My Neighbor Mesquite

-

In October I read Gary Paul Nabhan’s book Mesquite: An Arboreal Love Affair. I've long wanted to read it to learn more about our woody neighbors. Mesquite trees are the predominate plant species on our property. We have easily 200 trees, quite possibly more, on our 40 acres. I haven't gotten to the stage of my nature journaling journey where I'm out there cataloguing them but that's not out of the realm of possible. 



In the book I learned about the beneficial relationship between mesquite and ants and the less beneficial relationship between mistletoe and mesquite. I learned that what we see above ground, which can sometimes be quite shrub-like and less tree-like, can be a quarter of what exists underground. Scientific studies have found that a mesquite's biomass underground can be 4-5 times larger than what is seen above ground. Decades ago, an elder mesquite tree in Arizona was confirmed to have a root depth of 175 feet. The mesquite's bulky underground biomass is greater than that of any known temperate forest-type tree, and it's surpassed only be ratios recorded among low-lying shrubs in the arctic tundra.

 

Nabhan writes that mesquite provided “more than three hundred generations of desert residents with food, shelter, fuel wood, fence posts, furniture, utensils, sealants, charcoal and topical and internal medicines.” Their bean pods were central to the diets of Indigenous peoples, and today mesquite flour is often sought out by diabetics because of its low glycemic levels. This year the pups have probably ate their weight in mesquite beans. When I clean up the yard it looks like a bunch of coyotes live here, not domesticated dogs. I hope to join the bean party next year and harvest some for human consumption.  

 

 


 

Nabhan introduced me to a new word: sessile. It refers to an organism that is fixed in one place, immobile. Just to the east of our house is one of those immobile sentries. It's probably one of the larger trees on the property and one of my favorites. We purposely positioned the house so that the tree would not have to be bulldozed as part of excavation. Any time we were on the property with the home installers, we reiterated the importance of protecting the tree. The tree survived the many months of disruptive construction but the trunk did get buried under several feet of backfill. Tom spent months digging out the trunk and building a rock retention wall. How you might feel about a signature, courtyard tree is how I feel about this particular tree. 

 

Our protected tree and Tom's rock wall
 

This summer the tree was home to hummingbirds and flycatchers. I'd often wonder where all our hummingbirds went at night and then I found a hummingbird nest in our tree. [Update: I met a biologist yesterday (December 12) who showed me an actual hummingbird next. What I found is actually an oriole nest. Just wanted to correct myself. ] Almost too late, we discovered that a family of flycatchers was using one of our birdhouses hanging in the tree. The baby birds flew the coop just days after our discovery but I had enough time to get some photos. The babies were so big they were literally spilling out of the door.    

 


Last year we went to a tree nursery and saw mesquite trees ranging in age and size, some selling for hundreds, even thousands, of dollars. I looked at Tom and joked, “We’re rich!” Stay tuned for Tom and Nicole's Tree Nursery ;-) Kidding aside - we are rich. Rich in the beauty of our home and this landscape. Rich in the pleasure of our very own arboreal terrain. I connect to Nabhan's word 'zerophilia', which he defines as "the contagion of love for, of, and in the desert." Amen!  

 

Here are a few more pictures showing our mesquites through the seasons.

Late winter - still dormant

Poppy Season - Spring on its way!

Spring has sprung!
Summer Monsoons

Late Fall

Our Fall Colors

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Letter I Never Wrote

-
Image
A draft of this blog post has been sitting in my unpublished queue for many years now. You'll see that the book I start the post with is one I read in 2020. This post is about the death of my mother's oldest sister, my Aunt Almeda.   I noticed that death, grief, and illness were themes in some of my reading in 2023. I read John Gunther's Death Be Not Proud, Laurel Braitman's What Looks Like Bravery , Elizabeth Alexander's The Light of the World , Terry Tempest Williams' Refuge , Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking , and Suleika Jaouad's Between Two Kingdoms .   Recently I've found a lot of creative inspiration from Suleika Jaouad. There is a documentary on Netflix right now called American Symphony and she recently did a nearly 2-hour-long interview with Rich Roll for his podcast . I would strongly recommend both, as well as her book.  I got the feeling that now might be the time to complete this post. So, here it is.   *** The last book I r...
Read more

Walking in History...Visiting Normandy during the D-Day Anniversary

-
Image
This is probably a blog I should do in two posts but I'm going to try and do it in one.  I'll try to minimize my words and let the photos tell the story. Over World War II's D-Day anniversary, Tom and I traveled to Normandy on a 3-day USO tour.  It was a whirlwind, jam-packed trip that maximized every moment of what were 13 to 14 hour-long days.  I had been looking forward to the trip for months and believe that visiting that historic site during the anniversary is a trip of a lifetime.   In two-and-a-half days we visited three of the D-Day invasion beaches (Gold, Omaha and Utah); visited the American and the German cemeteries; visited Point du Hoc and Saint-Mere-Eglise; went to the Airborne Museum (although we didn't stay long because of the crowds) and the Museum of the Battle of Normandy (which is a VERY good museum); we saw the Longues-sur-Mer Gun Battery and concluded the visit at Pegasus Bridge.  If you've ever seen the movie "The Longest Day" it...
Read more

The Joys of Nature Journaling

-
Image
Last month I went to a daylong Introduction to Nature Journaling workshop led by Roseann Beggy Hanson of Exploring Overland and hosted at the Amerind Museum . I knew nothing about nature journaling ahead of the class. It just sounded like something that might complement my own personal journaling and the House Journal I've been keeping since we moved into the new house in February 2023.  In my House Journal I record seasonal observations from Dalrymple Ranch, as my girlfriend Sydney calls our place. Since I walk the pups 2-3 times a day, I notice when a type of wildlfower first appears or when a particular cactus blooms. I also try to note when we have snow or a big rain storm. And while I don't do it as regularly, I do record some wildlife observations too. Thanks to keeping my journal last year I learned that there is an order in which our cacti tend to bloom. Hedgehogs bloom before the prickly pear. Cholla bloom after the prickly pear have started and then barrel cactus ...
Read more