Local Fare

I had a very good day of fishing the other day in the Sacramento
Mountains. I caught around 20 Brookies in an hour. My garden is also
starting to produce broccoli. A tasty dinner indeed.

Gypsy Wagon

My friends me me at Ojo Caliente for some camping. They are building a
Gypsy Wagon to live in for therhe next several months. It is really
cool.

Santa Fe Trip

Me and Bean headed up to Santa Fe to hang out with some friends, go see Adam Carroll and do some camping. The dog park in SF is awesome. Its about 15 acres with trails all over it. The terrain is Juniper Pinion woodland with washes and hills. Great exercise, and I like it better than just going to a fenced in area and letting the dogs play. In this park you can walk, meet dogs and people which is great.

Santa Fe Trip

Me and Bean headed up to Santa Fe to hang out with some friends, go see Adam Carroll and do some camping. The dog park in SF is awesome. Its about 15 acres with trails all over it. The terrain is Juniper Pinion woodland with washes and hills. Great exercise, and I like it better than just going to a fenced in area and letting the dogs play. In this park you can walk, meet dogs and people which is great. 

 

Mezcal Canyon Long Lens

I have an issue with one of my eyes, in short if I use only one eye for photography then it makes my vision out of focus until they both readjust, minutes usually. I notice it most when using high magnification optics like a microscope or a long lens on my camera. Hiking the other afternoon, with impaired vision, in Mezcal Canyon I realized that I couldnt see detail in the side of the canyons. My thought was, what if there were a mountain lion, watching me? I wouldnt be able to spot it. Probably couldnt even with good vision. It just felt weird not being able to see what I could normally see. At least I had my fierce dog with me....

Fivefingers gang

So far I luke these shoes. I haven't gotten to test them out in a
serious hiking situation yet but have done some light hiking in the so
far. The are really grippy and responsive. No real problem with gravel
getting inside like with chacos. I will put them on the gila tested
blog once I've given them a thoughorough testing. No dog sizes yet.

Photogenic Dog

I will probably not get tired of posting photos of my dog. We went to ABQ on Thursday and ended up in Old Town. I really like taking Bean along on trips as she gets to become even more socialized in new situations. She is progressing!

Wild Onion

On our evening walk me and Bean came across some wild onion. Last week in the Gila I looked for wild onion at every camp we made and always came up empty handed. We scored big today. A whole hillside covered in wild onion And a few wild garlic. I tried to get some of the garlic but the bulbs were a bit too deep for my pocket knife, so I may go back with a little spade. The bulbs are small but very aromatic. They are covered with a fibrous material (outer leaves from previous years growth). I think I'll cook them up in an omelette.

Bean

Tour of the Gila via Kayak

This past weekend I went kayaking down the Gila river. We started at Woodys Corral near the Gila Cliff Dwellings and took out at the Mogollon Box, west of Silver City. We spend 4 days kayaking around 5o miles. The river had several types of water from flat to class III rapids. We pushed the limits for the types of crafts we had. I had never done white water up to this point, but plan on doing some soon again. I took several spills and one major flip. My boat took on lots of water even in small rapids, and if the rapids were long enough, by the time I got to the bottom of the rapid I was too unstable to make it through. We had snow 3 out of the 4 days, which made it uncomfortable to be wet the entire time. I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Big Bank Love

I recently misplaced my REI Visa card so called to cancel. I decided
that I would cancel and then re apply next rime I go to REI, this way
I get the $40 gift card for applying. Credit card companies don't like
to loose customers so they offered me a $25 dollar gift card. I
refused and then they offered me $40. I probably could have gotten a
free coffee mug too but decided I was happy. I really make out using
this card, racking up several hundred dollars in REI rewards each year.

Smart ass

Bean lived posing for this photo. She was not harmed.

Hilsboro

I just got back from a trip up to the Gila Hot Springs area. A great place as always.

Yoghurt

A friend in TorC has gotten the hook up for fresh whole milk from someone in the area with

cows. I told him I was interested and within a week I had a gallon of milk. Im not a big milk drinker and so had to think quick to figure out what to do with it. I looked into ice cream, gelato, cheese and finally decided that the easiest thing to do was to make yoghurt. The prep process only takes about 45 minutes, but the fermentation takes 12 hours. Here is what I did:

1. Procure some whole milk.

2. Heat milk to 180 deg F.

3. Put heated milk into quart Mason Jar.

4. Put hot milk into cold water bath and cool to 110 deg. F.

5. Add live yoghurt starter from previous batch or store bought.

6. Add flavoring and sweetener if desired.

7. Incubate at 90-110 def F for 12 hrs. (I used my hot spring water)

This stuff came out delicious! I made one plain batch and a vanilla sweetened with Agave nectar.

