Memorial Day

Hope everyone had a decent weekend and either a day off or more pay if they had to work.
I got tired of the wind and the car races. So took off yesterday afternoon and visited our local veterans Memorial Park in Rio Rancho. It was nice and cool under the shade of the trees in the water-wise garden maintained by the city. Several nice desert willows, daylillies and other easy to grow plants, but lots of grass in the Memorial Area. Way to much grass for a desert garden. But still it is nice to know that there is such a pretty little park near me where I can see trees and grass.
Yes, I have planted trees in my chunk of desert land, but they are struggling do to no rain and way to much hot wind. I spent a good portion of my weekend watering my trees, and the containers I have planted with a few roses, tomatoes, petuninas, marigolds, and zennias. and my houseplants that I have put outside for the summer. Sometimes I wonder why I even try to grow plants here. Everytime they start looking a bit decent and like they might survive for a while and heck of a wind and sand storm comes up and rips them to shreds.
But I guess I will keep trying. It seems to be one of those things I can't help. It seems like I am addicted to growing things from seeds, or buying small plants at the nursery and trying to nurture them into the big magnificent plants I see in photos of places that get more rain than we do.

Red Rock area near Jemez Pueblo. Popular picnic area where you can usually find Indians selling fry bread that they make on the spot and have oven bread that they make in their outdoor ovens.

Trip to the Mountains

We went to the Jemez Mountians last Thursday. It was the first time we had been since last fall. It was a very leaserly, idealic, day. We wern't in any hurry and stopped here and there to take photos. We were upset at how dry the country looked and hope, hope, hope that there will soon be rain to soak into the very thristy soil, giving the plants, trees, and everything else a much needed drink. We didn't see any elk, or deer, but did see tracks. We only spotted a couple of chipmonks that disappeared in record time. And there were an couple of bluejays, ravens, flickers (a type of woodpecker) and nuthatches.
I don't expect to go to the mountains again for a while which is very disappointing. Memoral weekend is always way to crowded. We were pleased that we were able to get out and see no one or hear any other cars or trucks. It was wonderful to breath fresh air that didn't smell of city polution.
If it doesn't rain, and I mean a lot of rain, that I don't expect, I figure the Forest Service will close of the National Forests here in New Mexico as it is just to dry and dangerious to have them open. Most people do not seem to understand the idea of being careful with campfires, cigerates, and dirt bikes and ATVs that can cause sparkes that start fires. I hate the idea of not going to visit my favorite mountains when I want do but neither do I want to see them burn down do to someones carelessness.

Proud

I am so proud of myself. I tore my bedroom/office apart this past weekend. And through out and cleaned and through out and cleaned. I hadn't done this for 3 years - the cleaning part in all those nooks and crannys that are impossible to reach unless you actually move that big heavy dresser, chest of drawers, computer desk, bookcase, bed, or what ever. I had not gone through a considerable number of paper work for - well for a very, very long time. I filled a large trash bag with copies of stories that I have added to my computer files, and others that will never be finished. I used to do everything I wrote in a notebook first and then onto the computer, and I would keep the trashy notebook that no one could read, including me, with the thought that some day my computer would crash and the floppy disk would flop. Thank goodness for CDs and the little flash things that can be clipped to a key ring. And for internet sites where you can store photos and stories.

Looks like I'm having trouble putting photos on this blog, as well as my spelling. Anyway that is a (or rather two photos of Bonita, my Quarter Horse mare)

http://www.goldstud.net

spelling

Yes, I know my spelling is terrible. I will try to do better. (But don't count on it)

