Where's that damned Yak at?

Well, the grip of insomnia continues. I started this at 3am after about four hours sleep. I woke up and there was no controlling the urge to come out to the desk and start writing.

So you all know by now that I am moving yet again. I know I have moved many times for work an promotions. Sometimes I wonder if lack of responsibility and dumb decisions cause the moving or my destiny does. As I get "more matured in life" (G) I think more and more that I truly am suppose to wander. I hate it sometimes, it's expensive, and it can be extremely scary, it's very stressful. But every move has brought some great experiences, wonderful new friends, and adventure that many people don't have a chance to experience. I do however envy those of you who have the ability to stay put and have roots.

OK, so the story. Last week Mark informed me that he didn't believe we could be roommates. I am sick to lose this cool adobe house, the wonderful gardens, the amazing scenery, and my chickens and turkeys. But I am completely at rest with his decision. Honestly I think it's best for both of us. He has been through the ringer this year and I tend to think that he needs time to regrow and flourish on his own. Like me, Mark lost a lot of identity and his passions. Now he can pick them up again. I have already seen the change begin in him.

I began looking through house ads even before Mark's decision full well knowing that I needed options. I knew it needed to be rural but even yesterday morning I began looking at ads for apartments in Santa Fe. Moving in town would have just put me into a tail spin emotionally but I was having trouble finding the right ads to even reply to. The list of issues was long, no dogs allowed, no privacy, mobile homes, bad areas, too far out from Santa Fe or Albuquerque, no electric and water, totally furnished, too high priced, and on and on. But I began looking anyway and I knew I just had to keep an open mind. SO, I even considered a straw bale house with no running water. Now, for the average person a straw bale house might sound awful, no water or electric, impossible. But down here in many areas that is the life of the people of GREEN! This state and region is becoming a hotbed of alternative housing and off the grid living. The bale house turned out to be smaller than some of the bedrooms I have had. The owners were awesome, cool, and extremely sweet. I feel terrible their place wasn't a fit. I hope to have them as friends since they will be living five miles up the road. So I kept hunting and through a new couple I just met, I found a possibility near the "town" of Cerrillos. Remember now that I live in a land of all kinds of homes. And I was really excited to live in this adobe. Heck I think wetus, longhouses, plankhouses, tepees, and hogans would be cool to live in. (Do ya get the native connection there?) But I found something that is kind of all encompassing! You'll either think I have lost my mind completely (Yeah some of you do already) and I agree that some of it has to be fried from a former lifestyle, but others of you may just want to move in with me!

And here it is ... No, I am not joking!


I may not have an adobe, a tepee, a hogan, but BY GOSH I do have a Yurt! Yes, it's true. Now pick yourself up off the floor, stop laughing, and read the rest!

When I first heard that this was available I really did get excited. I called the owner, talked a lot to her, set up an appointment to see the house, err, Yurt ... and then got cold feet, called her back and tried to cancel. But she however convinced me to come out and just look at it before jumping to a decision. I'd already planned to scour that area again yesterday so it was OK to agree to go out. It's about 140 miles round trip from Abiquu. Man I am so overly happy she did that.

First off, the place is near the small village of Cerrillos, NM. on the famous Turquoise Trail, twenty minutes to Santa Fe and about an hour to downtown Albuquerque. I had been looking in the general area between SF and ABQ and just plain lucked out. My place is part of a small compound as is many older properties here in NM. It has a main house, two casitas, two yurts, and some out buildings. The land is just amazing. If you have ever been out West or see pictures of the eroded sandstone formations like Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs then this is a mini version! As you come up the main road Rt 14 from Santa Fe it begins to get hilly and then all of a sudden you drive through a pass and wow! On both sides of the road are beautiful eroded upthrusts of sandstone sculptures. They aren't monoliths but they are very pretty. Drive just a 1/4 mile and you come to "our" gate! The compound is literally in the middle of a section of this rock garden. I entered the gate and no joke, I felt peace. Once in awhile I get these odd good feelings and it happened there yesterday. So the drive continues another 1/4 mile to the compound and I am home.

Here's a not so great shot of the main part of the compound with Gini my new land goddess (G) in the center. More about her in a bit. My Yurt is to the right of the cars under some trees.


This is a shot of the casitas


This gives you an idea of the formations that are right in the compound and surrounding it! It's a shame that years ago someone built in this special place of such beauty but words don't explain how lucky I feel to be enveloped in this natural beauty Mother Earth provided. It's an honor.


Now this is a great and potentially troubling building ... a greenhouse that was once hydroponics. "Danger Will Robinson!" LOL!


