Horned Toad

I adore real horned toads so this one really intrigued me.

Roadrunner & Horned Toad

This is the full view of the roadrunner with the horned toad climbing up the tree truck.

Squirrel

Spring Flowers

More Apple Blossoms

Apple Blossoms

My 2 year old apple trees have been really pretty this year. Wonder if I will get any apples off of them?

Close Up of Redbud Blossoms

Redbud Tree

We had a rain shower the other day. As it went over and headed for Albuquerque there was a dark sky to the east with a bright sun to the west highlighting our prettiest redbud tree.

Cottontail Rabbit

I finally got a photo of the cottontail rabbit in our little patch of grass. I think this is the same rabbit wat that was in the other photo when it was hiding in the sand. I frequently see it eating grass but usually it hops away to go under the hay shed where I can't see it. It knows where it is safe. The grassy spot is right beside the hay shed. I think this may be a female rabbit as we always have a female that has her babies under the shed each summer. It couldn't have been the same rabbit all these years but I would think it might be a daughter or granddaughter. What I would really like to get is a photo of a rabbit eating hay with one of the horses. Again I see them doing it but I'm never close enought to get a photo or just don't have the camera with me.

Sand Rabbit

One of our resident cottontail rabbits showing how they can hide when they sit still in an open area just because they are so close to being the color of the sand and dirt.

Finally Paint

This is the brown paint we put on 3 sides of the house or should I say Lee painted it. I didn't do much to help. It is a bit darker than I had figured it would be but still looks so much better than the old dirty gray that it had been.

New Paint

The paint on the siding on the house had been sand blasted until it was back to the orginal gray color so we painted it.

Apple Blossoms

I really like to watch the little red balls that open into pale pink apple blossoms

Apple Tree

We have two small apple trees. So far we have never had any apples of of them. But we have lots of blossoms this year. Here is a close up of a blossom that just opened. Notice some sort of insect on the leaf under the blossom.

Tartarian Cherry Tree

I love cherries. They are my favorite fruit. And I love fruit. There are lots of kinds of cherry trees. The Bing is the most common but my favorite is the Black Tartarian. I have two of them and usually only get a few of the cherries as the birds get most of them.

Weeping Cherry Tree

This is my little weeping ornimental cherry tree, (no fruit) that keeps trying to die each year but struggles on and has nice blossoms this year.

Peach Tree

This is close up of peach tree blossoms on my peach tree. Maybe we will get at least a few peaches this year. This tree has the most perfect, sweet, tasty peaches but we have never got more that about 3 in one tree.

Purple Leaves

Here you can see a close up of the blossoms of the purple leaf plum tree and the tiny little purple leaves just starting to grow.

Purple Leaf Plum Tree

This is called a purple leaf plum. It is an ornimental tree with no fruit. I don't have any like this. I found some beauties downtown so stopped to take some photos.

My Bradford Pear

this is my little Bradford pear tree that is only about 5 years old. It had more blossoms this year than it had last year. I have another one by the front door. It only has a few blossoms but is a much bigger tree.

Blossoms

Close up of Bradford pear tree blossoms.

Bradford Pear Tree

Bradford Pear Trees at the local library. These are an ornamental pear tree that doesn't produce fruit. These are very mature trees and just beautiful. Mine are only 5 years old and very small yet. Maybe someday.

Cow Rubbed Tree Knot

This is my favorite knot of those on the trunk of the old juniper tree that I like so much and tell the story of in the following photos, and posts.

Old Juniper Tree

I have been admiring this old juniper tree out on the desert to the northwest of where I live for about 25 years. At first it was all by it's self out in the middle of nowhere with a narrow dirt trail running just to the east of it. Over the years I have stopped many times and taken photos of it. It's hard to take a good photo of because it it big enough that it shades it's trunk which is the most interesting part of the tree. Looking at it's size I am making a guess that this old juniper tree might be in the range of at least 300 years old. Juniper trees grow very slowly and on our desert that can be slowed down even more, but these are very hardy trees that need little water so nature is not apt to cause one to die. I have found many of them on the desert that I estimate to be several hundred years old but this one has always been my favorite. Man can cause them to die and more than I like to think about have been destroyed so that housing developments can build more and more houses on the desert. I chose the builder of my house with care, liking the fact that he never cut down the juniper trees that were in the areas where he builds house, preferring to build the house so the tree can live. Now the old tree I have photographed so many times is on the edge of a housing development and I am concerned for it's welfare. Actually I am surprised it hasn't already been cut down. In this photo I am standing beneath the tree looking out over the desert. The following photos show the uniqueness of the trunk that had has had branches broken off by cows and then the cows have rubbed on the branch ends making unusual twist and nobs that look polished by the rubbing by the cows while they stood under the tree for shade. The last photo shows just how close the house are to the tree.

