Old Beauty in the Dead of Winter

It was a beautiful day today, so about 9:30 this morning I grabbed my camera and tripod to see what I could find. I took a left on Hwy 95 and headed south toward Fort Churchill State Park. Some of you may remember my Day 43 photo from Fort Churchill. Just a bit further from the entrance to the main park area is “The Orchard,” just across the highway from Buckland Station, the picnic and hiking area at Fort Churchill State Park.

The area is full of decaying farm buildings with signs all over them NOT to enter (drat!), as well as rusting farm equipment and old wagons. Here are a few of my shots. I’ll be posting more over the coming days.

You can see some of the adobe buildings of Fort Churchill in the background in this first one.

Cement Plant

Fernley, Nevada

Day 361 – A bit of snow

It’s wickedly cold and expected to get colder. We had a winter storm blow through last night which dropped about 2-3 inches (though not as much in my neighborhood). The roads are icy and given it’s a slow week at work (all of my bosses are out of the office), I’ve gotten dispensation to work from home. Earlier today I took a few minutes outside with my camera to capture the snow.

Day 313 – Thistles in a tractor

Literally across the street from my work, smack dab in the middle of the city of Reno is a small homestead with cows, a small pasture and a farm-house. In a far corner of this property is the skeleton of a tractor with thistles growing up through its bones.

Weekly Photo Challenge: Near and Far, Take 2

A second take on this week’s Photo Challenge.

Backed-up traffic on Hwy 50 heading out of Carson City. When there is an accident, there is no place to go. And so we waited.

You have GOT to be kidding me.

Highway 95A

The road between Fernley and Silver Springs, Nevada. It doesn’t get much more rural than this.

Realty World, Silver Springs, NV.

A victim of the recession. A never-built housing development just north of Yerington, NV.

Sage Crest Drive-In, Yerington, Nevada.

Day 231 – It’s feeling a bit tropical around these parts

We’ve had some very strange weather lately. Humidity in the 40 percent range, and now, rain. Go figure. Not complaining, really. We need the precipitation and if we can’t get it in the winter, I’ll take it now.

I woke up at 3:30 in the morning to the sounds of a huge downpour, so after I got up for good I stepped out into the backyard to see if I could find any remnants of the moisture. While the grass was a bit damp, no evidence of the early morning storm was to be seen.

Still, the hibiscus was blooming . . .

and the grapes were starting to ripen.

Buddy napped one minute . . .

. . . and hoped to see a rabbit the next.

And while I was processing these photos, rain!

Day 191 – Struggle

It’s been an exceptionally harsh year, weather-wise, not just in our neck of the woods, but everywhere it appears. But in my area, where the growing season is already abysmally short and precipitation is always in short supply, our mild, bone-dry winter has unleashed a torrent of all kinds of burrowing and nibbling creatures. Rabbits, voles, squirrels and other such creatures are laying waste to gardens all over our part of the state, from above and below. Our yard is no exception, and even our “desert hardy” bed has been decimated. We try planting and within a week the plants are gone. A rose-bush I planted out front was pretty much razed. The Mexican primrose and other flowers, usually left alone, have been mowed to the ground. It is beyond depressing.

One little plant is bravely trying to make a comeback. In the midst of sand and gravel, there is this one little flower.