Drought Makes Dirt

Weather: Maybe twenty minutes of gentle rain Tuesday was not enough to penetrate dry land; it only seems to have moistened areas in my yard that already were being watered and thus were prepared to receive manna.  At the fire north of Pecos, the Forest Service said the rain “was not enough to penetrate drought impacted duff layers and heavy fuels.” [1]

Last rain: 5/24, first since 4/1.  Week’s low: 36 degrees F.  Week’s high: 94 degrees F in the shade.  Winds were up to 39 mph in Santa Fé on Tuesday.  Days in May with winds over 25 mph: 27 of 28.

What’s blooming in the area: Persian Yellow, Dr. Huey, hybrid, and wild pink roses; privet, purple locust, snowball, yuccas, silver lace vine, bearded iris, peonies, oriental poppies, snow-in-summer, golden spur columbine

What’s blooming beyond the walls and fences: Apache plume, datura, bindweed, green leaf five eyes, oxalis, alfalfa, scurf peas, scarlet bee blossom, fern leaf globe mallow, strap leaf aster, goat’s beard, common and native dandelions; needle, rice, three awn, cheat, brome, and June grasses

What’s coming up beyond the walls and fences: Illinois bundle flower and bush morning glories

What’s blooming in my yard: Betty Prior and miniature roses, yellow potentillas, beauty bush, daylily cultivar, chives, Johnson Blue geranium, coral bells, Maltese cross, pink evening primroses, Dutch clover, winecup mallow, blue flax, baptisia, catmints, sweet peas, vinca, Shasta daisies, chocolate flowers, coreopsis, white yarrow

What’s coming up in my yard: Heavenly Blue morning glory seedlings

What bedding plants are blooming: Pansies; someone in village has petunias

Animal sightings: Rabbit, western chickadees, humming bird, geckoes, darning needle, hawk moths, sulfur and other unidentified butterflies, bumble and small bees, lady bug on a dirty goat’s beard, hornets, grasshoppers, sidewalk and harvester ants; goats trucked in to graze in one yard on the main road

The privets get fragrant in late mid-morning; then, they are surrounded by small bees and other flying insects.

Tasks: People have a Pavlovian response to rain.  As soon as it clears, they go out with their weed eaters, even though not enough time has passed for anything to have germinated.

I finished sowing the cool-weather annual seeds, and began putting in warm-season ones.  This, at least, may be the right time for them.

The burn pile grows larger, but so far it’s no more than two feet high.  When it gets much higher, I spread it out before I ignite it.  I’m afraid I can’t manage it otherwise.

The Forest Service announced Friday that the Calf Canyon Fire, which merged with the Hermits Peak one by Pecos, was caused by a burn pile that had been lit in January.  I don’t know its original height, but my understanding is the Forest Service creates pyres with wood and brush cut to clear other areas.  The remains of the fire stayed warm “through three winter snow events,” then reignited April 9.  It showed no serious activity until April 19, when it escaped, and then spread with that wind storm we had on April 22.

While the Hermits Peak Fire could be blamed on stupidity — one did wonder if managers had learned anything from the Cerro Grande Fire — this one called into question burning at all.  The Forest Service issued a “pause” on all prescribed burns until more is known. [2]

Weekly update: One of the questions agronomists like to pose is the difference between “dirt” and “soil.”  The quick answer is “dirt” is what you wash off your hands, while “soil” is where you plant seeds.  The latter has organic matter, while the former is just minerals like the silica of sand.

Over years, nature creates soil when it drops leaves and dead matter on the ground to form what is called duff. [3]  The bottom layer decomposes and gradually mixes into the underlying strata.

This year I noticed that in certain parts of my yard, where trees or shrubs have matured, the ground had an “organic” feel and dark color when I removed debris to plant seeds or plants.  This does not exist in areas where seeds never seem to sprout.  These are places where I’m still trying to find some kind of mulch to substitute for duff.

What I know about my piece of land is that it once was part of a ranch.  From the beginning, the uphill area to the north only grew winterfat (Eurotia lanata), while needle (Stipa comata) and ring muhly grasses (Muhlenbergia torreyi) grew farther south.  I assume the animals were denser in the one area, and had eaten every blade of grass, leaving nothing to hold the duff and underlying soil.

Depending on your horizon, we’ve been in a drought for a few years, or since the 1950s.  In the twenty years I’ve been here, the boundary between the bare dirt that no longer can sustain life and the native grasses has been creeping south.  First the ring muhly disappeared, and now the needle grass is dying everywhere except near the driveway or where it gets some water by osmosis from some area I’m watering.

