vent, Vent, VENT!!!!!

I read dumb people. If I want to stop I'll have to get off most of the dog lists. Did you know that it is almost a federal offense to have a dog listed somewhere for sale? Good thing I warned you.
There are cyberstalkers out there not interested in buying a dog just surfing the web all the time to look for that most dreaded lowlife scumbag, that's right THE PERSON WHO HAS A BALKAN ANTEATER HOUND FOR SALE IN A NEWSPAPER OR INTERNET AD. These dogsellers must be stopped and harassed at all costs. Post their ads on lists with hundreds of members and imply that there must be something horribly amiss here if a Balkan Anteater Hound is for sale. Such atrocities cannot be tolerated in this PETA/HSUS loving society.
Apparently those cyberstalkers know of other ways to acquire a Balkan Anteater hound than to buy it from a breeder or someone else who has one. I can't help but wonder does Santa (or the Tooth Fairy) deliver puppies to them. Do they just find their Balkan Anteater Hounds running loose in a neighborhood and adopt them? Do the puppies spontaneously appear like they used to think maggots appeared on decaying meat? Of course I'm curious because it has never worked like this for me.
So all you disreputable people out there thinking you should advertise your puppies SHAME ON YOU, you are a national disgrace and should be put in stockades and publicly whipped for selling a dog.
Now in a couple of months there will be a plethora of people posting on lists that they cannot find a Balkan Anteater Hound, they are never advertised, they must be so rare, how is a person to find them. I promise you there will be.
The US sure has fallen for the PETA/HSUS rhetoric hook, line and sinker.

Livestock

Decided the other night to try out one of those online free local sales networks and see if anyone was in the market for some sheep. We have had two good years of lambs and have several sheep for sale. Before I even got the second ad uploaded I already had someone from around 30 miles away ready to buy what I had . So I tells the husband, "Husband I need this ewe and that ewe in the catch pen and such and such ram. I get home from work, ewes are up the ram isn't. Jeeze boy will that be fun. People arrive in a semi with a stock trailer behind it, after mucho careful maneuvering they back it mostly into our driveway. Without too much ado I go in the small catch pen and snatch up the 3 lambs they are leaving with, then grab the ewe by the tail and throw a loop over her neck. (no these are not nice tame halter broken show sheep) She and I go for a rather wild run across the front yard mostly with me in tow hanging on for dear life as the girl's husband is walking behind her to make her go towards the stock trailer. OK she is loaded. Now they want their ram. I'm like OK I'm gonna need a little help (now this photo is not the ram they bought but it is his father, the young ram is a year old probably about 120 pounds and half this much horn. I remove one of the 16 foot stock panels take it in the ram enclosure and attach it up in a corner so we have a three sided enclosure. Then I go in the house and get some feed and pour it up against the fence. I walk out of the enclosure and turn my back on the sheep ( you aren't as threatening if those forward facing predatory human eyes aren't watching them) in run three of the yearling rams, I whip around and grab the fence and block their escape holding on to that fence like well like I'll get kicked and jumped over if I don't because that is exactly what will happen. I reach in and grab the one we are fishing for by a horn, he is on his hind legs so he has no traction. Her husband grabs the other horn then we slip a noose over him. Between the noose and the horn we walk him out to the trailer pretty calmly. (OK once or twice he did jump 4 or 5 feet straight up in the air like a deer but no harm was done) Whew he was loaded. They decided they wanted my very pregnant goat who is due to pop anyday. She had triplets last time and you be the judge looks like she will again. She was easy to load though. Just took a bit of food in the trailer. All of this after a days' work .

You know though, I would rather slide around in barnyard mud, be up at night with ewes lambing, and dive after wild sheep than do paperwork, file reports, or deal with bureaucracy. It's too bad farming is so hard to make a go at financially, I could be a happy sheepherder.

Keeping Animals

means you are constantly exposed to God's sense of humor.
The top dual purpose dog love of your life that turns out sterile.
The best horse you ever owned developing "heaves".
Your pick puppy turns out undershot.
Your pick puppy is the only one that dies from some stupid one celled organism.
The only medicine that will save your pet will also destroy its growth plates.
Your favorite dog the one you'd like to bury with your own bones kills your favorite cat.
You get to bury your favorite pets, and some really good humans along the way.

I'm kind of wallowing around in morbid thoughts right now, guess I better go feed the baby goat. It's hard to be unhappy when you are bottle raising little ruminants.

