The PBR

 The PBR or Professional Bull Riders is the only sport I really follow. I always said I would never get involved in a sport like some people do with football, basketball, baseball, soccer, golf (did you notice all of these are 'ball' games). The people who follow theses sports know all the players, and all the winners, and all rules, and all the big moments in the sport.
      Well, I did get involved with a sport. But it is the 'roughest sport on dirt'. Most of the riders start in the minor rodeo events and work their way up to the PBR. It is a rough, hard climb to get there and most of the rodeo riders never make it. The top 35 riders in the rodeo bull riding events are allowed to compete in the PBR. They have to win points and money to qualify. Another words they have to be good at what they do and not be afraid of getting hurt. It isn't if you get hurt, it's when, 'cause it will happen.
     I have been following the PBR since it was started 20 years ago and always wanted to go to the Ty Murry Event when it is held each March here in Albuquerque, NM. I finally got to go last Sunday for the last day of the 3 day event. It was fantastic.
    The event might have been fantastic but my photos aren't. I'm still not that good with my new camera and in the flashing lights, spinning, whirling, bucking, bulls made for hard to take photos so I didn't get any really good photos. But here are a sample. The videos I took with the same camera did come out better but I can't get them to download.

There were a lot of noise and on the ground fireworks when it first started.

This is the cowboy and horse who's job it was to rope the bull and get it out of the arena if the bull didn't leave on his own. The area is the  University of New Mexico Basketball arena. They bring in heavy tarps, then plywood, then tons and tons of dirt and the chutes for the bulls. It is the smallest arena of all the PBR events. It looks small on TV but looks even smaller when you are there.

 The rider is getting onto the bull in the chute. The men with the rode are ready to open the gate when he says to. In the red shirt is Shorty, one of the 3 bull fighters that keep the bull off of the rider when he comes off. The ride is only for 8 seconds, if the rider can stay on that long, and usually they don't.

 Flint Rassmussen is an ex-bull fighter turned comedian who entertains the fans while the riders are getting ready to ride.

 This is Crag Hummer, a well known sports announcer, and Ty Murry, 7 time world champion all-round cowboy, who started the PBR, and announces with Crag. They are the ones that do the TV announcing but there is a different announcer that you hear if you are actually at the event. Our seat was just 6 rows from where they were sitting to do the TV part.

 Got these out of order here, this is the winner of the event, Joao Ricardo Vieiro, one of the Brazilian riders, and his first event win. Since this is an International event there are riders from the US, Brazil, Canada, and Australia. And we like them all. Many people are fans of the bull more than the riders. At this event were the two most popular bulls, Bushwhacker and Asteroid, who have each won the Bull of the Year award.

 Here is a view of the arena and the seats. Thats 40 very steep steps down to the bottom and we were close to the bottom. Great for seeing everything up close but climbing out was a workout.

After an event the bull riders circle the area signing anything you want them to sign. I got the autographs of 3 riders and as I was leaving the I almost ran into a retired rider that I have always admired, and who won the PBR World Title of 1997, Michael Gaffney, who was nice enough to autographed my program.
    If you want to know more go to www.pbr.com

Hot Air Balloon

As It Might Have Looked 400 Years Ago

These are photos I took of distance views from around Coronado State Monument. Of course the fences are new. 2nd photo shows a brush ramada or outdoor cooking area that would have been similar to those used by the Indians at the time the Spaniards first saw this area.

As always the Sandia Mountains can always be seen. Coronado State Monument is just north of Albuquerque and a couple of hours drive south of Santa Fe. It is right on the edge of the town of Bernallio, and about 20 minutes drive from my house. Don't know why it has taken me about 25 years to get back here since the last time I went. I plan to go more often if I can.

RAIN! RAIN! Finally

On July 20th we had the first major rain we had had in about a year. My rain gage showed just under an inch. We have been needing rain despertly and finally we got some. The whole state of NM has been in a drought for several years that had got really bad this summer. But in July what is called the monsoon rains started slowly inching their way into the state. Each afternoon we would hear of some little bit of rain somewhere. Many times we watched the clouds come in and could see some rain falling in and around the Albuquerque, Bernallio, Corrales areas, and even in down town Rio Rancho but not exactly where we are. This is when we have big, beautiful white thunderhead clouds come rolling in with a lot of them over the Sandia Mountains. The ones in these photos arn't as good as some of them but they were the ones that brought us the rain this day. We didn't really expect to get anything but a few drops as is normal when it first started and then it turned loose and became a gully-washer. A male rain as the Indians call it.If you had been in an arroyo or ditch it would have been a nasty flash flood. It is amazing how much water can come down to only be listed as less than an inch on the rain gage. The photos showing big puddles of water were quickly soaked into our thirsty ground.
The next day we got some rain again but it was only a light rain, the kind we really need so it can soak in instead of running off. A female rain.
But no where in the state have we had enough to get us back up to a decent leval of water in the rivers, creeks, and underground water table. It has been good for helping with the fires but not enough to put out that big fire that is still burning west of Los Alamos.
We are hoping for more.

Smoke

With all the smoke we have had coming into the Rio Rancho/Albuquerque area I decided to take some photos of it this evening. The sun, (yes, that is the sun, and not the moon) could be looked at with the naked eye with so much smoke in front of it. But I couldn't get it to come out the red color it looked to me.

