Dear Dad, I’m sure it’s raining on the east side of the Pecos today. That’s good because I’m afraid the Calf Canyon/Hermit’s Peak fire has burned all the way west to Hamilton Mesa or at least to Iron Gate. I guess it’s also burned over where we left your ashes with Pat’s near the Mora …
The sun is going down on things I thought I knew. For instance, I might need to start watering the snakes. I was two rooms away this morning when I heard Cowboy do his snake bark outside but I try to be prepared for surprises here on the human-wildlife interface. I keep various snake-removal tools …
This is likely to change by tonight or overnight but it’s such a great (click here) interactive map I wanted to post it now. Here’s the link to the interactive map again. You can expand or shrink the detail. Plus it shows the two fires within my views, at least smoke plume-wise, in the same …
The Cerro Pelado fire in the Jemez Mountains, photographed from Placitas, spotting east on April 30. The fire started in what pundits called a big “wind event” on April 22 — Earth Day, by the way. It has burned into the 2011 Las Conchas burn scar but still threatens cabin clusters on several sides and …
The black-and-white broadside of a paint horse on a hillside at least a half-mile away drew me out of bed this morning. The news from the Sangre de Cristos and Jemez was not good after Earth Day wind, fire and dust violence, but we seemed to luck out near the Sandia mountain. The Calf Canyon …
Here is another smoke-tinged sunset, seen from Placitas, New Mexico, on Sunday, July 11, 2021. Massive plumes of wildfire smoke across western states are common these days — one of the consequences of climate change, I am convinced. This smoke in New Mexico tonight apparently is from fires in northern California, Oregon, Idaho and Nevada. …
NOTE TO READERS: THIS POST IS FROM FIRE SEASON 2021. With Beatty’s Cabin unfortunately in the news — threatened this June 2021 by the Rincon Fire on the east side of the Pecos Wilderness — I went to the bookshelf for my prized first edition of this Pecos classic. Here is a fine (linked) profile …
June is the cruelest month in New Mexico. It’s supposed to hit 100 degrees today at 6,500 feet in the Sandia foothills. Humidity is soaring at 7 percent. Wildfires are burning in the Gila, the Pecos and father north, near El Rito, obscuring my visions of cool, clear streams running fast in the mountains. Arizona …
I am posting this 50-year-old photo because it reminds of the days when my lungs and knees worked like rubber, all elastic and no pain. I was no John Muir but I’m trying to remember if I had to stop for a breather going up Kearsarge Pass in the Sierra Nevada in the early 1970s. …
dream ranch 