Large Black Gourd Vase

Large White Gourd Vase

Thunderbird Dream Catcher

10 Inch Dream Catcher

5 Inch Dream Catcher

Pair of Wooden Howling Coyotes

10 Inch Howling Coyotes

6 Inch Howling Coyotes

Hello, Again

It's been a while but will try to update the past few weeks. Have been busy or feeling like heck. Have been trying to make some craft items to sell at a couple of Arts and Crafts Fairs that will be held in the nearby city of Rio Rancho, NM this month and next. I made some wooden howling coyotes, some dream catchers, and some birdhouses and artifical flower vases made out of the gourds that I grew last summer. I have more gourds from the vines I grew this summer but they are still to green to make anything from them yet. They need to dry all winter before they can be opened, the seeds extracted and then the hull made into what ever. I will try to get some photos of the birdhouses and vases posted soon.

National Parks Shows

I have been watching a really great series of shows on our local PBS channel by Ken Burns about the history of our National Parks and Monuments. It has been very interesting but wish they had done it over several weeks instead of bomb-barding us with it all in one week. If you get a chance take a look at it.

Huge Bird? or What Is It???

Of course when you go to all these wonderful forests, state and national parks you might find your self face to face with some unusual sights. Like this great, huge, burnt looking - - well, is it a bird? or a monster? or just what is it?

Spa Treatment and Another Wind Storm

I spent most of Tuesday doing spa treatments on two of the horses, Sunny, my old paint and Nita my Quarter Horse. They seemed to really enjoy it. I soaked them well with the waterhose, then soaped them good from a bucket of warm water and expensive shampoo from the Dollar Store. After I shampooed each quarter of the horse I would message it with a rubber curry comb followed by a quick rinse. When I had shampooed and messaged all four quarters of the horse I did a complete rinse with the waterhose. All of this was followed by a sweegie to get the rinse water off and then a dry with a couple of towels. Next each horse was allowed to be a four-legged lawn mower for a few minutes and a cottonwood tree trimmer for a few more minutes while on a halter and lead so that they didn't get right down and roll in the dirt after all of my hard work. This included a short bit of ground work to remind them of the basic manners all horses should know.
They were so pretty and clean and soft after all that.
Then today we had another of our putrid wind and sand storms. It has blown all day and sand has seeped into every crack and crevice in the house, the hay shed, storage shed, and my skin. There is desert sand all over my tomato plants that are now producing nice, ripe, red tomatoes. And sand all over the last of my flowers. And of course there is sand all in the nice soft coats of my two horses that were so clean just 24 hours ago. Still have three horses that need the same spa treatment but it will have to wait until this storm is gone.

Rough Road

This is a really rough part of one of our favorite roads in the Jemez Mountains.

Chipmunk

Look hard and you can see the tiny chipmunk on the left side of the tree stump. We saw him last time we went to the mountains.

Ponies

Eye to Eye

Yellow Rose

Cosma

Thunder Storm

We had a heck of a thunder and lightning storm last night. My border collie, Tuffee was glued to me, or so it felt like. She is terrified of thunder, and fireworks as are so many dogs. We can't stop the thunder but the firecrackers, and other loud fireworks noises need to be outlawed. Here it is the middle of September and nearly every day we here one or two firecrackers. Just enough to cause the dogs and us to have freedom from this noise. It is against the law, but the overworked police has more than they can do now. What enjoyment do people get out of making loud noises? I will never be able to figure it out.
The storm last night did bring us a little bit of moisture, just a little bit.
Today we are getting clouds, thunder, and lightning again but again no rain.

Food Prices

We were glad to have a WalMart come to our neighborhood. The local grocery stores are so high in price compared to WalMart. But 2 years later we see Walmart prices as high or higher than Albertsons and Smiths. Guess I'll go back to buying at the other stores. And how do all the stores expect us to buy even the basic food stuff and household supplies when the prices keep going up and up and up and paychecks don't match them. Especially for those of us on fixed incomes.

Santa Fe, NM 400th Birthday

Last year Albuquerque, NM celebrated it's 300th birthday and this year, in fact this weekend, Santa Fe is celebrating it's 400th birthday. From 1610 to 2010, although there were Native Americans living in the area long before the Spanish arrived. Maybe up to 10,000 years ago. Santa Fe is the capital city of New Mexico. go to http://www.santafe400th.com/ for more information. Santa Fe is known for it's fantastic museums, art galleries, Spanish and Native American arts and crafts, and as the home of lots of famous actors, actress, and other well known people now and previously.
Santa Fe is known as the oldest state capital city in the US and also, at 7000 feet above sea level is the highest.
The Palace of the Governors is the oldest continuous government building in the US.
The Loretto Chapel was built in 1878 where a staircase was built by a carpenter with no means of visible support and no nails.
San Miguel is the oldest church structure in the US.San Miguel Church. The original adobe walls were built by Indians in 1610. http://www.milebymile.com/main/United_States/New_Mexico/photo_20034.html

Baby Elephant

Rozie the elephant that I saw as a baby 16 years ago now has had a baby on last Wed. 09-02-09. I hope to be able to go see this baby girl when she can be seen by the public.

