Tumbleweed Crossing

Monday, April 26, 2010

Smallest Minature Horse Foal

It is all over the news about the smallest mini horse foal. From the photos he is a cutie. Nice color and shape. This one is not a dwarf. A real horse. Check out photos on this site http://www.tonic.com/article/worlds-smalles
t-horse-hello-6-pound-einstein/

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Pueblo Montano Trailhead

There is a small park at the Pueblo Montano Trailhead that I went to this past week. I had been meaning to go for about a year or so and no one wanted to go with me so I went by myself. I found that a firefighter had made these wonderful chainsaw sculptures out the dead cottonwood tree trunks that were left from a fire that went throught this area in 2003. I had to take lots of photos of the sculptures and now I want to share them. I hope everyone appreciates this artwork as I do. My thanks to the artest for for doing the scuptures.

Firefighter

The firefighter is probably the largest of the wooden sculptures in the little park at the Pueblo Montano Trailhead. The sculptures were made byMark Chavez, who was one of the firefighters who fought the Albuquerque Bosque Fire of 2003. I have seen a lot of things made from wood using chainsaws (mostly bears) but the sculptures in the park are really unique. The tell the story of the fire, and the wildlife that live in the Bosque. The Bosque is the nature trails and native lands that border the Rio Grande River where it runs through Albuquerque, NM.

During the fire many of the beautiful cottonwood trees along this section of the river were killed. Instead of cutting down the dead trees to use them as firewood or hauling them to the dump Mark Chavez turned these tree stumps into fanstatic sculptures. More information at http://www.examiner.com/x-1972-Albuquerque-Travel-Examiner~y2009m9d10-Hidden-Albuquerque-Pueblo-Montano-park-and-the-wood-carvings-of-Mark-Chavez

Firefighter & Dragon

The firefighter has his foot on the dragons head.

Dragon

The dragon that the firefighter is standing on represents the forest fire that the firefighters fought.

Eagle

This is the sculpture of the bald eagle.

Sandhill Crane

Dead Trees

Here is a shot of two of the cottonwood trees that were killed by the fire but haven't been carved into figures yet. The sandhill crane on it's tree trunk can be seen in front. If you look close you can see Coors Blvd behind the park with the housing develpment that is to the west of Coors Blvd. The parking lot for the park can also be seen along with a distant view of the eagle.

Cottonwood Tree

This is the biggest cottonwood tree that survived the fire in this little area. Paseo del Norte highway is to the left of it. The pathway runs to the right of it. You can see the dead cottonwood trunk that has the sandhill crane on top of it. The Rio Grande River is farther on beyond the tree and park.

Owl & Birds

This owl can be seen from Paseo Del Norte highway that runs right beside the small park where all the wooden sculptures are. It was because I had seen the owl that I finally decided to stop and see what was at the park. I was amazed at how many wooden animal sculptures there were and that I had never heard about them on the TV news or anywhere else.