I don’t water the native vegetation, but leaky hoses do.  Since corporations have been sending manufacturing overseas, it has become impossible to buy a soaker hose that does not leak at the fittings or does not have large holes in places.  The overspray nurtures weeds and some native vegetation.

The results are dramatic.  As you can see in the above photograph, the needle grass has revived in the path of one hose malfunction.  The grass had died, but either seeds were still in the ground, or the roots had survived in some form under the dark gray humps.

Needle grass is a bunch grass, which means it does not send out underground roots to fill spaces like the Dutch clover (Trifolium repens) in the top picture.  The spaces between clumps always are subject to erosion.  As you can see in the photograph below, the earth between them now looks like a beach.

However, it isn’t quite that dry yet.  The grains of sand and other minerals retain enough moisture to create a hard surface that repels water.  While this seems to encourage desiccation, since Tuesday’s rain had no effect on it, the shell protects what little organic matter, including the seed bank, survive.

Notes on photographs: All taken yesterday, 28 May 2022 in my yard
1. Dutch clover (Trifolium repens) growing in a shaded area.  This seed was from Oregon, not the New Zealand type mentioned last week.

2.  Boundary between areas of needle grass (Stipa comata) that receive runoff from my watering and areas that do not.

3.  Soil between desiccated needle grass plants.

End notes:
1.  Santa Fe National Forest Public Information Office.  “Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon Fires, May 25, 2022.”  NM Fires website, 25 May 2022.

2.  Santa Fe National Forest Public Information Office.  “Fire Investigators Determine Cause of Calf Canyon Fire.”  NM Fires website, 27 May 2022.  Has the quotation.

Morgan Lee and Cedar Attanacio.  “New Mexico’s Largest Wildfire Linked To Planned Burns.”  Associated Press posted by Huffington Post, 28 May 2022.

3.  Duff was discussed on Nature Abhors a Garden on 9 September 2019. 

Sowing in the Wind

Weather: Last Sunday evening, the moon was red from an eclipse.  The next morning, the sun was red from pollution near the ground.  As it rose through layers with less pollution the sun turned orange.   By 8:30 am, it was silver through the clouds.

That summarizes the daily cycle this week.  During the night, the smoke, dust, and auto exhaust from Los Alamos and Santa Fé fall into the valley.  In the morning, there is often a band of white laying along the top of the Jémez.

The Weather Bureau says this haze “burns off.”  That is a pleasant way to describe a chemical reaction.  The water molecules in the haze turn from liquid to gas when they are warmed by the sun.  As they dissipate, the heavier particles are released and drop.  My nose registers the process between 7 am and 9 am.

The sky becomes clear, until the temperature rises some more.  With increased heat, the winds begin.  Then white clouds arise in the areas of the fires in Jemez Springs and north of Mora.  Little moisture is actually in the air, other than that released by the planes fighting the fire.  Nothing that has crossed the Baja peninsula in the past weeks was come our way.  Indeed, on the worst day this week, smoke from fires in México was overhead.

Usually, the clouds begin with actual shapes, but as the day progresses they merge and fill much of the sky, where they stay until the sun goes down.  Then the cycle begins again.

Last rain: 4/1.  Week’s low: 41 degrees F.  Week’s high: 92 degrees F in the shade.  Winds were up to 45 mph in Santa Fé on Saturday.  Days in May with winds over 25 mph: 21 of 21.  Hurricane season officially began last Sunday, 15 May.

What’s blooming in the area: Austrian Copper, Persian Yellow, Dr. Huey, and hybrid roses; pyracantha, spirea, snowball, bearded iris, peonies, oriental poppies, golden spur columbine, snow-in-summer, purple salvia, Mount Atlas daisies

Snowballs are having a very good year everywhere they are being watered.  I don’t know if they behave like apples and peach trees.  They are in the caper, rather than the rose family.  The fruit trees produce potential buds every year that become dormant if they are not encouraged by conditions.  Then, when the weather is right, they all bloom, often overloading boughs with the weight of their bounty.  This winter’s rain may have been the shrubs’ stimulant.

