| It isn't a great picture, but it'll do for those who want to see. We got quite a storm this evening, and I managed to run out in a moment of sunshine and snap a "stitched" picture on my camera to get the full effect. I couldn't get far enough away to capture what I wanted in one shot. |
| I am not confident yet driving at night from town. I was fortunate to have visitors today: Tammy, Terry, and Carolyn. After a brief visit and photo shoot with the beautiful mountains, we headed in to Cimarron for dinner at the St. James. We had so much fun eating and talking and having a great time. Alas, when we were all talked out and they were ready to head back to Raton for the night, I had to turn back around into the dark night where there might be animals lurking in the brush alongside the road. Admittedly, I didn't drive as fast as I do during the daylight. Even with my brights, I was still a little nervous. Not in any of the "usual" places did I see a deer, but past Rayado I came upon a buck. He only paid a little notice of my bright lights approaching, and gratefully he didn't turn towards the road and stop to stare. He had at least five points on the antler facing the highway...a big dude, he was. I kind of wanted to stop and just really see him, but I thought he might become indignant and continued on my way. Further along I smelled skunk, and then about 100 feet more came to a complete stop on the highway. In a wobbling, bouncy lope, a skunk was not crossing the road, but moving in my same direction in my lane. I was concerned that if I hit him, I would surely be smelling him for much longer than I cared. After about five feet, he finally got a clue and moved off the road. I though he might have been injured, thus the funny gait, but since I have never seen a skunk run off before, I don't know. Safe and sound at home am I. I am sure I will master night driving soon enough, but for now, I think I'll stick to daylight... |
| I was watering this morning at the neighbors. They have lots of hummingbirds and other birds because of the pond, water fountain, and many colorful flowers. Their yard is really huge, and they have more than several flowerbeds. The hummingbirds are always buzzing across the yard, which makes for great entertainment when Filthy Cat darts about trying to follow them. This morning I noticed the most unusually red, white, and black zebra-striped hummingbird. It's coloring was so fascinating. Then I realized it had antennas and that the beak really looked more like a needle proboscis shaped like Gonzo the Muppet's. It was not hummingbird, but a hummingbird clearwing. It is a moth that comes from a caterpillar and metamorphosis, like any other moth. The body was about the size of my thumb. Pretty nifty... To look up a picture, Click here |
| When I finished posting, I walked back out to the kitchen to start the next painting project. Looking out the window, I saw the cows heading back in my direction. But then I noticed a vaquero or caballero in their midst. He hurried out past the front runners and turned them back around. I am not sure to where he led them, a trailer or grazing land; I really didn't know if they were his or if he was doing a public service for all the people coming home shortly from work and school. Anyhow...now it seems that it's done. |
| It's official. I am not sure who decrees the honors to me, but I have earned my pigtail braids and overalls. Granted my overalls are covered with paint and not manure, but I have shooed cattle. I made lunch/dinner for Thomas before he had to head to work. We were a little pressed for time because I was painting in and around the kitchen, thereby making a big mess. But as we sat eating in the living room, I look out the window to see a small herd of cattle coming up the driveway. I went out to shoo them away from the garden, and then came in to call Art up the road to see if they are his. I left a message and took another bite. I walked back out to find they had huddled around the house, so I shooed them back towards the corner of the property. I called Tom's dad to see if he knew who I should call, but he said he would come over to look at the brand first. I couldn't see the brand, and Thomas didn't recognize it. Before Mike could arrive, Thomas decided to help before he left for work. We teamed up: he waved his hat pushing them toward the gate, and at the right moment I threw up my arms and heeyaw-ed them out the gate. Mike was just showing up, and he didn't recognize the brand either. He suggested to call Gene down the road, and I did. Gene also had someone pulling into his yard suggesting they might be his. Problem solved, as I watched them mosey west down the highway toward Gene's house. About twenty minutes later, Gene stopped by to say they aren't his, and nobody knows who they belong to. Maybe so and so or another guy, but nobody I know. I came in to grab my camera to get a picture of them hanging out at the end of my corner, but they must have moseyed on some more. The kicker was telling Gene how funny it was that I just looked up from my lunch to see them coming up the driveway. Evidently not funny, as Gene told me, "Nah, this things not so unusual." So maybe I am still a city slicker kind of cowgirl... |
