Horsin’ Around

August 7, 2022

Hello again,

Well, time has ground down to nearly a halt as each summer day passes, one after the other. Get up right before dawn to let the dogs out, go back in to lie down for just a few more minutes, get up again and get ready for work, work all day with horses both before and after, try to walk the dogs multiple times, and finally try to keep my head out of my plate at dinner time and maybe even read a few pages in a book. The heat has moderated but not disappeared. The rains have eased but not ended entirely...Friday saw another massive afternoon downpour. The lows have been touching on 60 every night but this week pushed up closer to 65 on average with a really humid feel to everything. There still has been no sign of tarantulas, or very many snakes, for that matter. Last year we had already seen half a dozen big spiders by this point, although we're never too upset about this not being snake central. I have seen a few baby tarantulas up at the jobsite, but still as of yet no full-grown ones. I have not seen any kind of crazy critters in town, which does not surprise me, but we are fully into the heart of apricot season. As I've mentioned before, Erin is grabbing these at every opportunity and in every way that she can. Her latest experiments include a smoky apricot barbecue sauce and musings on how best to roast and/or smoke them over charcoal and wood chips. I actually found one recipe for her from France where the chef was smoking apricots on the grill with hay and then drizzling them with honey and almonds. We have lots of hay here, so why not! This week found me in town again for about half of the week, helping to pour concrete for the base of our retaining wall that we're building. Our crew is split between the ranch where we live and this other place in Santa Fe. One guy is in town every day while the other three of us are out here and the boss goes back and forth between the two sites, usually hitting both every day. This week saw a couple of prep days for the forms and stakes and then one day of pouring. We rented a huge mixer that the boss pulled behind his pickup and went through 65 bags(80#) of concrete mix to get it all done. In between all of this I have been shortening the tops of the latilla coyote fencing for the wall out front, cutting the 36" oak posts down to a range of sizes between 18-24" and also braiding baler wire strands so that we can tie everything back together. Poco a poco(little by little), progress is being made on all fronts.

In other news, little by little the horses and the dogs are becoming buddies. It used to be that the horses would all line up and try to run them off on sight, swinging hoofs and letting them ring off of the oil pipeline fencing. But, over time, they have learned that my dogs are under control and not posing any kind of a threat to them. Now, after all this time, if they're munching on hay right along the fence and the dogs and I walk up to them, they barely even bat an eye and even seem somewhat interested in the dogs. It's almost like they're trying to figure them out just as much as the dogs are trying to figure them out. I'm sure it helps both parties that I'm there to supervise. It's hard to believe that it is August already and I'm already imagining the slight chill in the air as the mornings will start growing cooler and cooler. We just had the chimney sweeps out to clean everything out good and are even looking at them to come back and replace all of the old stovepipe in each of the two houses before winter. Also, one of the great and wonderful perks of working in the construction trade is the access to all kinds of 'junk' destined for the dumpster. And I'm saying this in reference to the wood stove because I've been allowed to take all of the oak latillas that I'm cutting home to be used as firewood. Usually we get a load of both juniper and pinyon every fall to get us through the winter that comes from another ranch very close to us. This year, however, we've been saving all of the flooring scraps from the new house that are ash and walnut and now we're getting our hands on some oak, too! At the rate we're currently going, we might not even need the usual delivery of juniper & pinyon and can burn hardwoods all winter long!

So, time for another batch of pictures for your enjoyment. First, a shot of Ela and one of the horses that I created with some visual effects. Then, eight shots of the latest meet & greet that our dogs had with the horses this week...we're all still just a tad jumpy, but I have a feeling we'll all be going on walks together soon enough! Next, a shot of some of the paints hanging out along the fence by the new drainage pond. Then, four shots from our latest concrete pour in town, showing some different angles and sides to the area where we were working. Word on the street is that there's much more to do. And, finally, a couple of shots from the front of the jobsite in town where all the apricot trees are...just like pennies from heaven, they are everywhere that you look, up and down!

Take care and be good.