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Winter
Last updated on Monday, February 24, 2003
Ever get the "winter blahs?" It is a state of mind that strikes around mid-January, then reaches its peak in the middle of March. Here at Lake Roberts it doesn't normally end until we see the first greening of trees and smell the warm sweetness in the air that tells us spring is about to be sprung from a cold, colorless landscape. Christmas was coming to Kingston. The Christmas spirit was in the air. Every burro that came into town over mountain trails packed a Christmas tree, a big bunch of mistletoe, or a branch of red berries. A little of the evergreen went to decorate Mrs. O'Boyle's cabin where the Catholics of Kingston would gather on Christmas afternoon to celebrate the birth of Christ; some of the holiday green went to brighten up the eleven saloons of the town; but most of it went to adorn Pretty Sam's new dance hall, the Casino. Winter in Carlsbad isn't about snow, ice or cold. It's about warmth. The warmth of the holiday season. And families coming together. Carlsbad is alive with the ultimate celebration of the season - Christmas on the Pecos River. Christmas events occur in villages, towns and cities throughout Southern New Mexico. Christmas light parades, concerts, chorales, gallery open houses, home tours, 10K runs, a night light golf tourney, a hoedown, Dickens’ Christmas Carol, an 1872 gunfight re-enactment, the Last Great Cattle Drive, and a myriad of other events are available for your enjoyment. Where are they occurring? It is one of the rituals of autumn, like Halloween, the crop harvest, deer hunting, cider, or a trip to the mountains to savor the colors of the leaves. It just wouldn't be the fall of the year here in New Mexico without thoughts of firewood and some time spent afield, cutting, loading, and splitting a load of wood. Fall and winter are perfect times to trade the baster for the binoculars and head for the birds at Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge near Socorro, New Mexico.
Here, a temperate Rio Grande Valley climate and 57,000 acres of wetlands, wilderness and cultivated fields comprise a comfortable stay for thousands of waterfowl and sandhill cranes seeking refuge from northerly ice-covered waters, short daylight hours, cold nights and diminishing food supplies. The population starts building in September and extends through the second week of March, when the last of the cranes starts their migration northward.
January, the start of a new year, a new century, a new millennium. A year, a blank slate in which the furnace hasn’t yet broken, the road hasn’t mudded out, the chimney hasn’t caught fire, the pump hasn’t quit. All these joys of winter life in Datil’s Swingle Canyon are yet to come. I've been to Kilbourne twice and each time I came away with a five gallon bucket of peridotite for my rock garden. Outside of Kilbourne, you can only find this gemstone in Southwest Arizona, St. John's Isle in the Red Sea, and in Burma. It is winter in Mogollon, and in winter it becomes readily apparent why Mogollon is a ghost town.At last measurement, the snow on the shady side of the street was eighteen feet deep. This measurement was taken by having Joe Malloney, who is six feet tall, stand with a surveyor's stick on his head. Unfortunately, Joe froze stiff, and while the local rescue crew was digging him out, the surveyor's stick got lost in the snow. It is probably deeper by now, though no further measurements have been attempted.
Separate from the crowd. Exit Interstate 25 and find yourself on New Mexico's own Highway One, a slower, quieter route. The road hugs the topography, its narrow, low bridges and sweeping ridgetop climbs reward those taking the alternate route from Elephant Butte to Socorro. Snow Country magazine called Ruidoso, New Mexico’s Ski Run Road “a 15-mile corkscrew with precious few guardrails.” Well, it’s actually only a little more than 12 miles up to Ski Apache (sometimes it just feels like more) and hey - there are more guardrails than there used to be. John and Darliene Hertweck lived for ten years in their RV, wintering in the South and touring in the North during summers. Then they put a mobile home in an RV park to continue their association with RVers and snowbirds. For the last eight years, as volunteers at the Deming Chamber of Commerce, they regularly talk to snowbirds. They could be considered "snowbird experts." “Hi, how's the weather? It's snowing? Oh, too bad. We just got back from the lake!”That's my usual telephone conversation with relatives from the north on winter weekends. In its quieter months, Elephant Butte Reservoir, New Mexico's largest lake, offers solitude and clarity that summer users will never know. The bright, clear sun, the mirrored lake surface, the warm, still air, describe many days throughout the winter months.
Water is worthy of note here: deserts are by nature dry. Our part of the Chihuahuan desert, once an arid grassland, now dominated by creosote bush, mesquites, and other shrubs, boasts an annual average precipitation of less than ten inches.
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