Spring Creek Basin Mustangs

Something beautiful from the smoky haze: mustangs alight in the golden glow of sunset.

As bad as the smoke has been in Southwest Colorado, I can’t imagine the conditions at the source in California, Oregon and elsewhere.

Bonus shot of Maiku because I liked his jaunty little tail flip. 🙂

Same area, different day (as Mariah in the post yesterday): Skywalker heads to the water trough for a satisfying drink of cool, clear rainwater collected by the basin’s main water catchment, built more than 20 years ago!

Mariah follows her band after drinking at the trough at the main and original water catchment in Spring Creek Basin. Just another little mosey of an evening in the wilds of western Colorado.

Happy wonderful, wild birthday to my dad, Dave!

My dad (now 73) and mom (almost 74) have been out in the Texas heat and humidity, baling hay for their critters and also for the neighbors. They got some astounding rain earlier this year, and the coastal and haygrazer are tall and thick. There are the usual equipment, uh, issues, but the hay needs baled, so they’re out there gettin’ ‘er done.

And I get to see them again later this month!

My dad is the hardest working guy I know. 🙂 I love you, Dad!

Tenaz and Skywalker, like mustangs everywhere, take everything in stride – heat, bugs, rain, snow, flash floods, lack of easily available water. I don’t know whether they wonder at the recent change in their world. … They probably just take it all in, as it is, when it is.

*I* am grateful for them … and FOR them. 🙂

Chipeta in the glow. She has one of those faces that can look particularly grumpy … or classically, mustang-ly beautiful.

Seneca is surrounded by green! To be fair, most of that is greasewood, which is almost always green. But I think it’s even MORE green – GREENER – with the infusion of fresh rainwater lately.

Interestingly, with just 1.43 inch(es?) of rain from July 22 to present (and not a whole heckuva lot before that), the U.S. Drought Monitor has downgraded us from the exceptional (worst) category of drought to just severe. (We’re in south-central San Miguel County (third county north in the far southwestern corner of Colorado) and slightly into north-central Dolores County (second county north) on the map.) That looks good on paper, but it’s still extremely dry here with cracked ground and trails of dust, and we can always use more rain.

Speaking of more rain needed, California and Oregon and other areas are experiencing exceptionally severe drought conditions, heat and unrelenting wind, and those places definitely can use some rain. So many lives have been devastated because of those intense wildfires, and we offer prayers for safety for all the residents and firefighters in harm’s way.