Sidetracked Charley

Northern New Mexico where I reside can be rather airy-fairy. Taos, just over the mountain, seems to be home of any number of crystal healers, card readers, tarot casters, etc. But my more grounded side has its forecasters of the future too. The weather prognosticators are rampant in the summer. Everyone has their opinion about whether we are facing a bad winter or not. The height of the grasses seem not to point to this wet summer but to a wetter winter. Indian tobacco on the other hand seems rather short which means not much snow. But then on a more technically developed level there are the talking heads on the weather channel. Seems we are in an El Nino year. Should mean more snow but it also means warmer so it could be just more rain. But we are on the line between wetter and drier so back to the grasses and the Indian tobacco plants. My sister and I saw several flocks of turkeys with pullets in vast numbers so it should be a great turkey hunt this fall (well, if we don't have

Definitely on a Rocky Mountain High yesterday off-roading with my sister. Because of the rains the night before the clouds filled the valleys as we traveled up the mountains to stand above the clouds. Then gaze down into the rain-drenched green valleys as the clouds rose into the morning sky revealing the Brigadoons below. And everywhere around us were the wildflowers sparkling with the droplets of rain and dew and a glow with the morning sun. Bluebells in great number Sunflowers drying off in the sun Colorado Columbine shy in the shade As Yet Unidentified flower and many more But the true fun of the adventure were the puddles. Don't you just love it?!!

This is a plague year: Bubonic Plague. Like in in Europe in the Dark Ages. Only here in the Southwestern mountain states it is the rodent above that carries the fleas that carry the plague. Some of the numerous Blacktail Prairie Dogs have developed an immunity to the bite of the fleas that plague them and as such merely become moving homes for the fleas. There is a huge new Prairie Dog town in the property behind me where the trotters are and on the land up the hill which grazes cattle. They have never been in either of these places before. Their first toehold in the community was the golf course. Oh, what they can do to a golf course! The tourists think they are cute and so control of these rodents has been prevented by bleeding hearts. Well, they are not on their land. Their holes are not tripping livestock and breaking their legs. Their dogs and cats are not trying to catch them and only getting the fleas. I blame the adoration of rodents on the cartoon Tom and Jerry. Notice the ca

I am not going totally away from Profiles. My Y360 archived blogs are there. But from now on (unless significant improvements are made and quickly) I will be posting most of my blogs on Blogger. And using the status message on Profiles for links to my new posts here for my Profile friends I have been one of the longest supporters of Yahoo but I just cannot keep faith any more. I am tired of my modules having to be constantly re-arranged and not having any control over my site. Sick to death of Ice Blue. You can decorate IM and Twitter. Why not Profiles. But the most irritating thing is, since I was staying there to stay in contact with friends, is that I am not always getting the alerts that messages have been left. And lots of friends are moving. Against all desires I have wound up more and more on Facebook to stay in touch with friends I had originally made on 360. And quite a few of us are here on Blogger. Google has added some very nice new friendship fe

That's what the song says but I think it was written by a southerner about the south. It isn't quite true of the mountain west. There seems so much to do and so little time in which to do it. And no excuses like winter when you can blow almost everything but bring in more wood for the fire because of snow if you like. In the frontier days the people trudged through the snow to the barn and fed the livestock and came back and sat before the fire and mended harnesses and tack. Summer and you were up at dawn and working all day long plowing and seeding and tending the crops and livestock. Trying to make the most out of the short growing season so you could make it through the winter with ample supplies. Summer is about doing all the "fixing" that has to be done on the property and your house before winter gales set in. I usually don't start panicking about the fixing until September. June and July and August are about enjoying the outdoors but with fairs the first tw

Since Wednesday my life has not been about blogging. It has been about getting ready for the big summer fair. It is not a huge fair but my involvement is huge in that I not only am exhibiting but I am on the board of the Arts Council that hosts this fair and I have been a volunteer bee as well. That means I am out of the house early and return late and like last night was too exhausted to even turn on the computer. Meanwhile Y!360 is closing. Today being its last day. I had supposed when they first announced this I would be busy making sure of connections to all my friends on that failing blog platform. But alas I have been too busy with the "real word" to even check in on page comments there. When I did so today I noticed some Asian chick was still trying to sell me cellphones. I think I have mentioned how much made in China stuff I no longer buy on Travels with Charle y so I don't think I will miss this aspect of the old blog home. Many of my friends are already on Bl