Mike's home along with some serious weather.

I always seem to have less time for blog entries when Mike gets a trip home so figured I should say as much to avoid anyone worrying about me! He arrived Tuesday evening after driving through the aftermath of blizzard conditions in Colorado, and extreme wind and black ice conditions here in New Mexico. On Monday night the wind never stopped howling up the mountain. It's unusal for it to be coming from the southeast and I didn't get much sleep as gusts shook and swayed the yurt and deck. It's all designed to move and give though, and it no longer makes me think everything is going to fall down around us. In fact, if we were in earthquake country it would be a very safe structure to live in.

Monday and Tuesday's wind storm was the worst we've had since we moved here and I expected to see roofs off and buildings down when I drove into town to go to the post office. To my surprise there was no visible damage, at least not on my route to town. The most dangerous part was black ice everywhere. The warm up and rain over the weekend caused a big melt of snow and old ice and then the sudden drop in temperatures Monday night set things up for accidents and road closures all over the state. The Navajo Reservation was declared a disaster area due to road conditions and wind damage. We had high winds again last night and it's just plain damn cold at 14 degrees this morning and who knows what the wind chill is. I'm not looking forward to going out to feed the boys in a few minutes but I'm sure they are more than ready for a good warm breakfast.

Equine Birthdays

The last two days have been lovely and I've spent as much time outside as possible. Hanging with the Wild Boys, I suddenly realized that Corazon is eight this year and he has been with us for more than half his life now. We don't know when any of our horses were actually born so we decided to adopt the thoroughbred practice and gave them each a January 1st birthday. We aren't even sure exactly how old each of the boys are, just a 'best guess' from vets that could err a year either way. Most horses are physically mature at five, and socially mature at around seven, so a couple of years doesn't matter that much. Four of our boys were probably born in 2000, the same year I found myself on my own again and struggling to start a business and build an entire new line of jewelry. Five births that year, four mustang and one Black Horse Design.

I wonder if Corazon was a playful colt, or was he reserved and mature even as a baby? I can imagine our bittersweet chocolate boy as a leggy colt without a spot of white, but it's hard to imagine him as a carefree baby. Did Corazon romp with the other colts or was his sense of responsibility to the band developed even then?


It's easy to look at Griton and see the colt he once was because even at eight, he is a playful, impish boy. I'm sure my gray boy was just as annoying as a kid as he is now and I imagine he felt the disciplining wrath of the mares many times for his cheeky ways.

Valeroso must have been a tiny bay colt, since he barely tops thirteen hands today as an eight year old adult. Did he strut like a banty rooster even as a baby, or did his big attitude develop as he matured?


Llego is the youngster of the group, born probably in 2002, the year Mike and I moved to New Mexico. As we were settling into our new home, this grullo colt might have been standing on his long legs for the first time. I imagine he was a quiet and calm colt, the same as he is now as a young adult.

And then there is Besol, also eight this year and our only domestic born horse. I would have been so proud to look out in the pasture in time to see that bright copper baby with his big white face and long white stockings, standing up next to his dam for the first time. It's hard to imagine what Besol was like as a baby. His personality has been so impacted by the people before us that it may be another year before we know who he really is.

And those are our boys, all with January birthdays and all a year older now. Many horses live well into their thirties and without unforeseen accident or illness, I expect the same of ours. I imagine in another twenty years I might require a hoist to get me up on their backs; but a sedate, old horse walk will be just about right.

The Dragon Tale

Long ago, many years before we lived on the Mountain, a man lived in a mobile home on the One Acre Lot. I shall call him the Dragon Guy, since his name has been lost to us. The Dragon Guy wanted more land and so he contracted with the True Land Owners to buy the Five Acre Wood, through which the path to our home wanders. Time passed and no one knows why, but the Dragon Guy fell further and further behind on his payments for the Five Acre Wood. Finally, the True Land Owners had no choice but to take back the Five Acre Wood and they listed it for sale with the Lady Real Estate Agent.

Unbeknownest to the True Land Owners, the Dragon Guy had also listed the Five Acre Wood for sale, causing much confusion in the Realm of the Real Estate Agents. One day the Lady Real Estate Agent showed the Five Acre Wood to a Young Couple. The Young Couple loved the Five Acre Wood and talked happily with the Lady Real Estate Agent about their plans. The Dragon Guy saw the Young Couple talking with the Lady Real Estate Agent and stormed from his mobile home, shouting curses and threats at them all. The Young Couple fled in fear and never returned.


