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March — a month of motion in Southwest New Mexico
Last updated on Friday, January 10, 2003
March, whether lionish or lambish, is a month of motion in upper Southwest New Mexico. Snowbirds from Minnesota and Michigan crowd U.S. 60 with their fat motorhomes, heading back north from the sun-burnt winter in the deserts of Arizona and California. The highway is further clogged by residents of southwest Catron County departing during school’s spring break for exotic destinations like Alamogordo or Las Cruces.
The view from Balwin Cabin Public Library in Datil. Photo by Anne Sullivan. The better-class birds take off from San Antonio’s Bosque del Apache Refuge for destinations in Canada, while here in Swingle Canyon huge mountain blue jays play Russian Roulette by dive-bombing the cat’s food.
Flies arrive in the house, rising from hibernation after the first warm days. Obese, and buzzing somnambulantly around a light bulb, they’re easy to swat.
Untended crocus ease up through the thirsty earth. Way above the earth, flying machines of the 21st century commit sonic booms over my house, which the Air National Guard must have classified as uninhabited wilderness. Every log in the habited house vibrates while the dog howls, and the horse tramples the pretty pink crocus.
Day by day I move out of my electric-blanketed bed a tad earlier with the rising sun. Shedding the parka of January and February for a lighter jacket, I move outdoors to do my chores with expectation, sensing the signs of spring, a feeling unearned in this snowless winter when Swingle Canyon moved into March during January. So few of the nights were seasonably frigid that my disagreeable horse Brandy was able to break the ice in her water tank with her nose.
With almost a tinge of envy, I watch TV news views of snow mounting up in New York and North Carolina. The operative word here is ‘almost.’ I rejoice that the power stays on; the TV works; the furnace runs, however inefficiently; that George can drive the propane truck up my road without bogging down or tipping over, as it did one muddy year. No one was hurt, and nothing exploded, but it did much to discourage the Socorro LP Gas Company from coming up to Swingle Canyon during mud season.
Only a dust season this year and, unless snow or rain appears, a bad fire season ahead. We in the Datil Volunteer Fire Deptartmnet expect this year, as in other years, to be called out to fires caused by newcomers burning trash on windy days (“it burns better in the wind,”) or emptying ashes outside while a healthy spark still remains.
The Datil Fire Deptartment teaches children to fight fires. Photo by Anne Sullivan. “Put your ashes in a can covered with a lid for at least three days before scattering them,” our fire chief says, as though to the wind.
Surprise may come. Last year we had a snowstorm on May 1st, a storm which dampened the earth and highway, but not the opening of the Baldwin Cabin Public Library in Datil, nor the Search and Rescue banquet at the Magdalena Café.
March’s most moving force is, of course, the wind. In a normal year winds are at first welcome, because they dry out the mud that sogs the dirt road with the snow melt. In this year of no mud, the winds blow tumbleweeds and McDonald’s wrappers under and up into the nether regions of the pickup. Winds decorate the mesquite and rabbit brush lining the highways with Kleenex and plastic bags. Empty beer cans dropped by last year’s hunters rattle across the road in an unharmonious spring symphony.
In March, organizations that lie fallow during the normal nighttime icy-roaded season grind squeakily into gear. North Catron County Search and Rescue meets in Quemado on the first Wednesday in March to hold elections, discuss the upcoming banquet and the endless problems of communications in the mountains, and decide once again not to purchase a vehicle radio that probably won’t work, and probably will get stolen.
Fire department training moves outdoors, all the better for watching sunsets as we practice climbing ladders and squirting wet stuff on the red stuff. Booster Club finalizes plans for the Easter Bingo, and cons some poor parent into donning the bunny suit. Extension Club rehearses songs for the annual May entertainment at the Good Sam Home in Socorro.
Magdalena’s citizens meet to choose the Old Timers Queen from long-lived local ladies. Old Timers Weekend isn’t until July but the Queen has to have time to ready her outfit. The Pie-o-neer Café in Pie Town reopens after a 2 ½ month hiatus, serving green chile stew, sandwiches and, of course, pie.
The year and the pollen are on the move.
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