What’s blooming beyond the walls and fences: Apache plume, yuccas, scurf peas, alfalfa, green leaf five eyes, bindweed, fern leaf globe mallow, strap leaf aster, fleabane, goat’s beard, common and native dandelions; needle, rice, cheat, three awn, brome, and June grasses

What’s blooming in my yard: Miniature roses, yellow potentillas, cliff rose, beauty bush, privet, chives, daylily cultivar, Johnson Blue geranium, winecup mallow, Dutch clover, coral bells, Maltese cross, Bath pinks, pink evening primroses, catmint, baptisia, blue flax, vinca, Shasta daisies, chocolate flowers, coreopsis, white yarrow

What’s coming up in my yard: Perennial four o’clock seedlings

What bedding plants are blooming: Pansies

Animal sightings: Rabbit, woodpecker on dead wood in cottonwood, quail, western chickadees, hummingbird, geckoes, cabbage and unidentified butterflies, lady bugs, hornets, grasshopper, sidewalk and harvester ants

Tasks: When I went into town Tuesday, I noticed several people had furrowed their fields or yards.  It remains to be seen if they intend to plant, or just were clearing the ground in time for the winds to blow away more top soil.

I also noticed another old apricot had been cut down.  This was so old, they built the yard wall around it.  The house was built in 1969, and the wall was next to a narrow road.  It is the only tree I’ve actually seen bear fruit.

The property was listed for sale in 2013, the year I first noticed the tree was suckering.  The house was occupied, and the realtor’s photographs from 2015 showed whoever was living there had a garden in back with irrigation rights.

It apparently changed hands, and the new owners (or renters) assumed what was there needed no attention.  A large branch broke in 2019, and the apricot was cut down the next year.  The chance another branch could come down in the road or on the house was too great.

Trees don’t just die, though.  It put up a sprout that bloomed last year, but I didn’t see flowers this year.  It may not make another come back in this weather.

Weekly update: I put bedding plants in the ground a week ago, and every afternoon I’ve had to give them emergency doses of water.  I know the water is needed, but I also suspect the moisture is important as an air conditioner.  It is cold, and so cools both the plants, and the air around them.

Planting seeds has been another matter altogether.   It always takes longer than it should because I have to clear the beds first.  In one area it was dead grass, and in another dead Dutch clover (Trifolium repens).  I realized those stems were keeping the ground moist, and wondered what could replace them before the seeds had a chance to take care of themselves.

I know gardeners’ guides extol the virtues of mulch.  The organic ones blow away.  For a while, I used sand intended for play yards.

Then, I realized stone worked.  The gravel in my driveway, and the cinder blocks in my paths, trapped water and became nurseries for all sorts of unwanted volunteers.  I bought some small shale stones for one bed where the plants, like pinks (Dianthus), naturally grow in areas with glacial till.

A couple years ago, I built a long, narrow raised bed outside my gate to stop dirt from drifting down from my neighbor’s yard and blocking my gate in winter.  As soon as I built the walls, and they were just laid pavers with no mortar, deliverymen began stepping through it.  I realized anything that looked formal, like landscaping stones, would become a mecca for them.  So, I dropped pieces of broken tile on the ground, making it look like rubble.  That stopped them.  They avoided anything that looked dangerous.

The purpose of the bed was to hold dirt, and I needed a better ground cover than the tile shards.  I bought some Dutch clover seeds of a variety from New Zealand that was supposed to be more drought resistant.  It came up last summer, didn’t bloom, and didn’t survive the winter.  I dismissed it as another failed experiment.  What was drought resistant for a company in the intermontane west, was not resistant enough for New Mexico.

This week I realized I was wrong; the clover had done exactly what I needed. It had held the ground during the winter.

As I said, the purpose of the bed is utilitarian, not ornamental.  It is in the sun, and only gets watered with a garden hose.  Beyond some sunflower seeds, I don’t buy anything special for it; I throw in all the remnants of opened packages and seeds left from previous years.  This year I added some more of the clover.

Maintaining some moisture in seed beds isn’t the only challenge.  When I was putting seeds in one place, ants appeared from nowhere and started crawling over the troweled ground.  The only answer is finding the hill and poisoning it.  The hill may not be completely eliminated, but it gives the seeds some time to change form before the colony revives.

Rabbits are another problem.  They walk down my drive and block walks, avoiding getting their paws dirty.  They do straight for my beds.  I bought 3' x 6' sections of mesh fencing to lay over beds until the plants, if they germinate, are less palatable.

I laid sections on that raised bed.  It wasn’t just to discourage deliverymen and rodents.  A large colony of western chickadees lives in my neighbor’s barn.  It may not keep them completely out, but at least it will pose a challenge for them.

Notes on photographs:
1.  Red sport of golden spur columbine (Aquilegia chrysantha), 15 May 2022.

