We interrupt your regular mustang programming for a peek at other wildlife in Spring Creek Basin:
Whaaaat?! 🙂 Pretty crazy cool, huh? The east-pocket pond is the only pond that hasn’t been dug out in the last few years. It’s fairly small and fairly shallow, but it does hold water – and tadpoles!
After the recent rain, the two ponds that were dug out in June now also have water! In fact, all but one pond in the basin now are offering water to thirsty critters. 🙂
… celebrate 45 years of wedded bliss today. 🙂
My mom dragged my dad away from the ranch for a well-deserved getaway. They’ll hike, ride someone else’s horses, visit museums, eat great food that my mom doesn’t have to prepare (it’s worth saying she’s our favorite “top chef”), take in a great outdoor musical and have nothing to worry about (the ranch’s critters being in good hands back home).
Forty-five years have taken them from Ohio to Texas, with a lot of stops – stateside and overseas – along the way during my dad’s 20-year Army career.
They met as teenagers, showing horses in 4-H and open shows – different counties, different high schools. They both shared a love of speed events. 🙂 When I came along, a story about a champion barrel racer in the pages of Western Horseman caught their eyes. I was almost another Jennifer. Thank goodness for Tracey Jo Somebody, whose prowess at the barrels made her the subject of a story in a magazine for horsey folks!
My brother and I grew up as Army brats, but I wouldn’t change that upbringing for anything. We still had horses almost everywhere we lived – Mom and Dad made sure of it. Where we couldn’t have horses of our own (and that wasn’t very often, and only in the beginning years), they made sure we had access to horses. They were and are encouraging and supportive, and we’re still close. We like to joke that *our* family is dysfunctional – we all like each other!
My mom and dad still share a love of horses and wide-open spaces. They still make the trip “home” to Ohio to see friends and family, but Texas is home; they’ve lived there now longer than they spent following the Army’s orders. They’re Quarter Horse people, but they think enough of my mustangs that they traveled to Fort Worth last year to see the big Mustang Million competition.
Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad! I love you both!
Mustang as mountain goat. Seven nails the color, but he needs a better beard. 🙂
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Rain, rain, rain is all the rage on the Western Slope of Colorado. Spring Creek is flowing again through Spring Creek Basin.
It has been dark with roiling clouds and curtains of rain. It has been humid. It has been puddle-licious.
It has been divine.
… is 66 years old today. 🙂
He’s feisty and fussy, and he likes things just so (thanks for passing that on to me, Dad). And without knowing much about you, he’d give more than his shirt to take care of you if you’re in trouble.
He wasn’t born in Texas, but he’s about as Texan as a non-native can get. He and my mom run a small ranch, and they’re the hardest working people I know – still. If my dad cusses a bit when the tractor blows a tire or the rake breaks a tine, he can be forgiven.
He was an Army officer, and he’s a patriot and my hero. Every man, I compare to him, and most fall short.
I love you, Dad. Happy birthday. 🙂
Only Spring Creek Basin, Disappointment Valley, Western Slope, Colorado, United States of America, planet EARTH.
We are blessed to know our wild things, to have some places yet for them to live, wild. How can we do anything but protect those places and those that live there?
So much better than drinking out of muddy hoofprints. 🙂 Hayden drinks his fill from one of the ponds filled from recent rains in Spring Creek Basin.
(After this photo was taken and Hayden wandered off to graze, the musk thistle at back left met its demise at the point of my shovel.)
Today carried an 80 percent chance of rain. It looked promising. Most afternoons now bring promising clouds.
I think about eight drops hit the ground. Not really the kind of numbers I was hoping to see or feel!
In good news, at least five ponds filled from the recent big rain event up the valley and on the eastern side of the basin.
And we finally got rain …
This drainage coming out of Spring Creek Basin usually is wide and dry. The water gap is in case of episodes such as this! The PVC pipe creates a visible barrier for the horses in the fence line, but it swings with the force of water when it flows. This pic was taken from the Disappointment Road looking northeast into the basin. The unnamed promontory is barely visible through rain at far back right. The horses already were taking advantage of the rain and running arroyos; three bands were to the east and north of this point.
A couple of hours later, the big flow was a memory. But I bet the memory lives on in the form of some ultra-full ponds!
Here’s a shot of the usually-dry Spring Creek arroyo that runs under the Disappointment Road in the northern part of the valley – west of Spring Creek Basin. In the background, you can see the rimrocks that form the basin’s western boundary and beyond, the unnamed promontory. (Yes, that’s dreaded tamarisk along the left bank of the creek.)
And this is Spring Creek a coupla-few hours later after the above peak. Still high but receding.
The above two pix of Spring Creek are together for comparison purposes. The below two photos were taken inside Spring Creek Basin after the first of those two photos were taken.
This is the entrance to Spring Creek canyon – site of previous roundups. Spring Creek flows west out of Spring Creek Basin after collecting water from multiple arroyos and drainages in the basin and eventually joins Disappointment Creek, which joins the Dolores River, which joins the Colorado River. Cool, huh? Spring Creek flows only during major rain events like the one today. Spring Creek and Spring Creek Basin are not interchangeable terms.
Looking upstream, sort of east-southeast. It was raining when I took these photos, so I didn’t stay long.
Rain. Lifeblood of the desert and its inhabitants. I cry at its lack, and I cry for joy when it falls. My heart is happy for Spring Creek Basin’s mustangs and other residents.
Houdini and Maia run with the wind on a cool day in Spring Creek Basin.
It was *trying* to rain. Two big curtains of rain already had passed, and a third was forming. Some ground was damp the first time I walked over it … but dry on second passing. I think parts of the basin other than where we/I were/was got a nice shower. Briefly, the wind was out of the north, and it was cool and divine.
Stunning stallion, stunning light. A shining light in a sometimes-not-so-great world.
Spring Creek Basin Mustangs 