OK, now for the digs. In my "adopted" family I have an beautiful cousin, Wendy Blount, who has made quite a name for herself in the world of Interior Decorating and Design. I think she's been published so many times our family should have a section of the den with all the high end decorating magazines she's been in! Now I wonder if she could come help me out with this challenge. Change a "high Buddhist priestess" Yurt into an American Southwest Yurt ... on a budget? LOL! Mark did say he thinks I need to get a pet yak tethered outside for looks. Just what I need, an idea to buy another pet!

I am fortunate that the place is packed fully furnished with all kinds of pieces that are individually pretty cool. I have always liked an ecclectic look. Places that are so put together because everything matches bores me. So, I really can play with this. The things I don't want or need are going to be passed on to the young woman in the neighboring yurt who is just getting started in life setting up house. Now if you know me well enough you can look at the pics and see what will not be staying! However don't be surprised if a statue of Buddha stays out of respect, appreciation, and wonder of other cultures and beliefs! And my old crucifix from my highschool will be in the place too as well as my growing collection of native American items. I am interspiritually open! (If that's a word)

So now, here's a contest like the "Find Elmo" This is a test to see how well you know me and what items might stay or go! LOL!

Here's what you see walking in the front door. Right behind Buddha and the screen is the bed area. To the right is the kitchenette but I want to move that to where the "office mess" is right now across the room. Right in front is great old gatelegged table and chair that will stay for sure.


This is the first seating area to the right as you walk in. I really like it and that will be staying. I see a sleeping spot for out of town guests! And it's very comfy! And yes, darn it, that is a hint to all of you!


This shot is about eight feet in the front door past a screen the looks left of the bed area to the TV area and wood stove! (I love wood heat!) The brown wavy thing on the wall is one of many windows that are opened and closed with flaps. They are a good control of heat and cooling.


This is right next to the front door and is the "messy office" area I spoke of. Now it's a black hole and might become the kitchenette area. Yeah, Ex-nay on the Drapes-A!


This is the skylight and can be cranked open for great summer cooling. The high pitch will create a good drafting effect much like the way a wood stove. Of course it lets it wonderful light just like a Kiva portal!


Here's a shot of the bed area. This iron scroll work bed will go to the neighbor and mine moves in. I think I do plan to have a screen in front of the bed since it sits directly across from the front door. I want to cut red coyote willow before I leave Abiquiu and build my own screen.


Now this is what I'm talking about! This is not good lighting but this is right out my back door and deck!


This is a shot of the front of the yurt looking onto the huge deck the wraps three quarters around my yurt! I can't wait to have all my potted cactus collection on it with other flowers this summer. That greenhouse is going to be handy!




So there you have it. What I held for last is that there is no running water, kitchen, or toilet in the Yurt! Yup! I plan to rough it a little. But right next to the casitas is my own bath and shared kitchen. I have water beside my front door. You know, I have always made concessions wherever I have lived. Much worse ones for sure! Once again I have fallen then landed on my feet. As corny as it sounds, again, destiny and adventure has been set in front of me. It's like a carrot in front of a rabbit to me! My life has been rough at times but it's times like these that make me want to live forever. I hope you can tell I am terribly excited.

NOW, does the title of the post makes sense?

It's the pits!

Well, this is very late in coming but I really need to thank a lot of people for two amazing weeks in the hot sun at the edge of an arroyo with mosquitoes and gnats and being covered in ashy sand. It sounds awful but it was one of three events in my life that have been the most incredible times I have ever had. So, Gary thank you for you thoughtfulness in telling me about the Archaeology class and getting the gears moving, Barbara at Ghost Ranch for slipping me into the Archaeology program at last minute and the scholarship that without I'd not been able to afford to go. Barbara, you are a sweet sweet woman, John the Crew Leader for being such an great and interesting leader who's a treasure of knowledge and wonderful stories, again Gary for pushing my application through. And most of all Mark who held down the fort at home and did everything that normally we both do in a day, even when he was in terrible pain. Your hard work, patience, and thoughtfulness are acknowledged and deeply appreciated.

First please understand that this story is in amateur words. It is very technical work and I am not about to act like a pro.



The story ... Ghost Ranch is a dream for a geologist, paleontologist, or archaeologist, anthropologist, botanist, and yes, tourist, because of it's incredible amount of the geological activity over millions of years and the fact that it has been scoured away by erosion exposing many layers of soil and rock deposits creating a beautiful display of formations and scenery seen for miles away. It has many areas they know of and are sure many not found of dinosaur bone deposits. A dinosaur and the state fossil, Coelophysis from the Triassic period has been found in abundance there. A recent discovery at the ranch turned up a new species that may be cause for rewriting history of the period. And lastly ancient human activity. Ghost Ranch has many known sites and more to be discovered of ancient native cultures. And there is where I jump into the story.

