Road trip and God's Grace

 One of our family's favorite weekend activities is taking road trips.  Most people reading this think of a road trip as a pleasant drive along some scenic highway, looking at the trees and livestock grazing in green fields. Maybe you stop at a 'scenic overlook' to view a sight of historical significance or special beauty. After a couple hours, you might stop for dinner at a pretty little restaurant off the beaten path, then drive straight back home.

Not the Howe Family.

On Saturday we took a road trip-- Notah, Kerra, Seth, me and our honorary uncle, Pat Smith.  Somewhere south of Socorro Notah chose a side road at random. It was almost non-existent.  We followed it for maybe a half mile and it literally ended at a deep wash.. 

"We'll go up the road a little ways and there'll be a connecting road to bring us back around." Notah said. 

Yeah, OK.

We did go up the road a ways and we did find another road, somewhat better than the first..  You see it here.

Not too bad as New Mexico roads go...not the best either, but it promised adventure.  The problem was that after a ways, it turned into this....

 

 

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And the next thing we knew, here was Notah looking for the road.

 

He was disappointed at the direction it took so he justc turned off the road across desert, over sage brush,  small dead trees, humps of grass, washes, low places and dead.  We bounced all over the truck. I cracked my head on the ceiling. The three in the back seat yelled. Things flew off the console and we came up on the other side of the bump. 

And then there was this long ominous hiss....like the sound of opening a soda bottle.

 

Now THAT's a puncture!

 

Okay.  Flat tire.  Everybody has had a flat tire once in their life.  The difference was, this flat tire was in the desert, probably five miles from the nearest hard road, eight or so from the highway and another thirty from a town with even a gas station.  I'm guessing here;  my estimation of mileage is shaky at best and I'm writing this on Monday when Notah is at work so I can't check with him.  You get the idea anyway.  We were in the middle of nowhere.

 Changing a tire in the desert is an Experience.  First, the truck was sitting is soft earth.  Jacking it up required that stones be placed under the base of the jack to make a firm surface.  Otherwise the jack just sinks into the sand instead of raising the truck.  ( I didn't help with this tire change, but I have with others.)  Notah sent Kerra off to find flat stones.  He sent Seth back and forth to the bed of the truck, bringing tools and sending them back.

 The most difficult part of the whole process was removing the nice little lugnut caps  put on for decorative value.  They been spun on with a pneumatic wrench and wouldn't move.  I don't know how long Notah spent with a screwdriver and a hammer loosening them up.  I don't know if they will ever be decorative again.

When the little caps were off and the lugnuts loosened, of course, the wheel had to come off, which required more jacking and more stones to support the jack.  Because of the soft soil, Notah and Pat worried continually about the truck slipping off the jack.   One of them came up with the idea of slipping the old tire and wheel under the frame so that if the jack did slip while they struggled with getting the spare on, the truck wouldn't fall on anyone but would be caught by the wheel.
Another difficulty, that anyone who has changed a tire knows, is that when the flat tire comes off, the axle isn't high enough to get the spare on!  More worrying about getting the truck jacked high enough to do that.  It isn't a problem when the vehicle is sitting on concrete or pavement; it's a different story when it's sitting in the middle of the desert. Eventually either Pat or Notah came up with the idea of letting the truck stay at the height it was and digging out under the tire.   That worked.

 The tire was back on. They released the jack.  That old wheel they'd shoved under the frame to catch the truck if the jack shifted...remember?  Yep. It did its job.  It caught the truck and kept it from falling.  Problem was it kept the new tire from just barely touching the ground...in the bottom of the hole, of course. 

 Jack the truck again, just enough to drag the wheel out.  Release the jack.  The truck is sitting of four good tires.

"Okay, load up,"  Notah instructed.  "Let's go!" 

I'd spent all of the two hours while Notah and Pat struggled on the ground in the dirt and heat, sitting in my camp chair under a shade pavilion that Seth and Kerra pulled out of the truck and set up!  We all snacked on summer sausage and cheese.  It was pleasant in the shade where the easy wind kept things cool.  Notah and Pat weren't so lucky down there beside that flat tire.
At any rate, tools were collected and stowed away.  The pavilion came down and was folded into its bag. All of the trash and water bottles went in plastic bags.  We all crawled back into the truck.  We were ready to go back across that vicious sage and dead tree desert to the road.    And we had no spare!   I said my own prayer that we'd get back without another hole in a tire.
It shows you what our flat tire site was like when I say we were all glad to get back on this road.
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A good time was had by all. 

 

The thing I want to point out is this.  We spent the afternoon in the heat of the desert.  That tire was a hard job and those lugnut caps were the dickens to get loose.  The thing that blessed me repeatedly was that there was not a single cuss word or even irritated complaint!  Nobody got mad and slung the tire tool across the desert.  Nobody kicked the tires and slammed the jack handle into the fender.  

And there was plenty of justification for any of those things.  What wonderful evidence of the power of God in a man's life. 

