Foxwell Strobel

Foxwell Strobel was born Wednesday morning, April 19, at 8:56. Mom and entire family doing fantastically well! He's a handsome boy and already much advanced for his age. 8 pounds, 4 ounces and 20 inches long.

Back in Alaska

No photos yet, but we're back in Alaska, staying with Matt, Susannah and Bea. It's COLD here! We are definitely acclimated to New Mexico. Lots of people to see, things to do etc. I've got to build a changing table in anticipation of the arrival of the new grandson, lots of spring cleanup around the triplex, and taking care of odds and ends left over from 28 years in Alaska. I'll try to get the camera out and take a few photos in the next day or so.

One Week til Alaska

We're in countdown mode. We're getting last minute stuff done in preparation for a month's absence from our little New Mexican hacienda. Yesterday we picked and washed lettuce, kale, pak choy and arugula; then bagged it up and took it to the natural food store. A friend of our neighbor's is house sitting for us, but doesn't arrive until a few hours after we leave, so I hope she can follow our watering instructions and all our tomato's, peppers, flowers etc survive until our return.

This afternoon we drove into the desert to see what was blooming. Saw lots of yellow prickly pear blossoms, but all in places where it was impossible to pull over and take a picture. The south-facing slopes going through the hills east of town warm up first, thus bloom earlier than out on the flat. Unfortunately, that's the area with twisty roads with no shoulders.

(I have no idea why the above is underlined...I tried to remove the line, but no luck!)
In case you missed all the pictures of local flora & fauna, there's an album at:
http://picasaweb.google.com/homerhorns/SpringFlowers#slideshow/5465360070501828466

Had to share this picture. How western is this. We were on a dirt road through the Jornada del Muerto (Journey of Death) and came across a couple of windmills. There were also a bunch of buffalo and lots of cattle. The Jornada is the route the Spanish took north from Mexico. It's part of the Camino Real from Mexico City to Santa Fe. Instead of following the Rio Grande, where local pueblos and rough terrain made travel by oxcart hazardous, they crossed this barren, dry and pretty inhospitable waste... no water for days, not much forage, and temperatures in the triple digits. The car thermometer measured 104 this afternoon, but a steady wind and humidity under 10% made it quite comfortable.
At the end of the pavement, about half an hour east of town, Spaceport America is due to be finished next summer. They had an educational launch last week, taking experiments designed by area high school and college students into space. The plan is to privatize spaceflight, send very rich tourists into space, launch satellites and generally promise enormous benefits to the local economy. This is as close as you can get without running over a security guard. Right next door is the Cutter Cattle Company, which is leasing out a bunch of land for a solar/wind hydrogen generation facility. Again, lots of talk, but I'll wait until I can buy a can of hydrogen to blow up my blimp before I believe it. Guess that's all the news that fits today. Stay tuned for Alaska and new grand baby pics.

Flower Album

This rose just opened this morning. Click on the link below to see more flower pics I took today, both in our yard and at our friend Ellen's in Hillsboro.

http://picasaweb.google.com/homerhorns/SpringFlowers#slideshow/5465360070501828466

More Garden Photos

Another beautiful day. It rained Friday Night and Saturday Morning, so everything is greening up. The bok choy is jumping out of the ground.

The lettuce sat still for a while but the warmer nights now (in the mid 50s) have given it a boost.

This is an ice plant, a succulant that grows in many of the yards here in T or C. There are also beautiful reds and oranges. They spill out onto the sidewalks all around us here in the historic district. We keep meaning to pinch off a cutting to bring home to add variety to our yellow.












We bought these pinks for practically nothing last year. Walmart had a bazillion plants dying for lack of watering. We rescued these and they flowered all last summer. They came back strong this summer.

Lazy Days of SPRING!

