Sand Tracks

September 10, 2023

Hello again,

The heat hasn't begun to relent, after another week of upper 80s and 90s, even though the calendar keeps winding its way towards fall.  The wind has returned, though, keeping the air moving through all of the junipers and pines around the ranch.  Not much rain to report...this year's monsoon has definitely ended up being a non-soon, as they call such years around here!  But every last, little flower on the ranch is in bloom.  And, when I say every one, I mean the boss's potted plants, Erin's garden, all the native plants and grasses, and every last thorn and thistle.  More than anything else, it's a sea of yellow in every direction that you look.  I keep on weeding and trimming everything around the ranch.  I've been planting tons of trees, too, including about a dozen locusts and even more pears, maples and roses.  The boss keeps bringing home dozens of herbs and perennial flowers to plant and most of my days are spent watering, planting, fertilizing, trimming and identifying all of the plants growing up around me that were not planted, but appeared on their own.  It's bliss, to be perfectly honest with you.  I have the mesa almost 2000' above me, watching me all throughout the day.  Barillas Peak ten miles to the north looms 3000' over our heads.  The clouds are even higher, sometimes nearly touching outer space, or so it would seem!  All of the animals on the ranch, the domestic ones, coupled with all of the wild birds, insects, butterflies, dragonflies, lizards, snakes, rabbits, roadrunners and more keep me company as I go about my day's duties.  I'm up to about 75 plants that I've positively identified around the ranch.  Mostly these are native plants, but I've also been hitting the boss's potted plants and cut flowers pretty hard, as I still need a little help telling nasturtiums from marigolds and poppies from petunias.  I'm trying to use books and human-based intelligence to make most of these assessments, but must admit that I have also been using an app on my phone to help with the process, too.  I actually downloaded two different apps: one tells you in real time what it is that you're looking at(unless you can't zoom in enough or there are too many other possibilities to make a 100% ID); the other gives you different options, ranked by probability.  That one is cool, because it lets you keep adding photos of the same thing until you can get a better idea of what it is.  Together, these have been very helpful and I must sheepishly admit that they are kind of fun and easy to use.  Although, it is worth adding, that it briefly revealed that our pregnant cat, Chelly, was a red-necked wallaby...so, trust, but verify!

Our kitten, Monkey, keeps growing like a weed and is trying to figure out how to use his bent back legs.  Actually, he clearly has figured out how to use them and you'd never know that he was born with some difficulties when you see him scurrying across the floor in hot pursuit of one of his siblings.  He can't climb, though, although we envision some huge, Arnold Schwarzenegger-like arms (front legs) as he grows and starts to pull himself up onto the bed.  To be honest, we're not quite sure if Monkey is a he or a she.  Hard to say yet.  And, as he still hasn't figured out how to climb, maybe Monkey isn't the best name for him.  I had begun to call him Flipper at first, without ever thinking about how or why(like most of our animals' names, it just popped into my head as they did something uniquely funny or expressive), but Monkey was suggested by one of Erin's friends back in Pennsylvania.  As we start edging towards a future where most of our cats will be out most of the time, we both agree that Monkey will probably be an inside cat.  Or, at most, a cat that is only allowed to go out onto the patio or into the courtyard when it's nice and sunny and in the middle of the day.  Certainly not any further away from the house or any closer to dusk or dawn, the times that just open themselves up to the calling cards of the coyotes.  Speaking of coyotes, I just saw a baby one the other morning as I was leaving at dawn for Santa Fe.  I don't know what age it was specifically, but definitely a young one: maybe a foot long(plus a foot-long tail) and ears that seemed to stick just as far up into the air.  All told, I think that most of our male cats are bigger, but you could still imagine the damage that one of those sneaky, little devils could do, especially with one of the younger kittens.  But, to be completely fair and honest, it was just about the cutest, little thing that I ever saw!  All ears and tail and big, bright eyes, tip-toeing on his little pads at the end of the ranch road just as day was breaking.

I've assembled another batch of pictures for everyone to help transport you out onto the ranch.  First up, two shots of Monkey, posing at the top of the steps in the casita.  Next, a scattering of cat tracks in the wet mud of the ditch behind the house, just after a downpour.  Then, the boss's dogs, Buck & Cheyenne, letting all the nearby cats know that they will be chased and quite possibly chomped, if they enter their yard!  Next, a great shot of Erin's garden in the late summer, late afternoon light.  Then, two of my favorite horses, Xena & Freedom, waiting around the water tanks for the gates to open.  Next, a winterizing spot that I made for all of the locusts that the boss brought home, just in case I got waylaid and didn't get to them for a while.  Then, the ranch's very own antique pickup truck, as seen through a spray of New Mexican sunflowers.  Next, two great cloud shots from this week: first, storms off to the east over the high plains; then, a huge thunderhead swelling up over the Hermit's Peak/Calf Canyon burn scar area.  Then, four shots from an hour spent on the Las Vegas Plaza, picking up some pizza to take home: first, two shots from inside JC's New York Pizza Department(NYPD); then, back on the sidewalk, looking at a former notorious saloon and hangout of the 1880s & 1890s in its current guise; and, finally, looking over to the center of the Plaza, you can see the nicely lit gazebo in the middle.  And, lastly, two shots from an early morning on the ranch: first, gathering my different containers of hot tea and iced tea in the depot; then, making the most of the tractor for the first two of the locusts...the rest had to be hand dug, so as not to tear up the newly hydro-seeded grass around the house.

That's it for this week.  Be good!