We didn't get any place special, but it was an adventure.  And there was plenty to see while we were there.  Seth brought me a pretty little horny toad.  I even held it.  Kerr,a Seth and Pat picked up the usual trash to be found in the desert remnants of men who struggled and lived there.  Notah and Pat looked at the ruins of an old stone house where Pat found a belt buckle that said 'JEWETT' on it and an 'emerald.' probably from a ring or a button.  It was evidence of a family that lived out there so far from anywhere a long time ago.

The desert is always fascinating.

Lonely Abandoned Ranch

On the day we visited the Rocky Canyon we passed through an abandoned ranch site.  I’m sure the property belongs to someone; at least someone has re-built the windmill fairly recently.  The watering trough is full and the whole area has cattle tracks and cow piles around it. 

It was another one of those sites that carried a sense of history. 

There was a rock house that was tumbling down. From a distance it was nearly invisible among the brush and rocky landscape.  At one time it was a pretty decent home for the times.  Laid up neatly of stone, there were two decent sized rooms with sizable beams that must have been hauled a long ways to make the roof.  It didn’t appear to have had a board floor, but that might have been covered by years of blowing sand and trash sifting over it.

 

(Here's a closer picture in case you can't see the house.)

It looked like another pile of rocks if you didn't know what you were looking at.

The home site had once had sizable cottonwoods growing around it but now they were dead. Some stretched along the ground; other still stood offering skeletal arms to the sky and weather.  All around now brush crowded the walls. 

 

Across the way in front of the house there was a corral.  It was built with a combination of the old close-set-stake fencing, wooden post and rails and woven wire.  I think it had probably been used more recently than the house.  It might have been able to contain my mom’s placid milk cow, but I’m not sure any animal with more energy would have had much difficulty getting through it.

 

The ranch site stood in the center of a bowl surrounded by ridges and cliffs.  We arrived there after a long bumpy drive across the desert through sage and clump grass.  In the middle of the bowl a hundred (maybe) yards behind the house was a huge boulder that had broken free of the cliff off to the right.  And when I say huge, I mean huge!  It was larger and much taller than the house.

We parked the truck and walked around the site for a while.  It was evident the property had been intentionally abandoned.  There were no articles of living remaining in or around the house.  The corral had been maintained but there was no other evidence of use. 

 

Once again I was awed by the courage of the men and women who lived here.  We had driven probably two or three hours across country in a TRUCK from the nearest paved road.  The nearest town was probably an hour, hour and a half from the turn-off.  For a man on a horse it must have been most of a day to the nearest town.  With a wagon it would have been two days.  You know those cowboy movies where Pa hitches up the wagon and trots in to town and back by noon?  Well it didn’t happen here!  I doubt I we would have made the trip and back in the truck before noon.

 All of these things go to demonstrate how very fleeting life is.  Men build in wood and stone as permanently as they know how, but nothing lasts.  And yet man persists in believing his works are supreme. 
Who do we think we are anyway, when our works are so easily destroyed?
 

"When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; ⁴ What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?  ⁵For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour  Ps 8:3-4

New Mexico Always

I grew up in Ohio. There are rolling hills and flat fields.  There are tall trees and bushes.  There are flat fields that go from empty, brown dirt to tall, green corn. There are flat pastures of grass enclosed by shaggy fences of grass and brush.  The land is crisscrossed by black asphalt bands of varying widths that carry traffic. 

Dotted among the green hills and fields there are town and cities of different sizes.  They go from little ‘hamlets’ of a few houses, a post office and a mom-n-pop grocery to full fledged cities with tall buildings and acres of paved streets and sidewalks and parking lots. 

My home town was a small city with a tall, imposing courthouse and a few buildings downtown that were perhaps three stories at the most.  When I was growing up the ‘town square’ was just a place where the two main roads, High Street and Broad, met by the courthouse.  There was nothing fancy about it, mostly just designated curbs and a little green place with a statue in front of the courthouse.  Its only claim to special embellishment was a little circus-wagon type vehicle parked in the southwest corner that sold newspapers and popcorn.  Now it has become a little more sophisticated with a pagoda for mini concerts on the northwest corner and a little park-like area on the southeast corner with benches and a couple tiny trees.  The courthouse and its sidewalks with the statue and the fountain haven’t changed a lot. 

Almost anywhere you stand in Tuscarawas County your vision is bounded by trees hills or buildings.  For the first 23 or 24 years of my life that didn’t bother me at all.  I liked the green.  I liked hiking in the woods and camping there.

Then the Lord called me to teach on a tiny mission in New Mexico.

My mother had gone with sister Grace Henry to work in the bible school at Rock Springs Mission, just outside of Gallup NM.  They both came back with tales of dry, barren, rocky, empty, mountainous desert.  Their reports of the houses was on the same order—bleak with rocky bare ‘yards’ no grass, no bushes, no flowers.

I asked the Lord why He would send me to a place I would hate.  But as always, He knew what He was doing!

