winter some more

What a glorious sunset. If someone would have painted this, one would think it their imagination...
You have to click on this to enlarge it, then look just above and to the left of the statue's head. It is 5 degrees outside and sunny but there is a cloud overhead dropping ice crystals out of the sky and what a sight with the sun shining on them. Look through the tree at the "fog" like substance...that is hundreds of ice crystals coming down.
Okay...so this isn't my cat. But we share the same sentiments.
It is now over 10 degrees...whoohoo. The ice crystals are slowing down. Maybe I can get warm enough in front of the wood stove to get dressed now. It is supposed to get to a balmy 28 by this afternoon! Stay warm and be well...

Cozy inside, snowy outside

Yes...I am warm in front of the stove where the fire roars. It is cold and snowy outside.
A view from the window where it is white out there but still warm and toasty in here! Notice the dutch oven on the stove cooking dinner as we watch and smell the wonderful aroma...oh yeah, you can't smell that from your computer! Leg o' lamb roasting on an open...okay, closed fire for Solstice dinner. Yum!
The tree with the birds...in better weather that is. We finally put bird seed out. There has been an abundance of natural food all of autumn. But alas, it is finally winter.
The front porch in snow. I did cook a chicken breast or two on the grill for lunch. You should have seen the subsequent steam from the heat. I love snow. There is no question about it! Happy Solstice, Merry Christmas and Have a safe, healthy and happy New Year!

just stuff

We had 6 deer come up real close to the house one evening just before dark. We have on the ground water feeders for birds and rabbits but had never seen deer water there before. I attempted to take their picture through the living room window but it was too dark. The colors in the sky are pretty though.
Tigger and Psssk are doing pretty well. We have renamed Tabby a few times over the year. She is now Paranoid Schizophrenic Kitty thusly we call her PSSSK for short. You can tell she really likes us. She even follows us into the bedroom at night to sit in the window but we still cannot touch her. Tigger can though, he is her hero!
And then there is Bubba aka Roly Poly Catfish. You would probably just want to be called Bubba if you had that name. Everybody loves Bubba. We sure do. We may be in for some snowy weather the next few days. If so I may post some snow pics.

The fence

David decided to hide some of the "stuff" outside his shop and built this fence out of dead wood on our property. He is an artist but doesn't like the label but I feel like this is a true work of art. I love it. We had a very windy few days after this was built and it held up well. The last picture is taken from inside looking towards our driveway. What a nice view...~sigh.

Pigeons

David has started keeping pigeons. He has wanted to do this most of his life and now is learning their habits. He enjoys them very much and has made this large "sun room" for them. The triangle shaped house is called a chalet and then there is a tall one in the main room he calls the pigeon condo! He lets them out most days and they eventually come back in but they like to hang out on the barn roof most of the day. He plans to raise some of them for meat. Some of them are homers and one day will fly out and come back as is their instinct.

Kitties in a box

This box is a very special cat bed. It has paper in the bottom that was originally meant for the recycle bin. Then it has an old wool rug that Tigger had embedded with cat hair so heavily I knew I just had to give it to him rather than spend the rest of my life trying to get the hair out. Tabby has decided it is a pretty comfy bed too. Now they have decided to share. I almost thought the first picture looked like a two-headed cat!! Tigger was napping away but Tabby knew I was around so she had to keep an eye out...I might have wanted to touch her...OMG!!
We have had her now for 12 months almost and she still won't let us pet her but she likes to have us around...that is a good thing. We like her and her peculiarities just the same.

Latest weaving project

This is a warp stripe weaving for my parents. It is chair back covers and arm rest covers for their new recliners in their cabin. They asked me to do this in the early part of summer and I am not done yet. I had a busy summer (which is no excuse) but am steadily working on it. I hope to get them done before they leave for the winter at the end of this month! The colors are turquoise, gold, cactus green and rust. The weft is a camel color which matches the recliners.

Kissing couple

David is helping our friends Jerry and Judi build their house and I went over for lunch one afternoon. As I was leaving and giving my hubby a kiss g'bye their photographer son Jeff snapped this picture. Well...he didn't get the first one in time...not realizing we were on candid camera so we posed for this one. All told David got 5 g'bye kisses! The house is coming along great. Maybe next time I will get a shot of it for show and tell. Otherwise, all is good here. David and I have been harvesting pinion nuts...we have a great crop this year. He roasted them and eats them like sunflower seeds. I am not a great fan of them myself...especially if you have to go to great lengths to get them out of the shell but I don't mind the harvesting.

