Your Backordered Snowstorm Has Arrived

Dear We Ship Precip Customer:

Your order no. 15042022-16IN, which had been on back order, has now shipped and should have arrived or be arriving shortly.

We deeply regret the delay, but as you know, the availability of many products has been low due to global shipping issues. We regret any inconvenience this may have caused.

Order contents:

Temperature: slightly below freezing

Precipitation: 13 inches/33 cm (may increase if your order included our Second-Day Package

For questions on installation, please visit http://weshipprecip.com/support/FAQs.html. To share experiences with other Weather For You users, please visit www.weshipprecip/community/forum.html.

Thanks, and have a great day!

The We Ship Precip Team 

What Happens to Wildlife in Wildfires?

Here is District Wildlife Manager Travis Sauder talking about wildfire and wildlife at the site of the High Park Fire in Teller County (west of Colorado Springs and closer to Cripple Creek), which at this writing has burned a little less than 1,200 acres.

I don't disagree with what he says, but I think his view point is slanted towards larger animals, such as deer, elk, mountain lions, etc. Smaller critters may not know until it's too late. But they tend to reproduce faster too. Maybe it works out.

When it comes to the ungulates, he is right about the improved feeding conditions post-fire, after a few months. I have joked that all fires turning mature conifer forests back into a mixture of trees, grass, and brush are set by the Mule Deer Foundation. For evidence, I offer the fact the Colorado's MDF former Colorado regional director has lived in several residences close to major wildfires, or as they say on the internet, he "has links" to them.

Of course, no reputable conservation group would set fires. I do but jest. But their flagship species does benefit from the changes in foods available to them!

Negotiating with a Chesapeake

A couple of weeks ago I was unloading Marco at "the pond" when I met a guy preparing to leave, along with his friendly chocolate Lab. Noting Marco's breed, he recited — like I had never heard this before — "You ask a golden retriever. You train a Labrador retriever. You negotiate with a Chesapeake Bay retriever." 

Bear in mind that Marco arrived as a 10-month-old whom I don't think had every experienced water outside the baths he got at the breeder's kennel during his short career as a show-puppy. 

It took him two or three visits to get accustomed to bigger water, but there is something to the idea of breed predelictions. Collies like to herd other critters, and Chessies like to splash and swim.

Now we are at this stage:

Marco: I'm ready. Throw the bumper!

Me: You need to sit here by me. Marco! Come!

Marco: Are you kidding? I'm in the water. Throw the bumper! 

Me: Marco! Come!

Marco: You going to make me? You and whose army? THROW THE BUMPER! 

Splash! 

He brings it to the water's edge, but he does not want to come out himself, until I start to leave while offering him a treat. Then he is right there.

We will keep working on the fine points. It is just so good to see him in the water.

Tarantula Tourism Is Taken, Why not Tumbleweeds?

Migrating tarantua in southern Colorado (12News Denver).

For polar bear tourism, Churchill, Manitoba, is the spot. For grizzly bears, probably Yellowstone. For sandhill cranes, try western Nebraska or the annual festival in Monte Vista, Colorado. For snow geese, it's Lamar, Colorado.

For tarantulas, it will be La Junta, Colorado. The financing is in place.

Adding to the news of the new logo, director Pam Denahy said the board has received $20.000 in a grant from the Colorado Tourism Board, La Junta matched it with $5,000 for an educational campaign on the Tarantula. It would include creating a microsite with the Visit La Junta Site that would focus on inspiring responsible and respectful visitation during the migration season. That includes advice on how to visit the tarantulas and how to leave them alone.

Denahy said that information became much needed. "We even got a call, I think, last summer from a pet shop in Denver saying that people were taking the tarantulas from here and trying to sell them up in Denver," she replied.

 OK, so tarantulas are taken. What about tumbleweeds? The migration takes place in the early winter, and it is "oddly terrifying."

 

What the Spring Breezes Bring Us

Some National Weather service video from Saturday afternoon, April 30, 2022. As three fires burn west of Las Vegas, New Mexico, a dust storm rolls south from Baca County, Colorado, the heart of the 1930s Dust Bowl, and continues across the Oklahoma Panhandle.