Desert View

From this side of the tree you can look west across the desert. You can see several cholla cactus through the tree fork. The other side of the tree looks at the dirt road that goes by the tree and the houses that are in the developement that started about five years ago. It makes me wonder just how long this tree looked upon desert and distant mountains until progress now makes it look at houses.

Juniper Tree Knot

The bottom part of this old juniper tree is allotted and twisted. When I first saw it there were cows around it trying to stand in the shade of the tree. When I was able to get a good look at the truck I could see where the cows had rubbed and rubbed against the bottom 3 or 4 feet of the truck. They had apparently broken off some of the bottom branches in previous years and all the rubbing on the branch ends had made rounded nubs that almost had a polished look from all that cow hair and musle rubbing on the branch ends for who knows how many years. Now the cows aren't allowed in the area where the tree is and the rounded branch nub ends don't look as polished as they were. Now they are just sand blasted by our constand wind which also keeps a wind swept area around the base of the tree. Still it is unique looking as I am sure there used to be cows in and around the tree for an estamated 200 years.

The Tree Knot

Different view of the odd knot on the juniper tree.

Monster Knot

Part of the twisted knot on the juniper tree. Kind of looks like a monster of some sort.

Tree & Houses

In this photo you can see the old juniper tree with a dirt road behind it and the houses in the housing development that is near it. It is such a shame to see this ancint piece of history being threatened by development. There is a dirt trail on this side of the tree where I found the tracks of motercycles and ATV's, and I saw lots of trash; mostly beer cans and bottles; in the area right around it, which I picked up. The tree is surviving but it doesn't look as healthy as it did 25 years ago when I first saw it. Every time I go by there I am afraid I will find that progress has destroyed this beautiful, and still living conifer.

Wind & Flowers

It's been very windy here in the Land of Enchantment. Spring is always windy. A trip to downtown Rio Rancho last week showed that the trees and flowers are all blooming despite the wind. But here on the west mesa I still have to see the first blossom on a flowering trees. They are trying but the wind is sucking the moisture and life right out of them. We keep thinking it is over but then it will come again.

Be sure to check out Cindy's Snaps ( see the list at right for the link) as she has some beautiful flower photos of spring in England.

Free Manure

Having horses and ponies we always have to much manure as any one that has equines knows. The past couple of months our medical problems have got worse. Bad backs, bad feet, bad legs, and migraine headaches, with nerve damage to parts of our bodies (or that is what the doctors call it). So with all these medical problems and an excess of horse manure I put several adds on Craig's List to see if people would want any for their gardens this spring. (most springs we have enough friends and strangers stop by for the manure that we don't have to place an ad).
Here is a sample of my ad.

FREE * Horse Manure for Fertilizer * FREE
Have several pickup loads of Horse Manure good for using in your garden or Compost Pile.
Bring Your Truck and Shovel and a Strong Back----- You Have To Load It!

I learned a long time ago that there are a lot of people that are a bit dumb, stupid, and unable to read. But the calls I have received about my FREE Horse Manure really goes over the top.
I will start by saying there there were 3 very nice young men that came and took most of the manure. Here's hoping they get good gardens with it. I use it on my garden, trees, and flowers with good sucess.
But it was the other calls. I go several asking how much the manure cost. (I will remind you it says Free in the ad)
One woman called and asked how much our COW manure cost (I will remind you it says Horse in the ad and Free)
One wanted to know what manure was. (dahhh I explained it was recycled hay but that wasn't good enough so I added it was what came out the back end of the horse but I still don't think she understood)
Several people called and ask how much I would charge to load it for them (I will remind you it say You Have To Load It! so I added that I Can Not Load It to the ad)
The last and best was the woman who called on Easter Morning asking why she had to bring her truck, and shovel and why didn't we have a tractor to load it with. (after yelling at her I couldn't afford one I hung up before I said something worse).

Moral of this story - Think and I mean really THINK before you respond to ads on Craig's List.

Kitty in a Case

Willey cat crawled into Lee's guitar case the other day while lee was practicing.

A Spring Walk

Last week was really nice so we drove up to Jemez Creek and went for a walk.

Ring Neck Dove

this ring neck dove and it's mate are setting up housekeeeping in the ponies shelter. Here it is sitting on the post at the corner of their pen. There is no sign of a nest yet but they have been courting and saying close to the shelter not even flying until i get just a few feet from them.

