Switchin’ Gears

October 10, 2021

Hello everybody,

Another week has come and gone in the blink of an eye. After a temperature drop and an all-night rain last weekend, we got the wood stove going and have kept it going ever since. The sun still warms you up really quickly, especially if you're driving and it's hitting you, but if you get in the shade or out in the wind, it's now cold enough to have caused a necessary change to more suitable fall clothing. The kittens continue to take over our lives and give us reasons to smile all throughout the day. And Erin's garden keeps churning out the produce...just today she brought in four baskets of green tomatoes for processing. We had a very light frost last night and are expecting a hard one later on this week, so it's last call for most of the garden items. Also, on another front, in the kitchen, Erin has begun to make tamales and is having a blast doing so. There's quite an art to it: soaking the corn husks; blending the masa(ground corn) and meat together; and then tying them up and steaming them. We watch a cooking show from Mexico that shows what all the old abuelitas(grannies) know how to make and she's having fun learning their tricks and tweaking and experimenting with each new batch. We've been stuffing ourselves full of watermelon, as we were inundated with them this year, and have finally eaten up most of the cucumbers(other than what was made into pickles). On the horizon is a big batch of pumpkins heading our way that will then be turned into Pecos Valley Pumpkin Pie and also chunked for use in other recipes or even for the dogs. Any time that you need to try and make your dog more regular or firm up their stool if their stomachs are upset, you can add some chunked pumpkin to their food and it usually takes care of the problem pretty quickly. Also, our first batch of firewood has arrived, all pinyon, and we're awaiting the next batch this week that will all be juniper...the pinyon is still lying in the driveway, tarped, awaiting our undivided attention for a couple of hours this week so that it can be stacked and put away!

Also last weekend, on Saturday night, we fired up my two old cars and went out into the field so that our friend, Kim, could take some pictures of us. She's quite the avid photographer and is always amazing me with shots that she sends me. About a month ago, she happened to see me going out the drive in my old Mercedes right as the sun was setting and, ever since then, she's wanted to use it in some photos. So, we grabbed everything that we thought could be used as a prop and then drove the buggy out to the car to spend three hours posing so that she could take every kind of shot from every kind of angle. It got rather chilly, and Erin spent quite a bit of time sitting on the cold, metal trunk, so we made sure that we had rum & cokes on hand for the ladies and some cold Modelos for me. Most of the time was spent trying to hold still for 20 and 30 second exposures, as well as trying our hand at some multiple exposure where we'd change our positions once or twice. I had trouble firing my yellow car up and had to charge and jump it with my blue one. We then had to leave it running for the entire time(although that was a good thing after sitting in storage for six months!) and only when I drove it back in to the ranch did I notice that the cable to the negative battery terminal was unhooked from when I put the alternator back in...no wonder I was having trouble starting it and it wasn't holding a charge! Sometimes there's no better way to learn something than the hard way!

Now, finally, for some more photos from the ranch. First up, a shot of the three kittens(Chaco, Zia & Chelly) waking up from a nap on our grill out front. Then, three shots of the dogs and cats checking each other out...mainly shots of Zia totally ignoring the dogs, much to their consternation. Then, two shots from the AM horse feeding last weekend after it rained all night(and still was) and everyone was totally soaked. Next, a shot from the jobsite where all the slabs of flagstone are stored for my friend, Valentin, to chisel and cut them down to size for sills, counters and capstones inside and out of the house. Then, a shot of my favorite, old car, now turned work truck, as the sun set on another day of work. The next four shots are from a little excursion that we took south along the Pecos River to Villanueva to warm my car up and run it for a little while: first, an enormous alamo(cottonwood) that we found right along the road; then, a shot from across the road showing its entire enormity; next, a shot looking up through the branches from the ground; and, finally, the other end of the pull-off where a stump from one of these ancient trees has been turned into a fun hedge monster. Then, a shot of the Rockies from the interstate while driving into Las Vegas showing the first snow of the season behind Hermit's Peak. Next, a shot of the many flowers that are still blooming out here even as we approach mid-October. Then, a shot of the sky to the north one night right before sunset that looked too unreal to be real. And, finally, one of the shots from our photo shoot with Kim...'Nighttime in New Mexico' with guns, guitars, old diesels and a huge slice of the Milky Way.

Be good.