Summer Heats Up

June 5, 2022

Hello again,

Well, we are having one of those weekends again. Big R, the male outdoor cat, showed up on our side doorstep Friday afternoon at about two and was looking in pretty rough shape. His breathing was very shallow, with a little bit of drool coming out of his mouth, as well as a general look of being pretty uncomfortable. Erin called me down from work(one of the advantages or working on the ranch) and I couldn't decide if he was dying or just recuperating from some other unknown chaotic encounter. In the end, my little buddy was probably just paying us one last visit. We haven't seen him since, as of Sunday night at the time of writing. His brood is doing well, though, and has slowly but surely taken over our front stoop. Less and less do they run away and more and more do they stare us or the dogs down as we spill out of the front door and they suddenly find us inspecting them! We kind of have an uncertain feeling about seeing Big R on Friday ... he was well and alive, but perhaps not so. There was a little bit of a feeling that this was a goodbye that was occurring. We shall see as the week progresses, but, again, we haven't seen him since Friday at around dark. Otherwise, all of the dormant life of the desert is now fully in bloom and we are in the full throes of summer! Erin has patched up all of the problematic areas of the drip line irrigation and has now begun throwing herself into planting seeds. Already, we're up to three full beds that have been planted, and, like most sowers of seed, she now has that uncontrollable itch to finish her plantings all in one fell swoop so that they can immediately be moved on from that task and to the other one of nurturing. Having gone from not from not going to be planting anything to cramming it all in over one weekend, Erin has us on a crash course to being overwhelmed with vegetables and canned goods by Labor Day! Each year, she struggles with whether it's worth all of the effort and toil, but, in the end, each time, finds that it is more rewarding than anything. Back at home, in Pennsylvania, even in the middle of town, Erin had a vegetal refuge to hide in, away from the ridiculous demands of modern life, hidden in her empire of creation. Now, all over again, she has encouraged this local soil to blossom and it is totally spilling its secrets to us. Yet again, this year, are we about to can a whole storage unit's worth of canned goods!

Otherwise, we're seeing a pretty balanced week with temperatures up and down in the 70s and 80s and nights in the 40s. Looking ahead, it looks like we're going to be parked in the low to mid 90s for the next week or two, so we're preparing for that. Luckily for us, our little casita is built into the hillside and is of strawbale construction, so it is very cool inside even on the hottest of days! Erin and I ran into Vegas on Sunday and ate at Smiling Faces for the first time. This appears to be a local favorite and we were not in the least disappointed by it. I got a Navajo Taco, basically Mexican served up on fry bread and Erin got a stuffed sopapilla...usually stuffed with sweets, but this time full of beans, cheese and beef! Both of these were tremendously tasty and, as they lie on our side of town from the ranch, suggest a great place to run in to to pick up some dinner once and a while. I finally resusciated a Jolly Ball for the horses that I found out in the middle of the pasture, only to find them play with it so much that they destroyed it. Upon getting two more for them to 'horse' around with, they promptly broke one within 24 hours! So, now I'm checking with our boss about just how big we want our Jolly Ball budget to be. Our disrupted food co-op delivery that was caused by the wildfire is now back on schedule and we're eagerly awaiting some big ticket items like a 2 ½ gallon cardboard box of ketchup and 5# of granola, plus a whole case of Colorado tortillas. It's probably been a month or more since we've been into Santa Fe, so we could use a trip into town to stock up on some of our most-used items. Las Vegas is great for us, but there's no economy of scale, so it's really worth the extra fuel to run into Santa Fe once in a while. Currently, with our much higher fuel prices, it is costing us $10 to run back and forth into Las Vegas and $20 to go into Santa Fe. Santa Fe has a million more options, but can be a little soul-crushing in its acres and acres of concrete jungle. Las Vegas, on the other hand, always seems to stay somehow endearing after every encounter. It just reminds us of the woman calling in to make sure that her husband got the right cuts of meat when he was in at the local Lowe's store. The call went through, a butcher ran out and found him to deliver the message, and a disaster was averted. Shopping on the edge of the plains totally keeps it real in a way that could never happen in Santa Fe!

So, here's another batch of pictures for your enjoyment. First up, three shots of the kittens: first, two of the tigers(Big R Jrs) looking adorable; then, Mama feeding everybody; then, one of the black kittens looking up from the safety of Cat 5. Next, the big, fat lizard that hangs out with Erin in the garden whenever the two older kittens aren't accompanying her. Then, three food dishes to make the mouth water: first, a Navajo Taco; then, Erin's jalapenyo cornbread; and, finally, her sopapilla at Smiling Faces, who also made the Navajo Taco...life-changing! Next, a shot of one of Erin's raised beds, while a drip line test was being conducted...we're moments away from planting time! Then, three shots of the horses: first, Rosie and her Mama being caught napping; then, the bigger pod of paints munching away through a glorious sunrise; and, finally, Freedom and Xena refreshing themselves at the water cooler. Next, a shot of Pecos River Station, just a couple of miles away from us, that is the only store between Pecos and Las Vegas. If any of you have every shipped anything to us, and going to a PO Box wasn't sufficient, this is where it was delivered to...it's the local hub for everything. Then, a budding prickly pear cactus showing its yellow flower. Next, two shots of the horses's water trough, the first reflecting the new house and the second mirroring a wild shot of clouds. And, then, finally, a shot of the buggy loaded up with landscaping debris to be taken out to the pasture for the horses to munch on...they think it's the greatest treat in the world!

Have a good week.