Continuing on around the trails at the Wetlands...

Can you see the bench in the shade of this gigantuan tree?

There's Geneva, resting and waiting for me to catch up.

Tall grass waving in the gale-force wind that was blowing that day.

Paul on the bridge.

Me and my sweetie.

Trolls!

Nettie by the water.

Nettie with Meg on the bridge.

Meg and Geneva playing troll.

Cute trolls.

Aaaaahhhrg!
Try to keep a boy
(or his father, for that matter)
from wading into the river up to his ankles
and see what happens.
Just try.

My family.

I took this picture because....
I don't know.
I guess I like the juxtaposition of brown, dormant branches and new green growth.
Yeah, that's it.

On the way back from the bridge,
the kids wandered off the path into the forest,
and Megan came running back to me,
begging for the camera.
I acquiesced to her request,
and thus it transpired that we became blessed
with a series of photos of which many were suppressed
save these three alone,
which I deemed
the best.

Meg.

Heading toward Western Drug!

Driving in...

I thought it would be cool to have a pic of everyone out front on the wooden porch,
but it turned out all shadowy.

Nonetheless, it stands as a record of the moment.

Inside the vasty and cavernous reaches of the store, I was repeatedly
baffled in my search for the items on my list.
They did not have the color of red yarn I sought,
nor did they have the right size camping percolator.

They did, however, have a Lucius Malfoy walking stick...
(sadly, no pull-out wand...)

and several others that were equally artistic,
if lacking in the same literary associations.

And that completes my series from Springerville.

~*~*~*~*~

Stay tuned for Sunday's posts!

First of all,
every trip into town inevitably requires
a stop along the way
to photograph
our bovine
friends.

Hello friend!

Nice shade... a wise choice on a sunny day.

Thank you, friends.

~*~*~*~*~

In Springerville out two favorite stops are of course the Wetlands,
and the Western Drug Store.

We hoped to see lots of green at the Wetlands, but it hasn't really gotten warm enough
or monsoony enough
to truly green up.

A few signs of spring were evident though.

Kids by the river...

The water was really rushing and high on the banks
with winter runoff!

Megan poking a stick at something down by the bog...

~*~*~*~*~

T.B.C.

One of the blessings of fencing out the cattle was spotted on a cross-country meander on Friday evening -
blossoming Yucca plants!

This was my first time seeing them blossoming on our land.

This is Nettie's Tree.
My husband will never, ever, have permission to pull this down for firewood,
dead though it be.

~*~*~*~*~
I handed my camera over to a desperate Megan and went back to the cabin to see about supper,
and later she showed me all fun she had:

She likes my tree.

She says it is Tim Burtonesque.

I have to agree.

~*~*~*~*~

On the way back from the windmill,
we had to stop where the railroad goes over the wash.
Meg even got up on the tracks
(looking both ways first, of course)
to take a pic looking south:

And then north:

There's Meg.

At last,
we arrived back at the corner
of
The Heidmann Hideaway,
just in time to see the
shadows stretching eastward across the valley.

We actually haven't named our ranch yet...

Suggestions are welcome!

~*~*~*~*~

At the Windmill
by
Megan

~*~*~*~*~

~*~*~*~*~

Nice work for a young whippersnapper...
I'd better watch out,
she'll be pinching that camera right out of my fingers
and producing masterpieces
before I know it!

Continuing on our drive-stop-drive-stop
excursion,
we came to the windmill by the railroad.

Just around the corner, behind the windmill and corral,
and up on the hill by the train tracks,
were the cows:

And this dump truck
just sitting there:

Turning back, we headed over to the windmill to take a closer look:

And then, I handed Meg the camera!
T.B.C.
~*~*~*~*~ 

One of the most enjoyable activities our girls do
that we can only legally allow at the ranch
is driving practice!
It's a great place to learn the basics in a stress-and-traffic-free environment;
the only things you need to really watch out for are cattle,
and not taking the turns too fast when you're right next to the edge of the big wash!

When they were young,
I always fancied this would be one parenting job that would
without question
fall to their father.
I assumed
(based on a lifetime of experience as me),
that I would be far too excitable an instructor.
But here we are,
a decade later,
with two full-fledged teenage girls,
and I supervise almost all their driving practice.
As it turns out, I'm not excitable at all.
Just ask them!

But really,
I do think I've mellowed with age.

Late Friday afternoon, Meg and I set off on our own little driving and photography excursion.
She drove,
I would tell her to stop every so often, and I'd
get out and take pics.

Here we are at the start of the drive, looking east toward NM:

And looking down the "roller-coaster road" to the north:

Zooming in on those gorgeous hills beyond our neighbor Vicki's place:

Looking back up the roller-coaster road to the south:

Noting that Vicki's horse got out of the fence:

Up around the corner, I stopped to capture this rickety fence line.

Great afternoon shadows in the wash:

Panoramic view to the north-east:

The gorgeous hills again, from a different angle:

Scrub brush:

And this, my friends, is why we built the fence around our 41 acres.
This dustbowl is what happens when the land is overgrazed.

A view of the Coronado Generating Plant
from across the wash:

A little closer:

T.B.C.
~*~*~*~*~

Friday morning we decided to go exploring.
Paul has hiked all over the Carrizo ranch and found so many beautiful places,
and has even taken the kids to several of them.
He wanted to show one of them to me.
Only on slight, eensy-weensy problem --
and don't get me wrong - I love almost everything about the ranch, including hiking across country --
but I'm not so big on sliding under barbed-wire fences!
It just isn't my style.
So we set off in the minivan, looking for a road we thought MIGHT take us back to the badlands.

On the way,
we saw cows.
I like cows.
Especially when they are NOT on MY property!

We drove and drove after that, and saw more pretty...

and three cows under a tree...

These two were on the run by the time I had fished out my camera,

But this black one was wise enough to realize we were but a momentary irritation,
and she need not give up her shade on account of this crazy photographer.

We drove down many roads,
bumpy and rumbly,
rarely used and mounded between the tire tracks,
skimming the bottom of the minivan,
and wished we were driving the
suburban.
We drove across a big, huge, sandy wash as wide as a 12 lane highway.
We were thankful we did not get stuck,
as there was no cell reception
in that wash.
We wished we were driving the
suburban.
We drove to the end of the road to a closed gate and read a sign that said
"No trespassing, hiking or hunting."
It was full of bullet holes.
All the signs on the ranch are full of bullet holes.
We drove back over the wash,
and the bumpy
rumbly
road.
We found another road
but then discovered
it was someone's
driveway.
We drove around the back side of their property
along a track that was between
two rickety fences.
We wanted to go through the fence and beyond.
We could not find a gate.
We got stuck winding through the center of someone else's property
on a strange
serpentine
trail.

We found our way out.

We went back to the ranch,
having been foiled in our attempt to get to the badlands,
but having enjoyed the whole process of
exploring.

~*~*~*~*~

We have been absolutely delighted to see the green on our property this spring.
Friday morning I was out early as the sun rose
over the hill behind the cabin
and captured some of it.

At 2:30 p.m. last Thursday,
the loaded mini-van was parked in the only shady spot left at the Circle-K
by General Dynamics.
We only waited a couple of minutes before
Paul walked up to my open window.
He had left his car over in the GD parking lot and walked over to meet us.
I had somehow missed the boat on how we were going to do the driving, and thought we'd be taking two vehicles.  It was actually kind of nice to be able to hand the wheel to him!
Anyway, our afternoon departure made for a
lovely sunset arrival time up north.

~*~*~*~*~