As I traveled this week from Mingus, Texas, to Taos, New Mexico, I stopped in the Kit Carson National Forest, alongside the Flechado Day Campground that bordered the Rio Pueblo seen above. The water was cold, flowing, gurgling, clear.
Back home today at my ranchita in Texas, I filled water troughs with Barton Creek Coop water so that my last horse of the remuda I once husbanded can have water to drink in addition to the cow tank that is the lowest I have ever seen.
I placed cedar posts in all three of the water troughs–stable, corral, far field round trough–so that squirrels when they fall into the water while slacking their thirst can have something to climb onto and escape a watery grave. Three squirrels have drowned in the stable water trough and a roadrunner was nearly drowned when I pulled him out several years ago.
Rio Pueblo, Barton Creek, and my water trough in the far field proffer life. I accept the gift. When the animals of this semi-arid region accept a gift of water, I can, at least, make sure that it is not their last benefit.
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