My elusive offspring

Everyone is always surprised when I mention my son. I always wonder what that means....that I wouldn't make a fit mother ? that I really should not have contributed to the gene pool? I don't think a lot about it but the "I can't believe you have a kid, " always makes me want to say "why can't you believe it?" Since Michael who is now 27 working as a programmer for the state doesn't go with me to dog events (being married, having his own life and all) I submit proof here a photo of him on our big adventure last Easter. I took him to Mammoth Cave in KY. Very cool place, we checked out the main room and then did the Frozen Niagra tour. It is really different from Carlsbad Caverns in NM but both are worth seeing. It's kind of funny no matter how old your child is, superimposed in your mind over their current age and look, there they are as curly haired, cherub faced two and three year olds. I always wondered why my Mama looked at me sometimes oddly as an adult, now the mystery is solved.

Wouldn't you know it?

One of the things I did on this trip was bring Day ( the white Borzoi with black spots in this photo) back to her owner Leonore in NM. Day had flown to TN LAST OCTOBER because she had started her season and we had planned to breed her to the top male ASFA Borzoi and the top living ASFA Borzoi right now. However...... she had other plans apparently. By the time her 3 hour flight got to TN her tooty had closed for business. There might as well have been a neon sign flashing NO ENTRY . Nobody was even vaguely interested in her and despite all the tail holding up and inspecting I could do, I couldn't find any reason for them to be interested either. So she stayed there for month after month with me doing everything but sacrificing chickens in my yard to try and get her to cycle. She said, "ain't nothing shakin' but the leaves on the trees lady". So back to Leonore's, since I was feeling poorly ( but not so poorly that we didn't manage a day in the field to meet the local wildlife with Steve Garth who by the way along with his wife own what may be the most perfect sighthound I've ever seen Camille the Galgo) I decided to stay two nights at Leonores'. Got up after the first night and we are looking at the dogs and DON'T YOU KNOW THIS BITCH IS IN SEASON? So plan B which had already been simmering on the back burner I left Vger a pretty impressive performance dog in his own rights in NM (he is the black dog in the photo). I had planned to take him to LGRA races this spring and work on that title but I am betting if I told him he could pick there is a good chance he would have chosen tooty over jackalure. Then again maybe not, he is smaller than she, I understand she is VERY LOUD and vocal protesting his attempts and their trysts may end up via turkeybaster. Such is a dog's life.

The 8th day was a killer

I think we are up to the eighth day. Started out in Deming, let the dogs all get out and run, checked out Silver City, the Kneeling Nun, Santa Rita mine and then thought hey the Gila National Forest is between me and I25 let's just take that road. Follow the yellow brick road or I should say ease up and down the grades at 20 mph, pull over cool brakes, check out the overlooks, I think it was a 4 hour drive or so to make an hour and a half mileage wise at most. However, it was lovely. If you get to the Gila National Forest, pull out at Emory Pass. On a clear day you can see forever , and it was a clear day.
At the end of this road through the forest was several miles of rolling ranch land that ended at a very attractive "watering hole" called the Caballo Reservoir named after the mountains that loom just east of it. I took this photo of it just before sundown. The bad thing was that shortly after this I decided I probably had really erred in judgement being 1500 plus miles from home 2 weeks after major surgery. Surely that deep painful burning that was making me double over the steering wheel could not be normal. I put my hand down over the spot fully expecting to pull it back covered with gore because my steri strips must have pulled loose and my guts were spilling out, or my internal stitches had pulled out and my intestines must be swinging around loose like a hangman's noose in my abdomen, or I was about to herniate loops and loops of small intestine through that little tiny hole in my skin. Nothing has ever hurt like that before, and nothing other than natural childbirth has ever hurt that much. I'm driving North finally on I25 thinking oh my God I've got to get as far as I can maybe I can get to I40 and drive back to Nashville and they can get my guts back in. Got as far North as Socorro hanging over the steering wheel, pulled into a motel6, paid the lady, drank a large amount of liquid hydrocodone and fell into bed clothes and all, was asleep by 8:30 PM and thankful of it but alas the pain woke me up at 3:40 the next morning. At that point I was ready to freak out, jumped up got back on the road but finally by 7 AM it had started to abate some which helped convince I was not dying but I had overdone it. I managed to get to my friend Leonore's house in Sandia Park, NM got the animals taken care of, called Vanderbilt and got reassured after describing the pain that it was neuropathy, sometimes happened but would go away with some time. Most importantly I wasn't dying. Just having someone with a medical degree tell me that made me feel better almost immediately.

