It's happening outside

My boys and I arrived late Friday night at my mom's house in northern new Mexico. We gave her a bouquet of flowers and some birthday presents. Of course, we sang Happy Birthday and watched her blow out the candles on her birthday cake. Then we headed up to my cabin for the night. We are welcome to stay with my mom but I love my little cabin at the top of the mountain.

When we unlocked the shutters on the windows in the morning we saw my lodger sleeping under the window boards. He takes a little while to wake up. Then he flys away for the time we are at the cabin but he comes back when we leave.
We had egg burritos with sausage, green peppers, cheese and salsa and freshly brewed coffee for breakfast. Then it was time for a little work.
A couple of years ago my husband cut an enormous pine tree down that was growing too near the cabin. This was taken last fall and it doesn't do it justice. The tree is much bigger than it looks. The base is easily 2 feet across. This is a view of THE TREE from inside my cabin. This is the upper part. You can see how close it is to the cabin. If it had fallen wrong it would have taken down the cabin.It still needs to be cut up for firewood. Ross is quite handy with a chainsaw so he went to work at it. However, our big chainsaw wasn't acting properly and the small one wasn't big enough to do the job so we only got the upper branches cut up on this trip. It was still a pretty good load to bring home. Here he is trying to figure out what to do with the blasted chainsaw!After the woodcutting, Ross wanted to have some fun, so he went fishing at one of the little ponds down at the bottom of the mountain. I joined him for a while but he wasn't having any luck at all.

I decided to go for a walk near my cabin. I only made it to the field next door but I took lots and lots of photos.

This vine was growing up through a pine tree. Does anyone know what kind of plant it is?

I love how the rocks are mossy and the trees grow all around them. It rained a few days earlier and this rock still had a puddle of water in it. This is a four foot high boulder that I climbed on.
Does anyone know what this cute little vine is called?
Look at all these young pine trees! They're all about 2-4 feet tall.

I love how all these branches are so crooked. Unfortunately, they look like dead trees so we'll need to take them down.
This pretty pine tree is growing up through the branches of the other trees.The ranchers were very creative in the old days, using anything they could for fencing.

There is a whole art on barbed wire. Every rancher twisted his a little bit differently.
I came across some scat, a lot of scat actually! This pile was huge!!! This is only a few hundred yards from my cabin. Seeing that, and then another pile near it, I decided it was time to return to my cabin.

Later in the day, my boys were driving away from my mom's house at the bottom of the hill and they saw a black bear run across the road in front of the truck. It was huge, they said, 300-400 pounds! Judging from the pile of scat I saw, I would agree.

Here's a picture of Trevor, kicking back and enjoying the cabin.

Soon it was time to go home again. Always, too soon!

FYI- I spoke with my mom yesterday and she saw the bear walking near her yard. She agreed that it was big! And the other day, she saw a hawk circling around near her Pug dog. He must have decided that Tobey is too big because he gave up and left. There are eagles in the area though so I guess she needs to keep an eye out for Tobey when he's outside now.

It's happening outside- song: Outside, artist: David Bowie, album: Outside

Lodger

Tomorrow is my mother's 82nd birthday! My boys and I are going north to visit her as soon as Trevor gets out of school (his first day back). We will be staying at my cabin. I haven't been there since the 4th of July when Lisa and I spent the weekend to do some letterboxing. Since the day Rojo died right after we came back, I haven't spoken nary a word to her. I don't know why she's not talking to me, (she told me once that bloggers are strange, strangers?) but, whatever...

We'll go past the old mill,

up and down a couple of hills,over the river,and through the woods,

to Grandmother's house we go.

I have my Mom's cake and flowers ready to go. I'm going to finish this post and wrap her presents now. This time tomorrow, we'll be celebrating with my Mom and then heading up to my cabin for the night.

And if we're lucky, we'll get to see our summer lodger.