The True Land Owners felt they must take the Dragon Guy before the Court to insure that this would never happen again. The Judge of the Court ruled in favor of the True Land Owners and banished the Dragon Guy forever from the Five Acre Wood. Further, the Judge of the Court ordered the Dragon Guy to apologize to the Lady Real Estate Agent right then and there.

The Dragon Guy then fled the land, even his One Acre Lot, leaving a Dragon of Iron on the edge of the land to frighten away anyone else who might want to buy the Five Acre Wood. But we came one day, some years later, and followed the path through the Five Acre Wood and found our home on the Mountain above.

We spoke with the True Land Owners and told them how much we loved the Five Acre Wood and would like to buy the land through which our path wandered. The True Land Owners agreed and now the Five Acre Wood has joined the place known as Star's Rest. The Dragon of Iron that was set to cause people fear has become instead, a Guardian of the entrance to our home.

We know this story to be true because it was told to us by our own Lady Real Estate Agent who received the apology from the Dragon Guy that was ordered by the Judge of the Court.

The End

It's cold again...

My hopes that this current storm would miss us turned out to be wishful thinking when I got up to 17 degrees and more snow. We have another one due to arrive on Saturday and this one is coming up from the gulf, which means not as cold, but probably a lot more snow.

Putting a coat on Duffy is like trying to dress a live fish.

Couch hog. Ellie caught and killed a mouse yesterday. She was very unhappy when it stopped moving and carried it around for quite a while. She kept putting it down and poking it with her nose in hopes it would squeek, run or do something interesting.

Lettuce after two weeks.

Just a few blessings I've been counting...

9:00am and 30 degrees.

We don't know who made this dragon sculpture or even who owns it but it sits at the edge of our land like a guardian.

We almost made it up to freezing yesterday and today it looks like we'll top it. I had planned to make a trip into town yesterday to pick up supplies and get some laundry done. With six inches of new snow on top of ice though, I decided to stay in and give my body a bit of a break. I'm really feeling this last week of extended cold, snow and ice.

Clumps of ice and snow always seem to hover over the door, waiting to drop on my head.

This morning as I was dragging the hoses into the house to warm up so I can fill the water trough, I found myself being grateful that if I had to break my wrist, I did it at the beginning of summer. Of course last June I was pretty unhappy about it because it meant no riding all summer. Now I'm realizing it would have been impossible for me to handle the winter chores here with only one hand. Well...only three more months, roughly, of winter to go.

My little laptop work station is going to be a life saver now that I'm starting in on income taxes. I can prop myself up with pillows in a comfortable chair to support my back.

So here's a thought, when I went out to feed the boys this morning it was a warm 29. I got very hot tromping around in my usual multi-layers so when I got back inside I peeled everything off and pinned my hair up off my neck and ears. A bit later I went back out to let Corazon out of his pen and my ears and neck froze. So how do people who live where there are real winters and work outside a lot manage short hair? Mike keeps his hair short and always has a cap on, but what about those ears and the back of the neck? Maybe you just get used to it.

An update - it's 10:00am now and 32.2 degrees! Eeehaw! We made it over freezing!

And, it's snowing again.

They have been promising us a warm up and I foolishly believed them. When I woke up this morning, it was a balmy eight degrees. Certainly a lot better than the -27 of the day before. Around noon though, a breeze kicked up making the high of 24 feel much colder. And then the clouds began moving in and by the time I started feeding the horses, it was snowing again. I admit that I'm feeling a bit low. The weather we've had the last few days has taken a lot out of me. Everything is so much harder when there is ice and snow and this intense cold adds a lot to the number of chores that need to happen each day. This mood certainly won't last and neither will the cold weather. So to cheer myself up, and perhaps some others feeling the winter blues, I bring you...

Nothin' But Lazy Dawgs (and one cat)

I just went out to clear six inches of new snow off the satellite dish...sigh...I think I'll go cover my head with Ellie.

Talk about 'Brrrrr'!

After I read the outside temp, I peeked out in shock to see what -27 felt like. The boys had gone up the slope to catch the first morning rays to start warming up.

When I got up yesterday morning, it was 28 degrees. When I got back from the post office around noon, it was 14 degrees which is where it held until I went to bed around ten. I got up at 2:30 to put more wood in the stove and it was 8, so I thought well, this won't be as bad as they are saying. But then I got up at 6:30 and discovered it was -27!!! Now that is cold.

Ahhhh...warm sunrays.

Not one of the dogs wanted to go out to potty even though it had been about ten hours since they had last been out. When I went out to feed the boys, it was all the way up to -5. Geez...I'm sure glad these aren't the usual winter temps around here! It's almost eleven now and we're all the way up to 14.