Other Animals

Now before someone asks, we have 4 cats. Corky a 14 year old Siamese male, Jade, a solid black 10 year old female, K.C., a gray and white 7 year old female, and Murphy, who is 4 and also solid black but a male.
All my cats and dogs are spayed or neutered. It is a requirement.
We have 3 dogs. Nikki, yellow 11 year old Lab/Collie cross female, Codee, 6 year old female, black and tan German Shepherd, and Tuffee, a 2 year old female Border Collie.
In addition there is a horde of cottontail rabbits that live under the barn, 5 sparrow nests with a large number of resident sparrows in the top of the barn. A flock of quail that come through for their daily drink of water. A half dozen jackrabbits that live on our section of land that is unfenced, (seemingly they can't go through the wire fence like the cottontails do). Plus the occasional passing of a coyote.
I don't have any but can hear my neighbors cows and goats, and another neighbors chickens. That rooster crows 24 hours a day. I can't figure out when the thing ever sleeps.

How Many Horses?

There was a comment left asking how many horses do I have. It depends on how you look at it. Officially I have 2 - Stardust, my mustang, appolossa pony, and BlackJack, my Morgan gelding.
Then my husband and I both own our bay Quarter Horse mare, Bonita. Also, I have my friends paint Quarter Horse gelding, Sundance. Said owner is in another state and only comes to see him once in every few months.
Now my son has 5 horses and I fell that they are mine, too. He has a dark palomino Quarter Horse stallion, Gold-dust, and a small, sorrel, mini-sheltland mare cross named Blossom, and a beautiful black and white pinto mare named Emme that is half Arabian and half Saddlebred, and we have her son Arte whose sire was a purebred Arabian. If you want to see Arte, Goldie and Emme you can go to Dustin's web site www.goldstud.net

Hay? Anyone?

I went to the store and gagged at the prices on people food, dog food, and cat food. Then I want to the feed store and had a heart attach at the prices of horse hay, and oats. Then a thought hit me. Why don't us people, who should eat a lot of veggies, greens, and fiber, - well why don't we eat hay. Yeah I know that horses go through those bales of green stuff like there was no tomorrow. But if people ate hay it should last quite a while.
So I got on the computer and tried to find some recipes so I could cook some hay. (I didn't care for it to much when I tried it raw). But, alas, no such luck. It seems that even the granola people don't go in for cooked hay.
So maybe I should give it a try. It can't be that hard. I'll take a handful of Alfala, a handful of Timothy, and maybe a handful of K-31 fescue. Then I cook it in a pot of boiling water. Maybe I should add a pinch of salt, a pinch of pepper, and some chopped onions for seasonings. Then just before it looks done, I can add a handful of oats, and another of corn.
Yum Yum Yum Doesn't that sound good?

Poor Flowers

I think one of the things that bothered me the most about all that wind was that it destroyed all the flowers I have spent so much time persuading to grow in this country of sand. I was able to salvage the plants themselves but all the pretty flowers on my pansies, germanium, petunias, and dianthis were done for. I lost the two nice tomatoes that I had recently bought completely, I think. The trees that had such nice, pretty, green leaves now had dried, brittle black leaves on their northwest side. But the cactus in large clay pots that are just starting to bloom seem to be all right.

Wind and more Wind

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know - all I do is complain about the wind. Why do you think they call me Windy? Well, this time we really had wind. It was on this past Tuesday the 9th of May. The recorded high wind at the Albuquerque Air Port (which is 50 miles away from me) was 62 miles per hour. I am sure that it had to be more than that here. We lost a bunch of roofing tiles off of our roof, and a sheet of tin off of one of the horse shelters. Of course the horses were terrified, but thankfully none were hurt. We found all kinds of tumbleweeds and other peoples trash in our yard the next day. ( Why can't people put there trash in the trash cans supplied by the trash company that they HAVE to pay for?) On of the scareyest things I found was that my wheelbarrow for hauling horse poop was a good fify feet from where I had left it that morning, upside down. I sure am glad no one was hit by it.
Of course I was at work while most of this was going on, but Lee said that the walls of the house seemed to be pulsing, (moving, shaking,) and he was sure he had seen a small tornato off to the northwest at one point.
Yes - I know this is trivial compared to the people in Texas that were actually hit by tornatos that same night - but it was certainly more that I wanted to experence.

me and my pony Star

You can see Pat and Linda Parelli on there show on Wednesdays on RFD channel 379 on Direct TV. I, also, watch the horse shows done by Clinton Anderson, Chris Cox, Creg Cammeron, Richard Winters, Dennis Reis, as well as all the horse shows on RFD. They can be very informative for all horseman but especially the beginners.

