Letter From Northern New Mexico

Hello, Friends,

Summer is almost gone: Nights are cooler, leaves are turning, and a successful monsoon season is drawing to a close. That said, it's time for a big old catch-up session because I haven't been writing and there's much to see here in Northern New Mexico.

We've been here for 8 years now and even though there were a few bets that we wouldn't last, here we are.

So let's get to it.

We still have cattle, but it's a rotating cast of characters. These guys were Regis and Phil(bin). Tom named them; not I. 

Regis and Phil(bin) are gone now to the great pasture in the sky and we are grateful to them.

Our new pup, Liza Jane, has been a handful. We went from exceedingly polite Ms. Pearl to a bossy tornado. This is a rare puppy pic of her lying still.

Summer gardening was successful. I think having a canine tornado keeps the bunnies from eating too much.

 This was early in the season. We had asparagus, green beans, kale, carrots, strawberries, sugar snap peas, and there's some broccoli I'm hoping will weather the upcoming cooler weather. The kale was especially pretty. I even froze some and I will tell you how another time. I used this kale for Zuppa Toscana. I found a copycat recipe for this Olive Garden favorite and it was yum!

Inside the Growing Dome we had a good season, too. Up here at 7200 feet it can be iffy for tomatoes and indoor gardening solves this problem. This year I grew five plants: Golden Jubilee, Black Cherry, Chocolate Sprinkles, good old Early Girl and Brad's Atomic Grape. All did well and I froze some, made a tomato and gruyere galette, and sometimes leaned  over the sink, salt shaker in hand, and ate them like apples, juice everywhere.

Tomato Plants Growing Like Crazy

Straight Eight Cucumber Plants and Burgundy Green Beans

A Few Tomatoes

Tom has been cutting up a cottonwood tree that split in two.

We really don't need firewood because last winter was so mild, we didn't even touch the artistic wood piles I made.

And he chopped thousands of thistles, which are noxious, invasive weeds. I don't have any photos of that.

I set up a sewing area on the porch.

Here was my view:

There was a field trip to Santa Fe's Botanical Gardens.

And to the Santa Fe Opera, twice! It was my first time experiencing opera and I loved it. People have tailgate dinners here, so we did the same. The big difference was our tailgate had road dust inside and out, and just as I was taking the photo, there was a wine mishap, but you get the idea.

I think I'm growing up. Opera? Wow.

It's always nice to come back home, though, to our little bubble.

See you next time!

Northern New Mexico Winter, Where Wood Is All That

Since my blogging friends, like Guy and Diane, have been wondering where my blog posts are, here you go. I've been wondering the same thing myself and my only explanation is that I've become used to life here in Northern New Mexico and so you must be used to it, too.

Yes, this is misguided thinking on my part because there is always something new and I just needed to get out there and find it. And we have new stuff right here.

Like this pile of wood:

Since we arrived seven years ago this coming March, we've been gathering wood from the property, nothing alive, just dead and downed wood, and it's been enough to keep our home nice and cozy. We are running out of dead wood, though, and don't want to cut down any of our trees. So we called a local wood supplier who has a contract with the Forest Service to thin trees and he was glad to sell us this load of logs.

Tom has been busy cutting and splitting the logs. There are about six cords of wood there.


Ms. Pearl supervises.  She is good at that. Also sleeping on the couch. She's good at that, too.

The new steers, Regis and Phil (Bin) and Jimmies Fallon and Kimmel drop by to see what's going on.

They like to play the log rolling game. That's Jimmy Fallon. He has a bigger head than Jimmy Kimmel.

Tom gets the work done. Ms. Pearl's job is to look noble.

What's my job? I'll let you know next blog post.

Wood is Wealth

A while back I wrote about wood and how important it is in Northern New Mexico. To Tom, Wood Equals Wealth. He says Chuck and Rick, his old friends, would understand. Even at our old Corona place we burned wood for heat and when we recently read of a ban on fireplace burning in the Corona area, Tom said, "We would have frozen if that happened while we were living there." Well, we wouldn't have frozen, but it would have been as cold as a well digger's butt in our little Temescal Canyon stone house.

There's no ban on burning here, which is good since many people rely totally on wood for their heat and it's a lot colder here in the winter than in SoCal.

 I don't know why we need such a stockpile, but I guess if we have room, why the heck not?

The first year we were here we applied for a forest cutting permit, but never used it since we had plenty of down and dead wood on our place.

Our place when we first moved in, pre wood piles

The trees that look dead here aren't really, it's just winter time and they are dormant.

Still, we've found plenty of dead trees that need cutting up and since Tom is up to the task, he cuts them up, hauls them home and we have free heating. You can't beat that.

Last year Tom and Z cut down this tree because it was diseased. When Z came for this year's Thanksgiving visit, they planned to cut it up, but the chainsaw was out of commission so Z dodged the wood cutting bullet.

The chainsaw is back in action now, so here's Tom doing his logger duties. When he cuts wood, Ms. P and I go along, too, in case events were to go terribly wrong. The helmet keeps his face safe from flying bits and has built in ear protectors.  I like his woodcutter chaps, don't you?

Ms. Pearl and I aren't totally useless, though. I helped lift those logs into the Ranger.

Off in the distance look closely and there are The Lazy Boyz, Roman and Buffalo, soaking up the sun, well fed and content.

Tomorrow, something quilty!

Cutting Down a Tree

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas this year. Either calm or chaotic, I am sure it was magical.

It's amazing how quickly Christmas zoomed up on us and then it was gone like a flash! We had a low key holiday with a simple menu of caramelized onion puff pastry appetizers, Cornish game hens with a lovely rosemary garlic sauce, mashed potatoes and a spicy but not too spicy Swiss chard. Pepperidge Farm cake was for dessert. We kept it simple and enjoyed each others' company.

Here are some photos of a project Tom and Z did around Thanksgiving. Macho man stuff, that's for sure.

There was a dead pine tree needing to come down, so Tom waited until Z could help. Z says he likes to do manual labor when he comes to the ranch, so we are taking him at his word.

Z is the hatchet man.

And Tom is the chainsaw guy.

Ms. Pearl just can't stand the snow.

Here's the tree almost ready for the words, "Timber!"

Luckily, the tree landed just exactly where they wanted, between two smaller trees, so nothing was damaged.

Ms. Pearl wants to tell everyone it was a job well done.

So what's my part in this? When it's time to cut up the tree, I promise to gather the logs and help T stack them. Yep.