AK2NM

Photos in other places

2011-10-28T09:46:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted here for quite a while, but do have quite a few pictures with captions in my Picassa Album. It's much easier to upload there than to try and lay out these blog posts. So if you want to know what we're up to in New Mexico, check out:
https://picasaweb.google.com/homerhorns

(Try clicking on the slide show option at the upper right in each album.)

Santa Fe Trip

2011-06-03T11:27:00.001-07:00

Annie had an appointment with a Dr. of Chinese Medicine in Santa Fe on Friday, so we packed up the tent and headed north Thursday. Spent the night just outside of Santa Fe in the Hyde Memorial State Park (didn't see Franklin or Eleanor). The acupucture treatment seemed to do Annie some good, as she's been walking around a lot more while we've been out in the willy-wags for the past four days.
It was great to leave the heat of Truth or Consequences behind and get up into the mountains around Santa Fe. The campground was at around 8,000 ft elevation and it got quite cool at night.

Santa Fe is very beautiful, but a little too quaint for my taste. They control the architecture and colors to make sure everything looks like a post card. The classic southwestern look was developed to attract tourists and although the individual buildings are gorgeous, the enforced similarity makes it less a city than a theme park. We did see the Georgia O'Keafe museum, which was a treat, and walked around the square in the center of town. We also stopped to see the St. Francis Basilica. St. Francis is the patron saint of Santa Fe. The Franciscans originally showed up with Coronado and Juan Onate when the Spanish came north from Mexico. Annie posted some pictures at https://picasaweb.google.com/homerhorns/StFrancisBasilica?authkey=Gv1sRgCPbCqojxheqE6gE#slideshow/5617816201622807410

Upon leaving Santa Fe Saturday morning, we drove south along the western edge of the Cibola National Forest. The only campground we saw was closed, due to the fire danger. It's been very dry and windy and we have been inundated with smoke from the 700 square mile Wallow fire in eastern Arizona for over a week. We ended up driving all the way home, spending Saturday night in our own bed, and then driving down to the Gila National Forest Sunday morning. We spend the night at a beautiful deserted campground on Gallinas (chicken) Creek. We drove about a mile off the road along a dry creek bed in an amazing canyon with rock spires towering overhead.

With no threat of rain, we left the rain fly off the tent so we could look up and watch the moon through the trees. A very loud Whip Poor Will seranaded is all night.

I hiked down the canyon and found this at the base of a cliff just above a section of creek bed that had retained some water and was tracked up by cattle coming to drink.
Note the Jack Daniels bottle nestled in the rocks. This was RIP Justin!

As June Approaches

2011-05-23T08:37:00.000-07:00

We've been in our new house for just about 6 months now, and the yard is looking up. Not a drop of rain since last October, but somehow the trees find moisture and leaf out. We have an old Spanish Olive that bloomed and had the sweetest smelling flowers. I've cut back the dead branches in hopes it will last a few more years. Annie wove a trellis (at right) out of cane stalks that will eventually have climbing plants to hide the garden tools, extra plant pots and buckets. The trash can catches water from the swamp cooler on the roof. If the water isn't changed every now and then, the minerals get so concentrated the cooling pads and pump get encrusted with calcium.

The flower boxes in front of the porch have been planted for quite a while now. One lone sunflower has blossomed and a few other flowers are starting to blossom as well. I finally finished painting the floor of the porch yesterday. I also put a ceiling fan up, which makes it quite a pleasant place to sit. The temperatures have been quite moderate, only in the low 90's in the afternoon. We still generally have a breeze in the pm as well, so as long as you're out of the sun, it's quite tolerable outside. We don't spend a lot of time indoors this time of year, unless there's a Red Sox game on.

Annie ordered a bunch of bare root fruit trees a month ago.

The one on the right is an apple tree. It has several kinds of apples grafted onto one trunk. In the middle is a fig that we bought 3 or 4 months ago. We thought it had died so cut it right back to the ground. Voila! It's coming up from the root. On the left is a fruit cocktail tree. Like the apple, it is several varieties on one trunk. I think it's peach, nectarine and apricot. You can see several different kinds of leave.

Here's the front entry. The street we live on is very quiet, making this a very peacefull place to sit.

Here's the view of our front yard from the porch. We picked all the lettuce in the greenhouse and it's now coming back from the root. We also have chard, tomatoes and beets in there. We've had extremely violent winds off and on this spring, gusting to 60 mph. I'm amazed the plastic hasn't ripped off the greenhouse. We have potatoes in the plastic pots. The beans, squash (winter and summer) onions, watermelon, cucumbers, tomatoes and cantelope are also doing well.

Here's another shot of the flower beds. The yellow flowers are wild Mexican sunflower, I think.

If you subscribe to the blog, I think you get an email whenever we post something. I'm not sure if that's the case or not, so could someone let me know it that's happening.

Turtleback Hike

2011-03-30T10:33:00.001-07:00

This is Turtleback Mountain as seen from our front porch. Yesterday, I went on a hike with a couple of friends around the back side of the mountain.

Lloyd and Mark were my hiking companions. We parked on the east side of the Rio Grande and took a ridge trail up the northern end of the mountain beside some deep canyons filled with amazing jumbles of rock. The Rio Grande is in a rift valley with the native volcanic rock thousands of feet deep. The valley is filled with sediment from millions of years of erosion to the north.

Here's the summit from our takeoff point.

We hiked up a well trodden trail to the Crystal Cave. Not much crystal but some interesting quartz in the ceiling (too dark to photograph.) It was in the 80's and the sun was intense, but there was a nice breeze to keep us from frying.

Here's a shot from the backside of the mountain looking east toward the Jornada del Muerto, (Journey of Death) part of the Camino Real that extended from Santa Fe south to Mexico City. Lloyd remarked on the vast expanse, but I thought it was only half vast. To see vast, we would have had to have reached the summit, something we didn't quite have the legs for yesterday...maybe with an earlier start in the cool of the morning.

Here's Mark on the way back down with the Rio Grande and Truth or Consequences below us.

COMPOST!

2011-03-22T12:14:00.000-07:00

Our first batch of compost, now screened and bagged. I got some chicken manure from a neighbor and brought home bags of cow manure from the desert and the piles are producing!

I've got 4 big bags of compost now, ready to be worked into beds and two more bins of compost working.
The wind has been fierce the past few days so I made a small shadecloth fence to protect some tender jasmine and honeysuckle vines we just planted at the corner of the porch.

We had lettuce, pak choy and broccoli rab out of the greenhouse the other day.

Bea & Fox et al come for a visit

2011-03-13T13:29:00.000-07:00

Bea and Fox came for a visit in February. (Oh yeah, they brought their parents too) Unfortunately, Annie and I got a bad case of the flu a few days after they arrived and missed great chunks of their visit. The cold weather we had in late January - early February departed, so they had nice weather while here. Bea even tried out the wading pool.

Our yard is full of goatheads, little seed pods with very sharp spikes all over, so Bea had to be very careful around the pool. Fox enjoyed splashing around on the porch ..

We haven't had a frost for about a week now, although it's possible for temps to get down to freezing at night into April. We have stuff greening up, however, and bushes, shrubs and trees are beginning to leaf out. Our newly planted plumb tree has lots of buds, as do several unidentified bushes in the back yard. I finally got a back deck built and put up a pully clothes line by the back door so Annie can finally hang out the wash, something she has missed for the past few months.

Our greenhouse is holding up to the spring winds and we have lettuce, pak choy, beets and chard that are all doing famously. Some we'll leave inside and some we'll transplant outside soon. We bought a fan palm and planted it out front last week. Always wanted a palm tree in my yard, now I've got one. Took a drive into the desert yesterday and got several bags of cow manure. (It's just laying around waiting for someone to pick it up, kind of like the coal on Bishop's Beach) Ive been soaking it to make manure tea for the garden and adding it to our compost. I've got a couple of great compost bins going that are really heating up and we should have finished compost in a month.

Even though we haven't had a drop of rain since last September, there are little shoots of grass coming up in the yard and our neighbor's apricot tree is in bloom. And it's not even St. Paddy's day yet!

More pics of Gray Street

2011-01-02T17:56:00.000-08:00

Here is a link to a bunch more photos of our remodeling project.

http://picasaweb.google.com/homerhorns/523GrayStreet#

We Have Fallen Down on the Job!!!

2010-12-30T12:42:00.001-08:00

Good Lord--has it really been four months since we've made an entry? What, you may ask, have we been doing? Well, we drove to Maine in September, with stops in Ohio (to see Oberlin College again after 40 years), Maryland (to see Lucas and family), Virginia Beach (to see Jenny and family), Memphis (to see good friend Holly after 30 years). On the way home, a friend offered to sell us a home she'd just purchased, so since the end of October we've been moving, cleaning, and remodeling. Above is what our manufactured home looked like the day we moved in--you cant see the color, but it is grey with lime-green faux shutters. The yard used to have a huge organic garden on it, but several year's of neglect has turned it into a breeding ground for tumbleweed and goatheads (vegetable caltrops that stick in your bare feet at night on the way to the bathroom and make you swear something terrible and wake your spouse...). To the left is what it looked like after some paint and shutters. There will be pics coming of the new entry and porch, but you'll have to wait a few days for that. Here's a pic of the living room wall, complete with carpet and mirrors. Oh yuck... But David worked like a dog, and me, too and we painted walls and cabinets, David laid tile and bamboo flooring and so now it doesn't look so terrible anymore. We're happy, and paying $300 a month--will eventually own the place in a year or so. Amazing that we would ever own anything ever again, but once again Grace has found us. We're the luckiest people we know!!!

Mid-August Garden

2010-08-24T16:49:00.001-07:00

Here are a few more garden pictures.

http://picasaweb.google.com/homerhorns/AugustGarden#slideshow/5509121440239505746

Time for another update

2010-08-12T13:26:00.001-07:00

The Red Sox just lost in the bottom of the 9th to Toronto. What's up with those guys? We watch most of the Sox games on streaming video from MLB.TV on our computer. Hooray for technology.... when it works.

Summer is here with a vengence with temperatures in the triple digits. Our swamp cooler (evaporative cooler) was acting up so I bought all kinds of parts to repair it. Unfortunately, they no longer make that model and I couldn't replace the blower fan. The shaft was so corroded I destroyed the fan getting it apart. I did manage to gump together the fan temporarily, but it's slightly out of balance and vibrates so much we can feel it in the house. Shaving is a challenge as the bathroom mirror trembles when the cooler is on. So, yesterday we made a trip to Las Cruces for sax reeds, guitar strings, and a new cooler. Here it sits in the carport. I think I'll wait for the cool of the evening to take the old one down and install this one early tomorrow.

I've been having too much fun making band related stuff. Here's a keyboard stand I just finished for Annie. It comes apart for transport into four flat pieces of 3/8" plywood. I painted the logo to hang on the front. I also made sax and guitar stands.
We're playing several Saturday Nights a month at the Turtleback Oasis, a local Natural Food Store. They pay us in coupons for free eats at their deli. Our friend Tracy cooks there and the pies and pastries are wonderful. On Sunday's we play at the Lee Belle Johnson Senior Recreation Center (she was a "Cowgirl Poet" who passed away a few months ago). The crowds have been small, to say the least, but maybe they'll pick up as word gets out. Those who do show up seem to enjoy our music.

Our gardens continue to thrive. We've been eating lots of zuccini, along with chard and beet greens. Some of the chile peppers are getting ready to pick but the tomatos seem to be waiting for cooler weather to really set on. Lots of flowers, but not many tomatos yet. Last year they peaked in early October. We've got about a dozen various melon plants that volunteered from our compost pile. Here's a small watermelon, but we've also got cantelope and several unidentified melons of equal size.

A few weeks ago we found a bunch of bamboo beside the road. There is municipal trash pickup here and folks leave their yard litter beside the road to be hauled away. I couldn't see this stuff going into the landfill so salvaged a couple of vanloads. It makes great trellises and we've stuck a bunch in the fence for the birds to perch on. The finches, sparrows and assorted doves come to be fed every day and some days there must be 75 birds at once sitting around our yard waiting for a chance at the feeder. (that's the empty house next door) I've got several projects in mind and will post some photos at a later date. I have more garden pictures, and if I get ambitious I'll put them in a Picassa album and post a link here.

A trip to City of Rocks State Park

2010-07-20T13:26:00.000-07:00

Our friend Kathy Stingley visited from AK for a couple of days and we took a trip the the City of Rocks a couple of hours southwest of us. What a magic place. She also helped serve refreshments at a Senior Dance the Turtleback Trio (Annie, Brian and I) played for Sunday evening. She's on her way back to Homer and here are some photos.
http://picasaweb.google.com/homerhorns/CityOfRock#slideshow/5496078853840197442

Some pictures from our camping trip

2010-07-05T17:04:00.000-07:00

Click on the link for more.

http://picasaweb.google.com/homerhorns/GilaCampingTrip#slideshow/5490570116271585826

Cactus in the Alley

2010-06-27T08:25:00.001-07:00

We found these spineless prickly pear cactus in the ally next to a dumpster earlier this spring. Someone had been trimming and were throwing out these cuttings. We just stuck them in the sandy gravel outside our fence and "Voila!"

When we returned from Alaska earlier this month, we notices a few bumps on the paddles, and now they're flowering.

The flowers smell a little like watermellon, according to Annie. It's hard to believe something as rubbery, tough, and dead-looking can produce such a beautiful flower, but here's the proof.

Our bird-seeded sunflowers continue to bloom and we're seeing a few more ripe tomatoes each day. Last night we had chard from the garden and today we're having store bought corn on the cob for breakfast. Coughed up $19.95 the other night to listen to the Red Sox games streamed from WEEI in Boston. Great to sit outside in the cool of the evening and watch the birds while listening to the Sox stumble along. Last night they beat the Giants despite yet another addition to the disabled list.
We played music at the Farmer's Market yesterday morning for tips and handed out a few business cards. Might get a few actual paying jobs out of the exposure. We're aiming at pushing the envelope so far toward the square that we're actually hip. Lots of Old Standards and Western Swing. The locals seemed to enjoy it so I guess we'll be doing it again.

It Hatched

2010-06-24T08:33:00.001-07:00

We returned from shopping this morning to find that our swallowtail chrysalis had hatched. The caterpillar moved from the parsley, where it had been feeding, to the blue sage plant next to it. Nine days later, voila!

You can see the discarded chrysalis in the picture below. We've planted lots more parsley, so hopefully the next crop of caterpillars will have lots to eat.

Avian Ant Destroyers

2010-06-20T07:55:00.001-07:00

We went for a walk the other day and saw a curved bill thrasher sitting in a cholla cactus. I think this might be the one that visits our yard and scoops up ants.

Closer inspection revealed a nest with two babies. I don't see how the adults can navigate onto the nest without impaling themselves on the cholla spines.

OTHER AVIAN NEWS
Here's a young white-winged dove we found in the yard. Don't know if he fell out of the nest or was pushed out because (s)he's sickly. He can barely walk-shuffle along, so we kept him in a box over night and put him out under the bird feeder this morning in hopes an adult might try to feed him. We'll keep you posted.

Caterpillars have eaten our parsley

2010-06-18T17:59:00.001-07:00

But what the hey? they are making beautiful chrysalises (chrysalae?). Summer is definitely here, no matter what the calendar says, but our swamp cooler is keeping the house a comfortable 76 degrees and we've been spending an hour a day in the municipal swimming pool a half a block away. We're watering every day and have already eaten a few tomatoes out of the garden.

This is a poinciana, also known as a bird of paradise bush. A bird dropped a seed in the garden and we didn't have the heart to pull it out. They grow everywhere around here, and it's taking up room that could be growing tomatoes, but, as with the caterpillars, we hate to get rid of something that beautiful, just to make room for more food.

Another volunteer from our bird feeder, this sunflower has over 20 flower heads on it. We've got sunflowers all over the yard now. They're very cheery and the birds will thank us later.

We sit out on the porch in the evening and watch the finches, sparrows. doves and red winged blackbirds at the feeder. We also have a thrasher that visits the yard to gobble ants. As the sun sets, nighthawks and bats come out and scoop up whatever flying insects are around.

