Lie in August’s Welcome Corn!

     “Join in black December’s sadness, lie in August’s welcome corn, stir the cup that’s ever blending with the blood of all that’s born . . .”

-- Jethro Tull,  Cup of Wonder, from Songs from the Wood

                         

Pesach took me by surprise and then there was a long silence on this blog. So many things happened in April and May and then summer was upon us, and now the Monsoon and the first hints of autumn are already showing themselves here in the high country. Elul is also upon us, early this year just as Pesach was. But in order to begin looking to the year ahead, I need to look back at least a bit to see what brought me from there to here.

 

April, Come She Will:

The post-Pesach Spring Term was divided between Freedom Ridge Ranch and the house in Sedillo. Both the Cowboy and I were taking classes, he at CNM and me at UNM. In April, we drove up to Albuquerque every Monday morning and returned late Thursday night. It was a hectic busy time, make more do-able by the increasing light and warmth, although it was a cool spring in New Mexico.

In April, I:

•   Edited a dissertation for my Ruby Slipper friend, doing both APA Style formatting, grammar and spelling, and helping with writing style.
• Worked on a literature review for a class I was taking, as well as a research proposal and presentation.
•   Enjoyed down time hanging out at Barnes and Noble in Albuquerque, and began planning the summer work at the ranch.

May Days:

The term ended for the Cowboy and I at the end of April,  and he returned to the ranch and stayed. However, I was still back and forth there, and on up to Aurora, Colorado, mostly on Libertarian Business.

In May, I:

•   Helped plan and attended the LPNM annual convention, where I was termed out as Vice Chair and began a term as Secretary. There was a lot of politicking involved this time as we had a take-over threat and I really wanted our current Chair to remain Chair, although he wasn’t so sure.
•   Continued final editing on the Ruby Slipper’s dissertation, which reported a kick-ass study he did.
•   Drove up to Aurora one weekend for the Libertarian State Leadership Alliance meeting, held in conjunction with the Colorado State Convention. This was great—more relaxed than the bi-annual National Convention—there was plenty of time to talk to Libertarians. It always feels like coming home!
•    With the pressures of committee and comps preparation over for the semester, I had a chance to spend time with Excel Manufacturing friends after a long hiatus.
•   At the ranch, we welcomed our only baby calf of the spring (we had shipped some of the older cows and the bull earlier in the year). We also had water-pipe problems and had to work on the system, and install a new French drain in the irrigation system as well. We got the fencing complete for the greenhouse/garden area.

June is the Hottest Month:

June is hot and dry in New Mexico. Every living thing begins to long for water, and people slow down. We had several weeks of very hot weather, and late in June, temperatures climbed to a record 106 degrees. During late May and June, we had a number of serious wildfires in New Mexico and Arizona, and we saw some smoke at the ranch and in Albuquerque.

In June:

• I picked up my nephew, the Illinois Boy, at the airport as his parents moved to Texas and he came to try out life at the ranch. Once he adjusted to the altitude, he took to it very well.
• The day I picked up the IB, I had a long talk with my realtor, and we brought the price down for the Sedillo house, my beautiful Hobbit Hole. It was a painful decision, but important. We knew we needed to sell the house.
• On the second Friday in June, I thought I saw lightning as I was setting the Shabbat table. Dry lightning is common in June, so I thought nothing of it. The next morning, I woke up with a floater in my eye. I called Eye-Doc Randi that afternoon, and the short of it is that I had a vitreous detachment, requiring numerous trips to Albuquerque and UNM Eye Clinic for monitoring.
• We started fencing for a new horse pasture, and the Cowboy was really happy to have the IB’s help. The IB also learned to ride a horse, drive cattle and drive the tractor. We will make a cowboy of him yet!
• I went riding every week with a friend, JL, another Jew in the Republic of Catron. She was a wrangler for years in Arizona, and passed on some of her riding expertise to me.
• The Cowboy broke his hand while driving cows, and spent five weeks in a cast. Or he was supposed to, anyway!

 

 

Glorious July: 

July was truly a wonderful month, because the Monsoon  came right on the Glorious Fourth and stayed through the month. We got 3.53 inches of precipitation for the month, several of them in cloudbursts that re-arranged the landscape.

In July:

• We celebrated the Glorious 4th small-town style, with a parade and BBQ. Yours truly was honored to read the Declaration of Independence right after the choral presentation of patriotic music.
• The IB settled in, helping me dig retention basins around the trees, and we started a garden.
• The Cowboy spend several weeks working cattle at the York Ranch, but that ended in mid-July because the Monsoon had not yet hit the Continental Divide Country, and they shipped their cattle to a ranch in Texas for better grass.
• I qualified for my Concealed Carry Weapon license, shooting the EG’s Glock .40!
• The Cowboy removed his cast prematurely at the York Ranch, cutting it off himself, because it was getting gnarly. He’s definitely a Cowboy.
• The IB had to return to Illinois to take care of some business late in July and we weren’t sure if he was coming back.
• In the same week, Eye-Doc Randi found a small tear in the retina of my right eye—the one with the vitreous detachment—and I had a week in Albuquerque, playing appointment tag with an over-worked retina specialist.
• In the same week, the IB decided to come back—with resome gentle pushing and bribery from his mother and grandparents, and I arranged the flight.
• In the same week, we had a real gully-washer and frog-strangler, that washed away half the county. We have a new micro-topography here at the Ranch.

