Water, Part II

Dry Santa Fe River bed after a monsoon rain, 2018

Our most precious and once abundant resource on our planet, water, is in peril, as are so many of Mother Earth's other natural resources and nonhuman inhabitants, because of overpopulation by humans. Too many humans all vying for territory and resources is not a popular issue to discuss. Climate change seems to be a "safer" topic even though our inept President poo poos the idea that there is such an issue.

If the idea of using watersheds to draw state lines were in place, just imagine how different our lives and the valuing of water would BE. Here's a discussion of this idea, that makes perfect sense. Alas, our state lines were arbitrarily drawn, hence all the bickering over the flow of water and water rights. 

 500 gallon barrel + rocky depression 
for harvesting roof water via
 canales at 6798' MuRefuge. 
In the foreground Tufted Evening Primrose (Oenothera Caespitosa),
caterpillar food for a specific hawkmoth (Sphingidae family).
As the leaves are riveted with holes,
there are obviously caterpillars, although I have yet to find one.

This year, unlike last year, the Santa Fe River has been running since March. Abundant snow in the Sangre de Christo Mountains which has melted and filled the reservoirs supplying water to the city of Santa Fe has produced enough water to release from these catchments. It is delightful to see and hear running water making its way from the mountains to our East to the Rio Grande River to our West. 

Rabbits are plentiful in our area. And just the other morning returning from an early morning walk with  Shasta crossing the bridge into Frenchy's Field we saw a very scrawny coyote drinking from the river. The coyote was watchful of Shasta and Shasta was quite interested in her distant relative. 

Shasta amidst our culinary herbs with her favorite ball. 
Shasta is a blackWater Dragon baby and water soothes her Qi.
When she moved here, she asked Sandy, one of her
animal communicators, "what happened to all the water?"
In Northern California she was use to going to the ocean,
to Auntie T's whose property dropped to massive wetlands,
to Mono Lake, plus our backyard flooded when the
Winter rains came. Now she loves to walk across
the bridge over the Santa Fe River when the water
is running and look down at all the water.
She is never in a hurry to leave the bridge.

This Summer is much drier than last with the monsoon rains not as frequent nor delivering much rain when it does thunder and lightening. Already much of New Mexico is returning to "drought" conditions. Fortunately with all of the native vegetation planted here AND all the sheet mulching not much water is required by the plants on our property, except of course newly planted natives. 

Growing vegetables, of course, is a different story. These plants are hand watered deeply every other day with a hose filled with "city water". The 500 gallon barrel on the Northeast side of the house is essentially empty. The water was used mostly on the vegetables. Growing food here in New Mexico is not for the faint of heart. It is laborious work demanding daily attention. The soil needs much amending in spite of using compost. I imagine it is going to be quite a few years before signs of soil restoration occur.

Another stunning design "drawn" in the Santa Fe River bed after the 2018 monsoon rains.

As we are mindful of our water usage and remember from where our water that flows from our households taps originates, may we each