Our Chicken Mystery

If you've followed this blog, you know we have had trouble with chickens. Over the past year and a half we've bought 12 chickens. Several died in the first few days. A couple got eaten by dogs. A bunch got eaten by skunks. We killed a rooster who had started attacking us. And then we were down to just two chickens. They seemed to be getting on well, but then one of them started not laying in the coop. We searched our bushes but couldn't figure out where she was laying. Then she started disappearing at night. At first we thought a dog or fox had eaten her, but then she appeared again. And throughout the summer, she disappeared for stretches of time, sometimes up to two weeks. If there had been a wild rooster around, I would have thought she was raising chicks, but we're the only ones in the neighborhood who let our chickens free range. And then she disappeared again.

We shrugged our shoulders and accepted it, what else could we do? Our remaining chicken (pictured above) seemed to be getting on okay, although she stopped laying and we talked about giving her away so she would have company.

Then the second chicken reappeared, her comb duller, her legs yellower. And she kept reappearing every day, staying for the whole day, eating food we put out.

Now she's even staying the night in the coop. There must have been a good summer home for her to visit. But now it seems she's back for winter.

The color and size of the combs of the two chickens is quite striking. They used to be nearly identical, but now they're easy to tell apart. (Plus the resident chicken must have had something attack her because she only has one tail feather left.) We're back to an egg a day (the runaway still isn't laying in the coop).

It's nice to have the chickens wandering around the yard. But I still won't give them names.

Hiking and Splashing in Negro Bill Canyon, Moab, Utah

We went to Moab to celebrate a wedding of two friends. While we were there, we went on a fun hike up Negro Bill Canyon. The trailhead is located on Utah Scenic Byway 128, three miles north of the junction with U.S. Highway 191. This hike was listed as a great family activity, and they were right! The main large parking lot was full at 11 am on Sunday (we went to church first, so got a little later start). However, there was plenty of room across the highway to park.

I had the kids put on their new neoprene socks (something I decided we needed after our hike up Kanarra Creek). We tried to make good time up the trail, telling the kids we would hike in the creek on the way back down. But soon I got hot, so we started hiking sections in the creek, and the new game became to find the deepest holes. We saw some small fish in the creek.

The water was chilly, so when we got cold we hiked on the trail and soon warmed up.

The trail crosses the creek several times, sometimes with slippery crossings.

About 1.5 miles up we veered right into the second canyon and in 0.7 miles reached Morning Glory Bridge, the sixth largest natural bridge in the U.S., at 234 feet across. A group was rappelling down the wall next to the bridge. I had read about this trip, where canyoneers start out above this area and do two rappels and hike out. It sounded great, except the group had over 15 people in it and it took each person ten to fifteen minutes to rappel down and they were getting bored and rowdy and started teaching the kids new words that we preferred that they didn't know.

We had brought our lunch, so we tried to get away from that group and enjoy the view.

Water comes out of a crack and flows into a small pool under the bridge.

We knew we had a long drive ahead of us, so we didn't stay too long under the bridge. We started back, with more forays into the creek. This was definitely a hike where the trip to and from was even more fun than the destination!

We did have to watch out for poison ivy, but the kids are pretty good at spotting it. They even learned to tell the difference between the very similar-looking box elder leaves and poison ivy. It helped that the poison ivy was starting to turn a little red.

The rocks along the creek kept changing, and we alternated from shady to sunny sections.

While my husband preferred the drier route, the kids and I were happy to get wet.

We tried a selfie.

Then I gave the camera to my husband.

We hiked in the creek a lot, finding it nearly as easy as the trail and much more fun.

We still got out to warm up from time to time.

This is a great trail and lots of fun with the water. It's free so it can be crowded.

There is so much to see and do in Moab--we'll be back!

A Short Fall Hike

 I could see that the leaves were changing up high on the mountain, one of my favorite sights. So we set off on the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive, where the clouds were making a scenic landscape.

The kids and I  agreed that the quarter-mile nature trail would be sufficient to observe the beautiful fall colors.

Soon we got sidetracked by the stream, where I enjoyed the reflections.

Desert Girl graciously posed by one of my favorite trees. As you can see by her attire, it was cold outside!

We heard some tapping and discovered a woodpecker.

Before long we were back in the car and enjoying more colors. Despite the grey day, the colors were still really vibrant.

Someone once told me that aspens look like candles on the mountain.

As we descended, clouds moved in.

Out in the distance, the mountains looked like they continued forever.

We got into sunshine as we went lower, but the clouds still made interesting appearances.

Another sign of fall: turkey vultures hanging out in the trees, drying their wings. This is such a beautiful time of year!

Hope you are finding some fun fall activities to enjoy.

2015 Astronomy Festival - Great Basin National Park

 One of our favorite fall events to attend is the Astronomy Festival at Great Basin National Park. (Here are posts from 2012, 2013, and 2014.)  We started out with the talent show on Thursday night, where an array of performances showcased talent by park employees.