It's been a month of Sundays since I've written in this Blog, but I've been meaning to--just haven't gotten to it (that darned Facebook, anyway...) Life here spuds along. David's become a digging and a planting fool, and this season I'm even able to get into the act, and not just as a director! David built me a little wooden stool to sit on to pick arugula and it brings me close enough to the ground so I can reach to plant stuff--but I'm not so low that I can't get back up again! That awful ad on TV "Help! I've fallen and I can't get up!" is a real nightmare for those of us who, as David says, can still "get down" but then can't get up again! The birds are flocking to our feeder again: red house finches, little yellow-green lesser finches, juncos, Oregon races, tiny ground doves and the bigger white-winged doves, house sparrows, white-capped sparrows, and a couple days ago there were two huge yellow-breasted kingbirds on the wire over the feeder. We've hung the hummingbird feeders back up and have added a platform on the fence with a dish of grape jelly on it for the orioles in case they come by. We also have added an oriole liquid feeder and nailed up some orange slices for good measure. We still have one large bed to plant with peppers, but need to buy some plants. We went to the Animus Creek Nursery last Saturday and bought ten different kinds of tomatoes, from big beefsteak ones to yellow pear to cherry to burgundy something-or-others. They're in the ground and seem to be thriving, along with dill, basil, zucchini, Armenian (white) cucumbers, scarlet runner beans, sweet peas, sugar snap peas--well, take a look at the peas, a grapevine, and some catnip! The fabric you see on the porch and the fence around our property we put up for a windscreen to help cut the 65 mph gusts and the days of 15-25 mph constant winds.

Our hanging baskets of baby carnations and last-year's refurbished geraniums are thriving as is the herb garden. We've picked another batch of arugula and mixed them with other greens to bag up and take down to the natural food store. So far we've sold 15 bags of arugula! We're not getting rich, but it's paid for the seeds! To the left is a grapevine we're hardening off before putting into the ground, and some sugar snap peas, which are up about 4" now. The herb garden is doing really well--the lemon thyme and the parsley, rosemary, and blue sage over-wintered really well and the mizuna and pac choy we planted a month ago is going great guns. I leave you with this new little basket, just planted. Wait 'til you see it in a month!

Our friend Ellen's garden in Hillsboro

Yesterday was our 36th wedding anniversary. We actually forgot about it until the middle of the afternoon, while we were sitting at our friends kitchen table eating chicken salad. Ellen raises iris and fruit trees. The first few pictures are red bud...I'm not sure of the others. The tulips are in bloom and the iris should be coming along later this month. I'll try to post some more photos then.

The Ides of March

It's hard to believe it's only the middle of March and we're busy in the garden. For long-time Alaskans, it's a miracle. We returned from the East Coast to find our garden's over run with Arugula (the huge plants on the left). We had planted some salad mix last fall but the frost stunted the lettuce. The arugula, however, started growing and never looked back. It's now gone to seed and the tiny white flowers are calling the bees. We picked several grocery bags full and have been giving it away to anyone who'll take it. We also took some to the Natural food store. We have to check today and see if they want more.

Our little herb garden by the back door made it through the winter as well. We have had lots of parsley, sage and thyme throughout the colder months. Our little chile pepper wreath is pretty desiccated, but still a cheery addition to our courtyard. Today is chilly (mid-forties at mid-day) and cloudy, but we've been having glorious, sunny 70 degree days. The wind tries to dry out our little starts, but we've put shade cloth on the fence to try and slow the gusts somewhat. We've started seeds in flats on our porch, and have already transplanted some morning glories into larger pots. We've also been transplanting our hanging geraniums that got pretty dried out during our absence. We also have some cana lillies we picked up at a local coffee shop last summer. The owner had boxes of them to give away, and hopefully they will have a home in the corner of the yard.

We also picked up a Spanish Broom plant (yellow flowers) at the local Cactus Ranch. (They have amazing cacti and other southwest flora as well as wonderful pottery) Behind the fence you can see newly dug beds. I've been furiously digging, screening, and amending the soil. We've got lettuce, peas, pak choy etc already in the ground and will be eating greens (other than arugula) soon.