I had never seen the desert.  I had never seen the wide, deep blue blue skies of New Mexico.  I had never seen the mountains, rocky and menacing jutting up from the flatness of the plains.  I had never seen the sagebrush and rabbit bush accentuated by juniper.  I had never experienced the fragrance pine and piñón smoke drifting through that of sage and juniper. I had faced into the cold bite of snow blowing across the land.  I had never stood and watched a pillar of rain with its crown of dark clouds moving across the land.  And I had never stood and reveled in the rain falling on me and the parched land.  I had never inhaled the heady perfume of wet sand and sage after the rain.

From the first time I drove across the wide land, no matter where I went my heart stayed in New Mexico.  Today when I go back to visit with Notah and his family I am going Home.

From any window in Notah’s house I can look out on the mountains.  The Manzanos loom closest, about a mile away. I see them first thing every morning.  In the distance I can see the Sandias.  On the other side, the Piños and the Ladrones rear their peaks.  And on a clear day far off to the northwest we can see Mount Taylor.

Rachael wants to move to New Mexico, but she wants to live in the mountains—up on the slopes of the Sandias where the pine is tall and the mountain lions and bears come to visit, and in winter you need a four-wheel drive vehicle or horses to get home in the evenings.   And I like that land.  It really is as awesome as the flat land between the mountains.  But waking up in the morning and seeing the Manzanos between me and the rising sun is something that still takes my breath away.

Those mountains are so close that the sun rises at our house twenty minutes later than it does other places.

back in the desert!

This weekend we went to the Quebradas Back Country.   (http://www.blm.gov/nm/st/en/prog/recreation/socorro/quebradas_backcountry_byway.html  or  http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/nm/programs/recreation/rec_docs/rec_docs_socorro.Par.19376.File.dat/QuebradasGuide2010.pdf ) 

It’s one of my favorite parts of New Mexico.  Of course, I say that of almost every part of New Mexico.  You can go look at the link or take my word for it; the Quebradas is 25 miles of unpaved road from Socorro to the middle of nowhere. It’s beautiful and rough.  If you decide to go don’t take your cute little city car.  And be sure to take lots of drinking water and a full tank of gas.  Because there isn’t any any where.

Off the road there are several little even less developed roads that take you to hidden canyons and monumental cliffs. 

We drove up a little canyon that has no name as far as I know.  After a ways, Notah stopped the truck (Dodge RAM four wheel drive, with so much clearance I need a step stood to get into it.)  He said “Here, Mom, you can walk a little ways and then sit by the pool.” 

And I DID walk a ways-about a quarter mile!  There was a beautiful pool caught between the arms of rock, shaded by cotton woods and high rock walls. 

I came on the plane this year so I didn’t have my camp chair, but Notah and hit Wal-Mart (Yeah. Sorry, Rachael) and gotten me another one for just such things as this.  Seth, bless his heart, carried my chair with its handy case and sling.

Seth and Keva climbed a bit on the rocks around the pool.  Then came over and hung out under my cotton wood.  Seth must have shot ‘a hundred’ little rocks across the pool and at the rocks on the opposite side.  Keva sat under another tree and read until angry buzzing and a swarm of bees made her leave that spot.  I watched Seth shooting rocks with his slingshot—he’s pretty good—and reading and napping.  It was wonderful.

Notah, Kerra and pat went hiking up to the top of the canyon and made a big quarter circle.  They came down over to my left from where they had climbed the wall behind the pool.

The whole time was quiet.  The only sound I heard was Seth’s rock plunking in the water or clicking off the wall and a pair of doves that flew around the top of the walls, cooing to each other. 

When everyone came back Thain and Sadie went swimming in the pool.  It was deep enough that Thain couldn’t touch the bottom for most of the breadth of it.  He spent a lot of his time retrieving sticks for Notah.  When Notah stopped tossing them, he went over to one side where there was a fairly good sized limb floating in the water with only its end on the bank.  He thought maybe Notah needed that, too.  Sadie just kinda swam around enjoying the cool water after her hike. 

Bella, with her long legs and slim body, doesn’t like swimming much.  She will wade out in the water and lap some but then she comes back.  I guess Great Danes just weren’t designed to swim.

When the dogs had cooled off, Notah put them back in the truck and we drove farther up the road.  Finally it just petered out.  He turned around and went back the way we had come.

A few weeks back, they had hiked the same area and found an old grave.  They wanted to take Keva and Pat to see it

 

It is always awe-inspiring to me when I see these indications of long past explorers and pioneers who walked through this country or tried to live here. This isn't a native grave because the manner of burial doesn't fit. It is an anglo or spanish grave. How lonesome it seems to have died in such a desolate place. The stone was set up, but any writing seems to have disappeared in the sand, and years.

It was too far for me to hike.  I’m getting good, but not that good yet.  I read and watched the wind blow through the trees.

They weren’t gone long.  My first indication that they were coming back was Sadie showing up at my open truck door, followed by Thain saying he wanted some water.  Not only do you have to take water for the people, if you drive the Quebradas you have to take water for the dogs too.  

