Shortly after our arrival to Sevilleta we were sent out to the far reaches of the Waterfowl Management Area to take down some barbed wire fence.
This fence to be exact. Although we posted about it a month ago these two things happened only a week apart (we told you we were WAY behind on updates).
After some discussion amongst the higher ups, it appears that we did such a great job on the above deconstruction task that every Wednesday has now been officially declared... FENCE DAY!!! Whether we actually did a great job or they were simply confident in the effectiveness of the ‘flattery will get you everywhere’ concept we may never know.
What we do know for a fact though is that...
EVERY WEDNESDAY IS FENCE DAY!!!!
When you have 230,000 acres, fencing is sort of a never-ending priority.
So, we headed out with an additional three in our crew and planted posts. Rich dug the holes with Bob (the Cat).
Then Renee, Ron and ourselves set out in an impressively organized fashion placing a post in the hole, leveling it, dumping a bag of concrete in, re-leveling it, watering the concrete, leveling it one last time before it started to set up, rinse and repeat x 19 or so.
It appears that we were too busy and dirty to get the camera out and take any more shots. Suffice it to say that we had a full and successful day.
We also had the opportunity to get a glimpse of two of the feral horses that roam the Refuge. They decided to make an appearance on their way down to the Rio Grande for a drink. What a serene moment that was.
Since we are so behind on sharing our photos we’ll now diverge for a bit from dialogue to do just that.
Four-Wing Saltbush
Russian Thistle
Some call this plant the wind witch or you may know it as Tumbleweed.
A few of these guys (or gals) like to hang out at the visitor center.
They also play a good game of hide and seek
when they are not too busy chowing down.
Nicole spotted this dapper fella also out front of the visitor center.
Despite being mid-shed the colors were radiant.
Pretty sure it is a Side-blotched Lizard.
We’ll give you one guess as to what gave it away.
The Desert Blister Beetle (a.k.a. Spider Beetle, Inflated Beetle)
is a super cool find. We’ve seen only one thus far.
Desert Designs
It was a very cold walk. Even the grasshoppers were turning blue.
And the sun sets on yet another blog post from Sevilleta NWR in New Mexico.
See you next time...