| Today, Thomas and I were lucky enough to have accepted an invitation from a friend to visit a farm south of Taos. Gemini Farms has been in production for 8 years, though I think it has grown a lot in the last few years with the addition of mule power to the cultivation of the fields. Root crops seem to be their specialty, especially as the brothers can take advantage of their root cellar to extend their market season as late as February. We saw lots of fields of beets, carrots, and turnips, plus cabbage, squash/pumpkins, melons, corn, beans, and herbs. Really quite spectacular! But what got me excited was the garlic...5,000 pounds of garlic (if I remember correctly). I bought 2.5 pounds...something to eat, maybe to plant. The brothers invited us to share lunch with them, in which I tasted the garlic in a garlic/parsley pasta sauce and just hot off the grill with the corn roasting there. Yummy!! My photos don't do justice to just how much there is... |
| I was in a "book club" for several years in Denver. Reading books wasn't really the main point of this club, or Britta probably couldn't have convinced me to join. But there was typically a book discussed at each gathering, though reading it was not required to come and have a good time. My spot has already been filled with a local woman who may or may not be as voracious a reader as I was, but I remain on the e-mail list determined to read the books, so long as one of the libraries here has it. So far I am 0 for 2 on availability. I do have to say that I have not been slacking on the reading front. In the last 6 weeks, I have read 8 books...all SW fiction. My soiree into SW fiction might be nearing to an end. I really like Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima, Serafina's Stories, and Heart of Aztlan. Along with a couple books by Fray Chavez and one by Willa Cather, I have enjoyed the history and culture of the stories, really quite rich in this area. Then I accidentally started reading Sonny Baca's adventures, penned by Anaya, and I think the guy has gone a bit overboard. The funny thing is Thomas picked up one of the series without knowing I was reading it, and now we have our own mini book club discussions. Our conclusion is that we cannot recommend the series, though we will both read the fourth book in the series just to avoid being called quitters. Last Thursday Thomas had work in Albuquerque, so I went along for the ride. I picked up some linens and bathroom rugs at the mall, and when I finished, I found a bench outside Sears and read for a few hours until Thomas was finished. Some guy walking by stopped, lifted up his sunglasses - though it didn't help me to recognize him, and then asked if the book was any good because he'd thought about reading it. I told him I couldn't recommend it, even though I was determined to finish it. I turned the book over to see if there was a picture of Anaya on the back cover, and seeing none put in a good word for Anaya's other writing and his passion for the culture that comes out in his writing. Wouldn't that have been insulting if he actually was Anaya and I told him I wouldn't recommend his books?!?! The benefit of reading with friends has been the literary recommendations, though I can't say I liked them all. I wandered through the library and picked up a couple of books with no recommendation except Oprah's, so we'll see what happens. So far I have read only enough to know it's the midwest on a dairy farm. More to follow... |
| Goodness, I am pooped! Before and after and after that pictures will be coming soon, but we're not quite there yet. Today I got up early to water at the neighbors. We haven't had any rain in over a week, and folks are starting to think about dancing. I just went out to turn on my soaker hose, and despite the clouds that loomed on and off this afternoon and evening, it is still dry as a bone. Speaking of dry...it was so hot and dry today that inside the mudroom, I couldn't paint fast enough. I tackled the cupboards over the washer and dryer, an unanticipated project, but one that seemed to make sense. I also painted the quarter-round molding and did a little touch up here and there (Thomas got really great texture on the wall, and here and there the paint slipped around grooves). I think I might call the paint color Jamoca (don't tell B&R) because it does remind me of that once favored ice cream flavor. I mixed it myself for the kitchen shelf Thomas built me. We decided we liked it enough to put it in the mudroom, so Home Depot matched it. As an "accent"/trim color (really, what do I know about how to do these things), I picked "Cottage White". So the cupboards are Cottage White, as well as the plant shelf Thomas made along one window ledge. Some rainy day when we have nothing better to do, we will also hang some shelves above the freezer, which will be cottage white. The light and outlet plates and the door are also this lovely creamy hue. Fancy, right? Well, after Thomas cut the quarter-round for me, he framed the last cupboard in the kitchen to go in. Any other projects in there should not require many more tools than a screwdriver. He called it a day, while I kept on with building a new shelf for the living room...more space for more plants! Getting back to the mudroom, both literally and figuratively, we will be visiting a farm south of Taos tomorrow between Thomas's work shifts, so we will move the washer and dryer Monday, after laying down the molding? We'll see...for so much done today, we're only closer, not done! |