I wonder if Carmon broke the ice on the water trough yet?

Yin and yang mustangs coming and going for water.

Tough little Fionna didn't have any problem going outside with me.

Vannie got to try out her new snow booties and once she got used to walking in them, seemed quite happy to have her tender old feet staying warm.


I wonder if she's dreaming about getting her own snow booties?

AeroGarden update...I love these things! They have a small footprint, only 19" x 9" and they put out a nice full spectrum ambient light. It's been just about a week since I set them up and the little plantlets are growing like crazy. I'm thinking I will go ahead and get a third one before spring just for herbs.

Lettuce on its way to being a salad.

Cherry tomatoes in process...

Photos from a snowy day.

It's going to be a cold one!

Don't these clouds make you cold just looking at them?

We have an Arctic front coming in which means the high tomorrow will only be in the teens and they are predicting a low in the negatives. Before he had to leave again, Mike brought up 50 bales of hay which should see the boys through most of February. We also filled the water tank and the horse trough, and I have plenty of firewood. I made a quick run into town to get stocked up on groceries, horse and dog feed and kerosene so I don't have to get out on the highways tomorrow. Other than needing to spend some time out in the shop tomorrow plus a trip to the post office, I can stay inside and feed the fire.

I recently mentioned how frustrating it is to try to find fresh produce here. For Christmas I decided to try out one of those AeroGardens that are being so heavily advertised on television. It's a thirty day trial so I figured I didn't have too much to lose and might gain a great source of fresh lettuce and tomatoes with no waste. I'm pleased to say this little machine is a gem and exactly the way I want to grow my salad. You fill it up with water, set it for the type of seeds you are germinating, and then it automatically turns the lights on an off and even tells you when to add nutrient tablets and more water! By the second day the seeds were already sprouting and it looks like we will be eating fresh salad in just a few weeks. Very nice.

This is probably the last bit of blue sky we'll see for a few days.

Sorry!

Velvet kindly inquired if all was well since I hadn't posted for six days...where did the time go? Everything is fine here, just very busy dealing with wind storms, winter and getting ready for an unexpected trip home by Mike. He arrived around 2:00 am on Friday, after a normally five hour drive became a more than eight hour drive due to extremely bad road conditions and closed highways between here and Cortez, Colorado. He is still trying to recover from a stressful project and get back on a day schedule.

In spite of the fall, my wrist is fine, just very sore. Mostly, like the Wizard, I've been having continuing back issues making sitting at my desk for more than a few minutes very difficult. Mike is helping to solve that problem by getting me this gorgeous new Toshiba laptop. The idea is, I can sit comfortably now while I do my computer work. I was getting a bit panicked about that since tax season is coming up and I not only do our taxes, I do the business taxes for a friend in Texas.

Vicious sighthound Ellie, napping in her new coat.

To answer Janelle's question about small animal aggression in sighthounds, it is far more uncommon to find a sighthound that isn't small animal aggressive than one that is. In the case of greyhounds and salukis, for thousands of years they have been bred to chase what runs and by now it is fairly hard wired into their behavior.

Nobody messes with Fionna! Especially when she is camped out on the back of the chair closest to the wood stove.

You can have literally hundreds of greyhounds who have never met before in the same room, and they are only happy to meet each other. Add a small fluffy dog from another breed and a good percentage of them will go into attack behavior. We have friends in Pennsylvania who had a greyhound who would go nuts over a photo of a cat! After our last small animal aggressive greyhound died, we have been careful to only adopt cat safe dogs. Even then, a cat in the house often becomes something else entirely when the same cat is outside. Fortunately, Fionna is an expert at teaching respect.

So nothing much going on here except for the usual survival...but thanks for worrying about me!

The hazards of the season.

That enormous storm that hit the west coast made it to us over the weekend. Parts of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado were hit hard with deep snow and cold. Over here, we got oddly warm air and rain. There was a big melt that started the inevitable cycle of melt to liquid during the day, freeze to impossibly slick ice during the night. In spite of my best efforts to be safe on Saturday morning, I took a hard fall landing on my left knee and of course, my left wrist. I guess the good thing is knowing that plate and all those screws are holding my wrist together really, really well!

Happy dogs in play-proof new coats!

New coats! I've been wanting some light weight, easy to put on and take off coats for Ellie and Duffy for quick trips outside. I found the perfect coats at Dapperdawgs and the pups loved them every bit as much as I did. Besides being well made coats with really cute details, this company donates 70% of their profits to support greyhound adoption...you just can't argue with that!