All of the attendees of the class from as far away as Boston and California, were given the choice to work on one of two sites and/or work in the lab. The first site was deep in an arroyo drainage against a cliff face and many artifacts have been found there. The other site was across the ranch and at the base of a smaller ridge that was out in the open and not a whole lot has been found there yet. Wanting to dive in head first (what's new there) I chose the first site. For the sake of security to these sites I will not be giving any details of the location to protect the site from looting that is very prominent here. Our team was made up of about seven people, most of which were people who've come back each year because they love it so much. I think there were only two of us who were totally new to actual digging. We were led by John Hayden. John has had years of service with the Forestry Service and is now retired from there. However, the man never stops. His love for the region and digging keep him very active. He is an enclyopedia when it comes to soils, plants, native cultures, and history. And he is one of those people who are just plain great. He certainly has my admiration. And I wish I had his devotion to this project and his drive and energy!

The first thing we had to do was set up the site with tarps for shade from the intense heat coming down on us from above and off the cliff face. Then a bunch of equipment had to be dropped in by rope about 40 feet or walked around on a trail that was just a little too long to carry things in. After that John assigned us grids to begin working on. I was place on a grid with the other new man and next to an experienced man so he could watch over us and give us some direction. The whole process of excavating a grid is at times very tedious and time consuming. Record keeping alone is very involved and needs to be to make sense of what is being discovered at the site and how it all comes together after many seasons of digging. After finding something of interest we took a photo of the item where it lay, recorded it on our grid map, wrote a description, wrapped it, bagged it, then logged it into the field record book. Sometimes after hours in the heat writing gets hard and sloppy, memory stops working, and you just want out of the pit and into a cool shower!

We found some really cool artifacts. The most was bone fragments. The site is assumed to be an over night or hunting camp. Multiple "thermal features" (fire pits) sites have been found and bones have been cracked open to scrape out the marrow, a great source of protein. We found a few pottery fragments and several points (a.k.a. arrow heads) and point fragments. The site was also littered with fragments of chert a cousin to flint I believe, and stone tools as well. The chert pieces we found where mainly from Cerro Perdenal several hours journey by foot. But there were also fragments from miles and miles away. I think I was the one (not sure) that found a shell bead. A shell from the Pacific. These people migrated hundreds of miles annually to trade, hunt, and survive.

Layer by layer, centimeter by centimeter we scraped our trowels through the ashy sand in sometimes broiling heat. The tarps protected up from the direct sun but the cliff face heated up and man did it radiate the heat. One morning when we arrived at the site I was climbing down into the arroyo and I could feel the rock face still pushing out heat from the day before. The days were sometimes long an tedious but geez when something cool was found my heart picked up and my excitement reminded me what this time was all about.

The program itself was in two parts, work at the site from 8am until 3, 4, or 5pm depending on our discoveries and sometimes our excitement. Then we had lectures by some very well experienced and educated people and a talk about the days discoveries with the other team at site two. That went from 7pm until ... well, when my body said enough! I'd race home between the dig and the class to grab food and race out. Thankfully, I was fortunate enough to drive the 7 miles home each day to collapse in my own bed. There were a couple days where I was about to quit just because of the grueling heat and body pain from kneeling, leaning down into the pit as it deepened, or laying on my belly to reach the next layer. But like most of the time, by morning I was reaching for a stable object to pull myself out of bed, get strong tea in me, pack a lunch, and head back excited to find more discoveries.

At the end of the dig each year all the equipment gets packed away ... now it's time to pull it out and load it up in the trucks.


You see all the backsides because just in front of them is the cliff that drops to arroyo and dig site.


Down they climb onto the site.


Most of our heavier supplies and equipment had to be dropped down by rope


And our shelter from the direct sun begins to go up


Yup, time to get dirty. My guide Craig from Boston has been at this awhile. He will over see me for the first week.


I am nervous as heck! I am so afraid I'll ruin evidence or destroy an artifact. My nervousness slipped away pretty fast.


Measure once, measure twice and just for kicks measure three times. Each item is marked on the grid map. Measuring correctly and actuarately means that back in the lab all the data can be combed through without guessing. I think it was a compliment that John said he approved of my attention to detail. The mapping and sketching was very fun.