Now a break from your sponsor

A brief break from my travelogue. Next time I'll finish that 8th day out boom through the rest of them because I don't have lots of cool photos from them.
I work where no one wants to work with people that most of the world would just love to forget exists or maybe they'd like to visit harm upon them. Yes, that's right for 20 years yours truly has worked in a prison that houses medium security adult male felons. For the last 14 of those years I've been a teacher. My teachers aides are inmates, one has life without (meaning he ain't never ever never no way how shape form or fashion getting out of prison) and the other one will flatten his sentence when he is 71.
To those who lobby for longer sentences and less parole.
a. You are creating job security for thousands.
b. You are creating an inmate population that will inevitably become hard or nigh impossible to manage. A fellow that has no hope of ever getting out of prison no matter how he behaves or what programs he complies with or completes has no real incentive to act like an adult. He knows he has to be fed, to receive medical care and live in an environmentally controlled situation. Now that's welfare.

The Kneeling Nun (you thought I'd never give it up)

view from North
View From the South

The Kneeling Nun is a volcanic rock formation just East across the pit of the Santa Rita mine. It was noticed by the Spaniards and there are many legends regarding it. These photos were taken from miles away and cropped to the Nun. From the North or the South ( especially the South though) there is a strong resemblance to someone kneeling as though in prayer or at an altar. This area is the actual vent of the volcano that produced the City of Rocks some 20 plus miles South of here.

Who knew that the old Fort Bayard was a national cemetery? Well it is so I had to visit it. Although I am incredibly averse to going to funerals for people I did not know, that aversion does not extend to cemeteries, grave yards, memorial gardens, mausoleums or whatever you wish to call them. I drove around this beautiful hillside with views of the mountains thinking what a lovely place to set aside for service men and women.

Funny enough as you leave these gates that shelter the last earthly remains of many old soldiers, there she is again although many miles away, the Kneeling Nun also watches over this quiet memorial. I am seldom impressed with the Federal government for any reason, but finding this final resting place for the country's finest certainly impresses me. Whoever you are, "you done good".

Central Mining District, the Santa Rita Mine

After checking out Silvery City, I saw there was a touristy spot just south of there the Santa Rita copper mine, one of the largest copper pit mines in the world. One and a half miles across, 1500 feet deep and growing. It threatens to eat the nearby landmark of the ages "The Kneeling Nun" which is just on the East side of the pit. (See I told you I'd revisit that and I will again too). There were also two abandoned mines close enough to the road for me to get photos of them too but alas there were FENCES around them. As if curious tourists and picture takers would consider encroaching on private property.

Rabbit Ears (7 days on the road)

I didn't rest. I drove out to one of the fields Dan had shown me and let my dogs reacquaint themselves with the local wildlife, for some reason they had their "rabbit ears" on most of this trip, then drove North took a looksee at Silver City (cute, quaint but not as cute as say Jackson WY). Took a look at this huge strip mine one and a half miles across and 1500 plus feet deep, and right across from it a sort of wonder, "The Kneeling Nun" a volcanic formation that can be seen 30 miles away in many directions and which resembles for all the world a kneeling woman. More on that later.

Organ Mountains or my 6th day on the road

Tuesday Feb 5th we went to a different field in the area to look at local wildlife and let the dogs stretch their legs. Dan brought some to stretch and so did Dutch (Dutch's dogs stretch their legs very very fast). Dutch also brought along Andrew who is from Scotland (maybe to keep me company since as Dan says we both love to talk, and it turns out I was one of the few who could understand him. I told him that was because I was not a "real" Yankee like Dan). Anyway the field we were in has beautiful views of both Cook's peak (in the Florida Mts) and the Organ Mt range which is just east of Las Cruces. These are the very craggy Organs in this photo.

God's sense of humor

City of Rocks state park in NM is comprised of huge rock formations created thousands of years ago after a volcanic event. The rocks are actually formed from the ash rather than the lava. ( So says the brochure and the nice blue haired volunteer lady there). It has lots of campsites hidden within the rock formations and each site is named. The names are pretty celestial like Phoenix, Ursa Major, etc. I would like to suggest some names for some of these campsites.....

Commodus, Priapus, Gluteus Maximus, and Inadequas come to mind

Not to be morbid

Another favorite photographic subject for me is old cemeteries. On my detour this one popped up, I took several photos but the ones with the obelisk type monument are the most interesting. When I took my son to Mammoth Cave back in April we stopped at several of the old cemeteries in the park. I took photos, my son laughed ( kind of nervously) and said"Don't you think that's weird?" I said not really, people put up monuments because they want to be remembered or "found" by others. What more compliment to them than to photograph that?