I've been slowly putting down landscaping cloth under the rock borders of the gardens in order to keep the weeds down. Eventually I'll put pea gravel down in the yard. Having a hard-scaped yard makes sense in this heat... NO MOWING... no watering the lawn... and no goatheads (a noxious weed that has a thorny fruit that looks like a caltrop (you can look it up) and sticks in your feet.

We arrived in T or C last year at the end of June and didn't get anything planted until sometime in July. We still had plenty of tomatoes and peppers, along with lots of flowers. With the jumpstart we got this year, I can't wait to see what the yard looks like by the end of summer.

Back in the Garden

2010-06-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

We returned from Alaska to find a few extra weeds, but mostly our house-sitter did a great job watering. The cauliflower is just starting to head up, there are flowers on the zuccini and there are volunteer tomatoes, melons and sunflowers everywhere. The sunflowers came up from the bird seed and some of them are amazing. This one must have 20 flowerheads. The peas didn't survive the heat, but the tomatoes are flourishing. We spent yesterday in the desert gathering dried yucca stalks to make more trellises for them to climb on. (The ladder leaning on the porch is made of dry yucca tied together with wire.

Here's a picture of our sacraficial parsley. We came home to find it covered with caterpillars. They're black swallowtails and we're waiting for them to form their crysalis cases. They've eaten all the top leaves of the parsley but haven't touched anything else. It's the second year for the parsley, and we don't need the whole plant anyway, so we're sharing with these beautiful creatures.

More baby pics

2010-06-11T12:39:00.001-07:00

There are more pictures at
http://picasaweb.google.com/homerhorns/FoxwellGeorgeStrobel#slideshow/5481597211605484178

Foxwell Strobel

2010-05-22T09:54:00.000-07:00

Foxwell Strobel was born Wednesday morning, April 19, at 8:56. Mom and entire family doing fantastically well! He's a handsome boy and already much advanced for his age. 8 pounds, 4 ounces and 20 inches long.

Back in Alaska

2010-05-17T11:14:00.001-07:00

No photos yet, but we're back in Alaska, staying with Matt, Susannah and Bea. It's COLD here! We are definitely acclimated to New Mexico. Lots of people to see, things to do etc. I've got to build a changing table in anticipation of the arrival of the new grandson, lots of spring cleanup around the triplex, and taking care of odds and ends left over from 28 years in Alaska. I'll try to get the camera out and take a few photos in the next day or so.

One Week til Alaska

2010-05-06T14:55:00.000-07:00

We're in countdown mode. We're getting last minute stuff done in preparation for a month's absence from our little New Mexican hacienda. Yesterday we picked and washed lettuce, kale, pak choy and arugula; then bagged it up and took it to the natural food store. A friend of our neighbor's is house sitting for us, but doesn't arrive until a few hours after we leave, so I hope she can follow our watering instructions and all our tomato's, peppers, flowers etc survive until our return.

This afternoon we drove into the desert to see what was blooming. Saw lots of yellow prickly pear blossoms, but all in places where it was impossible to pull over and take a picture. The south-facing slopes going through the hills east of town warm up first, thus bloom earlier than out on the flat. Unfortunately, that's the area with twisty roads with no shoulders.

(I have no idea why the above is underlined...I tried to remove the line, but no luck!)
In case you missed all the pictures of local flora & fauna, there's an album at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/homerhorns/SpringFlowers#slideshow/5465360070501828466

Had to share this picture. How western is this. We were on a dirt road through the Jornada del Muerto (Journey of Death) and came across a couple of windmills. There were also a bunch of buffalo and lots of cattle. The Jornada is the route the Spanish took north from Mexico. It's part of the Camino Real from Mexico City to Santa Fe. Instead of following the Rio Grande, where local pueblos and rough terrain made travel by oxcart hazardous, they crossed this barren, dry and pretty inhospitable waste... no water for days, not much forage, and temperatures in the triple digits. The car thermometer measured 104 this afternoon, but a steady wind and humidity under 10% made it quite comfortable.
At the end of the pavement, about half an hour east of town, Spaceport America is due to be finished next summer. They had an educational launch last week, taking experiments designed by area high school and college students into space. The plan is to privatize spaceflight, send very rich tourists into space, launch satellites and generally promise enormous benefits to the local economy. This is as close as you can get without running over a security guard. Right next door is the Cutter Cattle Company, which is leasing out a bunch of land for a solar/wind hydrogen generation facility. Again, lots of talk, but I'll wait until I can buy a can of hydrogen to blow up my blimp before I believe it. Guess that's all the news that fits today. Stay tuned for Alaska and new grand baby pics.

Flower Album

2010-04-28T18:21:00.000-07:00

This rose just opened this morning. Click on the link below to see more flower pics I took today, both in our yard and at our friend Ellen's in Hillsboro.

http://picasaweb.google.com/homerhorns/SpringFlowers#slideshow/5465360070501828466

More Garden Photos

2010-04-18T12:19:00.001-07:00

Another beautiful day. It rained Friday Night and Saturday Morning, so everything is greening up. The bok choy is jumping out of the ground.

The lettuce sat still for a while but the warmer nights now (in the mid 50s) have given it a boost.

This is an ice plant, a succulant that grows in many of the yards here in T or C. There are also beautiful reds and oranges. They spill out onto the sidewalks all around us here in the historic district. We keep meaning to pinch off a cutting to bring home to add variety to our yellow.

We bought these pinks for practically nothing last year. Walmart had a bazillion plants dying for lack of watering. We rescued these and they flowered all last summer. They came back strong this summer.

Lazy Days of SPRING!

2010-04-15T11:48:00.000-07:00

It's been a month of Sundays since I've written in this Blog, but I've been meaning to--just haven't gotten to it (that darned Facebook, anyway...) Life here spuds along. David's become a digging and a planting fool, and this season I'm even able to get into the act, and not just as a director! David built me a little wooden stool to sit on to pick arugula and it brings me close enough to the ground so I can reach to plant stuff--but I'm not so low that I can't get back up again! That awful ad on TV "Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!" is a real nightmare for those of us who, as David says, can still "get down" but then can't get up again! The birds are flocking to our feeder again: red house finches, little yellow-green lesser finches, juncos, Oregon races, tiny ground doves and the bigger white-winged doves, house sparrows, white-capped sparrows, and a couple days ago there were two huge yellow-breasted kingbirds on the wire over the feeder. We've hung the hummingbird feeders back up and have added a platform on the fence with a dish of grape jelly on it for the orioles in case they come by. We also have added an oriole liquid feeder and nailed up some orange slices for good measure. We still have one large bed to plant with peppers, but need to buy some plants. We went to the Animus Creek Nursery last Saturday and bought ten different kinds of tomatoes, from big beefsteak ones to yellow pear to cherry to burgundy something-or-others. They're in the ground and seem to be thriving, along with dill, basil, zucchini, Armenian (white) cucumbers, scarlet runner beans, sweet peas, sugar snap peas--well, take a look at the peas, a grapevine, and some catnip! The fabric you see on the porch and the fence around our property we put up for a windscreen to help cut the 65 mph gusts and the days of 15-25 mph constant winds.

Our hanging baskets of baby carnations and last-year's refurbished geraniums are thriving as is the herb garden. We've picked another batch of arugula and mixed them with other greens to bag up and take down to the natural food store. So far we've sold 15 bags of arugula! We're not getting rich, but it's paid for the seeds! To the left is a grapevine we're hardening off before putting into the ground, and some sugar snap peas, which are up about 4" now. The herb garden is doing really well--the lemon thyme and the parsley, rosemary, and blue sage over-wintered really well and the mizuna and pac choy we planted a month ago is going great guns. I leave you with this new little basket, just planted. Wait 'til you see it in a month!

Our friend Ellen's garden in Hillsboro

2010-04-07T17:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our 36th wedding anniversary. We actually forgot about it until the middle of the afternoon, while we were sitting at our friends kitchen table eating chicken salad. Ellen raises iris and fruit trees. The first few pictures are red bud...I'm not sure of the others. The tulips are in bloom and the iris should be coming along later this month. I'll try to post some more photos then.

The Ides of March

2010-03-15T10:13:00.000-07:00

It's hard to believe it's only the middle of March and we're busy in the garden. For long-time Alaskans, it's a miracle. We returned from the East Coast to find our garden's over run with Arugula (the huge plants on the left). We had planted some salad mix last fall but the frost stunted the lettuce. The arugula, however, started growing and never looked back. It's now gone to seed and the tiny white flowers are calling the bees. We picked several grocery bags full and have been giving it away to anyone who'll take it. We also took some to the Natural food store. We have to check today and see if they want more.

Our little herb garden by the back door made it through the winter as well. We have had lots of parsley, sage and thyme throughout the colder months. Our little chile pepper wreath is pretty desiccated, but still a cheery addition to our courtyard. Today is chilly (mid-forties at mid-day) and cloudy, but we've been having glorious, sunny 70 degree days. The wind tries to dry out our little starts, but we've put shade cloth on the fence to try and slow the gusts somewhat. We've started seeds in flats on our porch, and have already transplanted some morning glories into larger pots. We've also been transplanting our hanging geraniums that got pretty dried out during our absence. We also have some cana lillies we picked up at a local coffee shop last summer. The owner had boxes of them to give away, and hopefully they will have a home in the corner of the yard.

We also picked up a Spanish Broom plant (yellow flowers) at the local Cactus Ranch. (They have amazing cacti and other southwest flora as well as wonderful pottery) Behind the fence you can see newly dug beds. I've been furiously digging, screening, and amending the soil. We've got lettuce, peas, pak choy etc already in the ground and will be eating greens (other than arugula) soon.

The birds missed us while we were gone. It took a few days after our return for them to find us again. These tiny lesser goldfinches love the thistle seed. A few days ago we heard the Conk-a-ree call of redwing blackbirds from the pine trees in the neighbors yard. Couldn't see the birds, but assumed they were mocking birds imitating the call. When they flew into the tree in the next lot, we could tell they weren't mocking birds but still couldn't believe we'd scores of blackbirds here in the desert. I'd always seen them in marshy areas before. When they came down to feast on sunflower seeds, we could see the red wing patches (barely visible in the photo). We keep pinching ourselves, wondering what we ever did to deserve this life we now have in the South West. Our days are filled with gardening, bird watching and rock gathering in the desert. The pace of our daily routine is leisurely but full. I've been baking bread, playing guitar and reading a lot. Annie has been furiously knitting in anticipation of yet another grandson (Susa is due in May). Life is good!

Springtime in New Mexico

2010-03-04T12:16:00.000-08:00

It's been awhile since we updated this, so I'll try to fill everyone in on what's been going on in our lives for the past several months. We left NM in early January to attend the birth of Isabella in Virginia Beach. Although the due date was late January, Jenny was feeling contractions and that the birth might come sooner. We had a great road trip from NM to VA... three nights on the road through Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South and North Carolina... a part of the country neither Annie or I had seen before. A cold front chased us east, but the only weather we encountered was a little ice on the road near Atlanta which slowed traffic to a crawl for several hours.

We got to VA and waited for Isabella's arrival. She finally came on January 31, following a snow storm that had us all worried about the drive to the hospital. We made the drive at 6 in the morning with very little traffic. Isabella had some breathing problems early on. She couldn't quite figure out how to swallow when she had a little reflux and stopped breathing a couple of times. That all straightened out in a couple of days and she's fine now. A beautiful addition to our family.

After welcoming Bella, we waited for the storms to abate in Maryland and snuck up the coast between two major blizzards. Had a great visit with Lucas and his family. Tristan and Brooke both had the entire week off due to the snow. There was a total of almost 4 feet of snow within a week. The roads in Maryland were not too bad, however. Because of the weird winter weather throughout the central part of the country, we decided to take the most southerly route possible on our way back to New Mexico. We stopped for another couple of days in Virginia, then headed south to Florida, where we stopped to see our friends Perry and Cynthia. Perry was in Maine, working on a house he's building in Bridgton, so we decided to kidnap Cynthia and bring her to New Mexico with us. While in Florida, I spent one afternoon kayaking on the inland waterway watching a fellow named Lars try to catch redfish. I didn't even take a pole and caught just as many as he did.

We had a great drive back across the swamps of Florida and along the Redneck Riviera, then along route 10 and home. The crappy weather followed us. We had snow, sleet and freezing rain from San Antonio almost all the way to El Paso. Had a great time showing Cynthia around Truth or Consequences. We had some great drives, including this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr2hWLpaQss

Just one more picture, before I sign off for now. Brooke painted this visor for her Grannie while we were visiting. It's quite stylish and she wears it everywhere.

Newest branch on the family tree

2010-02-16T08:58:00.000-08:00

Have been traveling on the East Coast since early January. Isabella Joy Lord was born Jan 31. That's grand kid number 9! We have been in Virginia Beach with Jenny for most of that time, but also spent a week in MD with Lucas & family. We've spend much of our time dodging snow storms. Plan to leave tomorrow morning and take the southern route back to NM. Hope to see Cynthia (and maybe Perry) in Florida on the way. Perry's been in ME building a spec house. Can't wait to get back to the heat! We'll be in NM for a couple of months before flying to AK for grand kid number 10. Susa's expecting in May. It's a never ending round of travel and excitement for us old retired folk.

A few more pictures

2010-01-04T10:16:00.001-08:00

Just transfered a couple more pictures off the camera. We found this enchanting little boit in Tombstone, and couldn't resist stopping for a photo op. There were signs advertizing "Bordello Bowling," but we did't stick around to find out what that was all about.
While at Bill and Ruthe's, we went with Bill to check out a couple of fixer-uppers he was interested in. Annie and I fell in love with this old adobe on 20 acres. It has several outbuildings, irrigation, stock pens, and the kind of funky atmosphere that felt like home.

Unfortunately, it sold (for under $30,000) the day we looked at it. There are still some great deals in the area. At some time in the future, we'll be back to look for another adobe hacienda.

This last shot was taken a few weeks ago north of T or C on the Plains of San Augustin, a huge dry lake bed in the middle of the mountains west of Socorro that is the home of the Very Large Array, the largest radio-telescope in the world.

2010-01-03T15:44:00.000-08:00

Spent the week between Christmas and New Year's in Arizona, visiting our friends Bill and Ruthe. We loved southern Arizona. Douglas is right on the Mexican border and we had a great time shopping at the Mexican Grocery. Cheap fruits and vegetables! Didn't take many pictures, we were to busy gawking, but had to take a photo of the tumbleweeds piled up against the barbed wire fences. We also saw hundreds of sandhill cranes which winter in the wetlands north of Douglas. Saw Kim and Gordan Terpening (friends from Homer) in Bisbee, where they make gormet chocolates. Also made a brief visit to Tombstone. The whole town is basically an Old West Theme park. We're back home for now, but leave for Virginia Beach in about a week to welcome our next grandbaby.

Christmas is coming....

2009-12-14T19:21:00.001-08:00

Haven't posted any pictures for awhile as I have been having too much fun with a new video camera and editing software, so haven't taken many photos....but here are a few from the past few weeks. Here's our Christmas Tumbleweed, all decorated with red chiles we grew in our yard, mistletoe we picked down by the Rio Grande, and assorted gummy-worms, candy canes, etc. I spray pained the Tumbleweed to use as a money tree at our friends, Terry and Brian's wedding. Annie was Matron of Honor. She and I helped decorate, cater and generally organize things. Brian, Annie and I are playing music together now. We bought a keyboard and small PA system, so Annie is able to play keyboard-drum machine and backup chords. We played downtown the other night for Christmas in Truth or Consequences. We also played at the wedding for Brian and Terry's first dance. Annie also knit Terry's snood (at least that's what she calls the thing Terry is wearing on her head.) Brian ordered his shirt from some western wear company and is very proud of it.
Yesterday we drove down by the Rio Grande and picked some mistletoe for our tree. (did I mention that already?) Anyway, here' some mistletoe, still fresh from its host tree.We took a ride up into the Caballo Mountains this afternoon and had a wonderful time picking rocks and exploring the back roads. I took some videos and may post those on YouTube at some point. I did post a video of our picnic yesterday. You can go to YouTube.com and search for homerhorns or go directly to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0W7cPQ-BsY Guess that's all for now. Time to watch some NetFlix and head to bed.

