#PhotoOfTheDay During our long road trip (off-road trip?) to Overland Expo in 2012, here we are in the process of recovering our friend Bryon's stranded Sportsmobile, which has sunk into the deep sands of the dry Mojave River bed.

Anthony uses a Maxtrax board as a shovel to pull away some of the sand, although it still took the combined power of two 12,000lb winches to eventually pull it to solid land.

#photo #photography #explore #RoadTrip #overland #offroad #4x4 #Mojave #desert

#PhotoOfTheDay is of a Land Cruiser 80 series that is plowing through a stream of water under the Afton Canyon rail bridge in the Mojave Desert, California. Good times on around 170 miles of off-road driving as part of a 8-day camping road trip to Overland Expo in 2012.

#photo #photography #offroad #overland #4x4 #mojave #desert #RoadTrip

The bats last night were spectacular. I kid you not I saw one the size of a raven in the garden. Dozens swooping and dipping and maneuvering throughout the West garden, nibbling on all the odd flying insects buzzing around.

I am so curious where the bats roost during the day - it cannot be on our property so they must fly down from the mines in the mountains. I very much wish to make some bat boxes or similar encouragement for them, they're my favorite wildlife I think.

#Bats #Wildlife #EcologicalRestoration #Cycles #Ecology #Mojave #Desert #SouthwestUS

Preparing to shut down the garden for summer as temps just hit 110s (after a week of perfect 70s no less). Pulled what corn I could, only four ears matured this season but we'll dry and store it and try again at the end of summer. The squash are still holding on, most of the sunflowers are about ready to cut and bag, and I'll be caging the tomatoes to see if they'll produce through the summer. Our kale is little but I'll be cutting it this week, and there are a few onions to pull and age also. With that, the garden will be just about ready to turn over to the chickens for the season!

Nopales harvest is officially done: our yield was 14 pounds all said, and I could have cut more while still leaving pads to grow on the cacti, but I maxxed out my capacity for cleaning and preparing them for storage. We gave some away, have some still fresh in the fridge (what we haven't cooked already) and I have 7 quarts of nopalitos fermenting on the shelf.

It's so odd how inverted our seasons are compared to most of you: as you enter your season of fertility we are mostly shutting down, preparing to rest the land through its harshest months before having another growing season in late summer. Though we aren't done! The mesquite pods come mature around the solstice, and in July or August las tunas (prickly pear fruits) will be ready for harvest also.

#Gardening #Zone9 #Mojave #Permaculture #Farm #SustainableFarming #IndigenousFoods

Darwin California now wants people as its down to 30 So as part my desert meanderings I have explored the boundaries of NWS China Lake and the northern boundary requires a trip through this city. The people I encountered were hostile and unfriendly and got the curtain moving to peek at me driving through, stuff I last encountered years ago on a Sunday in Utah polygamy territory.

Its also literally BF Nowhere so what would you be moving there for? #Mojave #desert #dying #ghosttown #travel #Darwin

https://www.sfgate.com/california/article/darwin-ghost-town-21281656.php