Rio Mimbres

Well I think that is the name of it. I considered it Rio Damninconviente.

Eleven miles on this shortcut through this backcountry ( very scenic) gravel road following Dan I was ALMOST to the City of Rocks State Park when the road disappeared under water which is a rarely seen chemical compound in this part of the United States. Dan yelled across the current, "I almost got stuck until I put it in 4WD". Hmmm not an option in my Grand Caravan so I took a picture of Dan and backed way way up this road until I could finally turn around and retrace my path. The park was on my agenda for the day. This was just a minor detour.

Why I love New Mexico

aside from jackrabbits, love this scenery... this particular spot reminds me of some of the Shirley Basin in WY

Wait that's why I love WY too ( well that and the jackrabbits and the cowboys or was it Yellowstone?)

NEW MEXICO FINALLY

After leaving our property I headed for I10 in Fort Stockton which is around 30 miles south-southwest of the land and I need to know why the most expensive gasoline I purchased in twelve days and over 3000 miles of driving was in the Permian Basin of West TX where more of the crap runs out of the ground than anywhere else in the US? I mean COME ON it was over $3.20 a gallon there for regular unleaded. At any rate many hours and mountains later (isn't it funny driving I10 at night how on the Mexico side of the Rio Grande there are little towns lit up every inch of the way and on the US side it is pitch black until El Paso?) I was finally in New Mexico. It was around 10 Sunday night when I finally pulled into Deming which would be my landing pad for the next 3 days. Early the next morning my friend Dan called and he did not disappoint me, off we went to a glorious field ( under a threatening sky) to let the dogs stretch their legs and make friends with some local wildlife.

The tallest peak in this picture is Cook's peak which is over 8,000 feet. Dan says he wants to climb it this winter, um good luck with that let me know how it turns out.

10 acres in Snake Capital of the world

OK it is 10 acres with paved road frontage and electric lines running through it on an old ranch that was parceled out some few years ago. It apparently hasn't been grazed in forever as the impenetrable jungle of mesquite would indicate. Aside from that it is secluded (nothing within 15 miles or more in any direction) and if the mesquite were cleared off looks like a pretty decent view of the tail end of the Davis mountains.

Do I want to retire where summers are 95+ (it's a dry heat like being in a convection oven) and rattlesnakes don't hibernate. Something to ponder.

Girvin Social Club SALOON

Not too far past Texon, is the hopping Girvin Social Club Saloon. It even has 'lectricity' running to the building, but unfortunately I guess it was too early on a Sunday for the crowd ( or the proprietor) to be there. Maybe next time.

Texon, no its not an oil company

OK 4th day on the road, up early that Sunday (Feb 3rd) took a bunch of photos of Sherita's Borzoi then headed West via a scenic route through West TX instead of the interstate. 10 acres of property in Pecos County actually have my name on it, and have had the last 3 years but I've never seen it so with the goal of looking at it and taking a few photos and sightseeing on the way off I go.

I'm not sure how many fans of ghost towns there are out there but I love them. This is a cool one on the backway through the Permian basin. Texon, an old oil company town originally established in 1924 by the Big Lake Oil Company, and finally closed down in 1962 (the year I was born) after they had merged with a big oil company. Now it's just sun, sand and tumbleweeds.

Back To the Grind

OK so perhaps sometimes I overdo things. For example 10 days after my surgery out came the staples. I had the van PACKED and hit the road from the surgeon's office in Nashville heading to Arkansas, spent the night with a friend took a leisurely sort of drive to TX the next morning ( after walking my dogs that were along for either a reason or just because). So now we're up to Friday and I was headed for McKinney TX where another friend lives. Friday night spent in McKinney and Saturday we are up early for a big adventure on my route to even more adventures. A Rarities dogshow. Now 12 days after surgery I probably really didn't need to be running around a ring with a dog but I felt OK and it turned out to be a nice little sidetrip with the little dog I brought picking up half the points towards a title. That's him, me and the judge in the photo to the right here. Only once did I feel like my "innards" was coming loose.

After the show I drove on down to my friend Sherita's ( whose blog is linked here), took a little over 3 hours and the sun was going down just before I got there so I managed to capture a pretty colorful photo of the last of the light over the Santa Anna mountain which is just north of the little town of Santa Anna that Sherita lives in. Local story is that Gen. Santa Anna camped there when he invaded the US. Like Sherita says though all small TX towns have a local story, they may all have sunsets like this too.