Fall

So it is that time of year. We have to fall back an hour. Wish they - who ever they might be- would stop telling us what time it is.
We spent this weekend as last weekend. Burning tumbleweeds and collection of pine branches that have been on our place way to long. It sure does look better. Maybe we can get some more trash hauled soon.
Fall seems to be a season of cleaning. I would like to clean the house this week so can start thinking about the holiday season. I said thinking about it. It sure does urke me to see Christmas stuff in the stores earlier and earlier each year. I swear I some stuff out in one store in July. Now all the store have it up. We don't even get a change to enjoy Halloween and Thanksgiving.

Freeze

We finally got a really good freeze here at the Tumbleweed crossing, but it doens't seem to be helping our allergies yet. We have pulled most of the tumbleweeds and made a big pile of them. Waiting for a good day - that means no wind so we can burn them. At least we can burn them this year. Last year it was to dry and we had to just let them blow. But there wasn't near as many last year, either.
The horses are finally growing some winter coats. I keep telling them them they need more hair and it's finally growing out to the point I can tell it. I have a feeling it will be a lot colder and more moisture than the past few years have been. And we can use it.
We got in about a hundred bale of hay. A mixture of alfalfa and grass hay. Would like to have a bit more to make it through the winter.

Helens Blows Her Stack

Mount St. Helens, the volcano in Washington state blew her stack (or rather the dome that had been building since the last time it blew) over the weekend. My sister had gone there on Saturday and hours after she got back it blew. To see photos go to
http://www.kgw.com/slideshows/102106StHelensDomeCollapse/1.html

Baxter Black

Baxter Black is a cowboy poet, and a very good one. A lot of what he writes is very good humor about cowboys, and the great outdoors. But the other day I was watching RFD TV and heard a new one that I really liked. I found it on Baxter Blacks web site and I suggest everyone go there and read it. It is entitled So Lucky To BE an American.

http://www.americanwesternmagazine.com/cowboy/weeklies/baxterblack/baxter2005-0704.shtml

Eggs in a Jar

Never put plastic easter eggs in a flower vase. Or at least not in one shaped like my vase. Small on the bottom flares out in the middle with a small top. The plastic eggs went in it easy enough, but wouldn't come out. I kept thinking it might be like one of those silly puzzles, where if you got it turned just right the eggs would pour out. But no such luck. After trying to get them out for weeks I decided to see if I could get one apart. Plastic eggs to come apart. So using a pair of long tweezers I was finally able to get one apart and out. Figured the rest would come out but no way. It was a fight from the first one to the sixth one. Yes there were six plastic eggs in that vase and each one had to be pried apart with the tweezers held just so to get the egg out.
Moral of this story - always consider the consquents of putting something odd shaped into something else odd shaped - it may be hell to get it back out.

email subjects

So I got tired of saying Hi as the subject when I don't kow what to title it and don't want the email program to say "You dont have a subject! Are you sure you don't want to have a subject. You need a subject! Every email should have a subject!""" So I thought I would try just Hello. I wonder what email programs have against emails without subjects anyway.

I got the above paragraph from an email friend and I have to agree whole-hartedly. Why were subjects ever entered into emails. Yes I understand it helps with the spam problems, but there should be some way to elemintate them from friendly emails sent to friends and family if we don't think they are needed. Some programs will not send the email without a subject. And just how many times can you send one that says "HI". In fact my programs will sometimes put a message on that I am spamming when I have used "HI" to many times in a short length of time. I would like to know who sets up the programs for computers and just what do they put in the subject of emails to their friends. Do they even have friends? Or are computers their only friends.

Fiesta

want to know more about the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta - go to
www.balloonfiesta.com

Invasion

A sample of how it looks from my house when the balloons take off and fly over Albuquerque. It was a bit hazy for taking a good shot this morning.

Another Balloon

Balloons

I know I sometimes complain about balloons, and they do upset the dogs and horses. But they are a great subject for photographers. Here are some I took recently during the Albuquerque International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta that is held every year in October.

Today

Today was the first day of the balloon fiesta. I thought it was going to get rained out but no such luck.

With all the stressful thoughts I have had today, I decided to put this photo of a yellow rose in.

