Santa Fe Journal

Civil War in New Mexico Territory: today we toured sites of the Battle at Glorieta Pass.

2010-03-06T20:06:00.003-07:00

That is Polish immigrant Martin Kozlowski near the trading post he located in a prime spot, near Glorieta Creek and the Santa Fe trail. Today we visited the trading post and saw where Union soldiers encamped nearby before the battle of Glorieta Pass.

There is considerably more snow in Pecos still (March 2010) than there is in Santa Fe.

On March 26, 1862, Confederate and Union soldiers stopped at each end of Glorieta pass - the Confederates at Apache Canyon to the west and the Federals at Pigeon’s Ranch to the east.
The two forces then briefly clashed near the Confederate base at Apache Canyon

before retiring to their respective camps.

Hostilities resumed the morning of March 28th, as both sides advanced into Glorieta Pass. The Confederates chose to send most of their forces into the attack, and left perhaps 30 or 40 troops to guard the supply train in the rear of Apache Canyon at Johnson’s Ranch. Four hundred Colorado Volunteers descended from the steep mountains late in the day and surprised the far outnumbered Confederate rear guard at Johnson‘s Ranch.

The Federals quickly overwhelmed the Rebels and burned all 85 wagons in the Confederate supply train. The Union forces also drove off more than 500 horses and pack mules. This pretty much crippled the Confederates.

Even though the rebels had an advantage in numbers and they pushed the Federals back toward the eastern edge of the pass, at one point shelling the Federal camp at Pigeon’s Ranch,

This is what's left of Pigeon's Ranch today...a building that was a station stop along the Santa Fe trail...it's only about four feet from the road.

they still had to retreat because of what the Union had done to their supply wagons. They were, after all, in New Mexico, and whatever they needed they had to have with them--especially water and food, but also saddles, medicines, ammunition. Without their supplies, the Confederates had no choice but to retire from the field and withdraw to Santa Fe. Soon they pulled out of New Mexico territory for good.

The Confederate leaders thought they could manage to live off the land and they thought westerners would rally to their cause. They were wrong on both counts.

Here is the granite monument to the Texas Volunteers

commemorating the Texans who fought and perished as part of the Sibley Brigade during the "farthest penetration of Texans along the Santa Fe trail."

This is the rose red granite monument to the 1st Colorado Volunteers, who "saved the Union in Northern New Mexico." The monument was dedicated on March 27, 1993.

Sipapu--a reminder of emergence.

2009-11-17T08:55:00.002-07:00

The sipapu is the small round hole in the floor of the kiva ruin. The larger round hole in the floor is a fire pit.

You can see that the air intake (little rectangular door in the wall), the stones that block air from the air intake, the fire pit and the sipapu are all in a line. An interpretation of sipapu, which is a Hopi word, is that the spot served as the symbolic place of origin of the tribe. You may also find an interesting description of the "entrance to the fourth world" aspect here.

And yes, the word was appropriated as the name of a New Mexico resort (their odd tagline is: "Find it. Ski it." located about 20 miles from Taos).

Here is a helpful excerpt from the thoughtful and detailed paper, "Where Earth and Sky Meet" by John A. Blackwell:

"The Hopi people, one of the remaining Pueblo Cultures of the American southwest, have a very complex cosmology, one that is similar to what is believed to be that of the ancient Anasazi. They believe themselves to be the descendants of the inhabitants of three previous worlds and that through a series of emergences, they are now living on the surface of the fourth world called Tuwaqachi (Waters 21). This place of emergence is symbolized in the sacred kiva structure by the sipapu, a hole in the ground dug as a reminder. In fact, the kiva itself represents an entire cosmological model to the Pueblo Indians.

The kiva was and still is a sacred building for the Indians. Most are small circular structures burried in the ground with stone walls and wood and mud daub roofs. The smaller ones typically have an opening in the roof through which a ladder can be used

to descend into the kiva. Larger kivas had stairways leading down into them but still had the roof hole to allow smoke from the fire, burning in the kiva's fire pit, to escape. Some later kivas even had fairly complex ventilation systems with holes and shafts running to the surface. Kivas ranged in size from 20 foot diameter structures to larger than 50 feet across at sites like Chetro Ketl in Chaco Canyon. It is believed that they originally served as kin group meeting places or even dwelling units and then later became religious centers. Many were aligned with entrances and vent shafts running due north and south.

The sipapu represents the emergence place, the walls the sky, and the roof the Milky Way (Malville 8). In fact some kivas belonging to the Pueblo Indians had complex wall paintings displaying astronomical symbols (Williamson 190) [we have not seen this in our kiva travels]. The roof of the kiva was typically supported by four posts, which according to Malville, could have represented the four cardinal directions, "the four trees planted in the underworld or the four sacred mountains" (8). Even the ladder used to climb into and out of the kiva could be considered a symbol of the emergence with the ritualization of emergence being performed whenever someone climbed out of the kiva (Williamson 71)."

Our photos in descending order: Mesa Verde sipapu; Pecos NM kiva; long view of Chaco Canyon.

One more small business gone in the New Mexico rain.

2009-11-14T22:40:00.002-07:00

Traveled to Albuquerque today to take a state-administered test, and the family was kind enough to drive down with me (they played for a few hours while I sweated bullets and answered questions). We had a pleasant time on the road and enjoyed the very different-from-normal weather we're having right now in New Mexico, which is to say, no sunshine and some rain.

Although we visited a bookstore, and a market we like, and picked up food at a favorite restaurant, there was one ritual stop we didn't make: we didn't stop by Derek's Dugout. Our Albuquerque baseball friend and autograph collector extraordinaire, Kris, had informed us that Derek's has closed. So it can no longer be a stop on our Duke City Roundup. This was really sad news, as we liked Derek and enjoyed his store. There won't be many brick and mortar sports cards shops left at all in the next few years anywhere. At all.

In a reflective mood, we leave you with a song from Michael Hearne. He has a wonderful band called South by Southwest that we've seen a couple of times and like very much. We couldn't locate a video of the band's beautiful rendition of this tune, but this solo version by Michael is fine indeed. Hope you enjoy 'New Mexico Rain.'

Cerrillos, New Mexico

2009-09-05T20:28:00.002-06:00

The Lights of Santa Fe by Eliza Gilkyson.

2009-09-02T13:40:00.001-06:00

We love discovering a new artist. Wait, let us rephrase that. We enjoy finally crawling out from under a rock and discovering a fine artist who has been producing excellent music for quite some time. Case in point: Eliza Gilkyson. She seems to have moved from more of a New Age sound early in her career to folk/rock. Both work for us. There is nothing trite or soft or poppy in her work. Here's a link to one of her exceptional songs, The Lights of Santa Fe. If there were a YouTube video of Ms. Gilkyson performing this, we'd certainly embed it here, but have been unable to find a link. Anyway, as it happens, yesterday we were driving on I-25 and heard this song on 98.1 for the first time. Low-key, beautiful, and ever on the brink of breaking your heart. Oh wait, kind of like...Santa Fe.

Driving at night on Highway 25
Blindfolded I’d know the way
Just over the rise like a jewel in the mountains
Shine the lights of Santa Fe

How many times have I come home to you
Just to have you turn me away
Oh you’ve been betrayed by the ones that threw you
To the whims of the white man’s way

But you show no resentment and you show know resistance
To the ones who’ve done you wrong
Oh they’ll hang themselves on their own fool existence
After the laughter is gone

Oh Santa Fe, city of faith
I did my time in an honorable way
And now there is a candle for each dream that breaks
In the Lights of Santa Fe

From the houses of mud to the governor’s palace
Spirits walk the streets in the daylight
And some scream for blood, some bear no malice
For the ones who stole their birthright

Naīve tourist standing shoulder to shoulder
With wise and ancient souls
Oh the old way gets lost and the tracks grow colder
As the bell of St. Francis tolls

Oh Santa Fe, city of faith
I did my time in an honorable way
And now there is a candle for each dream that breaks
In the Lights of Santa Fe

There is a candle for each dream that breaks
In the Lights of Santa Fe.

July 4th at Las Campanas.

2009-08-06T18:59:00.001-06:00

Ok, so we're a full month late in posting this. It's been a busy summer. :) We'll try to be more swift of post the rest of the year.

It's a lovely setting at Las Campanas for any special event. The food is good, too. This night the weather was mild

after two solid days of rain, and all was right with the world. Here is Doug, one of the owners of an excellent restaurant in town called Jinja, "an Asian bistro:" We recommend it, and we'd say that even if we didn't know Doug. We were invited to this Independence Day party by friends

who knew this to be a hot spot for fireworks and didn't hesitate to share the dazzle.

The recent rain had caused some seriously leaning bushes.

E. leaned a little, too. She was interested in all the fallen branches. She tried to fix one:

while we waited for the show after dinner. We watched and listened to a very good concert by the Santa Fe Symphony (here everyone is milling about beforehand):

and then after the little concert, we just turned our chairs around and Voilà, there we were on the Fourth of July:

On the drive home, down towards Santa Fe, we could see several other fireworks shows wrapping up, but none seemed as pretty or fun as this one.

August sunset from our side door.

2009-08-06T18:26:00.002-06:00

Santa Fe has its first female fire chief.

2009-07-30T19:43:00.004-06:00

Firefighter Nation has a wonderful writeup about Santa Fe's new fire chief, Barbara Salas, who was sworn in today, July 30. She is replacing retiring Chief Chris Rivera. Chief Salas, 36, was named fire marshal in October 2007 and has worked for the Fire Department since 1995, including a ten-year stint as a paramedic.

New Mexico History Museum is a hit.

2009-07-30T19:21:00.005-06:00

It only opened on Memorial Day of this year, but the New Mexico History Museum is doing well indeed...63,212 persons (as of yesterday) have visited, compared to 65,000 visitors to the Palace of the Governors (now incorporated in the History Museum) all of last year. Thus far, museum officials estimate about 60 percent of the visitors have been from New Mexico.

