Two days of good rain

Monday and Tuesday afternoon brought us two strong storms that flooded my front yard and caused water to rush down the street.  The water softened the ground for me to plant the last of the pots I needed put in the ground.  I enjoyed the cooler temperatures.  

Hopefully some of the blue palo verde seeds I put in the ground this morning will germinate and grow into trees.  Their yellow flowers in the spring will add color to the dull mesquite everywhere. Palo verde are my favorite desert tree. My next goal will be to plant red and yellow Birds of paradise all around the front yard.  The seeds won't be harvestable until the fall so I have another year to wait for blooms in my yard. I will also thin out the weak trees up front.

Today I wanted to take the dogs down to the river to see the water level, but I didn't get motivated to leave until almost 6pm.  By then that only allowed for a good hour of walking, so I opted to go to the Lehner Kill site parking area and walk the mile to the river.  The trail here doesn't get muddied out like other trailheads.  It's 13 miles from my place, so a little longer to get to than the Ramsey Rd trailhead, but I figured the Ramsey Road section would need another day to dry out.

I brought Hansel, Gretel and Fritz again.  They are a good team. Gretel always stays near me and the two boys chase each other through the tall grass.  They know where the water is and run on ahead.

The fire that burned the field here four years ago must have been very hot as the false sunflowers that would crowd out the field have not grown back.  The only flowers I saw were nightshades.  The field is now tall grass with a few mesquite still around the spring.  I was hoping to see some wildflowers!

When we got to the water I was surprised at how low it was.  There was fresh evidence of a flash flood, but most of the riverbed was muddy with a stream in the middle.  The dogs still enjoyed their refreshment, though, and I always enjoy this trio having fun chasing each other.

The only excitement I had was walking up to a tarantula.  The first one this season.  I'm glad I saw it in daylight and not at night.

We managed three miles and it was already in dusk when we got to the Honda.  Sunset was at 7:21pm.  If I had left the house 40 minutes earlier, we could have gotten four miles in. My bad.  At least it was a pretty sunset and it was cool.  We are expecting the heat to return by Thursday with no rain again until Monday.

A housefire on Hargis Ranch Road was visible from the trailhead that had just started at around 7pm.  By the time we were on our drive home, two CCSO vehicles sped north on Palominas Road and four more sped east on Hereford Road.  At least the heavy rains have saturated the ground so there was no fear of the fire spreading.

I later took Gretchen out for her two-mile walk at dark. It was true dark as we are in new moon status with a waning crescent due to rise at 4am. She found a dead hare in the road and insisted on taking it with her.  That poor critter was locked in her mouth for 1.5 miles.  Gretchen never let go of it until we were back on our driveway.