The full moon rises over Temple Butte and McKenna Peak on the eastern edge of Spring Creek Basin.
It’s officially autumn. 🙂
Fullness of beauty
24 09 2018Comments : 3 Comments »
Categories : Disappointment Valley, McKenna Peak, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Temple Butte
Drinking, calm
13 09 2018
After Comanche was sure the interloper meant no harm to his girls, he returned to the trough for a lonnnnnnnnnnnnggggggg drink of water. 🙂
I sat uphill from the trough to stay out of the way and had to get the camera low to see any of his eye (the eyes make the photos, they say, but even so, only part of his eye is visble) below the evaporation cover. That’s why there’s a soft layer of unfocused vegetation in the lower foreground.
The black square-looking thing in the center of the trough is actually a long rectangle made of steel mesh on a steel frame. It’s a critter ladder that provides a perch for birds and little beasts to get a drink without drowning. The stacked wood outside the trough slightly to the right is where the pipe from the tank comes out of the ground and into the trough. It’s filled with dirt to insulate it in the winter (when the water is turned off).
Comments : 5 Comments »
Categories : Disappointment Valley, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Water catchment, Work projects
Prongs on the hill
11 09 2018
Our mustangs aren’t the only ones taking advantage of the basin’s water catchments. This handsome fellow waited on the hill for Comanche’s band to drink at the corral catchment (built just two years ago). The horses were VERY interested in him.
Comments : 4 Comments »
Categories : Disappointment Valley, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Water catchment, Wildlife, Work projects
Promise
2 09 2018
A little of those (dark clouds) led to a little bit of the wet stuff yesterday afternoon.
We love wet stuff. 🙂
Comments : 3 Comments »
Categories : Disappointment Valley, McKenna Peak, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Temple Butte
Lovely little walk
26 08 2018
Isn’t Spirit a gorgeous little girl? She IS little, and she’s just as sweet as she looks.
In good news, Disappointment Valley got a good dose of wet stuff yesterday evening. It wasn’t in the forecast, but it sure was a fabulous surprise!
Comments : 3 Comments »
Categories : Disappointment Valley, Rain, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Reminder
20 08 2018
One week from today, on Aug. 27, the deadline closes on your opportunity to affirm to Tres Rios BLM that yes, we want bait trapping to be the method of choice when it comes to gathering and removing our mustangs – IN the future, WHEN needed (which is not now).
Follow this link to information for DOI-BLM-CO-S010-2015-0001-EA (Spring Creek Basin HMA Bait Trap Gathers).
Refer also to this blog post – ‘Do NOT freak out!’ (because we are NOT removing horses) – for more information about what this EA is about and why it’s a good thing.
The deadline for comments is Aug. 27, 2018. Please do comment favorably about bait trapping in Spring Creek Basin (in the future, when needed): Alternative A – proposed action: “The proposed action would utilize bait/water trapping as the primary gather method to remove excess wild horses from the HMA. No wild horses would be removed as long as population was or remained within AML.”
The population of Spring Creek Basin’s mustang herd IS within current AML (which is 35 to 65 adult horses, and yes, we know that’s fairly low, and yes, we are working to get that raised in the hopefully-soon-to-be-updated herd management area plan). NO removals of any mustangs from Spring Creek Basin are planned or “on the horizon,” as our herd manager, Mike Jensen, has told us.
Thank you to all who have sent in their comment letters! We appreciate it more than you can imagine. Please also let Tres Rios BLM staff know that you appreciate their commitment to Spring Creek Basin’s mustangs, as well as to the volunteer advocates who support them and partner with Tres Rios BLM for the horses’ continued good management. 🙂
Comments : 4 Comments »
Categories : Advocacy, Disappointment Valley, Disappointment Wild Bunch Partners, Education, Fertility control, Four Corners Back Country Horsemen, Mesa Verde Back Country Horsemen, Mustangs, National Mustang Association/CO, Partnership, PZP, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Wild horses in the news
After the smoke, gold
18 08 2018
We got a drizzle of rain Thursday, and it dampened the smoke. An update from the Forest Service about the Plateau Fire noted that because of the rain, the amount of smoke might now be less: “Fire managers believe that Thursday was the last day of significant smoke that will come off the Plateau Fire.” We can hope!
To get the full view of the horses (Puzzle and Spirit) with the rainbow dropping its gold onto Filly Peak, from a vantage up-slope, I had to use the cell phone.
It was a peaceful, beautiful evening in Spring Creek Basin. 🙂
Comments : 5 Comments »
Categories : Disappointment Valley, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Wildfire
Smoke ‘n spots
17 08 2018
Always the prettiest things out there. 🙂
Comments : 5 Comments »
Categories : Disappointment Valley, McKenna Peak, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Temple Butte, Wildfire
‘I think I saw a cloud …’
15 08 2018
I think I saw a cloud yesterday
It hung around a minute, then it just blew away
It’s another identical, dusty day
Only thing not telling a lie is the wind
I don’t believe it’s ever gonna rain again.
All signs fail in a dry spell
Don’t look to the sky
It’s got nothing to tell
But there are cracks in the ground
that run straight to hell
Maybe we’re paying for our sins
I don’t believe it’s ever gonna rain again.
Bone dry rocks where the water used to flow
Remember how fast it ran and how high it rose
Now that creek bed is empty as a dead man’s coat
Waitin’ for the wake to begin.
Old gambler crow sittin’ on a fence line
Lookin’ at me like he can read my mind
He says this country’s gonna pick you clean every time
Leave you twistin’ in the wind
I don’t believe it’s ever gonna rain again.
Bone dry rocks where the water used to flow
Remember how fast it ran and how high it rose
Now that creek bed is empty as a dead man’s coat
Waitin’ for the wake to begin.
I think I saw a cloud yesterday
It hung around a minute, then it just blew away
It’s another identical dusty day
Only thing not tellin’ a lie is the wind
I don’t believe it’s ever gonna rain again.
We’re all twistin’ in the wind
I don’t believe it’s ever gonna rain again.
~ Dave Stamey, “Never Gonna Rain Again,” Twelve Mile Road
It’s hard to see any clouds for the smoke … and we MUST believe it’s gonna rain again. 🙂
Comments : 3 Comments »
Categories : Disappointment Valley, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Wildfire
‘Be cautious with fire’
12 08 2018
Not much to say. … Terribly smoky. Many more people dealt with the smoke from the 416 and Burro fires – nearer to denser populated areas. Now smoke from other fires is blowing and settling in other places.
And there’s California …
None of it is good.
For a moment, a chance of rain appeared in our forecast for Friday. … Now there’s no trace of that chance.
Still, we hope.
(The blog post title came from a highway sign I saw yesterday that read: “Be cautious with fire and cigarettes.” Uh. … Really?!?!?! I have a much less polite way of thinking that people ought to be “cautious” with fires (!?) OR cigarettes (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)!)
Comments : 6 Comments »
Categories : Disappointment Valley, McKenna Peak, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Temple Butte, Wildfire
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 