No! I am not sleeping on the job! The pit was on a slope and I happened to get the high side. So as we dug deeper my side deepened fatser. Laying on my belly was the only way I could reach. Yeah, Yeah, that's my bald head.


This was one of the coolest times in my life! I hunted for points or tools many many times by myself and with my grandpa. Not once did I ever find one bit of anything. I broke my record the second day when I found this beautiful transparent obsidian bird point. I'll admit my head swelled just a bit that day. It sure as heck pushed me onwards!


Look close at the paper towel and you can see a small rodent jaw I found deep in the pit. More than likely he died in an old filled in burrow. There was no evidence of him being cooked or burned.


So here's where you can go crazy in the heat. In my hand is a bird bone, many chert flakes and a couple bone fragments. Each one has to be measured where it's found, place in an envelope with all the details of where it was found, then logged into the field book. I think it takes more time to log than it did to scrape a centimeter of soil all day.


This was a super find of mine. This is an atlatl point. You can Google to get the details. It hopefully will be of some help to sort out the site's age. This point was attached to a long fletched stick. The stick was then thrown by a notched stick. It was a powerul and deadly weapon in the right hands.


Maybe you've seen this before. This plate with letters and numbers and directional marker maps the pits depth and location as well as the spot where artifacts might have been found.


This is without a doubt the coolest find. Sadly I have to say it wasn't mine. What you see is a hammer stone in the man's hand and large bone fragemts sitting on top of a work stone. They were cracking bones for the marrow. The women on our team uncovered this great find just exactly as the cook left it hundreds of year ago! In situ! Some one must have left this camp in a hurry and didn't bother to do the dishes!


So, I could show dozens of more photo's but they get pretty monotanous. I went away from this feeling like I had experienced a once in a lifetime event. I am a very lucky man to have had this chance to dig into history. When I think about it five months later I am sort of taken back that I did it! My love for this region and the Native history has always been strong. This dig made me realize that I have only barely scratch the surface of what is available to me here. There a many many new experiences and adventures in this beautiful "land of enchantment". That's a pretty fitting name for this state as far as I am concerned! Now .... onto my next big adventure!

Summer pace

Yes, again I have to give you all kinds of excuses for not blogging as much as I did on my blog in Colorado. This Spring and Summer have been like one of those big Spring thunderstorms that I love so much passing through full of intense energy, dropping tons of fresh water the plants use as energy, big bolts of lightning striking every now and then causing my adrenaline to rise and pulse to quicken, and refreshing everything as the storm passes. It seems that as soon as I get out of bed and the coffee kicks in I hit the ground running! And thank goodness someone was thinking when they brought the custom of a siesta to this area! When the heat in the afternoon reaches a peak I can't describe what it's like to retreat into the embrace of a cool adobe house, take a shower, and relax and catch my breath, and maybe nap a few minutes. It's a good time to revive!

We have been so very busy with a million projects. It seems that both me and Mark have this little problem keeping of priority list straight and the list just grows like the obnoxious Russian Thistles we are cursed with. You pull one and find ten more growing in it's shadow!

So much has happened and of course I'll say it again, I have a million photos to select from my collection to share .... and I haven't found or made time to do it. That relaxing work is pretty darned low on that list of priorities! LOL!

The pullets where moved in with the older laying hens, some roosters where sent packing to our friend's farm in Abiquiu, and the turkeys are growing amazingly fast. We've taken time out for a couple special events in the community like feasts which have been a great addition to our learning experiences of the rich diversity of culture here. We've made a couple more friends and hopefully we'll be adding more. I am always excited to meet another craftsman or artist and they seem to be thick as fleas here!

Our two largest and most intense projects are grass growing and garden developement. Mark has been crazily obsessed with covering all the patches of dirt in the yard. When I came here there was more clay showing than grass. I have been helping him get our clay soils amended with huge amounts of manure, compost, and clay buster and then put in the bunches of wildflowers we grew from seed and the too many plants we got from the local nurseries. We are trying to use alll native plants but it sometime limits the color in a bed so we occassionally use non-native plants for that.

I was given a wonderful chance to be invlved in an Archaeological dig at Ghost Ranch. Our friend Gary Salazar who's a manager at the ranch told me of the class. He also pushed through a scholarship for me to take the class for free! The class is in two parts and the scholarship paid for both sessions! They would have cost me over $1,000.00 if I had to pay for them. I have finished week one and I am not sharing yet all that has happened. This is a tease but it's an exciting story so far! I am having a total blast! I am working in the story right now. Week two starts for me tomorrow, Tuesday, and goes through Saturday.

That's a very quick summer update. Hopefully more will be added to the blog soon!
I hope you all are having a great summer!
Barry

Poults!