Beano's Dr. Visit

I had to take Bean to the Vet today for Xrays. On Saturday I noticed that a fishing fly had fallen behind my desk and I made the mistake of leaving it there. Of course Bean found it and when I saw it again there wasnt much left, including the hook. She started acting a bit sick this morning, so I took her in for Xrays. No hook inside. So the hook is still missing...

Bean and Ses

I've been having to enforce more selfrestraint with Bean, otherwise she gets out of control. Today she tried her best to hold in her excitement, but seeing Mikey and Ses for the first time is such a long time (a few hours) was too much. She laid down but almost exploded, and her only release was to do some unsolicited roll overs. She only did two but they were very precise and were enough to safetly drain her energy.

Raw Sunflower Sushi

I got this recipe from a friends raw cookbook after trying some rolls
that he made. These take some effort to make but are awesome. They are
trying to replicate spicy tuna rolls and do a decent job. Ingredients:
raw soaked sunflower seeds, celery, onion, bell pepper, cucumber,
jalepeno, dill, Lemmon juice, sea salt black, black pepper and olive
oil.

Smithsonian exhibit

TorC somehow got a traveling exhibit about American roots music. There
was a free showing this weekend so I stopped by. There were some nice
displays and some interactive instruments.

A Big Day for Bean

We went for a walk this morning at Elephant Butte Lake, then a midday bike ride and finally a play-date with Sesame and LuLu. Shes sleeping now.

What my dog is capable of

Bean crippled a mouse yesterday. She has been very interested in a
pile of sand for the past several days and I figgured it was because
of rodents. Yesterday evening she finally for one and broke it's back
legs. This morning I found it in the same place. Careful. Your dog
could do this too.

Cabbage+salt+fermentation=kraut

I was suppose to be going to a fermentation workshop today but decided
against it due to the many things I need to get done at home. We got
some spotty showers starting late in the morning so I decided to go
ahead and start some kraut. It took a total of about 15 minutes.

Garden plot planting

I planted seeds in my garden plot this morning; Mammoth Dill, broccoli Di Cicco, Detroit Dark Red Beets, Monnapa Spinach (and a few seeds of a slow bolting variety), Cherry Belle Radishes, Ruby Swiss Chard, French Breakfast Raddish, White stem Bok Choy, Fordhook Giant Swiss Chard, Dwarf Blu Curled Kale, Mesculun and Baby Oakleaf lettuce.

Bean thinking of delicious veggies

Garden plot after

I built up my plot at the community garden this morning. They had all
the materials and tools on hand which made it easy. I will be planting
some lettuces and other greens in the morning.

Garden plot before

Loading up

My friend mikey snapped this shot while we were getting the last if my
stuff from my old place. Glad to be done moving for now.

Turnips

Today I got a plot at the community garden in TorC. I met a member if
the garden who had her dog there so we took LuLu and Bean down on the
river to play. We met a 12 year old lab that taught our dogs to swim.
A great drain of energy for young pups. Oh and I scored some nice
turnips.

Living in TorC

This is my second day living in TorC and I'm glad to be here. There is
much more of a community here than in other places i've lived, though
this dose include some eccentric folks. While I was unloading the
uhaul yesteday I was told all manner of UFO and conspiracy stories by
a neibghor. Meanwhile the house I'm renting has it own hot spring
soaking tub. Life will not be boring here.

Palomas Gap

Palomas Gap connects the east and west sides of the Caballo Mts. I rode over there today with Mikey, Sesame, and Bean. Bean and Ses chased after another dog whose owner was there chopping wood. Nice views all around and a good place for camping during a Summer float trip.

Deer Find

I was walking with my friend Mike and our dogs today when we came upon a deer carcass in a small canyon. There wasnt much left of the deer, but I did find its jawbone, so I brought it home.

Christine the Furry Cat

Bean gets a lot ob blog postings, mainly because we are always out
doing fun stuff. So here's a posting of Christine the furriest cat
this side of the Continental Divide.

Rio Grande

A great sunny day in ABQ walking along the Rio.

Glad to be back in NM

Bean greeting the morning.

Ice Fog

This is what my mirrors and entire front of my car looked like after
driving through 400 miles of frozen fog.

Bean and Barny the snow dogs

Dogs love the snow and I love throwing snowballs at them.

January Snow

Ice storm last night snow storm today. Nice fluffy snow of about 10
inches so far.

Bean at DEQ

Bean did great in the city, until I tried to pose her by the Bison
statue outside the DEQ building. Check out how she's leaning away from
it. She was freaked out by this thing but finally she faced her fears.