Smoke without Borders

Weather: Dry blizzard on Wednesday when we got very high winds and little moisture. Another bout of very high winds Saturday, with a little rain.

On Tuesday, things started blooming, especially area roses. The next day a gecko ventured out.

Last useful rain: 5/21. Week’s low: 32 degrees F. Week’s high: 89 degrees F in the shade.

What’s blooming in the area: Dr. Huey rootstock, Austrian Copper, Persian yellow, wild pink, and hybrid roses, yellow potentilla, silver lace vine, Arizona yucca, Dutch iris, peonies, blue flax, snow-in-summer, Jupiter’s beard, golden spur columbine, oriental poppy, purple salvia, yellow yarrow

What’s blooming beyond the walls and fences: Apache plume, tamarix, sand bar willow, narrow leaf yucca, white tufted evening primrose, alfilerillo, tumble mustard, bindweed, green leaf five eyes, fern leaf globe mallow, fleabane, plains paper flowers, strap leaf aster, goat’s beard, native and common dandelions; June, needle, rice, three awn, and brome grasses

What’s blooming in my yard: Betty Prior, Dorothy Perkins, bourbon, rugosa and miniature roses, cliff rose, raspberry, beauty bush, privet, chives, catmints, Johnson’s blue geranium, winecup mallow, baptisia, Bath pinks, Maltese cross, vinca, sweet peas, Dutch clover, coral bells, pink evening primroses, white yarrow, chocolate flower, blanket flower; pansies that wintered over

Bedding Plants: Wax begonia, nicotiana, sweet alyssum, snap dragons back in bloom

What’s reviving/coming up: Flax seedlings, áñil del muerto

Tasks: The wind broke a branch on Tuesday. I was able to find a balance point and move it to the burn area. The next day the high winds lifted it off the burn pile and dropped it 10 feet away. Yesterday, I ignited the burn pile. The branch was too long for the pile, but the thick end did get charred.

When the branches and other debris had burned, I used a long-bladed shovel to move the larger pieces together into a log fire.

The heat apparently dried the more remote branches of the green limb so I was able to break them off and feed them to the log fire. (Of course, I hadn't tried this before the fire, so I may be wrong about the effect of heat). The limb was reduced from a kite to a skeleton that shouldn't get wind borne again.

Animal sightings: Neighbor's cat, chickadees, gecko, cabbage and monarch butterflies, bees on beauty bush, crickets, hornets, mosquitos after rain, harvester and small ants

Weekly update: Last Sunday I started panting while walking along the driveway. I wondered if my lungs had really gotten that much worse. Then I thought to check the air quality forecast of the weather bureau website. As you can see from the above illustration, the area was covered with smoke coming from México. [1]

Apparently, all this moisture we 've been getting this spring is water that didn't go to México. The drought conditions along the border remained unchanged, but aridity increased to the south. [2] A Mexican website reported more than more than 4,400 fires this year. The worst were around Mexico City, but Chihuahua had 182 that burned 20,559 acres. [3]

Smoke, of course, does not stop at the border, and no wall, and no expeditionary force, is going to stop it from crossing over.

It may not actually be the smoke that causes my problems. When I was burning yesterday I took off my mask. I didn't want anything flammable near by skin. I didn't have any breathing problems, though I know inhaling smoke isn't good for me.

The smoke in my yard was a natural product: tree limbs and clipped weed stalks. The smoke from a forest fire is contaminated, first, by whatever chemicals are used to suppress the flames. Then, as it travels, I think it mixes with other pollutants like those from vehicle exhaust and whatever is emitting smoke along the way.

What was causing me problems was that environmental mix that gets trapped by clouds in the night and settles down into the valleys.

Notes on photographs:
1. Back yard with tamarix (Tamarix rubra) and purple leaf plum (Prunus cerasifera); branch of Dr. Huey rose in foreground. 1 June 2019.

2. Vertical smoke forecast for 1 June 2019 at 4:00 pm. Inset map from bottom of display.

3. Partially burned peach branch (Prunus persica), 3 June 2019. Dead rose wood cuttings have been placed under right end to feed the next firing.

End notes:
1. To find the Air Quality display, go to the National Weather Service forecast website and enter the town. In the right hand column, at the bottom, there's a "National Digital Forecast Database" heading. Click on the map marked "High Temperatures. At the top of the next display there's a tab for "Air Quality." Click on it, then click on the map for New Mexico. At the left, place your cursor over "1 Hr Vertical Smoke Integration." I'm not exactly sure what "vertical smoke" means except it coincides with my breathing problems.

2. National Interagency Fire Center. "North American Seasonal Fire Assessment and Outlook" for May, June and July 2019. Issued 10 May 2019.

3. "108 wildfires are burning in 17 states, most in central and southern regions." Mexico News Daily website. 14 May 2019.