Wednesday, 04, May, 2005

Largo Canyon, April 20,2005 Arrived in Albuquerque midday after over-nighting in Seattle airport. SeaTac has upgraded its seating in the Departures Area to include armrests between each seat - not much fun for those of us who want to sleep lying down! I asked the cleaning staff about sleeping options but they had no suggestions other than benches in the busy traffic area in Baggage Claim. Tried to catch some sleep on the Mezzanine level next to the Meditation Room (which was locked!) but the floor was so cold & hard that I only slept for a couple of hours. I went to a washroom nearby to get ready for my 5:45 am flight and found a sofa with carpeting and low- lighting! So, if you ever have to spend any time in SeaTac, go to the washroom on the Mezzanine level. Largo Canyon is as fabulous as ever. Pat & John have finished more floor area to include an office, guest room and greenhouse on the 2nd floor. Last week we (a crew of 5) tiled the dining room and breakfast bar and this week we are building a larger corral and arena for the horses. There are 4 horses, 1 mule and 3 donkeys here (plus 3 dogs & 4 cats) and Clay (a rodeo cowboy bronco rider from Texas) and Sholei (a cowgirl from Montana) are both heading out soon to collect their horses. I am learning to ride Sundance, a seven-year old Palomino. I'm trying to win him over by grooming him & offering treats throughout the day. He is so big, I feel like I'm on a double-decker bus when I am on his back. I’ve included a picture of the two of us. He’s very smart & I think I confuse him with my directions when we are out riding but it’s a learning process for both of us. My biggest problem is mounting & dismounting. Cannot do it alone, need someone to boost me up & the first time I tried to dismount, I pulled his saddle off with me! Toni and I drove to the airport in Albuquerque last week to pick up my Thai friend, Supha, while John & Pat were at a mule-training weekend. Supha is here to learn English & study for her US nursing exams. We weren’t sure she’d actually be on the plane as US Immigration detained her for several hours in Seattle, interrogating her re her intentions. They called Pat & I here at the school to confirm that she was coming to visit, asked me if she cleaned house for me in Bangkok & asked her if she was coming here to find a husband. She told them she had one already & didn’t need or want another. Everyone is helping Supha with her pronunciation and she is teaching us Thai cooking. She is surprised that all the men here cook and like it and all the women use power tools and can fix most anything! Pat & I just returned from a 4 day/3 night camping trip to Chaco Canyon, the cultural centre of the Anasazi people who lived there 1000 years ago. Pat collects & records flowering plants from the area and we were fortunate to be able to hike in areas that are normally accessible only to the Park Rangers. We came across many beautiful pieces of the distinctive black & white geometric-designed pottery, worked pieces of flint, as well as large pieces of quartz and mica. And, of course, we left all in situ. Hiking in the back country was challenging as we climbed mesas and clambered down into and up out of canyons and arroyos throughout the day. We decided that future trips have to include an evening footbath with Epsom salts! (a Thai massage would be nice, too!) Lunch on the trail was to be a can of beans, followed by a can of beets but I forgot the can opener. Pat used a piece of rebar we found marking the site of a Navajo sheep herder’s pen to open the cans. The next day I remembered the can opener but forgot the spoons so we used the tin lids as spoons! Pat says they are called “cowboy spoons”. We hiked for 2 hours the first evening, six hours the first full day and nine hours the last day. Not sure what we might have achieved the 4th day if our truck had not had ignition failure. Pat was able to repair the unit so it would accept the key temporarily & we headed into town to buy a new assembly. There was some funny mojo happening that day (close to the full moon) as everywhere we went to find hay for the horses & donkeys, we were met with bad hay and bad-tempered people. It was a relief to head off the pavement & down the dirt road to the Largo again. Donna 9:17:00 PM    comment []

Back in Cyberspace The silly blog software was misbehaving again. I just can't recommend Radio UserLand to anyone that might get frustrated by cyberspace. It really is only for diehards. But, I stayed up last night until after midnight, fussing with UserLand, until, it finally relented and let itself work. Trust me, I had nothing to do with it finally yeilding. It just got tired of me and wanted me to go away. We changed the blog now so that everyone in the household can post to it. With any luck, you will now get to read a diversity of perspectives. The weather has been hampering our efforts to finish the sucker rod donkey paddock. We all got quite depressed by the endless rain and increasingly mucky world. Then to top it off, Audie brought a movie about a family that looses their cotton crop to a big flood, so after that we were all ready to stay drunk for a week. Lucky for us, the sun came out this afternoon and it seemed worth living again. Clay and Sholei headed off to Texas two days ago. Nominally, they are out getting horses, trucks, and horsetrailers. Clay's cousin heisted Clay's truck from Kelly the wayward cowboy while he was riding bulls in a rodeo in Oklahoma. Kelly had, as you might remember, absconded with Clay's truck in Feb. and gone off chasing prize money and buckles. Clay got his cousin to take the extra key and relieve Kelly of his wheels. Sholei was getting anxious about her horse up in Montana, who is boarding at her ex-boyfriends' mother's stable. So it was to her advantage to help Clay get his truck and trailer to make the long trip. She says she's coming back, but no one is sure that she will. She's a free spirit. Audie has the greenhouse very spiffy. The tomatoes are coming on fast and we are eating collards as fast as we can stand. Today we transplanted another hundred or so Joe Parker Green Chili seedlings for the soon to be planted garden. The Indian corn is about a foot high and Toni's gourds are wishing for hot weather. Supha has been practicing her English. We have her repeating limericks, poems and nursery rhymes. The "br" sound really stumps her everytime. Phil got his CDL last week (a major accomplishment) and Toni is working on getting hers. John and Phil have been hauling trailers that John's been buying off of Government Liquidators and then selling them through the American Classifieds. Now there are two Mobile Weapons Labs (one a 1953 model) parked across the way. John has this idea to turn them into vandal-proof portable cabins. I am really happy to have my brother, Phil, here. He is doing better than anyone ever suspected he would. It's one of the nicest feelings that your brother is no longer just a lost soul but survived long enough to get smarter. This is really good for our mom, Audie. Now all three of her kids are doing well. The best thing of all, for me personally, is having Donna here. Her unflagging enthusiasm is positively addictive. She says that she might stay until June as her hospital doesn't need her this month. Well, so much for now. It's good to be back in cyberspace. Yrs, JRW 9:13:49 PM    comment []