Snow to Sun

Snow this moring about 2 inches but gone by noon with blue sky and scattered white fluffy clouds. Our last day of winter was beautiful and the first day of spring started out with snow but is like a spring day should be now.

Spring

Wish that Spring would come a little faster. Go to this link.
http://www.procreo.jp/labo/flower_garden.swf You will get a black page. Drag your mouse over it and see what Springs up.

Iron Cowboy Event

PBR and the bullriders got together with the new Cowboys Stadium and decided to have the Iron Cowboy event. A little different than the regular bullriding events it was supposed to be a big, big deal for both the PBR and Cowboys Stadium. And maybe it was. But only those that went to see it and those fans that are lucky enough to get Versus TV channel saw it.
So what good was it? If only a very few of the bullriding fans got to see and since it was not televised on any of the local or sports channel it was unable to be seen by anyone that might become a fan?
I know I didn't get to see it, which means no one in the Albuquerque area got to unless they have Versus.
It is depressing that such a good sport can only be seen by those that can get Versus on Dish TV.
That is certainly not a way to promote a sport.

Tuffee

Tuffee is our Border Collie. She was six years old on Feb. 15 so I have done a birthday tribute for her. She is our first BC. We have had other breeds of dogs, mostly German Shepherds, plus a Lab cross, a Beagle and a Beagle cross, and 2 that were Dachshund and Boston Terrier. I knew that BC's were herding dogs but wasn't really prepared for just how strong the herding instinct is in the BC breed. When the books say it is obsessive they are right. I would never recommend a BC as an apartment dog or even as a dog for a small yard or where the family is gone most of the day. BC's need lots of room to run, and lots of attention. BC's are extremely cute as puppies. Usually a small black and white ball of fluff. But even from a very young age, 6 weeks and on, they will try to herd anything that moves. I had to watch Tuffee constantly as a pup to keep her out of the horse pens. She was determined to herd those big horses and I was so afraid she would get kicked or stomped.
Not being allowed to herd the horses she turned to herd other things; like my older Lab cross, our German Shepherd and our cats. She never backed down from them even when the older dogs nipped at her and the cats scratched her. She even decided that she could herd the water coming out of the end of the water hose. It is fun to watch her, yes she still does it, as she jumps and grabs the end of the hose, or just trys to catch the water in her mouth. Of course there is problems even with this as she swallows water and chokes on it sometimes and once she grabbed the metal part of the hose end and broke a tooth.
As she got older there were lots of chores that Tuffee learned we do on a regular basis and she is more than ready to help each time we do them. She knows when we take the plastic bag out of the trash can we are going out to the large outside trash can. When we pickup the cat litter box to change it she understands we are going outside to dump it in the big trash can. When we do chores outside she knows when we go toward the water fosset we will be turning on the water hose. First she runs ahead of us, picks up the in of the hose and brings it to us so we can attach it to the fosset and turn on the water. As soon as she hears the water going through the hose, and yes she will stand and cock her head listening until it is running, she runs to the other end of the hose and picks it up. This time she runs around in a tight circle with the hose in her mouth and the water spurting out. If I'm not careful when I take it from her she will give me a quick shower bath. In the summer this feels good but in the winter it is cold. As soon as I have control of the hose she will run first to one horse pen then to another trying to anticipate which pen I am going to first. As I finish putting fresh water in a horse bucket she will run to the next pen and bucket knowing the way to go after we do the first one. I don't always start with the same one.
She helps us clean horse pens, too. From an early age she would grab the wheelbarrow tire with her mouth when we would roll it to the pens. Now older, she mostly does the anticipation thing running from pen to pen to figure out which one we will clean. She has learned to herd the horses sort of since she is now grown. Still horses don't herd well and when they get to perturbed with her I will get her to leave them alone by ordering her OUT and pointing to the gate. She will then leave the pen. Or I will call her to me and she will stay with me while I finish cleaning or watering. She only trys to herd the horses when I am out with them. If I am inside the house and she is out in the yard she never goes into the pens. She figured this one out on her own.
Tuffee considers her most important job is to help us feed the horses. We feed them 3 times a day on a fairly regular schedule and Tuffee knows when it is time to feed. She is never late with telling us when to feed although she is frequently early. When time to feed she will come to us and start telling us to get with it. She makes strange whining, yelping, yodeling dog noises that almost sound as if she is talking to us. I have heard lots of people say that their dogs sound as if they are talking but Tuff is the only dog I have personally known that has done this. The longer we wait the more fussy she gets. When I finally get my jacket she will grab it for just an instant and then turn it loose and stand by the door while I put on my shoes, hat, and gloves. She leads the way to the hay shed, and will sit right in the way where I want to get the hay for the horses. She understands when Lee has to pull a big bale down from a large stack and will stand out of his way. She goes in the pens when we go to feed each one but never trys to herd them at this time. As soon as we are finished she follows us into the house and gets one of her toys out of the toy basket and plays with it for a few minutes. Then she will go get one, notice I say one, of my shoes that I leave by the door, pick it up and take it to the middle of the livingroom, drop it and leave it there. Never does she get both shoes and I have no idea why she does this at all.
Of course Tuff does lots of other things but there is to many to write down here, but it makes me wonder what other things she will learn in her life.
And it also makes me wonder if all Border Collies do things like this.

