Big Boy Bottle Rockets

This post is here because of the interest in the pictures taken at White Sands Missile Range Museum. The first three were taken in Alamogordo at the space museum there. They do not look like the others. Don't know why the difference but they're fun to view as to me and others they don't look quite real.

Remember about being able to click on picture here not once but twice to make them larger each time.

The Other Side Of Wind

Is not having any like this. 60+ out. It doesn't get much better and looks like today will be the same. YES!!

New Mexico

It's the same as always in that when I get back from a trip it takes awhile to readjust and I'm still not there but already very much looking forward to the next one probably in early March - like on my B-Day when I become eligible for the old old people national pass.

Here are some pictures I picked out and it was bland because after all it is the middle of winter. Drove way too many miles and I will just say eastern New Mexico is not for me and it is just more than dirt poor out there. That is an observation only nothing more.

This was a interesting cemetery in Quay.

There were very few people around and had the state camp grounds pretty much to myself. This was at Bottomless Lakes SP.

There was no place I could find to hide and stay for the night. I did stay next to a cemetery outside of Hope, NM. One of the residents was getting ready to receive a new neighbor.

This was on the road in the mountains east of Alamogordo, NM. I belive this elk had an arrow in it's side if look closely and click twice. Something was sticking in it's side.

Oliver Lee SP was a very cool park and was named after the man who ranched here and lived in this house. Stayed three nights. It was there where I realized a lot of the people in some parks live in them and some not by choice. Grey hairs and no hairs and there may be a time this guy could do the same.

There is a hike that will take you to the top of this bad boy. I went part way as I did not feel like brutalizing myself that much.

You will not see many like this.

An obligatory White Sands photo. In my previous life sand was my nemesis. A couple hours out in this was plenty for this guy.

At the White Sands Missile Range Museum. This got here by mistake so will leave it and just say it's deceiving because this thing is only maybe two foot long.

Notice the smart ass guvmint comment at the end of this.

Quite a backdrop for this place and several of the pictures taken really show that as the header does today. Always plenty for more missiles ya see.

This was at Leasburg Dam SP north of Las Cruces. Not the nices but well done like all of them. It did snow the night I was there. This sits along side the Rio Grand River.

Many Mericuns are happy to stop and be questioned by our national zombies even well north of the border. Not this one and at least the fellow just came out the door and did not descend down the steps and let me proceed after he believed my answers to being an American and not having any passengers. It was nippy out.

Stayed three nights at Elephant Buttes SP north of Truth or Consequences. A day trip up to Monticello was very much worth it. One of the top cemetery's I have visited.

This was fun and for the first time I was inside a flock of geese when many of them took off.

Of course I the day I decided to head for home I see the best stuff like the Abo Mission here. This and two others are in the area. It is possible that in March I may return here rather than the Four Corners area but no matter what I will be back to here. This was way too cool and Abo is the least excavated plus there's other stuff as well close by.

You can read the text in the picture and it's worth it. Click click. Guess you can't but you can get a good look at what this was like.

Now you can read it.

This local fellow was looking for some attention when I went to leave. My Stretch was not at home when I got here but showed the next day and now is loving life again. He's gonna get his cat butt thrown outside here real soon.

 

Rangers the first place I camped returned my fee saying I must have been in Texas as they charge the entrance fee in addition to the camping fee. No I just read things wrong. But thanks guys and wherever I was people were sooo very nice.

Senior (62) and a NM resident. A 100 smacks is all you pay to camp. 225 for out of state. This is why people live there. Want electric or water it's 4 bucks and 8 with a sewer hook-up. What a deal.

Here we be like Texas. Campsites are 6-8 higher to begin with and it's like 300 for an annual pass or close to that. Senior starts at 64 and they mention something about a small discount for camping but do not explain. What is a $10 site in NM is 16-18 here on top of a day pass for walk ins. I can't afford this. Maybe they want to keep the riff raff out.

While pecking this out a favorite of mine came on and I just must be having fun I guess.

A Dinosaur Picture Song

An attempt to capture images with music of a place of wonder. Video's like this are fun too.
 

Cross Posted @ OTC

Nice Kitty

This cat showed up two five pound bags of cat food ago. I think it may be neutered as before it got here I would think there would be a pregnancy involved. It's not real young. It gets named in the video and can live here as long as it wants and get fed.

It's possible this could have been a young feral cat as it took some time to become acquainted. An unusual thing is that this cat does not play. At the end of the video she pounces and that's the first time I've seen that. It's also a good hunter which isn't all that great as already there is one less rabbit but they're trouble for the garden as well.

