My New Toy

At a yard sale last week, I found a Rock Saw for $20.00! I think I mentioned it in a previous blog. This morning, I finally found the right size V-belt to connect the moter to the blade arbor, repaired the electrical cord, and started cutting rocks. These are from our trip to Mud Mountain a couple of days ago. Don't know exactly what kind of rocks these are, but they're gorgeous. Don't know what I'm going to do with all the rock slabs I'm going to end up with but it's so much fun seeing a plain old rock transformed into a shiney gem-like something-or-other. The saw uses a diamond blade in a water/oil bath. There's a clamp for holding the rock and a screw drive that pushes the rock forward slowly. A chain linking the carriage to the switch turns off the saw when the cut is complete. It takes about a half hour to cut these small slabs, but with the automatic shut-off you can just set up the cut and walk away. Can't wait to find a geode!

Yesterday, we took a ride back to Hillsboro to have lunch with a new friend, Ellen the Iris Lady. She has the most amazing gardens with apples, peaches, pears, plums, apricots etc. She sent us home with fresh corn on the cob, squash and green beans. We are definitelly eating well here.

BUGS!!!

There are all sorts of creepy crawlie things around here and they're all very interesting to look at, although I have to say that the no-see-ums have been doing more than crawling on me and I'm covered with bites. Thank goodness for Jody's Magic Oil...makes the itch go right away (at least for a while). Last night David and I climbed into bed and as I was adjusting my pillows I became distinctly aware that SOMETHING was crawling up my leg, rapidly approaching parts of me that don't see the sun on any day. Picture this short, round, hobbled-up little woman LEAPING out of bed, yelling something obscene, and as I hopped around making little "Agh-h" and "Y-U-CK" and "OOGH" noises, David chased a 2 inch COCKROACH around our bed until he caught it and threw it outside. Oh really, I hear someone wondering in their little pea brain "Why didn't he kill it..?" Think about it, Clyde. I said a TWO INCH cockroach. Exactly how does one kill something that big--so crunchy and so full of goo? You'd let it out the door as well. David says I should just think about it as a pet--a small, shiny, brown pet--like a tanned cat with no fur..."Something that got under the covers with you but shouldn't be there in the bed--like the cats with their claws when then get under the sheets and head for my crotch," he said, smiling. "They make me say "Oogh" too when they do that." So I will try to think of this BIG BUG as our new pet. We'll have to get a crate, though, because he's not allowed on the bed again...

Mud Mt, Lake Valley, and Nutt New Mexico

We took a great trip today, leaving home in the late morning and heading into the hills west of town. We had been seeing this huge construction in the distance for the past couple of weeks and couldn't figure out what it was. From the brass plaque near the top, we finally figured out that it is the Poncy Mud Valley Dam. Not a drop of water behind it, but apparantly during a flash flood, the dam protects the town from the rushing waters. It's a spillway of sorts with concrete baffles to slow the water in its descent. We followed the road up the edge of the valley behind the dam through more dry desert with rocky outcrops. This plant looks like Crown of Thorns. It has tiny leaves, huge sharp spines and yellow flowers at the tips of its branches. After looking it up on line, we finally found out that it is an Ocotillo Cactus. The views along the way were spectacular, but so vast it's hard to contain in a photo. We stopped repeatedly to pick up rocks from beside the road. I really need to get some gloves, as it's impossible to hold a rock for more than a few seconds without juggling it from hand to hand to prevent third degree burns on the digits. Mud Mountain loomed above us, but we didn't think the Chrysler was up to the climb. Returning to town we headed south for Hillsboro for lunch then south again to Lake Valley, a ghost town that mostly burned to the ground in 1885. The famous Bridal Chamber Mine, one of the richest silver deposits in the world, was located near here. Hard to believe this was once a town of 4,000 souls. On the way we saw 5 Mule Deer beside the road. We also saw a couple of Roadrunners. (actually running in the road! Imagine that.) Above Lake Valley, looms Lizard Rock. It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see where the name came from. There are all kinds of roads through the desert, because all you have to do is drive a cat with the blade down to knock over the very sparce vegetation, and Presto... a road. No frost heaves, only the danger of a washout wherever you cross a natural water course. There are numerous signs indicating that dips in the road are subject to flash floods. We dodged thunder showers all afternoon, with lightning flashing to the west, south and north, but managed to avoid any serious rain. Nutt, NM used to be the end of the line on the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. Now it's just an intersection with a closed Bar called the Middle of Nowhere Tavern. The road then heads east into Hatch, home to cottonfields, miles of Chile Peppers, and cattle feetlots you can smell for a mile before you see them. Got home around 5:30, just in time for a nap before supper. Boy Howdy, there's sure some interesting country around here.

