February 12, 2022: The melt has begun!

Look who moved into the truth window this morning:

While it is still definitely winter, the snow began to melt with vigor yesterday as the temps reached 45 degrees. (Still in the single digits at night) The 20 acre meadow behind our house has a very gentle slope allowing the snowmelt to “sheet” gradually. That means water is moving all around our house in tiny rivulets on its way to the arroyo, where it spills in small waterfalls (some not so small), creating new, tiny washouts that will add to Mother Nature’s ceaseless earth-moving project. The arroyo is no longer dry.

It amazes us how little of it soaks into the ground, but that’s the reality of the southwest high desert in a drought. If you dig down, it is damp for only 3-4″, then bone dry. You can see that in the picture below. We also wish we could capture this water and save it, but that dream has to wait. This land has been mistreated for decades and will take time to restore. We will be landscaping using old tech like Zuni Bowls, one-rock dams, and rainwater capture basins. I can’t wait to share the same shot of the yard a year from now. Hopefully you’ll see sage, lavender, and oregano beds, larger shrubs and a few aspen and cottonwood trees. (And a new fence).

I feel very small watching the earth being reshaped all around me. We just hope to create a small, safe oasis in the midst of constant change.

Alan and Nick will be working on the well today, after a 2-week hiatus. Hopefully they will be able to clear the obstruction so we can get a new pump down there. It will be a muddy mess!