 

Lie in August’s Welcome Corn: 

And here we are at the end of the first full week of August. Time speeds when there is so much to accomplish and so many things happening.

The country looks like spring does elsewhere, all green and gold with water falling from the sky, running, trickling and making mud for the dogs to play in and trucks to get stuck in. The IB, gone barely two weeks, did not recognize the place.

And the day I picked him up at the airport, we got an offer on the house. Monday, that was. We dickered Monday evening to Tuesday afternoon. We came to agreement just after I had a good interview for a part-time staff position at CNM, a position I applied for in the Disability Center.

Whoo-hoo! The house is under contract. And, sniffle, we must now say good-bye to that era in our lives.

And just in time for Elul—the season of our turning . . .

But that’s another blog.

Technorati Tags: Meanwhile Back at the Ranch,Summertime,Times and Seasons,Family Life

The Rainbow Connection

Why are there so many songs about Rainbows,

And what's on the other side?

Rainbows are visions,

They're only illusions,

And Rainbows have nothing to hide. . .

--The Rainbow Connection

The spot-soon becomes the monsoon again,

with a little help from El Nino . . .

. . . and a lemon-clouded sunrise to the east,

The air is full of misty

South Mountain magic . . .

. . . And they all come together,
to make the Sandia Mountain
Rainbow Connection . . .

. . .We walk in beauty,

and our pathway is marked

with the rainbow sign.

What's so amazing that keeps us stargazing?

What are we hoping to find?

Someday we'll find it,

The rainbow connection,

The lovers,

The dreamers,

and me . . .

Thank you, Kermit the Frog!

Summer Solstice Sunrise 2009

NEARLY WORDLESS WEDNESDAY

On Saturday night, just before midnight MDT (05:45 GMT, Sunday morning), the Earth passed the Northern Hemisphere Summer Solstice point in its orbit around the sun. On Sunday morning, the Engineering Geek, the dogs and I walked up to the top of Via Sedillo to welcome the first sunrise of astronomical summer.

Before the sun came fairly over the trees, north of east, we could see its light steal across the Juan Tomas valley below. In the picture, the foreground was still in the shadow of the Via Sedillo Ridge upon which we were standing.

A few minutes later, the earth

turning imperceptibly east,

we saw the sun begin to edge up

over the trees as we faced east,

across the ridge.

Welcome, Star of Life, Center of the Year!

Welcome, Summer!

For comparison, here is the Vernal Equinox sunrise, taken on March 21, 2009. Here the sun is rising due east. Above, it is rising 23 degrees 27 minutes north of due east.

And the Wheel of the Year keeps on turning!

Since the Solstice, the Monsoon season has begun. Yesterday, I had to turn back, could not cross an arroyo, due to a cloudburst that hit the west end of Tijeras Canyon, suddenly, as we drove to town.

Summer Solstice: All Hail the Monsoon!

The Summer Solstice occurred in the northern hemisphere this year at 23:59 (UT) on Friday, 20 June, which translates to 17:59 MDT. The Summer Solstice is Midsummer's Day, or the day of longest daylight; from this time forth days will be getting shorter in the northern hemisphere.



I caught the Solstice Sunrise very early in the morning from the front of the house.
Clouds were moving in rapidly, from the southwest.

The North American Monsoon appears to be setting up early this year, and afternoon thunderstorms were expected.






Since last August, I have been taking pictures of the sunrise on Solstices, Equinoxes and Cross-quarter days from the meadow behind our house, as well, in order to get a document of the yearly circle of the seasons.

On the Summer Solstice morning, I had to wait an hour from sunrise for the clouds to clear--somewhat. On the winter solstice the sunrise was over the roof of our house on the far-right foreground of this picture.


As the moisture in the morning air and the barometer predicted, the first afternoon thundershower of Monsoon 2008 occured shortly after 4 PM. At 3:50, I felt a shift in the pressure, and then a cold wind came up out of the north-west.

At 4:15, we had light sprinkles followed by marble-sized hail streaking down from the north and bouncing across the driveway. It makes quite a percussion solo on the metal roof of the house, too!







Then came the rain--a steady thunder-shower that fell for about half an hour, bringing water to the thirsty trees and grasses, and washing the dust and gravel off the roads and patios.

The Engineering Geek arrived home in the middle of it, and of course I had to go out and greet him. We stood, lifting our faces to the blessed rain.

