Every Silver lining has a Cloud

I am sure that I have mentioned the lack of rainfall here in the desert many times before. I mean after all it is a desert, but every thing can be overdone. With an average of 4.5 inches it doesn't take much variation to be noticed. In 2006 when we arrived here, it was pretty green outside. Of course that green was primarily weeds, but what the heck, it was still growing and green for a while. There were plenty of game birds and critters. It has slowly been drying up. Last year all the ponds and springs back up in the hills totally dried up to dust.

Our winter precipitation was a total of 1.25 inches from October to the middle of May. Between the fires and nothing growing it was looking pretty bleak. The patterns here are really quite interesting. You know they always show precipitation in percentages. Well if you lived here you would understand completely. It of course means that the rain will cover a certain percentage of the area. Most generally what that means for us is that it rains 6 miles north of us for about a square mile or two, and the entire visible desert about 15 miles south east. Nothing here. It is apparent that some formation to the south of us splits the clouds and moves part of them to the North West and the rest of them to the South East and comes back together about 15 miles north East.

Last week something weird happened, and it rained on us. A lot! Almost 2 inches of rain fell on our little bit of Desert over a week. It was a nice gentle rain for the most part. No real flash floods or other destructive behavior for a change.

                                           Note the Patch of Prickly Pear in the fore ground.

 This is about as high as I have seen the creek.

 It soaked in, and refilled some of the little springs back in the hills. We even had a little bit or run off as well. All good!

https://vimeo.com/128531834     password - owyheeflyer

Of course with such a rare phenomenon, things were bound to happen. Spade foot frogs came to the surface, to make their calls for mates. Flowers grew like there was no tomorrow, and the weeds again dominated the landscape. Russian Thistle ( Tumbleweeds) and Yellow Mustard being the dominate species. The air of the evening is fragrant with the subtle perfume of the Evening Primrose calling any and all to pollinate. Pack rats and Mice have flourished, and all come visiting.

The first flowers that came up was the Mallow.

                     The silver lining there is that Josie has come into her own as a Rat killer.

 Jessie has discovered that Rats and Mice are tasty. The rabbits and game birds seem to be taking advantage of the windfall. The Cloud is that the food is so good that Jessie has made a scrape and has a brand new egg in it. The only bad part about that is that it stops her molt dead in its tracks.

Of course now with all that growth the fire load will be out of sight when the lightening flashes in July and August.

As a precaution I went over to the ranch and borrowed a tractor with a brush hog on it and mowed our weeds far enough back to give us a fire guard in case the worst happened.

                       If we can keep from burning up, it promises to be "A very good Year".