This cat is very gentle but still spooks easily at times and no way would it approach others unless it was real hungry like it was when it showed up.

We'll see soon enough what grows outta this. This is a pretty cool cat and it 100% grey.  

On Hurt

Driving the other day I wanted to follow up on the post below where Curtis actually did hurt himself and I chuckled too. I refuse to watch video of people getting hurt. This post is about something else with only three pictures.

I take pictures of just about anything that catches my eye. One of my folders is hurt pictures where two of these came from. In my former life a fact of life was that hurt was around and certainly never became a stranger for long. Just the nature of the game. There is no attempt here to gross anyone out and I don't see a time that I would use any of the others. Let's get on with it. I made these small except for the pretty one.

This happened just about three years ago. It doesn't look like much and specifics aren't important. Two of us made mistakes. We three learned from incidences such as this and I know we all reevaluated how we did things after this particular one each in his own way. My boss saw it happen and expected the worst. I was knocked out and was very lucky to walk away. Believe me the hurt was not all that bad except for an hour or so.

One of my favorite places to fish. Given the right conditions it's surreal because it is so beautiful. It was on Trout Creek that the third picture was taken coming up on six years ago.  

It's not as bad as it looks. Sometimes when you fish places like this you are not always in the water. The grasses and obstacles along the bank can be deceiving and numerous. Was along the bank and the tall grass hid a depression that I slid gently into coming to rest softly with my back against dirt. I remember and had said then that was a soft landing.

Felt a tingle and looked and saw of all things a small piece of crappy wood that was in my arm. It went in then under for a bit then out again. What the hell.

In a matter of a couple seconds I grabbed it looked away and as quick as I could flicked it out. It bled just a little bit and stung maybe for 5 minutes or so. Washed it out in the creek and did a better job when I got home a few hours later as we went on fishing and had a great time YES!

Now to the meat of this. And understand this is not about me but about the whole thing being something other than what one might think. The Queen of Egypt could tell this story and I would find it interesting. It's probably boring as hell but it's what makes things go round for me.

Nothing like this ever happened and what I find soooo interesting is this - from the initial sting I never knew I owned anything like this. It never had a bandage and apparently was in a pretty safe spot on the inside of the arm. How could something like this not hurt I just don't know but it didn't. Seriously it was like it never happened.  

Tara said more than once her's didn't hurt. She was lying.

A Chuckle From Before

As in the past life of working and the chuckles are at the expense of a friend. We both laugh hard about this. My regret is that the conservative side of me said for the longest time said no to this technique and what a huge mistake that was - huge! It's like many things - use it in moderation and it's fine. We worked so much harder than we had to. This is for problem tires only.

And a sacrifice was made.

So just how hot was it? I don't think the small explosion made the valve stem that hot but the air in the tire was and it happened when the air was escaping that it got real hot quickly. You need to stop the air or else the tire will come back off the rim which was the problem in the first place. I do not miss this at all!

Yes The Wind Can Blow Here At Times

It sure can.

Geode Central

A couple weeks ago went for a hike to the east three miles to the top of this mesa. Crossed the Huerferno River where you see cottonwoods.

We're on the river bottom and you can see there is not much water that flows. At one time water flowed around here a hundred years or less ago.

A while back a six mile stretch of pcv was run to get water to where it was needed from a well that produced enough to make it worthwhile. Our well is 22ft deep and is hand dug.

Quite a bit of fossil activity going on.

 A small drainage on the way out to the mesa. We were talking last evening and it seems like one cottonwood tree can consume as much as 300 gallons of water a day. Years ago most trees were cut down in place like this just for that reason is my understanding.

Here is a concentration of geodes along the way but not the mother load.

This is on top now and looking to the north and the Hueferno River. There are some petroglyphs here and appears to be fairly  deep.

The center of these is certainly crystalline in nature but not as pristine as you associate generally with geodes as a whole.  Some do have color. What I find so interesting about these that people can not comprehend for some reason is the size and how close to round many are as you'll see.

Everything you see here is a geode.

These things are huge.

I thought we had quite a few around our place but it's nothing like this and have never seen so many hanging on the side of a drainage like this.

On the way back and the peak looking west and a bit south is Mt. Mestas

This is Greenhorn mountain a landmark for the area and lies at the very end of the Wet Mountain range.

This was quite a way from where the other geodes were. This one was ready to fallout of the bank and I one handed it slightly and it did.

Back at home and by gosh there's geodes here too.

I think this video does a better job show how many there really are. Turn the sound down because there's wind noise and me breathing, This is illustrative only and not very long.