Snake Season

June 6, 2021

Hello everyone,

Another week has come and gone in the blink of an eye. We saw our first rattlesnake out here, albeit a dead one. Our new foreman on the job site found one that had been run over on the main ranch road and brought it in to show everyone. They are much smaller out here than back East and of a much lighter color, obviously to blend in with the dead grasses and the ruddy soil and lighter colored palette of the high desert. It had six rattles on its tail(a six-year-old) and was trying to cross the road where the neighbors have seen mountain lions and other critters crossing the road in between the pond here on the ranch and the nearby river. Valentin showed us just what to do with it and we skinned it, tacked it to a board and left it out in the sun to dry to get it ready to be a new hatband. We left the carcass out on the edge of the clearing that the new house is in for the critters and couldn't find it the next morning...good eats! Just like chicken! It's still a bit chilly for June, with the first seeing a high in the 60Fs and a low in the upper 30Fs. By the end of the week we were seeing highs in the mid 80Fs and lows in the mid 50Fs, a much more seasonable spread. It seems to be drying out, although we're still seeing a really hard thunderstorm at least once a week. And, just as it turned out with the scorpions and giant centipedes, there aren't rattlesnakes lying around everywhere for us to trip over, so we've been able to relax a little with the dogs and have not had to leash walk them everywhere. Still, I have started taking them out one at a time in the afternoon/evening for what used to be their group walk so that I can keep a better eye on them, and we haven't stumbled into anything unforgiving or dangerous...yet!

Erin's been on a tear in the kitchen, turning our huge bag of dried pinto beans into pounds and pounds of refried beans. She's also now making her own corn and flour tortillas, as well as her usual daily bread, and for the first time made a huge batch of biscuits. We're 6000' higher than we used to be, so cooking, especially baking, is a whole new adventure. We're stuck out here on the ranch most of the time and don't really go out to eat anymore, but with the stuff that she's churning out of the kitchen, there is no need. Just in the last week we've had: pork schnitzel pounded out from a pork tenderloin, before being breaded and pan-fried; pork and chimayo chile tacos; peanut butter biscuits; baked bean and cheddar cheese quesadillas; chocolate mint sorbet; a fiery version of spaghetti with chorizo and diced southwestern tomatoes; coconut macaroons; scrambled egg and cheese breakfast tacos; and the old standby, "Erin's Surprise,"(my favorite), which is whatever hodge-podge that she can come up with with the ingredients that we have on hand...it's usually better than the planned meals! She's finally getting her garden planted and has had starts in her little pup-tent greenhouse for a few weeks now. It was only five degrees above freezing within the last week, so she doesn't want to be in too much of a hurry to get everything in the ground, but is still planning on it for the next week. We look to be staring a huge heat wave in the face in the weeks ahead as a huge, high pressure system is going to park over the Southwest and turn the oven on full blast!

As for this week's pictures, first a few art projects: a contoured image of the dogs out hiking, followed by two different takes on the rattlesnake head...first a mosaic and then an old time daguerreotype. Next a closeup of the rattler's head and a full-sized shot of his body, next to pack of angle grinder blades. Then a shot of all four dogs out hiking the backcountry while it was still 'cold.' Then, a shot of the horses, with Negrita in front absolutely covered in mud from the ponds that Kim has made with the backhoe in the last few months...they keep catching the gully washers and the horses are loving it! Next is a shot of the pork and chimayo chile tacos that Erin made this week. Then two huge transport choppers flying over so low that they were shaking the ground...we're on the direct route between the Air Force Academy/Base at Colorado Springs and Albuquerque and see all kinds of military hardware flying over every week. Then, one of my latest projects up at the job site, framing out a spot to pour a concrete slab...this one is all but done and just needs to be stake and tweaked to make it level and completely square. Finally, we'll end with six landscape shots from the ranch: first, three shots of new growth on the prickly pear cacti; then rain moving in off of the mesa; some low desert flowers; and last, but not least, a group of yuccas blooming right next to a big cholla.

Take care everyone, I'm just about done compiling an email of all pictures that Erin took and some of her stories...stay tuned!