Dust Storm

April 24, 2022

Howdy,

Well, in the past week the wildfires out here in New Mexico have only gotten worse. The Hermits Peak Fire has now been joined by the Calf Canyon Fire, only about 5-10 miles to the west, further up in the mountains. The fear now is that these two fires will merge together into one megafire, and, sure enough, by week's end that is exactly what happened. Now we have a monster fire just about 25 miles north of us that is consuming some 50,000+ acres and is currently only about 10% contained. This is still not affecting us directly, although the smoke can cause the Air Quality Index to skyrocket, but usually the wind is coming out of the southwestern quadrant of the sky and it tends to be blowing the smoke to the north and east. There are about ten fires raging in the state right now, with the Cooks Peak Fire about sixty miles to the north/northeast of us and that, too, is consuming about 50,000 acres. There are roughly 1000 national forest service fire personnel in the nearby region fighting these fires and one interesting side effect has been the depletion of resources like diesel in Las Vegas. Already this could be spotty at times because of supply chain issues(and now the Ukrainian War), but all these guys run around in diesels. Most of town is booked solid with movie production people(a huge thing here in Las Vegas) and there has not been additional room there for evacuees or the firefighters in all of the hotels. We haven't had any trouble getting fuel for our three diesels, but we don't need it at any kind of regular interval that might lead us to really have to hunt for it on some days. Luckily, for us, we're somewhat marooned on this ranch and most days don't need to go anywhere...and we have horses, although riding one would be a feat! The weather has not been helping any of the wildfires as it has been in the 70s and 80s all week with very gusty wind conditions. Much of the time last week the relative humidity would dive down into the single digits! Yet, many nights the humidity rebounds well up into the 70-80% range...it's the nights that don't, when the wind never dies down, that really can wreak havoc. Clearly, a night that settles down into the 30s with no wind and decent humidity is nothing like one that stays in the mid-50s with high winds and humidity down around 25% or less!

With the warmer weather we've seen the reappearance of many of the desert critters that we're now used to seeing. Erin saw a big bull snake on the frontage road on the way back from Vegas the other day, big and soaking up the sun. We won't see rattlers for another month or so, but all the rest of the non-poisonous snakes appear to be out and about again. All the little lizards are scurrying around anywhere that you look and we've had our first scorpion in the house for the year...I came home to find it trapped underneath a glass by Erin and, instead of killing them, I always choose to just take them for a long, long walk. The flies are buzzing around the horses again and I'm going to have to start their regimen of fly spray spot-on soon. That makes me persona non grata for a few days each month! Bootsie the Cat had her kittens, but we've made ourselves leave her and her brood alone in their cat complex on our stoop. In addition to the coyote-proof kitty tube that she chose, I attached a big cardboard box(lined with an old coyote skin) as an antechamber and then made a little wall of bricks, cement blocks and boards to keep our super nosy dogs out. We've heard them squeaking a few times recently but haven't seen any of them venturing outside yet. One of the mistakes that we made last year when Hiyupo had her litter was that the dogs could access the kitty tube too easily and kept bothering everyone. And, on top of that, we kept lifting the lid on it too many times to check on them. In the end, she moved them once and then ended up abandoning them because she moved it too close to the jobsite. After a few weeks of trying to keep them alive, they all ended up passing. Not this time! We've completely left Bootsie alone and are eagerly awaiting to see how many kittens end up popping out of there. The boss wanted a colony of cats, so we're well on our way! The horses always roll along with the changes in the seasons quite naturally and are all in the process of shedding out their winter coats. One thing of interest was feeding them on Friday night in the middle of a dust storm. It was so windy, warm and dry that there were so many dust particles floating in the sky that it looked like storm clouds moving around. We had gusts up to 80mph that day and when I went out to feed them they were all standing on the leeward side of a big bunch of junipers at the bottom of small hill, so I just went with it and fed them right there. They felt safe and protected there and took their time eating. Otherwise, in the normal spot, it is nowhere near as protected from the wind and half of the hay would have probably ended up in Amarillo!

And now for our weekly batch of pictures for your perusal and pleasure. First up, two shots of the Calf Canyon Fire that suddenly sprang into view from the ranch on Thursday afternoon. Next is a series of five shots from Friday night's horse feeding during the dust storm; you can see the herd spread out at the bottom of the hill as the dust was sailing overhead. Then, a shot of Willow swimming in the pond mid-week after we took a walk up to the old quarry. Then, a tiny, little plant that I saw coming up out of the ground during the same walk. Next, two shots of Erin in the garden with the dogs, finishing up her new arrangement of raised beds. Then, three shots of Las Vegas from Saturday afternoon, after we had gone to the Skillet to eat: first, the Plaza Hotel; then, a view of the plaza looking east out towards the plains; and, finally, a shot of the El Rialto Restaurant on National Avenue, just a few buildings down from the plaza on one of the town's main thoroughfares. Next, a view of San Jose at the foot of Rowe Mesa, taken from the old quarry on the ranch. And, lastly, a shot that Erin took of me finishing my BLTC(hicken) sandwich at our favorite restaurant in town, the Skillet.

Be good.