do it!)--I see and appreciate some beautiful sights. I just read about the Slow Down Challenge, which is about taking your time in life and enjoying the journey, not rushing from one thing to the next. For the next week, I'm going to try to slow down for at least fifteen minutes a day notice more of the amazing world around us, and how so many life strategies are in place. Will you join me?

Hanging out with Clementine

 

Ready for a tale of woe? (Some of it may actually be true.)

Once upon a time a little calf was born on a dark and stormy night. (A dark and stormy night makes for much better reading than a calm and boring night, even though the latter is more likely to be the case.) 

Although she did her best, the poor mama cow just couldn't make it, and her little orphan calf was on her own. She was now known as a bummer calf. (That part is true, calves that don't have a mama taking care of them are bummer calves.)

Fortunately for her, she was taken in by two friendly people, who fed her daily bottles of milk replacement and hay to help make her into a big, strong cow. They named her Clementine.

Clementine was doing well until one dark night, a big and ferocious mountain lion jumped into her pen and tried to eat her. The calf fought back, and managed to live, but the lion's big teeth had left deep gashes in her neck and shoulders. She couldn't get over her memories of that mountain lion, and with no mama to console her, she just didn't want to go on.

She was moved to a new home, where she wouldn't see reminders of the mountain lion attack. She also got to hang out with two great lambs, who helped protect her. Slowly, with the aid of antibiotics and pain killers and lots of love, Clementine improved.

And that's where we get to be part of the story. Clementine's new family was out of town for the weekend, so we were asked to help take care of her. The kids were so excited!

 They quickly learned how to bottle feed her.

 Clementine drinks very fast!

She also likes to slobber all over the front of my clothes. Above, Desert Girl is pointing at some pus from a would above Clementine's ear. Poor thing!

It was fun taking care of Clementine, and we hope she keeps improving.

The kids would love to help with Clementine again. Of course, the nearby merry-go-round is also a very good incentive!

A Quick Visit to the County Fair

 This year we just had a quick visit to the county fair. With busy schedules and school, we didn't manage to enter anything, but we did want to go and check out a few things, like the animals.

We also wanted to support the cousins and friends who were showing animals. They have worked very hard over many months getting their animals ready for the fair. I'm glad my nephew found a bit of humor in showing his steer!


Of course it was fun to do some people-watching!

This steer was behaving quite well here. I love my niece's expression!

Cool matching boots and 4-H tie!

Desert Boy and Desert Girl weren't too patient with watching animals, so we wandered around the fairgrounds. This is a small fair (after all, we are in the desert, so the amount of arable land is quite limited). We found a fun activity at the Farm Bureau booth, playing games and then decorating a bag and hat:

Then it was time for Desert Boy to take on the climbing wall challenge. When he saw that, he decided that was the one thing at the fair he really, really wanted to do. (Although it took some consideration, as he wanted to volunteer to get dunked in the dunk tank.)

Desert Girl's big wishes for the fair were to see her friend Kate (which she did!) and to give Smokey Bear a hug. Well, when she saw Smokey Bear she got a little shy, but she did manage a high five.

Unfortunately I didn't manage a photo of Desert Girl's entire outfit for the day: her butterfly shirt, jeans, cowgirl boots, and a rhinestone-studded tutu, just because. That girl likes to accessorize!

It seemed like a lot of people were wandering around at the fair. We enjoyed looking at the exhibits and got some ideas for next year. Hopefully we'll be able to be a little more involved.