The Monsoon has arrived early and this is a promising beginning to the summer season in the mountains of New Mexico.



True to Monsoonal form, the rain stopped at about 5 PM, and the clouds completely cleared away two hours later.

After we took our pre-Shabbat luxury bath, I was able to photograph the sunset just about two hours past the actual moment of the Summer Solstice.

Here, the sun is setting as far north on the western horizon as possible, 23' 27" north of where it set on the Vernal Equinox. The setting place for the Vernal Equinox is on the far left of the picture. The distance in degrees from the sunset on the Vernal Equinox to sunset on the Summer Solstice is equal to the tilt of the earth. It is the tilt of the earth that gives our planet seasons and gives us the ability to count time by where the sun appears to rise and set on the horizon.

The Wheel of the Year keeps on turning with the spin of the earth, and the seasons alternate, making ours a very fertile planet, burgeoning with life.

It's Rainin' All the Time...

Weather Forcast for Sedillo, NM 87059:
Thursday: Partly cloudy in the morning, afternoon thunderstorms, highs in the 80's.
Friday: Mostly cloudy, afternoon thunderstorms, highs in the 80"s
Saturday: Mostly the same...

Every afternoon for the past week we have had afternoon thunderstorms. Our rains in the east mountains have been moderate, but ABQ is getting flash flood warnings every afternoon now.

Not that we're complaining, mind you. Our fire danger is much reduced. No forests are closed.

Monsoon precipitation at Los Pecos Homeschool:

Monday: 0.15 inches
Tuesday: 0.15 inches
Wednesday: 0.14 inches

The monsoon has not only blossomed, it has exploded.
And up here, the ground is more capable of absorbing the moisture than it is in ABQ.

Our roof sheds the water quickly. We really need to think about putting in a rainwater cistern to help in the dry times. But right now, we still have to finish the floors. Maybe next spring?


This monsoon has been behaving normally.

In the afternoons, the thunderheads build over the mountains. The storms move in between 3:30 and 5 PM.
We get thunder and lightning ahead of the rain. The air cools quickly by about 20 - 30 degrees. Yesterday, it went down from about 80 degrees F to 52 degrees F in a few minutes.

Then the rains come in waves, lasting 20 - 30 minutes each. The more waves, the more precipitation we get of an evening.

And then about 8 PM, the clouds lift and the stars come out. Although it may stay partly cloudy all night.

This morning, we woke up to partly cloudy. There was mist in the relatively low places in our hills. We can expect more of the same for the whole seven-day forcast.

This is such a nice time of the year. We are "weather people." We like to observe, record, and have a storm or two big enough to call the weather service with an on-the-spot report.

Hmmm...the clouds are rolling in early today.

Gotta go!

Is It? Or Isn't It? The North American Monsoon

In the early mornings, moisture has been hugging the tops of the Sandias. And on some mornings, there is a Great-Smokey-like haze above the trees.

Is it? Or isn't it?

The monsoon, I mean.

At this time of the year New Mexicans are eagerly asking the question.

And of great concern is the unspoken question: Will it fail? Being somewhat superstitious, New Mexicans are loath to voice this question lest it reveal to the Coyote Angel, the trickster, that we have no faith. When the monsoon fails, our resevoirs drop, our crops dry out and wild fires abound.

The clouds have been gathering in the mid-to-late afternoons.

We have had thunder and lightning and showers almost every evening this past week. But is it? Or isn't it?

Sometimes, we are wooed by thunderstorms made from gulf-moisture coming in from the east, but the great northerly flow of moist air brought from the Pacific by the summer tradewinds does not take hold.

That happened a lot during the great drought of the 1990's. I remember having "rain parties" in 1996, to celebrate what we thought was the return of the summer monsoons--only to see them fail so that by the next summer, I could walk across the Rio Grande at my field sites without hardly getting my boots wet.

The New Mexican monsoon is a fickle creature.

The monsoon happens thus:

• a steady flow of low-level moist air comes up from the south
• the Colorado Plateau mountains warm up with summer insolation and draw the moist air to us
• the rising warm air lifts the moisture up into the atmosphere, creating the thunderheads that drop the summer rains.

This monsoonal flow mechanism is the same one that causes the torrential summer monsoons in India and also the southern hemispere summer monsoons on Australia's northern provinces. In India, the towering heights of the Hymalayas make for a most spectacular monsoon. Ours is nothing like that. But we count on the moisture we do get, just the same.

So we every afternoon as the thunderheads form, and winds smell moist, and the lightning arcs to ground, we go outside, look up at the sky and ask each other:

Is it? Or isn't it?

It may be building, but the steady flow of moisture from the south has not started--yet.

So it isn't. Yet.

It is the start of the summer thunderstorm season.

And everyday that the clouds build, we'll look hopefully to the south.

Waiting for that happy day when the question becomes: Is it?

And the answer is: Yes.

From our mouths to G-d's ear!