One exhibit that runs through August 16 is Writing with Thread: Traditional Textiles of Southwest Chinese Minorities, which features a rare collection of ensembles of women's,

men's and children's ceremonial dress, baby carriers, quilt covers, festive and religious vestments, silver jewelry, embroidered silk valences, and wax-resist dyed curtains, plus a loom, weaving tools, and embroidery cases. The more than 500 objects in this exhibit represent 15 ethnic groups and nearly 100 subgroups in China. The needlework and silverwork of each ethnic group show variations in their myths of origin and heroic combats, communal memories, and wish fulfillment.

Building photo: Blair Clark.

College of Santa Fe back on track for the fall.

2009-07-30T19:11:00.005-06:00

The Santa Fe City Council yesterday voted unanimously to take on $30 million in debt to buy the College of Santa Fe campus and lease it to Laureate Education Inc. Whew. It would have been extremely foolish for the city to let go of the richly storied CSF. The name "College of Santa Fe" will have to stay in place, according to the agreement, but the agreement notes that Laureate can "add other words." We suggest: "We Woulda Been Dumb as Rocks if We Let This Good and Fabulously Situated College Disappear From Santa Fe But Boy We Came Close." Here's a link to the Fall 2009 course list at the College. State residents will get a 20 percent tuition discount; Santa Fe county residents will receive a 25 percent discount.

Is this heaven? Real food has arrived in our neighborhood.

2009-06-17T22:45:00.004-06:00

The best cafe/coffee shop/real food restaurant, not sure what to call it, has arrived on the Old Las Vegas Highway. Check out the menu. Wonderfulness.

Spaceport America: lifestyles of the rich and wasteful.

2009-06-16T20:27:00.007-06:00

On Friday, ground will be broken in the desert of southern New Mexico for a terminal and hangar facility at the world's first commercial spaceport. The Land of Enchantment is hoping a forgotten stretch of cattle ranches and mountain ranges will become a gateway for private citizens to be launched into space. Already 250 people are lining up to pay $200,000 each to take the trip.

From a 10,000-foot runway, spacecraft will take flight attached to an airplane, then break free and rocket 62 miles into space before returning to the facility. The flights will last about two hours and include five minutes of weightlessness.

Virgin Galactic and American aerospace designer Burt Rutan are building a craft that will take passengers on the thrill ride from New Mexico's spaceport. In 2004, Rutan's SpaceShipOne became the first privately built manned craft to reach space. The runway is slated for completion next summer.

The terminal and hangar should be ready in December 2010, and that's when Virgin Galactic hopes to begin launching rich, insane tourists into space. Here is the link to Spaceport America.

Santa Fe Convention Center community spirit.

2009-06-02T16:09:00.001-06:00

The Sweeney Center is history. The new Santa Fe Convention Center (it opened in September '08) has a community room, and recently our older daughter displayed some of her manga art at the Capital City Comics Expo.

The place is brand new and shiny, and loaded with fresh hopeful landscaping.

Part of the exhibition included a well-made film about local elementary school children learning how to invent their own comic book characters. Two in this image from the movie: Inviza Girl and Pupgirl. Santa Fe's ubiquitous and very pleasant mayor, David Coss, was there, and he gave out True Believers Comic Shop gift certificates to the lucky winners of a drawing. Our older daughter was not too crushed that her younger sister won a gift certificate, because the best prize of the day might have been when we overheard a 13-year-old boy say that Emma's art was the best in the entire exhibition.

The owner of True Believers was there as well:Here's Mayor Coss with our two daughters, disguised slightly in cartoon format:

The community room is very pleasant, and so is the entire convention center.

The Dust Bowl in New Mexico.

2009-05-17T12:27:00.001-06:00

This is our older daughter's final report for her New Mexico history class. I helped with typing, spelling, and suggesting a couple of transitions. This is all her work, and it is on a little-discussed topic, so we thought we would share what she learned.

The Road West, New Mexico, by Dorothea Lange (1935)

The Dust Bowl, a period of severe dust storms that caused ecological, agricultural and economic damage to part of America in the 1930s, happened in New Mexico in two ways. First, the northeastern part of the state was affected as a kind of extension of the Oklahoma panhandle (the part of Oklahoma tucked between Kansas, Texas, Colorado, and New Mexico), where the worst problems were. Second, New Mexico (especially Tucumcari and Albuquerque) was on the route of escape from the Dust Bowl. So people in the state of New Mexico had firsthand experience of the largest migration in U.S. history.

Many factors led to this migration. The Dust Bowl was caused by a mix of events, including several that occurred many years earlier. For example, the need for wheat played a role in the midst of World War I. Wheat farmers found they made great profits as the government needed food to feed an Army. Then the introduction of machinery made the harvest more efficient, so profits skyrocketed. Such machines included the steam plow and the gas powered tractor. Because these could do more work than could be done otherwise, the farmers bought more land to farm because they could grown and harvest more than ever before and they gained enormous profits. The plains being as flat as they were made work by machine even easier. During this time, almost 85 percent of the native grassland was plowed under to make room for more farming.

Even though these inventions were helpful to the farmers in the moment, they badly affected the land in the long term. The Reeves steam plow is a good example of this. It was oversized and very heavy and as it rolled along it severely compressed the earth as it tore up the sod. Another destructive machine of the time was the disc plow,

which went into the ground and broke up clods of topsoil into fine dirt. “Soil experts” advised that farmers should disc plow as often as possible, especially after rain, to help retain moisture. This was completely wrong. Further problems were caused as the harvester thrasher (combine) came into use. It cut wheat and almost immediately thrashed it separating seeds form the plants, then deposited the wheat in a truck that drove beside the combine. These machines put many people out of work, because a job that once required as many as 20 people now could be done by two or three. But the efficient machines also encouraged over-farming.

After World War I (1914-1918) ended, the demand for wheat dropped. In 1919 and into the early 1920s wheat prices remained low. Farmers had already purchased expensive machinery on credit and were still paying for the machines. Those who owned land of their own had to pay the mortgage and those who didn’t most likely owed rent. This forced farmers to plow more land and plant more wheat just to keep up, which added to the problems that would lead to the Dust Bowl effect.

There were also environmental factors in New Mexico that made everything worse. For example, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, "Actively moving dunes have been identified on 1936 and 1938 aerial photographs in North Dakota, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, and New Mexico. Results of aerial photograph interpretation and analysis of historic climate data suggest that the most likely cause of activation in the 1930s was loss of vegetation cover due to increased temperatures and decreased rainfall."

It looks clear from this U.S. Geological Survey photograph comparing Quay County in 1938 and 1991 that New Mexico’s sand dunes had become active by 1936 and probably worsened other environmental problems. The combination of poor farming practices (such as dry land farming, unawareness about soil conservation, overgrazing, destruction of prairie grasses), and environmental changes such as the region’s strong winds and severe drought in the southwestern Great Plains in the 1930s, led to widespread disaster.

During these times filled with hardship, despair, drought, poverty and dust, people would gather around and talk about a distant land where there was sunshine, food, work, clear skies, and no dust. This place was the state of California. The word “California” to those affected by the dust storms was magical. It described a place where they could change their luck and start over. It was said that thousands of workers were needed to bring in the harvest of endless different crops. It was said that no one ever went hungry and that people could just help themselves to any kind of food or vegetable they wanted from any of the lush orchards and crops there. It was said no one ever got sick and they would live happily for a long time.

Over all, the Dust Bowlers truly believed they would find work and a better life in California…that is, if they could get there. So families sold what few valuables they still had, such as machinery and livestock, and then packed up and headed west. This began the largest migration of people in United States history. Between 1935 and 1940, more than one million people left their homes and set out on the three-week to eight-month journey to California.

Driving wasn’t the only way to get there…some people hitchhiked, others “rode the rails,” which usually meant they snuck upon a moving freight train car illegally. But those who travelled on the road made their way on a byway they called “the Mother Road,” or old Route 66.

People coming from Oklahoma would pass through Shamrock and Amarillo, Texas, then Tucumcari and Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Holbrook, Flagstaff, and Kingman, Arizona, and finally Needles and Barstow, California. People had many stories about their journeys across America to California. For instance, in the book Children of the Dust Bowl by Jerry Stanley, the author tells of Rosalene Long, who remembered that the family got caught in a flood in Gallup, New Mexico and was forced to hide out for a week in a large tin building with twelve other families until the flood waters subsided.

Many people didn’t have enough money to get to California without stopping, so they worked along the way. They might pick cotton in Texas until they earned enough money to reach Arizona, where they would work enough to reach California. If they ran out of gas, or their truck broke down or got a flat tire, which happened often, some of the men would catch a ride to the nearest town and get an odd job to earn enough money for repairs or gas for the next day.

There were other people, not only the migrants, who must have suffered during this time and in this region such as the people who lived on the land where migrants passed through. In the towns on the Mother Road, for example in the towns of Tucumcari or Albuquerque, it must have been very difficult to see a never-ending flow of humanity going by who needed things, whether money, fuel, food or rest. To have people passing on your road always in need when you yourself may not have had a lot, must have been a great burden.

The migrant families would often camp by the side of roads at the end of the day and eat sugar-cured bacon stuffed in lard cans and if they were lucky, they had a meal of carrots and boiled potatoes. Everything they needed for that night was placed outside of their cars. They would cook, sleep outside, bathed if they were near water and did whatever it took to get going the next day. Between the harsh terrain and unreliable vehicles, the trip to California was a difficult one. They had to cross over the Black Mountains between Kingman and Needles. Then, once over, they had to cross 143 miles of Mojave Desert. This is where often fan belts stopped working, radiators cracked, and the floorboards turned into frying pans of 120 degrees or even more. Because of the intense heat, most people traveled the desert at night.

