Chat
Friday night after our hike we were treated to a very good presentation by Dr. Maggie Highland from WSU about the Bighorn Sheep pneumonia die-offs. She seems to be of the opinion that banning domestic sheep and goats from BHS habitat is not the solution. I had a very interesting time listening to her speak with John Mionczynski after her talk. Dr. Highland indicated that she believes there is more going on in the herds than simple pneumonia and that there has to be some other catalyst to trigger the massive die-offs seen in some herds. John seemed to think that the key might be selenium availability and high nitrate levels in the rain. The biggest devastation has coincided with abnormally heavy rainfall and low selenium levels in the forage.
Saturday morning we had a "guess the goats' weight" competition in which we guessed the weights of three different goats (Finn was one) and added them together for a final answer. Phil guessed within two pounds of the total weight and won a prize. We also listened to John Mionczynski talk about edible and medicinal plants, which was fascinating because we never left camp. I didn't realize there were so many useful plants right there under our feet! Unfortunately, I had to miss the last part because Dwite Sharp dragged Cuzco up to me and said, "I believe this is yours. He was helping himself to the items in the sale tent." Sure enough, Cuzco had a torn and half-eaten bag of goat treats hanging from his mouth. Oh well... I was planning to buy some of those goat treats anyway. I took the sodden bag and emptied the rest of the treats into my pouch, but in the process of fending off the younger goats while I did this, Cuzco quietly disappeared. I found him back in the tent "buying" more bags of goat cookies. I decided it was time to take him back to our campsite and had to miss the end of John's talk.
Irene then shared with us about dehydrating food for the trail before the afternoon got hot and a few of us decided to drive over to Lake Henry for a swim. I decided to bring the boys. Cuzco, of course, swam at the 2013 Rendy, but I wanted to introduce the younger boys. The water was perfect--a very nice temperature and an easy, gradual slope with a solid sand and gravel bottom. Finn and Snickers balked at first, but they figured it out rather quickly and were soon following us into the water and swimming without hesitation. Sputnik was a different story. He bawled at the top of his lungs the minute the water hit his chest, and he didn't stop even when it went over his head. The result was that he ended up with facefulls of water which got into his mouth and nose and caused him to splutter and scream some more. The silly goat was so busy yelling that he wouldn't kick his legs and promptly sank when the water got deep. I had to buoy him along until he settled down enough to figure out that if he just kicked his legs instead of bawling about the unfairness of life, he could float just fine.
"Come on Sputnik!" He went fairly willingly to this point.
Finn and Snickers handled the water sensibly, and Finn even got to enjoying it I think.
Finn follows Phil everywhere.
A close-up of Sputnik's panic-stricken face as he floundered in the deep water. I was holding him afloat at this point.
Irene took a short video of Sputnik's (very loud) ordeal. He was convinced I was deliberately drowning him, but I promise I wasn't! In fact, I was the only reason he stayed above water for the first few minutes!
Saturday morning we had a "guess the goats' weight" competition in which we guessed the weights of three different goats (Finn was one) and added them together for a final answer. Phil guessed within two pounds of the total weight and won a prize. We also listened to John Mionczynski talk about edible and medicinal plants, which was fascinating because we never left camp. I didn't realize there were so many useful plants right there under our feet! Unfortunately, I had to miss the last part because Dwite Sharp dragged Cuzco up to me and said, "I believe this is yours. He was helping himself to the items in the sale tent." Sure enough, Cuzco had a torn and half-eaten bag of goat treats hanging from his mouth. Oh well... I was planning to buy some of those goat treats anyway. I took the sodden bag and emptied the rest of the treats into my pouch, but in the process of fending off the younger goats while I did this, Cuzco quietly disappeared. I found him back in the tent "buying" more bags of goat cookies. I decided it was time to take him back to our campsite and had to miss the end of John's talk.
Irene then shared with us about dehydrating food for the trail before the afternoon got hot and a few of us decided to drive over to Lake Henry for a swim. I decided to bring the boys. Cuzco, of course, swam at the 2013 Rendy, but I wanted to introduce the younger boys. The water was perfect--a very nice temperature and an easy, gradual slope with a solid sand and gravel bottom. Finn and Snickers balked at first, but they figured it out rather quickly and were soon following us into the water and swimming without hesitation. Sputnik was a different story. He bawled at the top of his lungs the minute the water hit his chest, and he didn't stop even when it went over his head. The result was that he ended up with facefulls of water which got into his mouth and nose and caused him to splutter and scream some more. The silly goat was so busy yelling that he wouldn't kick his legs and promptly sank when the water got deep. I had to buoy him along until he settled down enough to figure out that if he just kicked his legs instead of bawling about the unfairness of life, he could float just fine.
"Come on Sputnik!" He went fairly willingly to this point.
Finn and Snickers handled the water sensibly, and Finn even got to enjoying it I think.
Finn follows Phil everywhere.
A close-up of Sputnik's panic-stricken face as he floundered in the deep water. I was holding him afloat at this point.
Irene took a short video of Sputnik's (very loud) ordeal. He was convinced I was deliberately drowning him, but I promise I wasn't! In fact, I was the only reason he stayed above water for the first few minutes!
