I think – I hope – that these pix truly are worth 1,000 (or more!) words … but I’m going to give you a few more anyway. 🙂
This is the east-pocket pond, aptly named as it’s located in Spring Creek Basin’s east pocket. This isn’t the only pond that suddenly has water after Thursday’s tremendous downpour, but it’s the only one of which I have a “before” pic.
“Before” was a little after noon on June 27, a few hours before the four-hour deluge. “After” was about 26 hours later on June 28.
Maybe, if you look closely, you can see a band of greys at far distant left in the pond-now-full pic. Fortunately, the horses have multiple sources of water now. It’s amazing how quickly things change (for the better, in this case!).
When you get only a bit more than half an inch in almost three months, then you get enough rain in two consecutive days to push that above an inch … THEN you get 1.66 inches of rain in four hours … the toads start thrumming their joy. Sure, sure, it’s mating season (dependent on water?!), but I’m pretty sure they’re happy to finally have some water.
*I’M* happy to have water, for the toads and the mustangs and all of the critters who depend on water in the desert.
If this pic of pretty Mysterium up to her knees in the east-pocket pond doesn’t help you feel refreshed and relieved … sit with it a while. … It’ll come. 🙂
This pond may be one of the basin’s smallest, but it’s wonderful to see it still holding water this late in the (another) dry year.
While Storm’s band drank, Storm went off to have a chat with the stallion of the band who preceded them to the pond. Storm then returned for his own long slurp before following his band out to graze nearby.
Looking back helps us look forward (*when* it helps? sometimes I think looking forward is the only way to go … though I’m not very good at this myself). I think this is the third year of the (admittedly borrowed, in my case) tradition of posting 12 pix at the end of the year that represent each of the previous months. It has been a good year in Spring Creek Basin. After another less-than-positive winter and a dry spring, we had a second-in-a-row summer monsoon season and a relatively rainy early fall. Then things got dry again before we finally started to get snow a couple of weeks before Christmas.
Our excellent BLM partners – Mike Jensen, Garth Nelson and Daniel Chavez – put their enviable skills to work and built a second water catchment in the basin, starting in early summer and finishing in the fall. It’s another (our fourth) such project to catch and store liquid gold and bank it against continuing drought conditions; with the newest catchment, we have the storage capacity for 50,500 gallons of water. That’s really quite enormous (!). (Of course, we need Mother Nature’s continuing help in the form of snow and rain!)
We lost some horses (as we do every year), and we had some foals (as we do every year), and the herd and the range are in excellent and very good condition overall. In September, we celebrated our 11th anniversary since the last roundup. Fertility-control treatments continue apace, and because of the efficacy of the native PZP that we use, and the aforementioned good condition of horses and range, there’s (thankfully) nothing (no removals) on the horizon.
Without further ado, as 2022 comes to an end, let’s remember some scenes of Spring Creek Basin and its fabulous mustangs to carry us ahead into 2023 (some have been previously published here; others are new to the blog):
Tenaz (showing off his rarely-seen generous star with wind whipping aside his forelock) and the mustangs rang in the first day of 2022 with fresh snow! A handsome bay mustang does look rich and supremely healthy in new snow. I know I write that a lot with regard to bay mustangs, but really, have you ever seen a better color combination!? OK, OK … all of the other equine colors look pretty fabulous, too. 🙂
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Even baby horses like Lluvia love to catch fluttering snowflakes on their lips! They do make me laugh, these ponies (see yesterday’s post about laughing with friends!). 🙂 With their thick, insulating coats, mustangs are well adapted to winters in high desert areas such as Spring Creek Basin. Our winters are fairly mild, though we do have some frigid days … and snow!
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Dundee, Rowan and Aiyanna came from Sand Wash Basin in September 2021 and were welcomed here with monsoon-grown grasses. They filled out nicely that fall, but by March, they were a bit on the lean side. I think that had to do with their youth: Dundee was 2, and Rowan and Aiyanna were yearlings – all three still growing. They all blossomed throughout this year, as you’ve seen from recent pix of the girls. On this particular evening, they were high on a ridge on the west side of Filly Peak when another band appeared below, sending them into a gallop that I was thrilled to “capture” in that glorious golden light!
