Spooky Deep Springs

Since Halloween falls on a Monday night, which is the DS night for committee meetings, the students decided to celebrate on Saturday night. While kids and parents watched It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown, they transformed the office wing of the Main Building into a corridor of horrors, with crazed country spinsters, orange-jump-suited jail-breakers, a creepy spider-man, and occupy wall street/deep springs protesters. Binbin, who went as a strong main with packaging puffies taped to his biceps and quads, collected treats and reveled in the tricks. jack, with the help of a student body accomplice, gathered enough props to turn himself into a good-natured second-year student; and I went at the 'three pillars' of Deep Springs: self-governance, academics, and labor rendered in doric, ionic, and corinthian orders.

We enjoyed the extra company of visitors, Michael (a Deep Springer from the '70s) and his kids, Rhys and Nathan. It was nice to have others carving pumpkins and playing foosball.

Windy!

I think Indian Summer has been blown out of the valley. The temps are above freezing at night, but the wind is howling through our valley. The few trees that have been planted around the ranch form hardly a windbreak, and the dewdrops I see through my office window have frozen into solid, icy pearls.

Today is pregnancy testing day for the cows. Everyone is going to be on work duty 10 miles down the valley near the lake to operate the corrals, gates, squeezer, confirm results, etc.

Animal Adventures

Apparently, the lizards are getting chilled as fall sets in, and we are finding regular visitors in our quarters. Binbin and I caught a released two, included the bluish belly guy with the stubby tail.

Also, this morning, Binbin and Jack spent some time at the dead animal dump looking for treasures. They came home with a couple of vertabrae, some ribs, and a jaw bone with a handful of teeth.

More elements

After wandering the Stanford campus, we made our way to the New Guinea sculpture garden. Here, Binbin poses in front of the wooden thinker.



Out of order, but still beautiful, Yosemite Falls on Friday, October 14.



Water and metal combine at the fountain near Stanford's Old Union.

Elements

We went on a road trip to Northern California this past week, while DS was on break between Terms 2 and 3. The quickest way to get from Deep Springs to Ukiah requires driving through Yosemite on 120, which takes us through Tioga Pass at 9945 feet. The early October snow has mostly melted, leaving the pass open. And so, we camped at Porcupine Flats on the last day of camping, October 14th. Binbin picked out a site with a large boulder, and we set up camp before driving down into Yosemite Valley. It was breathtaking, and we were lucky to see the waterfalls, which do not normally run this time of year. Here we are at the base of Yosemite Falls



Next morning, after packing up camp, we stopped on our way out of Yosemite at the Tuolumne Grove of Giant Sequoias. The short walk took us down a steep ravine to see the dead giant with a tunnel carved through it through which cars could pass. This other one died a more natural death. The trees were magnificent.



After seeing amazing water and wood, we spent a couple of hours in the middle of the week at Stanford. Here is earth, or rock, arranged according to the vision of Andy Goldsworthy.



Metal, or bronze, as Auguste Rodin cast it.



And a less inspired, water fountain with river stones, functioning effectively as a traffic circle.

In the Field

] Yesterday’s rains brought a cold front in, and it appears that summer has most definitely given way to a new season. Our apartment thermometer registered 65 degrees this morning, and it’s fallen off about 4 degrees since then.

Despite the rain yesterday, we nevertheless headed outdoors. With Amity as our naturalist field guide, we tromped around the habitat near Deep Springs Lake where one may find members of the endangered species, the black toad.

Binbin quickly spotted one in the gully, a small, dark creature, about 3 centimeters long. It has a prominent yellowish-whitish stripe running down its back. We trekked over to a nearby spring, looked at a few more, then made our way back to the college for deep dish pizza and hot chocolate.

Change of Seasons

Last weekend, just as summer was exiting, we made a weekend camping trip to Tuolomne Meadows in Yosemite National Park. On Saturday morning, Binbin made it to the top of Lembert Dome and down again, about a 6+ mile trek.



We relaxed in the afternoon sun at the south end of Tanaya Lake, protected a little by rock and trees.



On Sunday morning, we were back in the park for a last hike, this time up Pothole Dome, which led to a long series of rocky outcropping atop which we lunched and played.