Keva rescued a baby horny toad that had been trapped in the bottom of a dry water tank.  Poor little thing!  In the process of giving it water and putting it in a warmer place, Notah was stung three or four times by a bunch of wild bees who objected to him dumping water on a little horny toad so close to their hive!

We drove back out the main dirt road and continued on to the other end where it connected with the paved road again.

If you’re a ‘camper’ who uses the nice little amenities of proper campgrounds, don’t think about camping in the Quebradas.  There are no ‘campgrounds.’ no out houses or port-a-potties, no water faucets and no camper hookups.  Take everything you will need and be sure to carry out all your trash.  Oh yeah, if you gotta go potty, be prepared to dig a little hole and then bury your TP!  

summer is over

I’ve watched the sun come up from behind the Manzanos for the last time this year.  I’ve been startled by Bella’s back passing in front of the window like a small pony for the last time this year.  I’ve ridden with the family across the fantastic desert and up into the mountains, wishing all the time I could get out and hike with them when they stopped to look around for the last time.  I’ve listened to my grandkids say, “Look Grandma, what we found” for the last time this year and sorted through this year’s last array of pretty stones, flint shards, pot shards and broken arrowheads for the last time this year. For the last time this year I’ve been awakened from being almost-asleep by a whispery voice saying, “Grammy, you asleep?” when Seth came sneaking in for one last hug that night.  And I’ve –groan—eaten Kerra’s fantastic spicy hot ribs for the last time until next summer! 

We took some fantastic trips this summer:  a wild route up and along and down the San Mateo Mountains, up through the Jemez Mountains to the Caldera down through Los Alamo and Santa Fe, up a canyon into the Manzanos; and around the foothills of the Magdalenas.   My favorite was probably the Jemez, or maybe the San Mateos.  Both were wild and beautiful.  The road through the Jemez was better since it was all or nearly all paved.  The road through the San Mateos was dirt all of the way, very narrow and rough in places. 

Notah’s Big Red Truck is one of the best vehicles I’ve ever ridden in.  Grandpa Bear would love it.  Notah took that truck through some spots where I simply closed my eyes and other places where I was sure we were gonna leave grandma in the truck while Notah and Pat hiked 15 miles to a highway so someone could come and pull us out!  If anybody is shopping for a truck I can’t say enough good things about a Dodge Ram!!

When we went through the Jemez Mountains we saw the devastation of the las Conchas fire that raged for eight days over the Jemez Mountains.  By the time it was controlled the wild fire had consumed 103,000 acres or 161 square miles.  Hudreds of families were evacuated and it was feared that the fire would engulf portions of Los Alamos National Laboratory.   

For quite a while it was thought that the fire had been started by a camper, but ultimately, several weeks after the fire, it was determined that it had been started by a freak tree falling on a power line.  It was the largest fire in New Mexico history and the leading news item in every broadcast for the entire week.

Of course by the time we drove through the mountains the fire was long out and the road re-opened to traffic.  The acres and mountain tops of blackened trees were as awe-inspiring as the towering cliffs and green vistas.

The greatest thing about the Jemez Mountains was that I was able to climb a little bit of a hill from the trail up to the road surface.  I was so thrilled.  I haven’t ‘climbed’ a mountain in probably 35 years!  Notah had gotten me a wheel chair so I could go with them on some of the easier trips. He thought he could take me a ways down the Hot Springs Trail, and he did; but we finally reached a corner where the trail became very narrow and rocky.  There he had to stop.

Since the trail took a switch-back course down the hill when we came to the sharp corner the trail was actually not far at all from the top of the slope.  Notah took a walk up the hill and came back to say that it wasn’t steep at all and he thought I could walk up it if he helped me.  Sure enough, I did!  Of course, by the time I got to the top my walking steps were used up!  Pat brought the wheelchair up and Notah went to get the truck for me! 

Kerra and the kids hiked all the way to the hot spring.  I wish I could have seen it.  When they started off I went to grab my camera so they could bring me pictures.  But my camera was on the floor of Kerra’s car.  I had forgotten to grab it when we transferred from her car to Notah’s truck!  Rats!  

The whole trip was beautiful!—just like all the other trips we took through the countryside.  

My heart will always be in the desert.

sunday!

Yesterday was a great day.  First and foremost, I was able to be in church services for the first time since last year.  I really like the little church Notah and Kerra go to.  The people are sincere and loving.  The pastor and his wife have a burden for the work.  The song service yesterday, rather than being the traditional hymns, consisted of remembering the songs of our childhood in Sunday School. They had to put the words to them on the screen up front because for lots of folks they were lost in time. Those ‘children’s songs’ carry a lot of meaning that we adults often disparage because they are only ‘children’s songs.’ 

 One that stuck with me--We sang ‘Happy in the Savior.’  Now there is a message.  And I haven’t sung it since probably Bible School at Rock Springs.  “Happy in the Savior.  Happy in the Savior.  Happy in the Savior, I am Happy in the Lord!”    Now that’s a chorus that lots of adults could begin to practice more regularly. 

Pastor Chad brought a good message on unity among the church.  Good one! Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons: ²Grace be unto you, and peace, from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ.   Philippians 1:1-2 was his text.