Bad People

I simply can not understand people who don't want to care for there animals. And then it completly beyond the realm of my understanding that anyone could hurt, molest, or kill small children as I have been hearing so much of lately. I keep asking myself why there is so much more of this evil in people any more. But no one seems to have an answer.
And when will it stop?

Post a Post

Ok so I am supposed to post something on this thing ever so often so it stays active. Can't think of a thing to write today. Same old same old stuff. Work stinks, and home isn't much better. The only good things in life seem to be the horses, dogs, and cats. Got to keep working as much as possible so I can feed them. I see way to much of the kind of people that get an animal and then never give it any attention and lot of them don't even feed or water the poor things. There is a horse in our neighbor hood that gets very little care, and a dog at another house. Several of us have reported these to animal control repeatedly but they don't seem to care as they don't even come out an investagate. You can watch animal planet and see people being arrested for animal abuse, but not here in New Mexico. I wish our animal control people were as caring as those on TV. If the animals didn't look so bad I would think that maybe it was all made up stories.

Little Flower

Ok, according to one report the little yellow wild flower is a horrible weed, (name still unknown) that will take over if allowed. The leaves are horrible as they stick to everything and will not come off of clothes and gloves even in the washing machine.
But - one man's flower is another man's weed. I only have one of the little yellow flowers. I have millions of tumbleweeds, and way to many devils claws, and other un-named weeds. As well as a surplus of marigolds. So for now I will keep the little yellow wild flower - weed.

Riding

Due to surery and weather I hadn't been riding in what felt like ages. So yesterday I decided it had to be now. I saddled up BlackJack and away we went. Considering how long it had been we both did fairly well.

?Winter?

Winter seems to have arrived in New Mexico, Colorado, and a few other states on the day that Fall officially begins. Colorado has had lots of snow, and New Mexico has had some in the higher elevations. I really don't look forward to a hard, cold winter but it looks like we might be in for one. I have informed the horses they should grow long, thick winter coats as it look like it will be a lot worse than the mild winter we had last year. So far it doesn't seem as if they are growing much hair. I have upped their ration of grain adding some corn oil and other vitumins hoping it will help. The fact that the hay, and alfhala crops this summer have been very poor isn't helping either. The best alfhala hay I can find has very little leaf and way to much stem in it. And so far I can't get any decent grass hay. I really don't look forward to buying blankets for the horses, but may have to. We haven't been cold enough for years to need them.
Maybe this is just a weird system of weather going through for a day or so. We can hope so.
Guess I should go out and try to get some of the house plants in before they freeze.

Wilf Flower

Thanks for the comments and suggestions about the wild flowers. No, it is not a columbine, although it looks simular. The leaf is completly different. A long narrow leaf with scalloped edges, in a gray-green color. It is almost sticky on the back side, and wants to cling to your hand and especially your clothes. I have checked all my books, and the internet. It has been such a wet summer it could be anything. Maybe not even a wild flower, as we have such violent winds here, the seed could have come from who knows where. May be some type of hybred garden flower but I don't find it in any of my gardening books. I'll keep looking and let you know if I find out what it is.

Found these cute little flowers in the yard. Any one know what they are?

cool & windy

We went to bed last night to a bit of wind. Don't like that but it does help keep the flies off the horses. Was cooler last night than it has been being. And a lot cooler today. Feels much better. I was able to clean the horse pens with out thinking I was going to have a heat stroke. And the horses were feeling frisky. Running and playing, instead of standing like the heat was to much for them, too.
Had a small covvy of quail in the yard. Hadn't seen any for several weeks. It was a pair and 4 youngster. Good to see them and know that a few babies might survive the heat, coyotes, hawks, roadrunners and cars. They were eating a lot of seeds on some native grass that had sprouted and matured with all the rain.
Got out the ATV and used the blade on the front of it to scrap a path around the horse fields to get rid of about a 4 foot path of tumbleweeds. The horses think they are better than candy, and will lean on the fence trying to get to them. The fence will only last so long with 4 1000 pound critters pushing on it. If we have a path so tumbleweeds arn't right against the fence they don't push on it so much. Of course we had to throw the ones we pulled out to the horses. I couldn't stand there begging. Worse than a dog under the table.