Fragrant Desert

Spring this year has been different to say the least. Our rainfall is normally 4.5 inches per year. I have no clue how much rain we have gotten, but it is surely a lot more than that. It all seems to have arrived at the best possible time. Luckily I hit the runways and the "ranch" yard with some pretty serious weed killer, and those areas are pretty nice. I have had to mow the runways in years past and I can tell you that the trips required to mow a 25 foot wide runway 1/2 mile long is not something that I look forward to. Riding 5 miles in a cloud of dust is not one of my favorite things to do.

It has been pretty cool and even at this late date the temps were in the low 70's. Wed. is supposed to be 89 degrees. Should be fun! Not sure what effect this cool wet spring will have on the game bird populations. I know that the Pack Rat populations are booming. Curly has become a real serious Rat killer. This is of course the time of the year that the juveniles strike out on their own to establish their own territories. For a while he was finding and killing at least one a day.

Mostly they get into the Rock Jacks to hide, although at least two made it into the attic. The most fun however was one that took refuge in an extra piece of the flex hose that one uses to dump the effluent tanks on Motor homes. Curly insisted that there was one under some shelves in the hanger. I picked up the hose and found that was where he was hiding. I took it outside and dropped one end, thinking that he would bolt, but he stayed. Curly stuck his nose in the end, getting a good whiff, and started trying to catch up to him. His nose would only go so far into the hose, but the hose kept moving. Curly was running in short circles with his nose in the pipe and his butt up in the air. When it became too much to stand anymore, I flicked the rat out. After being bit a few time, he has decided that the quicker they die the less he gets bit.

We have had more than our fair share of "Bull Snakes" as well. Those get transplanted across the creek. I would leave them alone if I could, but between the little chicks running around and Karen's screams, its best to move them.

The area across the creek is very sandy, and that makes it a good place for "Birdcage Evening Primrose". They are all over and their fragrance is a light "Bordello" smell, that is quite striking and permeates the entire area. Some are white, others have a slightly pink color to them. They close up in the sunshine and open when the sun starts going down. All that fragrance then starts wafting across the desert.

Unfortunately either I or my camera lens are not quite up to the task of taking a good picture. They are a bit past their prime however, as I have been putting off this entry for too long. Of course all the other desert flowers are blooming as well. The Sage is colored up quite nicely with Mallow and several other flowers that I can't name. (Karen can't find her flower book)

The wind hardly ever quits this year and the flowers were most uncooperative.

Some are quite small, in fact so small that the flowers are hardly visible at all.

Of course with all this abundance comes a price to pay. When all these weeds dry up and the dry lightning starts cracking across the desert it will be most interesting.

Life after Monument Valley

Mike Marker departed his home field last Tuesday on one of the only days in his area predicted to be decent flying weather. He flew the more than 700 miles in one day, arriving in the afternoon. I am quite impressed, he is one tough cookie. Roger Hankins arrived, towing his Kolb KXP the next afternoon, making up this years version of a Rock House fly-in.

The weather has been marginal to say the least, almost every where, so I guess we didn't get special treatment. Mike was able to fly Wed morning and get enough light for a few pictures.

 

All of these pictures were taken by Mike on his travels. The crater is Jordan Crater. It is quite striking and the Lava flows for 25 miles. As for the feral horses, I have been trying for years to get a picture of these two horses, but never had camera enough to get the job done.   My thanks to Mike for sharing                                                                                     

The next morning wasn't all that great, although Roger and I attempted to do some flying. The wind was blowing so hard that I was looking out my side window to see where I was going, so we spent some time installing and experimenting with VG's on Rogers plane. We finally found a happy spot for them on his wing and made them a permanent fixture. ( For those that are not familiar with the purpose of VG'S I will explain, in short they help the air flowing over the wings of a plane to remain attached to the wing surface longer at an increased angle of attack, thus slowing the stall speed of the plane.)

After testing was complete the winds kicked up, so we went on a road trip to view the Pillars of Rome. Karen wasn't feeling well, and stayed in the car while the rest of us explored on foot. It wasn't flying, but it was still entertaining and fun.

The next day Roger and I did a short trip around the area, but the weather was bad enough that I was satisfied to look at some horses and check the river for water levels. The wind was blowing sideways so we went home. Mike arrived shortly after our touch down, and after breakfast we made another Road Trip. This time to Danner and Cow Lakes with a Ice Cream stop in Jordan Valley.We went through Arock to look at some of the wildlife there.

Mike had a mission to take some pictures of Three Forks and the Owyhee as well as the Leslie Gulch area, so he departed early on Friday, while Roger and I left at a more leisurely pace to the Owyhee area. It was bumpy, windy and cold, but we managed to get to the Chalk Basin area to pinpoint a trail down over the escarpment to an old homestead that was built in 1877, then on to Leslie Gulch. On the way we found quite a bunch of Big Horned Sheep on a Mesa above the river. When we got to Leslie Gulch I ran into a snow storm that cooled my ardor for further flying, so we headed home as fast as the winds would allow.