He pointed out that we are all designated as ‘saints’ so that doesn’t make any one of us better than another and we are all servants of Jesus.   That means that no specific individual’s opinion is better than another’s and we must be humble enough to consider that in our dealings.  Pastor Chad pointed out that Paul prayed grace on each saint and through that we have grace to deal with one another kindly and with love.  The third thing we must remember is that he wished that there might be peace among God’s people.  What can we offer the world if we are quarrelling and fussing among ourselves?

I can’t remember all the texts he used but these two stuck with me.  (Now when a minister preaches, I sometimes have a concordance running through my head, so I don’t guarantee that both of these were ones he cited.  I know this first one was. I think the second one was.  My Bible was buried in my suitcase and I didn’t have anything to write with.  NEXT Sunday will be different. )

   I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  Ephesians 4:1-3 If we are following the Lord as we were called to-as saints of God, we will walk carefully so we are fulfilling the ‘vocation’ God has designed for us.  We will do it with (whew! Get this) ‘lowliness, meekness, longsuffering and forbearing one another in love.   That will keep us joined together in peace.  That is hard to find in a lot of congregations and between congregations.  That hits a little close to home.

Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another;  Romans 12:9-10  He didn’t comment on it but I liked the concept of being ‘kindly affectioned.”  For me that means not necessarily living in one another’s pockets, but making an allowance for our brothers and sisters in the Lord with kind thoughts and an attitude of consideration in times when we are apart.   Sometimes it is ‘out of sight, out of mind’ among the fellowship of the saints.  If we are ‘kindly affectioned’ toward each other we will remember our family in the Lord from time to time with a prayerful thought or a happy smile. 

Now he did say, that we will allow the others to be before us and favor or permit or prefer their view over ours.

As I thought more on his message, it occurred to me that this wasn’t speaking of doctrinal things but the temporal things that occur in the business of the congregation—the decisions that must be made regarding property upkeep, maybe fellowship dinners or get-togethers that the family of God enjoys having.  I have seen more fussing over the color of the new carpet and the padding on the pews and the menu for the fellowship dinner that you can believe.  What difference does it really make if the carpet is brown or gray, or even if there is any carpet at all?  What difference does it make if there is a planned menu for the fellowship dinner or just a catch all carry in?  But that has all caused a lot of ungodly attitudes among the very people who should be ‘preferring one another.’

Yep I enjoyed my first day back in service!

After service was over Notah had a board meeting.  Keva wanted to go with her fried and ride a four-wheeler or a dirt bike or something.  Seth’s friend Zach had gone to church with us and Kerra needed to take him home.  So we all split up in different directions. 

Kerra drove us into Belen to see if the flea market there was still open.  I want a walking staff to use instead of a cane when I’m out side on uneven ground and she said she had seen a whole bunch there.  As it turned out it was so hot that everyone was going home early.  We stopped and got something to drink and I got some chicken sticks to tide me over till lunch/dinner.  We finally ended up at Wal-Mart, wandering around there until Notah’s meeting was over. 

It’s a good thing I don’t go to Wal-Mart very often!  I managed to spend 50-plus dollars in about 45 minutes.  Of course $25 of that was for books, but still.    Probably the thing that pleased me most was getting tennis balls for the feet on my walker.  (I still have to use it when my right knee is tired.)  On Kerra’s tile floor with all of NM’s sand it made a nasty scraping noise.  The tennis balls slip on over the walker legs and voila! No more scraping noise!

Then we went to dinner at Henrietta’s when Notah caught up with us.

Oh, my legs were tired when I got home.  And we had been driving around with the windows down so my skin and hair was covered with fine NM dust.  So I went straight in and took a quick shower; then I was down for the count.  Surprisingly after all that trekking around, my knees and feet weren’t swollen.

Before I quit, I have to say something about how good the New Mexico sun felt.  It was around 101 or maybe higher, but the heat just burnt into your skin and sank into your bones. Only common sense makes you come in out of it.  It felt so good. 

the desert sky

Notah sent me a text; “Warm NM night. Sky’s desert color. Dark blue n east changing to last pale red orange n the west.” Such a few words can evoke such a feeling of the desert. We are desert people, not the ‘live in the city and talk about blue skies and hot baking sun while you sit by your pool” desert people but desert desert people. We live amid the sage and rabbit bush and pull goat’s heads from the dogs’ feet and carry water in the car all the time.

All I had to do was close my eyes and take a deep breath and I was back. I could smell the odor of sage and sand. I could feel the hot sun (that we do have occasion to complain about, love it or not) and turn my face into the wind (even if it has sand blowing through it).

It makes me angry when I ride through towns and see green green lawns and pools in back yards. It makes me angry when I know that millions of gallons of water are wasted flooding into golf courses and gardens for the tourist/ retirement areas so easterners can brag to their friends how wonderful the desert is. If you want to live in the desert then live in the DESERT. Don’t try to turn the desert into little pieces of Ohio. If you don’t like the sand and rocks and sage brush and shaggy desert grasses, then don’t come to my desert!