Picnic on the Rio Grande

2009-12-13T21:01:00.000-08:00

Here's a video I did with some new audio recording/editing software I just downloaded (Its FREE! Hooray!) Look for "The Further Adventures of David and Annie in the Great Southwest."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0W7cPQ-BsY

SNOW

2009-12-05T08:58:00.000-08:00

Woke up yesterday to snow on the ground. It was mostly gone by mid-afternoon, but it was a bit of a shock. Temperatures have been dipping into the teens at night and in the 40's during the day, but the forecast is for warmer weather over the next few days. We made a trip to Albuquerque earlier this week, and the mountains to the west were snow covered, but this is our first snowfall here in the lowlands (4100 feet).
Our friends Brian and Terry are getting married tomorrow, and we're expecting temp's in the mid-50's. It's kind of an indoor-outdoor thing, so keep your fingers crossed. Annie is the Matron of Honor and she and I are playing music after. (Brian's my trumpet player friend. About a week ago we took a trip to Las Cruces and bought a used keyboard to replace the piano lost in the fire. I also got a small PA system. The keyboard has some pretty sophisticated rhythm and accompaniment features and Annie is playing with Brian and I. She's all excited to be in a band and Brian and I are thankfull we don't have to play with some of the less-than-stellar drummers/bass players/guitarists we've tried over the last few months. Most of the good musicians we've found don't want to actually play more than occassionally and we're looking for semi-steady work. Brian plays Trumpet and Trombone. I do Sax and Guitar. This gives us quite a bit of flexability and we do Western Swing, Jazz, Dixieland (B is from New Orleans), Standards and straight Country. This lineup is small enough to work cheap but have a pretty full sound for a trio. We're playing for the Chamber of Commerce's "Christmas in T or C" on the 11th and also have a tentative New Year's Eve job. That's it for now from the Sunny/Snowy Southwest.

2009-11-20T18:18:00.000-08:00

Fall in T or C

2009-11-16T13:46:00.001-08:00

Haven't updated the blog for quite some time. Annie and I were talked into joining facebook and have been putting a few pictures up there but have had a few requests to post here. So, here's what we've been up to. (never end a sentence with a preposition! Here's the stuff up to which we've been)

Here's a picture Susannah sent of Bea's Halloween costume. (Matt and Bea LOVE ketchup) Batman is Bea's friend Caspar and my sister Dotty is in the middle. We didn't have any trick or treaters here as we're on an alley off the main drag and nobody finds us here, which is fine by us. We had a frost for a couple of nights around the first of November and had to pick all our tomatoes. With so many green tomatoes, we decided to do some canning and things sort of got out of hand. We met a man who has a roadside produce stand, and he's been giving us produce and taking relish, marmalade, pickles etc to sell. We won't make much money, but it helps pay for the jars. So far we've made ketchup, relish, green tomato pickles, oragnge marmalade, green tomato marmalade (don't knock it till you've tried it), pickled peppers and apple butter. We've also been roasting mild green chili's and keeping them in olive oil in the refridgerator. They're great on sandwiches. After roasting, I peel and de-seed them. They're labor intensive, but one of our new favorite foods. After I had done about 10 pounds under the broiler, Ed, our produce guy, said he would roast 40 pounds for us in exchange for some pickled peppers to sell. Processing those took me two days, but now we've got frozen peppers, canned peppers, marinated peppers, and feel quite wealthy looking at our laden shelves. The weather has definitely turned to fall here. The cottonwoods are yellow and dropping their leaves. There was ice on the birdbath this morning and even in the middle of the afternoon, there's a chill in the air. Annie is sitting out in the sun, where the temperature is in the high 50's, which feels cold to our thinned New Mexican blood. She's also taming the local wildlife.

We took a drive yesterday up to the base of Turtle Mountain. We need new shocks for our van, which isn't really built for the back roads we're exploring, but these places are way too cool to miss. We found devil's claw seed pods, which are now snagging everything in the van's back seat, and brought home a couple of hundred pounds of rock to decorate the garden. Turtleback Mountain, which we see from our door, is a 6,000 foot knob just across the Rio Grande. In the proper light it really does look like a turtle, complete with legs, tail and head.

Hatch, Deming, Kingston and home

2009-10-26T18:51:00.000-07:00

We went for a great drive today. Headed south to Hatch to do some banking decided to keep going and see where we'd end up. Made a loop west to Deming, then north toward Silver City. Saw this Huge open pit copper mine that goes on for miles. Mountains ripped up and crushed, with the tailings deposited alongside the original mountain. This is in the mountains just east of Silver City, next to the Gila National Forest. From there we drove east to Kingston (at one time the largest town in NM, now a ghost town) through some absolutely beautiful country. The road is well paved, but twists around like a snake with epilepsy. Here's the straightest, most level stretch we saw. I kept expecting to see my own tail lights up ahead of me. The color of the rocks changes every few hundred yards from red to green to gold to iridescent grey. Was too busy watching the road to take many pictures, but take my word for it, it was spectacular. This is only an hour from home and I can't believe it took us so long to make this trip. Pine and Cedar mixed with Cactus and Agave... then a bunch of cattle and rock outcroppings that look like human figures standing sentinal on ridges high above the road. I now know why they call this the Land of Enchantment.

2009-10-19T21:24:00.000-07:00

Had a few pictures I didn't post the other day. We picked tomatoes and basil for sauce. Made a couple of quarts to freeze. We've still got lots of tomatoes to pick, so will have to make salsa in a day or two.

Today, we took a drive south of town, looking for side roads that would take us down to the river. After half an hour on a marginal dirt track, through scrub desert of sand and salt cedar, we came out at the river. At this point, it's right at the base of the Caballo Mountains. Cattle were bunched up in the shallows and we saw several pairs of great blue herons. They always stayed just out of camera range, flying off ahead of us as we drove along through the brush beside the river. I did manage to get a couple of shots, but they don't do justice to these magnificent birds. We also saw what I think were egrets. Same size and build as the herons, but white. Annie got out and poked about a little, but thought every rustle of the wind in the bushes was a rattle snake so didn't venture too far from the car.

2009-10-13T09:52:00.000-07:00

It's the middle of October! Got to make some tomato sauce to put in the freezer this week. The nights are getting cool, but it's still in the 70's to mid 80's during the day. We planted peas and lettuce last week and there are already little green shoots sticking their heads up. We might have to cover them for a bit if we get a frost towards the end of November. We've still got zuccini and I'm drying peppers. These things are lethally hot, so we've got enough to last us all winter.

We've been buying the milder chille peppers to use for home made enchilada sauce.

Took a trip to Albuquerque on Sunday to play with the Curio Cowboys, a Western Swing Jam Band. ( www.curiocowboys.com ) Brian hooked me up with them and we drove up together. Annie came too and we met Carrie Spates (a former 3rd floor Homer Triplex tenant) and her daughter Vivian. Brian and I are playing this weekend at the golf course for some sort of convention dinner.

Home Again

2009-09-24T10:27:00.000-07:00

Despite nasty bouts with the flu, Annie and I are back at home resting up after a busy couple of weeks. Susannah, Dotty and Bea were here September 8 through the 16th (see slide show in previous post) and we had a great, if tiring, visit. We dropped them off at the Albuquerque Airport last Wednesday, spent the night in a motel, and then had Annie's first appointment with the Rheumatologist in ABQ. Dr. Nunez was wonderful, and put Annie on some new medication, as well as ordering all sorts of X-Rays and Blood Work. There's a possibility that Annie has Lupus, not (or along with) RA. The blood tests should tell us more. Monday we drove to Las Cruces to be with our friend Terry, who is undergoing extensive spinal surgery. While there, we took a couple of drives up into the Organ Mountains. What amazing country. Terry's husband Brian came with us and the two of us hiked around a little while Annie basked in the sun in the parking lot. We saw barrel cactus everywhere. Here in the mountains, it was still in bloom. I had assumed that the desert bloom was over now that fall is upon us, but there are still flowers everywhere, including these huge white, lily-like flowers that I'm told are a kind of gourd. On the way home, I got some pictures of the cotton fields outside of Hatch, almost ready to pick. The red in the background is a field of chile peppers. Most of the chiles are already picked, but a few fields are still being harvested. Don't know if they've mechanized the cotton harvest, but peppers are still picked by hand.

AK2NM - the second generation

2009-09-21T09:36:00.000-07:00

Here's a slideshow of our September Visitors

http://picasaweb.google.com/homerhorns/VisitorToNewMexico#

How Cute is This?

2009-09-03T20:03:00.000-07:00

Bea, Herbie and Tubby, at home in Homer.

Las Cruces

2009-08-31T10:03:00.000-07:00

I mentioned yesterday that we were on our way to Las Cruces for the afternoon. These are the Organ Mountains, seen from town. Cruces, aside from the adobe architecture, could be Anytown, USA: Home Depot, Target, Village Inn and Chili's. We did stop at the New Mexico Farm and Ranch Museum and listened to a lecture on Dowsing. Bought some lumber at HD for bookshelves and also bought a bench grinder for shaping rocks. The weather has started to cool a little. It still gets up to close to 100F, but for a shorter period of time in the afternoon. With a breeze and low humidity, anything in the mid-90's or lower seems quite balmy and pleasant.

Here's a pot we bought down in Hatch a couple of days ago at a great Mexican Import shop. It's got some little tiny vines planted inside. We've been collecting seeds wherever we go and starting them to see what comes up. These are some kind of locusty looking vines that will eventually spill out the mouth of the pot and climb the fence.

How Does Your Garden Grow

2009-08-30T11:02:00.001-07:00

Haven't posted for awhile, so here are some garden pictures. The news from our insurance company is good. We have already received a check for 3 months lost rent to enable us to pay the mortgage while renovation is taking place. Ken Swisher has pretty much torn out the interior of the third floor and we're waiting for final numbers on how much they will allow for rebuilding. It should be sufficient to completely gut the building to the studs, re-insulate, wire and plumb everything.
Meanwhile, we continue our life in the sun. We picked our first zuccini a few days ago. Peppers and tomatoes are almost ready, and we've been making pesto from our basil for a month now. (That's basil with the purple flowers.) We went into the desert a couple of days ago and brought back a bag of clay/sand that's perfect for making adobe. I made a little ball and let it dry in the sun. Now I have a perfect little clay marble. Can't wait to try a pot. Not quite ready to set up an adobe brickworks for a house yet, but that may be in our future. Who knows?
We plan on taking a trip to Las Cruces this afternoon. It's about 30-45 minutes south of TorC, and is the nearest big shopping center, with about 80,000 people. It's also near of the Organ Mountains, which we have only seen from a distance, but they are impressive. It's in a lush agricultural area. Can't wait to see what's growing down there.
I'll try to rememer to take the camera and post some photos of that area.
Susannah, Bea and Dotty arrive September 8th for a weeks visit. Can't wait to show them the sights.

Need a New Home for our Fuzzy Boys!

2009-08-23T16:03:00.000-07:00

OK, all my friends out there. I need your help. I need a new home for Herbie-the-Bad-Cat and his partner in crime, Tubby. These wonderful companions kept me safe and sane all last winter when I was confined to a recliner 24-7 and would make me laugh with their two tricks, Cat Wrestling and Cat Races. We had asked Dots (their vet) about bringing them with us in the car, and she advised absolutely not, unless they had been riding in cars since they were kittens, which they haven't. We then thought that we could fly them down, but the trip will be gruelling, we are unsure about the dosage and longevity of the kitty-downers we'd have to administer, there would be layovers in Seattle and SLC and then car rides--it's too much to ask of 7-8 year old country cats. So they need new homes. Matt and Susannah and Bea have been caring for them, but they have a little-bitty house and two 18-pound cats are just too much for them. They are good buddies, but both would be fine if they were adopted separately. It breaks my heart, but I also just couldn't inflict that trip on them. Herbie has the longest legs, tail and canines I've ever seen on a cat. He's a clutz; don't scratch his hind end--he doesn't like it. When he sits on you he's so heavy (18 pounds, as I said) you can't get up. Tubby is short and squat and looks like a doorstop when he sits. He has a tail like a cruller. He always lets you know when there's a present in the catbox and when there's not enough dry food in his dish. He weighs 18 pounds too. Both these boys prefer to be outside to do their business but they'll use a box. They like to be outside, except when it's raining and then they'll whine at you. They're funny and frisky and in good health--have had all their shots, etc. You can call Susannah at 299-4317 or 235-2310 to see them. I really hope someone out there will find it in their hearts to share their home with them. Thanks! Love to you ALL.

Insurance and Back Again

2009-08-18T19:59:00.001-07:00

After realizing that our tenants in Homer are out of luck because our home-owner/landlord policy doesn't cover renters belongings, we decided to get renters insurance of our own here in TorC. Went to the local Allstate office and spent half an hour getting all the details straightened out and then she sent off the info online to the Big Computer in the Sky and we were declined, most likely because of our pending claim for the Homer fire. So Annie came home and went online herself, found a policy (for about $100/year more) and so now our belongings are insured for $25,000. IF YOU RENT, GET INSURED! It is normally around $10-$15/month. Think about replacing your clothes, dishes, furniture, music, motel while looking for another rental, etc. It's worth it.

End of Rant

On a more positive note, Annie had her first appointment with her new Primary Care Physician this morning, a very nice woman, Haruhauni Spruce, who is about our age and recently went to medical school and opened her first practice here in T or C. We're looking forward to getting to know her better (she lives a few blocks away). Annie is going to start reducing the dosage of Prednisone to see how that works now that we're in the heat. She sees a rheumatologist in Albuquerque next month. She's been feeling well enough to paint some shelves we bought at a yard sale and the other day painted the kitchen cabinet knobs. (It kind of takes the curse off the insipid, lime green cabinet doors.) I found some fittings at the hardware store this afternoon to attach a grinding wheel to a yard-sale electric motor and have been polishing the rough edges of rock slabs all evening. Amazing how easily entertained we are in our dotage.

Just Another Day in the Sun

2009-08-16T21:01:00.000-07:00

Basking in New Mexico.

Keeping On Keeping On

2009-08-15T14:39:00.000-07:00

Not much news today about the triplex. Susannah was there yesterday with Ken Swisher going through the things that we had stored in our back room. Fire consumed all our Christmas ornaments (lots of gifts from over the years and things that the kids made when they were little). That made me a little sad, but most of our photos are OK we think and most of our artwork. David's instruments are waterlogged but can be recovered and revived, we've lost books but some may get remediated. The piano can be professionally revived. Some furniture is toast, but that's fine. All in all, the two of us were fortunate, I think. Ken thinks that the house can be skun down to the "bones" and then rebuilt. Hoping that the insurance adjuster agrees...Will write more later when I know more. Love to all our friends. Those of you who rent, GET RENTER'S INSURANCE !!!

Triplex Fire

2009-08-13T12:57:00.000-07:00

We got a call from Susannah this morning around 7 our time to let us know our Triplex in Homer was on fire. It apparantly started in some wiring and spread up the wall between the shed and the house, eventually burning the roof on the third floor. Some of our tenant's friends were on the deck around midnight and saw a glow from inside the shed. They saw flames and called 911 and got everyone out. One of our third floor tenants ran around the back of the house and stepped on a bed-frame leaning against the wall. It smacked him in the face and broke a couple of teeth. He had to have his lip stitched up at the ER. Annie and I have been on the phone all day talking to the insurance company and arranging for Kenny Swisher (KAS Construction) to go over this afternoon and tarp the roof and board up broken windows etc to prevent further damage.

The fire apparantly traveled up the wall between the shed and the house, getting into the third floor roof. As I understand it, the shed is pretty much gone and the roof has gaping holes with sheetrock torn down on the third floor to provide access to put the fire out. First and second floors have extensive smoke and water damage. We don't know how much of our stuff (photos, artwork, books etc.) survived.

