Perils of nature

Just recovered from one crisis (the Mourning Cloak crisis) with a new one impending. Got to the oasis early AM to find the larvae had vacated the cottonwood tree and were running all over the place. Except for a bare limb, the cottonwood is fine, and will prosper until the next crisis, at least.

Next crisis: It's supposed to get down below freezing Friday night and maybe Thursday night too. And the mulberries are ripening. I'll do my best to save them, even if it means a couple of nights without much sleep. Freezing temperatures could be devastating to the oasis since everything, except the hackberries, is almost fully leafed out.

Some kind of beetle is infesting the verbena, but I don't mind since I don't water them anyway, and they do just fine.

UPDATE: Forecast has changed to below freezing Thursday night only. Maybe by tomorrow they'll come off that too. That's the forecast for Marfa and for some reason that I can't explain the oasis temperatures are most similar to Marfa's than anywhere else. But I keep hoping that since I'm farther south maybe I'll be a degree or two warmer. Once in a great while that's the case.