Riding For The Brand.... Finally

I have been working with the New Mexico Livestock Board - Brand division for the past 5 months to get my Grandpa's brand transferred to my name. Grandpa decided this past year to not renew the brand and no one else in the family wanted to either. But I did - I didn't want the brand to just get released where anyone can register it. So I took up the torch. What a process!!!

We all thought, since Grandpa didn't renew it I could just pay the $75 fee and have it transferred to my name but... that would be easy... so of course that's not how it went. In September I printed out the transfer forms, sent in the money and waited... for a month, then I got the forms back with highlights - I needed to pick my second and third choice of brands, and submit the fee (oops!!). So I wrote a check and put in a note saying this was my Grandpa's brand that he was not renewing it and I wanted to keep it in the family AND I didn't want another brand. So I sent it all off again and waited.... another month passed and I get a phone call asking when my Grandpa passed and if my Grandma was still alive. So, I explained that both are still alive and well and that I just wanted the brand transferred to me since they didn't want to renew it any longer. That led to Grandpa having to produce a bill of sale for the brand... got that taken care of, just to find out that on the paperwork, Grandma is also listed as owner so she had to produce a bill of sale too. That happened two weeks ago and I checked the NMLSB website today and I am the official owner of the "cross lazy H" brand!!! YEA!!!!!!

The Cross Lazy-H brand

Why was this so important to me? This brand was first registered by my great-grandpa, Henry Elbert Toombs in 1925 and has been in our family ever since. My Dad had it registered in Texas until they moved back to my Grandpa's ranch. I couldn't bear to have it go to some stranger!! It's only $75 every three years and it is a great piece of our family's history. And now its mine!!

Blue Skies & Puppy Pics

Here's a photo of blue skies for you poor PNWers that are in the throes of a drab PNW winter. :-P

View of Sandias from our yard

Today was Hannah's & Maggie's first vet visit. They both weighed in at 15 lbs. We weighed them at home when we got them and they were around 13 lbs last Sunday. Certainly not starving here. We have a HUGE pile of leaves behind the house and I'm so glad we haven't gotten rid of them yet - these three will play out there until they just collapse (much to mine & Bryan's delight!!). Below are some more photos of them.

Pressie, Hannah & Maggie

Maggie - 10 weeks

Hannah - 10 weeks

Oh, how we LOVE the leaf-pile!!!

Ahhh, come on Pressie. PLAY with me!!

Pressie deciding the leaf-pile is pretty fun...

Pressie overseeing the leaf-pile shenanigans

Hannah & Maggie after 30 minutes on the leaf-pile

Jan 23 - Strip Mine Trail

Today we took Pressie for a hiking adventure (the kids were home napping). We pulled out the handy-dandy "Sandia Mountain Hike Guide" and picked a moderate hike not far from the house. This one is located in Placitas, about 5 miles from the house. This trail is only 1.8 miles in length (one way) but is pretty rough as it follows an old Jeep trail that passes by an old strip mine (we couldn't really tell with this was). This trail is shared by hikers, mountain bikers and horseback riders, but today there were few people on it.

The guide book suggests that you go in early morning or winter months as there isn't much cover along the trail & I would agree with that whole-heartedly. There are spectacular views of the Sandia Mountain, and northwest toward the Jemez and west across the open desert. With a good scope you might have been able to pick out our house, we had a great view of the water tower that is nearby.

Pressie did amazing. She quietly stepped off the trail when we met people, never cowering like she usually does. She was even curious about the biker that rode by. Still skittish but much better! And she loved bouncing down forest service road 445 - quickly climbing into my lap so she could see better!!

Raymona & Pressie on the trail

Looking toward Bernalillo

View down the trail

Pressie taking a breather

At the trail head parking lot

View of the Sandias

FS Road 445

Look closely and you can see Pressie

with her head out the window

Pressie taking in the sites

Jan 21 - News About Something Other Than Puppies

Well, I'm sure most of you couldn't care less about Hannah & Maggie. :-) So here's a bit that doesn't include them.

Raymona has a new Great-Nephew, Kody Allen, born to her niece Elisha and husband David. Kody joins two older brothers, Danny Ray (15, I think) & Blake (7) and an older sister, Kaitlyn (2). Kody was born December 28, 2008 - about 2 weeks early! I've been waiting on photos but thought I might be waiting a while so... Welcome to the family little Kody!!

On sadder notes, we've had three deaths in between our families so far in 2009.