Meantime let those of us who DO love it keep it for future generations to enjoy.

I found this picture that describes the word picture Notah sent me… I just clicked to put it in my screen saver pictures, so I don’t have the photographer.    So, Someone-in-Albuquerque, thank you.

Last catch-up post. After this, I'm back in Ohio

Wednesday, June 09, 2010

One thing I must say about being here this summer: I LOVE my son dearly. He works hard long days but he has always taken a little time to be sure and check to see if I have the things I need. He called again today, as he has everyday this week, to make sure the house was cool and I was comfortable.

Really, the swamp cooler works very well. Only on Monday did the water go off. And that was because Kerra left the water on when she watered the roses out side. Well, the water itself wasn’t running, but the pressure tank valve was open—which in turned drained the pressure which gave NO water for the cooler units. (Luckily, the pump turned off when the pressure dropped too low instead of trying to keep pumping water) And of course, THAT made the house hot. He has worried about me here ever since.

I did have a really bad response to the heat a week ago Sunday. When we went for that ride, it nearly wiped me out. My reaction to it still kinda worries me. I know he is thinking about that when he calls. And I love him for it.

There is a nice breeze from the north here. I believe it blows all the way across from the Sandias. Now it isn’t always cold, but it does keep things cool—especially when it is sucked into the swamp coolers and then sent into the house with its load of coolness.

And now that I’ve learned to manage the weather again, I am leaving. I have mixed feelings. Parts of my time, and I won’t go into that, have been difficult, but other parts have been wonderful. I will never stop loving New Mexico or the desert. There is nothing in the world as beautiful.


Thursday June 10, 2010

Last day… I’m anxious to see Rachael and Michael, but even still with everything, I hate to leave Notah’s. I sat outside this morning for the last time probably, although I may get time tomorrow morning. I’m packing my clothes, etc. today-getting everything together.

I hate having my kids on separate ends of the world. My heart aches no matter where I am.

This is all till I’m back in Ohio.

early morning

View to the east from our house toward the Manzano mountains.

It is just after six in the morning here. I’ve been awake for an hour or more. It was four o’clock when I first woke up and told myself it was too early to be doing anything. I dozed off for a little while and woke up again about five to enjoy the morning. It is so wonderful that I haven’t even moved except to reach my laptop and begin this. I hate to think about moving because that will put an end to the peace.

It is cold here this morning, probably in the forties. I have the window open here beside me. I’m the only one in the house that enjoys the cold desert air. Everyone else closes the windows and complains. But it is the perfect desert morning breeze now, the kind I love. It smells of sage and sand and that other indefinable fragrance that makes the desert morning like nothing else on earth. Heaven must smell like this. I know for sure the part where Louie is does. And that’s the part I’m gonna be in, too.

There are absolutely no sounds except the birds outside. And they just woke up a few minutes ago. I wish I knew enough to tell what birds have been singing. At four when I woke up the first time, there were no birds but a couple coyotes howled and got all the dogs in the valley harmonizing down there too. That was neat. I dozed off before they stopped singing. Now the birds have taken over. I don’t know of anyplace else in the world that is this quiet and peaceful in the morning. White people may have moved into the desert, but they aren’t up and around this early in the morning and for these couple hours just at daybreak it is as quiet as it was four hundred years ago when only the Apache and the Navajo were here to ruin the peace.

I wonder if the road runner is out in the yard patrolling his territory. He’s a big guy! And he struts around like someone important. His wife is slender and dainty. She zips past like a little racer. I’d stretch over and open the blinds to see if they are around but it would be too much effort and noise, it would probably make all the birds stop singing. I can see it all in my mind anyway: It is s little cloudy in the east and the sunlight is diffused behind them. Every once in a while it shines out above them across the tops of the hills. The sage and rabbit bush are enjoying the moisture in the morning air and the tamarisk tree is stretching up to reach the rays of light. The birds are hiding in the bushes and that tree and the road runner is going about his business, either here in the yard or over the hill among the sage.

I just heard the train far down in the valley. The noise made all the birds quit chirping about their morning business. Now it is absolutely quiet. Not even the refrigerator is running. The only sound is the tiny pattering of the keys on my laptop.

The dogs think it is time to be up and around. Every day of the week they get up at sunrise and go outside to the potty. Thain slept in here with me last night. Seth is doing an over night with his friend Zach so Huck stayed here with me too. Everything was good until Peepers decided she wanted to look out the window in the middle of the night. Then Thain had to go see what it was that attracted her attention. Then Gable had to come see too and that put him and Thain too close together and they grumbled at one another. I whapped my grabber on top of the tray table and told them to settle down. Gabe went back to his corner of the couch and Thain curled up on the floor. Every thing was quiet again.

I think Notah is getting up. Thane and Huck have migrated in that direction. I just heard a truck down on the road a long ways off. And a car just went past here. I guess Saturday morning has started.

weather such a humdrum subject

I was sitting here in the dark this morning after Notah left for work. It’s a good time of day on our hill. I can see across to Belen in the valley and across the other way to the far-off highway with its high bright lights. This morning and every morning I hear the distant train whistle blowing. I love this time of day. I can’t wait until my chair comes and I can sit on the deck.

