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.
Who’s ready for the new catchment?
All of us, apparently! 🙂
They have a pond with water (!) fairly close to this location (as the mustang trots), but it was still pretty awesome to see a few bands gathered in wildcat valley very close to the new catchment. Mike Jensen has ordered trough floats, and when they come in, he and the guys will bring a trough and float to our location to install, and then our new catchment will be *fully operational*!
Hayden shows off his damp, green world after the last storm passed – and before the next wave came.
Look at that grass in the foreground!
What a difference a little rain makes. Not all that is green is grass; a good bit of the really-green is Russian thistle – aka tumbleweed. But the horses will eat it when it’s green, and green is good. Our grasses ARE growing, and that’s also excellent.
In the very far distance, see the white dots? That’s how you look for mustangs in Spring Creek Basin. 🙂
We’re still getting afternoon showers … VERY widely scattered. And sometimes, we get a dose of after-storm sunlight, modeled here so well by our heart-boy, Corazon. 🙂
Lovely lady Kestrel, at rest before the rain came.
Soon after this visit, clouds from the east and southeast were over the entire basin, and later, more rain.
This summer, it finally seems safe to say that we ARE getting monsoon rains. We’re up to about 1.20 inches of rain total during the last week and a half-ish. The moisture that hit the ground mostly is soaking in – and gathering in arroyos that run to creeks that run to rivers – but the moisture is huge for the vegetation, and we’re still hopeful that some ponds might fill!
Temple grazes below her namesake Temple Butte as rain moves in from the southeast.
Rain! It was accompanied by lightning inside the boundaries of the basin. At this point, I hightailed it outta there!
Sorry about the delay in posting. I got home late last night from the Wild to Mild event at the Montrose County Fairgrounds, which featured a lot of Colorado adopters and mustangs they received (from other states) back in April, and I forgot that I hadn’t scheduled a post for today!
Above is Mr. Skywalker – of course – hustling as much as he ever does to follow the band(s) he follows on the way to Spring Creek in the canyon.
Big news courtesy of Kat Wilder yesterday: Spring Creek was flowing! Their world – our world – is getting much-needed moisture!
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 