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We may not have gotten much snow last winter and not much rain in the spring, but because of the previous summer’s monsoon rains – which, after a period of tense waiting, filled all the ponds – we came through winter and into spring with full ponds, which meant fantastic water in April. One of the greatest joys of watching mustangs is seeing them splash and play in water in nearly-belly-deep ponds – and then drink long, thirst-quenching draughts. Again, these ponies do make me laugh!
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Corazon works his classic mustang-silhouette-at-sunset pose. He has really come into his own as a steady band stallion these last few years, and his son and daughter adore him. His son, in particular, is a mini-me who inherited both his black-and-white coat and his flank heart. Though Corazon’s namesake heart isn’t visible in this image, I think it’s one that does cause one’s heart to soar, just to see a mustang free in the wild, the glowing horizons fading into infinity.
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You’d never know it to look at them, but these sprightly creatures are sisters! Their mama was lovely Tesora, whom we sadly lost in February. She lives on in their spirit and beauty. Lluvia sticks close to big sister TaylorK, whom she knows more as an auntie. Family is – always – everything. (As they run, do you see the soaring bird in the pattern on Lluvia’s shoulder? She has another on her right shoulder.)
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With green all around him as the summer days advanced through July, Sundance made clear to another stallion, who was a bit closer than Sundance thought was appropriate, that his proximity was NOT appropriate. He does look rather intimidating, doesn’t he? Sundance is one of the most laid-back stallions out there (and really, they’re all fairly easy going, most of the time), and he’s also very protective – just like all of them. All it usually takes is a bit of posturing, sometimes some sniffing and nudging and squealing, and points are made! Successful conversation … without a word spoken.
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Speaking of proximity issues … ! These two boys are former longtime BFFs, with the sorrel previously the lieutenant of the grey. But then those roles reversed, and sorrel Braveheart wasn’t so generous as to allow Pitch to be HIS lieutenant. The more things change … eh?! Our bands are generally very stable, but the horses are wild, after all, and young stallions do grow up and seek families of their own – as do the fillies.
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Stepdaddy Braveheart is quite proud of and protective of his family of Winona and Reuben. (Remember that amazing grass this fall after the monsoon rains?!) This was a beautiful, warm evening when a few bands had gathered together (but not *too* close together), and I moseyed along with them as they grazed and moved from the northwest valley toward Spring Creek canyon. When the little threesome paused in the most photogenic spot possible, with iconic McKenna Peak and Temple Butte in the background, I couldn’t press the shutter fast or long enough! This is the photo I gave Connie Clementson upon her retirement as manager of Tres Rios Field Office in Dolores.
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In October, BLM wildland firefighters along with some Forest Service (San Juan National Forest) partners from around the region (including a crew from Monticello, Utah (Manti-La Sal National Forest)), conducted a prescribed burn to help maintain wildlife habitat on the ridge south of Spring Creek Basin that forms part of the southern reach of Disappointment Valley. Because of the moisture we had earlier in the summer, the three-day burn moved slowly and was well monitored by at least 30 firefighters. I don’t know what the total acreage was, but it wasn’t a huge area, and it mainly consisted of burning piles of old, fallen pinon and juniper trees so grasses can grow. To clarify, the burn was NOT in the basin. But the slowly drifting smoke – which was visible from the basin but didn’t blow over the basin – made for some dramatic scenes. As I remember, it rained a couple of days after the end of the burning, and our sky returned to its usual clear turquoise.
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Napping with pals is just about the best, most peaceful way to spend a lovely fall day in November. There were two bands and a group of young bachelors in fairly close proximity to each other when I hiked out to visit with them all, and it was such a soft, quiet, gentle evening among friends. The horses draw such comfort from each other … and I gain such amazing comfort from them. On these days, especially, I wish such peace was something that could be bottled and shot into space to rain down on people and places less fortunate than us.
