Deer Canyon Folks.org

Cool, cloudy, wet weather today. Currently 36°, and the snow while it is still lightly snowing, what came down overnight has melted.

But last week! A string of warm sunny days allowed nearly all of the previous snows to melt. Although the roads began in a very muddy state, the sun and breezes got them mostly dried out. Our heroic DCP crews have graded most of our roads, so that getting around on the Preserve is much less stressful. And last Wednesday afternoon, the county graded B16 (aka Beginning Road in the county road name list), which had some north-facing stretches that were so deeply rutted as to be nearly impassable. Thursday afternoon we went into Mountainair, and it was just like a normal drive into town. As Alan said, we’re livin’ large!

Just a touch of snow yesterday (I think I mentioned that already) and another dusting this morning. Although it is currently overcast, it’s also 41°, so the ground is soft and becoming muddier by the moment.

I identified the ground squirrels who have been hanging out with all our ground birds and eating at our birdseed buffet. They are white-tailed antelope squirrels. Here is a good photo of one, and here is the Wikipedia article. More info here, here, and here!

At least in our neighborhood! The mountains are still hidden behind a wall of cloud, though. I’m looking forward to seeing how snwy they have become. Oh, there’s a bit of a mountain peeking out right now.

So much snow outside. Here’s my sure-thing forecast for the not–too–distant future: mud.

One thing I have been noticing this winter is how the agastache is still fragrant, even though we’re well into the dormant season. Even when it was snowing last week, coming up from the corral to the house I caught a whiff of its perfume: instant summer. I strongly recommend agastaches to anyone who wants hummingbirds and all year fragrance. Yum!

UPDATE: Mountains are appearing, birds are out all around; and while refilling the seed feeder, I got to feed a juniper titmouse from my hand — twice!