So do you know what a poult is?

Well, any self respecting person that lives in the country and enjoys animals as much as I do has to have a turkey or two! Three weeks ago I picked up five Rio Grande Turkey poults. (poults are turkey chicks) We are hoping there there to be males and females in the group so we can have a breeding group. We'd like to eventually have enough that we can release them into our surrounding pastures. We'll see about that dream though. We have a good number of birds of prey in the area that may stop us from releasing any turkeys. This turkey breed is a subspecies of eastern and western breeds and is native to northeast New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas. This habitat we live in here is perfect for them as they like open arid areas near rivers and large trees for roosting and we have all of that.

And here they are at nearly two weeks




Here is the adult Tom in full glory. I guess you can see why we wanted to raise them!

Cerro Pedernal

Standing 9,862 feet above sea level in the Jemez mountain range this is a major landmark in north-central New Mexico and just up the road from us. You can see this beautiful formation for miles before you ever get to it. The word "pedernal" is "flint" in Spanish. There are many colors of flint on this mountain and the natives gathered it there and used it for arrowheads and many tools. And it is still considered a very special place to them. The tower is a basalt shaft from a volcano left after eons of erosion worked on it's sides of softer rock.

Georgia O'keeffe painted it, called it her own, and her ashes were scattered there. She said "God told her that if she painted it often enough she could have it" and Cerro Pedernal is in over a dozen of her paintings. She also had a cassita at Ghost Ranch that had a view of the butte.. Many others have done what she did in painting it like my friend in Colorado who is a native Navajo from New Mexico, Al Livingston. His borrowed painting of Abiquiu Lake with Pedernal dominating the background hung in my house in Calhan, CO. This past December I was very excited when I saw Pedernal for the first time knowing I had the painting on my wall.

We can't see this very special butte from our house because we are so deep in the Rio Chama valley and the mountains to our south block the view. But crossing the road and walking just up the forest service road or driving home from Abiqui you can see it loom in the distance.

Here are just two shots of what we can see from the entrance to Copper Canyon. I will for sure be sharing many more pictures of this feature that dominate the skyline here. The hard part is being at the right spot at the right time. It seems that since I have been here it is usually very hazy or cloudy around the butte and the pictures haven't been very crisp.

Canyon del Cobres

I thought the canyon got it's name from the beautiful sandstones that have copper or yellow tones to them. However it was named because of four Spanish copper mines that were worked years ago. We have yet to find them. The canyon and this entire area were formed by a series of huge volcanic eruptions and flows and then years of erosion and upheaval. This entire region is made up of the Valles Caldera. The last recorded flow was 50,000 to 60,000 years ago. There were two caldera forming eruptions that took place 1.4 to 1.1 million years ago.

As you can tell from my previous pictures we are surrounded by fairly tall mountains and cliffs. But if you'd Google map this area you'd see just how large the caldera and impact of the explosion was. I am told that debris from the eruption can be found in substantial layers of soil as far as the Mississippi River.

Two weeks ago after Mark finally got me convinced to get outside and hike we headed up the arroyo behind our house. This is just one of several that drains the canyon. I was like a kid in a candy store looking at formations, pebbles, boulders, and the amazing array of colors in the sandstone deposits. I wish I was a geologist because we found a slew of different types of rocks and pebbles. There were flints, lava, mica, conglomerates, many different colors of quarts, of course sandstones, and a ton of others that we didn't know.

I always wanted to live in "Red Rock country" but I am very happy to live in an area that is so much more colorful. The pictures that Mark and I took can't begin to capture the colors, the beauty, or the scale. We took a hundred shots that day between us. It's very hard to pick just a few to share with you.

It all starts with some soils, some water, some wind, and of course a few million years!


Now can you see why I am not too upset that I don't live in the red rocks?




These lava formations were really amazing. Some looked like a sci-fi creature because of the erosion on them






In the distance is the red rock knife edge that has been in a couple other postings.


We have the biggest ravens I have ever seen. They have always intrigued me. This one decided to tag along with us for a short time.


Me on some of the yellow sandstone.


One of two dry waterfalls that become rushing torrents after a good rain. The erosion makes a beatiful place.






This is a nice red rock formation in the midst of other colors.


More beautiful colors.


Erosion can turn out some pretty suggestive forms. Or am I being bad?


I caught the indirect sunlight lighting up this cliff late in the day. This picture has not been touched up! This is the true color!


Our walk down the arroyo to home


That's it for this blog. In the next few days I will show you another set of cool views from this trip. But I want to focus on the subject matter a bit more.