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.