There's a lot springing up in San Antonio

Took the 6 and 11 year olds on their first picture-taking walk,
each with one of my cameras.

These are some of the pics that they shot:

Pics from different angles and perspectives,

But pretty well demonstrating the neighborhood

and showing that more than just Spring is around the corner.

(To tell the truth,  I learned a lot from this walk!)

Watching cranes pass by

This weekend will the the Sandhill Crane Festival in Monte Vista, 
at the other end of the San Luis Valley.

Yes, lectures, presentations, and bus rides to where these guys are.
23,000 of them fly through here, on their 850 mile trip back from Bosque del Apache, 
down by Socorro, NM, to their breeding grounds northwest Colorado, western Wyoming, and northern Idaho.

They come to eat the barley, which we sell to Coors' brewery
and lots of other grasses, so abundant in the marshes of this desert.

And big guys they are; 4 feet in height, up to 11 or even 13 pounds.

with a 6-7 foot wingspan, greater than even Kodiak's Bald Eagles.

They say they'll fly up to 30,000 feet, up there with your commercial jets, 
and at a speed of 45 mph.

They had their chick near Yellowstone, then flew through here in Autumn, 
and now are on their way back home.
Sometime between here and there, they'll turn their offspring loose, 
to find his or her own mate for the remainder of their 20 to 30 years of life.

So we get to be the voyeur

and perhaps watch a parent give their young a one-to-one lecture,

or maybe see that 2 to 5 year old fellow turn on all his charm

and dance around that girl he likes.

It'll sure put a smile on you

to watch that never-ending courting show.

Check it out at:
http://dnr.state.co.us/newsapp/press.asp?PressId=8196
http://www.colorado-for-free.com/FreeThingsToDoColorado/CraneFestival.htm
http://www.cranefest.com/cranes.html

So, what do you do with 3 young kids when new snow doesn't fall

Fortunately, December's snow is till around on the shaded part of the mountain, and where the wind does not blow.
So that is where we snowshoe to and let the kids to do their  sledding. 

They've gotten really fast

and even learned to "catch some air".

But, the other day, when the snows melted from the Great Sand Dunes, 
we decided to climb to near the top of the dunes,

take the little one by the hand,

and do a little sledding on the sand. 

Once accustomed to the new friction, they tried some "surfing" down those steep and sandy slopes

 till even the little one got good.

Finally, after more than 2 hours of exercise, it was time to empty our boots  

and take that long walk back to the car.

Yes, quite a bit of fun it was; 
and warm, as it got up to 56 degrees. 
Not the usual February weather in Colorado.

But, when you're young, you find fun things to do, 
no matter what the weather brings.

Water on the mountain.

Recently we talked about the water down in the valley. 

Well, a few years ago we read that of the 340 or so computer-generated predictions of what global warming might do to the Southwest, only about 9 predicted more moisture for us and less for the Amazon rain forest.
The local newspaper, however, recently said that they predict no significant change in the total moisture falling in this high desert valley. 

Up in the Sangre de Cristo Mts., we get 10 inches of precipitation compared to the valley's 8.
But, it is our mountain's 200+ annual inches of snow that really adds to the aquifer.

This year seems a little peculiar to us.
The usual 30-40 inches snow we get in January and in February has just not fallen this year. 
So, we certainly hope for a snowy March and April.

Here is what keeps happening:

The snow just keep coming down to towards us but suddenly goes back north and heads to the East Coast.

Yesterday, for example, we went to Pueblo and Colorado Springs, where there was falling snow and 26 degrees.
But as we came back south, climbed over 3,000 feet in elevation, and crossed La Veta Pass, the temp went put to 37 and there was sunshine.

Unfortunately, that is NOT going to help fill our well this year!