Monsoon Season

Just got back from playing music at a neighborhood block party down by the river. We quit around 8 as the rain was threatening. Got home just in time to see the sun going down on Turtleback Mountain to the south The colors were even more intense a few minutes before I got out the camera. It's what they call the monsoon season here. There's often a rip-snorter of a thunder storm just before dark. A couple of nights ago, Annie and I were driving in the desert, digging up some native plants to stick in the ground around the house, when a crack of thunder followed so closely on the heels of the lightning we decided to get in the car and head for town. By the time we got to town, it was raining so hard we had to pull over. There are no storm drains here except for the streets, and they quickly turn into rivers when the rain hits.

The rain soaks in pretty quickly and we still have to water our gardens daily. Stuff just leaps out of the ground here. I picked these peppers off our plants so that the roots will develop, but these things have only been in the ground about 3 weeks. The basil is also growing like crazy. Tomorrow, I think we're going to drive to Hillsboro, an old mining town south of here, to visit with the Iris Lady. Annie met her at the Old Time Fiddler's hall when I played there last week, and she invited us down to see her gardens. Tonight I was at a house with a pomegranite tree in the yard. We've been buying apples at the farmer's market for juice (seconds are a buck a pound) and the grower says he has apples from June to December! This place is certainly agreeing with us and everyday provides a new surprise. I bought a diamond blade rock saw at a yard sale Saturday for 20 dollars and can't wait to start cutting geodes, sandstone and agates. It needs a new belt and a good cleaning, but should be a lot of fun when I get it in working order. We hauled a bunch of rocks back from a recent trip across the river and have them stashed in the garden. The minerals here are all new and different, so we're looking forward to collecting LOTS of rocks. It's now 9 pm, so I think I'll get back to Dickens (Bleak House). Ain't retirement grand.

East of the Rio Grande

Check out the new Slide Show above. Click on it to open in a new window with larger photos and captions. We toot a trip today across the river. The photos are of the first portion of our trip only, as the camera batteries ran out. We ended up traveling east to Engle, future site of Spaceport America, which is in the middle of NOWHERE. Flat desert in all directions. We then followed a dirt road south for miles and miles, through torrential rains with lightning in all directions around us. Ended up in Hatch for a late supper at a Santa Fe Grill (a chain of fast food outlets) and then back up the west side of the river on Interstate 25, getting home around 9:30.

Uncle Frank has a new Hat!!!

Most gardens around here have a "santos" standing guard; most often it's St. Francis of Assissi. You often see him covered with bird necklaces and such, with terracotta painted animals around him. The other day David and I went to a cactus garden, which was a wonderful place full of more cacti than we'd ever seen, and also wonderful oleander and Mexican heather for sale. The owner was also selling Mexican hand-thrown pots (drool) and tucked in amongst them, little Mexican "santos" of varying sizes. This one caught my fancy and I brought him home to stand watch outside our door and to keep the mice out of the herb garden (hah). However, the big deal for me is the beaded halo on his head, as I never thought I'd get back enough use of my hands to be able to ever bead again--in fact, all my beading supplies, along with the yarn and needles and knitting books, went to Susannah or my friend Lauren and the rest got sold in our "Mother of All Yard Sales." With help from David with the crimping tools, I managed to bead him his


new headband! And look what else I've managed to do this week: No, the scrap of knitting to the left is not the bottom of a bikini but the beginnings of a lowly cotton dishrag--something that is taking me a full week or more to make because I have about fifteen minutes before my hands stop working, but I'm determined to finish this and then take a picture of David using it. The bamboo and wicker towel rack is half-painted, too. Same problem holding a paintbrush for any length of time, but still, half-finished or not, I decided to hang it up and use it, take it down and paint on it, until it's entirely done and David can give it a coat of clear acrylic to seal it. If you click on the photo you'll see the design better and see what's not yet complete. These three things, compared to the handwork I used to whip out in a weekend pales really in comparison, yet for me, right now, they are the sweetest things I have ever put my hands to...because I was ABLE to put my hands to them. It's such an old saw, "You never know what you have until it's gone," but the reason it's an OLD saw, is because there's so much truth in it, it hangs around to be said over and over. Laying in that damned recliner night after sleepless night with only a candle in Lindy's crystal lotus she gave me and some Christmas lights for company, unable to move my hands, arms or legs without the most excruciating pain, I would have many a discussion with old Uncle Frank (as some around here fondly call him) about the worth of my life, and how could I find the grace to live in a helpless state, and asking for just a bit of shoring up around the edges until I could find my way out of my own private Idaho of pain and darkness and despair. It was truly the Winter of (All) Our Discontent, because life then was no picnic for David, or Susannah, or Dotty, all of whom not only had to deal with their own complicated and difficult lives, but deal with me all the time as well...every dark, cold and dreary day. And now, the Universe (with, I think, a little of Uncle Frank's help) has squirted us out of that particular worm-hole into a place where there's Light and Heat, Understanding and Health. I have no idea what our desert lives might be like from here on in, but I know they've been changed forever by our recent experiences. And I'll take mine as it comes at me, grab it and revel in it, because I know I am so lucky and so blessed to have it.

