It’s been such a long while since we last posted any news from the ranchito.  Need to do a little update.

It’s been a hot, dry summer.  Over the past couple of years we’ve lost quite a few trees to the drought.  Red oaks in particular, though also mountain cedar as well as other oaks I can’t identify. The very large oak that shaded the backyard had to be cut down last summer because of hypoxylon, a drought-provoked disease.  Our tree guy told us that as many as 500 million trees in Texas have died because of the prolonged drought.

That being our general climate/weather condition here, we were not prepared for the day in May when it started raining…and kept it up…blowing sheets of rain, rowdy downpours throughout the day.  When it all let up and the sun came out in the afternoon, we ventured outside to see what we could see.  And this is what we saw! (You might want to lower the volume on your device.)

It’s helpful to realize that this ravine is a DRY one, though it might hold a puddle or two for a day after a rain.  Since this rush of water was such a phenomenon, I’ll post another video–this one a little later on, after the thunderous rush and roar subsided.  If I forget where I shot this, I can think I’m in Colorado looking down on a sweet little mountain stream.

(Note to self: In the future, don’t take videos vertically with the iPhone.)