Herding Water?

Tuffee is so determained to 'herd' something she trys to 'herd' the water coming out of the water hose.

Hay for Horses

Tuffee helping Lee unload hay for the horses.

Tuffee Herding

Tuffee is our Border Collie. She was 6 years old as of Feb. 15. As you may know BC's are herding dogs. So Tuffee is determained to herd our horses since we don't have any sheep. In this photo she is trying to herd Sundance, my paint gelding. But horses don't herd as well as sheep do. So instead of moving like Tuffee wants him to do. He will just stand there and once in a while raise a back hoof to threaten her or to tell her to leave him alone. When she botheres him to much he will make a half hearted kick at her. He has been known to actually kick her enough to make her yelp but never enough to actually hurt her. So Far. And I hope he never does. Two of our other horses, Nita and Star treat her the same way. But Trave, one of the ponies will only take her "herding" so long and then he will charge at her and try to stomp her with his front hooves. The dumb dog doesn't seem to learn not to bother the horses. Maybe it is her way of finding adventure in an otherwise dull life. When I see she has bugged him enough I tell her to get OUT. She knows that means to leave him alone and get out of his pen. I am glad she only trys to herd the horses when I am out in the pen with them. She never goes in their pens when I am not in there.

OUT

Tuffee knows when I tell her OUT she is to get out of the horse pen. This is her slipping out the gate. She knows how to push it open just enough she can get out.

The Dogs

Here is Tuffee, our Border Collie, Spanky the small brown dog, and Daisy the large white Great Pyrenees Pup. Yes she is only a pup and over 100 pounds. I think she was about 8 months old here.

Tuffee & Spanky

Tuffee and her friend Spanky playing their game of race along the fence.

Spanky & Tuffee

Spanky is Julie's dog. He and Tuffee are friends and like to run up and down along the wire fence between our places.

Old Juniper Tree in Snow

Desert in Snow

I thought that my photos were blurry until I realized it was the snow falling that was casuing them to look blurry. There was about an inch here but there was more at other places up to about 3 or 4 inches.

Walk in the Snow

Walk in the Snow

Dried Leaf in Snow

I found this little redbud tree leaf trying to hang on to it's tree in the snow and wind yesterday.

Sandia's in Snow

We had snow all around us yesterday, but only enough to cover the ground here. Heard there was as much as 2 feet fresh snow in some of the mountains. We could see some of it on the Sandia Mountains from the backyard. Had a nice display of clouds and shadows on the mountains all day.

Small Tent Rocks

All over the Jemez Mountains are pointed rocks like these. Most are bigger than this. They are called tent rocks but to me they should be called teepees.

Jemez Mountains

Another photo from our day in the Jemez Mountains in the Ponderosa area.

Smoke Odor

The smoke odor seems to be gone. Oh, maybe someone that hadn't been here for a while might notice it but us being used to woodsmoke and living with the odor are now used to it and don't notice it.

Magazine Subscriptions

Recently I had a call from Better Homes and Gardens Magazine asking why I had renewed my subscription to their magazine since I had had it for several years. They didn't like what I had to say.
First I don't like paying to get a magazine full of advertisements. In the last magazine of 224 pages I counted 109 full page ads with the addition of a dozen half page ads and another dozen or so that were only about a third of the page. That means that half of the magazine is nothing but advertisements. Why should I pay to get these adds that mean nothing to me. Ads I don't even look at. The companies have already paid to have them there.
Plus I am seeing more and more "fashion" pages in Better Homes and Gardens. I don't get it as a fashion magazine. If I wanted fashion I would get a different magazine. As stated the name of this one is Better "Homes and Garden's" not fashion.
And as for the "Homes" part. I think they need some new designers. What is with this idea of red walls everywhere. Red is an angry color. Don't enough people get angry now already with out making them more angry. And if the walls aren't red then their seasick green.
Half the recipes in the magazine look like something the dog threw up and all seem to have ingredients that are not available in the stores where I shop. Mostly Walmart, Albertsons, and Smiths. So where do I find these things. And if I do and make the recipe I am sure my family won't eat it with these weird things in it. What happened to good old meat and potato recipes?
No this isn't the only Magazine that I am not going to continue when the subscription runs out. It includes my horse magazines. Again they are half advertisements, but at least they are better to look at than B&G or fashion mags. And the articles are the same thing over and over and over and over.

