Backyard Kayaking

 

During our generous New Mexico summer monsoon season this year, my friend Barb invited me over to kayak in her backyard. Her property was a part of a large ranch where they grew pinto beans, so the ranch owners had built natural water tanks into the ground to cache rain water so they could irrigate their bean fields.

One of these water tanks is located on the back of my friend Barb’s property, and this year, due to our generous monsoon rains, hers filled up with water, deep and wide enough to enjoy some backyard kayaking.

 

Barb’s husband Barry took some of these photos of us while we were kayaking in the pond. Barb and Barry were once the managers/founders of The Lucky 13 Donkey Rescue. Now they just own 2 personal donkeys, along with 2 mules and a horse, and a small pack of Boxers.

 

Kayaking with donkeys!

 

The equines were all very curious about the kayaks.

Barb gave a ride to one of her Boxers.

It was a lot of fun to watch the reaction of the equines to the kayaks and the dog in the kayak.

Just hanging out…..

 

Their mule, Jacob, tried to haul Barb’s kayak back onto shore using the handhold rope.

See the fence out in front of my kayak? That’s the fence between Barb and her neighbor. As you can see it is underneath the water and we could kayak right over the fence and into her neighbor’s yard.

Barb and I had a fun time racing one another, playing beach ball hockey and just relaxing on the water.

Barb’s beautiful mare Alex is a seahorse and loves water. She often swims in this pond, when it’s not as deep as it was during the monsoon season. The middle of the pond was over 10 feet deep!

I was thrilled to be in a kayak on the water. Who knew I’d be able to go kayaking just 10 minutes from my house…in my friend’s backyard?!

The sky grew dark and we had a few sprinkles while we were out there on the pond, but we were able to enjoy about an hour and a half of kayaking, before another thunder storm moved in and dumped more rain.

 

This was definitely one of the highlights of my summer!

Mighty Monsoon!!

 

 

Last night our mountain valley experienced a Mighty Monsoon!

We’ve not seen a monsoon like this here for 8 years! The rain fell in buckets, flooding culverts, and overflowing arroyos into the roads. It washed away large amounts of soil and loose plant material which clogged the culverts, causing more flooding.

This is the only road into and out of our neighborhood. (And yes, I’m wearing PJs! lol!)

 

After the storm, some of my neighbors braved the flooded road.

A video I took last night of our neighborhood arroyos filled with fast flowing water.

I have never seen this little arroyo filled with this much water before last night.

 

Because of the cold rain and the hail, the water was freezing cold! I thought I’d go out in flips flops to play in the water. Brrr! I need to buy some Wellies!

 

Well, it appears one of my neighbors lives in a flood zone! Who knew! We have never seen her yard flooded like this, and the little arroyo has never had more than a trickle of water in it.

This is my neighbor Val of Fantastyk Voyage Blog’s property. I’ve never seen the water running that fast and deep in this arroyo. She uses the arroyo on the left as a road to her barn. She would have required a raft or canoe to forge down there last night. It might have been fun!

The water ran across Val’s property carrying soil and silt and vegetation, which clogged the culvert and caused water to overflow across the road and down into another neighbor’s driveway.

The water rushed down their driveway and split into two rivers in front of their garage, creating a moat around their house.

This is the left side of their house……the water on the left is an arroyo with a culvert. But the water moat around their house came from the blocked culvert and overflowing arroyo across the road.

The moat around my neighbor’s house. They were out this morning shoveling mud and water out of their garage and off their driveway.

Here’s a video I took of the flooding at their house.

My daughter was pretty shocked at the amount of water overflowing out of the arroyos onto the road.

We had a waterfall running down our rock wall in our backyard. That’s something we’ve never seen before!

And we had hail!

And the hail brought much cooler temps. It went from 89F degrees down to 56F degrees in less than an hour!

 

Our side yard and back patio flooded, too.

My neighbors weren’t the only ones that had a moat form around their house. Thankfully, my chicken coop sits on higher ground, so just like my neighbors, my chickens didn’t  float away.

It Arrived!!!!!!!!!

 

Seems that the 7’s are lucky! Today being 7/7/11, we had some mighty good luck!

And I couldn’t be more happy if Christmas and all of my birthdays had arrived on the same day!

Whooohooo!!!

Monsoon Season arrived today!!!!

(If you want to listen to me sing a silly song, way off key, you can turn off my playlist over on my sidebar, otherwise, just enjoy the sight of rain in New Mexico)

 

Now, I know all of you who’ve been almost drowned by rain these past few months, probably won’t understand my excitement, but just humor me a little, ok?

Driving home from the Hug a Horse Thrift store, where I volunteer twice a week, I could see a rain cloud just beyond the ridge where we live, here in the mountains. And I could also see the demarcation line where the rain was hitting the road on the ridge across from the one I was driving over. Where I was driving was dry, but I could see the wet road ahead and the path as the rain streamed down.

Would the rain visit my own little valley in the mountains, too?

After arriving home and spending about an hour sweating while doing some chores in the 97F degree heat, I was about to give up hope when the thunder began, and the heavy pitter patter of fat raindrops started hitting the roof. Soon afterwards a thunderous deluge of rain fell to the ground, and then, after about 10 minutes, it was over.

Or so I thought!

Not 15 minutes later, an even heavier, louder, and faster rain storm rushed in and caused small creeks to run down the hill from our barn and into the arroyos that have been dry for the past year.

Looking up the dirt lane towards our barn.

Looking down the dirt lane away from the barn.

The arroyo (ditch) in front of our house.

 

The rain continued steadily for about 20 minutes, before it finally petered out and the sun returned again.

Everything smelled so fresh and clean like all the dust of the past 12 months had been washed away. My fruit trees, although barren of peaches and apples due to the high winds and drought this past year, seemed thankful to have been given a fresh shower.

The weather report said we received a half an inch of rain today. Look how much rain fell in our wheelbarrow!

And on the ground!

The chickens weren’t all that impressed and just waited out the rain underneath their house.

As did the goats and llamas, albeit inside the barn. They really dislike getting rained on and run for cover at the first sign of any moisture.

But after the rain they ventured out, looking surprised to be walking on wet ground, but already searching for anything green that might have considered sprouting from our little monsoon rainfall.

I’ve been watering the heck out our little grassy backyard that I offer to the animals for a grazing treat during the summer. Maybe now I won’t have to water so much if the monsoon rains continue?

I can imagine the tough life of the Native Americans who worked hard to grow crops to survive in this dry land. They must have been so elated when the monsoons finally arrived. My little raised bed garden, not for survival by any means, and only half planted with sprouted radishes, carrots, lettuce and spinach has had to be watered three times a day the past few weeks and I sure would love it if the monsoons did some of that work for me.

 

The temps went from 97F degrees down to 73F degrees during those 30 minutes of rain. Wonderful!

Apache was quite energized and excited by the rain when I went up to feed her dinner. She was trotting, kicking up her heels, and swinging her head. And her snorting, blowing, and “whoofing” gave a wild aspect to my little horse.

And of course, she took full advantage of the rain to have a few good rolls in the mud.

I wish I could share the earthy scents and invigorating aroma of the damp juniper and cedar trees that filled the air after our rainfall. Ahhhh! Mmmm!

I wish I could describe how exotic the rain felt on my skin as I danced and celebrated outside in the cool, refreshing rain. What a wondrous miracle!

 

Yay for Rain! Hooray for the Summer Monsoons!!!