| Yesterday I went to Albuquerque with Thomas. He had to go for work, so I did a little big city shopping and a lot of reading. With just the one car and the one cell phone, we kept time the old fashioned way. Waiting for Thomas after I made my purchases, I sat and read, people watched, and even got to see Tio Henry and Tia Patsy who happened to have some shopping to do, too. Anyhow, we did have some supplies to pick up to finish off our mudroom, namely paint, though we did decide to add a gutter to the mix. Today we go the rest of the paint up and the rest of the vinyl flooring down. Hopefully tomorrow afternoon it will feel dry enough to slide the washer and dryer back into place. It won't be long until that room is finished! (Then on to other projects....) |
| I have an interview coming up for a position as a church administrator. For those who don't know, my mom has been the Director of Religious Education at the parish where I grew up (and she grew up) for about as long as I have been around. The thought of old that I would retire my mom at Holy Family has long been forsaken, but now comes the possibility that I might just follow her footsteps after all. Anyhow, I had a Momma Ford moment this evening as I packaged up supper. Tom's sister Marie and her husband David are both teachers, and their three children all started school yesterday. So I offered to make them dinner, like the ladies at Holy Family do for pregnant women and families with illness or tragedy...a little relief and nourishment after a long hard day. It was fun. I made pesto pasta, salad, and focaccia bread, which Marie had said would be palatable to everyone. Marie had asked me to join them, so I got to hear about school, though like typical kids, they didn't have much to say without prying. I am sure that when the rest of the family hears what I did, they'll want to know when they get their free dinner. It's coming... |
| These days I can hardly call myself a gardener. Sure, one of the neighbors is paying me to keep her garden alive while she is gone for three weeks, plus some deadheading if I have time, but across the ten acres here, I feel like all I do is fight. I went out after dinner to see if it was going to rain. The winds have been strong all afternoon, too strong for us to get rain, as they pushed the dark clouds further east. Thomas thought maybe after dinner the second wave of clouds would get us, so I went to see. I honestly think anything we get will be a pittance, if any at all. I had walked out in my apron after putting the dishes and leftovers away. And though I should have thought to drop everything and take a bucket of water to each of the young fruit trees, I made my way into the "garden". Corky had been a gardener, but she hadn't lived in Miami for the last few summers. In the middle of the circle drive grows half a dozen trees, a row or lilac bushes, a grape vine and forsythia, a great many irises, a few lilies, sage and lavender, some hens and chicks, flax, and a few other flowering plants. There isn't much order to any of this, and between them all grow a dozen different grasses. There are also some dandelions, a little clover, alfalfa, and salsify. Lastly, there is my nemesis, the bindweed. I wasn't familiar with bindweed until I worked out at DeLaney Community Farm. It certainly wasn't familiar from any gardens I tended in Portland, Spokane, or Jersey City. The Columbine House and my two previous residences is Denver were without bindweed. Admittedly, once introduced to it at DeLaney, I started to recognize here and there in town, and I imagine that it got to my last yard on Williams Street from the gutter, which was where it began growing towards the irises. I never noticed it flower in my yard in Denver, though I had seen it in other yards. I pulled it, and then I would notice it again later on. The bindweed here is aggressive. Tom's sister Marie has observed that it brings out foul language in me. There are those that have suggested chemical remedies, of which I haven't ever actually heard of much success in combating bindweed. I had heard about a mite being tested in Colorado, actually developed in Colorado, that will slowly over time kill back the bindweed, as it lays its eggs in the plant which then feed on the plant. It can take several years to actually see the bindweed go away, but it's a start. Generally, the best method to tackle it is to pull it up, pull it up, pull it up. You never actually get the roots, but the more you pull, the less the plant can grow, and slowly it dies out. This has been my method. Thomas and I have had a lot of projects going on, and it has also been scorching hot a lot, usually for a few days, and then it rains for a day; repeat. My aggressive weeding has been hit or miss, though I generally find the evening to be cooler and much more comfortable for weeding, with the exception of the bugs that have been biting. So tonight when I looked for rain, I saw instead an opportunity to do battle with the bindweed. At one point I threw my apron around my shoulders to my back and wished it was really a cape, and I a superhero that can eradicate the prolific bindweed. It felt like a real fight. I came in tonight tired with bloodied knuckles. I think the neighbors that drove by probably think I am nuts, for I really am not gardening, just weeding over and over and over. I figured out that the bind weed goes to see really, really quickly. Each plant can produce over 50 seeds. I figured out that it grows up pretty quickly, especially with the afternoon thunderstorms. But as soon as there are a couple days in a row of hot weather, it goes to seed. My eyes are now trained not just to pull the bindweed, which are obviously easiest to grab before they have gone to seed, but also to see the seed heads all over the ground and snatch them up before they can sprout. Oh what an existence! And to think that I only pull the ones in the garden. They are all over the place! |