This photo came out really small when I posted it. It is someone elses photo and can be seen at this site

http://www.cabq.gov/biopark/elephantcalf.htmlt It is always wonderful to hear about the birth of animals and especially those near extention. The Rio Grande Zoo in Albuquerque is known for the gariffe births that occur frequently. I think there may have been a baby gariffe born earlier this spring and there were snow leopard cubs born in May this spring. Snow leopards are extreamly endangered. The Rio Grande zoo is doing really well at raising endangered animals.

White Cats

A friend sent me a long email with a bunch of the old favorite photos that are on the email circuit. this one caught my eye. Congratulations to the photographer for getting all the cats in one photo. It makes me appreciate the fact I am only trying to get a photo with 3 solid black cats that don't want to cooperate together.

A Rainbow Beam

Friday afternoon it clouded up and I thought for sure we would get a good shower but we didn't. We did get to see a part of a rainbow in a really dark cloud.

In the Woods

We took our first trip to the Jemez Mountains last Thursday to start woodcutting for the winter. When we got there we had to sit in the truck and wait for a rain shower to pass before we could start cutting. After the rain I noticed this nice pine tree with lots of green moss on the left side and the log and rock at it's base to make a nice photo.

On the Road

I took this through the windsheld of the truck as we were driving back from our woodcutting day in the Jemez Mts. Those are the Sandia Mts you can see in the distance. We were driving east toward Albuquerque here.

Big Cloud

We saw this really big nice looking thunderhead cloud on our way home from the Jemez

Rock Ridge

Cool Cloud

I saw this cool cloud over a rock ridge at a rest area we stopped at.

Wiley in the Trash

Our kitten Wiley decided to play in a little trash can the other day. He looked so cute I had to take his picture.

Problems With Delivery Companies

I had problems getting an order for a new cell phone through FedEx. Now I have talked to someone else that has had even worse problems getting their phone through FedEx. There is no excuse for these problems. It sounds as if the main problem is lazy people not doing their job properly and getting a big paycheck from a big company that doesn't care about their customers anymore.
Talking to a couple of other people I hear about the same problems and they weren't shipping or receiving cell phones. It was all kinds of products some of which were perishable and were not usable do to the long delays in getting the products.
FedEx and UPS were started as alternatives to using the US Post Office. Now they are just as bad and no one seems to care about customer service any more.

Walking the Continental Divide

Last night I accidentally found a wonderful program on our local PBS station which is KNME here in Albuquerque. It was a two hour show on walking the CTD or the Continental Divide. You ask what is the Continental Divide. The Divide is the geological area where the rivers and streams decide which direction they are going to flow. East of the Divide rivers flow east. West of the Divide rivers flow to the west. On the North American Continent it starts down in Mexico (that I know about) and runs north into Canada. Or I always thing of it going from south to north because I have been on more of it in New Mexico than any other state. This program was about a man who walked it from Animus, NM at the US/Mexican border to Glacier National Park where it enters Canada; a distance of about 3,100 miles. Thats a lot of miles and a lot of walking and he did it from early spring through summer and into fall. It must have been a heck of a trip. Of course it was of so much interest to us because we have seen so much of the Continental Divide considering we have lived so near it so much and took road trips that went near it at other times.
My sister lived near Animus, NM for a long time. From there he went up through Lordsburg, NM to Silver City, NM to Grants, NM to Chama, NM and the NM/Colorado border. We lived in Silver City for a number of years and have visited the other places. We have been near the Divide in CO, as well as where it wanders up through Wyoming, Idaho, and Montana on our road trips. This show has some of the most beautiful scenery you could ask for.
If You are interested in seeing this show contact your local PBS station or go to /www.flaglerfilms.com/

Stop Paper Waste

We keep hearing about how everyone should go paperless and YET everyday I get more and more and more junk/garbage mail. Business' could save lots of trees by not sending out so much garbage to people that really do not want all that junk mail. We probably throw out tons and tons of junk mail each year. If we didn't get the postperson wouldn't have to deliver it and maybe they could get important mail to us. If we didn't get it we wouldn't have to throw it in our landfills. If we didn't get it we wouldn't have to take the time to send it to the landfill or to the recycle place where someone else has to take the time to send it to the right box and through the recycle program. We and they could use the time to do something more constructive and to recycle something else.
And really - how many people actually read their junk mail.
Please - Big Bussiness - could you please try to stop sending so much junk/garbarge mail.