2.  Eastern snowball (Viburnus opulus), 15 May 2022.

3.  Apricot tree (Prunus armeniacae) embedded in wall, photograph from real estate listing, 2015; the buildings in back have been obscured.  The roots almost reach the road.

4.  Fruit on the apricot tree, 2 July 2012.

Hermit’s Peak Fire

 

Weather: Drought is like high blood pressure, something that kills before it is detected.  The shrubs have been having a great year, but the flower buds probably were formed last summer or nurtured this winter.  Once set, like the lilacs, they bloom until conditions get so bad they wither away.  This year, most flowered for a few days, instead of weeks.

David Gutzler, a climatologist retired from the University of New Mexico, said that “in the Rio Grande Basin, snowpack was pretty close to what most people would consider average right around the time of peak snow, a month and a half ago.”

That snow this winter gave us the sense of normality that has been reinforced by spring flowers.  However, he said, “it has just melted really fast in this hot weather, so the effect of that on streamflow is we get less flow in the river for the same amount of snow that fell last winter.” [1]

The red flag warnings finally stopped on Monday, and the winds have calmed some.  The immediate effect of the clear air was a bright moon and cold morning temperatures.  That is expected to end by Monday.

Last rain: 4/1.  Week’s low: 29 degrees F.  Week’s high: 88 degrees F in the shade.  Winds were up to 49 mph in Santa Fé on Monday.  Days in May with winds over 25 mph: 13 of 13.

What’s blooming in the area: Austrian copper and Persian Yellow roses, spirea, pyracantha, snowball, purple locust shrub, bearded iris, golden spur columbine, Mount Atlas daisies

What’s blooming beyond the walls and fences: Apache plume, narrow leaved yucca, bindweed, green leaf five eyes, alfalfa, oxalis, goat’s beard, fleabane, common and native dandelions; needle, rice, cheat, three awn, and June grasses

First needle grass seeds stuck in my pant legs.  Many alfilerillo, plants came up in the driveway gravel, but without rain, remained small and have dried up.

What’s blooming in my yard: Cliff rose, Woodsi rose, yellow potentillas, beauty bush, chives, coral bells, Bath pinks, snow-in-summer, pink evening primrose, blue flax, vinca, Dutch clover, Shasta daisies

What’s coming up in my yard: Saint John’s wort; Chinese wisteria and roses of Sharon leafing

Animal sightings: Rabbit, quail, western chickadees, geckoes, butterflies, bumble bee, lady bug, hornets, sidewalk and harvester ants

Tasks: Thursday, when the winds finally died down, I planted a forsythia that had been sitting on my back porch since April 13.  For the first time, one of the local hardware stores had some locally grown annuals on Tuesday, probably brought in for Mother’s Day.  I also started planting them. Normally I would let them sit on the porch a little longer to adjust to the climate, but I expect it to get too hot to plant in a few days.  The next morning the temperature fell to 29 degrees F, but nothing seemed to be harmed.

I’m still picking up elm seeds, plucking dandelion flowers, and pulling goat’s beards and cheat grass. Saturday was the first day I didn’t find a Russian thistle carcass.  They had been landing in shrubs and trees, rather than on the ground.  I did find pieces in beds when I put out the bedding plants.

Weekly update: The fires changed on Tuesday, May 10.  I don’t know the exact time, but the temperature in my yard was 80 at 10:45 am, and the winds had started by 11 am.  At 11:30 am, I saw smoke spewing over the Sangre de Cristo mountains when I got to an intersection with Riverside.

One never sees that.  Last week was the first time I saw smoke over the Jémez and then it was 30 miles away [2] and from behind the 7,838' high San Miguel mountains. [3]  Mora County is more than twice as far away, 62+ miles. [4]  Jicarita, the nearest peak to the active part of the fire is 12,835' high. [5]

As I returned home at 12:30, I could see new smoke from the Jemez Springs fire, and smoke from the Sangre was visible over by neighbor’s house.

My mid-afternoon, the smoke from the Cerro Pelado fire had been replaced by a haze.  The Sangre fire seemed frozen: it no longer has changing shape.  I assumed the forest service had gotten to it.

Naturally, there was nothing on the web.  The Santa Fe Forest public information office posts reports in mid-morning for the previous day.  This seems designed to make sure nothing draws the attention of morning or evening news broadcasts, at the same time it fulfills a requirement to keep the public informed.  All I saw that day was one photo someone posted on Twitter from Angel Fire.

