The Living Desert

Back in the early fifties, Walt Disney Studios produced a number of so-called True Life Adventure features which consisted of amazing nature photography loosely woven together into a story through narration and music.  There was Bear Country (1953), The African Lion (1955) and The Vanishing Prairie (1954) which was one of the first films cautioning about destruction of the environment.  As a young boy, I loved these films even more than the Disney animated features.  My favorite was 1953′s The Living Desert, which gave me a look at the flora and fauna that manage to survive the harsh desert summers.  The Living Desert won the first Oscar for Best Documentary.  Little did I know that after years as a New Englander and as a Socal suburbanite, I’d end up owning a house in desert with cactus as landscaping and the creatures I’d seen in The Living Desert showing up in our yard … and occasionally in our house.   I’m inclined to love the rugged beauty of the desert, barren landscapes punctuated by scrub plants and cactus.  I’m charmed by the sight of beautiful blossoms decorating prickly cactus each spring.  But in order to live in The Living Desert, I’ve had to learn a few lessons:

Lesson 1:  Never put on your shoes without shaking them out. Unfortunately, my wife learned this lesson for us by slipping her foot into a shoe and discovering a bark scorpion, which promptly stung her, a very painful experience.   I’ve also learned that scorpions glow a brilliant lemon yellow under black light, so I search the house with one designed for finding pet stains each time we arrive.

Lesson 2: In the desert virtually everything has thorns, from the cactus to the trees to the most innocent-looking yard plants.  If I work in the yard, I need to wear leather gloves, and even with gloves, I have to be careful since some of the thorns easily pierce leather.   So, I hire someone to do the heavy stuff.

Lesson 3:   Yesterday, I learned another lesson.   I was trimming some of the bushes in the back yard and decided to trim back an Agave Plant which had been threatening to take over the yard.  I used a chain saw to cut off some of the leaves, which were very wet with sap inside.   Some of the sap splashed on my arms and they were almost immediately itching unbearably.   I went inside and washed them, which stopped the itching but by evening, I had an angry-looking rash which is still around today, fortunately not itching.   Searching the internet, I discovered that Agave sap is quite irritating, here.  So, Lesson 3 is NEVER trim an Agave Plant using a chain saw without a full body cover.   Better yet, hire someone to do it.

Don’t you wish you lived in the desert?

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Tags: agave plant, movies, perspectives, postaday2011, the living desert

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