NM New Year

January 2, 2022

Howdy folks!

Happy New Year! Welcome to 2022! You wouldn't know that anything has changed out here on the ranch other than us finally getting some snow, but we did turn the page on the calendar. I suddenly find myself in 2022 a rancher/construction worker and Erin finds herself once again doing domestics to make ends meet. Still, with a year under our belt and a much better understanding of how things work out here, we're starting to sharpen our pencils and figure out a path to a new and unique future for ourselves. I don't want to go full spoiler on you here, but don't be surprised if you see or hear of Erin roaming around the countryside some day in some kind of food truck! Me, after a lifetime spent in just one line of work in a family business, I'm quite simply happy to be paid well to help out on construction sites and, most importantly, to not be in charge of anything at all while there! Quite honestly, if I could find a way to get paid just to take care of horses and we could cut out the people part entirely, I would be even happier, but we all know that that is not very realistic. Still, I've taken to the ranch lifestyle quite well and am never in any hurry to go to town for anything. Unfortunately, in one of those quirks of fate, Erin is the one who finds herself mostly bound here on the ranch and is much more social than me. Times have changed and the pandemic has upended life as we knew it, but she would love to be a waitress again or have a market stand or her old coffeeshop just for the social interactions. For the meantime, though, she's content to limit it to trips to the grocery and hardware store where she's finding out that the old men around here just love talking to her! They will literally walk from dozens of feet away just to tell her about their grandchildren, it really cracks her up! Still, she's a sucker for old architecture, so I better stay on my toes and make sure that some suave and dapper old gentleman doesn't sweep her off her feet some day...when she finds out that he has a grand old house overlooking the plaza!

We finally got a touch of snow this week, with a couple of dustings earlier in the week and then a good three to four inches yesterday. This is about the only way that the high desert replenishes its water, as rain usually comes in downpours that don't permeate the ground well. It's so beautiful and quiet to wake up at 6500' at dawn just after it has snowed. And, as usual, even after a low of 9F last night, by the time that I was walking the dogs at 10am the sun was out and the water was just running and the temperature hadn't even reached 25F yet! Barillas Peak continues to haunt my mind and my dreams ever since my friend, Valentin, and I hiked back to here from there a few months ago. Everywhere that I look and everywhere that I turn out here, it suddenly is there, looming to the north, looking so close that you could almost reach your hand out and touch it. At other times it seems to be more like fifty miles in the distance. I keep telling Erin that she needs to hike back from there with me, too, and I think that I have her about half-convinced. My buddy and I did the 15 miles in about six hours and I reminded her that when we backpacked the High Sierra at Yosemite for our honeymoon she felt that she was out of shape and would hold the group back and it was her that buried the whole eight-person team day after day, while only wearing basically flip-flops and carrying a full, internal frame pack and small guitar. She did almost 30 miles like that. We also want to hike to the top of Hermit's Peak, just outside of Las Vegas, this year. It's an 8 mile hike with a 3000' climb that puts you on the roof of the world to look out east over the plains. There are also natural hot springs just north of town and many more things for us to explore. But, now that we've realized that we live in a place that we would have gladly rented out as a vacation rental before our move, though, has made it hard some days to pry ourselves away from here. You can literally sit and just watch the mesa change colors in all the different light throughout the day. Then, as night approaches, the fireworks really start and the Crayola box comes out as the sky begins to morph and change into every pastel and brilliant-colored hue that you could ever imagine.

OK, here is another batch of pictures for your enjoyment and perusal. First up, there are two shots of Rui with a bad case of cholla-foot. Usually, I'm picking smaller pieces out from their pads underneath, but this time we got a big piece stuck to the top of his foot...the fun part of removing them is that, half the time, you end up with them stuck in your hand or arm til you're all said and done! Still, the dogs learn really quickly and the incidence of this has plummeted from once a day to once a month over the last year. Then, a shot of Ela looking back at me this morning as the mesa loomed behind her. Next, three shots of Freedom and Xena ambling their way back to the feeders, after they ambushed me at the gate and made me throw out some flakes of hay right there! Then, a shot of the mesa this morning in black and white. I feel that it really shows off all the angles and lines of it. Next, a dreamy daybreak in the pasture with Starvation Peak looming in the distance like a far-off volcano in some distant fantasy land. Then, a shot of the mesa from earlier this week, dusted with a light coating of snow that accentuated all the reds and greens on it. Next, two shots of the pasture this morning, just after dawn at about 10F, when I went out to check the water trough to make sure that the de-icer held out through the night, followed by one out on the driveway showing that no one had been on it as of yet. Then, three different shots of the sunset with all the glorious colors that it brings with Barillas, the mesa and the new house silhouetted against the sky. And, finally, a screen shot from my phone this morning of NM Roads(our 511 app out here) at about 9am after a storm system moved through the state yesterday...I titled this, 'Not Going Anywhere This Morning.' That's it for this week!

See you next week and Happy New Year!