When people finally reached California, they rejoiced as if their problems blew away in the wind. And when they saw the vast stretch of orchards endlessly in all directions, there were lots of tears of joy and relief, and thoughts of the money they could make working in those fields. However, this joy did not last long. The travelers soon found out that California wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. Signs reading “No Jobs Here” or “Looking for Work? Keep Out” were found to be frequent landmarks in every town. There were too many workers and not enough jobs. California growers had over-advertised the number of workers needed to do the farming. This situation worked perfectly for the growers, because the high number of workers drove down wages. A grower might offer to hire someone for 25 cents an hour, a poverty wage even then. If a worker wouldn’t take the job because his family couldn’t live on 25 cents an hour, the growers didn’t care because there was always someone willing to work for that little. What California offered to migrant workers of the Dust Bowl in many cases was more hunger and misery.

This is why John Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath. He described what the migrant workers faced during their first months in California, calling it a “dead time.” His book drew the attention of America to the condition of the migrant workers.

"And then the dispossessed were drawn west—from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out, tractored out. Car-loads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless—restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do—to lift, to push, to pick, to cut—anything, any burden to bear, for food. The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land." John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath, 1939

A modern author who depicts the Dust Bowl using not prose but verse is Karen Hesse. Her 1997 book Out of the Dust describes the Dust Bowl using poetic language that makes the entire story she tells seem almost like flowing dust. The story is about a girl growing up during the Dust Bowl who encounters trials of the time that are described in many nonfiction accounts, such as corralling the wild jackrabbits that were multiplying to a frightening degree, grasshopper infestations, and of course the smothering dust storms.

But in the 1930s, writers and artists helped focus the attention of America on the people of the Dust Bowl. Dorothea Lange was one artist who would have a direct connection to New Mexico. Lange was born in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1895 on the 28th of May. When she was seven, she contracted polio, which gave her an obvious limp. At the age of twelve, she walked through downtown Manhattan to meet her mother after school when she discovered before her a wealth of visual imagery in buildings and people. She found photography wasn’t just the click of a button or the flash of a camera. The camera had to understand the person and vice versa to make the picture count and have meaning.

She was hired by the government’s Farm Service Administration to document effects of the Depression. Sometimes she would come upon a camp where refugees from the Dust Bowl were trying to get by. She would talk to them until they felt comfortable having her take their pictures. She thought her limp helped her create an instant link between herself and her subjects. At times she believed the people trusted her more because she wasn’t “whole or secure” like them, which might have made them more inclined to talk to her. When she was in California photographing homeless families looking for work, she took what is probably her most famous picture, known as “Migrant Mother.”

Lange once said, “I had to get my camera to register things that were more important than how poor they were – their pride, their strength, their spirit.” Though most of her works were of Oklahoma and California, she also took memorable pictures in New Mexico. One of my favorite pictures by Dorothea Lange is of a girl sitting near a broken fireplace in a room with a bed, a wooden bench, a window, and cracked floorboards.

The picture was taken in Bosque Farms, where the girl had relocated to from Taos Junction in December 1935. It has the caption, "Resettled farm child. From Taos Junction to Bosque Farms project, New Mexico." I like the composition and lighting of the photograph, and the environment the girl is living in. These photographs by Dorothea Lange give a sense of what the New Mexico Dust Bowl looked like. The pictures relate New Mexico to the other states of the Dust Bowl in their images of depression, dust, and unsureness.

Historians have made this New Mexico connection clear also. One writer addressed the area of Mills, NM, where Dorothea Lange had taken many photographs:

“At Mills [NM], on the high plains of eastern New Mexico in Harding County, dust storms became routine in March, April and May 1935. Soil filled furrows and left fields rippled with miniature dunes. It drifted over fences and up the sides of farm buildings….The sheer discomfort of blowing sand drove families away from the area. Employees of the federal government’s Agricultural Adjustment Administration in Mills reported that “the physical discomfort and menace to health occasioned by the almost continuous blinding dust storms which have swept the area during the past three months have rendered it distinctly unsuitable for human occupancy….Three years later things had not improved much.” Geoffrey Cunfer, The Great Plains: Agriculture and Environment, p. 143.

The author also says, “Today Mills no longer exists except as a sign by a lonely state highway and a few foundations hidden beneath the sea of dry grass.”

From what I can determine, the most likely counties in New Mexico that were affected by the Dust Bowl were Union, Harding, Quay, some of Roosevelt, a part of De Baca, most of Gallup and San Miguel, Mora, and the eastern half of Taos County. Even in a current history of Harding County in New Mexico on the Harding County website, there is an admission that “Harding County has never recovered from the Great Plains Dust Bowl.”

The Dust Bowl didn’t happen all at once but was a collection of problems that built up until they all came crashing down upon the nation during the 1930s. A combination of drought and poor farming techniques might not have been so bad for a little while, but the endlessness is what led to the loss of hope among citizens. So people set off in the largest human migration in U.S. history to California, where they thought things would be better. These times were captured by artists and writers so that this point in America would never be forgotten, and we might learn from the mistakes in the past so that they are not repeated in the future.

Bibliography

Books:
Brown, Harriet. Welcome to Kit’s World. Malaysia: Pleasant Company Publications. 2002.
Cunfer, Geoffrey. The Great Plains: Agriculture and Environment. Texas A&M University Press, 2005.
DeAngelis, Therese and Gina. The Dust Bowl. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishers, 2002.
Hesse, Karen. Out of the Dust. Broadway, New York: Scholastic Press, 1997.
Stanley, Jerry. Children of the Dust Bowl. New York: Random House, Inc. 1992.

Websites:

Garrison, Mary Helen. “Harding County History.” Harding County, NM. http://www.hardingcounty.org/History/history.htm (May 14, 2009).
“Great Depression and World War II, 1929-1945: The Dust Bowl.” Library of Congress American Memory. http://memory.loc.gov/learn/features/timeline/depwwii/dustbowl/dustbowl.html (May 14, 2009).
“U.S. Geological Survey Eolian History of North America.” http://esp.cr.usgs.gov/info/eolian/task1.html (May 14, 2009).

The longest of long shots: Mine That Bird wins the Kentucky Derby.

2009-05-02T18:00:00.000-06:00

A sloppy track, a weak field, however you want to make excuses about the big guys, the fact is that a little horse from New Mexico won the Kentucky Derby. Mine That Bird's major upset is inspirational to some and devastating to others. He traveled to Churchill Downs in a van from New Mexico. Saturday, after what is probably America’s most famous race, the Kentucky Derby, with 153,563 people present, Mine That Bird stood in the winner’s circle, adorned by a blanket of roses. His odds in the betting pool were 50-1, making him the second longest shot in the race’s history, behind only a horse named Donerail who won at 91-1 in 1913. Will Mine That Bird run in the Preakness?

Santa Fe alert system.

2009-05-01T14:55:00.003-06:00

So the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Department is launching an Emergency Alert System. The free service allows county residents to get current neighborhood information on traffic delays, warnings on crime sprees, public safety alerts, news releases and flu updates. To sign up, go to http://www.santafesheriff.com/. You can choose to receive updates through email, text messages, or Twitter. Messages are categorized as countywide or area-specific. If you live in other states or counties, go to nixle.com.

Santa Fe air gets a clean bill of health.

2009-05-01T13:28:00.006-06:00

A new air quality report released by the American Lung Association has Santa Fe ranking among the 17 cleanest cities in the U.S. Chaves, Grants, Lea, San Juan and Santa Fe Counties ranked among the top cleanest counties for short term or 24 hour particle pollution, which comes from a variety of sources including dust storms, construction, mining, industrial emissions and vehicle emissons. Even wood burning stoves and agriculture fields put particles into the air that can, according to ALA, damage human health. The annual average level of particles worsened in 12 cities, including Bakersfield, CA--which took over the most polluted ranking from Los Angeles--and Houston, TX which this year moved into the list of the 25 cities most-polluted by particle pollution for the first time.

Fargo-Wahpeton, ND-MN emerged as the cleanest city in the U.S., the only city to appear on all three lists of cleanest cities. Seventeen cities appeared on two of the three lists of cleanest cities: Billings, MT; Bismarck, ND; Cheyenne, WY; Colorado Springs, CO; Farmington, NM; Ft. Collins, CO; Honolulu, HI; Lincoln, NE; Midland-Odessa, TX; Port St. Lucie, FL; Pueblo, CO; Redding, CA; Salinas, CA; San Luis Obispo, CA; Santa Fe-Espanola, NM; Sioux Falls, ND; and Tucson, AZ.

Our own family's anecdotal evidence: after ten days last summer that we spent in Southern California, we were all suffering from various levels of smog-induced discomfort because we're used to Santa Fe's clean air.

If you think you understand pollution, try these two quizzes.

A day at the Garden Fair.

2009-04-25T19:20:00.000-06:00

The Santa Fe Master Gardener Association held its fifth annual Garden Fair today at the county extension facility next to the Santa Fe Rodeo grounds. Santa Fe Greenhouses also helped sponsor the event. There were free lectures on heirloom tomatoes, container gardening; planting for pollinators and beneficial insects; growing your own vegetables; rose gardening; perma-culture ideas for home water harvesting; tree care; and medicinal use of native plants. There were some good kid activities, including what our older daughter termed Bean Art, and most importantly for L., firsthand knowledge about how to plant a seed, bring it to germination, and then to maturity. Following directions specific to the seed is very important.

E. likes trees in the crabapple family.

This display was timely, as E. enjoys making origami buckyballs. Everything is related, don't you know.

The best thing about fairs at the county extension is that most of the time, you can be outside.

Loved the Purple Adobe Lavender Farm exhibit, which consisted of...lots and lotsa lavender.