This morning, Thursday, I would need a jacket and a blanket! Two days ago it was 84 degrees at five pm. Goodness knows what the temp was at three, usually the hottest part of the day. This follows SNOW a week ago on the 19th. Now today it is back to cool temps. Predicted high today is 54 in Albuquerque, 57 here in Belen and 51 on the Sandia slopes where Seth is going for a field trip.

I’m worried to death that he’ll freeze. If you’ve never lived or more especially spent time outside in New Mexico’s mountains or desert, you won’t know how quickly temperatures can drop and the wind can chill your bones. Tuesday people were in shorts and tank tops and complaining of the heat. Today, Kerra made Seth go back for a jacket in addition to his sweat shirt. He’s gonna be real put out if he doesn’t need it.

I love New Mexico. I only wish I could hike with Notah and his biyaazh.

( This photo is not mine, but it is a good representation of the eastern horizon during a morning dust storm. Is that gorgeous or what! Notice the blurred landscape. That's dust-not poor photography.)

It’s morning in the desert. But it is one of those neat, eerie mornings when the sky is covered with clouds and the view to the horizon is dusty. You can still the see the mountains, but it is hazy. In Ohio it would be moisture. Here it is dust.

We have fallen into a routine now. Notah left for work at six this morning. About two minutes later Kerra woke the kids up and I went to the bathroom to wash up and brush my teeth before the kids needed to be in there. Tomorrow I’ll be a little speedier so that I get in there well before Seth and Keva need it. Gable was worried to death this morning that Kerra would let the other dogs out and he would still be in the bathroom with me. I don’t know what he thought was going to happen out there. Robbers, murderers, arsonists…maybe even they could find a hidden treasure—he has an amazing imagination.

I was worried about bringing him this year. I know he would probably bet sick if I left him in Ohio. He is really attached to me. But Notah has their new dog, Thain. He is the German Shepherd pup they got last year at the very end of April. I think he will be a year old just about on my birthday. Anyway he has grown up into a big dog. He is bigger than either of his parents and is going to be gorgeous when he grows into his bones.

I was worried that he would hurt Gable because his is big and he likes to play. He is still enough of a pup that Gable’s fierce teeth can intimidate him so I was not so concerned that he would attack him but more that he would put one of those big paws in the middle of Gabe’s already-not-too-healthy back.

When we got here we introduced the dogs to Gabe. The meeting with Thain was rocky so we put him out and brought in Sadie. Sadie is a born mama. She was happy to see Gabe again and ignored his grumbling. Soon they were being all friendly and things were good.

Then we brought in Huckleberry. He’s the old Dalmatian that Notah has had every since his college days. Huck just kind of ignored Gable. When Thain came back in everything was hunky dory, if Mama Sadie and Old Man Huck said Gabe was OK then Thain was fine with that.

THEN a couple days later there was a big dust up. Huck is old and partially blind and partially deaf. He only hears part of sounds and sees shadows in his peripheral vision. Gabe startled him and he grabbed him across the shoulders. Sadie came running to the rescue—not Gabe’s but Huck’s. Poor Gabe got rolled around in the dirt and slobbered over. Kerra was by the sink under the open window when the ruckus started and she burnt rubber getting outside to break it up.

Poor Gabe. Now he is really paranoid and growls whenever the other dogs come close to his bed. He has two ‘safe’ places—his bed and my lap. He thinks that no one can bother him or hurt him when he is there. And of course, he’s right. I don’t let any of the other dogs infringe on his personal space; but he is not allowed to be crabby either.

Last night I was helping him up on my lap and he cride when I supporte his neck the way I always have. Evidently he is still sore from his tumbling, even though there was no blood involved. Sadie and Huck both used their teach-the-pup-a-lesson-bites and didn’t intend to really hurt him.

Now the sun just rose above the clouds on the horizon. It is still clouds and overcast but the eastern horizon is less gray and the sun is well above the haze. Now it is laying strips of bight sunlight across the landscape. The cream colored house across the way is glowing against the still gray dark clouds on the western horizon. And the branches of tree beside it look like golden spray against that dark sky. The breeze that was stirring up the dust in front of the western hills finally made it to the top of our hill. It is blowing fresh cold in our window. I’m wrapped in a blanket, but I won’t close that window until I freeze! There is nothing to compare with New Mexico skies!

I thank the Lord daily that I’ve gotten back to the desert one more time. It is a separate blessing each time. I love Ohio and my home with Rachael and Michael, they are so good to me, but the desert holds my heart.

it's going to happen!

How is it possible to have two homes? And to love them both? Notah called this morning (he had to go into work today to meet a delivery) After we had talked about Thain and the kids and the lousy weather here in Ohio, he said that all the reservations had been made for Kerra and the kids to come and get me in March! I’m going home for the summer! They will fly back east and then drive me back. Now it's real! I'm going back.