New Phones

My new cell phones did come in today. Fedex finally got it together and delivered them. Now to figure out how to use the new ones.

Not My Day

Does everyone have trouble with big business' or is it just me. I decided to order new cell phones from Verizon as it had been several years since we had new ones. So I did and the guy at Verizon was really nice, much nicer than reps at Verizon call centers usually are. He said my phones would be overnighted to my by FedEx. That was fine, as I had plans to be home all day and could be here when they arrived. We saw the truck go by one way very fast and went out to the gate to see if he would come back to our place. He went down the street turned around and came flying back, and right on by us, through the stop sign at the corner of the street which is also the corner of our property and off down to the next street over when he stopped when to the door and then took off for parts unknown. Oh well we thought, our phones didn't get shiped out the day before in time and we would have to wait until Monday. Remembering I received an email from Verizon so I could track the phones I pulled it up, got the website and tracking number and looked it up. Oh!!!!! It said that our package had the wrong address listed and was back at the FedEX office. So I called them. They said it was wrong, and would be delivered Monday since I had called and corrected the address. I called Verizon, they said it was right. Verizon called Fed EX who said it was wrong but they would deliver it Monday and call me before they came. Everyone said the driver was wrong for not calling to find out correct address. It was pass the buck time. Will I get my new phones on Monday. Who knows. Not only am I upset about this I now have to spend another day, all day expecting a delivery.
To top it off I notice on the tracking that my phones went from California to Memphis, TN and then back to Albuquerque last night before the driver came to our little out of the way comunity. Why did they go back and forth across the US? Only some pencil pusher in an office could answer that and they won't.

Flycatcher

I got this shot of a flycatcher sitting on the same plant stand to catch the cool air as the mockingbirds I told about in the previous post.

Mockingbird

This isn't the best photo because I took it through the window screen. This mockingbird, his mate, and three chicks have taken up residence in our back yard and like to come onto the patio to eat the bugs that the bug zapper light attaches each night. I like the fact that they come eat the bugs but the male mockingbird had apparently lived somewhere where there was a very tinny, cheep sounding windchime before he came here. And he had learned to make the noise of that windchime and used that noise to call his chicks to come eat bugs. It sounds sort of like a small, tinny, cheep bell and can be quite irritating after several hours of hearing it. Mockingbirds are known for imitating the songs of other birds, and learning to make odd noises like sqeeky gates, kids toys, barking dogs, meowing cats, and now windchimes.

Also you would have thought that the mockingbirds would have got used to me watching them out the window. Oh, no. But they would let my old cat lay outside on the patio and watch them. The cat is closer to them than I am. That was fine. But me at the door or window with a camera. Never. I was finally able to get this shot through the screen and it is the best I have managed so far.

And smart birds that they are, this family of mockingbirds has also learned that if they sit on that plant stand that the bird is on that they get a little of the cool air that comes through the window from the air conditioner. We have a swamp cooler and they do better if a window is cracked open. I didn't realize that I was putting the plant stand in a direct line with the window when I put it there. I haven't been able to use it for a plant as our bad winds have knocked off the ones I have tried there and I gave up and let the birds sit on it.

Bullriding VS Cyling

The bullriding is finally back on. The riders had about a 2 month break from the PBR but most of them were still competing at the less known Challenger tour events and the Calgery Stampede was held while they were off. Most of the Professional Bull Riding events are televised on the channel Versus but Versus has seemed to be not showing as much of the bullriding as they were which wasn't enough for any of the fans before. They waited 2 weeks to show the Tulsa events because of all the cycling. I don't know any one that watches or is into the cycling events. I do know lots of people that are bullriding fans. Now they are showing Indy Car Racing instead of showing the bullriding as early in the evening as they used to. Versus needs to get it together and remember that a lot of us only have their channel so that we can watch the bullriding. As it is they don't show the Friday night rounds in the events and we would love to be able to see them as well. The thing is the only thing they show on Friday night is re-runs of their hunting shows. So why don't they show the Friday night rounds of PBR. Go to www.pbrnow.com

Rainbow

After the Rain

This rainbow tried to be a double and I couldn't get all of it in the camera.

Thunderhead Clouds

We have been having what is called the New Mexico monsoon season. We have had more rain this year than we have had for several years. This is more like we used to have 25 to 30 years ago and more. Which is really good. Nearly every afternoon we watch the thunderhead clouds come across the Sandia Mountains or else come across the desert from the west until they turn dark and we get a bit of rain. Sometimes just a sprinkle, some times up to a half an inch of rain or so, and then sometimes the clouds just go around us and it rains somewhere else.