Everyone likes stone fountains, right?

We also chatted with Deborah Madison and picked up three copies (for friends) of her new book, What We Eat When We Eat Alone, which will officially be released on May 1.

Blessings from the Garden

May your garden bloom with joy.

May your life be full of peace.

May you be guided by gentle purpose.

May you have enough challenges to make life interesting

and friends, faith and family to give you comfort.

If you have a gardening question, ask a master gardener from Santa Fe, and you'll get a wise response.

National Parks near Santa Fe.

2009-04-24T09:49:00.001-06:00

You might say our family consists of extreme National Parks aficionados. Our kids love the Junior Ranger program. We always have a good (and educational time) at NP sites. Here are some previous links:

Support our National Parks. Please.

One of the best day trips from Santa Fe (Tsankawi).

What they left behind.

Bent's Old Fort National Historic Site. (also, in search on this blog, type in Bent's Old Fort for more pictures) or go to Judging From His Tracks.

Capulin Volcano National Monument.

You can see four states from here. (also Capulin)

El Malpais National Monument.

Travel in Malpais.

Great Sand Dunes.

And of course, Bandelier National Monument, near Los Alamos and always a wonderful day trip from Santa Fe. This is an NPS shot of the backcountry:

Here is information about the Junior Ranger Program.

By the way, Bandelier has a new superintendent: Jason Lott, who has been superintendent at Casa Grande Ruins National Monument in Arizona, was appointed Thursday at Bandelier. He won the NPS director's award for natural resource management in a small park in 2005 as program manager for resources management at Lyndon B. Johnson National Historical Park in Texas.

More to come on this subject. We'll discuss Pecos soon when we cover the subject of Greer Garson and Forked Lightning Ranch.

All photos on this page except the last two (credit:NPS) are by Patricia Lenihan.

No more half-day Fridays.

2009-04-23T13:46:00.001-06:00

Half-day Fridays at Santa Fe public elementary schools soon will be a thing of the past. The calendar for 2009-2010 approved this week by the school board eliminates the 12:30 pm dismissal. Students will also lose one holiday in the fall. This year's school year is 173 days long; next year it wll be longer, and then in 2010-2011 the school year will be 180 days.

The local cougar has been relocated.

2009-04-23T13:36:00.002-06:00

Mountain lions are also called cougars, panthers, catamounts, or pumas. They are larger than bobcats and one was one hanging out in our neighborhood until yesterday. We'll call her Carla. We'd heard neighbors say they spotted Carla and then today in the paper we read that Game Warden Desi Ortiz got a call that she was in a courtyard on Camerada Road.

Now, Carla ran away after the officer shot a tranquilizer dart but soon she was seen staggering into another courtyard about three houses from the initial contact. After a couple more tranquilizers and an absolute verification that Carla was snoozing, residents lent Mr. Ortiz a sheet to help place her in a bear cage on the Game and Fish truck.

After being examined by a wildlife veterinarian, Carla was taken to the Jemez Mountains and released. "I wanted to get her as far away from people as I could," Mr. Ortiz said. "She'll find a mate and she'll do fine." Carla is around three years old and healthy, and we wish her the best.

NB: In a sad postscript, it was determined the next day that Carla was far too comfortable around humans, and could become a danger, and so she was euthanized. I don't understand this.

Tip for Santa Fe visitors: see Galisteo. Soon.

2009-04-13T16:36:00.003-06:00

From our kitchen window we have a nice view of the Galisteo escarpment:

And when we want to take a trip to Madrid or Golden, we prefer driving the back way: Believe it or not, soon this wondrous unpaved pathway may be history if Tecton Energy drills for oil in the Galisteo Basin.

We feel very fortunate that this byway exists, and know you'd feel the same if you could see it too.

The Photo-Eye gallery in downtown Santa Fe recently presented an exhibit documenting how Galisteo looks now. You can see many of the photos online at the Galisteo Basin Photography Project. The project is intended to raise public awareness of what may be irretrievably lost if the Galisteo Basin—a unique area defined by the meandering 55-mile long Galisteo River, born in the Pecos Wilderness and completing its westward journey as it merges into the Rio Grande River on the tribal lands of Santo Domingo Pueblo—is allowed to become an oil and gas production field.

This photograph by Douglas Magnus is called "Impending Storm at Turquoise Hill."

This is "Galisteo Storm, Highway 41" by Greg MacGregor.

And "Joyeria, Galisteo Basin" is by Tony Bonanno. Sometimes you don't realize how beautiful something is until it's gone. We hope it won't be gone, but please don't say we didn't warn you.

Fifth Santa Fe Japanese Cultural Festival.

2009-04-11T17:38:00.001-06:00

My older daughter and I headed for the new Santa Fe Community Convention Center on Marcy Street this morning so that we could check out the Santa Fe JIN's (Japanese Intercultural Network) annual event. We also had never seen the new convention center.

It's a nice facility, a million times nicer than the old convention center that had grown rather seedy, but in the same location. Inside, the lighting is warm and the rooms are inviting.

The table that E. always likes had the manga and plush characters she was seeking. And manga books at two dollars each is, as you know, a good deal. E. named her new plush pal "Cake-San" because I believe he is inside a strawberry short cake. He is posing by a favorite new snack, Pocky sticks.

E's friend Milly is a little camera-shy:

Although Lucy wasn't at the center, she did contribute an origami carp pond along with her third grade class:

I was admittedly taken with that Pocky box. Japan still uses a pleasing aesthetic in designing is toys and kid's snacks packaging. Corporate yet thoughtfully presented. As opposed to just corporate.

The ceiling at the convention center is kind of pleasing. Not terribly high, soft lighting, and interesting business going on up there:

When you go outside, there are plenty of benches to meditate upon as a break from the crowds:

E. really enjoyed the festival, and we are pretty up on the new center.

Santa Fe locales.

2009-02-06T16:52:00.000-07:00

'Acoma Pueblo, New Mexico, (for TWA), 1935' is one of the photographic prints by Margaret Bourke-White on display at one of our favorite Santa Fe stops near the plaza, The Monroe Gallery of Photography, which specializes in classic black and white work. Both of these images are gelatin silver prints.

This is 'Hats in the Garment District, New York, 1930.'

A view from the road.

2009-02-04T09:27:00.000-07:00

On the way home from Albuquerque on Saturday, we had a minor debate in the car about whether or not, when coming upon the Sandias, this is an eyesore:

The Sandia Resort. View from I-25. An argument could be made that it looks like a minimum security prison. Does it fit in the landscape? The angle of the sun makes the shadow of our van look like a Sherman tank, so maybe it's all in your perspective.

There's also the Tramway (upper right) to contend with, although it's less obtrusive.

Birds and bans.

2009-02-04T09:22:00.001-07:00

The rufous hummingbird, which seems ubiquitous in our region of northern New Mexico, hasn't been able to avoid a 50 percent decline in its population in the past thirty years. The speedster hummingbird's decline has been documented by amateur birdwatchers across the U.S. who participate each year in the Great Backyard Bird Count. This year's count is Feb. 13-16.

The Randall Davey Audubon Center in Santa Fe is seeking birdwatchers to help with the count beginn at 8:15 am on February 14. The center also is hosting a series of bird classes from 6:30-8:30 pm beginning Feb. 18.

For more information go to the birdsource website.

The Newman Crows Landing Board of Education voted 4-1 on Monday night to remove the coming of age novel by New Mexican Rudolfo Anaya from the high school sophomore reading list because one parent complained that it is anti-Catholic and vulgar. The main character tries to reconcile his Roman Catholic faith with American Indian mysticism. The 1972 novel was on former first lady Laura Bush's must-read list and is the literature selection for this year's state high school Academic Decathlon competition. It was also chosen by the National Endowment of the Arts as part of the nationwide Big Read program.

The book has in the past been removed from classrooms in New Mexico, Colorado, Texas and California, and it was No. 75 on the American Library Association's list of most banned books in the 1990s.

Punxatawney Phil's cousins are worried.

2009-02-02T10:34:00.000-07:00

It may be a good day for groundhogs, but their prairie dog cousins aren't enjoying the same popularity. In what may be news to locals who see the critters quite a bit, the Gunnison's and black-tailed prairie dogs are in serious trouble in New Mexico. State wildlife officials aren't taking steps to conserve them, according to WildEarth Guardians. Unique to North America, prairie dogs play ecologically vital roles in grassland and sagebrush steppe habitats.

Two are protected under the Endangered Species Act: the Mexican and Utah prairie dogs. The other three – the black-tailed, Gunnison’s, and white-tailed prairie dogs – have been denied ESA protection by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Black-tailed prairie dogs once occupied 100 million acres within their historic range. In 2004, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimated only 1,894,000 acres still existed; that is a 98 percent loss of occupied habitat. Gunnison’s prairie dogs have lost 98 percent of occupied habitat, dwindling from 24 million acres to fewer than 500,000 acres in 2008.

Prairie Dog Rapture by Anthony Falbo. Photo: NPS.

Training the Railrunner.

2009-01-31T12:11:00.002-07:00

They say that at least fascist dictators make the trains run on time. Santa Fe exists as the polar opposite to this premise and in fact so does all of New Mexico. Thus, the new Railrunner Express between Santa Fe and Albuquerque that began running over the holidays quickly built a reputation that it may or may not get you anywhere as hinted at by the schedule. In fact, it was advised for a while that you bring a cooler and sleeping bag just in case because the hour-long trip might take half a day or so. The NM theme is "carpe mañana," which is an excellent way to live unless you need to get somewhere on a train.

So we didn't even MENTION the Railrunner Express between Albuquerque and Santa Fe until we started to feel confident about its schedule, and until a few related aspects were finally addressed. Well, now we're mentioning it because a new shuttle bus has begun making rounds of Santa Fe's downtown--so train passengers have a convenient way to get around once they step off the Railrunner Express.

