Deer Canyon Folks.org

Today's heavy winds have fanned the Trigo fire again, and even though it's still quite bright outside, through binoculars I can see flames on the mountain.  I'm pretty sure the flames I'm seeing are near Capilla Peak; the smoke obscures the mountain range enough that I can't confirm that.  If the flames are near Capilla Peak, then the electronics sites are also threatened.  Which means the cell phones might not be working soon. Inciweb & NMFireInfo aren't reporting this yet, but earlier today the fire crews were in "mop up" mode, so probably everyone out there is working on creating new fire lines.

By the way, I've added some new links to the links page, including a couple on the topic of fire prevention/fighting.

Breezy this morning, and this afternoon, too, intermittently. Cooler overnight (in the high 30s) and at 3:15 pm we've only reached 62°. Despite the recent winds, it appears that the firefighters have gotten the upper hand on the Trigo fire. Yes!

My rhythms today have been out of sync with the birds, so the jays collected their peanuts an hour or so after I tossed them out. The hummingbirds have drained their nectar feeder and I really ought to be making some sugar water right now!  We'll put out a quart this time, maybe that will hold them for two whole days.

(And some people think there's not much to do here. Hah.)

This morning is absolutely, gloriously still. At dawn it was in the mid-30s, and of course it's warming rapidly as the sun rises. At 9:15 am it's 52°.

I've been neglecting bird reports recently. Today, during tea on the porch time, I was visited by two hummingbirds (one is already protective of the feeder), a canyon towhee, scrub jays collecting their peanuts, a spotted towhee and several house finches. The phoebe pair has begun building a nest on the suspended platform Alan put up for them last year. (After we carefully designed the house so no birds would be able to nest on it, Alan fell in love with the phoebe last spring and built her something pretty much to her specs. We've gone dotty over the phoebes, there's no other explanation.) There is at least one robin pair here and there has been a mockingbird around frequently. Several mourning doves have arrived to scrounge for seed thrown down from the feeders, and the pinyon jays still occasionally come through, but not in such big numbers as during the winter. Now I only see about 4 or 5 at a time. I think a raven pair is nesting in a tree in our corral; they're always there in the early morning and early evening. Finally, I think I've seen a kestrel (near our house, I mean; certainly have seen them on the preserve) a few times, but it is always leaving by the time I notice it.

With the stillness this morning, there is a definite tang of wood smoke in the air. Pleasant, but for the knowledge that it is from the Trigo fire, smoke having dispersed through the valley overnight. The east side of the mountain seems to have calmed down, although yesterday evening's news reported that 9 homes were burned in the Manzano area, along with some outbuildings and a couple of RVs. The big work last night was back on the west side of the mountain, where late afternoon winds whipped up the fire and sent it in a new direction. Again, I am neither a reporter nor any kind of trained observer. I'm watching the Manzanos from somewhat over 20 miles away and checking news reports. If you are interested in the progress of the firefighting efforts, keep checking KOAT, KASA (I find their website annoying, but their broadcasts are informative and you can see video of them on the website), and Inciweb.

KOAT has a Trigo Fire Timeline.

Update, 9:30 pm: According to the 9 pm news on KASA (Fox), voluntary evacuations have been ordered for Manzano and Torreon. The fire spread drastically today. Now that it's dark, we can see the line of fire slicing down the mountain, between Manzano and Torreon. The apple farm south of Torreon is threatened, as well as another retreat center nearby. The winds dropped at sunset, and fire crews are working hard tonight to try to create some defensible fire lines while it's cooler and not windy. Unfortunately, tomorrow is supposed to bring steady winds around 15 mph or so, and gusts up to 35 mph; and our usual single digit humidity levels. (PS: I won't be able to post until tomorrow evening; for quicker and more complete news about the fire, keep checking InciWeb, and KOAT.)

Update, 4:45 pm: Voluntary evacuations "ordered" for Manzano; residents advised to go to Mountainair HS. Firefighters were pulled off the front line because the fire jumped beyond them (don't know correct wording for that, saw it go by on a KOAT crawl) a contingency line. Torreon and Tajique residents warned to be ready for evacuations.

Update, 3:25 pm: The fire appears to be rapidly moving NE. We can see flames moving down the hillside and there are immense quantities of black smoke billowing from the fire front. We need the winds to stop. Thoughts and prayers needed for Manzano and Torreon residents, and most of all for the firefighters, who are working in very precarious conditions.

3 pm: We continue to have sunny, dry and, unfortunately, windy weather. The Trigo Canyon fire, which is now in at least two canyons on the east side of the Manzanos, has expanded. You can see from the photo above what we have been watching this afternoon. I'd like to emphasize that most of what you see in the photo is smoke blowing away from the fire; if you look carefully, you'll see that the big line of smoke is not "touching" the ground. The fire area, as best we can tell, is only at the left end of the photo. My point: we have no reason to believe that it's as bad as it looks; but it is certainly bad enough, and in these winds anything at all can happen, as we learned in November. Got moisture? Send it our way!!! Oh, and NM Fire Info doesn't seem to be posting about fires anymore. Here's the InciWeb link to the Trigo fire. They seem to update it every morning early. 

So few days, so much has happened.  Tuesday morning on the porch was simply perfect: the overnight low had been 45° (finally!) and there was no breeze at all. I was about to post that, when the breeze came up, and kept coming. Then we were seeing smoke blowing over the Manzanos. Trigo Canyon is on the west side of the Manzanos. A fire began there on Tuesday and the winds then and on Wednesday have hampered firefighter efforts, including preventing airplanes from dropping retardant. Heavy winds last night increased the acreage and moved the fire toward Osha Peak. The fire is also on the east side of the mountains now. If you don't have a Cibola National Forest map, the areas affected are not too far from Capilla Peak, north of the region that burned on November.

Today has been significantly cooler and wetter. It snowed this morning, leaving about 4.5 inches of snow in the Jumano Trail neighborhood of Deer Canyon; lower down at the entrance gate there was less snow, and I bet higher up there was more! I have a half inch of water in my rain gauge; that's a good amount of precipitation for us at one time.

The coolness and precipitation are aiding fire fighting in the Manzanos. As of 3 pm today there were no evacuations planned for Torreon or Tajique, but residents there have been advised to be prepared to leave quickly if necessary. If you want to keep track of the fire, use the New Mexico Fire Info website (also archived on our links page).

Update! At 11 pm, 33° out and snowing a bit. The wind continues. We had a tenth of an inch of rain earlier.

It's raining! Yes! Since my last report we have been having windy and warm weather, for the most part. Some clouds or humidity in the mornings, but dry, warm and windy. Last night I did wake up to hear one spit of rain. Today has been cloudy all day so far, and about 4:15 pm we started getting a few drops here and there. Now (4:35 pm) it's really raining. Oh happy day! P.S.: our local mockingbird started singing yesterday; he has a nice varied repertory.