Spring is here! Yes, I know it officially arrives on Saturday, but my allergies said it came two weeks ago. Here in the desert we have more green than ever. I walked through our patch of desert yesterday and found the cactus were getting their buds for the beautiful flowers they will soon have. With record rainfall this year it is truly amazing just how much growth has taken place. It looks great now, but we will need to be careful as to keeping it away from the houses. With summer very near all of the green will turn to dried fuel for fires.

One of the nice things that has happened is that our lakes are nearing their maximum level. The local news has been keeping track of this and reporting regularly. The only one not doing so well is Lake Mead. It is still only at 42%. But there is still a lot of snow in the higher elevations to melt so hopefully it will improve. They already have been letting a lot of water run in the Salt river, which goes into the Gila river and there have been two water rescues in the last week. One of a horse and one of a kayaker, both in the Gila.

The tiny critters have been running about the yard as usual. I keep watching for babies, but I guess it is still a little early. I can't wait to see which ones will decide to raise their offspring in our patch of desert this year. Most of you know we have had the pleasure of baby Horned Owls, javalina and coyotes. Last year we also had Red Tailed Hawks in our Saguaro Hotel out front. A pair of Love Birds made a stop over too. You really have to keep your eyes and ears open.

Here are some recent pics of Rylee. I hope to get some more from this week up soon.