"The Santa Fe Pick-Up" is free for anyone who wants to ride; the 15-passenger vans that ran from the shiny new Santa Fe Railyard depot since December 17 have been supplemented with three new 14-passenger GMC buses (like airport parking shuttles). So the overcrowding that was a problem over the holidays should no longer be a problem. Theoretically.

Stops: Capitol/PERA building, Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, the Main Library, City Hall, the Santa Fe Community Convention Center and the Eldorado/Hilton. Stops are marked "Pick It Up Here." The entire route takes 18 minutes.

The shuttle will drop off passengers at other places along the route if the driver judges that it is safe to stop. New routes and stops may be added. The shuttles, which are synchronized with the arrivals and departures of trains, will run from 6:30 am to 6:30 pm Monday through Friday and 7:30 am to 4:30 pm on Saturday.

Santa Fe came in first in something.

2009-01-29T17:51:00.000-07:00

The Santa Fe-Albuquerque region is "Not Ready for Digital," which makes it number one in the nation at twelve percent of households unprepared for the conversion from analog to digital television broadcasting. (Tenth is Sacramento-Stockton-Modesto at 7.3 percent of households unprepared.)

What does unprepared mean exactly? One of three things: without cable or satellite; without a post-2006 television; or without a digital converter box. The site to order the two $40 coupons for converter boxes is here, but there is now a waiting list. The program has already issued $1 billion worth of coupons.

The U.S. House of Representatives has defeated a bill to postpone the upcoming transition from by four months. House Republicans succeeded in defeating a bill to delay the transition-- scheduled for Feb. 17--less than two days after the Senate unanimously passed the plan. The defeat is another setback for the Obama administration and Democrats on Capitol Hill, who fear too many Americans are not ready for the switchover.

The Nielsen Co. estimates more than 6.5 million U.S. households that rely on analog television sets to pick up over-the-air broadcast signals could see their TV sets go dark next month if the transition is not postponed.

As the NY Times noted today, "That so many viewers here and around the coutnry risk losing something as basic as a free television signal is a function, at least in part, of the government's failure to anticpate that those most affected would be among the nations' most frail and vulnerable." Well, perhaps, but that doesn't explain the surprise the government now expressed at how many people, frail or not, need the vouchers in the first place.

Should Rio Grande Gorge bridge be a high priority?

2009-01-29T10:18:00.006-07:00

The Santa Fe New Mexican's somewhat unfortunate headline in the Local news section this morning was, "Gov. weighs in on Taos bridge," but the point is that he thinks engineers need to provide some solutions to prevent more suicide jumps from the 650-feet-high span. We visited the bridge a while back and it is definitely a place where people who tend to get dizzy should NOT go. In these budgetary shortfall days, should we allocate money to prevent an average of three people per year from jumping off? The bridge is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

This isn't good news for New Mexico mail delivery.

2009-01-28T16:51:00.003-07:00

Mail delivery in Santa Fe is already a source of anxiety for residents. We've had people call us to say they were misdelivered our mail and they aren't even in the same zip code. Today, we were misdelivered a letter to someone who shares the same house number...but not the same road. This is a common and almost accepted problem here. Well, the latest news from Washington won't help.

Asking lawmakers to lift the requirement that the United States Postal Service deliver mail six days a week, the postmaster general told Congress on Wednesday that massive deficits could--read this as "are likely to"--force USPS to cut out one day of mail delivery. And it won't necessarily be Saturday that is cut: studies have examined skipping some other day when mail flow is light. Such as Tuesday. "We will gladly delay past Tuesday your mail from today."

The post office was $2.8 billion in the red last year. USPS may experience a net loss of $6 billion fiscal year, according to testimony January 28 by the postmaster general for a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee. Total mail volume was 202 billion items last year--9 billion less than the year before, the largest single volume drop in history. And, despite annual rate increases, 2009 could be the first year since 1946 that the actual amount of money collected by the post office declines.

A whole day without sun.

2009-01-28T16:27:00.000-07:00

Today the sky is as blue as ever, but yesterday everything looked graaaay and blustery. When we traveled one exit on the interstate, about every 500 yards, there was a burst of sleet or hail. Because the weather is usually so blue, sunny, and temperate here, it's oddly refreshing when anything like this happens. Also, you can leave your sunglasses in the glove compartment.

Santa Fe Journal catches up on local buzz.

2009-01-28T16:03:00.003-07:00

Legislature fiddles while budgetary shortfall burns. We are on day 52 of the "long" 60-day session in the New Mexico legislature. What is the controversial issue of the day? House Speaker Ben Lujan will appoint a subcommittee to look into webcasting. Those legislators opposed to webcasting said it might be used for political purposes--for example, by showing legislators taking a nap. Rep. Ray Begaye, D-Shiprock, said, "They could use it if I'm sleeping, and I'm being recorded. It could be used as a political gain [by] my opponent.'' Sen. Carlos Cisneros, D-Questa, took a different angle on the fear of embarrassment. He noted that senators sometimes get tired and "say the wrong thing."

Excise tax blues: As the state seeks ways to come up with more money for the government, the Motor Vehicle Division is cracking down on excise tax collection. The state imposes a three percent excise tax on sales of new and used vehicles.

Here's the change: MVD hopes to double collections from $6 million this fiscal year to $12 million next year by making sure that used cards and trucks are properly taxed when they're sold. In the past, the seller could write in a price lower than what was paid for the vehicle or even report the price as zero. Now MVD will check the stated sales price against average prices for that model of car as reported by the National Automobile Dealers Association--the blue book. The state will assess the tax on the stated value of the sale or eighty percent of the so called blue book value, whichever is higher.

Red-light camera blues: By March or April, Santa Fe drivers will be fined for traffic infractions recorded by automated traffic-enforcement equipment.

The state has worked out a deal with Arizona-based RedFlex Traffic Systems. Here's how the cameras work.

Green light for Green Code: the Public Works Committee has recommended passage of an ordinance in Santa Fe establishing a Green Building Code. If other city committees approve, the matter could be before the City Council for hearings in March.

Green lectures: The Santa Fe Botanical Garden is offering design lectures beginning February 5 with a talk on hillside gardening. Admission is $3; the lectures take place at Selby Fleetwood gallery, 600 Canyon Road, from 5:30 to 7 pm. Email info at santafebotanicalgaarden.org for reservations.

Portal Program: The Museum of New Mexico has decided not to pursue the idea of charging fees to American Indian vendors using the Palace of the Governors portal, which has 70 available spaces. Here's a link to the Portal Program.

Santa Fe New Mexican Letter of the Day:

I support domestic partnership legislation and I ask that New Mexico legislators do the same. As a lifelong resident of New Mexico, it hurts me to know that there are loving families who are not recognized or protected by te state. There's no good reason for this. When I say I'm from New Mexico, I want people to know that I come from a state this is not only diverse, but is confident in its diversity, and more importantly, a state that does not cower from the responsibility to take care of all its gente. --Todd M. Lopez, Santa Fe

The first hearing for the Domestic Partner Rights & Responsibilities Act (Senate Bill 12) happens today. Check out Kate Nash's excellent Green Chile Chatter more information.

A pave, we mean pain, in the neck: A resolution from Councilor Patti Bushee says the state Department of Transportation's practice of applying a higher asphalt layer on driving lanes of state highways than to their shoulders leaves a raised edge of pavement that can deflect a bike's front wheel and cause a crash when the cyclist tries to merge from shoulder into traffic. This extra layer of asphalt leads many bicyclists to ride in the traffic lane, which is its own kind of dangerous. New Mexico is one of the few states that still uses this method of paving.

Santa Fe Style Department

Bulletin Board Announcement of the Day to Help Perpetuate the Idea that Santa Fe Lives By Crystals, Tarot, and Aromatherapy:

"Discover which tarot archetypes are constellating in your personal field for 2009 and how you can best align with them." For women only. January 28, 6:30 to 8:30 at the Santa Fe Public Library - 2nd floor in the Pick Room. For further details, check out the Santa Fe Tarot Tribe website.

Our favorite new word is "constellating."

Shh.

2008-12-09T22:11:00.005-07:00

Santa Fe came in second on Sperling's annual Best Places to Live index. On the one hand, we totally agree. On the other, we're not sure how we feel about reminding people about our town. There's always a chance that the more it develops, the less like an insanely foreign place this will seem. We like the insanely foreign part.

Image credit: Doreman Burns.

A pumpkin's progress.

2008-09-13T16:33:00.002-06:00

And below, practicing the high-fly-ball catch.

Our California vacation.

2008-08-30T19:56:00.016-06:00

Yes, for ten entire days, we ventured out of Santa Fe. We took our vacation in July; we hadn't been on a real vacation for several years, but when California decided that it would treat all people equally under the law and end discrimination against gay marriage, as positive reinforcement my partner of 27 years and I decided that the state of California is where we should drop some serious tourist dollars.

We took the Amtrak train from Lamy, NM with our two children to Fullerton, California. We visited Anaheim, San Clemente, Irvine, and San Diego. We went to the San Diego Comic Book Convention; Disneyland; Sea World; and the last game played by the women's Olympic softball team before they headed to Beijing. We also got married. As Shelly's dad said, after 27 years we hope it will last. But that's for another post.

Here are some of our pictures from California. (Above is a view from the scenic lounge car on Amtrak's Southwest Chief.)

The Comic Con was an overpopulated city of a place. We were very happy when my daughter found a familiar face, the wonderful comic artist Ryan Claytor, whom we had met during his tour through Santa Fe. He's talented and also extremely nice. E. loves his books and art. He was also kind enough to look at some of her work and made an impression with his suggestion to work on the concept of the establishing shot. We attended panels; walked through the fifty thousand vendor displays; watched people dressed as characters, such as the original Starship Enterprise bunch, as they wandered around hoping to be photographed; looked at the lines at portfolio review; and came away thinking: wow...that event is just plain Too Big.

