Snow Squalls

January 24, 2021

Howdy, howdy, howdy,

It's hard to believe that a week's gone by...it actually feels like a month has gone by since I last wrote. We're settling in more and more to our life here and are finding it harder and harder to actually leave the ranch. Our plans to head to Santa Fe never materialized this week, but we did manage to head into Las Vegas one afternoon and get a bunch of shopping done. I headed out that way today by myself and got some errands done, otherwise we've been hanging here at home. Our new, favorite store is the Big R, a 30-store chain out of Pueblo, CO that is equal parts feed store, pet food store, hardware store & ranch store. We keep gravitating to Las Vegas and are hitting the Big R a lot, as well as the little grocery store there called Lowe's. It's hard to find all the organic and free-range stuff that we usually want, but if you dig a little there is some of that and also a lot of local, minimally-processed food there: beef; peppers; spices; tortillas; beans; pinyons; etc.

We moved our bar into place underneath a huge window that usually has sunlight streaming through it most of the day. We added our turquoise mini-fridge into it's traditional place underneath the end of the bar to keep drinks cold...Shuckybummer's West is now in place! We've been on wired, hi-speed internet for a few weeks now and haven't been missing a beat with Hulu, our online newspapers and the few international TV channels that we get. I've incorporated Kim's dog, Cheyenne, a young, German Shepherd pup, into our daily walkabouts and she has now become part of the pack. Word on the street is that she's interested in getting another puppy...between that and our proclivity for having free, problem-Vizslas given to us, I wouldn't be surprised if we had as many dogs here as horses by the end of the year! For that matter, Ela's not fixed and there was a stray(probably neighbor) dog running around late, last night when I let them out for the last time...

So, I finally have walked the entire property and have made it to the far, back corner. It's like the ends of the earth back there and has a tremendously wild feel to it, while only being a mile away from the house. The horses are being their sassy selves and spend half of their time, some days, pinching each other on the ass to get the others to move away from the good hay...the lead bay stallion, Felipe, usually ends up at the big feeder with the two whites(Freedom & Xena), plus the big gray, Nanette. All the paints(Rosie, Annie, Blossom & Hidalgo) usually end up at the smaller feeder with the black one(Negrita) and the sub-stallion, Milagros...after cleaning out the back of the buggy, of course! I've been able to feed Felipe a handful of hay...it was the right moment on the right day, it has not repeated itself. Also, Milagros held up his back hoof for me to extract a huge chunk of cholla from his ankle. He just walked up to me, looked me in the eye and lifted his back, left leg. After that, he went back to being a little wary of me.

We're falling into a nice schedule, with me going out to feed the horses at 7am. Then, when I get back at 8am, we head to storage to take a load of broken-down boxes back and to load up with whatever else we need. We hit the post office on the way back for both us and Kim and Erin tries to be over at her place by 10am. They've been doing yoga at noon as a lunchbreak, so I have been taking the dogs(all four now) for an hour-long walk. Erin keeps working after lunch, but is trying to find at least one day each week to be done then so that she can move outside and work in the garden or on landscaping...it's all happening naturally, so it's been nice to let our schedule just come to us instead of trying to force ourselves into something pre-conceived. I go back out to feed the horses around 4:30pm for another hour and, in between, try to keep up with the buggy and tractor and do the landscaping, put wood away, run errands...for instance, I have to run into Santa Fe next week to get us filled back up with bird seed.

Now, for some pictures! I literally have been leaving my camera in the house some days because I can't get anything done because every which way I turn there is an amazing shot to take! First shot is of a bear skull that I found on Monday. I mentioned it to both Erin and Kim and they both instantly replied, 'Did you bring it back?' Needless to say, I went back out Tuesday and found where I left it and brought it back to make a nice, little spot on Kim's stoop. The next three shots are of Kim's dog, Cheyenne, who is thoroughly enjoying our hikes! The next four our of our guys: first Rui giving wide berth to a cholla; then Willow running up a huge arroyo in the far, back corner(yikes!); then Ela posing for a portrait; and, finally, Willow doing what she loves...running on the other side of the barbed-wire fence! The next shot is of the sun setting over the mesa during snow squalls. Then, a shot of the garden that Erin's is chomping the bit to get into...she's already planning on putting a greenhouse over one of the raised-beds to get some greens going. Then, another one of Kim's cool antiques...a centuries-old stone arch from Mexico. She calls it the Narnia Door and claims that you can escape the world by simply walking through it...Next, a shot of an old stone ring campsite that I found in the far, back corner. Next is a shot of our bar in place after its cross-country journey. And, then, finally, three shots of Tuesday's AM feeding in the middle of a snowstorm.

Be good.