The Wednesday report did grudgingly admit that the smoke was visible for a hundred miles in all directions.  The managers responded by moving resources “strategically around the fire from areas with lessening activity to those that are very active.” [6]

The smoke followed the same cycle as Tuesday.  Nothing in the morning, when my neighbor’s flag was flapping at 45 degrees.  That tends to mean the winds were 10 miles an hour at 10:30.  The temperature rose from 70 to 81 in the next twenty minutes and the winds started.  The smoke from the Sangre appeared over my neighbor’s roof again.

I checked the weather bureau website around 1 pm.  There’s none in Espanola, or in Mora.  In Santa Fé winds were gusting to 26 miles per hour from the southwest, and the relative humidity had fallen to 7%.  It got down to 5% later.  Before this the low had been 6%; on Thursday it was 2%.  That change in humidity early in the day was probably the unseen agent of change.

The Forest Service admitted in its Thursday report on Wednesday’s activity that this fire, which has been burning since it began as a controlled burn on April 5, “is going to keep growing, and more firefighters, heavy equipment operators, support crews, and incident command teams are being ordered.”  The fire itself was keeping them from working: smoke grounded the aircraft at times. [7]

By Friday, the firefighters were doing the unthinkable: talking to reporters.  This much smoke could not help but become a story sometime.

They told the reporters “there was not much they could do in recent days to stop the fast-moving flames burning in tinder-dry forests” and that “we’re all in awe of what we’ve already experienced ... to this point.” [8]  They simply were no match for high temperatures and low humidity.  One recalled, in “some places where winds were gusting over ridgetops, it was ‘almost like putting a hair dryer on it’.” [9]

One reason that may have been willing to talk is they knew their managers were replacing them.  The fire was being divided into two command centers, with one Southwest Incident Management Team returning to the north, and another taking over the south.  In addition, a team from California was coming to help with strategy in the north where the fire had broken loose of Monday night [10] and was threatening more small communities nestled in the high valleys.

Finding scapegoats is business as usual in a bureaucracy.  They have more than 1,900 people working day and night and cannot report progress to their supervisors.  The system of rewards and metrics cannot let them admit what David Gutzler had said.  Things only appear normal.  Drought and low humidity are invisible.

Notes on photographs:
1-3.  Austrian Copper roses (Rosa foetida bicolor), 11 May 2022 and 14 May 2022.  The popular name comes from the bright red flowers in the second picture.  However, sometimes they revert to the pure yellow of Rosa foetida.  Knowing this, I ordered one from reputable rose grower, only to get a yellow one.  When I bought the others in Albuquerque, they were not in bloom so I risked getting more yellow ones.  This year the yellow has been visible from the house, the driveway, and almost anywhere else in the yard.

4.  Hermit’s Peak Fire from my yard, 11 May 2022 at 12:53 pm.  The yellow Austrian Copper is at the base of the cottonwood.

5.  Hermit’s Peak Fire from my yard, 11 May 2022 at 6:21 pm.  This is the same kind of frozen pattern that appeared in the afternoon on the day before.  Eastern snowball (Viburnus opulus) in front.

End notes:
1.  David Gutzler.  Quoted by Mark Olalde.  “The Southwest’s Drought and Fires Are a Window to Our Climate Change Future.”  Pro Publica, reprinted by Talking Points Memo, 11 May 2022.

2.  “Distance from Española, NM to Cochiti, NM.”  Distance-Cities website.
3.  “San Miguel Mountains Topo Map in Sandoval County NM.”  Topo Zone website.
4.  “Distance from Española, NM to Mora County, NM.”  Distance-Cities website.

5.  “Jicarita Peak, New Mexico.”  Peak Bagger website.  This peak is near the threatened community of Angostura in Taos County.  It’s at 8,970' according to the Roadside Thoughts website post on the settlement.

6.  Santa Fe National Forest Public Information Office.  “Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon Fires -May 11, 2022.”  NM Fires website, 11 May 2022.

7.  Santa Fe National Forest Public Information Office.  “Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon Fires May 12, 2022, Daily Update, 09:00AM.”  NM Fires website, 12 May 2022.

8.  Dave Bales, commander.  Quoted by Arcio J. Sanchez and Brian Melley, Associated Press.  “‘Like An Inferno:’ U.S. West Burning At Furious Pace So Far.” Huffington Post website, 13 May 2022.

9.  Todd Abel, fire operations chief.  Quoted by Sanchez.

10.  Santa Fe National Forest Public Information Office.  “Hermits Peak and Calf Canyon Fires May 13, 2022.”  NM Fires website, 13 May 2022.

