Don't Let The Rain Come Down....

In the mornings, as we drink our coffee, we like to watch Steve Stucker on Channel 4, KOB-TV.  This morning, he was saying that the state will be getting more rain today and for several days more.  Now then, I like rain and we've been in a drought and the state NEEDS the rain, but come on now...  can we have one sunny day or a couple of sunny hours between storms?  For some reason, a song from the 1960's is running through my brain, "Don't Let the Rain Come Down (Crooked Little Man)".  It's a cute song by the Serendipity Singers and I believe it reached #2 during 1964, right behind the Beatles!



The refrain goes...

Ah Ah Oh No Don't Let the rain come down,
Ah Ah Oh No Don't Let the rain come down,
Ah Ah Oh No Don't Let the rain come down,
My roof's got a hole in it and I might drown...
Oh yes, my roof's got a hole in it and I might drown.

I know...  I know....  no complainin' when it's rainin'.  However, most of the state continues to be under flood watches and flood warnings.  While we are OK up here on our hill, many in the state are not OK.  Lives have been lost and homes destroyed.  It's bad, folks, and many formerly dry arroyos and river beds are flowing full, hard, and fast.

Flood Watches & Warnings on Mon, Sep 16

The hounds & I have been pretty much house bound because of the mud.  Our drive, rather than having puddles, has a lake.  Yesterday, I took a shovel and dug a small trench to help drain the drive.  Makes me feel like I'm living in a rural, red neck area because I can go "mud bogging" in the front yard!

Mud Bog in Front Drive

Mud in this neck of the woods is its own life form.  Anyone who has any experience with it knows why they use it to make bricks and adobe homes.  Once it hardens, there is no removing it.  When you walk in it, you grow by inches.  Years ago, whippet owner & vet, Lisa Costello, wrote a poem about "mud...  Albuquerque mud."  I surely wish I had kept that poem.

The neighbor's donkey paddocks down by the road have standing water in them. The poor critters are standing in mud & muck.  As I drove by on Saturday to go to the yarn store, where I'd not been in two weeks, I couldn't help but notice the mud caked onto their hooves.  The picture below was taken on Saturday, Sept 14 at 9:44 a.m., when I was driving past.  Poor things!

Edgewood Longears Safehouse Flooded Donkey Pen

As bad as the donkeys have it, a new neighbor to the south is getting it worse.  The flow going through that flood area (yes, the donkey pens are built in a flood drainage area), is to the south.  All the water that has gone through those pens has settled in the one to two acre field that is housing two horses.  At least, the horses have grass underfoot.  They don't have to stand in mud.

Ah ah...  oh no....  don't let the rain come down....

More on the Weather...

Today is something like the 5th day in a row where it's raining.  I've not seen rain like this since leaving Maryland in 1993. Locals say it hasn't rained like this in New Mexico since the 1970's, maybe the 1960's.

Last night, early this morning, we had a rip snorter of a storm roll through. It was probably the most violent storm we've had in the 20 years that we've been living in this house. We were seeing lightning every couple of seconds and there was one that was so strong, it shook the house.  Excepting for Nampa, the dogs were shaking in their paws.

Javelin (L) & Jib (R) in Front Yard

We've had several inches of rain and it is commonly said that 1" of rain = 12" of snow.  If this weather holds, we're going to get a normal winter here, which is something we've not had since before the Maxies lived in the house next door. That was in 2004, I think.

Look at the photo of Jib & Javelin running in the snow in the front yard. In places, the snow was deeper than they were tall.

Javelin was returned to us as a yearling in 2003 after her "owner" bugged out, abandoning her and the other greyhounds in his possession.  Thankfully, Laurie Soutar took them in.  She kept Javelin for the coursing season and then returned her to us after Jan 1, 2004.  In 2006, we had a good snowstorm at Christmas, when we got about 24" or so.  But, we really haven't had a normal winter or snowfall since.

Nick in the Front Yard

I don't know what the neighbors with their donkeys are going to do if we have a normal winter & normal snowfall.  They won't be able to get out of the neighborhood in their small, yellow car to buy feed for the donkeys.

In a normal winter, there are times lasting several days, sometimes a week, when we cannot get out with the 4WD Toyotas. Sometimes the snow has been so deep that State government has been known to send around front end loaders to DIG OUT people! One year during Bill Richardson's term of office, the State was dropping livestock feed to herds of cattle which were stranded without feed.  I seem to think that happened the year we had 11 feet of snow in our front yard.  It can get bad out here.  The neighbors with the donkeys have no experience with a normal, East Mountain winter and our normal snowfalls.

Well... I'm kind of curious as to how the shelters for the donkeys, which appear rather ramshackle, will hold up with a foot or more of snow on them.  I'm also wondering how their fences will hold up. It may be an interesting winter.

Rain.... Rain... Rain...

Today marks day 3 of some, at times, torrential rains in New Mexico. There's mud everywhere and it's the deep, boot sucking off kind of mud.  You step in it and your shoe is gone, never to be retrieved.

Flood Watches in New Mexico

I'm guessing that we've had about 2" of rain here at the house.  However, other parts of the state are in much worse shape.  We're quite fond of saying, "No complaining when it's raining..." but this is rather extreme.  Roads are closed throughout the state because of storm damage; Roswell is flooded; and about 80% of the state is under either a flood watch or warning.  Good Lord! People have had to be airlifted out of Artesia and the Guadalupe mountains in southern NM saw more than 11" of rain!

ACTIVE ALERTS FOR 87104

FLASH FLOOD WATCH A FLASH FLOOD WATCH IS IN EFFECT UNTIL 12:00AM MDT SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 14 Posted at: 10: 41 AM MDT Friday Sep 13 2013 Expires: 7: 00 PM MDT Friday Sep 13 2013

They are aying that the rain will continue all day today and more is forecast for tomorrow.  

7-DAY FORECAST FOR 87015
Today 66 52	Saturday 71 51	Sunday 72 50	Monday 74 50	Tuesday 74 49	Wednesday 77 50

Colorado has it worse. Lives have been lost in Colorado.