This & That

We spent the last few days in Springer, NM helping J's parents with some stuff around their place. The kids love it so much there, and it is always great to spend time with the grandparents. And then on the weekend, with their cousins. The farm is growing with some new chickens and calves. There were twin calves born in early March, they are so cute, and the kids loved watching them drink milk. Ben gathered eggs and rode his bike all over the place. Mimi was so busy playing, eating and riding in her backpack. We really need to get that girl up and walking. She gets into way more trouble crawling. Jack was stuck on his Papa's hip the whole time we were there, he barely lets him out of his sight.We had a great time and the weather was so beautiful, if a little hot. I really love Springer, and I often think about my first visits there. I never thought that New Mexico could be beautiful, because all I knew was Farmington and Albuquerque, which are both dry and deserty. Then I went to Springer and saw the beauty of the small town. It is sort of funny to imagine that I ended up there right out of college. I had such big plans for living in San Deigo or New York City, and the minute I fell in love, I headed straight to Springer with a population less than a single apartment building in the big city. Ahh, well, I loved it then and I still love it now. One thing about it is the quietness of the little town (aside form the occasional train whistle). We lived on the busiest street in town and about four cars an hour drove by, and usually they were the same four cars. In small towns, people still cruise on main street. The other amazing thing is the amount of animal-life that a person can see in a single day. On Saturday I took my mother in law to Cimmarron, a small town about twenty miles west and on the way there we saw a pheasant, some antelope, an emu, some buffalo, sheep and hawks. Of course, the emu, sheep and the buffalo are not wild there, but still, where else in the world would I see an emu grazing in a cattle field? Oh yeah, there were cows and horses and naughty Dexter (the farm dog) chasing my wheels. When we got home,J, Mimi and I took the "mule" cart down to the river and looked at bob cat tracks and imagined owning our own piece of land and raising our kids where they could run around outside all day in the sun and air. J is a son of the soil and I know that there will be a day when we move back. Who knows when though? Would you like to see some of what we saw?

The 7:00 am view from Donna's back door

Jackson on Papa's "truck"

B fossil hunting

" U-tratoe"

Here we found a dinosaur track...or a broken rock.

Mimi and I at the river

Going for a dive...

A field at the rancho

These might be the twins, but I am not certain...they all look the same to me.

Sadly, with all the time I spent playing Laura Ingalls, I missed out on some VKT (valuable knitting time). I got about a quarter of the way down the leg of a new angel's nest sock, (I'll tell you the whole ugly story tomorrow) before I decided to rip it out because it was twice as big as it needed to be. It could have been a tube-dress for Mimi. When I was at the laundr-o-mat (cleaning our pile and J's parent's laundry whilst the men-folk had the water turned off) on Saturday, I forced myself to seam one of B's slippers, but I still have the other one to seam before I can felt them. I think I'll do that in Durango on Thursday in my mom's top loader. I just have too many dirty clothes to tie up my washer with anything but actual laundry. Ugh, the saga continues...

What else is new? I got a nasty letter from the HOA about my double jogging stroller being stored on the front porch this weekend. I totally appreciate that they don't want our neighborhood looking trashy, but I swear! It is so much less offensive than half the so-called decorations that people use on their front porches, and half the neighborhood still has their Christmas wreaths on their doors. I ask you, what would you rather see? A plastic lawn chair or a beautiful purple stroller? I mean, it's not like I duct taped some umbrella strollers together and threw them out the front door. Anyway, now I have to figure out where the spank to store the thing because I can't very well leave it in my living room. It is huge! I am tempted to take the wheels off and set it out on the porch and call it a two seated bench. Do you think that if I put a wreath over it anyone will object?