Our good friends, Mark and Teri stopped by to spend a couple of days with us while we were at Sevilleta NWR.
We had not seen each other for three years.
It was great to catch up with them once again.
We went on the short walk, 1.1 mile. We enjoyed the nice weather as we walked and talked about things.
They visited us at Ottawa NWR in Ohio, Moosehorn NWR in Maine, after our 3 month stint at Arapaho NWR in Colorado, and now at Sevilleta.
We got a kick out of this little critter, the one that does a hand stand to raise his rear end up in the air!!!
It is so great to get together with friends.
Sharon and Bill also paid us a visit and took us out to lunch. She had her camera for a photo, but since we were working that day, my camera was not with us.
I guess I did not make it very clear to some...we are back at Attwater Prairie Chicken NWR for our fourth time. It is good to be back among friendly people.
Until next time...
Darrell called saying he needed seed in the ground.
Here we are!!! Back on "my" tractor...seed in the ground and rolled in.
This section of ground was plowed several times last year while we were here.
Here I am putting blue stem seed in the planter.
It is a native grass bagged by Native Americans from Junction, Texas. For doing this, they keep a portion of the seed.
Wallace is on hand to help out with the bags. With his help things move so much faster.
This is about a 40 acre field, and I was on the tractor for ten hours. I did not mind. I was determined to finish, but the tractor said it had enough. The warning light came on and said STOP...so I did. There was just a little left that I finished up without a problem the next morning.
Here from inside my tractor, you can see the difference after the seed has been rolled in. How about that straight line??? The roller is connected behind the planter as you can see in the first photo.
I have heard words for people like me. A***. That does not bother me and I will continue to make straight lines.
This plot is now finished, but we have many more bags of seed to plant.
We are certified to use chemicals, so today, we tackle some of the invasive species down by the creek. Wallace gets to spray while I maneuver the tractor with the spray rig.
The main culprit is McCartney rose.
Wallace had the hot, hard part while I was in a/c. This rig is really a nice set up...I rev the engine so the spray comes out stronger. This photo was taken out the back window of the tractor. The ground was not level so there was a lot of maneuvering of the tractor...it was fun trying to figure out the best way to do that and get down where we needed to be while keeping things safe. Wallace did a great job. It has been said that we make a great team...I think so too.
I managed to make time to clean Darrell's office. He is on vacation this week and we want things to be spiffy when he returns.
Looking forward to next week to see what Darrell has in store for us.
Will close with this picture of a scissor-tailed flycatcher posing for us.
Until next time...
We were ready for another road trip. We drove North to Bernalillo on I 25, then turned onto 550 to the village of San Ysidro.
San Ysidro is the only surviving settlement of the original seven "Pueblos de los Jemez" formed under the Spanish crown. Jemez is pronounced Hay-mess.
From there we turned onto 4. What a beautiful drive with so many things to see and do. You may follow along with us by using the map.
Our first stop was at the Walatowa Visitor Center for information.
They had a replica of a field house and an oven (horno) located on the grounds and you can see them below.
The horno, or oven, arrived with the Spanish. This oven helped to bake bread and other baked goods.
Inside the visitor center, we enjoyed learning more about the people and their history.
The pueblo cannot be toured without a guide, so we opted out.
Don't you just love this corner fireplace? I love the architecture in New Mexico and have visions of us living here...I would just have to have a fireplace like this one.
Following are some photos of the beautiful red rock area.
The next place we wanted to visit was closed on this particular day. We did manage to get a couple of pictures from the road.
The Jemez Historic Site.
The role of the Franciscan mission system played an important part in the colonization of New Mexico.
They say this is where you will see some of the best preserved ruins in the American Southwest.
These buildings were built in 1621. Before the arrival of the Spanish, the villagers conducted their religious ceremonies in underground kivas. This village is known as GEE-say-wah-tuu-wah, which is a Towa word, "village by the sulphur." Only 18 percent of this site has been excavated!!! Archaeologists believe this village was first occupied in the 1300's and is ancestral to the Jemez people.
We were so disappointed that they were closed!!!
Time for lunch, belly up to the bar!!! Hey pardner, where are your cowboy hat and chaps?
Jemez Springs is where we stopped at Los Ojos where I tried their chili stew along with tacos.
Soda Dam and my how you could smell the sulfur.
An interesting stop where there is a little waterfall coming out from behind the rock.