Early in January, Raymona's second cousin, Corey, passed away peacefully in his sleep. He was in his early twenties and lived with autism. Corey was a very gentle soul who saw the goodness in everything (but dogs, wasn't a dog-fan) and loved the Lord. In fact, just as he was going to bed, he told his family that he was going to see Jesus and that he was going to be Jesus' best helper. We are all saddened by his loss but Heaven certainly got a good helper and a great Angel.

We found out yesterday that Bryan's cousin, Travis, passed away unexpectantly on Monday from (at the time I write this) unknown causes. Travis was in his mid-thirties and was an exceptional organist. His family is from Virginia but he worked at a large church in Ohio. It is so horrible to learn of such untimely deaths but this one just seems surreal to us. He was so fun-loving, outgoing and such a caring person; another Angel to watch over us all.

Then today, my nephew texted to let me know his paternal grandmother (my brother-in-law's Mom) passed away last night. I believe she was in her late 80's. Let me tell you, God got a handful when he called MiMi (Myrtle) up!! She was a great & caring person - larger than life really a character words cannot describe. She got crankier as she got older but really, who doesn't? Although of no blood relation to me, I always felt like she was another grandparent. At least now she is with her husband, Clark (Grandad), her daughter, Billie and son (my brother-in-law), Charles.

Hopefully (prayerfully) I hope this ends the deaths & sadness in 2009 in our families.

On the lighter side - my sister Shirley & her husband Ken, will be moving to Albuquerque sometime in February. Ken was accepted for a position at the University of New Mexico Medical Center. It will be weird to have family so close to us now. After 15 years of being 'alone' it will take some adjusting but we are excited they are coming. Hopefully, we'll find jobs here and won't have to move to Las Cruces or Alamogordo.

On the job-front - Still looking... there are either jobs for people with masters/PhD's or High School/GEDs... not a lot inbetween unless you have compter programming experience. sigh Bryan has had a couple good leads, me, not so much. I think I'm going to have to re-write my resume to be more generic. Things have picked up after the holidays and perhaps now that Obama is finally in office, we'll get jobs. Right? He PROMISED afterall that we'd have jobs, he'd fix everything - and 90% of America fell for it so... where's our jobs? Or at least our share of the wealth from the wealthy!?!?!? OK, that was tacky and probably bad karma.... but I won't take it back. We aren't too worried yet, but would rather NOT spend our house-sale money on rent & groceries but rather on a NEW house. :-) We are getting things done though - Puppies trained, volunteer work a bit, quilting some, concealed weapons training, Facebook updates, basking in the eternal NewMexico sunshine...

Well I guess that's it for now; all caught up on our news. We hope each of you are well and in good health. Take care and be happy!!

Surviving the Melee

Hannah & Maggie, doing what they do best
(and ALL the time!!)

Whewee, we'd forgotten how much work puppies can be and the need for constant supervision. We did breakdown and purchased a wire crate for them. Big enough for now but probably not in a few months, hopefully they'll be housebroken by then and we can sell it or donate it.

They are both doing well, we've had a couple of pee accidents and one poop incident but other than that they go outside, they are even beginning to come up to us when they need to go! Progress!!! YEA!!!!!!!!!!! They go in for their second set of puppy shots on Monday.

Maggie

Hannah

Pressie is still doing well, she will come up to me now inside or outside, sitting or standing which is HUGE! She is still leery if I walk up to her without her really 'wanting' me to, but she is learning to play with the puppies and me. It's actually kinda funny - she is really mimicking Hannah & Maggie, trying to be a puppy like them. Sad too I guess, thinking that she had to learn to play & finally get to be a 'puppy' at a year & a half old. It is so terrific to see her running around the yard with her beautiful tail curled over her back, leaping and sniffing and playing like a 'real' dog. She even growled a bit at a dog she saw thru the back door... first sound I've heard from her other than a whimpering dream and some whines when I'm in the bathroom; heck its the first 'dog-like' reaction I've seen from her other than the recent playing events. She is also going up the stairs, hiding out for a few minutes then she comes racing back down to see what we are up to - before the pups we would have to block off the stairs or she would go up there and hide for hours, never coming down unless we made her. Now its like her reprieve from puppy-madness.

