A fall for all

Forget the leaves changing color, in the Portales and Clovis area, you'll see screaming football fans cheering their teams to a win, longer shirts and pants to resist the cool breeze ,and farmers bringing in the harvest to signify fall is here.

Alisa Boswell: Portales News-Tribune

Roosevelt County farmer Rick Ledbetter picks red and green chile peppers from one of his crops off of New Mexico 236 Friday afternoon. Ledbetter said the cotton crops next door would be ready to harvest in October.

Today marks the first official day of fall and locals and nature are preparing for the season

Omar Ruvalcaba, a devoted San Francisco 49ers fan, was talking football between helping customers Friday afternoon as a sales representative at Auto Zone in Portales.

"I have to have my (49ers) jersey right next to me on game days," he said passionately. "It doesn't matter where I go. If I know there's going to be a 49ers game, that jersey's coming with me. I've got to have it with me even if I'm not wearing it."

Ruvalcaba said he gears up for the fall football season by buying something with a 49ers logo, such as a sticker decal.

"You can't have the tradition without the competition," he said. "The last six years, I've always had to watch (games) at my brother's house or I jinx it."

Roosevelt County farmer Rick Ledbetter said he's already harvested his corn for the dairies and is currently having a successful green chile harvest. In October he'll be ready to harvest his cotton.

Other Clovis and Portales locals shared how the season is spent for certain insects, plants and people.

Fall is also the mating time for tarantulas, while the eggs of female praying mantis have already been laid.

"The female praying mantis, when she gets impregnated in the summer, plants these little egg cases," Pollock said. "During the cold of fall and winter, they are in a dormant state and not growing at all. That cold cycle is actually required to stimulate the life cycle of the praying mantis (which hatches in spring)."

Senior Meteorologist Ken Clark with Accuweather.com said it will be warmer and dryer than normal this fall. Normal precipitation for the combined months of September, October and November is 3.94 inches.

Cynthia Gutierrez, a supervisor at Hamilton Nursery & Landscape in Clovis, said landscapers begin laying winterizer, winter fertilizer this time of year that lasts all winter.

"A lot of perennial flowers, meaning they come back every year, become dormant," she said. "It's also a good time to cut trees because they go dormant and aren't growing anymore. You still have to water plants and grass but not as much."

DeAun Griffin, senior Roosevelt County service specialist, said the county clerk's office is preparing for the upcoming November election.

"The best part about covering elections is watching the reaction to the results," Griffin said.