The good news is, it's just stuff. Annie and I are fine and in New Mexico. The bad news is that our tenants have lost all their stuff and have nowhere to live. Raspberry Lane Pre-School was scheduled to open there next month and already had supplies there. Jeremy Youngblood (Fiddlehead Salon) was on the second floor. His friend, Rene Blanton, had her things stored in the shed (former shed.) Bogdon Baciu and Wayne Wormington rented the third floor, and it appears they lost everything. We just heard that Bogdon has a terminally ill family member in the mid-west and he has no money to travel back there. Susannah has opened an account at Wells Fargo to help the tenants out and if any of our friends can contribute, we would be grateful. Just tell them it's the East Hill House Fire Fund. We always tell our tenants that they should really get renters insurance as our policy won't cover their belongings, but most people don't ever do that, I know we never did when we were renting. I'll pass along more details later.

Birdlife of New Mexico

2009-08-12T12:56:00.000-07:00

I haven't written anything for a while, so thought I should post an update. We've been having a great time sitting in the shade for a good part of the day while my rock-saw buzzes away at the piles of rocks we keep bringing home. We read and watch the birds, which flock to our feeder in huge numbers. I finally got a couple of good pictures of these rosy finches. I haven't bothered to take photos of the numerous other finches, barn swallows, and sparrows, as they all look alike to me. The white winged dove juveniles sit on our fence and wait for a willing adult to feed them... very comical. We've also been on several great drives out of town. The other day we went to Montecello, an almost Ghost Town about half an hour northwest of TorC. It's a charming little village in a large valley smack dab in the middle of the flattest desert you can imagine. We found a dirt county road that circled back to the highway and found some great rock picking along the way. We also came upon a buzzard enjoying lunch at the expense of a recently flattened jack rabbit. DO NOT click on this picture to enlarge it if you are a) squeamish or b) a bunny hugger... but everybody's got to eat, right? We also took another drive up Mud Mountain, where we got some beautiful chunks of candy rock (rhiolite) that I've been sawing up. So little time, so many rocks! Annie is knitting up a storm. I continue to play a little music and do a little maintenance here at the house we're renting. The other day the swamp cooler went on the fritz and I had to tinker with the pump to get it running again. The cooler recirculates the water which evaporates to cool the air. There is so much disolved calcium that it plugs everything up. The filters look like there's snow on them and the pump gets filled with sediment. Today, I had to fix a ceiling fan that was rattling around threatening to take off like an upside-down helicopter. This is much nicer than trying to fix a heater when the weather is below zero!!! The humidity ranges from 45-50% at 6am to 13% during the hottest part of the afternoon. It is quite pleasant most of the day, with only a few hours when standing in the sun is like sticking your head in the oven. It still makes my jaw drop to see someone walking down the street wearing a jacket and long pants when the temperature is hovering around 100 degrees. I'm assuming those people are suffering from being dropped on their heads in infancy. But in the words of my favorite recent country song "God is Great, Beer is Good, and People are Crazy." (Actually, that's my second favorite recent country song. My #1 is: "I gave up drinkin', smokin' and women last night, and it was the worst 15 minutes of my life."

Sunset

2009-08-07T21:19:00.001-07:00

Had to post this picture from our yard last night. What more can I say!

Garden Pictures

2009-08-06T20:31:00.001-07:00

Instead of posting another slide show off to the side, I thought I'd try to embed one in a regular post. Not as easy as it seems. Anyway, you can click on the following link and it should take you to a slide show of our garden. It's hard to believe we've only been here a month. The yard is really taking shape. Annie and I sat in the carport this evening, watching the sun fade from the mountains while lightning flashed in the distance and periodic sprinkles of rain kept driving the birds away from the feeders. The light on the mountains was beautiful. Anyway, check out a few shots of our gardens. http://picasaweb.google.com/homerhorns/OurGarden#

Heat

2009-08-05T14:24:00.000-07:00

I can't say enough about the heat here and how wonderful it has been for my little joints. Many days when it gets over 105 degrees, well, I do like to be inside reading where the temperature is only 80. I must admit that the sun can beat down on you and it feels like you've been hit with a hammer. I'm not outside much without my cowboy hat (the Mexican one David gave me on our trip when he bought a new one in Wyoming). You really want that extra protection, or at least, I do. But my hands and elbows and shoulders just suck that warmth in, and use it. I've started knitting a little more lately, which is so wonderful for me. And very often now I can dress myself without help. (This is a very big deal, folks...) There are days when a thunder shower looms over the mountains and I start to feel punk, but then I just sit quietly and read: more Agatha Christie's Miss Marple, Fannie Flagg's COMING ATTRACTIONS and STANDING IN THE RAINBOW. Both of these books are charming--Coming Attractions is written from the point of view of a 7 year old child and is laugh-out-loud hilarious; Standing in the Rainbow is about growing up in the mid-west after WWII, but it speaks to anyone raised in a small town before the 90's changed everything. Very witty, wise and very, very funny...

Yesterday afternoon I went out and sat in the shade and watched the hummingbirds scrap with each other over the feeder. They are so fierce and I never had any idea that they fought so. They dive-bomb each other, spitting and chittering away, the rufous hummingbirds trying to keep the black-throated hummingbirds away and vice versa. Then the house finches, the black-throated sparrows, the mourning doves and the white-winged doves all get into the act, and they start squabbling over the birdfeeder we have up for them. Good Lord--great dramas right in my back yard! And the amazing thing was that I watched it all for over an hour, and did nothing, or thought about nothing else. A built-in meditation: all these little critters afraid there's not going to be enough food for them and so they don't want to share, totally unaware that David and I are committed to feeding them. All they have to do is keep coming back to the source of food and they'll have all they could want or need. There's a lesson there for me about Plenty and how, if we keep coming back to our Source, the promise of nourishment is always there. How's that for the lesson for today, kiddies???

Another Great Day

2009-08-02T17:05:00.001-07:00

Another fine day in New Mexico. Got up around 7 and trotted Annie out into the sun to warm her bones. I fired up the rock saw and sat in my chair reading "Bleak House" while we waited to see what was inside the pile of rocks that's been accumulating in our yard. After many failed attempts, I finally got a couple of pictures of the Humming Birds that are starting to find our feeder. There are two different species, and the larger of the two tries to keep the smaller away from the yard. They chatter, hum and flit around, occasionally lighting on the phone wires overhead or in the pine trees next door. We've also had rosey finches, bright red cap and breast, at our feeder, but I can't seem to get a decent picture. The white winged doves also have found the feeder, but prefer to pick up the spilled seeds from the ground. Here's one on our clothes-line pole. Back to the rocks, here are a few that I cut this morning. The first picture shows some of the uncut faces, then a photo of the other side. We went for a drive this afternoon to pick up more rocks. It's sure a lot faster picking them up than cutting them. Not much danger of running out of raw materials. Tomorrow, Brian and I are practicing with a new guitar/bass player Brian met while playing at the Sr. Center last week. Tuesday, we plan to go to Monticello and visit the farm of some folks we met at the Farmers Market. For now, I think I'll go check my rocks.

My New Toy

2009-07-31T15:43:00.001-07:00

At a yard sale last week, I found a Rock Saw for $20.00! I think I mentioned it in a previous blog. This morning, I finally found the right size V-belt to connect the moter to the blade arbor, repaired the electrical cord, and started cutting rocks. These are from our trip to Mud Mountain a couple of days ago. Don't know exactly what kind of rocks these are, but they're gorgeous. Don't know what I'm going to do with all the rock slabs I'm going to end up with but it's so much fun seeing a plain old rock transformed into a shiney gem-like something-or-other. The saw uses a diamond blade in a water/oil bath. There's a clamp for holding the rock and a screw drive that pushes the rock forward slowly. A chain linking the carriage to the switch turns off the saw when the cut is complete. It takes about a half hour to cut these small slabs, but with the automatic shut-off you can just set up the cut and walk away. Can't wait to find a geode!

Yesterday, we took a ride back to Hillsboro to have lunch with a new friend, Ellen the Iris Lady. She has the most amazing gardens with apples, peaches, pears, plums, apricots etc. She sent us home with fresh corn on the cob, squash and green beans. We are definitelly eating well here.

BUGS!!!

2009-07-28T20:14:00.000-07:00

There are all sorts of creepy crawlie things around here and they're all very interesting to look at, although I have to say that the no-see-ums have been doing more than crawling on me and I'm covered with bites. Thank goodness for Jody's Magic Oil...makes the itch go right away (at least for a while). Last night David and I climbed into bed and as I was adjusting my pillows I became distinctly aware that SOMETHING was crawling up my leg, rapidly approaching parts of me that don't see the sun on any day. Picture this short, round, hobbled-up little woman LEAPING out of bed, yelling something obscene, and as I hopped around making little "Agh-h" and "Y-U-CK" and "OOGH" noises, David chased a 2 inch COCKROACH around our bed until he caught it and threw it outside. Oh really, I hear someone wondering in their little pea brain "Why didn't he kill it..?" Think about it, Clyde. I said a TWO INCH cockroach. Exactly how does one kill something that big--so crunchy and so full of goo? You'd let it out the door as well. David says I should just think about it as a pet--a small, shiny, brown pet--like a tanned cat with no fur..."Something that got under the covers with you but shouldn't be there in the bed--like the cats with their claws when then get under the sheets and head for my crotch," he said, smiling. "They make me say "Oogh" too when they do that." So I will try to think of this BIG BUG as our new pet. We'll have to get a crate, though, because he's not allowed on the bed again...

Mud Mt, Lake Valley, and Nutt New Mexico

2009-07-28T16:22:00.000-07:00

We took a great trip today, leaving home in the late morning and heading into the hills west of town. We had been seeing this huge construction in the distance for the past couple of weeks and couldn't figure out what it was. From the brass plaque near the top, we finally figured out that it is the Poncy Mud Valley Dam. Not a drop of water behind it, but apparantly during a flash flood, the dam protects the town from the rushing waters. It's a spillway of sorts with concrete baffles to slow the water in its descent. We followed the road up the edge of the valley behind the dam through more dry desert with rocky outcrops. This plant looks like Crown of Thorns. It has tiny leaves, huge sharp spines and yellow flowers at the tips of its branches. After looking it up on line, we finally found out that it is an Ocotillo Cactus. The views along the way were spectacular, but so vast it's hard to contain in a photo. We stopped repeatedly to pick up rocks from beside the road. I really need to get some gloves, as it's impossible to hold a rock for more than a few seconds without juggling it from hand to hand to prevent third degree burns on the digits. Mud Mountain loomed above us, but we didn't think the Chrysler was up to the climb. Returning to town we headed south for Hillsboro for lunch then south again to Lake Valley, a ghost town that mostly burned to the ground in 1885. The famous Bridal Chamber Mine, one of the richest silver deposits in the world, was located near here. Hard to believe this was once a town of 4,000 souls. On the way we saw 5 Mule Deer beside the road. We also saw a couple of Roadrunners. (actually running in the road! Imagine that.) Above Lake Valley, looms Lizard Rock. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see where the name came from. There are all kinds of roads through the desert, because all you have to do is drive a cat with the blade down to knock over the very sparce vegetation, and Presto... a road. No frost heaves, only the danger of a washout wherever you cross a natural water course. There are numerous signs indicating that dips in the road are subject to flash floods. We dodged thunder showers all afternoon, with lightning flashing to the west, south and north, but managed to avoid any serious rain. Nutt, NM used to be the end of the line on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. Now it's just an intersection with a closed Bar called the Middle of Nowhere Tavern. The road then heads east into Hatch, home to cottonfields, miles of Chile Peppers, and cattle feetlots you can smell for a mile before you see them. Got home around 5:30, just in time for a nap before supper. Boy Howdy, there's sure some interesting country around here.

Monsoon Season

2009-07-27T19:48:00.000-07:00

Just got back from playing music at a neighborhood block party down by the river. We quit around 8 as the rain was threatening. Got home just in time to see the sun going down on Turtleback Mountain to the south The colors were even more intense a few minutes before I got out the camera. It's what they call the monsoon season here. There's often a rip-snorter of a thunder storm just before dark. A couple of nights ago, Annie and I were driving in the desert, digging up some native plants to stick in the ground around the house, when a crack of thunder followed so closely on the heels of the lightning we decided to get in the car and head for town. By the time we got to town, it was raining so hard we had to pull over. There are no storm drains here except for the streets, and they quickly turn into rivers when the rain hits.

The rain soaks in pretty quickly and we still have to water our gardens daily. Stuff just leaps out of the ground here. I picked these peppers off our plants so that the roots will develop, but these things have only been in the ground about 3 weeks. The basil is also growing like crazy. Tomorrow, I think we're going to drive to Hillsboro, an old mining town south of here, to visit with the Iris Lady. Annie met her at the Old Time Fiddler's hall when I played there last week, and she invited us down to see her gardens. Tonight I was at a house with a pomegranite tree in the yard. We've been buying apples at the farmer's market for juice (seconds are a buck a pound) and the grower says he has apples from June to December! This place is certainly agreeing with us and everyday provides a new surprise. I bought a diamond blade rock saw at a yard sale Saturday for 20 dollars and can't wait to start cutting geodes, sandstone and agates. It needs a new belt and a good cleaning, but should be a lot of fun when I get it in working order. We hauled a bunch of rocks back from a recent trip across the river and have them stashed in the garden. The minerals here are all new and different, so we're looking forward to collecting LOTS of rocks. It's now 9 pm, so I think I'll get back to Dickens (Bleak House). Ain't retirement grand.

East of the Rio Grande

2009-07-21T23:21:00.001-07:00

Check out the new Slide Show above. Click on it to open in a new window with larger photos and captions. We toot a trip today across the river. The photos are of the first portion of our trip only, as the camera batteries ran out. We ended up traveling east to Engle, future site of Spaceport America, which is in the middle of NOWHERE. Flat desert in all directions. We then followed a dirt road south for miles and miles, through torrential rains with lightning in all directions around us. Ended up in Hatch for a late supper at a Santa Fe Grill (a chain of fast food outlets) and then back up the west side of the river on Interstate 25, getting home around 9:30.

Uncle Frank has a new Hat!!!

2009-07-21T14:35:00.001-07:00

Most gardens around here have a "santos" standing guard; most often it's St. Francis of Assissi. You often see him covered with bird necklaces and such, with terracotta painted animals around him. The other day David and I went to a cactus garden, which was a wonderful place full of more cacti than we'd ever seen, and also wonderful oleander and Mexican heather for sale. The owner was also selling Mexican hand-thrown pots (drool) and tucked in amongst them, little Mexican "santos" of varying sizes. This one caught my fancy and I brought him home to stand watch outside our door and to keep the mice out of the herb garden (hah). However, the big deal for me is the beaded halo on his head, as I never thought I'd get back enough use of my hands to be able to ever bead again--in fact, all my beading supplies, along with the yarn and needles and knitting books, went to Susannah or my friend Lauren and the rest got sold in our "Mother of All Yard Sales." With help from David with the crimping tools, I managed to bead him his

new headband! And look what else I've managed to do this week: No, the scrap of knitting to the left is not the bottom of a bikini but the beginnings of a lowly cotton dishrag--something that is taking me a full week or more to make because I have about fifteen minutes before my hands stop working, but I'm determined to finish this and then take a picture of David using it. The bamboo and wicker towel rack is half-painted, too. Same problem holding a paintbrush for any length of time, but still, half-finished or not, I decided to hang it up and use it, take it down and paint on it, until it's entirely done and David can give it a coat of clear acrylic to seal it. If you click on the photo you'll see the design better and see what's not yet complete. These three things, compared to the handwork I used to whip out in a weekend pales really in comparison, yet for me, right now, they are the sweetest things I have ever put my hands to...because I was ABLE to put my hands to them. It's such an old saw, "You never know what you have until it's gone," but the reason it's an OLD saw, is because there's so much truth in it, it hangs around to be said over and over. Laying in that damned recliner night after sleepless night with only a candle in Lindy's crystal lotus she gave me and some Christmas lights for company, unable to move my hands, arms or legs without the most excruciating pain, I would have many a discussion with old Uncle Frank (as some around here fondly call him) about the worth of my life, and how could I find the grace to live in a helpless state, and asking for just a bit of shoring up around the edges until I could find my way out of my own private Idaho of pain and darkness and despair. It was truly the Winter of (All) Our Discontent, because life then was no picnic for David, or Susannah, or Dotty, all of whom not only had to deal with their own complicated and difficult lives, but deal with me all the time as well...every dark, cold and dreary day. And now, the Universe (with, I think, a little of Uncle Frank's help) has squirted us out of that particular worm-hole into a place where there's Light and Heat, Understanding and Health. I have no idea what our desert lives might be like from here on in, but I know they've been changed forever by our recent experiences. And I'll take mine as it comes at me, grab it and revel in it, because I know I am so lucky and so blessed to have it.

