Where is Spring?

We thought spring had come to the Tumbleweed Crossing but it was only a figment of our imagination. Winter was back. We were hauling wood in again for the woodstove as the temps were back down to about 30 degrees at night. And the days have been filled with wind and blowing sand. For the past week we have had wind everyday. Wind is not good for working with horses or trying to get the garden ready for planting.
I bought seeds, seed starter for starting tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, and watermelons. With the wind I don't dare put the little pots outside as they will blow away and I don't really have room for them in the house.
The peach trees and my Bradford pear trees were all bloomed out when the nasty weather hit. They were so pretty with the pink blossoms on the peach trees and the white blossoms on the pear trees. Now they are curled, shriveled and blackened. I am not sure yet if it was the cold, or the wind that got to them. Or both. Don't know if we will have any peaches or not. Of course Bradford pears are ornamentals and don't have fruit on them.
I do think I got some decent photos of the blossoms but they are still in the camera at this point.

New TV

We hadn't planned on buying one of the new fancy flat screen TV's. We had a good one, it was only 8 years old. But the one in the bedroom decided to give up it being older, I am guessing about 15 years old. So the one in the livingroom went to the bedroom and a new one came to the livingroom. We didn't get the bigest or the smallest of the flat screens on sale. It's a 37 inch vizio. We were a bit leary that the hipe on the new digital TV's were much, much better especially since Lee is color blind and I have poor vision. We couldn't see that much different while watching the ones in the store but decided part of that might be from the poor lighting in the store. So home it came. It did take a good bit of time to rework our entertainment center so it would sit in it, had to take out a couple of shelves to make the TV space bigger. Then it took even more time to set up the TV using the remote. Almost like setting up a new computer. Then we had to add the Direct TV receiver. but finally it was done.
So now it has been about two weeks. And I can diffently say "Yes" it has been well worth buying. The screen is bigger so easier to see, and the color is better, and it is much clearer, with really good sound quality. We have watching things like wildlife and nature shows and the make them looker prettier than ever. We have no complains when watching old black and white shows either. They are still good.
I'm not saying to run out and buy one. But if your old one quites it is worth thinking about.

Door Slave

it seems that I have become a door slave to 2 dogs and 3 cats. Of course I have known for the past 50 years I have been a door slave to large number of dogs and cats but it seems to be worse the past week or so. There is always one or another of them wanting in or out. They come in, they go out. And repeat. And repeat. The dogs have to go to use the facilities. But the cats were supposed to be indoor cats. I insisted on my cats being indoor cats if I lived in town, especially in an apartment. but here on several areas they enjoy going out as much as I do. I don't force them to go out, but I do "train" as much as you can train a cat to come in at dark each evening. I do it by constant, presistently doing a "cat roundup" each evening. They don't like it but it is a necessary evil as we have coyotes in our area. I see a lot of cats in our area now that are out at night and I am surprised more of them don't disappear.

In the mean time I will continue to be a door slave. I just wish they wouldn't always wait until I sit down to ask to come in.

Vacuum Cleaner

I do wish there was a factory that could make a vacuum cleaner that would work for longer than a about a year. Maybe they do in other parts of the world. But here on the desert they don't. I have had several now in the 6 years I have lived here, and each and everyone, (there have been several different brands) have given up after about a year of usage. The last one is my Bissell Powerforce which I have had for a little over a year. The on/off switch has quite. Once off it doesn't come back on until it decides to. I am sure it is due to all the sand and dust in the vacuum. Which is another thing. How many homes have an air compressor to use to blow out the vacuum cleaner when they have finished using it for the day. It is necessary here. My husband, being a mechanic, has an air compressor which I have leaned to use on my vacuum about once a week to keep the dirt cleaned out of it enough to work. I take all the filers and little parts out, shake out what dirt I can and then use the air compressor to blow out the rest. After which I am covered in a cloud of dust and have to take a shower. But if I don't do this the vacuum doesn't last more than a few months.
Do the vaccum companies do this on purpose so that we have to spend more money to buy more of these necessary evil devices? All my neighbors agree with this. Non working vacuum's are one of the most common item I see at garage sales.

Lonely Daffy

I didn't plant any daffodils last fall but did have this one come up from some I had planted before. It was the only one. Daffodils are one of my favorite flowers but they don't like to do well here in the desert where the wind has a habit of burying them to deep with sand for them do to well after the first year.

Raindrop

I took this photo after our rain last Friday morning. You can see some of the other tree branchs in the raindrop

Close up of Quail

here is another shot of the quail that I pulled in closer. You can see part of a residental section of Rio Rancho, NM behind him.

Quail

This quail was sitting on the fence post yesterday evening. He was either calling for a mate or telling the other quail this was his territory. We see a big flock of quail like this usually sometime every day as we have water out for them.In the spring the flock breaks up into pairs, and then when the little ones are about half grown they come together as flocks again. They prefer to run rather than fly. They only fly when they are really scared and then not very far. Frequently we see one dash from one tumbleweed or clump of sagebrush to another. They hide in the brush and cactus mostly. I don't feed them as we have too many small crow like black birds that I don't want to encourage. I really like the quail and wish they wouldn't be so shy, but can't figure out how to tame them a bit. Not to much as I still want them to be wild birds.

Sharing the couch

A recent photo of my cat, Kasie, and dog, Codee, sharing the couch one evening.

Cat Reading

This is a photo of me and my black cat, Jade, reading a book

Game Score

As far as the Fantasy Bull Riding Game I scored 2086.25. Not enought to even get close to the winning score but at least I was able to pick some winning riders, Wiley Peterson, and Robson Polermo. And I picked one of the highest scoring bulls, Crosswired, for the event.

Spring Weather

We've had some spring like weather the past few days. Had a scattering of snow yesterday morning with about a half inch of rain off and on all day. Horses are sheding. All are hairy beasts. Will be glad when they are done but hope it warms up some more before they are throught. The ponies have recovered from their surgery and are back to their old selves. I kept hearing all those tales of stallions having problems from being castrated. And I am sure some of them do. Even the vet said they might really swell but neither of mind did. I am sure the two that used live across from us were really swollen as I did see them. But I think a lot of it has to do with getting them out and making sure they get sufficent excersise. I'm not saying take it to extreams but do walk them from the second day on. I didn't even get a chance to wash them down with water hose every day as suggested due to the horrible wind and sand storms we had at that time. The one time I tried Traveler got way to upset and I decided it was best to leave him be. Stormy didn't mind the water hose but only got to do it to him once due to bad winds. Now the seem alright and it is a bit cool for a bath. But I do plan to make it one of my goals this summer to make sure Trave gets used to having a bath.

Fantasy Bull Riding Game

Being a fan of PBR and all bull riding I have decided to play the Fantasy Bull Riding Game. You pick 5 riders and 3 bulls that you think will give you the highest points on their rides or bull scores. The person with the highest score will win for the week. If you win highest scores for the season you get tickets to the finals in Las Vegas in November. I know I won't win because I am getting into this late, it started in January, but it should be fun to play. If you want to try your hand at it go to www.pbrnow.com and go to the link for the Fantasy Games. I will try to let you know how I did after the event.