The birds missed us while we were gone. It took a few days after our return for them to find us again. These tiny lesser goldfinches love the thistle seed. A few days ago we heard the Conk-a-ree call of redwing blackbirds from the pine trees in the neighbors yard. Couldn't see the birds, but assumed they were mocking birds imitating the call. When they flew into the tree in the next lot, we could tell they weren't mocking birds but still couldn't believe we'd scores of blackbirds here in the desert. I'd always seen them in marshy areas before. When they came down to feast on sunflower seeds, we could see the red wing patches (barely visible in the photo). We keep pinching ourselves, wondering what we ever did to deserve this life we now have in the South West. Our days are filled with gardening, bird watching and rock gathering in the desert. The pace of our daily routine is leisurely but full. I've been baking bread, playing guitar and reading a lot. Annie has been furiously knitting in anticipation of yet another grandson (Susa is due in May). Life is good!

Springtime in New Mexico

It's been awhile since we updated this, so I'll try to fill everyone in on what's been going on in our lives for the past several months. We left NM in early January to attend the birth of Isabella in Virginia Beach. Although the due date was late January, Jenny was feeling contractions and that the birth might come sooner. We had a great road trip from NM to VA... three nights on the road through Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South and North Carolina... a part of the country neither Annie or I had seen before. A cold front chased us east, but the only weather we encountered was a little ice on the road near Atlanta which slowed traffic to a crawl for several hours.

We got to VA and waited for Isabella's arrival. She finally came on January 31, following a snow storm that had us all worried about the drive to the hospital. We made the drive at 6 in the morning with very little traffic. Isabella had some breathing problems early on. She couldn't quite figure out how to swallow when she had a little reflux and stopped breathing a couple of times. That all straightened out in a couple of days and she's fine now. A beautiful addition to our family.

After welcoming Bella, we waited for the storms to abate in Maryland and snuck up the coast between two major blizzards. Had a great visit with Lucas and his family. Tristan and Brooke both had the entire week off due to the snow. There was a total of almost 4 feet of snow within a week. The roads in Maryland were not too bad, however. Because of the weird winter weather throughout the central part of the country, we decided to take the most southerly route possible on our way back to New Mexico. We stopped for another couple of days in Virginia, then headed south to Florida, where we stopped to see our friends Perry and Cynthia. Perry was in Maine, working on a house he's building in Bridgton, so we decided to kidnap Cynthia and bring her to New Mexico with us. While in Florida, I spent one afternoon kayaking on the inland waterway watching a fellow named Lars try to catch redfish. I didn't even take a pole and caught just as many as he did.

We had a great drive back across the swamps of Florida and along the Redneck Riviera, then along route 10 and home. The crappy weather followed us. We had snow, sleet and freezing rain from San Antonio almost all the way to El Paso. Had a great time showing Cynthia around Truth or Consequences. We had some great drives, including this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sr2hWLpaQss

Just one more picture, before I sign off for now. Brooke painted this visor for her Grannie while we were visiting. It's quite stylish and she wears it everywhere.

Newest branch on the family tree

Have been traveling on the East Coast since early January. Isabella Joy Lord was born Jan 31. That's grand kid number 9! We have been in Virginia Beach with Jenny for most of that time, but also spent a week in MD with Lucas & family. We've spend much of our time dodging snow storms. Plan to leave tomorrow morning and take the southern route back to NM. Hope to see Cynthia (and maybe Perry) in Florida on the way. Perry's been in ME building a spec house. Can't wait to get back to the heat! We'll be in NM for a couple of months before flying to AK for grand kid number 10. Susa's expecting in May. It's a never ending round of travel and excitement for us old retired folk.

A few more pictures

Just transfered a couple more pictures off the camera. We found this enchanting little boit in Tombstone, and couldn't resist stopping for a photo op. There were signs advertizing "Bordello Bowling," but we did't stick around to find out what that was all about.
While at Bill and Ruthe's, we went with Bill to check out a couple of fixer-uppers he was interested in. Annie and I fell in love with this old adobe on 20 acres. It has several outbuildings, irrigation, stock pens, and the kind of funky atmosphere that felt like home.

Unfortunately, it sold (for under $30,000) the day we looked at it. There are still some great deals in the area. At some time in the future, we'll be back to look for another adobe hacienda.