I think David has some more photos of our house and gardens and he wants to try another slide-show, so I'll sign off. Just wanted you to know how things are progressing in my lil' old life these days. Love to you ALL!!!

New Pictures

2009-07-20T11:21:00.000-07:00

I finally figured out how to post a slide show. Check it out at left. Click on the pictures for a new window with larger photos with captions.

Another Day in TorC

2009-07-17T20:38:00.001-07:00

This little anole lizard is my alter ego. Every morning I wake up stiff and sore and not able to move at all, and David helps me out of bed and into some clothes and into my wheelchair; then he wheels me across the street to the vacant lot to visit the tumbleweed and get the early morning sun. I sit there with my coffee or tea and some yogurt with homemade granola, and after about an hour, I'm hot all the way through and completely thawed out, ready to start my day! By mid-afternoon I can actually walk a little unassisted around the house. Swept the patio yesterday. Painted on a small shelf. Began knitting a cotton washcloth. Each of those things were impossibilities a year ago. And slowly, slowly I'm beginning to get myself back again. Pretty wonderful.

Let's see, what did we do today? After I thawed out, we went to a local farmer's supply place and bought flypaper. The bugs find me everywhere around here; they don't bother David at all. So maybe some flypaper....oh, who am I kidding? This is a buggy place and I've just got to go with the flow. Then we went to the post office where we got our first bills!!! We came right home and paid them on-line. While we were out we also bought another fan for the back room where the big computer is and toured the Animal Shelter Thrift Shop to see what was there. Lots of 2nd hand places in this town. Great for the budget! Came home and David made lunch; then I sat outside and read and he stayed inside and practiced some of the songs he and his ersatz band will play tomorrow morning at the Farmer's Market. Tonight we sat outside in the vacant lot and watched the incredible lightening show up Elephant Butte way. Better than fireworks!

I have a great bug story, speaking of bugs. The other day my new friend Terry was sitting on the pot when a four-inch centipede dropped out of her ceiling fan right at her feet. Of course it freaked her out and she grabbed the closest thing to her which was a bottle of toilet bowl cleaner. She just doused the thing until it drowned or was killed by the Clorox or whatever in it. Her husband was so impressed by how it had so instaneously dispatched the creep thing, that he took the cleaner outside to see if it would kill the weeds in the yard... Four-inch centipedes--I'm not in Alaska for sure....

Life in TorC

2009-07-12T17:48:00.000-07:00

Why on earth is this woman smiling from ear to ear??? Could it be because she's upright and able to do something mundane for the first time in several years? I vacuumed the floor the other day and David caught it with the camera. How terrific! I could only manage the living room, but hey... By the way, here's our living room. Ugly rug, white walls--eh, we can live with it all. Found a couch at a yard sale, brand-new, for $200. It has recliners at both ends, so David and I each have one. How decadent! For those of you who have wondered about tumbleweed (how's that for a non sequitur?) I thought you might be interested in these two pictures. The one on the left is green, growing tumbleweed in the vacant lot across the alley from our house. The

tumbleweed at my feet is the dry stuff that blows and tumbles all over the place. David found this in a little nook beside our carport where he's going to build a small storage shed for his tools and such.

The other two photos are the alley to the left and right of our little house. Our house is very private, as none of the other houses on the alley face the alley but are oriented to the streets in front. Thus we have a lot of privacy (AND a lot of shade, which is a good thing.) In the photo directly above, you can see some of the new gardens David has put in--basil, tomatoes, peppers, Sweet William and cilantro in the bed to the left. To the right is my rock garden with carnations, blue sage, chollo cactus and ice plant. There are red ivy geraniums hanging from pots. Once all the gardening is done, I'll send more pics. The last photo is David and his new friend Brian, who plays trumpet and trombone, and two other quasi-musicians busking on the streetcorner of T or C last night at the monthly Gallery Walk (much like Homer's First Fridays, only it's Second Saturdays). They got paid $20 each by the owner of the antique shop in front of which they had set up, and a couple people threw some money in David's guitar case. So...we've been here two weeks, David's found a really good musician friend and he's had his first paying gig! Life is good!!!

Life at 612 Charles Street, TorC NM

2009-06-30T07:39:00.002-07:00

Finally!!! Our internet and our house phone has been set up!!! Our new phone number is 575-297-4064. Forget trying to remember it--brain is over 60 years old. I just hope I don't have to call home for anything! Did some more digging today, or rather, my trusty servant David, did some more digging, and got half a bed of tomatoes and peppers planted. Will work on the rest tonight when it cools off a little. Yesterday it was 103 when we got home. Wretched trip without AC. Will try to get that fixed tomorrow. Trip to CO to see Elizabeth and family was so wonderful. Look who I got to meet: Rowan Thomas Edward Gallagher. And isn't he just the cutest thing. I love holding babies--especially my

GREAT-NEPHEW. Do we get old quickly, or what??? But it's fun--at least most of the time!!! Brigid is the most wonderful Mom, but then again, why wouldn't she be??? She's a most wonderful PERSON! I love how Rowan looks so much like her, with that shy little smile with his eyes half-closed, like he has a special secret that he's not sharing with anyone. Tom and Elizabeth have great kids, all, and are pretty wonderful as well. News of the rest of their family: Cora and Caitlin are both thriving in their jobs, Kevin is working hard this summer before he returns to Norwich in the fall, Patrick is doing handy-man jobs this summer and looking forward to August when he attends the Maine Maritime Academy, and Liam is his usual helpful and lovely self. I told him his job was to carry on the moniker of "Uncle Fun" that he and his siblings gave our brother Jonathan long ago, and the way he was carting little Rowan around, I bet he gives Jon a run for his money!!! Lovely, lovely visit.

Am planning a little photo tour of our little "hovel" once all the planting is done. But we cannot rush these things--after all, we seem to be retired now and then there is the heat, which requires a nap and some iced tea, always. And it seems we have forever--amazing concept. For those who wonder how I'm doing, here's a picture of me doing something I haven't been able to do for a couple years--my favorite thing, actually. Look!!! She's standing!!! She's lifted something!!! She has her hands over her head!!! She's smiling!!! Yes, folks, all of the above. And I'm walking a little around the house unassisted by even my walker. Then there are days that I can't do much, when I just have to sit in my chair and read because nothing works. But there are actually days when THINGS WORK!!! And that is a very, very good thing. We've made the right move, coming here. I think I can get better here and I know that David and I are very, very happy. Life is a blessing, and I'm the luckiest woman I know. Truly.

On the Road Again (temporarily)

2009-06-30T07:39:00.001-07:00

I'm sitting in our room at the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas, NM while Annie snoozes. Yesterday, we had a short road trip north to Trinidad, Colorado to meet Annie's sister Elizabeth her husband Tom who were traveling west for a family reunion. We met for a picnic lunch in a little park by the river. Also along with Betsy & Tom are Patrick, Liam, Bridget, and the newest addition to the family, Bridget's son Rowan. I'll post some pictures of them later, but for now, let me catch you up on the last few days.

It's hard to believe we arrived in TorC almost two weeks ago. We pulled into town with only fumes in the gas tank (note the "distance to empty" display in our van) and booked a room for a week at the Charles Hot Springs Resort and began to explore Truth or Consequences. After two weeks, we still haven't taken a bath in the Hot Springs which originally drew us to this place. With temperatures in the 90's, the idea of sitting in hot water isn't all that appealing. Within two days of our arrival, we found a house to rent (see our previous post). We found the place on Craig's List while traveling and it was the first and only place we looked at. We ended up staying at the Charles for only 5 nights before moving in and beginning the process of furnishing our new home. The only detail remaining is Phone & Internet, which should be hooked up tomorrow. Before we even moved in, Annie had scoured the local greenhouses and we began planting in the yard. There was a flagstone walkway which was difficult for Annie to negotiate in a wheelchair or with her walker, so I dug up the stones and made a small rock garden. Our house is one of three units on a small city lot right in the historic Hot Springs District. The other two units face Charles Street. Our little house (about 650 square feet) faces the alley behind. It faces south and the drive and yard are shaded until around 10 in the morning. Annie is like a little Anole lizard and likes to sit in the sun first thing in the morning to get warmed up before starting her day, so I wheel her across the street to the vacant lot filled with gravel and tumble-weeds, (behind me and to the left in the photo) where she sits and drinks her coffee. We spend several early mornings at yard sales. I do mean early mornings! Because of the mid-day heat, they generally run from 7-11am. Here's Annie outside our front door, one of our favorite shady spots to sit with a glass or iced tea. This retirement thing is not for the faint-hearted. There's so much to do: Get up and check the weather, make iced tea, move from the sun into the shade when the day starts to heat up, make more iced tea, take a nap when the day's too warm, then repeat the above.

Saturday. July 4th, was an especially busy day. We picked up a practically new sofa with built-in double recliner at a yard sale for a ridiculously cheap price. We were home by 9am and Annie reminded me that it was Farmer's Market Day. We trundled down to Ralph Edwards Park and bought fresh vegetables, local honey, roasted Pinon Nuts and local eggs, then I met a trumpet player that was playing in the park accompanied by a drummer and a bass player whose accomplishments could best be described as minimal. We got to talking and he invited me to go home and get my sax. I played with them for about 45 minutes and then he invited Annie and I to his house for drinks and to watch the fireworks. He and his wife have been in town for a little over a year and he's looking for places to play. We plan to play on the sidewalk this coming weekend for the weekly ArtWalk. To give you an idea of Real Estate prices here, they bought their house a year ago for $140,000. It's probably close to 2,000 square feet with all new tile floors, new cabinets, landscaping, beautiful stucco arches over the entry and a backyard that drops straight down to the Rio Grande and looks across at Turtleback Mountain. The Rio Grande is actually larger here than it is downstream on the Tex-Mex border. It is a beautiful green, as are many of the rivers in the area, and flows out of the Elephant Butte Reservoir, just north-east of town. The city of Elephant Butte is much more upscale than TorC, with higher priced homes, but the place itself is butt-ugly: dry and barren with a view of speedboats on the lake and miles of sandy desert. There was a picture in the paper this week of a 50 pound striped bass caught in the reservoir, so i can understand the attraction, but I'll take our little town with its cheap rents and funky shops anytime. Well, I've rambled on for long enough this morning. We have to head home and get busy resting up for whatever happens next.

Our New Home at 612 Charles Street

2009-06-30T07:39:00.000-07:00

We haven't had internet at the motel, so haven't kept you all updated. We have rented a cute little house, just a couple of blocks from the Rio Grande. We've been in the process of moving in, getting plants, hooking up utilities etc. We'll order a phone and internet later today. Our address is PO Box 1445, Truth or Consequences, NM 87901. We'll have more pictures and details as soon as we're hooked up. Needless to say we're really excited and have lots to tell. Right now we're sitting in the car in front of the Senior Center to get a signal. Not the most comfortable place to type. More to come soon.

WE'RE IN NEW MEXICO

2009-06-25T19:58:00.000-07:00

Annie tried to get a picture of the Welcome to New Mexico sign, but it flashed by too fast. This is just a few hundred yards into NM heading down from the top of Raton Pass. We left Castle Rock this morning after getting a tire patched. (footnote: If you ever get a chance to hear a singer/songwriter named Chuck Pyle, do it. He has a song called Castle Rock, which is why I mention it.) Colorado was so green, compared to Montana and Wyoming, it almost seemed surreal. We drove past mile after mile of GRASS!!! no sagebrush, no rocks, just beautiful grazing land, with cattle packed together instead of spread all over hell looking for a bite to eat. As soon as we topped Raton Pass and got to New Mexico, it was back to dry, sere landscapes as far as the eye could see, punctuated by buttes and mesas rising out of the flats. I was compelled to buy a new hat yesterday at a farm and ranch supply store where we stopped for gas and an espresso. Annie has inherited my ratty old hat I bought in Chacala, Mexico last year. As we pushed along South on Interstate 25 at 75 miles an hour in temperatures that I had believed would make me melt, the tire I had patched back in Pinedale blew. It was in the middle of a vast expanse of desert. I changed the tire, and never even broke a sweat. That "dry heat" stuff is really true. No humidity and a stiff breeze and 96 degrees isn't so bad. Our air conditioning unit in the van doesn't work at all. I've been told that 5 years of not using the AC lets the seals dry out and the freon leaks out. Therefore, we have been driving with the windows wide open. The speed along with the wind makes listening to music or conversing difficult. We need some of those headsets with mics that we've seen motorcyclists using. We stopped at a rest area that had a neat little serascape garden with cactus etc. From the smile on Annies face, you can see that she's enjoying the heat. I know Annie has been planning to post a bunch of wildflower photos, but we've been putting in long days and she hasn't found the time. I'm going to steal her thunder with this photo of cactus flowers. We got to Las Vegas, NM around 6pm. It's at the base of some hills and is a very old Spanish town. We had great New Mexican food a Johnny's Kitchen, (posole, beans fahitas, carnitas... yum) and asked the waitress if any of the old hotels in town might be wheelchair friendly. We stayed in a Hampton Suites last night, and it was fine, but we wanted a change. She called the Plaza Hotel and said they had a room for us. It's on a town square with a bandstand in the middle. Teenagers were dancing to Spanish Music when we drove by. It's a great old hotel: 12 foot ceilings, antique furniture, very friendly staff. I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow. Having a drink in the hotel bar, we met a guy who's family has been here for generations. He talked about how most of the spanish speaking people in the area didn't come here from Mexico. They were here when this was Mexico. This area was settled by the Spanish long before the Mayflower landed. There's great history here. We're really entranced by Las Vegas. It's got everything we're looking for (including hot springs) but is a little more expensive than T or C. It also has a little more winter, but is a little cooler in the summer. We'll push on to Truth or Consequences tomorrow, because that has been the plan since the beginning, but don't be surprised if we eventually end up here in Las Vegas, at least for part of the year.

L-O-N-N-N-G DAY !!!

2009-06-25T07:56:00.000-07:00

Well, where to begin. Yesterday we were in Rock Springs WY, a dusty coal town nestled (?) in valleys surrounded by rocky desert cliffs. I realized that I was almost out of prednisone and so we stopped at a Walgreens to refill my prescription. Because we're two hours ahead of AK we had to wait around so they could call the pharmacy in Homer, receive a fax, etc. etc. etc. So we didn't get out of there until almost noon, although we had done a wonderful job of being moved out of our motel room by 9 am. We drove to Laramie WY and then took 287 down to Denver. THAT was interesting! The first part of the trip took us through some beautiful farm country. We watched the countryside shift from sage desert to grasslands. Wide open spaces, for sure! Consistently there were signed about "High Winds" and this photo shows the miles and miles of snow fences we saw along the road. We also saw some wonderful rock formations as we got farther south. (Remember that you can click on any of these photos to see them blown up). Other absolutely gorgeous formations appeared as we got closer to our destination (or what we THOUGHT was going to be our destination--a little town called "Ted's Place". It was on the map and it sounded like a cool place to spend the night. Along the route, it became apparant that we were having trouble with our right front tire. Every time we stopped at a gas station David had to fill it with air--a slow leak was slowly turning into a moderate leak. Yikes... As we drove along, we realized that just because there's a name on a map doesn't mean there's any kind of distinguishable hamlet. Duh. We should have been able to figure that out. So we filled the tire with air again in Ft. Collins and off we went to find a motel. FOUR HOURS LATER, and south of Denver, we finally found a motel in Castle Rock, which is where I am at the moment. If the name of this town sounds familiar, it's because Steve King made it famous as the location of the big hotel in The Shining. Anyway, I'm signing off now. Once I get all my flower photos identified I'll do a blog on all the wildflowers we've seen and photographed. Some of you may want to skip that upcoming blog; seeing flower photos may be as appealing to some as watching paint dry! It's in the upper 80's today in the sun. My bones are HAPPY!!!