Here's the San Diego County Clerk's Office. The people who work here couldn't be nicer and more helpful. We found that as a whole, San Diegans are laid back, polite, efficient, and a pleasure to deal with.
We also spent three days, yes three days, and yes we survived, at Disneyland. More about that below.

This is the "vending machine" at the Monsters, Inc. ride. Sugar, Salt and Fat and Blort were our favorites.

Here I am with Lucy on the morning of...oh no, wait, that's just how I felt. The picture is actually of a character named Max, who is either the nephew or son of Goofy. Lucy is holding Pluto. I kept getting the two confused but really, you shouldn't do that. To kids, they are infinitely different.

One of the excellent amusements is a session with Disney animators. Our older daughter enjoyed this very much.

This is a restaurant in Frontierland. It is kind of neat how everything in Disneyland is colorful, well tended, and clean. A person could get used to that; it's a bit troubling when you reenter the real world.

But we didn't do that for a while.

The Tower of Terror. A little advice.

2008-08-30T19:47:00.006-06:00

Ok, here's the Tower of Terror. This is by far the most effective scary ride that we tried during the whole Disney experience. The effects are excellent; the "cast" is excellent; even the wait is scary. Very well done. But if you don't like the thought of being dropped four stories down an elevator shaft, and things like that, maybe don't visit this one.

Here Lucy play acts terror in the "hotel" "lobby." Little did we know that soon enough, we'd be about this terrified in reality. ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK. And when the "elevator operator" says, "any last requests?" this is the request you should make: LET ME OFF THIS FRICKEN RIDE.

Here, all safe and sound, Lucy cools off on a Waverunner.

Main Street, USA.

2008-08-30T19:16:00.006-06:00

We will admit that we kind of liked Main Street, USA. Here is Lucy with The Mick.

Frequent water breaks are a necessity. You see how clean everything is on Main Street?

It was rather challenging for the Disney characters to sign autographs. My main question is, why would you want autographs from people in character suits? This slowed down the proceedings quite a bit. However, we were lucky that Lucy met her favorite character....

...Pluto!

We sat right in the front of the double decker bus, top row, so we had a very good view of Main Street goings-on and the Disneyland Castle.

California Adventureland.

2008-08-30T19:00:00.012-06:00

The California Adventureland park is right across the plaza from Disneyland, and it's a good alternative when you get weary, for there never seems to be as much of a crowd. To wander back and forth betwen the two you need a "Park Hopper" pass, and it's well worth it. Lucy's favorite meal was at Ariel's Grotto, because she got to meet all the Disney princesses. They came right to the table and talked to her, which she enjoyed a great deal. There was a supernice fellow near us, visiting with his daughter, and he took some pictures and emailed them to me; I'll post them shortly. Lucy probably liked Ariel the best. I'm not sure you can go to Disneyland with an eight year old and NOT do the Princess Lunch or Dinner.

Lucy also liked the Blue Bayou, but to be honest it was my least favorite (and most expensive) restaurant. Especially if you are seeking kid food or gluten free food, the best alternatives are Zocalo's, Red Rocket Cafe, Ariel's Grotto, and the restaurant at the Grand Californian Hotel.

Look at the people in the orange seats on this California Screamin' ride.

Do you see that simmering water being sprayed on the tracks? It's because the poor souls in the orange seats have been whiplashed away so fast it's impossible to get a picture of their departure. Just think of that spray as their remains. Emma and I watched this thing launch several times because we couldn't believe anyone would actually CHOOSE to ride it. I believe the sensation we experienced while watching them is called schadenfreude.
The Electrical Parade is also at Adventureland. It's pretty; can be mesmerizing; and it's oh so environmentally incorrect. We live in a community outside Santa Fe where people don't even shine their porch lights up, or too brightly, and you can see infinite stars, and sometimes the Milky Way galaxy. So coming from zero light pollution, to experience all this night light was an interesting experience, almost like visiting another planet.

While E. and S. were riding the Zephyr (below), Lucy became quite a good shot at this water cannon.

Evening falls. And people fall too, on that tall parachute drop thingy on the right. Again...why?

Lucy and I watched Shelly and Emma ride the California Zephyr. That's them on the left, in the front row. It was a very pretty sight.

2008-08-30T18:47:00.009-06:00

The Dumbo ride was in place when Disneyland first opened in 1953, and there are plenty of reminders at the park of good old Dumbo's iconic status.

Lucy loved the Dumbo ride, but in fact we all did; the sensation of flying, the gentle motion and calming speed, the quiet above the park activity, makes for one of the must-dos of any visit.

The Main Street parade is worth seeing, too. We had just come out of Frontierland and there was the Disney Parade. We were lucky that we happened upon it.

This float stopped and the dancers from the Broadway play Lion King stopped and sang The Circle of Life.

One of the rides we used to cool off was Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters, as you could use the Fastpass to get in, and the A/C was always at full tilt. The Fastpass is an excellent thing. Mmm hm. Turned out that we did well at the Toy Story ride, which has a similar premise to this one...shooting at objects...but the Buzz Lightyear version is older and so this one maybe kind of eluded us. Emma got the highest score in here. We recommend both rides, but the Toy Story ride (not this one; sorry I didn't take pictures there) ended up being our favorite Disneyland experience, other than the interactive movie with Crush from Finding Nemo.

This was pretty early in the morning, after we emerged from the Finding Nemo submarine ride (you can see one of the subs in the background). Do NOT go on this ride if you have even a trace of claustrophobia.

The girls found plenty of Penny Squishers on Main Street, and greatly added to their collection. Other than two small stuffed animals, these were the only souvenirs they showed interest in at Disneyland. whew

My garden.

2008-08-10T20:19:00.008-06:00

Dear Grandma, I took all these pictures today. They're all of the plants in my garden.

This is my bushiest green bush. I like the green of it.

My flowering one that grows yellow flowers.

These are my other plants and my pumpkins on the right.

These little bushes have white flowers and I like these rocks. PS I weeded by the rocks.

My trees have grown very tall.

This is our playhouse. I was holding the camera a little crooked when I took this. I like to play in the house, in the sand, and the best is to climb on the roof. Love, Lucy

Santa Fe is the fourth healthiest hometown.

2008-08-06T16:20:00.005-06:00

Says the AARP, anyhow, as the Association selects Santa Fe as the fourth healthiest town for retirees. Well, Santa Fe makes a lot more sense as a choice than others on the list, such as number one Ann Arbor, Michigan or number three Madison, Wisconsin, for instance. Who wants to be that cold? Ever? Although I'm not exactly sure that calling Santa Fe "the potteryest" place on earth is a big plus.

Lucy at work.

2008-08-03T20:38:00.002-06:00

Dear Grandma, I have been weeding out back this morning with my gardening gloves, my headkerchief and my hat, pulling each weed separately. We were gone for ten days on a vacation to California. During that vacation, some weeds sprouted up again. So this morning I started picking them with my weeding equipment. Don't sprout up again, weeds! Signed, Lucy.
PS I mean that, weeds!

For Grandma, from Lucy.

2008-08-02T21:19:00.004-06:00

Dear Grandma and Tati, I was really excited when I saw that I had a green little pumpkin, and that's why I called you. It's my first food I see that's really coming up. I like the green shade.

I thought you'd like to see some flowers. I think they're doing very well. I like how I can really see the bloom of them. xxx ooo Lucy

We stopped in San Clemente...

2008-07-31T13:52:00.008-06:00

...where Lucy liked the green green grass almost as much as blue waves of the Pacific.

Remember, I said almost.

E. had mixed feelings. Maybe she's like her parents . . . more city-oriented and mountain-crazed.

We visited San Clemente to walk on the pier and see the Pacific Ocean. This is a town populated by vacationers and surfer dudes and dudettes, so the people are more laid back than in Irvine, where we saw the softball game. But by far, we found that no town was friendlier than San Diego.

Sea World was a wonderful experience for all of us.

2008-07-31T13:26:00.008-06:00

Here comes Corky. This Orca is 40 years old, and during the main Shamu show, the trainers make a point of thanking Corky for training them to interact with whales.

And yes, there's plenty to see . . . the kids enjoyed the Arctic experience, the penguins, the puffins, the dolphins. But we were able to snag ringside seats for . . . Shamu.

Usually I'm snapping photos right and left but being mesmerized by beautiful Shamu and friends slowed me down, and I only remembered to take some towards the end . . . and even that wasn't easy, because these guys move fast! Suffice to say we loved this experience and highly recommend it.

This is the Sham Slam...he can splash people up to sixteen rows away.

The trainers have a mystical connection with the whales, there's no doubt about it.

They swim and nuzzle.

Here one trainer offers a treat after the event.

Emma and Lucy's grandpa John, 1932-2008.

2008-07-31T00:02:00.007-06:00

Road to the Sun by Jan Johnson, Wakefield, Nebraska, from quiltart.com

Emma and Lucy's grandfather kept to himself, mostly. A successful businessman in the 70's and 80's, John settled into retirement with his wife Lois in the Denver area.

He passed away last Friday at age 76. Although I didn't know him well, I admired that he was not a judgmental person. He was dignified, smart and articulate. He was succinct. And he loved baseball.

During our last visit this May, while watching the Rockies we talked some about how baseball games seem to take longer--certainly moreso than I remember back when my family watched the Mets. I know vaguely that Bud Selig took steps to shorten the games but still, on television at least, the games seem longer to me. In response to this observation John simply said, "It's this," and made a motion of putting on gloves.

Well, good point. It's that. Every time a batter steps in and out of the batter's box, he adjusts and readjusts those darned gloves. A statistical study might prove that this sartorial addition has lengthened the game considerably. Since baseball people like stats, maybe it's called the Glove Adjustment Timespan Index. If John were here, I could ask him. Because he'd know.

