Desert River Rats

May 22, 2022

Howdy folks,

Well, we had a fun treat this week and had to watch my friend, Valentin's, place while he and his father were away at the end of the week. Each of Valentin's parents has about ten siblings or so, so he has dozens of tias & tios(aunts & uncles) and probably a hundred or more primas & primos(cousins)! He's run a few times to Kansas to see family since I've known him, and a bunch are in New Mexico, but this time was a trip to southern California to see some folks that they haven't seen since Valentin was born. He lives a mile away from us as the crow flies, but another couple hundred feet lower than we are and along the river. He has nearly a hundred chickens in all kinds of shapes and sizes, plus a turkey, seven sheep, three dogs and a couple of cats. I went down Wednesday night to get the overview and had to go down each night for the rest of the week through Sunday to feed and water everybody. Growing up, once we moved out to the country when I was ten, we always had dogs, cats, sheep and just about every kind of poultry that there was, including game birds for the hunting dogs. I eagerly asked if he needed help while he was gone(especially since his one dog just had a litter of pups) and he didn't really want to ask the favor of me, but relented and I'm sure was glad to get away. For my part, it was great to be surrounded by some of the animals that I used to be. Sheep really crack me up and, true to form, these guys were escape artists and got out three different times when I was there. One of those times they were all down at the other end of the property, outside of the fence, looking like they wanted back in in the worst way. So, I hopped the fence and got a long skinny stick in each hand to see if I could move them along. They took off right away like they've done this a hundred times before and kept quite a ways ahead of me, making it to the base of the hill that the driveway's on where they could duck under the fence and head back to the main gate. Erin and Valentin's cattle dog, Loka, were waiting for us all and helped me to get them in and the gate shut behind them. After the second episode of this, we saw where the hole in the fence was and made a makeshift barrier until the guys get back and can fix it more properly themselves. On top of this, I left the storage door on the livestock trailer open for a few minutes while I was feeding chickens on the first night and returned to find all seven sheep piled into the area to get to the scratch grain and hay...it made me think of seeing seven teenagers trying to fit themselves into a phone booth! I guess I'm dating myself there, right?

On Saturday and Sunday, Erin went down with me to check on the pups and to go for a walk along the river. We walked west a few hundred yards from Valentin's place to reach the Pecos River, then ducked underneath the interstate to walk alongside it, downstream, to San Jose and its old, deserted Route 66 bridge. What a difference a mile can make! Suddenly, everything was green, lush, the river actually had some width and depth. There were many cottonwood and box elder trees and grass growing all around, as well. We made it about halfway to the bridge and turned back to see San Jose sitting on a shelf right over the river at a point where boulders lined it. Making it to the bridge we came upon a dam, which also serves as the head to the local acequia(irrigation ditch). We walked all over the flood plain on this side, all the way up to the hill and cliffs that overlook it where I showed Erin a little cave and rock shelter that Valentin had showed me the last time that we were down here. We walked straight north towards Valentin's driveway along the old Route 66 and came up to the point where it was bisected by Interstate 25. His driveway is actually the old road into San Jose off of the Santa Fe Trail, and then later Route 66, before the era of the interstates that chopped up this little side of town. Now, because of that, Valentin is on the north side of the interstate in a little bosque(woods) of cottonwoods that is much more lush than where we sit a mile away, but nowhere near as lush as the little bit of wild land that lies to the south of the interstate along the river. We briefly felt that we were transported back East to Pennsylvania and saw signs of beaver, snakes, lizards, birds, trout and cattle. Just a mile away and a totally different world, like a little oasis tucked away in the heart of the high desert!

Now, again, we have a batch of pictures for your enjoyment, this time one and a half times bigger than normal because I was having trouble thinning them down. First up, four shots from Valentin's Pequenya Granja(little farm): first, the sheep contentedly eating after I stood their manger back up; then, Erin's favorite of all of his chickens, because of its coloration; next, a little spring that serves as a water source for all the animals there; and, finally, a view of their farmette was we walked back towards it from the river. Next up, a series of seven shots of some of the old remains around San Jose: first, the corner of an old house along the old road; then, two shots of the cave/shaft/rock shelter at the base of the hill; next, the old acequia that ran along the old road before the interstate put an end to both; then, two shots of the old road between the interstate and the old Route 66 bridge; and, finally, where the road leads to, with a view of the bridge and the mesa towering behind it. Then, four shots of the Pecos River around San Jose: first, boulders along the edge at San Jose; then, looking back to the mesa; next, the house at the corner of the edge of town, looking up from the river; and, again, the view back towards the mesa, this time illuminated by the sun. Next, three shots of me and Erin, in all our glory, being the river rats that we are...we lived along the Susquehanna for twenty-five years and would love to find a cute, little spot along the Pecos! And, finally, a series of six more shots from our walk along the river: first, one of the many trees that we saw felled by beaver; then, a shot of an old road coming in from the south, right where a control is for the acequia, if you need to open or close it any; next, a shot looking downriver from right above the dam; then, a rather curious circle of large stones right along the river that surely has some kind of story to tell; then, another shot of the acequia, wandering along the edges of the fields; and, finally, one of the many meadows that we walked along, showing off a shade of green that we don't get to see too often out here!

Take care.