Cerro Pelado Fire

Weather: It’s rare that one gets an explanation from the weather service.  Their mission is the future, telling us about immediate threats and predicting the weather for the next day or so.  History is yesterday.

This week, NASA released a video showing a sandstorm in Colorado moving south to meet the smoke from the fires east of the Sangre de Cristo mountains. [1]  The date was 29 April, the day after my allergies were so bad a week ago Thursday. [2]  We were west of the main route of the moving dirt, but it probably had movements on the fringe that reached us before the main body was captured by a satellite camera.

Last rain: 4/1.  Week’s low: 29 degrees F.  Week’s high: 89 degrees F in the shade.  Winds were up to 43 mph in Los Alamos on Tuesday.  Days in May with winds over 25 mph: 8 of 8.

What’s blooming in the area: Spirea, lilacs, bearded iris, lavender moss phlox

Lilacs and spirea are doing well, if they have been watered.  On the other hand, there are few flowers on northern shrubs of landowners who have not become away of drought conditions and assumed that what worked in the past would continue.

What’s blooming beyond the walls and fences: Alfilerillo, bindweed, oxalis, fleabane, goat’s beard, common and native dandelions; needle, cheat, and June grasses

What’s coming up beyond the walls and fences: Daturas, fern leaf globemallow, white sweet clover, lamb’s quarter, Russian thistles, black grama grass; Virginia creeper, trees of heaven, sandbar willow, and broom snakeweed leafing

What’s blooming in my yard: Austrian Copper rose, chives, coral bells, blue flax, vinca

What’s coming up in my yard: Lead plant, buffalo grass; desert willow and Russian sage leafing

Animal sightings: Rabbits, western chickadees, geckoes, swallowtail butterfly, bumble and small bees, hornets, sidewalk and harvester ants

Tasks: Usually one worries about the last frost date when putting out plants.  And, it is no small consideration.  Temperatures were down to freezing two mornings this past week, and 29 degrees F on Thursday.  They didn’t dip long enough to affect the catalpas, which often lose their first leaves to cold weather.
However, this year the last wind date is more important.   It’s already too warm to plant cool weather seeds like larkspur.  Maybe they can go in the ground late in the summer for next year.

The local hardware stores have not received any locally grown annuals.  All they have are fruit trees and some vegetables grown in Alabama.  For whatever reason, and I’m sure it’s not local weather conditions, there are no snapdragons or pansies to plant.

It looks like it’s going to be a defensive summer, with my attention focused on keeping paths and hoses clear.  Then, as the weeds that have blown through begin to sprout, it will become a daily battle to keep them at bay.  This week I picked up Russian thistles every day, plucked dandelion flowers, and pulled cheat grass.

Weekly update: Fire season lasts until the monsoons finally dowse the worst of the flames.  Like everyone, I heard news of the fires east of the Sangre.  One store was collecting money for victims of the fire in Mora on Tuesday.

I also was aware that a fire had started during the “epic wind event” on 22 April near Jemez Springs.  All I really knew is that it went south from the scars of the Las Conchas Fire of 2011 [3] that burned the side of Tchicoma that’s directly across the river from my house.

Then, last Saturday I looked out around 7 pm and saw smoke behind the Black Mesa.

I was worried until, half an hour later, it became obvious the fire was somewhere at the south end of the dark ridge I call the Jémez.  The mountains may be broken into smaller parts, but I have no sense of the geography at that end. [4]

Apparently, the Jemez Springs fires had broken loose.  The Forest Service doesn’t use those words.  On Sunday it simply said the Cerro Pelado fire had spread east and south. [5]  Still, by Monday the number of people fighting the fire had increased from 352 to 466, and they admitted it had “breached the primary containment line.”  They began “firing operation with aerial ignition.” [6]

The smoke turned from the normal white of burning wood and water, to uglier hues in the picture at the top.  Monday night I had trouble getting to sleep because my nose wouldn’t stop running.  When I went into town Tuesday, I talked to others who said everyone was having allergy problems.  One woman recalled her grandson had had a hard time Monday night.

Since then, several changes have been made.  A team from Salt Lake City has taken over from the one from Atlanta that was in charge. [7]  The Southern region covers the area from Texas east; the other concentrates on the Great Basin where there currently are no great fires.  Of course, most of our resources are east of the mountains from Las Vegas to the Philmont Boy Scout Ranch are threatened.  The Forest Service has only so many men and so much equipment, and that was clearly a greater priority until smoke began seeping into Los Alamos. [8]

By Wednesday 751 people were fighting the fire, and planes that could scoop water had arrived, as had a masticator to chop up brush.  It was sent by the Department of Energy, [9] who manages the national laboratory in Los Alamos.

