Carolyn Dufurrena

Sam Dufurrena, Garden Valley (Idaho) Helitack, Boise National Forest. The crew leader invited all the families to watch the crew finish their final rappelling practice before heading off into the real fire season.

Sam (on the right) sliding down 250 feet of rope, this time into a mountain meadow, but maybe next time into a blazing forest.

When you look back on the paths your children have chosen, sometimes you can see how they got where they are. There was a day in 1993 that Sam rode with the US Fish and Wildlife Helicopter pilot when they gathered wild horses from the Sheldon Refuge, and another few days in 1999 when our world seemed that it would be consumed by fire...

...and I wonder, as these firefighter kids watch their dads walk back across this beautiful Garden Valley meadow, where they'll be in twenty years.

To read about the Nevada fires of 1999, check out "Cherry Pie" in Sharing Fencelines:Three Friends Write from Nevada's Sagebrush Corner, University of Utah Press, 2002.

Posted by Carolyn Dufurrena at 3:43 PM | Permalink

Hank and his daughters Magen (on the baler) and Julia (on the rake) take advantage of the cooler evening to make some hay in the Pump Field. All the kids are an important part of the crew on a family farm; the long hours and hard work make them responsible adults. The kids think so too, when they aren't missing out on the Basque Festival or the rodeo. CKD photo

Posted by Carolyn Dufurrena at 3:33 PM | Permalink

Disgusting! The size of a full grown mouse, Mormon crickets are on the march again. They are said to molt seven times in a summer, growing progressively redder until they are finally black. A late, wet spring has made them less of a problem on our ranch this year, but last year my house was covered with them. AAuuuggghh! I went a little crazy. Tim and I spent a couple of hours this morning spreading Eco-Bran, delivered by our local federal Conservation Service agents, which the monstrous insects love, and which kills them deader than a doornail. Then their cannibalistic cousins come to feast on their remains, and they die too. Rumor has it that seagulls are moving into Elko County to eat these creatures: almost nothing else will. CKD photo

Posted by Carolyn Dufurrena at 3:09 PM | Permalink

Water still standing in the Gorilla Fields in June makes the grass grow tall. Little frogs are everywhere, and baby birds forage the puddles with their parents. There is a family of them hiding in these reeds, but I wasn't quick enough to catch them on camera. This is haying time: the alfalfa fields are cut first, then the meadow hay. It'll be mid-July before the hay crew can risk cutting this field. CKD photos

For an explanation of how the Gorilla Fields got their name, check out Fifty Miles From Home: Riding the Long Circle on a Nevada Family RanchUniversitiy of Nevada Press, 2002.

Posted by Carolyn Dufurrena at 2:50 PM | Permalink

Denio fourth grader Richard makes friends with a bull snake at the High Desert Museum's "Natural Born Killers" lesson. We learn about scorpions, lizards and spiders from Larry, one of the museum's fine interpreters.

We watch the otters catch their lunch in the afternoon. All learning is experiential.

Posted by Carolyn Dufurrena at 12:18 PM | Permalink

Marty Spell, Denio primary grades teacher, (on the right) and parent Stacy Egger make sure our lantern-holders know who they are before we begin the trek into the lava tube.

The children have studied rocks all through the month of May and now it's time to show them some. We pile them into Suburbans on the last weekend of the school year and drive to Bend, Oregon, or several days, to visit some real live volcanoes. We are twenty-one students and nine adults, and our first stop is a hike through a real lava tube at Newberry Crater National Volcanic Monument.

We are, of course, looking for bats.

Posted by Carolyn Dufurrena at 12:05 PM | Permalink

Not much enthusiasm remains for learning in the classroom after the graduation ceremonies signal the impending end of the school year--so we take it outside for the last week of classes.

UNR graduate students Stephanie and Chelsea give us a lesson on trapping small mammals. CKD photo

In preparation for our end-of-the-year school field trip, Denio School gathers at Quinn River Ranch on Friday morning June 2nd to receive words of wisdom from Stephanie Leslie and her assistant Chelsea in the biology of our population of small mammals, reptiles, bats, birds, and what-have-you. The Bat Girls, as we have begun calling them, are University of Nevada-Reno graduate students recreating a biological survey done in 1909 in this area. They've earned their nickname because of their nocturnal habit of lurking by our gravel pit, trying to net bats as they come in for water.

Stephanie shows us the proper way to capture a mouse. CKD phto

Posted by Carolyn Dufurrena at 11:49 AM | Permalink

We have one eighth-grade graduate at school this year. Still, the principal and our district superintendent make the 100-mile drive to wish her well and present her diploma. Vanessa, our graduate, makes a lovely speech, and I hold my breath for that moment when she finishes to make sure I am settled before beginning my thank yous to all those who have come.

The children tie wishes to helium-filled balloons after the program and try to figure out which way the wind will carry them. CKD photo.

The community gathers under low clouds for a post-graduation barbecue of carne asada and grilled chicken. The rain holds off, and it's 9:30 pm before they are all ready to go home.

Posted by Carolyn Dufurrena at 11:34 AM | Permalink