April 10, 2016 Power boats, Rain and Desert Flowers.

We are approaching our final week here in Nevada (at least for awhile) and are finishing up some projects we began a few weeks ago.  Of course we are still reserving time for having fun too!

A friend of ours had his power boat here and took us out for a ride.  Needless to say we covered more of the lake in a couple of hours than we could have done in days in our kayaks.  One one open section of the lake Scott got to take a hand at the wheel.  He was thrilled to say the least and absolutely confident that he could pilot the boat at least as well as we did (and maybe better).  He did pretty well but I don't think his skill level is up to docking it yet.

Ours boys in green were at it again that day.  This one did a couple of rounds then dropped some large things out of the plane.  We had a good view from the dock while taking the boat back out of the water.

Scott was having fun making "sea-monster" tracks on the dock.

We never seemed to get enough time in the pool!  This section is a lot like spending time in a Jacuzzi.  The water almost feels like a massage!

We were told by a local friend that the desert doesn't handle rain well!  Years ago we thought that the porous sand would let the water sink into the ground immediately but that isn't the case.  There's enough clay mixed in that the water can stand for days after a rain.  Of course it can also run off in great enough volumes to create floods.  This was in front of our motor home.

Scott, of course, took full advantage of the water to have some fun.  The boots were helpful for about the first two steps.  Then he was in over their tops.

He was still having fun though.

One of the projects we finished up was repairing some fence around a local spring.  These are scattered across the desert and easy to find if you know what to look for.  The fence was to keep the burros from harassing the Desert Bighorns that came here for water.  The bucket is about half full of fence clips for steel posts.

On the hike in we were treated to a dazzling array of wild flowers.  The colors on desert plant flowers are so brilliant it's like God is giving them a special favor to make up for their harsh growing environment.  I've labelled those we know the name of.

These are similar to the Sahara Mustard but these are okay.

Indigo Bush

Hedge hog and creosote.

Cholla

Hedgehog cactus

Creosote

Grapes

Baby birds in their nest made inside an old spool of barb wire hanging on a fence post.

There are literally hundreds of other flowers that didn't make it in this post.

It always amazes me when people see no beauty in nature.  Even the most harsh environments have their own special kind of beauty.

Thanks for looking!