Pressie taking a breather

Pressie & the girls

As much as we hate to, we are going to try and get her to the adoption site on Saturday. Pressie is still pretty wary of being on a leash & out and about with other people so I'm sure this will completely traumatize her. We'll bring her back if no one adopts her but we just can't keep three dogs and she just isn't warming up to Bryan - well she did come up to him yesterday when he had both H & M crawling all over him - I think she is a bit jealous. :-)

Jan 18 - Our Newest Additions - Hannah & Maggie

Maggie & Hannah playing tug of war

OK, we did it. Poor Bryan, he was really hoping we'd be dog-free for a while but I just couldn't stand it. I miss Bear's companionship so very much... anywhooo - we went to the CARMA (a Corrales, NM no-kill shelter) and adopted two little sisters. They were out of a litter of 9, Rottweiler/Lab mixes (what Bear was). Both are jet black, Hannah has a little smidgen of white on her chest but really we can only tell them apart by their collars. Bryan wanted to call them Kendra and Holly after the "Girls Next Door" stars but... well, I thought it was clever but had to draw the line... I'm hoping my girls are a bit smarter and since they aren't blonde... hee hee

Mags & Hans getting their first drink

One of the them (can't see the collar
so not sure who it is)

Wrestling

Maggie

Hannah

Pressie was really excited to see them, she perked up and loved to play with them outdoors. And jealousy helps a little, I guess - she will come right up to me now. Still hesitant with Bryan but as she sees him playing with H & M she'll come around. I think we'll try her out at the adoption site next Saturday - I know we are horrible but I think two pups are about all we can handle and we are still too worried that if she can get away, we'll never get her to come back. Too risky when we are camping.

Pressie when she first saw the pups

Pressie making sure I see her too

I love to see her grinning!

Let's see... how am I going to break it to Watermelon Mountain Ranch that we adopted from somewhere else... Don't know yet but guess I'll have to sometime.

Jan 16 - The Road to Taos

I-25 North toward Santa Fe

Today we took a quick trip up to Taos, NM. It was approximately 120 miles from our house to Taos. Getting there we took I-25 to Santa Fe, used the Santa Fe by-pass, Hwy 599 to Hwy 285 then connected to Hwy 68 on into Taos. Most of the route was very scenic, especially once we hit 68 and neared the Rio Grande. We will certainly have to go back that direction to explore the Rio Grande Gorge.

Along Hwy 68

View heading into Taos along Hwy 68

Taos is a historic town north of Santa Fe that is now well-known for it's art galleries, tourism and nearby ski resorts (Taos Valley, Red River and Angel Fire). Taos was the preferred home of the infamous and controveroverial, Kit Carson between 1826 and 1868, although he probalby actually lived there about 9 of those years due to his extensive traveling as he helped settle the American West. His third wife Josefa, lived there with their 6 children. Taos is also home to the oldest, continually inhabited settlement in the US - the Taos Pueblo. It has been home to the Tiwa tribe for more than 900 years!! While mostly a peace-loving people, they are best remembered as spearheading the only successful revolt by Native Americans in history, the 1680 Pueblo Revolt.

We did not visit the Pueblo on this trip, mainly just walking around the plaza, having lunch at Ogelvie's Bar & Grill and touring Kit Carson's home & museum. While I'm not exactly sure how I feel about Kit and the part he played in the settling of the west and near extermination of the Native American's, I am fascinated with most things historical and since we have read the book, Blood & Thunder, which outlines his life and documents the settlement of this area - it's neat to be able to see & touch the history described there. With that being said, I think the Kit Carson Museum was very much lacking... it was neat to see his three room house where Josefa raised their children and Kit entertained many formidble historical figures; it was a bit sparse on artifacts from that era, from Kit's actual life etc. For $5 you view a 20-min documentary on Kit's early-life produced by the History Channel and starring his great-grandson then you get a quick overview from the curator and allowed to walk through the sparsely furshished 3 rooms of the house. There were a few storyboards regarding Kit & Josefa but that's about it. Read the book mentioned above (which they sell in the bookstore) and you won't need to read the storyboards. :-)

Walkway in Taos

Taos Plaza

Taos Plaza

Walkway in Taos

Kit Carson's House & Museum

Courtyard behind Kit Carson's house

View along the High Road

We decided to brave the snow and take the Taos High Road home. Much more scenic than Hwy 68, more mountainous, but definitely slower. And no snow, at least on the roads. Yea!

We are anxious to head back to the Taos area to explore more, there are several forest service roads begging to be explored, rivers to raft, trails to be hiked...