Sister's 40th Birthday

The birthday girl is the one behind me with the rabbit ears...I guess you are never too old to be a kid. Then our parents bring us home matching T-shirts and hats to wear at her party by the lake in PK Texas which makes us look young again too. We played a game called ladder ball that my sister's grandson brought and David and I really liked it so he came home and made one for us to play. I guess my sister turning 40...the baby in the family...turned us all back into kids for a while. Not a bad birthday present for any of us! Have fun...we are!

Friends at the Catwalk

My friends Pat and Heather and I went to Glenwood last monday to walk the Catwalk National Forest Trail. The first pic is me and Pat tightening our shoelaces. The next is me and Pat stopping along the walk for a pose.
Then you should see Heather looking at her camera after taking a pic through the grate of the river below. Then me and Heather posing in front of some rocks and finally one of the waterfall with a swimming hole under it. The catwalk is only 1.1 mile to the end but it is rather humid there this time of year and a rather difficult walk for some of us wimps. I being the youngest, in this case only by one year, still had the hardest time of it. We did treat ourselves on the way home to my favorite restaurant in Reserve so that made up for any hard times. We had a great time and I hope the pics convey that for you!

Oregon

On our way to Amanda's house in Fall Creek we stopped at a lake (can't remember the name) with Diamond peak in the background. It had snow on it in July. We were in the Cascades and it was just beautiful. Our second day we went to Eugene and hung out with some ducks on the Willamette river. I forgot my camera but on the third day we went to the Oregon Country Fair which is a very big deal in Eugene and is a huge hippy fair. Too bad I didn't take my camera cuz there were many topless young things about. Maybe next time...
Next day we went to the Big fork of Fall Creek which was extremely cold. I got in which took about 20 minutes to get myself submerged then I headed for shore. Amanda and Isabelle swam a little bit before getting out. The water fall was at the spot we stopped at and was just the thing.
We left the next day and brought Isabelle home with us. She was a wonderful traveler considering it took 3 days to get home. We are safe and sound and she is learning to weave already!

Zion trip on way to Oregon

David and I just got back from visiting daughter Amanda and granddaughter Isabelle in Oregon. On the way we stopped to visit friends that are working near Zion park. We had a short but wonderful visit with them and here are a few pictures of our adventures. In the morning we went on a hike to a cave that has some old and not so old petroglyphs. The first photo is of David and Jerry with the pics in the back. The next is on the way to the cave, just some outcropping of rocks that I thought were cool.
The dark silhouette is us looking out of the cave.
The next pic is what we saw when we first drove up an evening shot. One of the rocks looks like a monkey. Can you see it?
And finally, we went up a 25 mile road to see the sunset over Zion but we were just a tad too late. It is so cool and nice up there. The temp was 60 up there and 90 when we got back to the bottom at 9pm!
Thanks to Jerry and Judi for putting us up and showing us such a good time.

Denver in June

Some people I know get to hike in Zion every week. Others live in the wilds of Oregon but me I get to go to an Infection Control conference in downtown Denver in June. You know, I never once saw the Rocky mountains once I was safely escorted from the airport to my hotel room. I did get to see a little bit of downtown and it was nice and a bit fun even. I saw the Coors stadium but chose not to go to a game on my last night...too tired from all that learning at the conference. I got taken to a very nice french restaurant by one of the vendors (me and about 13 other folks) wow what a bill that must have been. It has taken me 3 days home of naps every day to recuperate but I think I might be done now. Soon we are leaving for a 10 or more day road trip to visit friends at Zion and family in Oregon so we will know how the other people live! David stayed home to work and feed chickens while I was gone.

Water Canyon Fir

Took this picture of this beautiful tree while Josh and Nichole hiked around a bit and baby Jamie lay asleep in his car seat.
The mountain behind it is the Magdalena Mountains and I think up in that area is where the new Magdalena Ridge Observatory is located. They had the road closed, not that I could have made it up there in my Honda Civic, but they are still doing construction on the observatory grounds.