Elegant Ellie's new coat is called 'Sun & Snow' and features a lovely sun and snowflake design embroidered on the collar.

Dapper Duffy is wearing 'High Sierra' which has a cute accent scarf.

Just so you don't think Vannie was left out, she already had this lovely custom fleece coat.

Supplies.

When Mike and I lived in Austin, we were less than a mile from a Central Market and not much further from the original Whole Foods Market. Whatever we might need was always very close by with stores open late every day of the week. Probably the single hardest thing for both of us after our move was no longer having access to good grocery stores. We're not vegetarians; but we do love good produce, good cheese, and occasionally, some good beer and wine. Out here, finding a nice red bell pepper is call for celebration.

We do have a small grocery store about seven miles from us in Mora. Even though it is convenient for basics, I often say it is the place produce comes to die. Our real shopping is done in Las Vegas, about thirty miles from us. Unfortunately even in Las Vegas (we're talking New Mexico, not Nevada), just about our only option for grocery shopping is Walmart...yet another place where produce comes to die and meat is saturated with saline solutions and preserved in gas. After five years we are reconciled to the local limitations. I do try to grow salad makings on the deck during the summer and hopefully we'll have a greenhouse one of these days which will let us grow more.

So once a week I make the trip into Las Vegas to get supplies for us, the horses and the dogs. Today I picked up a neighbor who also needed to shop and we went in together and had lunch as well. Now that Christmas is over, I actually get to have a bit of a social life again. After I got caught off guard by last year's big storm on New Years day, I never let any of us get down to less than around ten days worth of supplies. More if I know another big storm is coming our way. During the winter I like to be able to settle in with a good fire, knowing the only thing I need to go out for is to get more wood and feed the horses.

Finally...a warm day!

The boys spent most of the day parked in sunny spots, soaking up some warmth after all those cold days and nights.

They have been promising us a change in the weather and it finally got here. My day wasn't any less busy, but somehow doing everything with just a long sleeved t-shirt and an over shirt on instead of a heavy coat, scarf, boots and insulated gloves, made all the difference in the world. It looks like we'll have two more near fifty, sun warmed days before the next storm arrives.

'Hey look Besol! I found a stick in the snow!'

'See! Wanna play?'

'Come on! Let's play!'

'Well...okay I guess; but I'd rather be napping.'

Help from the neighbors.

I got the difficult news from Mike that it is very unlikely he'll be home again before two to three more weeks. Besides being disappointing for us both, it also meant I needed to figure out how to get some hay up to the house from where we store it about five acres away. In my prime, I could pick up, unload and stack a hundred bales of hay by myself. Admittedly, those were Texas coastal bermuda bales that seldom made it even to sixty pounds. Well it's thirty years later and folks, these are California bales of bermuda and each one is 110+ pounds! Once these bales are up on the truck, I can manage to shove them off and get them into something that resembles a stack, but there is no way I can get them up on the truck by myself.

Hay waiting to be unceremoniously shoved off the truck and into something vaguely looking like a stack.

Fortunately, all it took was an email to our neighbors down in the valley below us and Joel came up and helped me get the Toyota loaded up. These are the same neighbors I spent the afternoon with on New Year's Day, drinking a good red wine and eating a delicious spread of gourmet cheeses and meats. Out here, you count yourself blessed if you live near people you like and who have proven themselves to be 'good neighbors'.

Four of the boys taking a break from eating in a sun warmed portion of the woods.

Ellie giving her best 'come hither' look.

Our dear old lady girl, Vannie. At 13, Vannie recently became incontinent at night and just got started on estrogen therapy. We were warned to watch for boys getting 'too interested' in her...at her age! Seriously, she seems to be feeling much better and has quite a new spring in her step.

Nicodemus is definitely one very odd cat; but you can't deny he is also a very handsome and smug one!

Happy New Year!

My dear friend, Liz, in Austin shared this quote with me as a New Year's wish and I hope she doesn't mind if I share it with everyone here...

CELTIC BLESSING

May you awaken to the mystery of being here and enter the quiet immensity of your own presence.
May you have joy and peace in the temple of your senses.
May you receive great encouragement when new frontiers beckon.
May you respond to the call of your gift and find the courage to follow its path.
May the flame of anger free you from falsity.
May warmth of heart keep your presence aflame and may anxiety never linger about you.
May your outer dignity mirror an inner dignity of soul.
May you take time to celebrate the quiet miracles that seek no attention.
May you be consoled in the secret symmetry of your soul.
May you experience each day as a sacred gift woven around the heart of wonder.

~ John O'Donohue ~

Wishing you all joy, good health and prosperity in the New Year!