Along the Santa Fe Trail

July 17, 2022

Howdy folks,

Summer has kicked into high gear out here. We haven't had rain since the weekend of Las Fiestas over the Fourth of July and you're really starting to see things dry up. The horse pasture is full of grass and purslane, which was still quite succulent even just a week ago, but is now starting to look pretty stressed and thin. We've been separating the horses from a big part of the pasture to let the grass grow, and I've been penning them up sometime on Monday and then opening it back up again on Friday night. Now, before you feel too bad for the horses, they still have 60 acres to run around on(as best as I can figure), just not the full 160 acres. When they come to the water troughs to get a drink, the two gates that I open are right there, and they like to just sit there and wistfully stare across to the other side of the fence...you know, they say the grass is always greener! Imagine a horse's much more literal take on that. The heat hasn't been helping either with the week starting out in the mid-80s and ending up in the low to mid-90s every day, with what appears to be another full week of hitting 90+ every day coming right behind it. Initially, we were imagining knee-high grass on the bigger side of the pasture within a few weeks, but it's starting to look like a lot of potential food drying up right before our eyes. At least at night the temperature will drop down into the lower 60s, even the upper 50s here and there, and the humidity skyrockets. They're calling for another ten days straight with a chance of thunderstorms, but I guess we won't count the water drops in the cistern until they get there. Now that we're having regular thunderstorms(just because we haven't been getting wet does not mean at all that we don't have almost daily thunder and lightning!), Willow is back to nervously pacing the floor once it gets to be mid-afternoon or so. So, we throw a dog bed in the bathroom and pile all of her dog toys around her, which helps, but she certainly turns into a nervous mess. Just yesterday, we were in the process of letting the three dogs out and I opened the door, so that 1, 2, 3, they could run out without letting any of the cats out. Willow, upon being halfway out the door, saw nothing but a huge dark cloud directly in front of us and promptly slammed on the brakes, jackknifing in the doorway, before slinking back to her bathroom hideout!

I saved a hummingbird at work the other day, which was quite an experience. As the house is getting more and more closed up, we keep getting random birds stuck in there and have to open some of the numerous doors and windows to try and get them back out. So, I was walking towards the garage by what is going to be a dog-washing area and I heard a buzzing sound low on the ground. We've just started getting our custom cabinets installed in there and in the kitchen, so I looked down below the lip of the cabinet and saw a tiny, little hummingbird sitting there on the floor, still as could be. His eyes opened just a flicker, but otherwise he didn't move at all. I delicately closed my hand around him and escorted him back outside into a little patch of grass along the horse fence. Upon thinking of something better, I picked him up again and took him another twenty feet into the pasture to a big pond that collects run-off from the roof. Not thinking that he could stand on his own near enough to drink without drowning, I opted to dab my fingertip into the water and then touched it to his bill. Nothing. I did this another half-dozen times and finally got him to open his bill and I could see his throat moving. Instantly he opened his eyes almost fully and seemed much more alert. I let him sit there a little, waiting to see his response and decided to do something better and took him over to a little patch of tiny, yellow flowers. I broke one off and rubbed his bill all on the inside of it, visibly seeing some pollen transfer to it, and again, very abruptly, he jolted back to life and started buzzing his wings. At first just for about five seconds. Then a little later for about fifteen seconds with a little lift off of the ground. Finally, after two or three attempts, I last saw him buzzing across the pasture at breakneck speed heading towards another chance.

So, here again I have another batch of pictures to share, surely my favorite part of this every week. First up, a shot of Bootsie and one of her kittens. There are three tiger boys and one black girl, like Mama, so we've named them Boo-Boo & the BRJs for now. BRJ is short for Big R, Junior(their Daddy was Big R) and we thus far can't tell the three boys apart, so that's as far as we've gotten! Next, a shot of a hawk that landed on the fence that separates the boss's dog yard from the rest of the ranch, right outside our window. Then, two shots of the dogs: first, Ela keeping the frogs in line; then, Willow all denned up for another batch of storms. Then, two shots from the kitchen window up at the new house that we've been working on, first looking out and to the right to see the horses yarded up by the newly-shut gate, then a step back and straight on showing the view from the sink. Next up, three different plants shots from around the ranch: first, flowers growing up along an old wagon wheel; then, a tiny cactus's big, brilliant flower; and, finally, a closeup of some fresh-growing cholla. Then, two shots of Boot Hill, our pet cemetery out here: first, the view with the mesa looming closeby; then, Ela checking our pet graves(we exhumed seven animals when we left PA and reinterred them here). The boss makes crosses for each one and we do rock cairns...all we have to do is ask the dogs, Where's Luna? Go see Luna! They all run right up to the communal grave and sniff the rocks, it's something. Next, two shots looking at the ever-changing sky from our front door: first, from outside the door looking at our gate; then, from just inside the door as the sky caught fire. Then, two more landscape shots from my countless walks around out here: one capturing a nice variety of local plants from near to far(the yellow flowers are what I fed to the hummingbird); the other zeroing in on the many ripples, wrinkles and lines on the face of the mesa. Finally, the perfect shot that I managed to take of myself while sneaking around down in the reeds and cattails with the dogs...up to no good, as per usual!

That's it. Be good!