Since then, the fire has fallen into a predictable rhythm driven by temperature.  People fight the fire during the day.  One knows they are active by the haze that falls in front of the Jémez.  As the day progresses, it thickens and may come in front of the Black Mesa which is less than two miles from by back porch.

Then, as temperatures rise, the smoke begins rising so it becomes visible about 6:30 pm.  By 7 pm, the winds are carrying the smoke east and northeast.

Temperatures cool when the sun goes down and the particulates reach people’s noses.  Some mornings a band of white still lays along the horizon, only to disappear with the sun’s heat.  A new day in the cycle begins.

Yesterday, there were 872 people involved.  The number of water tenders had increased from 6 on 1 May to 15.  Still, the number of acres burned had increased from 17,885 then [10] to 37, 425 ares on the most recent report. [11]

Notes on photographs:
1.  Sun through smoke, looking west toward the Jémez, 1 May 2022, 6:25 pm.
2.  Lilac Fiala Remembrance, 7 May 2022.  I don’t know the species of the butterfly.
3.  Smoke behind the Black Mesa, 30 April 2022, 6:58 pm.
4.  Smoke west of the Black Mesa, 30 April 2022, 7:26 pm.
5.  Smoke west of the Black Mesa, 1 May 2022, 6:24 pm.
6.  Smoke behind the Black Mesa, 5 May 2022, 6:46 pm.

End notes: Reports on the Cerro Pelado fire are posted to the NM Fire Info website by the SFNFPIO, the public information office for the Santa Fé National Forest.

1.  “Satellite Shows Western Wildfires, Dust Storms Collide.”  Uploaded to YouTube by Bloomberg Quicktake.  

2.  This is discussed in the post for 1 May 2022.
3.  This language appears at the beginning of every update on the Cerro Pelado fire.

4.  A map that accompanied a fire update mentioned the San Miguel Mountains.  “Cerro Pelado Fire Update Thursday, May 5, 2022.”  Posted 5 May 2022.

5.  “Cerro Pelado and Freelove Fires April 30 Update.”  Posted 30 April 2022 in section on “Yesterday.”

6.  “Cerro Pelado Fire Update.”  Posted 2 May 2022 in section on “Yesterday.”
7.  “Cerro Pelado Fire Update Thursday, May 5, 2022.”  Posted 5 May 2022.

8.  A community meeting was held in Los Alamos on 2 May 2022.  “Cerro Pelado Fire Update.”  Posted 2 May 2022.

9.  “Cerro Pelado Fire Update Wednesday, May 4, 2022.”  Posted 4 May 2022.
10.  “Cerro Pelado and Freelove Fire Update.”  Posted 1 May 2022.
11.  “Cerro Pelado Fire Update Sunday, May 8, 2022.”  Posted 8 May 2022.
 

Requiem for an Apricot

Weather: High winds continued through Friday, and so did my allergies.  By Thursday, they had reached a crisis level: my nose wouldn’t stop running and my eyelids hurt.  One was an internal problem, the other external.

Some years ago, I did a post on juniper allergies.  Then I learned that when pollen entered the body, the mast cells release histamines and other inflammatory substances that trigger allergic symptoms. [1]  I assume something similar was happening this week with the dust that was in the air.  By Thursday, sensitized cells were in a self-perpetuating mode.  I had used a nasal saline solution, but on that day I used a great deal more.

I figured the problem with my eyelids was they were successfully stopping whatever was in the air, and getting punished.  The places that hurt most were under my eyes and in the corners where gravity took what I washed off with water, salt water, and alcohol.

I finally decided to try an herbal ointment.  Years ago, I asked the friend who recommend it for some other use how something on the skin could heal an internal problem.  He told me the chemicals irritate the skin so the body sends more blood to the area, and the secondary effect is what does the curing.

I was careful, and realized applying the balm was like putting on eye shadow.  The first time, my lids were warmed.  After that, it was just another cream.  However, the itching was reduced to the areas that were most irritated, and I could control the urge to rub them.

Did either actually help?  I have no idea.  Since I believed the problem was caused by the dust, then the atmosphere could have changed and been the active agent.  When Saturday was calm. my symptoms all but disappeared.

