Saturday evening our first sign of the monsoon season reared its ugly head. The dust storms are incredibly dangerous if you are unfortunate enough to have to drive through them. It is equivalent to the "white out" of a blizzard. We arrived home safely and really anticipated only the dust and strong winds. However, the thunderclaps boomed around 1:00am and the rain began to pound the roof.
It was the first rainfall in years that I didn't awaken to a panic worrying about the hay being uncovered or a tarp being shredded by the strong winds exposing the hay. Our hay barn did its job and I slept with an occasional explosive thunderbolt jolting me awake, but drifting back to sleep fairly easily. Of course the next morning when we realized the mud was bad enough that we could not get the truck out to deliver hay, we had some concern. Fortunately, the heat dried things up and we were able to get the deliveries done, albiet in the heat and humidity of the day.
This season will not be as stressful as past because of the hay barn. The devastation of losing tons of hay to the rain was very difficult. The tarping of the hay was futile. The sustained winds that we get turn heavy duty tarps to gauze-like material. We invested in a tarp that was used on a tractor trailer and could never get anything heavy enough to keep it from being air-lifted and thrown clear of the hay stacks. So we are thankful for the hay barn this season. As the hay accumulates, the vehicles will get moved from the highly sought shade. Eventually, vehicle shade, well reservoir shade, pasture shade and tree shade will be added through out the property. "Grow little trees, grow...."
I am trying to be positive and acknowledge the progress through the worst of the hot summer. The girls begin school next week, and I always have associated the start of a school year with cooler temperatures. It may be an illusion, but it gives my mind fleeting moments of peace. With the start of the school year, Emma will be gone for the full day of school. She has been my ranch buddy for many years now. I will take on some of her chores when necessary, so that she can go to traditional school. Erin will be a senior this year and will spend part of her day riding some of our horses. The fair-weathered rider that I am, will hope to join her when the temperatures really do cool some.
With the start of the school year, the ongoing concern regarding flooding begins. As the rain floods the Tucson area the water is somehow diverted north to the Greene wash. When this wash runs to high we really have no access out. When the rains were anticipated in the past we would have Erin stay at her grandparent's. But they don't return from the Oregon ranch until mid-October, so we have to be creative. There is a rather tricky route that follows dirt farm roads along the wash west for awhile, and we can use that if there is no rain here, as the roads are passable. If it rains here, the roads are very muddy and we can't drive on them safely. So the monsoon season that extends into the school year always leave my anxious. Now if I could find a monster truck for the express purpose of crossing the high water in the wash and manuevering on the muddy roads, that would knock a few points off my stress factor.
The other change that has occurred since the start of the monsoon season is the return of the toads. We were just questioning what had happen to the enormous number of toads that we had had in the past. We had not seen a single toad until the Saturday night the rain came. They must have known it was coming for they came out and started eating the numerous crickets that have suddenly appeared. The Colorado River toad and the Spadefoot toad are our resident species. The Colorado River toad is poisonous and excretes its poison from glands behind its eyes when tormented. We have had a dog get a hold of one of these and luckily survived. The neighbors' dog was not so lucky. "Moonie" the chocolate Lab halucinated for three days, salivating buckets of slobber. When you looked into her eyes, her eyes would roll around unable to focus. If you can catch a dog with a toad, you must imediately flush their tongue with a long blast from a hose. This will remove some of the poison. I worry about our young Pyrenese getting a hold of one this season. They love to play and something as tempting as a toad may be a problem. They have however seemed to have learned that the rattlesnakes are serious business and have developed a distinct bark that alerts us now. We had our second rattlesnake in the yard just last week. Even the next morning the dogs were jumpy when they smelled the lingering scent of the snake. If the toads are back, they better eat their share of the mosquitoes or they are not welcome at all.