Rock Springs, Wyoming

2009-06-23T21:57:00.000-07:00

Before we left Pinedale this morning, we found a great little hippy coffee shop. I asked the waitress why there wasn't a place like this in Pinedale 40 years ago when I hitchhiked into town with my dog and longhairs had to tuck their hair up under their cowboy hats so they wouldn't be attacked with a pair of sheep shearing shears. She had no clue, of course, being only in her late 2o's and clueless about what was happening in the late 60's. When I first came to Wyoming, hippies were not exactly welcome. I do remember the Stagecoach Bar in Wilson, just outside of Jackson, where the cowboys and hippies had a sort of truce. I once saw some guy play Yakkety Sax on a Duck-call at an open mic Sunday. The previous act was a young cowgirl singing D-I-V-O-R-C-E (a Tammy Wynette classic, for those of you too young to remember.) We drove south 99 miles to Rock Springs, a rather depressing coal mining town on the Wyoming/Utah/Colorado border. Met up with my friend Bruce and went to a brew-pub for dinner. Didn't take a lot of pictures, because the drive from Pinedale to Rock Springs is through a hundred miles of sage brush flats, with the distinguishing feature being a 20 foot tall sandy bluff above another hundred square mile sage brush flat. We did see some beautiful Indian Paint brush. There were also a few wind-mills pumping water into stock tanks and a few natural gas rigs pumping gas into pipelines that Alaskans are wetting their pants dreaming of. Outside of Pinedale, which was a typical western cow-town when I worked here, we saw llamas, of all things. It felt a little like the time I went back to East Conway, New Hampshire and found a field of arugula in my Uncle Stubba's hay-field. What's going on here? The thing about getting older is that everything changes except your memories, and your memories are subject to very subjective interperatation. We have about 13 hours of driving from here to Truth or Consequences. We'll probably take 3 days to do that. In the back of my mind I've been a little worried about how we'll deal with the 90 degree heat. This afternoon set my mind at ease. It was 87 degrees, and I hardly broke a sweat. The humidity is low, there's a breeze, and as long as I don't have to bust my ass framing a house I can deal with this, no sweat. Tomorrow, we're off to Colorado.

Long Day Short Blog

2009-06-22T21:19:00.000-07:00

Another great day. We got up early again and drove out of Pinedale into the Bridger National Forest, climbing from about 7100 feet to probably close to 9,000 feet in the foothills of the Wind River Mountains. We climbed a ridge above Freemont Lake, a 9 mile long, 600 foot deep lake just outside of town. We took over 75 pictures, because the view was so spectacular, and due to the recent rains the wildflowers were at their peak. Annie took dozens of flower picture out of the van window and sent me on numerous picture taking expeditions just off the road to document each new species. I'll let her post those photos later, but I have to say, I've seen more wildflowers in a day with Annie than I saw in my entire stay in the area 40 years ago. I've hunted mule deer and antelope in the hills around this lake, but as a 22 year old cowboy wannabe, I never took the time to really stop and look around. Thank God we get older and wiser (or at least more observant.) The road goes through sage brush hills into aspen groves and then into softwood forest. We are continually amazed by the number of species of softwoods here; several kinds of pine, spruce, fir, cedar and larch. It's a big change from Spruce, Spruce and More Spruce. On the way back to town we stopped at the Museum of the Mountain Men. I was expecting a little, tacky tourist trap. Much to our surprise, this was a really fine museum, with elaborate, well researched displays. There's a lot of money in Pinedale these days. It sits on one of the biggest natural gas fields in the country and Sublette county has one of the lowest unemployment rates in in the US. I won't bore you with pictures of the exhibits. You can see them online. Just check out their web site http://www.museumofthemountainman.com/ and see for yourself, but Annie got a picture of a prairie dog on the boardwalk, and I just couldn't resist it. After the museum, we shopped at a tiny natural food store and had a picnic in a beautiful little park right in town on the banks of Pine Creek (that's crick, in case you haven't traveled in this part of the country before.) I had a little nap and then we did laundry, had dinner with George again and then spent the evening at his house, reminiscing about old times. Oh yes. Annie and I did have a drink at the Cowboy Bar, where George and I used to play. OK, it wasn't such a short blog. I know Annie is itching to post a bunch of wildflower photos, but she's sound asleep, so I guess it's time for bed.

Pinedale, 37 Years Later

2009-06-21T19:37:00.000-07:00

Got up early and had breakfast this morning . I was eager to drive south and see if I could find the ranch I worked on 37 years ago. From the development around Pinedale, I was afraid the ranch wouldn't seem as remote as I remembered it. From the picture, you can see that it's still pretty darn remote. The ranch is the little dot in the center of the picture. Thirty-seven years ago, the front gate to the Buckskin Crossing was an old wooden gate with a sign Bill Edwards and I burned with a hot poker. We drove in and looked around, but there was nobody home. The old cabin and most of the other ranch buildings were gone, replaced by a new kit-log home. The ranch is 40 miles from Pinedale and there's not much for miles around but sage brush covered flat land, sage brush covered hills, sage brush covered ravines, and a thread of green grass and trees along the river. We saw dozens of antelope and finally got a more or less close up shot of a couple of does. (Bea says they knock her socks off.)
We got a comment from Lucas and Brooke on the blog today. They had been looking at the pictures and Brooke said she liked the one of Bea and Grandpa on a horse. Maybe she'll be able to come out to New Mexico some day and we'll go riding together. We came back to the motel for a little nap and then took another drive around town and saw this mule deer doe just a few blocks from Main Street. Then we met
my old friend and bass player, George Ditton for dinner. We plan to spend some more time with him tomorrow. He's still playing music. I hope I look that good in another 25 years.

Such a wonderful day for me, to see where David worked and played just before we met so many years ago. It sure is remote!!! It seemed like we drove and drove to Emmy Lou Harris and "Sweetheart of the Rodeo." Sagebrush everywhere, irrigation ditches, creeks (cricks, out here), and a river or two. Water is extremely high as it has been raining cats and dogs in this area for several weeks now according to the local paper. Redwing blackbirds, magpies, killdeer everywhere--even saw a goldfinch in town. Pretty soon I'll have a list of all the wildflowers I've seen--this is surely the right time to see the desert. Karen, you were right, the desert IS blooming for us!!!!

Pinedale, Wyoming

2009-06-20T20:18:00.000-07:00

Another banner day: Lots of amazing country, flora, and fauna. As you may have noticed, Annie is entranced by the numerous new species of wildflowers we've encountered on this trip. I finally found a field guide to plants of the Rocky Mountains in a Yellowstone Park bookstore and she's been a happy camper all day.

We left Gardiner, Montana early this morning (at least early for us. We checked out at 9am.) The entrance to Yellowstone is only a few hundred yards outside of town. There's a huge stone arch, designed by Teddy Roosevelt, at the entrance. The park actually pre-dates Roosevelt by decades, becoming the nations first national park in 1867. (There will be a quiz.) The first part of our drive today climbed from around 5,000 feet to over 8,000 feet through beautiful canyons, valleys and finally over a snow covered pass. Every day, we see amazing geology and every day we're awed again by the size of this country and the vast area with no roads, no houses, no human presence to speak of. Even in the park, you can look for miles and miles and know that save for a hiker or two, there's nobody there. The traffic was much lighter than I had feared, but almost every parking lot at various points of interest was full, or nearly so. We made a few side trips off the main road to see lovely rushing streams and waterfalls and mountain valleys that were lush and green following the spring rains. By early afternoon, we were inside the caldera (remnant of an ancient volcanic eruption) and saw a few of the many thermal features. We saw dozens of bubbling springs of boiling water, mineral rich pools with turquoise water, and acres of steaming geysers. There were fly fishermen standing in rivers and casting just yards away from small streams coming from boiling hot pools. The wildlife in the park seems to be adapted to the crowds on the roads. This cow elk, sporting a chic transmitting device, grazed along the verge of the main road, with cars on one side and a parking lot on the other. At the Old Faithful Visitor Center, a whole herd of buffalo was grazing all around the parking lot and between the building, just a few feet from the camera toting hoards. We had seen numerous large bulls in fields and valleys all along the road, mostly singly or in small groups. This bunch seemed to be mostly cows with calves or yearlings. Most were still patchy with winter coats falling off in patches, exposing areas of sleek, smooth, summerwear. I took this picture a cute little calf and didn't notice the nursing calf in the background until I uploaded it onto the computer. No, that's not an extra long tail on the cow! Be careful where you step if you enter the Old Faithful Parking Lot.Our final few hours in the park were dampened by a torrential downpour that pretty much obscured the veiw. South of the Park, we did catch some impressive vistas of the Tetons as we entered Jackson, and then it cleared up somewhat as we drove south to Pinedale. Jackson has really grown since the early '70s, and I hardly recognized it. Pinedale has grown as well, with huge chain motels and suburban sprawl extending onto the sagebrush flats for miles in every direction. We're staying in the Half Moon Motel, an old and funky structure dating from my days in the area. We'll be here for a couple of days while we explore my old stomping grounds, then head 100 miles south to Rock Springs to meet up with another old friend, Bruce Bloy. Bruce and I taught together in Gary, Indiana in 1970, and then took a cross-country trip together.

By the way, I think I finally figured out how to upload a video I took of the rodeo in Gardiner last night. If this doesn't work, let me know.

Along the boardwalk of the "Artists Paintpots" I took this photo of the turquoise blue water in a hot pot and the grey, yellow and red "sand" that surrounded it. As you walk through this amazing array of baby geysers and steam vents, you realized how close the center of the earth is here--huge vents from deep below the ground open up here and superheat the ground water. Because of the pressure of the the land the water cannot turn to steam but stays in liquid form. When the water hits the surface , the water is over 200 degrees and boils and bubbles like crazy and turns to steam right away. It's very weird and very wonderful.

All day I've been thinking about my dear friend, Lindy, whose Celebration of Life was today at her home. Bill put together a wonderful party for her, I know, which would be just as she would have wanted it. I feel badly that I wasn't there to be part of it but every time I've seen a butterfly or a new wildflower today I think about her, so I know she's around. I wonder if Bill put Woodstock (Lindy's ferret) in one of his costumes, maybe the tuxedo??? I'll have to ask someone!

Was feeling ssoooo good last night that David and I had a wonderful ice cream cone at one of the little tourista shops in Gardiner. I haven't eaten ice cream in months. Oh, what a big mistake. Between the white sugar and all that dairy plus the change in the barometric pressure, my little joints ached like mad all day. C'est la vie. I know better...

The scenery was so magnificent that we travelled most of the day with no music, but later we listened to Abbey Road and then Jabula (African music). "And, in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make..." Lennon & McCartney

Just Outside of Yellowstone Park

2009-06-19T20:46:00.001-07:00

Kicking back in the Radon Room at the Free Enterprise Health Mine, Boulder MT.

Here's a photo a a rock just down the road from the mine. The picture doesn't quite capture the essential bullfrogness of this rock, but it gives you an idea. We spent a couple of hours at the mine before heading south toward Yellowstone a little after noon. Rather than drive due south and hitting the park at the west entrance in Idaho, we jogged east on Interstate 90, through Bozeman and Livingston, then south on Route 89 along the Yellowstone River. We took a back road to the east of the river, through mountain valleys and past huge ranches, most of which seemed to be for sale. Either the ranching business has gone to hell or all the hollywood stars with Montana retreats have fallen on hard times. At right is a picture of Devil's Slide, not really a landslide, but a chunck of soft sandstone that originally lay horizontally before being thrust up and then eroded into this odd looking chute. I caught a river raft going by. We're at somewhere between five and six thousand feet above sea level. We checked in at a TravelLodge in Gardiner, right at the Park Entrance. We're right in the middle of town on the 4th floor with a balcony overlooking the edge of the park just across the river. I took Annie for a roll around town and had pizza at a local watering hole, then we went to the annual Gardiner Rodeo, a rather typical small time affair with local ropers, barrel racers and bronc-riders. Several of the team ropers (head and heel roping) were female, quite a change from the last rodeos I saw in the early '70s. They also had an event called break-away roping, an all female event which is like regular calf roping, but instead of leaping off her horse to throw and tie the calf, the rope is tied to the saddle horn with a string and as soon as the string breaks, the clock stops. (this may make sense to some of you... or maybe not) With the bleachers non-wheelchair accessible, we were on the ground right at the fence, just a couple of feet away from the thundering hooves. Annie got quite an introduction to rodeo. One of the bulls charged the fence in front of us when someone leaned through to take a picture. An exciting end to another great day. Tomorrow we'll head into the park, then on south toward Pinedale, where I plan to stop and see George Ditton, who played bass in my band back in the early '70s at the Cowboy Bar. His brother and sister-in-law live in Homer and his niece, Dianne Ditton is renting our place for the summer. I hadn't talked to him in 37 years until I called him earlier today. He's playing for a birthday party at the Pinedale Senior Center Sunday. Well, guess what I just figured out. You can click on any picture and see it all blown up. The details, especially with some of the flower and scenery pictures is really great. The next thing we're going to learn how to do is set up a slideshow as part of the Blog. But don't expect anything too soon--we don't want to hurt ourselves...Traveled yesterday with Vince Gilbert and The Bobs (a so-weird but so-wonderful acapella group) and the ubitquitous country music stations on the radio. I loved the rodeo, especially watching women not much younger than me rope those little steers. Snaps everywhere, and pointy toes on most. Travelling through these rolling cuts between mountains, you just could imagine seeing Indians on painted ponies at the top of the ridges looking down at Lewis and Clark, or the first wagon trains and, as David said, remarking "...Well, there goes the neighborhood..."

...And a Couple Steps Back...and Then a Couple Forward Again...

2009-06-18T17:07:00.000-07:00

So this morning at six I was awakened because I thought that in my sleep I must have walked somewhere and fallen down stairs and then someone had beaten me up for good measure. Every joint in my body ached, and even though I had David get me my medication right away I felt really, really crappy and very, very sore. Hm-mm. So was all this progress in pain reduction "in my head" as many would think it could be, considering the somewhat bizarre program I've been on for the past 6 days or so? Or was this an example of "mine sickness" that many feel when the radon begins to really affect whatever ails you? Well, it's easy to have faith when you're feeling great and not being tried in any way; it's more difficult to continue being positive when you feel like someone has just spent ten minutes working you over with a baseball bat. Another one of the Universe's "Pop Quizzes" , I told myself, to see if I had really learned anything about being faithful or if I was just a fairweather believer that I'm able to get better. So I spent the morning sitting in bed, nursing a cup of coffee, and reassembling my thoughts so I didn't succumb to the over-indulgence of feeling sorry for myself. And while I did that, David reorganized our van, because we've been evicted for the weekend from our sweet and ratty motel room. Evidently there's a wedding here this weekend and the guy needs our room...something like that. Doesn't really matter--my hours at the mine are up tomorrow--we'll do my final two hours here and take off for Yellowstone and then on to Pinedale WY, David's old stomping grounds.

We got to the mine after noontime and I stayed in the radon room until about 3. When I left I walked part of the way, without assistance. Once again I had no pain in my knees, or none much to speak of. And my hands had stopped aching so much. So there you go, and here I am, sitting again and waiting to see what might happen next--and what might happen after this. I am grateful when I'm allowed some relatively pain-free time, considering where I was last winter. And I'm grateful to be able to sleep for several hours at a time in a relatively comfortable state. And I'm sure David is grateful that I'm not waking him up every two hours to help me turn over and re-position my pillows, etc. He's not running so much on empty any more because he's at least getting some sleep. I have no idea where this will lead, and I have to say I know I'm a long way from being able to get off the bed or out of a chair by myself and am a long way from being able to type more than a brief Blog entry without my hands aching madly. I figure it took me three years or so to get so impaired; it will probably take that to get me reasonably recovered. The illness is still at work: all one has to do is look at the directions that my fingers want to go in to know that, but this brief respite from huge pain is a wonderful and unexpected gift.

