Monsoon Walk

Though off to a feeble start locally, the monsoon has begun!  Lots of things to do once the rain starts, like clean out the rain barrel (don't want to empty what's left of that precious spring rain until we're sure), plant more seeds for cooler crops (beeets, rutabagas, parsnips for starters), and take the camera on morning walks.  I'll probably continue this post for a few days, adding new pictures after each walk.  Why? Because new and different beauty and wonder erupt each day for about the first 2 weeks after the monsoon starts.  The landscape transforms radically and it ALWAYS amazes me.

These little guys come out. Any one know what they are? They have really fuzzy antennae that move really fast, so hard to tell whether they have six or eight legs. Obviously Mom Nature is giving us a warning to give them clear path.  They can be up to about half an inch long and wide and only are out while it is very moist from the rain. The tip of the hiking stick is about 1.5 inches in diameter.

Flowers pop up everywhere, some for only a fast bloom and seed cycle.

This delicate little gal has someone's size 10 for scale:

The hardy mesquites, which bloom inconspicuous but heaven-scented earlier in the year, are now loaded with ripening beans.  These are a life-saver to javelina (wild boar relative), rabbits and could be for people if we'd gather and grind more. The flour is nutritious with high complex carbs and proteins -- and adds a carmelly-flavor when mixed with regular or WW flour.

It takes a few rains for the poor cholla to perk up, drop last year's fruit and bloom.

If you look between the cholla branch shadows just below the enter of the photo, you'll see this guy posing for the snapshot:

He/she and about 200 of his/her best friends were partying in the cool, moist desert during our short walk. Wippee! Monsoon is here!

I hope to add two of my monsoon favorites soon: Blooming Sacred Datura and a tarantula!

From Cabin Fever to Spring Fever

The weather in the high desert can be confusing. Ten days of nights below freezing and days below 50 degrees and we start staying indoors. Ten nights above freezing with days above 60 degrees and Spring Fever sets in. Most of us have the good sense not to act on the intermittent Spring Fever impulse, at least beyond going out with no jacket. Chances are we will see the cold cycle return repeatedly until April or May. On my last bout of Spring Fever, I did buy some wonderful seeds from a great website, the Pumpkin Nook. They were fast and about $1.50 less per seed packet than my local store, but with a better selection.

Spring Fever here must be tempered. When you watch the big weather map on TWC, they show weather patterns that reflect the edge of the jet stream, which is often the curved line where temps north are a bunch colder than temps to the south. Invariably that curved line is just a little north of us. Cool, always warm, right?!? NO. What it really means is a lot of wind, especially when we are on the LOW side of the atmospheric pressure.

Spring for us is a gardener's nightmare. The humidity drops, sometimes to single digits, then in mid-March, the winds start. Usually they stop by the beginning of May. Anything planted before the winds stop must be protected. May as well not bother even then, because three weeks later, the temps hit 100 degrees and stay there until July. There are some vegetables that love that -- cucumbers, summer squashes, string beans, maybe corn.

Those of us who have lived and gardened here for a while have learned to delay gratification and do most of our planting in July or August, after the summer rains begin (monsoon). Findings from some U of A studies on the health of perennials related to time of planting indicated that a plant dug-in in March never quite catches up to one planted in late January or late July of the same year. The stresses of the desiccating winds and excessive heat as they try to put in their first roots is just too much for many plants.

So I buy my seeds, prep my starter and know that I can put out about 6 plants until July, all of which must be babied. Then we wait and hope for the summer rain and our gardening fun can begin in earnest!

Four Seasons of the High Desert (part 2)

IT’S OFFICIAL!! It is now Hell-hot!! The official temp was over 100 F yesterday, hailing the beginning of season. Fortunately, it is the shortest of the desert seasons here – usually lasting between a month and six weeks. During this time, we have the benefits of drying vegetation, thirsty birds and animals, and our favorite– full-on fire season! We’ve had a few small fires in the area lately. A few ranges away there is one that has been going for 10 days or so and may not be ‘out’ until the summer rains start. That’s the Monsoon Season for the uninitiated. The monsoons, climatically a correct nomenclature, are what end the Hell-hot season. The monsoons in the southwestern US are not as voluminous as those on the Indian subcontinent. They may have been in the distant past, but that pesky Central American land bridge reduced the dynamics that lead us to today’s piker of a monsoon, comparatively. Those of us who benefit from these mini- monsoons are unlikely to look this gift horse in the choppers.

The monsoons are like nothing I had experienced before moving here, and I’ve lived in most of the major sub-sections of the US. Other than the incredible beauty of the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan, the monsoonal southwestern US is the most spectacularly wonderful place to be in the states. First, we get rain – and a fair amount. More than 50% of our 10 to 30 inches of rain, elevation dependant, is delivered by the monsoons. Second, then temps are moderated to an amazing degree – gone are the triple digit numbers, banished until the following May or June if the season goes per ‘normal.’ Third, the environment comes ALIVE. Flowers bloom, fawns are born, grass grows green, brooks babble – some yell, hence the local stupid motorist laws (more on that below).

The lead-up to the monsoons ( sometimes called ‘dry monsoon’) is not only HOT, but the humidity rises each day, starting at single to low double digits in late May to a dew point of 55 degrees. Nothing quite as pleasant as really hot AND humid -- that's why I left the southeast US! When the dewpoint has been above 55 degrees for 3 consecutive days, the WET Monsoon has begun. WHEW!!

A couple of years ago, there was a move to make the monsoons more ‘out-lander friendly’ and dates, rather than climatic conditions, became the ‘season.’ Can you believed that the ‘powers-that-be’ even dumbed-down the monsoon?? Despite the actual conditions usually hailing the season around the 4th of July, the ‘official’ season is 15 June to 15 September. Got that, Mother Nature???

OK -- Stupid motorists, you ask? Yes, there were enough stupid people who drove their cars into furiously rushing water occupying normally dry creek beds that the cost of extricating them (if still alive) became a burden on the state. Hence if you enter a flash-flooded creek and do not become a brief entry in the annual Darwin Awards, you pay a steep fine if emergency services personnel must rescue your stupid self. I love both the concept and the common name – call stupid motorists what they are: STUPID!

This is actually a serious subject. Many roads in the southwestern US (SWUS) cross normally dry creeks, called ‘dry washes’ or ‘arroyos’ depending on the region. Despite signs warning people not to enter when flooded, lots of people, usually new to the SWUS , know better and try to cross them. It only takes about 6" of swift water for your tires to lose traction, especially if the road is paved. After that, you and your car are officially FLOTSAM. If you are fortunate, you survive. Many people every year actually DIE doing this, which is especially stupid when you consider that if they wait ONE HOUR, the water will probably be gone. Now who has to be somewhere so badly that it is worth the risk of DEATH to wait an hour? NOW you understand the stupid motorist law!

So, get your tires checked, put a couple of gallons of water and some snacks in the car, and get ready for the heat and the rain!