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In early December, we were still pretty dry in the basin, but we had this little cherub to brighten the days. 🙂 She’s a classic example of grey foals being born a color (sorrel, bay, black, etc. – my family even has a grey Quarter Horse mare that was born palomino) and *greying out* – though our grey foals don’t often grey out as fast as this little girl. Mama Echo was born black. I think I’ve mentioned before that grey is the dominant color among the mustangs of Spring Creek Basin. In that way, too, these two are classics. 🙂
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As in years past, how about a bonus pic?
Winona and her son Reuben and one of the many amazing views from Spring Creek Basin, looking out across far lower Disappointment Valley to Utah’s La Sal Mountains, snowclad once again from fall onward. If that scene doesn’t scream (ever so quietly, of course) *peace*, I’m not sure what could. Their band and a couple of others had gathered at a pond, and they were walking away. I was trying to anticipate horses walking *across* that view, but mostly, they were lined straight out away from me as they left the water to return to their evening grazing. When I saw Winona – with confident baby Reuben leading the way – I was somewhat disappointed that they were so far away. … Then I realized that, to capture *that* view, my long lens needed the space of distance. Truly, sometimes it really *does* all come together!
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Thank you all for reading about and enjoying our Spring Creek Basin mustangs this year. Many special thanks to those of you who faithfully come up with comments every day (sometimes, it must be nearly as hard as it is to come up with blog-post titles)!
Here’s to a coming year with plenty of moisture (!), and full ponds and catchments, and forage that grows ’em up strong and healthy. To take to heart a lesson from the mustangs and other wildlife: Be present in the moment! Some times (sometimes? many times?), that’s ever so much better than looking back or worrying about what’s ahead. 🙂
Well, we outlasted the summer heat, the gnats, the dust, the wind, the dust, the gnats, the heat, the dust (you get the picture), and it’s time to finish our second new water-catchment project for our mustangs of Spring Creek Basin!
Last week, after waiting out the drying roads and before the next round of moisture (soaking rain and big, fat flakes of snow that didn’t stick but added to the moisture), Mike Jensen, Garth Nelson and Daniel Chavez – our BLM range heroes! – came out with tools and supplies, and we got started on phase 2 to get the catchment finalized to take advantage of hoped-for winter snow.
If you need a quick refresher about our work to install the tanks and piping and trough, click on June 2022 over on the right under Archives, then scroll down to find the posts about that work.
It all starts with the first post (pipe) hole! Well, it really all starts with running a string (see the pink line across the tanks?) to dig the holes so the line of steel pipes – to support the roof structure – will be in a straight line. Garth (left) and Daniel are on the gas-powered augur (what a difference that makes to digging holes! especially as many as this project requires), and Mike supervises. He would later do the lion’s share of work with the post-hole digger (far left) and tamp bar when the augur wasn’t quite enough to break through the calcium layer of soil.
Moving right along. You can see by their bodies that Garth and Daniel are putting their weight and strength over the augur to dig deep into the soil.
This was the last hole across the front line of the tanks.
Have you noticed the black straps over the tops of the tanks? As you might remember, we had another good monsoon year (heck, we HAD monsoons again this year after *not* for a few years). After the tanks were in the ground (in June) – piped together at the bottom, the dirt covered back over – at least one of those big rains poured off the hill behind and above the tanks and ran across the not-so-settled dirt around them … and sort of UPROOTED at least two of the tanks – and broke at least one pipe connection! The BLM guys had to come back and fix that little issue (no pix of that because the designated photographer/documenter (that’s me) was on vacation in Wyoming at the time). The straps over the tanks – snugged to T-posts driven into the ground – were to hold them in place in case of another gully washer – which seems to have worked.
Mike checks the level of the pipe while Daniel finagles the concrete to straighten the tilt.
Right on the money! These pipes will be holding an immense weight to support the propanel roof sheets, so the guys filled all the holes with concrete to ensure the longevity of the pipes in our erosion-prone soil.
While Mike and Daniel were mixing and pouring the concrete, Garth was cutting the pipes into sections to place in the holes that the guys had dug with the augur. I went back and forth, lending a hand wherever needed and taking pix of the work (because all good work should be documented!).
The guys work together to shovel the concrete into one of the holes to stabilize one of the pipes.