Good Pony

I can not beleive the difference it has made in my horses by using the Seven Games Horsemanship method taught by Pat Parelli. My stubborn little mustang mare Star that always wanted to run me over if I attempted to teach her anything is now backing, and lunging on a lead line. To find out more about this way of teaching horses go to
www.Parelli.com

Thank, Bunny, for your comment here at the Tumbleweed Crossing. I agree with you completely. As I have thought more about it - maybe - they chose the really citified people so they can make a point of how how we have evolved over the years and forgot all our common since, and only know how to be lazy and dependent on other people and modern inventions for everything. It's to show us how bad off we would be if we suddenly had to live that way again.

Texas Ranch Show

I watched the Texas Ranch Show on our local PBS channel. And I was very disappointed. It was supposed to be a reenactment of how a family would act during the 1800's if they had just bought and moved into a small ranch in Texas. Well it just goes to show you how unprepared the people of this century would be if they suddenly found their selves trying to exist in a land of no electricity, cars, running water, or all the other modern conviences of today.
On top of that I don't think any of them (especially the women) had done any research into what they would be doing, and what it would be like. The training they got must have been just the bare minimum.
It was unbelievable to me that the women would seem so lazy as to leave their dishes unwashed with that many flies around. They should have been washing them as soon as they were used and if it had been me I would have been out there making sure that there was no animal poop near the house. I would have found something to kill flies with. I could have made some kind of a fly swatter. A rolled up piece of paper, a piece of cheesecloth streached over a wooden frame.
Even worse was the fact that, although they grew a decent garden they didn't harvest and use any of the vegies. They let food rot when they had that many people to feed. And if they weren't going to use it part of it could have gone to the pigs, goats, even horses.
And the men back in the 1800's would have never treated women like those cowboys were doing. It would have been unthinkable, and if they had they would have been run off.
I can't believe that Rancher Cook was unwilling to ransom his cowhand from the Indians. That was unheard of - unless he was your worst enemy.
I'm sure I will make enemies by writing this but maybe it was all that disappointing. Just depressing that these people, who didn't seem as if they really cared about making a go of the experience were the ones chosen for it.

Seeds

After getting over being so mad at the store, I went out and planted some flower seeds. I already have volenter marigolds up, and a few tomatos and sunflower that I planted about a week ago. I planted zinna, colome, rose moss, allisism, cantalopes, cucumbers, and dill for the swallowtail butterflys. The swallowtails lay their eggs on dill and parsley, then the yellow and green stripped catapillers eat it. They don't bother anything else. And the yellow and black swallowtails are so pretty when they hatch and fly around. They are about the largest butterfly we have around here. I always look forward to them.

New Store

I hate stores. Especially those big conglamerates that compete for all our money. But where else is there to buy food, and household staples? We had a new one open up in our neighborhood about two weeks ago. They were all friendly, and nice on the first few days. Now it is back to the typical don't know, don't care, just pay for what ya got and get out the door, there's another customer behind you. Couldn't find certain things and no employee wanted to help me find them. The bathroom was a desaster - no tolet paper, or paper towels, crud everywhere and the smell ------
And of course there were no men avalible to do a carry out. I love to have to pick up and haul around 50 pound dog food sacks as well as cat litter, cat food, and they put all my heavy stuff in one bag that then broke - 5 pounds of sugar, and a dozen cans of food. Then they put that on top of the eggs. Surprisingly only one egg broke.
Hope that the rest of the US has better customer service at their stores than we have here in New Mexico