When he told a story, he brought his experiences to life. Take this tale about Vernon Decatur Stephens, Jr., for instance. John kept vintage baseball cards of this player framed on the wall of his den. If you read the story, you'll see...visiting the big stadium from a small hometown...the lineup...the anticipation...Junior being gracious. Yes, that captures what baseball is about. When true grit and human nature and flaws and skill combine for memorable times.

Godspeed and green fields, John.

His soul is in the sky
The angels reached from heaven down
And took him on the fly.
from the Brooklyn Eagle, unknown author, 1883

Morning pumpkin flower.

2008-07-18T08:19:00.000-06:00

Tended and photographed by Lucy.

International Folk Art Market.

2008-07-13T23:12:00.016-06:00

Today our older daughter accompanied her friend Millie's family to the Fifth International Folk Art Market on Museum Hill. The girls picked up "passport" booklets for stamps from artists of different countries. But the kids also decided to obtain signatures of some of their favorite folk artists...the result seems almost like folk art in itself. This event started relatively small five years ago, and has grown immensely. The Market is now the largest of its kind in the world. We think it may soon rival Indian Market. That's our story and we're stickin' to it.

One hundred juried artists from 39 countries (Rwanda to El Salvador to Turkmenistan) were represented this year. In addition to booths filled with silver jewelry from Bolivia, felt rugs from Kyrgyzstan, tribal garments from China, ceramics from France, and so on, the girls said there was plenty of exotic food and live entertainment, including mariachi bands and Chinese Dragon Dancers.

This is the passport:

And here are some pages:

Fire in the sky.

2008-06-26T18:00:00.002-06:00

But not smoke, not this time. The sunsets are especially beautiful here in the summer. The air seems ablaze when you look through that portal on the lower right.

A summer game.

2008-06-24T09:46:00.007-06:00

A little over an hour's drive from here is where the Triple A affiliate plays...the Albuquerque Isotopes. The best way to enjoy baseball (in terms of crowds, prices, interaction with players, you name it) is through the minor league games.

It's a scaled-down version of the insanity that is Major League Baseball. The players are very pleasant.

Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.

2008-06-08T22:36:00.005-06:00

We've always wanted to visit the Great Sand Dunes when Medano Creek is flowing. This year, we managed perfect timing.

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We took a hike first thing in the morning, approaching the creek on foot rather than taking the car. Medano Creek peaked on June 2 with an excellent flow of 50 cubic feet per second. As of June 7, according to the Creek Conditions portion of the park's website, flow had dropped significantly to 31 cfs. Unless rain comes, the flow will probably continue to decrease until around mid-July when the creek may retreat back toward the mountains.

Taking the NPS oath.

2008-06-08T22:27:00.005-06:00

The girls both decided (without prompting from earnest parents) to learn about the dunes, the creek, and the mountains so that they could become Great Sand Dunes Junior Rangers.

Rockies vs. Mets at Coors Field.

2008-05-26T12:51:00.010-06:00

Denver is about a six hour drive from Santa Fe. For baseball, we can drive 1 hour and 15 minutes to see the Albuquerque Isotopes (Triple A), or six hours to Coors Field, or lotsa hours to Tucson (Hi Corbett Field or Tucson Electric Park, spring training). On this day, while visiting family in Denver, we went to see the Mets lose to the Rockies. Nevertheless, we had a wonderful day at the ballpark; we watched Aaron Cook pitch a complete game and Seth Smith hit the first home run of his career. And as Lucy said, this was the very first time she got to see the Mets in person. Although she didn't get to see Mr. Met, she high-fived Dinger...er...the purple mascot below.

Garden of the Gods.

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The Garden of the Gods is a worthwhile stop in the Colorado Springs area. Great climbing potential, too.

The girls found a penny squishing machine...

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...rather unexpectedly at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.

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Views from yesterday evening's walk...

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...up to the paved road and back.

The Eldorado Studio Tour, 2008.

2008-05-18T17:27:00.007-06:00

This was such a beautiful day, especially after yesterday's rain, that we greatly enjoyed embarking on the annual Eldorado art studio tour.

Jennifer Moore, weaver.

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This artist works with handwoven and hand-dyed silk scarves and stoles. Moore says that when it comes to color, she enjoys the full spectrum--the rainbow.

Darcy Gray, contemporary oils and collage.

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Darcy Gray works in different media and our daughter found her to be truly engaging about her approach to art. Emma also liked that she is welcoming about perceptions of her work that may or may not be close to what she intended.

We learned that the artist has been painting since about 1990; that she likes to work with pink, orange, and soft sunset colors; and has been influenced by the work of Cy Twombly, an American abstract impressionist painter.

When Darcy Gray describes her work it becomes clear that she is interested in exploring texture, as she puts paint on and takes it off, maintains undercoats, and sometimes embeds objects into her painting, such as oleander leaves. She also works in collage. Gray used to say that she worked in pencil as well, but learned from other artists that the proper word to use is graphite.

Debra Meyer, book artist.

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When asked what made her choose this type of art as a form of expression, Debra Meyer said that she casually took a class five years ago at Santa Fe Community College and the experience stoked her interest in book art. Meyer also has taken sumi-e with Karen Fitzsimmons.

When combined with acute powers of observation that make the most of all that she sees (and sometimes photographs) in nature, the result is truly beautiful book art and stationery.

Our daughter asked, "what are your favorite colors to use?" and the artist replied, "Purple, new green, turquoise, and earth colors."

Karen Fitzsimmons, sumi-e artist and teacher.

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This painter and teacher of sumi-e lives in a most peaceful setting and her home is an excellent example of east meets southwest. "I first went to Japan in 1972 and soon began my study of Sumi-i...over the years, I have returned to Japan many times to continue my studies. We work on traditional paper made from various plant fibers and use ink sticks made of burnt pine or oil soot with the addition of a glue. The ink is ground on a stone with water.... The brushes are also different from our western ones in the way they are put together to achieve different possibilities."

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Karen Fitzsimmons, according to our daughter, "is one of those artists that when you see a piece of her art, it's nice and then when you see another, it's even nicer, and it just goes on and on."

Lucian and Joan Niemeyer, fine art color photography.

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We share an interest in the eastern shore of Maryland, especially Chestertown, with the Niemeyers, who also have chosen to settle in Santa Fe.

When we lived in Chestertown, everyone seemed to have the book Chesapeake Country on their coffee tables.

Our daughters are very taken with their parrot, Pepe.

Guess who is now 8 years old?

2008-05-11T18:03:00.000-06:00

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A day at Isotopes Park.

2008-05-05T22:03:00.006-06:00

We all greatly enjoyed a trip from Santa Fe to Albuquerque today to see the Isotopes (the farm team for the Florida Marlins) play the Tucson Sidewinders (farm team for the Arizona Diamondbacks). Beautiful day, comp seats behind home plate from a kindhearted reader of my baseball blog, hot dogs, ice cream, and to boot our youngest got to race Orbit the 'Topes mascot around the bases in the first inning.

Is the first base coach checking his cell phone?

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After supper in Santa Fe.

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So, if we have the portal door open at just the right angle, we can work at the computer AND throw the tennis ball for Pepper at the same time. After about fifty chases, he settles down and goes from Best Fetcher on Earth to Most Content Pup on Earth.

Signs of spring.

2008-04-19T22:43:00.003-06:00

Atmospheric changes. Colorful sunsets. This evening's was not possible to fully capture with my camera. But after waking up to a snowy day on Thursday, yesterday was lovely and mild, and today clinches the true arrival of spring in Santa Fe.

Where to stay in Santa Fe. Then, take a walk.

2008-04-16T22:26:00.007-06:00

Based on our recent non-chain choices of places to stay when we visit other regions, we think you might want to look into staying at the El Rey Inn when you're here in Santa Fe. The location is good, and even though it's off of busy Cerrillos Road, there are five pretty lush looking acres of land and Spanish-influenced architecture for you to hide away in during your stay. We aren't affiliated with the El Rey Inn, but there seem to be a growing number of travelers who (like us) are turning away from impersonal chains in favor of locally-run, clean, 1950s-style motor courts on Route 66 as places to stay. This looks to be a good option if you are one of those travelers. If we were visiting, we'd sure try it.

By the way, Santa Fe has been recognized as New Mexico's top city for walkers and was rated (2008) as one of the top 100 walking cities in America by Prevention magazine and the American Podiatric Medical Association. Our town came in at 22 from a survey of 500 American towns. More than 300 days of annual sunshine and a compact downtown area were factors. Santa Fe was also voted as best town in New Mexico for walking, and we made the top ten list of greatest number of parks per square mile.

Santa Fe Brawlers unleashed.

2008-04-13T19:49:00.008-06:00

Uncle Dan and Aunt Barbara invited the girls to an appearance of the Santa Fe Brawlers, a new local roller derby team, at the College of Santa Fe. One of the team members is Sami, who works as an archaeologist for the National Park Service. This is an interesting moonlighting choice. The derby was completely surreal but also kind of cool once we figured out what was going on.

Here is the MySpace page for the Santa Fe Brawlers. "Kung Fu Fighting" apparently is their theme song. All righty then!

Bienvenidos a Nogales.

2008-04-08T11:25:00.018-06:00

When we were in Tucson--an eight-hour drive from Santa Fe--last month, my nephew Brendan, a Border Patrol agent, took us to Nogales, Arizona (pop. 20,000) and into Nogales, Sonora (pop. 250,000). We parked the car at one of the lots on the American side ($4 a day), walked a few blocks, strolled through a gateway and checkpoint, and reached another country. A cacophonous, somewhat dirty country, with lots of people beseeching us to buy something, with what used to be known as "cripples" begging, with children begging. It's quite an unsettling experience, and certainly was for our kids. But we were with my other half, who has been twice to cities in China, and she began to bolt away. We followed her lead.