Getting close to end end of hole-auguring on the back side (uphill side) of the tanks. Of note: The white on the far ridges, including McKenna Peak and Temple Butte, IS, in fact, snow. That seems at odds with the guys wearing T-shirts, but it was warmish until the wind picked up. And did I note that it wasn’t HOT, and there were no gnats and no dust?
Here, you can see the pipes that we’ve already placed – and concreted in place – that will serve as supports for the roof.
And then, as we were getting close to placing the last pipes, THIS happened: A couple of bands came down the hill from the northwest bowls (little “swales” in the northwestern part of Spring Creek Basin, above Spring Creek canyon) to drink at the pond in this area that I call the northwest valley. Why are we building a water catchment in an area that has a pond, you ask? Because, other than this year (of course), that pond only rarely has water in it, which meant that this area – usually dry – is a really GOOD location for a water catchment. And it has proved to be a good location – this year – for showing us that the horses will use this area – and graze it – when there’s water there to drink!
The guys used a couple of methods to ensure straightness of the posts (not just the straightness of each individual pipe but all of them related to all the others in lines up and across), including the string line (pink, tied to the short bit of rebar between Mike and Garth); measuring distance with a tape measure between the posts pictured, as well as those to the left, out of sight; and Daniel, shown here employing the eyeball method – sighting along the three pipes.
Mike and Garth level the pipe while the horses decide there’s not much to worry about and go on to the pond.
Peace on both sides, horse and human.
More of the same. I so loved that the horses, after their initial shock at seeing us at their watering hole, pretty quickly decided that we weren’t doing anything upsetting at all.
And the last pipe is in place!
It’s a good-size pond, and when it holds water, it holds a fair quantity!
Shortly after this, we were done with all the pipe placement and started cleaning up tools and supplies. The horses drank and wandered off to graze in the little valley. Even when the guys rumbled out in their trucks, the horses weren’t bothered. I stayed to take some pix. Before I left, two trucks with sightseers (importantly, not hunters (the end of today marks the end of the second rifle season … two more to go …)) drove up into the northwest valley. The horses had drifted and were grazing right along the road, but the visitors moved super slowly and respectfully, and the horses gave them a marvelous view for pictures right through their passenger-side windows!
We’ll continue work on the roof structure over the tanks as weather allows. Another moisture-bearing system is headed our way by Tuesday night. 🙂
Have I mentioned the recent GREEN in Spring Creek Basin? Yes? Oh, good. … ‘Cuz it’s there. 🙂
Along with a little of this:
Two perspectives of Spring Creek, flowing with rainwater, the day before yesterday. The first image is directly as the road crosses the creekbed/arroyo; the second is just to the right – water flowing toward us. Interestingly, the road was dry to this point, but clearly it had rained in the northern and eastern (at least) regions of Spring Creek Basin. By this point, the major arroyos of the basin have converged (though there are still some that feed the creek’s westward drainage). The water was neither high (deep) nor terribly fast, but I didn’t cross. There are times to respect Mother Nature’s obstacles, and I deemed this to be one of those times.
Also a good bit of this:
This is the pond near the hill we call Flat Top. It’s rare to see it so full of water that it backs up so far to the right.
And this is the east-pocket pond, way back in the far eastern region of Spring Creek Basin, also full to the gills.
The pond pix were taken the day before those of Spring Creek running, which was the day after I got soaked going into the basin and getting caught in a lovely little drenching that did NOT go ’round. 😉
All the ponds are so excellently full; the above two are just examples.
From left: Dundee, Rowan and Aiyanna. A little golden girl bookended by two dun girls – one with awesome spots! Not only is Aiyanna now our only dun pinto, she’s the only pinto in Spring Creek Basin with all solid legs. Raven, our black-and-white girl from Sand Wash Basin in 2008, has one stocking. 🙂 All our homebred pinto ponies have white legs.
The Sunday after their release into Spring Creek Basin, I looked low and high, down and up, forth and back and forth again and all around for those girls. But though I saw most of the Spring Creek Basin mustangs, for the life of me, I couldn’t spot even a swishing tail or flicking ear of the new girls. My hunch was that they found a sheltered swale and hunkered down for the day and took long naps punctuated by contented grazing and deep swallows of good pond water.