After breakfast we elected to take another road trip, this time to the trail that Roger and I had found. The GPS was a great help as the two track was pretty faint that lead to the trail. It was a nice walk down in spite of the cold wind. I wish that I could know more of the people that homesteaded that spot. You would have to see it and experience the remoteness of their chosen spot to understand. Hard to say whether they just gave up and moved on or what. Tough times and tough people. The flowers are blooming and some of them are quite spectacular. Quite a few are new to me.

Yesterday we flew to the Alvord, while Mike tried Leslie Gulch again before going there. The weather was actually quite good in the morning with calm winds for a change. A fella from the Nampa area was there to fly his new Sky Raider and I had told him that I would check on him while he was there.

We managed a few pictures of the area that were acceptable, but far from ideal as the sky was filled with ice crystals that caused the sky to be mostly white rather than blue. We visited a bit with Bryant Lawrence, the owner of the plane, and then left to check on the Sheep in that area. I left Mike and Roger to look while I went home to start the Pork shoulder in the smoker that was to be our dinner that evening.

Mike left this morning for home in a light drizzle that lasted long enough to mess up his windscreen. The last I checked he was in Wells, Nevada. Roger stayed long enough for Sourdough Waffles and then he too departed for home, leaving us with an empty feeling and just plain glad that I didn't have to drive or fly anywhere to get home.

2010 Monument Valley Unplanned, Unorganized, Fly?? Drive- in

Each year a bunch of Kolb Pilots either drive or fly in to Monument Valley to fly and shoot bulls. It is unplanned and unorganized and a general good time to put faces to email senders. Since we as a group are scattered all over the US and even the UK and down under as well, it is very hard for some to attend, but all would like to, and do so when they can. It is generally held the weekend after Mother's Day as the weather is at its best at least as far as temperatures. Well, the only thing that stays the same is that every thing changes. This year it was the wind. Here at the house and I guess almost every where else, the wind has been unrelenting. It finally caught up to us at the fly-in.

Karen likes to go as her Sister and Niece make the drive down from Colorado to meet her. They have a good time catching up on family gossip. Mici, Karen's niece, was taken for a flight by John Hauck and has been hooked ever since. She looks forward to the trip all year long.

It all started when John Hauck crashed his Mountain bike and mangled his leg a week before his departure date. He is doing ok and will be well enough to make his fall trip here to the Rock House.

Then the weather reared its ugly head, with winds that were impressive to say the least. Another one of the guy's had planned to fly in with his Firestar from Brownsville Texas. We are still not sure how he had his problem, but he damaged a wingtip at St. John's Airport in Arizona, and had to trailer home. The only two planes that actually flew in were a Rans and a Sonic. Unfortunately the last I heard they were going to be spending a bit more time than they planned before the weather breaks enough for them to fly home.

Six actual Kolb pilots drove in, but the wind came up with a passion and promised to continue through Monday. We had already spent a pretty miserable night on Thursday. I had only brought inflatable mattresses and mine would not hold air. A victim of  the Goathead plant apparently. I tried to sleep in the car, leaving Karen with the tent. I finally got to sleep sometime in the early, early morning. Karen woke me up at 4 AM to tell me she couldn't sleep and wanted to change places with me. :-/.

Friday we drove into Kayenta, a Navajo town, about 22 miles from MV, with the idea of buying another mattress. The True Value store finally opened and I bought a full sized Coleman mattress. The only size available. We took a few pictures on the way. The scenery is spectacular, and the condition of the native peoples are still sad. I bought a Navajo paper and there were two suicides of young people on the front page. One from alcohol poisoning and the other from hanging.

Karen's sister, Pat and niece, Mici showed up in the early afternoon. As usual they brought a bunch of food and we all gathered to eat. The wind started to blow, hard! The fine red dust of Monument Valley looks a bit like Paprika, but unfortunately does not taste the same. Slow eaters did not fare well. I am not sure how hard the wind blew, but it was interesting to say the least. The tent kept banging Karen on the head as the wind would flatten it on the big gusts. Mike and Jan Marker left to go back home, Boyd and Becky Young decided to see if they could find their son, who was camping in Moab. We decided that we (Karen ) didn't want to spend another night in the wind, so we all packed up and hit the road north looking for a motel with a shower.

We found one in Monticello Utah, an hour north of MV. After a shower we went to a local resturant, and then a drive to do a bit of sight seeing. We chose Newspaper Rock as being within our time frame. I am always fascinated by the local floral and fauna and of course in this part of the country, the scenery. The scenery did not dissapoint, but there seems to be little in the way of wildlife. I am sure a detailed examination would reveal more, but there is still very little in the way of a prey base or those who would use one.

The next morning we got up and on the road by 6 AM and managed to get home at 7:45 PM, driving 745 miles. The dogs were very happy to see us and get to sleep in the house. It had snowed and blown while we were gone.

 

Alvord, May 14, 2010

We are expecting flying visitors next week and I wanted to check the Alvord to get an idea of the water level. We are expecting some General Aviation planes as well as the Kolbs and I wanted to make sure that there would be no problems.

The weather has been extremely uncooperative for the entire spring, but today appeared to be one of the best of the year. I had things to do, but what the heck.

Spot track of flight