This last shot was taken a few weeks ago north of T or C on the Plains of San Augustin, a huge dry lake bed in the middle of the mountains west of Socorro that is the home of the Very Large Array, the largest radio-telescope in the world.

Spent the week between Christmas and New Year's in Arizona, visiting our friends Bill and Ruthe. We loved southern Arizona. Douglas is right on the Mexican border and we had a great time shopping at the Mexican Grocery. Cheap fruits and vegetables! Didn't take many pictures, we were to busy gawking, but had to take a photo of the tumbleweeds piled up against the barbed wire fences. We also saw hundreds of sandhill cranes which winter in the wetlands north of Douglas. Saw Kim and Gordan Terpening (friends from Homer) in Bisbee, where they make gormet chocolates. Also made a brief visit to Tombstone. The whole town is basically an Old West Theme park. We're back home for now, but leave for Virginia Beach in about a week to welcome our next grandbaby.

Christmas is coming....

Haven't posted any pictures for awhile as I have been having too much fun with a new video camera and editing software, so haven't taken many photos....but here are a few from the past few weeks. Here's our Christmas Tumbleweed, all decorated with red chiles we grew in our yard, mistletoe we picked down by the Rio Grande, and assorted gummy-worms, candy canes, etc. I spray pained the Tumbleweed to use as a money tree at our friends, Terry and Brian's wedding. Annie was Matron of Honor. She and I helped decorate, cater and generally organize things. Brian, Annie and I are playing music together now. We bought a keyboard and small PA system, so Annie is able to play keyboard-drum machine and backup chords. We played downtown the other night for Christmas in Truth or Consequences. We also played at the wedding for Brian and Terry's first dance. Annie also knit Terry's snood (at least that's what she calls the thing Terry is wearing on her head.) Brian ordered his shirt from some western wear company and is very proud of it.
Yesterday we drove down by the Rio Grande and picked some mistletoe for our tree. (did I mention that already?) Anyway, here' some mistletoe, still fresh from its host tree.We took a ride up into the Caballo Mountains this afternoon and had a wonderful time picking rocks and exploring the back roads. I took some videos and may post those on YouTube at some point. I did post a video of our picnic yesterday. You can go to YouTube.com and search for homerhorns or go directly to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0W7cPQ-BsY Guess that's all for now. Time to watch some NetFlix and head to bed.

Picnic on the Rio Grande

Here's a video I did with some new audio recording/editing software I just downloaded (Its FREE! Hooray!) Look for "The Further Adventures of David and Annie in the Great Southwest."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0W7cPQ-BsY

SNOW

Woke up yesterday to snow on the ground. It was mostly gone by mid-afternoon, but it was a bit of a shock. Temperatures have been dipping into the teens at night and in the 40's during the day, but the forecast is for warmer weather over the next few days. We made a trip to Albuquerque earlier this week, and the mountains to the west were snow covered, but this is our first snowfall here in the lowlands (4100 feet).
Our friends Brian and Terry are getting married tomorrow, and we're expecting temp's in the mid-50's. It's kind of an indoor-outdoor thing, so keep your fingers crossed. Annie is the Matron of Honor and she and I are playing music after. (Brian's my trumpet player friend. About a week ago we took a trip to Las Cruces and bought a used keyboard to replace the piano lost in the fire. I also got a small PA system. The keyboard has some pretty sophisticated rhythm and accompaniment features and Annie is playing with Brian and I. She's all excited to be in a band and Brian and I are thankfull we don't have to play with some of the less-than-stellar drummers/bass players/guitarists we've tried over the last few months. Most of the good musicians we've found don't want to actually play more than occassionally and we're looking for semi-steady work. Brian plays Trumpet and Trombone. I do Sax and Guitar. This gives us quite a bit of flexability and we do Western Swing, Jazz, Dixieland (B is from New Orleans), Standards and straight Country. This lineup is small enough to work cheap but have a pretty full sound for a trio. We're playing for the Chamber of Commerce's "Christmas in T or C" on the 11th and also have a tentative New Year's Eve job. That's it for now from the Sunny/Snowy Southwest.