| You don't realize how many meals you don't fix yourself until you move to the country and have to fix nearly everything you eat. Thomas and I go out maybe once or twice a week, at most. In the last five weeks, we went out to eat once at Cold Beer, the St. James, the Russell's Cafe, Wonderful House, and La Cocina. We also had a BBQ at Tom's parents' house one night and a "happy hour" at his sister's. (I did actually make a brief trip to Denver and had some tasty meals before I quickly returned.) Thus, I have been spending a lot of time in the kitchen. So far it hasn't felt too contrived to come up with meal ideas, though we do eat a lot of quesadillas with green chile and scrambled eggs with tortillas. I snapped a few photos of a couple recent Sunday dinners with which I have been pleased. Quinoa stuffed bell peppers with mole sauce, topped with feta cheese and served with sauteed zucchini and onions. I used some of the leftover filling to stuff zucchini a couple nights later. Tonight's dinner was rice noodles with stir fried green beans (from Alice's garden), broccoli, carrots, onions, and garlic with salmon marinated in miso, tahini, ginger, sriracha, and honey and with miso soup on the side. To be fair Thomas helps cook, too. With his work schedule, I try to pitch in as much as I can, though. Last night he made linguine and seafood with a white wine reduction, fresh green beans, tomatoes, and parmesan...delicious! |
| I waited for Thomas to come home from work, and he's home now. I wasn't sure if I could do it because of the rain and wind thrashing about earlier, but the sky cleared, save for a few patches of wispy clouds. And I watched a meteor shower, the annual one that starts with a "p", I think. It was cool to see the streaks go by here and there, but better than that, the sky was just twinkling all over the place. I think I saw more of a meteor sprinkle, but then I was only outside for about twenty minutes. Tom's parents gave us some chairs they picked up for the New Mexico reception, and it was just brilliant sitting out all wrapped up watching the stars twinkle and the meteors streak by. I could hear Thomas coming long before I could see the lights, and I could see the lights long before he was home. When he finally rumbled up to a stop, he asked what I was doing. I told him I locked myself out, and he worried asked how long I had been sitting outside. I laughed and told him what I was really up to. It would be quite silly to get locked out in a muumuu and sweatshirt with a flashlight.... |
| Dear friends and family, I realize that many of you have wondered if Thomas and I have become hermits instead of New Mexicans, as I have procrastinated sending the mass e-mail of new contact information. Alas, as those of you who have ever gotten married or moved across state lines or bought ten acres of projects well know, there is an extended settling in period. We're still in it, for sure, but we're slowly looking a bit more organized. We moved out of Denver on Sunday, May 30th (my last day of work was the 28th) and began unpacking in earnest with the help of our dear friend JD on Monday. That Saturday, June 5th, we left New Mexico for Oregon, stopping briefly to celebrate Ezra's 2nd birthday. We drove through the night to reach Bend mid-day on Sunday and then took our time getting to Portland that Friday to get ready for our wedding. June 19th will forever be a day to remember for Thomas and I, captured beautifully in photos by our friend Oren. With a trailer and truck full of love and memories, we pulled out of my parents' driveway on Tuesday, June 22nd to pull into our own driveway late Wednesday evening. "A whirlwind," you might say, as we crossed through five states in 24 hours twice less than three weeks apart...a feat we knew we wouldn't have to repeat for a long time. We're still unpacking, and there are still a few gifts all wrapped up waiting for a place to go. For two weeks we worked hard taking down a porch, moving a porch, building a mudroom, setting up Thomas's new workshop, and making this house a home. For our hard work we were rewarded with a wonderful celebration at Thomas's parents' home with family and friends traveling in to celebrate our wedding, see our new home, and party! What fun to have visitors so soon...really a blessing! And since the last ones left on Monday, July 12th, we've been back at it: took apart the utility room, built a pantry, taping and texturing, painting, organizing, cleaning, planting our first two trees, etc. As we continue to settle in, we are starting to plan where the chickens will go, where we will build our home, where the garden is going, and all those other fun ideas for years to come. It's been a full month of just us, and we're loving it. But our doors are open, and we welcome more visitors. Just give us a holler... Despite how it reads, my e-mail account is still intact, and I haven't given much thought to changing it. So if you're like my father and deleted it because I don't live in Denver anymore, add it back. I am relishing not having a cell phone (my old one doesn't work out here, so I shut 'er down), though someday I may go back to carrying one. For now you can reach us on our land line, yup, one of those old fashioned phones with a cord out of the wall. And walking down to the road to check the mailbox is a lot of fun, so if you fancy yourself a letter writer, drop a line the ol' fashioned way. Abrazos, tori vigil |
