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?

continued from last post, read it first

You should start at the previous post and work your way back up here....
Here is another shot of the river as I was going back UP the trail. The trail starts out as a lovely meander as you can see from the trail head. When you think there is no river and are about to give up you get to a gate and the trail goes back the other direction so you can see the beautiful green trees indicating water... then the steep decline starts and you have already come this far and there is hopes of a hot springs at the bottom. Well, not this time! I was let down like I said but the river was a bit facinating and the trees just budding out were a beautiful testament to spring. But I did have to climb back up out of there and that was a chore. The last picture is those same Gila Mountains now closer to sundown instead of sunrise. I got home just after 9pm and started this journey at 5:30am so it was a long day and only took me 5 min from the time I got home until I was in bed!!

Day trip to Siver City and the Gila

On my way to Sliver City for a workshop on grant writing... BORING!! I took some pics on the way down and then stopped for a hike on the way home. The 1st pic is the Gila mountains at sunrise. Then the next is looking the other direction at the foothills bathed in first morning light.

The beautiful purple tree which I think may be a crabapple b/c it was the Crabapple B&B in the community of Glenwood NM and it was just the best example of spring I have seen yet in Catron County.

THe pics of the river were on my hike in the afternoon... in the next post (didn't have enough room for all the pics) I will show you the name of the trail. This is the San Fransisco River which eventually joins up with the Gila River, I think. Anyway, there had been a flood of sorts here in January when some snow melt from the mountains came down in a rush from some unexpected rain and it was amazing how fast the water was running and the amount of damage and destruction that was left behind. I could hardly get to the bank due to all the log jams and debris. I was disappointed because there is supposed to be a Hot Spring down there and I couldn't find it after much exploring.