As promised, a pic of Kwana with his roached mane and stumpy tail!
The biting flies are out, and his poor little tail is going a mile a minute, without much effect. But I think we’ll all take the moisture and wait out the flies!
Not much use against flies
27 07 2021Comments : 2 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Water catchment: phase 4.9
26 07 2021Do you suppose we’ll get to phase 5 soon!? … I think so. 🙂 Close. We’re SO close!
Those wily BLM’ers – Mike Jensen and new dad Daniel Chavez – hustled out to the basin without alert or fanfare last week and finished attaching the rest of the propanel sheets to the roof structure.
The last time I’d seen it, when Garth Nelson and Jim Cisco were out to attach the gutter and install three of four pipes, the roof covered half the structure. Because of rain in our forecast, they wanted to get the gutter installed so we could start catching SOME water.
Sure is shady under there! And think of that whole span of rain-catching marvelousness!
Just the end tank has to be piped, then the trough installed (the pipe to its destination is already in the ground) and the structure fenced to keep curious ponies from rubbing on tanks and posts and pawing at lids.
And what the heck is this, you ask?! It might be the strangest, most mind-bending pic I’ve ever posted on this blog. That’s a reflection – in WATER – of me gripping tightly my cellphone at the open lid on TOP of one of the water tanks. See it now? Even standing on the valve cover, I couldn’t quite see into the dark depths. Although I turned on the “flashlight” of my phone, I’m not sure it worked very well; you can see what you *can* see only by virtue of a little Photoshope lightening of shadows. But when I looked at my phone, I knew by the “white dot” – the reflection – that there was water TO reflect my phone and the lid and the metal roof above: I knew there was WATER. 🙂
Wow, wowza and zowie Marie. 🙂 That itself was worth a little dance (and it’s a good thing no ponies or humans were around to witness!).
And YES! We got our biggest rain to date later that evening. Perfect timing, guys. Thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Comments : 8 Comments »
Categories : Advocacy, Brumley Point, Disappointment Valley, Education, McKenna Peak, Partnership, Rain, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Temple Butte, Water, Water catchment, Work projects
Puff’d and wisp’d
25 07 2021
Flirty Mister Storm rocks his partial mohawk. It’s a mystery I’ve never solved, and he’s not the only one who has shown up with a roached mane (and sometimes, some horses show up with crazy-short tails). In any case, he’s one cool dude. 🙂
P.S. We’ve gotten some rain! It’s FABULOUS.
Comments : 16 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Out’ th’ way!
24 07 2021
The mares may be the true leaders of a band, but when stallion says move, mares move!
Comments : 6 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Sandstone sculpture
23 07 2021A couple of friends talk about the sculptural rocks they would take home to their gardens when they visit the basin. For the most part, the rock geology isn’t as exciting as that in other parts of the Southwest (Utah, for example, which, by simple human border, isn’t too far away), but sometimes, I find very cool rocks that have been sculpted by the march of time, the wind’s persistent fingers and the rain’s action (and freezing and thawing of moisture in winter).
This chunk of sandstone, for a variety of reasons, seems very sculptural to me. From the top, there’s a crack or fissure that makes it seem as if the rock was molded from the bottom up, and the ends overlapped at the top to form the window in the middle.
It’s a little unfinished looking, right? A little *raw*. But Nature’s masterpieces are always in a state of *being sculpted*, eh?
Cool, huh? The bottom two pix were taken with my cell phone.
This sculpted sandstone boulder is perfectly placed in Spring Creek Basin’s garden. … But someone please let Ma Nature know that there’s a leak somewhere in the sprinkler system, and we’re just not getting the showers we really need to keep the greenery green.
Comments : 11 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area
Sunset struttin’
22 07 2021
Tenaz and a bachelor from another band had a little dustup recently while establishing territory between their bands.
I like the very tip of Tenaz’s flipped forelock highlighted by the low sun. But though the dust adds some photographic “drama,” I sure would rather have rain and moisture in the ground with less dust.
Comments : 6 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Backward glance
21 07 2021
Skywalker peers back at me as if wondering whether he should give up the location of his pals, just around the shoulder of the hill he’s on.
It’s OK, fella; I was already pretty sure they were there. 🙂
(I had set my camera on the wrong white balance setting by mistake – poor ol’ eyeballs don’t see as well as they used to at close range – and the results came out quite at bit more *blue* than I usually like. But as warm as the day’s temperature was in reality, I find that I like the “cooler” scene. … A little wishful thinking, maybe!)
Comments : 12 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
On storm watch
20 07 2021
Winona naps while Mariah grazes under a stormy, clearing sky.
Comments : 8 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Stallions’ strut
19 07 2021
Maiku is Corazon’s long-time lieutenant. Every now and then, Corazon still has to confirm his general status.
Also, there was a pronghorn buck in the area, giving his warning bark. I think that just gave the boys the opportunity to show off for the girls. 🙂
Comments : 12 Comments »
Categories : Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs
Water catchment: phase 4.75
18 07 2021Sooner than I thought it would happen, Garth Nelson emailed me early in the morning last week and said he and Jim Cisco were coming out to install the gutter across the front of the catchment structure!
They beat me to the basin, and this was happening when I got there!
The propanel roof sheets are just halfway across, but with rain in this past week’s forecast – for later in the week at the time – Garth decided that it was a priority to get the gutter in place.
The ends of the pipes supporting the whole structure had to be cut a bit to make room for the gutter pieces, which were built/formed/constructed by a local business in Cortez. The guys did NOT bring that cool battery-powered band saw with which they were all completely in love, so Jim (pictured) and Garth had to make do with the ol’ sawzall. It worked; it just took longer (and went through a few blades).
Level says perfect!
Garth put a couple of beads of caulk between each new section of gutter.
Jim and Garth drilled holes at intervals in order to then run long screws to attach the gutters to the steel purlins.
And these little metal cylinders (held by Garth) acted as spacers to keep the gutters a uniform width.
They had to cut the ends of each of the steel pipes (four) to enable the gutter to be flush to the purlins.
And then with their great and amazing strength, they were able to break off the ends. 🙂
In no time (it seemed to me), they were down (up!) to the last gutter piece!
When the gutter pieces were attached all along the front of the catchment, it was time to install the pipes from the gutter to the tanks. Holes had to be drilled above each tank to put the pieces in the gutter to attach the pipes.
A little vertical …
… and a little horizontal! (These pieces actually slope a bit. :))
And it looked like this! These are the first two tanks, piped. Jim is tightening the fitting in the bottom of the gutter.
Here are three of the four tanks piped, and you can see the valve-culvert lids in place.
Then … things got really exciting. Jim drove out to the basin in his weed-spraying rig, which has the 200-gallon water tank on it. When the gutter was in place and the pipes were installed, he pulled up alongside the eastern end of the structure and started pumping water up to the top of the roof.
And this happened:
And you know what I did: I bawled like a happy baby. 🙂
Garth marked a few places that were leaking, to be recaulked.
Overall, it worked well, and I WISH that I could attach a recording of the SOUND of water trickling through the pipes and swirling into the tanks.
This all happened Monday, and early, early Wednesday morning, it rained. Again Wednesday night, it rained. 🙂
Now, we just have to finish the installation of the propanel sheets across the rest of the roof, pipe the fourth tank and install the trough (I think). Our very big project is very nearly complete!
Comments : 18 Comments »
Categories : Advocacy, Disappointment Valley, McKenna Peak, Partnership, Rain, Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area, Spring Creek Basin mustangs, Temple Butte, Water, Water catchment, Work projects
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 