Enough of that: take a look at the flowers we saw yesterday on our lovely drive:

Yellow Lupine Something pink! Arnica amongst the Boulders

Field of Yellow Lupine

Wednesday Evening

2009-06-17T17:00:00.000-07:00

We just took another wonderful dirt-road drive after lunch that ended up taking most of the afternoon. We headed out of town on the paved Old Boulder Road and saw 3 guys on horseback moving a bunch of cattle. Annie was impressed; said it looked just like a western movie. A little further on we say a small bunch of pronghorn antelope. As soon as we rolled down the window, they spooked and took off running, but Annie got a shot as they departed. We then continued up into the mountains into timbered hills interspersed with meadows. Saw incredible fields of some purple flower. I would have jumped out to collect a specimen, but it was too swampy. We've had a couple of days of rain and the wildflowers are going crazy. As we continued into the hills we encountered more of the boulder-strewn, evergreen covered hillsides that are everywhere. The boulders are made of a fairly soft granite that erodes into rounded, bizarre shapes. The trees grow in and around them and the pinnacles of stacked stone seem to totter at impossible angles. The combination of dry sagebrush covered hillsides with timber covered boulder fields and lush meadows where ever there's a trickle of water make these impromptu drives we've been taking almost daily absolutely fascinating. We saw beautiful, white wild iris in one damp place and Annie noticed several patches of yellow lupine. There were also several varieties of vetch and, of course, the omnipresent dandelion.

On the way back to town, we stopped to take a picture of a cut-bank beside the road, where the soft rock had been eroded into a pillow-shaped wall that looked like Mayan Hieroglyphics. This is getting to be a rather long post but yesterday, we saw some critters in a field beside the road in Basin that we at first thought were goats. Since Bea had asked if we had any goats where we are staying, we naturally turned around and stopped to take a picture. On closer inspection these things look more related to big horn sheep than to goats. Does anyone recognize these animals? The ewe and kids (lambs?) look very goat-like, but these horns don't look like any goat I've ever seen. So much for my knowledge of domestic fauna in the Intermountain West.

By the way, we keep talking about sagebrush. For those of you on the east coast who don't know what that looks like, here's a picture.

Necessity is a Mother...

2009-06-17T12:10:00.000-07:00

Back at the mines yesterday afternoon I decided to sit in one of the fifteen recliners they have in the "radon room" (where people who are claustraphobic like me go instead of 85 feet down in the tunnel). I got busy reading and didn't notice that slowly the room had emptied out, leaving me alone. David was out taking a walk, as he often will do a couple hours a day here with me, but doesn't always want to do the full four hours a day. All of a sudden I was attacked by a fairly strong call of nature and realized that there was no-one around...and David had my cellphone in the car. Hm-mm. Well, the choices became more and more apparent as the time ticked by, so, gathering up my non-existant (I thought) strength, I leaned heavily on the arm of the chair, and stood by God up! And then I walked, without an arm or a walker, 60 steps down a hallway to the facilities--at which point the attendant who was in the other room heard me and stood open-mouthed as I stood looking at her. Other than being really wobbly because of the effort and the fact that I haven't walked that far unassisted since last SUMMER, I'm none the worse for wear today--just a little stiff from using muscles that haven't been used so much in a long time. So, there's the Annie and the Mine news for today...

Last night David and I took a wonderful drive to Basin and up towards the Basin Creek Campground in the National Forest. While in Basin we found this old smelter chimney over a mine shaft that was built in the early 1900's. It was really pretty cool. Then we drove along this gorgeous creek for miles up into the foothills. It was really pretty, and I found some wild purple columbine that I've only ever seen in flower books before.

Home at the O-Z Motel in Boulder, MT

2009-06-16T12:28:00.000-07:00

Here's the O-Z Motel, our home for awhile in Boulder. It's got a kitchenette and, although small is perfectly adequate for the time we're here. I actually dug through our stuff and found our juicer this morning and made juice (to make up for the hamburgers we've been eating on the road). Yesterday, we drove back north to Helena for lunch. A very interesting town with a long history and really interesting buildings. While there, we encountered a downpour that filled the streets with water, so we drove around til the rain let up enough to allow us to venture out of the van. Helena is like the San Francisco of Montanta; all up and down hills. It's not a very wheelchair friendly town, but we had a good time in spite of the steep grades. It looks like we'll be here till the weekend, so we're taking little side trips to explore the area. Boulder is a typical western town; population just over 1,400 and about 5 bars. There's also a little grocery, but not much in the way of full service restaurants. There are pleasant little residential neighborhoods and then sagebrush hills in every direction.
Annie seems to be doing improving daily, but I'll let her tell you about how she's feeling. All in all, this trip is turning out to be a wonderful adventure on many levels. Well, I'm not quite sure what to say; part of me is superstitious and is afraid that any positive comments will somehow jinx everything, but this is foolish thinking, I know, so I will just share with you those things that I have been able to do in the last 24 hours that I have not been able to do in a VERY (as in years) long time:

I can roll over in bed by myself; I can adjust my pillows and lift the covers with my hands; I can sleep on my side with my knees resting together without needing a pillow in between for the pain; I can walk uneven ground with my walker, taking over 25 steps; I can sit straight up in bed from a prone position without David having to lift me; I can lay on my back and extend both legs without huge pain in my knees; I can lay on my back and do ten leglifts with each leg, as compared to being able to do NO leglifts two weeks ago. So....something is happening here at the mine. I suppose it COULD be the prednisone, but even three weeks before we left Alaska I was feeling that I had plateau'ed with the amount of prednisone I was taking and was privately fearing that I was going to have to increase the dosage by the time we got to NM. Now it appears that I might be able to actually DECREASE the dosage a little bit. This is early and preliminary and we shall see how it all plays out. But I was actually woken up at 1:30 this morning because I WAS IN NO PAIN WHATSOEVER and that's such an unfamiliar feeling that it woke me up! So there you have it for today. We'll see what tomorrow may bring... ;*)

Monday, June 15 - Boulder, MT

2009-06-15T09:56:00.000-07:00

Here we are in Boulder, on the hill behind the Mine. We're having a great time inspecting the local flora and fauna. We have been seeing bluebirds and lots of cows. We took a side trip yesterday for lunch, about 40 miles to Whitehall. The valley to the south is irrigated, both by gravity feed ditches and huge sprinkers. Some sort of yellow flowered crop may be canola seed. It looks like very spindley broccolli.

We had some rain yesterday, the first since we left Alaska. People around here say it gets much drier later in the summer. With the spring moisture, new wild flowers are appearing every day. For those of you who haven't checked out Susannah's House Blog lately, she now has internet hooked up at the house and has posted pictures of the inside of the house. http://www.westhillhouse.blogspot.com/.

We drove to the very top of the hill behind the mine the other day, which caused me to hyperventilate, so we drove down again to a more level site where I could get pushed around in my wheelchair and look at the wildflowers on my own. Because of the dryness, the lupine is very small but is just blooming today. We got some rain last night and this morning on the way up to the mine I saw yellow daisy-looking flowers all along the roadside that weren't there yesterday. In another month this will all be sere and brown--all dried out. So the flowers act much in the same way as they do in Alaska--they grow for all they're worth in a very short amount of time, hoping to produce seeds before the weather kills them off. It is really beautiful here, truly, and so different from Homer. It reminds us that we probably would be happy and interested wherever we end up. Talked with my sis Elizabeth yesterday and we will probably try to connect with them in July when they come out for a Gallagher family reunion in Estes Park northwest of Denver.

June 13 Boulder, MT

2009-06-13T10:09:00.000-07:00

We're at the Radon Mine this morning, another beautiful, sunny day. We're getting spoiled. Yesterday, while Annie was inside, I took a walk up the hill behind the mine. This is the view from near the top (the mine is the purple/blue building at center/right). The town of Boulder is in the valley beyond. The dry sagebrush country is deceiving. There are wild flowers everywhere. I must have seen 20 different plants in flower, along with sage brush, rabbit brush and prickly pear cactus. The sandy, course soil allows only sparse vegetation, but the variety is astounding. This morning we went to the farmers' market in the park beside the town hall. Only about 5 booths, but it's still early. Got some salad greens from the sister of Sandra Hunt, who used to play in the Flute Choir with me in Homer. "Small World! Speaking of which, yesterday morning at breakfast in the Mountain Good Restaurant we mentioned to the Owner/Waitress that we were from Homer. She asked if we knew the Hillstrand boys from the Time Bandit. It seems Dangerous Catch is her favorite TV show and the Time Bandit her favorite boat. We said we knew them slightly and talked about the shop on the spit selling Time Bandit souveniers. The fellow at the next table piped up and said he had been a photographer for Deadliest Catch and spent the first season of the show on the Time Bandit. He's now in Montana filming something for Animal Planet.

It looks like we'll be staying here in Boulder for about a week before heading on south to Wyoming. If you're interested, the Radon Mine has a blog with some interesting info. http://montanaradonhealthmine.wordpress.com/
There are some really interesting old buildings here. It's the county seat and despite being a little run-down is a pleasant place to spend some time. I think I'll close this for today and go see what I can find out amongst the cow-flaps and the sagebrush.

There's a reason why they named this place "Boulder". There are wonderful cairns of soft granite boulders in all the fields--they look like someone just piled them up that way.

Still having problems with our rear tire holding air, so tomorrow while I'm back at the mine, David will take it to a tire place and get it fixed. They'll have to put a tube in it and then it will be good as new. As soon as my two hours are done here (at the mine, where there's WiFi) we'll go back to the motel (the guy gave us a great deal for a week's stay: $39 a night!) and make some lunch, then have an adventure and then back to the mine again this evening for another two hours.

June 12 At the Radon Mines

2009-06-12T10:20:00.000-07:00

Here's Annie, sitting in the Radon Room at the Free Enterprise Radon Mine in Boulder, MT. We took the elevator down into the mine, but it was too cold and too claustrophobic, so she opted for the upstairs room where they pipe in air from the mine. It's a beautiful sunny day and since we don't have wi-fi at our motel, I'm on line here at the mine about 3 feet from the wireless router.
We have heard from friends that it's a real pain to post a comment on this blog--you have to sign up and put in lots of info--who knows how it gets used? ? ? Sorry about that. If you want to make a comment, just email us at either homerhorns@gmail.com or at anniew2009@gmail.com and we'll correspond that way. :*}

June 11 Browning to Boulder MT
Since we had a fairly short drive to Boulder and the Radon Mines yesterday, we decided to take some time off and see the sights. The Museum of the Plains Indians is in Browning and has various displays of clothing, artifacts etc as well as a few dioramas of Plains Life. Very interesting There were also several exhibits of contemporary Native Art. Outside, we found a round brick pedestal about 15 feet in diameter with the footprints and names of the participants in a Sign Language Conference held in 1930. Representatives of many of the plains tribes had their bare footprints immortalized in cement. The state governor, an army general and BIA officials all left their boot prints. We’re in the area where Lewis and Clark killed a couple of Blackfeet, setting off decades of Blackfoot resistance to white intrusion into the area.
Then a fairly short drive through more farm and ranch land in Northwestern Montana. Saw a couple of antelope and lots and lots of cattle. We stopped at a little dive in Dupuyer called Pierre’s. A little bar/cafe in a run down building with a sagging ceiling and a nest of grackles in the drain pipe over the door. The food was great. Real hand-cut french fries and hash-browns. Pierre said he bought potatoes from a group of Hutterite farmers and also buys all his beef locally. Across the street, I went into the Post Office to mail some post cards. The Postmistress’s name was Rose Bird Mittens.

We also stopped at a Dinosaur Museum, where we saw a cast of the world’s longest Dinosaur (some 135’) After a few more hours in the plains, we climbed into the mountains north of Helena, then on to Boulder. After driving around town for a bit, we found a really cheap Motel right in the middle of town. It’s got a kitchenette and is perfectly adequate, so we plan to stay here a couple of days before heading south.

We really had a wonderful day driving along grooving to Louis Armstrong and local country stations out of Helena. Wonderful formations of red and green stone--cliff cuts for road development leave this shale exposed and the weather makes them look like cut stone that has been dry-stacked into uniform block walls. We stopped to pick up both a piece of red and green stone. Will look it up at some point to see whether it's a form of sandstone, jasper or other igneous rock. At the same time, David cut me some sagebrush and we've been enjoying the wonderful fragrance both in the car and in our motel room.

June 10 Ponoka AB to Browning MT

2009-06-10T17:55:00.001-07:00

Life is good. The Red Sox-Yankees game is on cable, I've got a cold beer, and we've clocked off nearly 2/3 of the distance between Homer and Truth or Consequences. We're in Browning, Montana, back in the USA. After miles and miles of prairie, we hit the US/Canadian border and immediately starting climbing back into the Rockies. Crossing the rolling cattle range toward the mountains, I was thinking about someone on foot or horseback looking at that imposing range of mountains and wondering where in hell they would find a pass through to the other side. Without maps and marked trails, what would you use as a landmark to tell someone where to find the easiest route through the mountains. One mountain stood our that would make an easy landmark to describe. From a distance I thought it was Devil's Tower, but it wasn't even close to being in the right place. I asked the border crossing guard, and he said it was called Chief MT. As we wound up into the mountains, we found This little cafe: Two Sisters near Babb Montana. They have a branch in Missoula as well. When we neared the top of the pass we noticed dead burned trees on both sides of the road. What spectacular views. Seeing all that free firewood, my little Yankee sould couldn't resist picking up a few sticks in case we wanted a campfire somewhere down the road. We've been lugging a package of hot dogs in the cooler all the way from Homer. In the Yukon, the fire danger was too high. In BC, none of the campgrounds we stopped at had any wood available. I'm not going all the way from Alaska to New Mexico without impaling a tube steak on a stick and smelling like smoke for the next 24 hours. It might be the easy way, but it wouldn't be the cowboy way. We'll be near the Radon Mines in Butte, MT tomorrow. We might spend a couple of days there. I'll let Annie explain. Then on to Yellowstone, Pinedale and then New Mexico. Red Sox are up 6-5. I've got to get back to the game.

Great day today. The Two Sisters cafe we stopped at would fit right in with Homer--Peace Flags flying inside and the Rainbow Coalition flag flying outside. Mexican painted wooden fish hanging from the rafters and a wall of license plates from every state in the union on the back wall. We're in the heart of Blackfoot country and tomorrow David and I will spend some time (here in Browning) at the Plains Indian Museum before we leave. Dave Matthews helped us down the road today, along with a little BB King and the Drifters. Biggest Road Music surprise?? Hootie and the Blowfish. Who'd-a thunk it? Really set up a great drive through some terrific scenery a couple days ago. About the side-trip to Boulder: As most of you know, this wonderful trip is the positive flip side of my really sucky battle with rheumatoid arthritis. I was diagnosed several years ago and have tried a number of treatment modalities, none of which worked, resulting in my pretty much total incapacitation last fall. After a very long winter during which I was completely bed/chairbound, we knew that we'd have to make some kind of move to a spot that might be more conducive to my recovery--thus the trip to New Mexico. David has taken early retirement to care for me, since I still need 24 hour care, and I'm hoping that my appeal to Social Security to reconsider their denial of my disability petition will finally go through. We're living on a shoestring, but really, it's just like old times for us--we know how to elevate being broke to an artform!!! Anyway, there is some evidence, both anecdotal and research-based, that short-term low doses of radon positively effect the body in much the same ways that tumor-modifying drugs do in relation to RA. So we're going to spend a couple days and a few treatments to see how I feel. It certainly can't hurt me any more than the prednisone I'm taking right now. Prednisone has made it possible for me to move around a little, ride in the car, and use a walker a little bit--it's made it possible for me to make this trip. However, it's a terrible drug and has horrendous long-term consequences: cataracts, osteoporosis, puffing and swelling--well, you get the picture. It seems there's very little in the way of RA therapies that don't have you looking for a new liver in five years, so David and I are always considering the options out there. Well, the beer is gone, the Red Sox beat the Yankees 6-5 and I'm going to have to fight David for the remote. More tomorrow...