Isn't it a beautiful day in New Mexico?? ~sigh~

It is well into June and the high is in the mid 80's slightly breezy and just a great time to be out if it weren't for a bit of pesky gnats and flies...oh well, can't have everything.

Going to Denver next week for a conference and staying in a big hotel downtown. I will take a few pictures if I get a chance. I could go see a CR baseball game but just not sure...I could just swim in the hotel pool and hang out!!

I quit crying after the kids left finally but I sure do miss them! I have a MySpace account now to show off and look at my grandkids pictures. It is protected by my ability to invite only friends and family so if you want to or already have an account...look me up and I will hook you up to my site.

My son Josh and his wife Nichole and their 10 month old baby Jamie were here to visit this past weekend (sat-tues) and we had a great time. I took them to Pie Town to have what else? Pie! We went to the Pioneer which of the 2 restaurants in the town is my favorite.
On Monday we went to see the VLA and toured Magdalena and then went to Water Canyon which is the first place we stayed (camped) when we came to these parts when Josh was 7. That night he wanted to sleep in a tree he was so enamored with the huge cotton woods. Me being the conservative mom I was said No. Today he is glad that I wouldn't let him, being a parent and all himself! It was a complete joy to have them and I have been very sad today. It isn't fair to live so far away from your kids and grandkids!

Wind

My good friend Frances thought many years ago when I said that wind was just the Earth breathing that I was just a newbie to NM and really had no idea what I was saying. Well, I hate to air dirty laundry so I will only show you my clean stuff... Yes the wind, she is a blowin'. Mostly I still think that the wind is the Earth breathing and then sometimes I think she has a hyperventilation problem or something. Maybe she just needs to blow off all the world's pollution and so needs to take really deep breaths now and then. It is spring and that is when it blows the hardest. On this clothes line is a little wind indicator and while I was hanging out my clothes I saw (and felt) it gust up to about 30mph. I guess I don't have to mention that they dried pretty quick. What you don't see in the picture is our wind generator so while everyone is bitching about being so close to Mother Earth's gills we are making electricity so when the electric company goes down in about 10 days for some scheduled maintenance I don't have to worry about my freezer! So even though I am no longer a newbie, I still like the wind. I am about to go take a walk with my Mom and we will fight the wind (at least in one direction). There are always two sides to every story. In one direction we will have a little boost on our walk.
I must be getting less depressed if I can finally see the positive sides to a given situation!! I have a little book on Happiness that I had put up high on a shelf...it fell down right onto my desk today so I read it again. Must be the Universe trying to help me out. Thanks... I can use it.

The wind should keep up its work through this month and then we will have our month of summer and only wish the breeze would blow. We had a 10% chance of rain yesterday and you could see the clouds with rain in them but they couldn't find their way to the ground. The humidity finally got above 20% on my new weather station though so maybe next time...I had thought that maybe it wasn't working (the humidity gauge) but alas it just won't register below 20. For those of you who like it sunny, dry and windy NM is the place to be right now. I wouldn't be anywhere else!

Me neither

I got a birthday card from a good friend that says "What a coincidence... good wine gets better with age AND we age better with wine!!!

I definitely agree...

Elk and Bending over Man

These are two neat oddities that if you use a little imagination you can see on Highway 60 between Datil and Pie Town. The elk may be more obvious than the man... let me know if you can't see him in the 2nd picture. He is in the middle of the picture and is above the wires.
We are in the throes of spring: wind, cold nights and sometimes warm days. It is very dry and conditions are great for fire so if you drive through this canyon--no throwing of cig butts!
For that matter all of this area is off limits for any kind of fire starter. It is a tinder box out here in frontier country.

Roly Poly gets a shave

Roly got his annual hair cut and bath yesterday. Last year we tried to do it ourselves and worked all summer on it b/c he really doesn't like it too much. THis year we hired the professional and although his dad says he looks "ridiculous" he really looks good without those dreadlocks! And he thinks he looks quite good himself, he even posed for his picture to be taken.
THe groomer gave him the bandana but it was gone this morning on our walk so I think he didn't like that so well. I will take more pics of him as it starts growing back... isn't he sweet?