Next on the route is Battleship Rock where there is a picnic area and trails.
We had already had lunch, so opted out of stopping here.
We had our bathing suits packed and really wanted to take a dip in the hot springs, but time did not permit!!!
Jemez Falls was our next stop with a hike to the falls being longer than we had time for, but we did it anyway...would not take the time to do it again as this was as close as you could get and just was not that exciting.
Then past the vast area here known as the Valles Caldera National Preserve, New Mexico's super volcano.
Our final stop on this scenic byway was a visit to Bandelier National Monument where we climbed inside an ancient cliff dwelling.
This is an underground kiva where religious practices were once carried out...a rather large one.
This was a special place where important decisions and knowledge was passed on. One entered from the roof by ladder down into a darkened room where torches were the only light.
The canyon and mesa country is part of the Pajarito Plateau. The pink rock of the canyon is volcanic ash called tuff making it look like Swiss cheese. The holes in the cliffs were rooms. These structures before you were probably used for food storage.
A petroglyph I noticed inside one of the rooms was of this macaw.
Just had to climb into one of the rooms that had been occupied by these ancient people.
What an amazing place and made pretty good rooms to live in.
We talked about how they did not have nice sidewalks to climb up to these walls.
You can see how the rooms connect. On the ceilings that are darkened is from smoke from the fires inside which hardened the tuff.
This is certainly a fascinating place, much like Mesa Verde in Colorado.
Evidence of human activity here dates back more than 10,000 years.
The Jemez Volcano erupted more than one million years ago.
We say bye for now and recommend this drive for all to see.
Until next time...
We got to go out on the refuge by ourselves!!! I can drive now as Wallace opens gates.
The rise in the background is called Black Butte, a nice landmark.
We came upon this female box turtle.
We saw a herd of pronghorn.
Our reason for being here was to pick up this trailer.
Kathy, refuge manager, purchased these plants to replace some that died from lack of water.
Wallace and Jim worked on the irrigation system and got it working...the filter gets plugged.
We thought this privet would look good in this space in our front yard.
Wallace and I removed ten dead trees prior to the planting. There was a dead cottonwood in that empty space. We talked to Kathy about how nasty these trees were and the fact that they are brittle. We are replacing all those dead cottonwoods with privet and desert willow trees.
Our reinforcements showed up. Two SCA students and Jim (not pictured, you will meet him later.
We managed to get all ten plants in the ground with two to spare.
We are checking other plants to see if they will put on new growth now that they have water...some of them are coming back.
AND look who dropped in on us just after we got the plants in the ground. Phyllis and Nathan. It was so great to catch up with them again. They are now back in Florida on the beach!!!
Our next assignment was to drive to Valle de Oro refuge to pick up this brush pile and take it to the zoo for the elephants. We were told it was a small pile. We were flabbergasted when we pulled up to see this!!! At this point we already have the trailer full with that much left over. We took this over to the zoo where they graciously accepted it but said they did not want any more!!!
Next we were to take this trailer full of metal to the metal pile, but first the tire had to be changed as it had a big bulge in it.
I was sick this day...Kathy, Jim and Wallace went out to dig up some coffee cans buried next to rebar that were used for some kind of research.
This was out near the wolves pens and they were able to observe them from afar. I was so upset thinking I might not get this opportunity to see them.
Wallace digging up a can.
I was home sick when our friendly rv repairman, Dale Hanson called saying our cooling unit was here and he would like to install today...YEAH!!! We are so thankful the refuge had a fridge here we were able to use while we waited for this fix. It is now fixed!!! Dale came to the refuge to put it in. Wallace had a surprise when he got home that afternoon...no more traipsing over to fetch!!!
Another project was to install two signs at the rest stops on both sides of the road near the refuge. After cleaning out all the gunk that had collected inside the rim, they slipped right in. We secured them at the top with the rest of the frame. While we were there, we met a fellow from the blood bank on his way to ABQ, I asked him where we could donate, got the address.
The next day we were to take the recyclables to ABQ, what a good opportunity to drop by the blood bank. We got the okay to do that as it was nearby.
We have never had to do this any place else but here all the recycles are weighed before taking them in.
We like the way the area is set up.
That is some of the things we have been doing during our time here, other than staffing the visitor center. Sound interesting????
Exciting things to come...stay tuned.
Until next time...