June 9 Grande Prairie to Ponoka

2009-06-09T20:41:00.000-07:00

Another 400 miles of rolling prairie. Miles and miles of wheat fields just starting to show green. We're at the Ponoka Stampeder Inn. Right behind us is the Ponoka Rodeo Grounds. Their big rodeo is coming up in a couple of weeks. Outside the front door of the hotel I heard cows bellowing as I came in from dinner. This is cowboy country. Also oil country. Oil pumps, looking like dickie birds dipping their beaks in the wheat, dot the country side. The cook at the Blue Ox, where we had dinner, said it's been so dry all the ranchers are selling off their cattle.

Every little town we passed has a grain elevator. Still can't believe I'm at latitude 53. It looks like Nebraska. We can't seem to tolerate more than about 7 hours on the road a day. Takes us a while to get going in the morning and by 6pm we're ready to have a bit of a lie down. Tomorrow we should make it through Calgary and into Montana. We skipped Jasper and Banff, which we saw back in 1981, opting to spend some time in Yellowstone instead. I worked in Western Wyoming as far north as the Tetons for several years, but never made it to the Park. Old Faithful, here we come.

June 8 Fort Nelson, BC to Grande Prairie, AB

2009-06-08T22:24:00.000-07:00

After two nights in Fort Nelson for some R&R (rest and recovery), we drove close to 400 mile to Grande Prairie, Alberta, the biggest city between Edmonton and Anchorage. The Fort Nelson Hotel was very nice, with a sliding glass door opening onto an atrium (called the Tiki Room!!); with a pool and lots of faux plants. We did some heavy duty laying around, then got up today and had breakfast on the sidewalk outside the hotel restaurant. We were parked right in front of the hotel and yesterday, someone sitting at one of these tables called out to me as I was getting something out of the van. "Did you notice that you have a really low tire?" It was almost down to the rim, but drivable, so I slowly made my way across the street to a gas station and aired it up. Being Sunday, there was no tire repair place open. When we got up this morning, the tire was still inflated to 35 psi, so I decided to wait to put a tube in it. My experience with radial tires is that a slow leak in the side wall will only leak if the hole is on the bottom of the tire, so if you watch the position of the valve stem, you can park so it won't leak. Let's see if I'm really smart or really stupid. So far, so good. By the way, don't know if you can see the bugs on the front of the van, but it's pretty impressive. We stopped for lunch at Swan Lake Provincial Park, about 4 km off the road. Needed a potty break and a bite to eat. Things around here are looking pretty mid-western. I don't remember this from our last trip. It's prairie land, with rolling fields, lots more deciduous trees, and wide open vistas. The lake had a fish ladder leading to a small stream and a sign regarding Walleye fishing. Who knew they had Walleye up here. We saw fenced fields with elk, caribou, bufallo, and lots of horses. The closer we got to Grande Prairie, the more farm land we saw... huge fields newly tilled with grain elevators in every little hamlet and even a cattle feed-lot with some rather dejected looking cows standing in their own crap. This is definitely the American west. We arrived in Grande Prairie around 6pm. (We're now in Mountain Time) and found a room at the Grande Prairie Inn, a brand new hotel advertising grand opening introductory rates. Sat in the bar with the laptop trying to figure out where to stay tomorrow. We wanted to go to Lake Louise near Banff, a beautiful drive through the mountains. The drive is long with no accomodations between here and there, and the lodgings in Lake Louise and Banff are very expensive, so we may take an alternative route and head east toward Edmonton where there are more alternatives. We'll see how we feel in the morning. Annie has crashed and is in bed and I'm not far behind. We'll let you know where we are tomorrow when we find out ourselves.

Proud Grannie & Grandpa

2009-06-07T18:55:00.000-07:00

Just got these pictures of Emily's Prom from Jenny.

MUSIC!!!

2009-06-07T14:08:00.000-07:00

So let's see... so far we've listened to:

Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits
Tom Rush
Gordon Bok
Numerous Bonnie Raitt
Artie Shaw and his band
Numerous Golden Oldies Compilations
Marvin Gaye
Soundtrack from The Big Chill
Peter Gabriel
Warren Zevon
KD Laing
Randy Travis
George Jones
The Gatlin Brothers
The Sons of the Pioneers
Tony Bennett
Asleep at the Wheel
The Gypsy Kings
Albieneri (compilation of Middle Eastern music)
Mills Brothers
....and a couple others I can't remember.

What's wonderful about all this is the TIME to listen. This whole process over the past year has really been about time. We've never stopped; never slowed down. We just always feel like we must be doing something. Our new mantra for health and beyond is "Don't just DO something--SIT there!!!" And in this case, don't just smell the roses, LISTEN TO THE MUSIC!!!

Saturday, June 6

2009-06-07T12:56:00.000-07:00

A long, tiring day. Left Whitehorse hoping to get to Watson Lake and perhaps beyond. There is a wild fire burning east of Watson Lake and the highway has been closed off and on, so we decided to push on while the road was open. There was a pilot car guiding one-way traffic through the fire area. The smoke was intense for about an hour on the west side of the fire. Flames were visible right beside the road, but we think this was not part of the main blaze, but a back-fire lit to prevent the fire from jumping the highway.

We got past the fire by mid-afternoon and started looking for a place to stay. Saw lots of closed signs and a few dumpy cabins with rickety steps unsuitable for wheelchair access. One log building with perhaps 4 rooms had an outhouse in back and a sign on the wall saying if the door was open to go ahead and stay and pay in the morning. Cheap, but not an option. Amazing how we've gotten use to running water. Another picnic on a gravel side road, then we headed east again through absolutely amazing geology. Huge mountains of sedimentary rock thrust up and twisted into beautiful shapes. I won't bother to post any pictures because a small photo can't capture the almost unimaginable scale, beautiful colors and textures and looming intensity of a highway totally wrapped in the mountains. We had a great day of wildlife viewing. First, a buffalo. This guy's hair was almost totally rubbed off in the spring molt or whatever it is that bufallo do. Tiny birds were sitting on his back (picking lice?) and flying around his feet eating the insects stirred up by his grazing. We later saw several cow elk, two mule deer, and a family of Stone Sheep. This ewe was quite stylish in her yellow plastic earrings and high-tech, radio equipped necklace. She also had a yearling with her, and thw whole family was unimpressed by the presence of camera toting interlopers. We arrived in Fort Nelson around 10:30, bone tired, but happy to have covered over 600 miles. We'll stay in Fort Nelson for another day to rest up and get organized for the drive through British Columbia, Alberta and on into Montana.

Friday, June 5

2009-06-07T12:36:00.000-07:00

Left Burwash Landing on Kluane Lake and headed for Whitehorse. A fairly short drive (278km). On the way through Tok, Annie snapped a picture of this sod roofed cabin. We were trying to find a Post Office, but every time we stopped somewhere, they were closed for lunch.
We've been carrying road food in a cooler, eating lots of GORP and fruit, and generally trying to pinch pennies and stay healthy. The weather has been beautiful and
the scenery seems even more impressive than it was 28 years ago. Back then, all I remember is rain and mud on this stretch of highway. Sunshine really improves the view. We had a picnic of peanut butter celery and other healthy snacks beside a river.
I took the computer to a Staples where they performed a wallet biopsy and sold me extra RAM, cleaned out the laptop and generally wasted hours of my time. Still no luck with the computer. Whitehorse is as depressing as we rememberd it from '81. The Riverside Hotel was not bad (it had a laundry, which was a plus) but the bars in the neighborhood spill out onto the sidewalks, as do arguments among staggering patrons. We're getting better and finding what we need in the chaos that is the inside of the van and settling into life on the road.

My Hero

2009-06-07T01:57:00.000-07:00

Some of you know my story about driving out here back in '81 and how I'd never camped or done much roughing it; you also know the part of this story where I fell all ga-ga in love with David all over again because he knew how to do everything and I didn't know how to do anything on that trip. And now it's happening again!!! Two nights ago as we were pulling into the Burwash Lodge on Kluane Lake the car began to make the most appalling squealing sound--it sounded like our rear axel was being torn from the undercarriage. It was really horrible and really scary, since one's brain immediately begins imagining all sorts of depressing scenarios of having to replace the entire car, thousands of dollars in garage bills, etc. But my Sweetie, deciding that before we call the garage guy he should at least take the wheel off and take a look, found that all that piercing squealing was caused by a small rock stuck between the brake and the housing. Removing the rock removed the problem. Give that boy a beer!!!

Music Soothes the Savage...

2009-06-07T01:50:00.000-07:00

Annie here. One of the things that is so much fun on this trip is that we're actually being able to listen to our music, some of it for the first time. Our CD's have been spread all over the house for the entire time we've lived there. Thanks to the brilliance of our daughter, we now have all our CD's out of their useless gellpacks and in a portable case. We have blazed through Anchorage with Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits cranked, windows down and the wind blowing through the little hair we both have left. It's so funny--our music has always been just a backdrop or an inconsequential accompaniment to whatever dinner or gathering we were having at our house; sometimes several tracts of a particular CD, played loud, spurred us into a frantic housecleaning or laundry-folding frenzy. We never really LISTENED to a CD played all the way through. And now we get to! So, from time to time I'll let you know what we listened to on a particular day, just because I can!!! And until then "...jump down a manhole and light yourself a candle..." b. dylan

Thursday, June 4

2009-06-07T01:27:00.000-07:00

We stopped Wednesday night in Nelchina (halfway between Palmer and Glenallen) at the Nelchina Lodge. We would recommend this place to anyone. It was clean and cheap and very nicely done for a highway roadhouse. We were the only occupants, and don't know if the tourist season just hasn't started or if Alaska's visitor industry is in a world of hurt this summer. We met fewer than 50 vehicles heading down the highway and could count on one hand the number of vehicles we saw headed out. There's a long stretch of road between Palmer and Nelchina and the Matanuska Glacier lies smack dab between the two. There were only a few campers to be seen in and around the Glacier turnoffs and tourist traps.

Thursday morning, we struck out again, hoping to make it through the border and as far as Kluane Lake. Annie has taken to the road better than we had even dared to hope, as long as we stop every few hours and can get out and move around a little bit. The temperature from Tok into the Yukon rose dramatically. By the time we got to Burwash Landing, on Kluane Lake, it was in the mid-80's.

Here's a picture of Annie stretching her legs and another of Kluane Lake, still half covered in ice. The guy at the lodge said he had had pipes freezing a

week ago. Now it's in the 80's every day and the ice is going fast.

On the Road at Last

2009-06-07T01:06:00.003-07:00

We have been on the road since Wednesday morning but have had problems with our computer's wireless connection. Finally able to get on line and let you know whats what. We left Susa and Matt's Wednesday around 10:30. It was a tearful departure. Really hard to say goodbye to family and friends. Susa, Bea and Dotty were gathered around the car (we had said our goodbyes to Matt earlier before he went to work) and we were all pretty teary. And yet it was impossible not to be excited to get on the road. Staying at Matt and Susannah's for a couple of days allowed David to pack and repack our van at least three times and get rid of the unnecessary clutter we thought we needed to take. The first time the van was completely loaded, he announced that he had everything we needed for our trip. Unfortunately, he would have to leave Annie behind. Needless to say this did not stand and reprioritizing was in order.

As we left Homer, the van was still so full that it was impossible to see out the back window and we decided to stop in Sterling and pick up a car top carrier we had found on Craig's List (for 25 bucks no less) It is old and funky but with a little duct tape to seal against the rain it is working wonderfully well. We had a quick stop in Anchorage to pick up an auto insurance card from Geico to insure us in Canada and another stop in Palmer (where it was 78 degrees) to buy some groceries for the road. Between the temperature and the tunes blaring from our CD player, we knew for sure that our adventures had begun.

2009-06-01T13:49:00.000-07:00

We've moved out of the Triplex! What a job. It's now filled with yard sale stuff and the car is packed.

We're staying at Susannah's West Hill House for a couple of days to get a few more things sorted and will head for Canada in a couple of days.

The West Hill yard is starting to look great. Susa's been gardening with some help from Bea.

Cowgirl Bea

2009-05-25T18:03:00.000-07:00

One thing Bea wanted to do before Nana and Grandpa left for New Mexico was to go horseback riding with Grandpa. This afternoon, we took Bea and her friend Casper out East End Road to our friend Mark's stable, where he does trail rides to the head of the bay. Bea (and Grandpa) had a great time.

Friday Morning Cranes

2009-05-22T09:51:00.000-07:00

Woke up this morning and headed to the kitchen to make coffee. This was the view outside my window.

Getting Closer Every Day

2009-05-21T15:20:00.000-07:00

Remaining tasks are slowly getting completed. I've finished painting the doors at the house I finished in March. (By the way, the crap in the yard is the owners. I didn't leave it like that)

I've also finished replacing a flight of stairs to the third floor apartment at the triplex (where Matt and Susa lived until moving into their new house last Saturday).

The other day, we went to Bea's last day of Raspberry Lane pre-school. They had a party for the kids who have birthdays during the summer when school isn't in session. It was pretty cute!
The house is full of boxes ready for storage/yard sale/packing in the car. I've still got some shingles to patch on the roof, then just final tidying up before heading out, hopefully May 31st.

So Much To Do - So Little Time

2009-05-14T09:52:00.000-07:00

Only two and a half weeks to go and so much to do. I finished painting the house in Forest Glen (I'll try to post a picture) yesterday. Just have to paint the entry and garage doors and that house is complete. I was basically done in March, but had to wait for warm weather to paint. We've had a week of warm sunny weather; great for painting but also perfect fire weather. There's a large fire out East End Road, beyond where we used to live, threatening the Russian Villages. (story at http://www.adn.com/news/environment/fire/story/794110.html)

Today or tomorrow, Homer Electric Association is supposed to hook up Matt and Susannah's power. We've been using a temporarty lash-up all winter since they couldn't dig under the road last fall. There's 200 feet of 100amp service cable strung from a temporary meter to a spruce tree, then across the road to another tree, then to the house. Anybody need a bunch of wire?

Tomorrow night I'm playing my final gig with the Elders at a tiny bar on Pioneer Avenue. Then Saturday, Matt and Susa have a bunch of friends and a U-Haul helping them move into their new house. As soon as they move out, I have to replace the stairs going to their third floor apartment here at the triplex so new tenents can move in. I also have to do some roofing repair and then concentrate on packing and getting ready for the mother of all yard sales. Annie and I have all our clothing packed and Susannah has boxed up stuff to go into storage. I've still got a shed full of tools and building materials to sort through and organize.

Annie went to her last Realtor's meeting yesterday. The local Realtor's Association organized a lunch meeting for her and there was a huge turnout. She's been out and about in the car with Susannah every day this week. The transfer from wheelchair to car is getting much easier, which is a huge boon considering how much time we'll be spending driving in a few weeks. Everywhere I go I meet people who are familiar with the Truth or Consequences area. Everybody I've talked to loves the place and is very encouraging.

Annie and David's Great Adventure

2009-05-10T21:44:00.000-07:00

After 28 years in Alaska, Annie's rheumatoid arthritis has made it necessary to head for warmer climes. Susannah found a web site designed to find your ideal spot to live, based on your climatological, cultural and economic desires. One of the places that came up was Truth or Consequences, NM. There are hot springs there for Annie to soak in, cheap housing, and a warm dry stable climate. We plan to leave Homer on or around June 1st. Susannah and Matt's house is done! Final inspection was today and the loan should close next week. Check out their blog at http://www.westhillhouse.blogspot.com/. The hardest part of moving is leaving little Bea.

We'll post on our blog as often as we can with picures of our trip. We plan to drive and move along slowly stopping along the way. Driving instead of flying is going to give us the freedom to see a part of the country we haven't seen before. We also plan to stop in Pinedale, Wyoming where David worked in the early 70's.