Within minutes we were past the Avenida Obregon area and into a section exponentially less fetid and quieter. The further we walked, the better it got. We recognize that it is only a border town, it is not Mexico. The difference as we went in a little further was the people. And this is what makes us sure that we will go back for a real visit.

In the town itself, I didn't have my camera, for once, and so I was able to concentrate on walking and looking around, rather than taking pictures. I liked that. There were lots of carts and burros, mostly for the tourists. We walked through a shaded alley that seemed friendly and pleasant, where our seven-year-old wanted to buy a wooden turtle. The seller was not pushy and had a gentle face. The turtle cost a dollar. Lucy clutched it for the remainder of our journey in the town, like a little security trinket.

The occasional zocalos, or squares, with a bit of shade or near a church, were the nicest locales. Eventually we found a modest but clean and well-tended restaurant, Las Marias, and the proprietor, a woman in her late forties, apparently took a shine to us, for we were treated like royalty. Everyone ate (homecooked food, including the tortilla chips) for nine dollars plus tip. My nephew, who speaks idiomatic Mexican/Spanish, found out the place really gets hopping at about two a.m., and said he might even go back.

When we began to return toward the U.S., the border fence loomed large on the hillside. It really is unsightly and almost embarassingly unfriendly. The queries of "You need some sunglasses?" and "Rolex watches aqui!" and "Fotografia con burro!" increased as we headed towards what relentless graffiti in Spanish all along the fence calls "a scar upon the land."

Before reentering the U.S., we had to stand in line for about twenty minutes. The Mexican people in front of and behind us were very cordial. One man was taking his son up to the border, where the boy was to go through on a return to school in Tucson. He looked sad. A very pretty young girl with kind eyes told Brendan that she has a resident permit and is working toward citizenship.

When we reached the checkpoint and were asked if we had anything to declare, Lucy placed her little turtle--about the size of a watch face--on the customs table for inspection. The agent, a woman, smiled broadly at its comical tininess and said, "That's it, huh?" She waved us through. For Americans, it's that easy. Brendan told us about his experiences chasing people who are trying to cross into the U.S. The agents have night vision goggles, they have batons and guns. What they don't have is sheer determination, adrenaline, and fear. He's dealt with drug runners. And he has retrieved bodies of young women still holding their babies in their arms.

Is the answer a high wall, but a wide gate? How will that work? The matter is not a simple one and you're kidding yourself if you think it is. We sure don't have the answers, and we do understand that there must be rules and limits--but it wasn't the Mexican side that felt hostile, unwelcoming, fearful, and offputting. I went in with some hostility myself, and many certainties, and came out with a heavy heart.

Eddie Izzard at the Lensic in Santa Fe.

2008-04-04T16:43:00.009-06:00

Took E. last night to see one of her faves, Eddie Izzard, in a show at the Lensic Theater in Santa Fe. It's difficult to describe his comedy; he is a British, dyslexic, (sometimes) cross-dressing stand-up artist who discusses history, religion, and the world around us in a whimsical, unique way. For instance, tonight he talked about: the Stone Age; the Spartans; dinosaurs; giraffes and the Eiffel Tower; Stonehenge; why Latin is a dead language; the Bible, portraying God and Jesus at various stages of creation; and countless other topics. He uses R-rated language sometimes, but in an oddly innocent way, and his diatribes are brilliant, literate, and ultimately moral. You may not notice this because you will be laughing so hard you might need oxygen. He is doing one more show tonight at the Lensic. His "Stripped" tour dates seem to begin in earnest on April 28, so we are pleased that we had the chance to see him at a smaller venue right here in Santa Fe.

Battle of Glorieta Pass.

2008-03-29T18:20:00.014-06:00

Today at Forked Lightning Ranch near Pecos National Monument, we witnessed the 146th anniversary of the Battle of Glorieta Pass, the bold Confederate offensive into Union territory on the western frontier. Many Civil War scholars see this battle, which occurred March 26-28, 1862, as an important turning point in the Civil War as Confederate forces had to retreat back into Texas, destroying hopes of a Confederate States of America that included the west. The timing of the event was particularly good for us, as next week we begin homeschool study of the Civil War and the role of figures such as Clara Barton.

I am no fan of the Civil War industry....As a former armored cavalry platoon leader in Vietnam, I recoil against any attempt to render war attractive—the Civil War, the Vietnamese war, any war; and particularly as regards the perverse spectacle called re-enactment, I remain absolutely clueless as to why grown people, all their attestations about "living history" notwithstanding, would want to dress up in period uniforms and go out for weekends of mock-battle where between bouts of sleeping in soggy bedrolls and grim repasts of sowbelly and hardtack, they pretend to maim and slaughter each other. Ted Turner et al. at Gettysburg; or, Re-Enactors in the Attic, Philip D. Beidler, Virginia Quarterly Review, Summer 1999

But notwithstanding some perplexity we may have, the reenactment made for a memorable day. We attended a talk about Civil War medicine and had a chance to speak with reenactors who had really done their research. Everything from knapsacks to haversacks to canteens to brogans to regimental bands to field artillery were spot on.

Map from AmericanCivilWar.com

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In addition to firing the 12 pound Mountain Howitzer (which I didn't photograph because the ground shook my camera each time) there was a black powder demonstration of single and in-line riflery. This was particularly interesting to the girls because of the noise, smells, earthshaking, and smokiness. Multiply this by thousands to imagine the actual moments of battle.

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Everything was unusually un-dorky for a reenactment, if you ask me. Sometimes these events can be disturbingly inaccurate to Civil War buffs. But the people were serious and knowledgable, the day was perfect, and take a look at the reenactors' faces. They put a lot of feeling into this. We give the experience two thumbs up. Thank you, NPS!

Pecos National Monument.

2008-03-29T18:07:00.004-06:00

Since we were right nearby, we also stopped at the wonderful Pecos national historic site. We had a good guide because Uncle Dan is a park ranger. L. was a little apprehensive about climbing down into the ceremonial kiva, but with help from mom and Uncle Dan, once she got the hang of it, of course we had to find a few more to climb into.

2008-03-29T17:34:00.001-06:00

Our visit to Tucson...

2008-03-28T22:59:00.002-06:00

...showed us a very different town from Santa Fe. It is a sprawling city and we were fortunate to be anchored near the University of Arizona, our kind of neighborhood. The altitude is great--about 5,000 feet lower than our town--but the heat was already picking up in March. It was nearly an eight-hour drive from Santa Fe to Tucson.

We stayed in a pretty, refurbished old house...

2008-03-28T22:56:00.003-06:00

...in a nice neighborhood called Old Pueblo. The girls liked sitting on the porch and also taking long walks. It was good to have a kitchen, privacy, and the ability not to drive everywhere. I just don't think we're hotel people anymore. And neither are we VW van people. This is a perfect alternative.

The Old Pueblo Trolley...

2008-03-28T22:54:00.002-06:00

...ran right in front of the house where we were staying. The girls loved the sound clickety clack as it went by.

Rockies spring training.

2008-03-28T22:50:00.002-06:00

On March 25, we saw the Rockies play the White Sox during the last week of spring training at Hi Corbett Field. Really, how can anyone not love baseball? I ask you.

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Hi Corbett is a very pleasant field, and we had great seats, but boy! It gets hot in the midday sun. And both the Rockies and White Sox were wearing black. The trio (the one on the upper left, that is) sang the national anthem. Do you see the people with hands on hearts in the stands?

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Clint Hurdle gave the umpires What For a couple of times, but it didn't help, because the Rockies lost 5-2 to the White Sox.

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I liked that several of the players were particularly nice to kids about signing autographs. Brian Fuentes pretty much only interacted with kids; Jeff Francis was very patient even as he was besieged by them. This nicely offset the rather creepy presence of older men with lots of cards and memorabilia that they wanted the Rockies to sign. Eww.

The Wildlife Center.

2008-03-20T20:12:00.006-06:00

Sorry for the posting delay! We were laid low for an entire week by something that closely resembled the flu. Yesterday we took advantage of all the beautiful spring weather we've been having to visit The Wildlife Center. The center rehabilitates injured or hunted animals and either helps reintroduce them into the wild or keeps them safe if they are unable to return to a natural habitat due to an injury or due to being messed up by contact with humanity. The animals are cared for lovingly in a beautiful setting, so don't let the cages depress you. The eagle is Maxwell and the Barred Owl is Rayado. Our second grader was able to do a very good report on raptors after visiting these little guys.

2008-02-23T21:05:00.002-07:00

Well, we did get some snow...enough for a little playtime, not enough for snowshoes. It was entirely melted by late afternoon. But overall our youngest daughter deemed it Good. That multilegged snow monster is our Dogz.

2008-02-22T00:06:00.001-07:00

This morning there was an inch of snow on the ground, and this afternoon it had warmed up, but the sky was up to some hijinks.

Seeking snow.

2008-02-18T15:49:00.004-07:00

Weather People keep saying "a storm is comin' " and with memories of last year's unexpected 27 inch snowfall we hunker down and then nothing happens. This last storm, the radar was like a donut, with Santa Fe at the clear center. Hello? Precipitation? It's good the mountains are getting plenty, but the kids want to try out the snowshoes they got for Christmas.

Hillary Clinton wins New Mexico...

2008-02-14T15:22:00.002-07:00

...and NM Democratic Party Chairman Brian Colon almost causes CNN veteran newsman "to slip into a coma" because it takes him so long to read the results. As our 12-year-old pointed out, a baby stacking blocks could have counted the votes faster and announced the results more swiftly.

Gung Hay Fat Choy.

2008-02-10T20:55:00.001-07:00

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Emma helps cook potstickers.

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