Going Home

The Sandia Mountains as seen from Highway 550 when we head home after a day in the Jemez Mountains. Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, and Corrales lay at the foot of the mountians where they can't be seen in this photo. It takes us about an hour and a half to drive between home and Jemez Springs.

Wind Storm

We are having another windstorm today. It is covering the whole state of New Mexico, and is a little scarey. We had a bad one a few weeks ago and this is just as bad. It makes me wonder if we are going into another 'dust bowl' like my parents and grandparents talked about happened in the 1920's and 1930's. As I sit here I can hear the winding howling like a monster trying to consume the land and everything on it. I hear the metal roof on the ponies shelter bouncing, the trash cans have been knocked over by the wind, as have my yard cart, and a bench I sit on when outside. I hear the squeal of the metal gates as the wind pushes on them first one way and then the other way. We have the 10 foot long front gate wrapped with a heavy chain and locked to keep the wind from pushing it open. That gate seems to get the wind the worse as it has come open a few times. I just hope the gates to the horse pens don't come open. I have only small latches on them instead of heavy chains and locks. The horses don't want to stay in their shelters because, apparently, it is more scarey to them in the shelters than out. They stand with their eyes closed and their butts to the wind trying to wait it out. I feel so sorry for them. Most of the time their 3-sided shelters are enough. I can't see the Sandia Mountians that usually make such a nice view for us from the back porch. In fact it is difficult to see my neighbors home. The power pole between my house and theirs keeps trimbling in the wind. It has a crack in it from the top to the bottom. We have called the electric company but they say it is safe. I guess when it falls and hits a house, or truck, or even worse one of our propane tanks (the pole is between our propane tank and theirs) then the electric company might say that there was a problem. I see the wind whipping the electric lines back and forth between the power poles. I hope they don't come down. When I first moved to Albuquerque in 1973 we never had wind storms like this. You could count on a rain shower almost every afternoon for a few minutes from late spring until late summer. When we moved to Rio Rancho in 1983 there was usually more snow in Feb. and March than any other month. I remember a snow storm in May on Mothers Day in about 1984. By the next day the snow had melted off the roses and they were fine. But then we had moisture frequently. Up until about 1995 we planned to spent most weekends from Jan. to April in the mountains snowmobiling. Now I have two snowmobiles sitting in the yard that haven't been started for several years. In fact one of the reasons we moved to where we are now is that we had been able to bring the snowmobiles out here frequently to ride them on 10 to 18 inch snows several times each winter. We had antipated riding out the front gate and across a snow covered mesa on our snowmobiles. Now we just watch the wind whip sand up onto everything with no hint of moisture in the air.

Summer Spots

When I first got Star as a yearling about 11 years ago she didn't have any spots except the star between her eyes. Each year when she gets her summer coat she has more and more of the tiny appaloosa spots on her face, neck, chest, and belly but very few of the spots on her back and butt where an appy normally has them. In the winter time in her heavy coat she doesn't have the little spots and looks like a normal sorrel horse. To get the photos I had to tie her to a post in her pen that is on the east side of our small place and has a good view of the Sandia Mountains. Albuquerque and Rio Rancho are between us and the mountains but can't be seen, thank goodness, for the hill between us and them.

Sandia Mountains

These are the Sandia Mountains as we see them every day from our home west of Albuquerque, NM. Albuquerque lays at the feet of the mountains along the Rio Grande River and can't be seen in this photo. Most of the time we simply see this big mountain and take them for granted. But the last part of October we decided to take a drive up to the top. The following photos are the ones I took that day. We took our Border Collie, Tuffee with us and you can see her in this photo, too. At our home we are about 6500 feet in elevation. The top of the Sandia Mountains, known as Sandia Crest is a bit over 11,000 feet high. Much higher than it looks in this photo. When making this drive you will go from about 5000 feet in parts of Albuquerque and desert country all the way to the top which is considered Alpine country at tree line. There is a dirt road going up the west or 'backside' of the Sandias through the little town of Placitis. Or you can drive the paved road up the east side of the Mountains through Cedar Crest. The Sandia Mountains are part of the Cibola National Forest. There are many acres of forest with lots of wildlife. I don't believe there is much logging or hunting allowed in the Sandias anymore. There are several nice picnic areas that are constantly being improved. Plus there is a ski resort and restaurant as well as the Sandia Tram which is the longest tram in the United States and goes from a restaurant in the northeast part of Albuquerque to the restaurant at the ski resort near the top of the mountain. I rode the tram in 1968 and 1980 but haven't raked up the nerve to ride it again. There is more info on the Sandia Mountains at http://www.fs.fed.us/r3/cibola/districts/sandia.shtml

Albuquerque

This was my best photo actually looking down at Albuquerque, NM from Sandia Crest. It was hazey this day, on better days you can actually make out buildings and streets in Albuquerque, and with field glasses you can see my house way, way west, almost 100 miles west of the mountains.

Aspen Tree in Sandia Mountains

This is an aspen tree we saw on our recent trip to the Sandia Mountains. This was what is considered the 'backside' or west side of the Sandias. It is a narrow, usually single lane, dirt road that goes up the mountain from the town of Placitis, NM, which is north of Albuqueque.