I think David has some more photos of our house and gardens and he wants to try another slide-show, so I'll sign off. Just wanted you to know how things are progressing in my lil' old life these days. Love to you ALL!!!

New Pictures

I finally figured out how to post a slide show. Check it out at left. Click on the pictures for a new window with larger photos with captions.

Another Day in TorC

This little anole lizard is my alter ego. Every morning I wake up stiff and sore and not able to move at all, and David helps me out of bed and into some clothes and into my wheelchair; then he wheels me across the street to the vacant lot to visit the tumbleweed and get the early morning sun. I sit there with my coffee or tea and some yogurt with homemade granola, and after about an hour, I'm hot all the way through and completely thawed out, ready to start my day! By mid-afternoon I can actually walk a little unassisted around the house. Swept the patio yesterday. Painted on a small shelf. Began knitting a cotton washcloth. Each of those things were impossibilities a year ago. And slowly, slowly I'm beginning to get myself back again. Pretty wonderful.

Let's see, what did we do today? After I thawed out, we went to a local farmer's supply place and bought flypaper. The bugs find me everywhere around here; they don't bother David at all. So maybe some flypaper....oh, who am I kidding? This is a buggy place and I've just got to go with the flow. Then we went to the post office where we got our first bills!!! We came right home and paid them on-line. While we were out we also bought another fan for the back room where the big computer is and toured the Animal Shelter Thrift Shop to see what was there. Lots of 2nd hand places in this town. Great for the budget! Came home and David made lunch; then I sat outside and read and he stayed inside and practiced some of the songs he and his ersatz band will play tomorrow morning at the Farmer's Market. Tonight we sat outside in the vacant lot and watched the incredible lightening show up Elephant Butte way. Better than fireworks!

I have a great bug story, speaking of bugs. The other day my new friend Terry was sitting on the pot when a four-inch centipede dropped out of her ceiling fan right at her feet. Of course it freaked her out and she grabbed the closest thing to her which was a bottle of toilet bowl cleaner. She just doused the thing until it drowned or was killed by the Clorox or whatever in it. Her husband was so impressed by how it had so instaneously dispatched the creep thing, that he took the cleaner outside to see if it would kill the weeds in the yard... Four-inch centipedes--I'm not in Alaska for sure....

Life in TorC

Why on earth is this woman smiling from ear to ear??? Could it be because she's upright and able to do something mundane for the first time in several years? I vacuumed the floor the other day and David caught it with the camera. How terrific! I could only manage the living room, but hey... By the way, here's our living room. Ugly rug, white walls--eh, we can live with it all. Found a couch at a yard sale, brand-new, for $200. It has recliners at both ends, so David and I each have one. How decadent! For those of you who have wondered about tumbleweed (how's that for a non sequitur?) I thought you might be interested in these two pictures. The one on the left is green, growing tumbleweed in the vacant lot across the alley from our house. The

tumbleweed at my feet is the dry stuff that blows and tumbles all over the place. David found this in a little nook beside our carport where he's going to build a small storage shed for his tools and such.

The other two photos are the alley to the left and right of our little house. Our house is very private, as none of the other houses on the alley face the alley but are oriented to the streets in front. Thus we have a lot of privacy (AND a lot of shade, which is a good thing.) In the photo directly above, you can see some of the new gardens David has put in--basil, tomatoes, peppers, Sweet William and cilantro in the bed to the left. To the right is my rock garden with carnations, blue sage, chollo cactus and ice plant. There are red ivy geraniums hanging from pots. Once all the gardening is done, I'll send more pics. The last photo is David and his new friend Brian, who plays trumpet and trombone, and two other quasi-musicians busking on the streetcorner of T or C last night at the monthly Gallery Walk (much like Homer's First Fridays, only it's Second Saturdays). They got paid $20 each by the owner of the antique shop in front of which they had set up, and a couple people threw some money in David's guitar case. So...we've been here two weeks, David's found a really good musician friend and he's had his first paying gig! Life is good!!!