Most people don’t realize how much extreme weather we get here in the Great Basin. Even after 31 years here, I still have friends from Southern California who are shocked when they see pictures of the ranch covered in snow, or of the kids ice skating on frozen ponds.
Being in agriculture, I think it’s a long held belief that you NEVER whine about moisture. I know that I don’t. Every storm fills me up with more hope that this will be a “good water year”. I hear friends from town lamenting the snow and rain, and all I can do is smile. This winter has been a doozy, but I refuse to complain because I see a good snowpack and down here on the ranch, everything looks well soaked.
This past week, I went out and pulled boards out of irrigation gates on the ranch, so that if warm weather hits, and we get a big flow of snow melt, the water would have 6-8 directions to go instead of over our creek banks. The bottom of one of the boards was frozen in mud, so I pried at it with a shovel, then resorted to giving it a couple hard kicks. The board didn’t budge, but a badger that was holed up inside the culvert sprang to life, darted out, kind of hissed at me, and scampered off. I have to admit that she just about startled me to death. After I got over my shock, I had to laugh. I also made a mental note to be more careful the next time I go poking around that little dam. I’m used to snakes and gophers in springtime, but the badger sure took me by surprise.
I was trying to decide what season I like best here, and it’s easy to choose spring or autumn, but honestly, I love every season and almost every kind of weather here…as long as we’re getting weather. Drought is the only condition that I truly dislike.
I thought I’d share some of my favorite kinds of weather that feel special and unique.
I love spring rains. I enjoy the sight and smell of them coming up the Valley, the way all the animals perk up and get playful, and the way everything looks and smells afterwards, it’s clean and life affirming. I especially like it when the sun comes out and heats things up right after a good spring rain, we get a little dose of humidity and the birds and bugs seem to come alive. My other favorite part of spring here are our wildflowers. They are simply spectacular.
In the summer time, I especially enjoy it when we get into a classic monsoon pattern. It gets good and hot and moisture filled air flows through, you can watch it day by day until those cloud’s simply have to let go every 10 days to two weeks. You get sheets of hard rain for a couple hours, probably lightning and thunder, then it cools off and it’s over…till next time. If you time it right, you can get your hay put up in between, but most of us end up with at least one cutting of rained-on hay. Still, it feels good to put up hay and feel like you have what you will need going into winter. Finally, if we are very lucky, we survive this beautiful time of year without a major wildfire.
Fall is a glorious season here. I love the crisp days, the changing colors and the Indian summer we usually get in late September into October. If I had to choose, fall would be my favorite season because I love how it feels outside. Every part of the ranch and our mountains are a feast for the senses. The changing colors of the Aspen up on the Santa Rosa’s will take your breath away. It’s like a scene from Camelot when you drive over Hinkey Summit and watch gold colored leaves fall all around you as you pass through the Aspen groves on the backside of the mountain. I also love bringing our cattle home, doing fall cow work and getting things ready for sale. It’s the time of year I feel most organized.
Finally, winter. I know that most people don’t look forward to the cold, but I see so much beauty and utility in our winters. Everything slows down a bit, and we are usually able to do some overdue maintenance and repairs around the place. Every single bit of moisture we get recharges our aquifers, and gives us the snowpack we need to go on another year. And, we start calving. I love calving season each year because it’s hard for me to think of something cuter than a new calf. My other favorite part of winter are the clear views of the night sky. On a clear cold winter night, you almost feel like you could reach out and touch all those beautiful stars, and when the moon is up and we have a little snow in the valley, it looks like tiny diamonds are all over the ground.
I guess most folks either don’t know that Northern Nevada gets all four seasons, or they simply think of us as high desert with nothing much to see. For my money, I don’t think there’s a more diverse or spectacular place to live and work, and our wild weather plays a big part in that.
Kris Stewart is a rancher from Paradise Valley, Nevada.