Old Town Albuquerque, New Mexico

This sign sits in the park or town square in Old Town Albuquerque, New Mexico. My friend and I decided to take a walking tour around the shops and sights while she was visiting on July 15, 2009. She had never been but I have been going now and then ever since I was born. Although it has been about seven years or so since I was last there with my two aunts on one of their trips to Albuquerque. http://www.albuquerqueoldtown.com/ The town of Albuquerque was founded in 1706. The church of San Felipe de Neri Church sits on one side of the square and the other three sides are full of shops, and cafes, as well as one old, large, and famous restaurant named La Placita. When visiting you need to remember that Old Town now is mostly for the tourist trade and prices may be higher here than in other, more modern, parts of Albuquerque. There are lots of gift shops, jewelry stores, and artist shops and galleries. Some shops have the cheaper tourist trade gift items but lots of unique, and very high quality items can be found in other shops.
http://www.virtualalbuquerque.com/VirtualABQ/OldTownPlaza/ This website has lots of photos, history information, and tourist information about Old Town.
I have posted a lot of the photos and some brief descriptions of the day that we toured Old Town. I have tried to put them in a semblance of an order of the way we walked and so that it would make since to those readers that have never been there. Hope you find it interesting and that maybe if you are ever in Albuquerque you will find time for a visit to one of my favorite places in my home state.

Shops

Many of the shops in Old Town were first residents, some over 200 years old. There are still people that live over their shops or behind them.

Old Town Walk

Most of the walk ways in Old Town have been covered to make for a more pleasent tour due to our hot sun and in the summer sudden downpours of rain in the monsoon season, which we are having now. There was no rain the day we were there but the shade was welcome. There are still several of the old cottonwood trees still along some of the streets and in the park.

Outdoor Cafe

I loved the colors I found in this outdoor cafe off of a coffee shop. There was no one there so we took the time to take several photos of the umbrellas, Spanish style table and chairs, ristras, and flowers in their little garden.

Clay Jug

This is probably my favorite of all the photos I took on mine and my friends trip to Old Town. It was sitting in a back corner of an outdoor coffee shop area.

Shop Door

I think this was the back door to a shop or might have been a privite residence behind the shop.

Blue Window

Blue window frame with a huge dark pink crape myrtle blooming beside it.

Blue Door

This little garden was behind a shop with lots of Native American gift items. They also had a coffee shop with outdoor tables to sit at. The walls were the traditional adobe tan color, and the door and window frames had been painted blue. I love the color combo.

Yucca

this large yucca was in a corner. The small native yucca is New Mexico's state flower.

Purple Door

I liked this purple door and bench by an art gallery.

Me

A really dorky looking photo of me taken by my friend when we made the day trip to Old Town.

Chili Website

There is a shop in Old Town that is all about chili ristras. This is their website.
http://www.thechileshop.com/ I didn't get to this shop on this outing but have been there before.

Chil Pepper Ristra

Chili Pepper Ristras where hanging a lot of places in Old Town. A ristra is a string of dryed chili peppers. New Mexico is known for lot of different kinds of chili peppers. It was and still is tradition to hang the strings of chili ristras on your house to finish drying and then over the winter you could take down a string and use it in what ever you were cooking. I don't use enough chilis or chili power to buy the ristras (and most people don't). Most of what I use is already ground into a fine powder ready to put into my beans, or chili stew. Hatch, New Mexico raises more chilis than any other place in the United States. I can't seem to raise them at all.

Small Ristras

These small chili pepper ristras where hanging across a shop window.

Flower in Old Town

These flowers were scattered all over Old Town and were in full bloom. The blossoms were huge being as much as 10 to 12 inches across and with big leaves. I was told they were a perennial hibiscus.

Metal Pot

A metal pot or vase inside the Patio Market with the fountain in the background.

Patio Market

The Patio Market is set off on one of the side streets of Old Town. This is the entrance. I think there were about 8 shops.

Market Shop

One of the shops in the Patio Market.

Fountain

I do not remember this large fountain being in the Patio Market the last time I was here but it looks like it has been here forever. Inside of it somewhere was a pump that kept the water constantly circulating so that it looked like the bucket was always spilling water out.

Big Metal Vase

There were these big metal vases or pots by the entrance to one shop.

Privite Allyway

This little allyway was blocked off by a big, heavy, iron gate so I assumed it was privite. We did go ahead and take a couple of photos anyway.

Ristra Display

I could see this ristra display down the ally way we couldn't get into.