Smoky House

A word of caution - it is never a good idea to clean house. If you do there is sure to be something that will make that clean house much dirtier than it was when you first started to clean it.
Like - the dog will throw up or the dog will tear up 3 of your favorite pillows, or the cat will make sure there is cat litter everywhere 0r hubby will walk through with mud on his shoes or you might be the one with mud on your shoes or just maybe like last night you will find the house is full of smoke because the wind may have caused the ash that was stuck to the sides of the stove pipe to fall down and block the pipe so the smoke comes into the house instead of up the chimney like it is supposed to. (We do clean the pipe several times each winter and had done it about 2 weeks ago.)
What a mess.
We have had the woodstove smoke from time to time but this was the worst. We had put more wood into the woodstove about a half an hour before this happened and gone to bed. Thankfully we weren't asleep yet when we began to notice the smoke. But it kept getting worse and worse and not knowing any other way to put out the blazing wood in the stove Lee used one of our small fire extinguishers on it.(Everyone should have several small fire extinguishers in their house for safety. We keep one in the kitchen, one in bathroom, and one in garage as well as one in hayshed.) So we had the white fire extinguisher powder added to the smoke and soot that was coming out of the stove pipe. But it worked. The fire went out. It did take a bit longer for the hot coals to cool completely. The house was filled with smoke. I made sure all 3 cats were in the bedroom and opened every door and window. It cleared out slowly. But left a horrible smell. If anyone has any ideas on how to get rid of the smell of woodsmoke I would like to hear them.
Of course this happened the day after I had cleaned the livingroom thoroughly because it had been ages since I had done a really good job of it.
So I cleaned again. And cleaned and cleaned while Lee went up on the roof to clean the uper part of the pipe and then wiggled and squirmed behind the stove cleaning the stove pipe that was in the house. While we were cleaning we had all the windows and doors open and I boiled cinnamon water on the cook stove to try to help with the odor. Again I am glad I keep old blankets on the couch and chairs to help keep them clean with a dog and 3 cats laying on them frequently. The funiture itself didn't get as much. Hopefully a good vacuuming was enough for the carpet. And I have dusted everything again.
Last evening we had frozen pizza to which we added satuted onions as we always like onions on the pizza and thought the odor of the onions would help with the smoke odor.
There is still some odor left but it is gradually fading.
Not something I want to experence again.

Snowy Road

Jemez Red Rocks

Lost Family

Recently I joined Facebook - just for the heck of it. But maybe I can find some of my friends and relitives by being on it. My sisters and I keep up with each other mostly using the internet now but there are some of our families that don't use the internet. Hopefully some of our relitives that we don't know much about are on Facebook or serfing the net and will see and respond to this.
I am looking for my dad's family, the Barnett family, most of whom live in or near Cortez, CO. My mom's maiden name was Green and they came from Colorado City, TX back in the mid 1940's. From there they moved to Silver City, NM and then to Albuquerque, NM. My mom's mother's maiden name was Coe.

Also, we would like to find some of my husbands relitives - the Borror family, most of whom are in or near Winchester or Staunton, VA - or the Ratcliff family, most of whom are in or near Petersburg, WV.

I think it would be fun to find relitives or friends of our familes that we don't know and be able to keep in touch with each other on the net.

Maybe High Speed Internet

The past two days there has been a backhoe digging a ditch and a couple of men have been laying a cable down in the ditch and filling in the ditch. So today I asked them what it was for. I was told they were laying a fiberoptic cable for Quest. Hopefully that means that soon I will be able to get high speed internet instead of having to use dialup.
Yes, I could have used an expensive company like Hughs Net but didn't want to go to that. Quest has a lot less expensive high speed program that I having been asking them for since we moved here six years ago.
Please, Quest, let this be so.

Star Pony

A close up of my Star Pony with my new camera. I got a new camera for Christmas so thought I would take a few shots of different things to see if I like the way it works. So far so good. But the software has sure slowed down my computer and I don't know what to do about it yet.