Sidetracked Charley

Tour of Eagle Nest Dam Eagle Nest Dam is the largest privately built dam in the United States. It was begun by the Springer family in 1917 and completed in 1920. It and the reservoir beyond it one was privately owned by the CS Ranch which recently sold it to the state of New Mexico. Eagle Nest Lake is now a state park, but the dam and the waters in the lake are another matter all together. Water is well regulated in New Mexico especially during a drought. The lake is now at 25% of its normal capacity, and the water in the lake are water right lease holds of Raton, Cimarron, and historic ranches in the area like the UU Bar and the CS Ranch. Game and Fish department also get involved because the Cimarron River is an active fishery of the state. Our guide was a state engineer and the Gateway Museum secured permission of the land owners below the dam for us to gain access to the area. Some 100 locals and tourists attended this rare event. I have lived here almost twenty years and th...

It has been an interesting week. Faced the fact that the used camper shell would not do as I could not get two friends together on a non-windy day. When you have tried to do something for a month and there has always been something to prevent it you should just get the message and give up. Yes, spring is windy in New Mexico. Yes, everyone complains of it as if it never has happened before or anywhere else in the world. Our winds are straight and not circular so I try not to mention it. Like Mark Twain said, "Dog bites man is not news." The only thing more tiring than listening to gale force winds is listening to people complain about gale force winds. So I will admit I am not the friendliest of souls in the spring. Add to this spring the final preparations of the one woman show in Trinidad, Colorado and I have become a virtual hermit. No camper shell and I was trying to think of another solution to the art to Trinidad problem also. And then Angel Fire was doing what i...

Tres Amigos Seemed a century ago when I began working on more work for my one woman show at Gallery Main. Now there is less than two weeks. Yesterday I was a bit tharned by that. Mercury in retrograde reared its disruptive force and I was deep into alternate plan scenario. Going with the UHaul rented trailer as opposed to the used camper shell. Winds and a need to round up friends to help install it seemed to made it impossible over the last month. I am one of those, who if something is TOO difficult, figure the universe is trying to tell me something and back off. Admittedly I was more dogged about this than most. I had bought the pick up in part for this whole affair. That and you just need a pickup living in the mountains. Especially if we have a horrid fire season. Yesterday was the last straw. Too much wind to begin with. I really want to back my pickup into a garage and have someone install the shell for me. I have the installation kit. I was prepared to do this. It just g...

The lowly paper bag First used in the 1960's in 1977 the disposable plastic bag was introduced into supermarkets as an alternative to paper bags because of the cries of environmentalists we were killing trees and wasting resources.   See Wiki.  I still chose the paper bag. So many reuses for the paper bag not the least of which was to carry lunch. Nice paper bags got saved to do this more than once. And there were other uses like covering your school books (now outlawed because who knows what is under a book cover). And lining litter boxes or lining little trash cans. But the plastics industry (a by product of oil production) was not happy with just giving us a choice. The biodegradable and infinitely usable paper bag was soon not a choice. Big plastic wanted to cover the world in plastic (and oil as they have demonstrated). And it is not grocery bags, but straws, and boxes for six packs of beer gone to the plastic-fish-killer handle. And bubble packaging. If we outlaw a...

They say (whoever they are) it is best to quit a habit or begin a new one while out of your normal comfort zone. Giving up smoking on a ten day raft trip down the Colorado river seemed to make sense because yu could not bob off for more cigs at the corner store. Course the guides and counselors may need to carry guns. But the philosophy has been used somewhat successfully at treatment centers and diet farms. So when faced with five days of "extreme" pet sitting I figured now is my time to begin my campaign to get back in shape. I have my dogs trained to walk at my pace. And I have figured out all the paths in my immediate neighborhood to avoid going up hill on the way back when tired. The pet I am taking care of insists on his pace and his family lives literally on the side of a mountain. I have checked. There is no easy path to walk. Ninety percent end with a killer climb back up a hill. Then there is the spacing of the three walks per day. A leisurely meal is not goi...