How strange is it to love our house on the lake here in Ohio and to love my room and my chair and my window where the cats sit and look for birds; I love sitting on the deck in the morning and having my coffee and watching the dogs play in the our quiet yard or sit at the dining room table and look out at the deck where the bird feeders are. I love all that and still, at the same time I feel like a piece of my heart stays in the desert forever. How can I love the desert with every fiber of my being even while I love it here with Rachael and Michael just as much?

I’m already anxious for the big skies and the open space across the miles to the mountain that I look at from my bedroom window at Notah’s. I’m anxious to see if the roadrunner still makes his rounds of the front yard in the mornings and to listen for the mocking bird in the tree just out from the kitchen window. And I want to smell the fragrance of sage brush and juniper on the morning air as I sit at my door to welcome the rising sun like any good Navajo.

Here in Ohio I have a beautiful desert room with golds and browns and deep deep orange. I have my mother’s Navajo rugs on the walls and my horse herd picture on the one wall with the cowboys and mountain picture on the other wall. It’s a room that fits me perfectly.

And in New Mexico I have a cozy room, not as large, equally cozy and comfy. But I don’t need a big room when the whole desert is right there on the other side of the window. Look! How can you not love this? Don't talk to me about the desolate desert!



I love it! (Oh yes. These aren't clouds. Manzano Mountain had a massive forest fire two years ago. Kerra took a picture of the smoke cloud for me.)

homesick for the desert

Okay, I'm homesick for New Mexico today. It is damp and gray here and the sky seems to be sitting on my head. The trees are leaning over and soaking up all the air. Sometimes I need the huge, wide sky and the distances of the southwest. Just imagine lying flat on your back and looking up into that sky. I've done it. Seems like you are going to fall straight up. It certainly makes you realize your puny human place in the eternal scheme of things.

These are photos of the mountains around the ghostown of Riley, NM. Kerra knows the names of all of them.... I just call them 'mountains.' I have to admire the early settlers, both Spanish and anglo, who ventured into this land not knowing anythng about it. The spaces alone would have been intimidating to someone on horseback or a covered wagon. Even more mind boggling is the thought that native people lived here very securely until the white man came. I believe this area was mostly Pueblo and Apache. Navajos were further west. But with only a little preparation they could travel confidently and hunt the area as well as grow crops. Later the Pueblo and Navajo took up sheep herding to supplement their livelihood... I don't think the Apaches were ever big sheep people. I don't know.

The ghost town of Riley is two plus hours across dirt roads to the river curve where it had been located. Most of the houses were mud adobe with plank door frames and windows. The church had been built of laid up gathered stone chipped into shape with a hammer. Originally it must have been mortared and plastered with mud, but within recent times it had been re-pointed and re-faced with cement. The church seems to have been maintained much longer than the houses. Not too far away there is a cement block stuccoed church building surrounded by an adobe wall. It is well maintained but didn't appear to be used very often. Notah said he thought it was a pilgrimage site that is only used at Easter or other special observances. There was also a shrine with three female figures on top of the hill a little ways off.

I don't know, there were maybe 20 houses in Riley, maybe more originally, but now they are all 'melted' back into the ground. There are planks and window frames leaning precariously against the misshapen walls. This is just one of the buildings. It is fairly typical. Some were in worse shape and a couple still appeared to have four walls, but none had much of a roof to notice. I did see an ocassional leaning wall and roof piecs of that corugated sheet metal that was rusted through in places. Even more than the distances the brevity of the work of men's hands lets us know how of how little consequence we really are in the stream of time.

Just look at the distances involved here. Much of this land is just plain empty of people. We traveled all afternoon across this area and did not see a single vehicle or person. The road was there and had been partly maintained by NM standards. I doubt if any tourist would have considered driving his vehicle across them. there were cows and from time to time there were other ranch road turn-offs--maybe two or three. But the people must have fallen off the face of the earth.

Riley was a mining town built in the curve of a river, but no Ohioian I know would ever have called it a river. The water was only about six or seven inches deep, if that, and spread across a ten or twelve foot river bed. We started to cross it and there was a good sized rock sticking up in the middle of the road ford. Notah sent Seth to go move it so it wouldn't scrape on the bottom of the truck. Seth just hopped out and walked through the water and flipped the stone a couple times until it was out of the road way. Then he got back in the truck. I don't even think he got his pant legs wet.

These are the peaks going back toward home. Want to take a horse and wagon to those mountains? Right now I'd give a lot to sit in the sun and smell the hot sand in the wind.

...and in the morning it shall be light

Notah took this series of photos early one morning in New Mexico. They are a sequence of the sunrising over the Manzano Mountains. The top one is the earliest and they progress to the moment the sun pops over the mountains. The focal point changes slightly from one to the next since he snapped them over a span of several minutes and didn't stand at exactly the same angle each time. But it's easy to orient yourself to the pictures.

I picked them off his photobucket account and attached the scriptures to them. I hope everyone else gets thejoy from them as I have.