Lodger - album: Lodger, artist: David Bowie

Over the bushland, over the trees

This past weekend my son and I decided to take my newest car out for a road trip. (One week ago, I bought a used 2004 Hyundai Accent with automatic transmission and 51K miles.) My son has been learning to drive but doesn't want to learn with my Infiniti FX45. I don't really want him driving it either! All the other cars are manual transmission and, as a beginner driver, he really needs to concentrate on driving more than shifting. So, when I bought the Accent he was very excited. He wants to drive it all the time. We call her Sally because she has a salvage title. She was in an accident and the insurance company totalled her. However, the same guys we got the Saturn from fixed her up for us and she looks almost new. Engine is working fine, no body damage anymore, and the frame is good.

We decided to go north, so we loaded the dogs and a few odds and ends. Here's Gunnar on the back seat with Daisy's head behind him. Daisy is looking out the back window (sort of).

Here's Buddha on the floor. He likes to sit on my lap but for some reason he wanted down between my legs. He sure curls up into a little ball, doesn't he?

We stopped at Dixon's Apple Ranch hoping to get a bag of delicious champagne apples. Alas, they were sold out! We drove past Santa Fe, Pecos and Las Vegas. Here's Storrie Lake outside of Las Vegas...New Mexico, that is! The photos are bad but the water is always varying shades of turquoise and really pretty.

It was a beautiful autumn day even though it threatened to rain a few times

We passed several old buildings

and pretty, little churches
Since we couldn't get apples, we decided to get some raspberries at Salman Ranch. We shared a scrumptious raspberry sundae!

Salman Ranch is next to the old mill at La Cueva. Click on photo for close up of sign.

We drove past Victory Ranch where there are lots and lots of alpacas.

We drove through Mora which is an old village with one main street.

I do like this mural on the weaving center building, Tapetes de Lana. Never been in it though. One day I'd like to stop and see what's inside.

After almost four hours we finally arrived at our destination. I have a cabin in Sierra Bonita where my mom lives. She has a house down by the river. You can't see it in this photo but her house is in the top left section in the trees. Also, the very first photo of this post is showing my car in front of her house. This is Coyote Creek.

My cabin is at the top of the mountain in tall, old pines.

Here's the kitchen, complete with microwave and stove. The refrigerator is on the other side with the kitchen table.
Here is the living room with a lovely stone fireplace and huge picture window (not shown)
This is a view of the high ceilings in the living room and the propane wall heaters (one old and one new).This is the master bedroom. There is an electric blanket on the bed for cold nights. :)


This is the second bedroom. That single brass bed actually came from a hotel in Colorado in the 1800's.

I have always loved my "little cabin in the mountains" even though it has no running water. We have a dvd player, books, games and a phonograph. There's always fishing and hikes to explore the roads and woods. We are only seventeen miles from Angelfire for winter skiing.

In the past, I have seen bears, bobcat, wild turkeys, and a wolf. Mountain lion tracks have been found in the nearby meadow. We have a little bat that comes every summer. He sleeps under the wooden window covers when we are not there. When we lift the boards he flies away. The neat thing is that we can see him from the inside of the cabin through the glass before we remove the window covers. e looks like a winged, leathery mouse.

It's so peaceful in the tall trees, although I do worry about forest fires. Wild strawberries grow in the summer along with pretty wildflowers. I have spent many wonderful weekends, in all seasons, there.

We had a great weekend visiting my mom and then staying the night at the cabin. It was so cold in the morning though! 30 degrees outside and only 60 inside. I really cranked up the heater for a while. Then we went down the mountain and had breakfast with my mom. We stayed with her awhile; then it was time to head home.

I noticed gas has actually dropped below $3 a gallon! When I checked the mpg for the trip we averaged 38 mpg! Not bad, considering we went up and down mountains and did 75 on the freeway.

I think we're going to really like Sally!

Over the bushland, over the trees- song: African Night Flight (David Bowie) album: Lodger