crickett

Mojave Desert, Death Valley National Park, Feb 17th 2010

Photos from a little side trip I took from Las Vegas, while attending the Western Vet Conference in February.

 

Above: Our first view looking down into Death Valley, just inside the national park.

Below: Same view.  The bush is the foreground is creosote.  It has small, waxy leaves and smells like creosote (yuck - I think it smells like chemicals).  It was a predominant plant in Death Valley.
 

 

Above/below: Badwater Basin, the lowest point in Death Valley.  More water here than usual, due to high rainfall in Feb.  They got more rainfall here in Feb 2010 than they did in all of 2009.  Despite the water, nothing grows because of the toxicity of the soil - full of salt, borax, silica, etc...




 

Below: View from Zabriskie Point (Amargosa Range, Furnace Creek Formation) in Death Valley.  Simply awesome.  Photos do not do it justice.

Above: Panorama of Zabriskie Point with Badwater Basin and the Sierra Nevada mountain range in the background.

Advice

Re: sanding...

Never, ever, if you can avoid it, use a powersander inside the house - unless it is in an empty,"unfinished" room.  We had a mishap with the sander today; whereby Mr. Eric decided to fix something in the kitchen whilst I was upstairs preoccupied with painting the bathroom.  And then... he conveniently got called out on an emergency and left ME to clean up the resultant "fine mist" of "dust" that was on EVERY single horizontal surface in the kitchen including my stack of clean dishes.

Dramatic lighting

This is not the greatest photo (way too fuzzy) but it was the best one I got to illustrate last night.  The light from the full moon was really spectacular. It was midnight and I couldn't stop looking out the windows!  The shadows of the tree branches on the snow were so clear and detailed - it was picture perfect - and there was enough light to see everything in the yard.  No christmas lights, house lights, or yard lights were on when I took the picture.  I played around with the shutter speed until I got one that was close to what it really looked like.  This is it.  Probably to get it right I would need a tripod and remote shutter release.  And it was cold! -30 without the windchill.  Maybe if it hadn't been so cold I would have tried harder to get it in focus.

 

The Modern Homestead

I came across this website when I was searching for information on raising poultry, butchering, etc. It's kind of interesting.  I find it inspiring actually.  Eric and I are very proud of our gardening and the food that we produce ourselves.  This seems to be important to both of us.  We would really like to try chickens someday.  This website makes me think of all the things we could grow on our acreage.  I would really like to try innoculating some of the woodlot with mushrooms!  In the spring we will definitely be planting some fruit trees.  Imagine the possibilities!!!

The Modern Homestead.US

Turning 30

Saturday Dec 6th was my 30th birthday.  I had a great birthday actually.  I spent the day at home, alone, doing various household tasks (mostly cleaning!) and then had a "girls only" birthday party in the evening.  It was a lot of fun.  We even had a designated "man slave" (Dale) to mix drinks etc. and a designated driver (Eric)!.  There was about 12 of us all together.  I realized that I do actually have several girl friends here in Beausejour that are around my age!  That is a good feeling.

My birthday present to myself this year was a treadmill.  I am a little bit paranoid now about gaining weight.  I have never had to diet or watch what I eat at all - I'm very lucky that way.  But people say that something different happens when you get to your 30's...

Things I decided I will like about my 30's:

I have a wonderful, established career.

I still have a nice figure.

I know a lot more about my own personality, strengths, and weaknesses than I did 10 years ago.

I have specific long term goals and am "heading in the right direction" now to achieve them (I know what I want!).

I love where we live now.