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.