Monday morning, I was in the basin shortly after sunrise, and voila! Not only were the mares right in sight, they were with a young stallion. A young stallion who had been, the night before, with his family a few miles to the south.
Even if I hadn’t known that, by the swirling movement of the horses, it was clear that introductions had been made later that night or even just a bit earlier that morning. His family was a bit split – his uncle, in particular, seemed perturbed that the young prince and not himself was the one to win the mares – and there was another family just up the hill from them, who also had been miles away the night before.
Here, the bands are going to water at Spring Creek Basin’s original/main water catchment. In the low-center of the pic are the two long, heavy-plastic aprons (inside a high fence) that catch rainwater and snow and funnel it downhill to the tank at lower left. Out of sight in this pic, farther left, is the trough. Just above the line of horses you can see at lower right, see the other, farther line of horses? That’s the other family that was nearby. When the scuffling started, they headed for the hills (Flat Top is just out of sight to the right) and another pond.
Two *other* bands were above me on the hill when I first spotted the new girls and stopped to watch, and we hung out together to watch the action unfurling below. Before long, they went back to grazing, and when the new girls and their semi-blended new family(s) dropped out of sight over the edge of the ridge east of the catchment aprons, I continued on to see where they were going.
As it turned out, they went south, and with my ankle situation, it was too much for me to follow on foot, so I went back out and around … thinking that, to see the new girls in their new home, with their new stallion, I’d by-gosh make the fairly short hike up the hill above the county road. As it turned out, they’d very thoughtfully and politely come down to within easy viewing of that road. 🙂
So polite, these girls! Could they have paused for a nap in a more delightful setting than one with sunflowers blooming like sunshine all around them?! … You can just see the belly of their new boy beyond Dundee.
Another introduction is in order … for you readers to young Flash, the splashy grey-and-white pinto stallion at left. He’s a Spring Creek Basin native, and he’s the one who’s been keeping company with and stepping out with the young mares from Sand Wash Basin these past few days.
He’s the same age as Dundee, and so far, the association is working well for all concerned. 🙂
I haven’t seen the girls drinking at the pond above which we welcomed them to Spring Creek Basin … but they’ve most definitely found the main water catchment. 🙂 Water bar with a view! Hard to beat that!
Our BLM’ers are nothing if not thoughtful (and awesome). … And shy of the camera, I suspect. 🙂
AFTER they’d been in the basin to finish the new-water-catchment project by installing the trough and fencing around the tank/roof structure, Garth Nelson (rangeland management specialist) emailed to say, “Surprise! Happy late birthday!” (Yes, it’s true, in the midst of the tornado-whirlwind, I celebrated a birthday. :))
He went on in his email:
“Daniel and I wanted to surprise you with the trough installation at the catchment. Attached are some pictures for you to enjoy. We filled up the trough about halfway and then left the valve turned off to conserve water for a dryer time. We do have plans for a shade cover but must wait until October to purchase materials. Happy Birthday!!!!!!!”
No girl has ever gotten a better birthday present – unless it was getting to see my folks and brother … or the gift of three beautiful and wild, lovely mustang mares! – than water for said mustangs in a parched desert range that had the great, good fortune of receiving rain not so long ago. 🙂
The tank/roof structure is behind our right shoulder in this view.
Both the trough and the float (the cylindrical thing resting on the water in the trough) are unlike any I’ve ever seen before, but cool, huh? The horses of any given band will be able to spread out along it to drink. The three pipes at right protect the lid to the culvert section to the valve, below ground to protect it from freezing.
Doesn’t Daniel’s shirt match that brilliant Colorado sky perfectly?!
If this BLM thing doesn’t work out for Garth, I’d say he has a future in photography. He definitely seems to have learned the most important rule: The photographer gets to stay out of the pix. 😉
THANK YOU, GARTH AND DANIEL, for finishing ‘er up! And Mike and Jim, who also worked on the project – water for mustangs in the desert. 🙂
