Fluffy snow and fuzzy coats

9 11 2024

Odin and Piedra browse while Kestrel looks back at a following bachelor (I didn’t know it when I took this pic, but there was another band farther away and out of sight over a hill; they showed up later).

This pic (and for at least a few days to come, though our snow is melting *rapidly* as I type this Friday) was taken the day after the big snowfall. I was amazed that there was still so much snow covering the ground and shadscale and sage and four-wing saltbush and snake weed and grasses!

Muddy, muddy, muddy underneath the snow. North-facing sides of arroyos were still snow-covered; south-facing sides were muddy ski slopes (vertical or almost nearly so)! Good luck getting up the sides unless you had a bit of an erosion channel to use as steps or enough snow to jam a foot in sideways – and get it to hold just long enough to step up with your other foot!

Fabulous, wonderful moisture. I hope this is a sign of a good winter to come.

* The snow wasn’t actually very fluffy; it was really rather wet. But the alliteration worked for the post title. 🙂





Snow before the *snow*

8 11 2024

This was before the big snow, but the light was so gorgeous, and I managed to not take many pix of the snow while it was snowing (very low/short distance visibility), so visualize that ALL covered in snow (to the tune of 4-plus inches, give or take), and that’s what it looked like (minus the clouds socking in the valley). 🙂

The above pic is from Disappointment Road looking eastish; readers will recognize the Temple Butte promontory and the snow-covered pyramid that is McKenna Peak. The rain-dark mid-ground is Spring Creek Basin.

From much farther up-valley, looking slightly eastish of northish (!), from left to right: Brumley Point, McKenna Peak and Temple Butte across the very southern part of Spring Creek Basin.

And a closer view of Temple Butte and the buttes beyond/eastish of it (those farther promontories aren’t visible from Spring Creek Basin proper, though the near foreground is part of Spring Creek Basin Herd Management Area).

It’s hard to believe because our snow usually melts by at least midday, if not mid-morning, but there’s still snow on the ground today, two days after the snowfall. And of course, muddy, muddy goodness underneath. That mud does make it hard to get around (and all the hunter traffic – already – depresses and demotivates me; third rifle season (aka crazy-town season) starts Saturday), but hopefully I’ll get out and about and get some new pony pix soon. If not with snow, I’ll still have plenty to share from pre-snow days (and will make that clear in the text of each post).





Applying a little bronzer

7 11 2024

Seneca … so gorgeous in evening hues of light and bronze.

******

We got SNOW yesterday! LOTS and lots of snow. On top of lots of rainy mud. To say it’s *soggy* in Disappointment Valley right now is the hugest of huge understatements. 🙂 Once again, I went into the basin to try to find ponies, but the snow was constant, and the visibility was extremely limited, so I returned without any snowy pony pix (or even pronghorns this time).

This moisture is extremely beneficial for our vegetation, the ponds and the water-storing catchments. After a long run of very warm and very dry weather, it’s nice to be in the mud again.





Amber waves

6 11 2024

Handsome Buckeye in a sea of autumn grasses.





The eyes have it

5 11 2024

Big baby Bia grazes with mama Aiyanna. Big “baby” girl isn’t so little anymore!





Direct

4 11 2024

Caughtcha lookin’. 🙂

Not much bothers Kestrel, but she does like to keep her eyes on the goings-on around her family. I like to keep my eyes on HER because sometimes she’ll give me a great, direct look!





Never a bad place

3 11 2024

It’s hard to choose a *bad* place to nap in Spring Creek Basin. I had about 2.5 minutes with them after I walked out with that lovely last bit of light … and then night’s shadow overtook our part of the world.

What a gorgeous 2.5 minutes. 🙂





Waitin’ on sunset

2 11 2024

Temple and Madison. Gorgeous girls. Besties. Wild and free mustang mares.





Season’s first snow

1 11 2024

So THIS happened Wednesday! On top of the rain mud, the snow made conditions, um, muddIER. 🙂

These lovelies weren’t the only ones.

But wait! There’s more!

How many do you count? 🙂

As it turned out, though I spent a couple of hours in the basin – enough time for most of the snow (1 to 3 inches, depending on location) to melt! – I saw only ONE band of mustangs. They were farther than I wanted to hike in the snow and mud, so I looked in the far corners for another, closer band – without success. By the time I went back to the first band, they’d decided (anthropomorphism alert) they didn’t want to be leftovers and had disappeared. 🙂

I was just happy to see the snow and the mud and the one band and all the pronghorns (which have been very visible lately, though mostly a bit lower). We’re going to have mud for a while – especially with more rain/snow due Sunday!





Spooooookeeeeee

31 10 2024

Red sky at night, sailors’ delight.

Red in the morning, sailors take warning.

The following pix are from sunset the night of Oct. 28 (I couldn’t think of anything spookier for today’s post!).

Morning the 29th was grey and dark – and raining from the heavens! – and I was fully delighted by both the light show … and then with all of the RAIN (0.86 inch total)!

Am I right, or am I right?! The above is nearly straight out of my camera – I sized it and applied some sharpening. That’s looking west.

This is the spookiest part of the post (!). Looking east toward/across/beyond Spring Creek Basin. Again, the only thing I did was size it and apply some sharpening.

And a bit closer as the color was absolutely exploding.

The above are from my camera; the below – for wider views – from my phone (again, nothing but sizing and sharpening):

And:

I don’t know about sailors (any folks on actual waves are half a continent away), but *I* was the very best kind of astounded!

And very grateful for the rain overnight and the next morning. 🙂