Ring of Fire

It turned out to be a pretty mystical experience.Those once in a life time things that we remember. Quite literally. The day started with us being removed from our house, for an open house. I had high hopes for the stars alignment to fall favor on us too. But I feel like I've been lacking in the karma department.

Note to self: work much harder and giving out good... but not just to receive the good... to give the good.

So we headed up to Sandia Peak. I didn't quite realized there would be so many people there. As in from all over the country and world. Europeans, Asians, Eastern Europeans. For New Mexico, that's a pretty big deal.

So we passed all the huge telescopes and headed down the path to walk for a bit.

Oh but not too far. Too many distractions. Furthermore there were humming birds to check out.

As the visitor center, gift shop, snack bar placey there is a spot where the hummingbirds come and will land on you. Who woulda thought that would even be possible. Taking a picture of it is close to impossible though. But thanks to digital cameras, I was able to try about 10,000 times before getting one that was decent.

But the day progressed and we headed back to the valley. Over to the fields in our neighborhood to watch the eclipse with friends and neighbors. We went to the middle of the fields, but in the back of this photo you can see a really abnormal number of people lined up along the edge to get a glimse of the coming eclipse.

 Oh I simply love this picture of my sweet Lola. It just seems right.

 Here, she is doning the eclipse glasses, trying to navigate when wearing them causes essentially complete darkenss unless staring at the sun.

 Azalea found her crawdad remains in the mini-ditch.

 It was sometimes hard to focus on the eclipse when there were perfectly good toads and lizards to catch. (and release)

 Here is one view of the birding telescope that was set up to capture the eclipse on the cardboard box set up behind it.

 And with my eclipse glasses in front of my camera, I was able to capture some pretty awesome pictures of what was going on.

 I was also able to capture some crazy kids.

 And capturing the toad. The kids were thrilled with their joint effort in having it.

 Here is the other side of the said birding/eclipse scope for viewing the eclipse with out looking at it. Cool.

 Oh the air. The light. Everything got eirily dark and spooky. Like a dream was happening. Like you didn't know what to expect, and it would all be ok. Like there was a mystery about to be solved. It really did feel like the stars were aligning.

 And the community. Everyone was in absolute awe. More than the overused Awesome. Simply complete awe.

 Again the light in the sky. The eclipse in full effect, with out the glasses over the camera. A little tricky to take this photo since I couldn't really look in the camera either.

 Burn, burn, burn. The ring of fire.

 She even noticed it.

 On the projector.

 Blue belly skink "in paradise", no not the after life, paradise, the either playing dead or euphoria paradise. He ran away moments later into the fields.

 It's not just about the eclipse.

It's searching for something unknown and mysterious and amazing and loving every moment of it.

Goat Love

So this is not about us this time... Just marking some sweet happenings in our hood. My dear, old (not in age, but in time) friend and neighbor has been working her family towards independent sustainability. Last fall they got 2 new goats and on March 31 one of their ladies had two little baby boys.

This is not actually the mama, but the other adult goat trying to keep the little babes out of her triangle house.

The sweet little babes made it in though. How could they not. I mean really. Other goats can recognize ridiculous cuteness.

So after a short little stint, the babies moved onto another family and the milking began...

Coming out of the pen, she knows just where to go.

Mama goat has a nice big udder and doesn't mind getting milked. She gets a special nutrious treat, special for the milk production, while she gets straped to the the platform.

Nice thick, rich milk.

One pint. 2 cups. Everytime. (she topped it off after the pic to make it a full 2 cups) Consistancy in amount is important to get the white gold flowing.

Hecklers in the crowd.

So a shot from afar. I just love that the playset is right next to the chicken coop and the goat pen. It wasn't planned that way, but all the silly energy flows together.

So after the fact, the milk gets strained.

Poured through to get out dirt and particles.

And holy smokes! This picture is a sad representation of the delicious ricotta cheese that was made out of one the batches. Sweet yumminess and from right around the corner.

yes



"Our" farm

It's not really our farm. But I still like to call it that. Less than two miles from our home, even shorter as the bird flies is the farm that we go to, to pick up our CSA allotment. The site that we go to is a small portion of the larger farmer that rests a few more miles south in Albuquerque's South Valley. I'm not as versed with it other than when Tigo and I went to the bee keeping class last year.

 The drive into the farm is really quite picturesque. There is all an Inn. What I am told is a nice, high end Inn for travelers and conferences. But small enough and quaint enough, to house and comfort weary travelers.

The view is to die for.

The charm is complete.

Yes we came just in time for a gigantic 16lb baby goat to be born!

Can you say, Ouch.

Just ignore my Ghostbuster comment I made to Azalea as we watched...

And here is Christine, who I absolutely adore. She is a kick-ass homeschooling mama that raises all these sweet animals on the farm. Started out as a little 4H project with her kids and she has really run with it. Knows just about all related to goats, chickens, pigs, and the such.

And can I say that her older son graduated from home high school at 14 this spring and is now enrolled in the local college. Son 2 is on the same track.

How can you not love baby goats. Fresh out of the oven. So sweet.