Last rain: 4/1.  Week’s low: 32 degrees F.  Week’s high: 83 degrees F in the shade.  Winds were up to 48 mph in Santa Fé on Friday.

Days since 1 January 2022 with high wind gusts in Los Alamos or Santa Fé:
25-39 mph: January-4, February-9, March-17, April -19
40-49 mph: January-1, February-2, March-3, April-3
50+ mph: April-2
Total: January-5, February-11, March-20, April-24

What’s blooming in the area: Apples, forsythia, lavender moss phlox

What’s coming up in the area: Grapes leafing

What’s blooming beyond the walls and fences: Alfilerillo, western stickseed, dandelions, cheat and June grasses

What’s coming up beyond the walls and fences: Prickly pear cacti have new pads

What’s blooming in my yard: Sour cherry, purple and white sand cherries, spirea, lilacs, Siberian peas, parrot tulip, grape hyacinths, lilies of the valley, blue flax, vinca

What’s coming up in my yard: Asiatic lilies, baptisia, Maximilian sunflowers, Mönch asters, purple coneflowers, coreopsis; catalpas and sand cherries are beginning to leaf

Animal sightings: Rabbit, western chickadees, hummingbird, geckoes, cabbage butterfly, bumble and small bees on Siberian peas, hornets, sidewalk and harvester ants

Tasks: Wind and allergies kept me inside until Saturday.  I only ventured out to water, pick dandelions, and pick up Russian thistles.

On Monday, I dislodged the thistles that had gotten stuck in salt bushes and winterfat shrubs outside my fence, so they wouldn’t blow in.  A slight wind was blowing, and I learned if I dropped them on the far side of the dirt road, they would blow away.  While I was working a stronger gust blew up, and I saw new carcasses landing in my yard.  I looked up and saw big ones flying through the air thirty feet up.  When the wind stopped, they dropped.

Dandelions are a different problem: they weigh less.  As a child I learned not to pick them: the milk in the stem stained my hands brown and my parents warned me against blowing the white heads and spreading the seeds.  Besides, I also had learned they wilted as soon as they were picked.

I didn’t know then the flowers are short lived, but new ones come into bloom every half hour.  Buds appear from nowhere.  It’s a Sisyphean task to pick them before they go to seed.   Every year I miss some, and I have more plants.  But it would be worse if I didn’t try.

On Saturday, I found elm seeds littered through an area I had cleared before the winds.  They follow the same paths as the dandelions, and Saturday I found seeds on dandelion leaves.

Weekly update: I didn’t drive into town until Tuesday this week.  By then, if there had been wind damage from a week ago Friday, it had been cleared.  Russian thistles were caught in fences.  The road curves.  In some areas, every fence was littered, and in others, none were.  It all depended on the location of the fence and the wind currents.

I did notice one tree had been cut down.  All that was left was a very wide stretch of wood at ground level.

I have no idea how old the apricot was.  They can live more than a hundred years, but don’t tend to bear fruit after twenty-five years. [2]  This one still was blooming this year.

I don’t know if it had been weakened by the drought.  Apricots need water, at least an inch every two weeks.   They have get it from the surface with shallow roots that can extend twenty-five feet. [3]  One of mine is putting out suckers up to three feet away.

The people there used to irrigate and grow vegetables, but in recent years the weather has discouraged such efforts.  In 2020, the pipes only were set up around the garden bed.

The tree had divided into two trunks, and that sometimes can make them more vulnerable to wind damaged.

But, it may not have been wind at all.  The owners may just have grown tired of the tree shading their younger, fruit bearing apricots.

Notes on photographs:
1.  Apricot that was cut down this past week, 1 October 2016.  It was fall and the leaves were turning yellow.  You can judge its height by the utility pole in the foreground.

2.  Dandelion growing with a Siberian elm sprout near my apricot tree, 30 April 2022.  My the time I see the elm sprouts, the roots are too long to pull.  They grow too close to desirable plants to kill.  If I cut them, them copse.

3.  Dandelion growing near the garage, 30 April 2022.  The tan spot on the leaves is a Siberian elm seed.

4.  Same apricot tree, 2 November 2013.  The swing at the far right is hanging from a branch.  Younger apricots are in back.

End notes:
1.  Juniper allergies are discussed on Nature Abhors a Garden on 15 March 2009.

2.  Athena Hessong.  “How Long Does It Take for Apricots to Grow Fruit?”  SF Gate website, 14 December 2018.

3.  “Apricot Tree Care: How To Grow Apricot Trees.”  Minnetonka Orchards website.