The kids had school the next day, so we couldn't stay to look through the telescopes, but the skies were beautiful, so I'm sure those that did had great views.

On Friday afternoon I signed up for the astrophotography workshop and picked up a couple tips to improve my night sky photography. Derek Demeter was the workshop leader.

I had planned to go to Derek's keynote speech, but an EMT call had me changing my plans. Instead, I went to the Saturday sunrise program at the Baker Archeological Site. To my surprise, there was quite a large crowd.

We heard about how this Fremont Village was laid out with astronomy in mind, with the buildings oriented certain ways to show when it was planting and harvest time. The village was inhabited from about 1220 to 1295.

The Fremont Village was small, probably just a few families, and they grew crops nearby with water from Strawberry Creek (which now flows pretty far away, but if you look closely you can see the swale that used to bring the water).

The light was fantastic as the sun came up.

The curbs show where the buildings were, which were excavated in the 1990s by BYU and BLM.

I took a lot of photos.

Finally I knew I better get going. If you visit this free site, there's a self-guiding booklet available at the trailhead (the trail is about .25 miles roundtrip). It's a very nice booklet that explains a lot.

Later that day we went backpacking to take advantage of the new moon skies (see day 1, night, and day 2 posts if you missed them), so we didn't get to look through the telescopes the third night either. Nevertheless, it was fun participating in a few of the astronomy festival events, and I think it had record attendance. The weather was perfect, and the high elevation and remoteness make for some fantastic night skies.

If you're interested in going, save the dates for next year's astronomy festival: September 29-October 1, 2016.

Hike to Kanarra Creek Falls near Cedar City, Utah

Since we have to take an entire day off to go to the dentist in Cedar City, I figured we should try to do something fun so we didn't just drive all day. The aquatic center didn't open until 4 pm, the bowling alley was a little pricey, no good movies at the cheap movie theater, no plays showing at the Shakespeare Festival, so I decided we would go for a little hike. I had heard that Kanarra Creek was a wonderful place to hike and wasn't far away. So after doing some errands, we drove there (directions and maps here). We could have parked at city hall for free and walked a few blocks, but it was already getting a little late in the day, so we paid $10 to park in the private parking lot. About five cars were in the parking lot. No one in the handicapped spaces next to the stairs.

The information kiosk that begins, "This is a difficult hike." The kiosk also said "Plan on spending at least four hours up and back." I was hoping we could make it a little faster, as we still had to do grocery shopping and had a long drive when we finished.

The hike starts on a steep gravel road and passes the water tanks for the town of Kanarraville.

Then we went down hill towards the creek. It was late September, so I was a little surprised by how warm it was and how green the trees still were. I was kind of hoping for lots of fall colors, but I guess that will happen in October.

The kids were definitely a bit grumbly. However, once the trail got harder and we started walking in the water more, their attitude definitely improved.

We got more and more excited as the canyon walls got higher.

In a bit over an hour, we reached the first narrows section. I had checked the forecast and there was a 0% chance of rain. Perfect, because if you were in the narrows during a flash flood, it would be a bad situation.

When Desert Boy saw the narrows, he couldn't quite believe that was our trail. I think his exact words were, "We have to hike in that?"

"Yep," I replied.

"But there's no trail."

I smiled. "That's the point."

Although I had them hiking in swim suits and some technical clothes, their feet got cold. And there was a little more whining.

But soon we reached the first waterfall, and suddenly they forgot about their cold feet and started thinking about the challenge in front of them. Desert Girl scampered up the ladder before I even had a chance to ask her if she would be comfortable doing it.

The canyon opened up a bit and we saw some smaller waterfalls. On hot summer days, I would hang out here for awhile. But it felt cooler now, so we kept going.

As we entered a second section of narrows, the water got a little deeper.

The beta I had read about the hike said the second waterfall could be harder to climb around, but on our trip the ladder there was in good shape.

We were a team now, overcoming obstacles in the canyon.

The canyon was absolutely gorgeous.

After the second waterfall the canyon opened up again and we found a geocache, had a snack, warmed up in the sun a little, then headed back downstream.

Desert Boy was ready to tackle the ladders on his own. (By the way, some of the ropes and webbing tying the ladder in place and for handlines are really worn--inspect them before you commit all your weight to them.)

Desert Girl wanted a belay, so I tied a full-body webbing harness for her and attached some accessory cord.

The belay gave her a little more confidence, and she did great going down.

The trickiest spot turned out to be this log, where Desert Girl slipped off and landed in a puddle, getting quite wet. I had a rain jacket that I put on her and that helped warm her up.

Going down the ladder by the first waterfall was a piece of cake.

Then it was time for more hiking. I've already ordered neoprene socks for the kids so they can do this again and enjoy it a little more.

They dried out quickly once we reached the road and headed back. It took us 3.5 hours to go up above the second waterfall and back. We saw about 20 people in the canyon on a weekday afternoon. According to reports I've read and the size of the parking lot, I imagine it can get super busy on weekends, with probably ten times that amount of people. But I have to say, the canyon is worth visiting, it's a beauty.