School Auction

Every autumn the local schools hold a Harvest Festival with an auction as a fundraiser. People donate all sorts of different things, so the first thing you have to do when arriving at the school hall is cruise the tables of goodies to decide what you're going to bid on. There was quite an array this year, ranging from kids' toys to baked goods to original artwork to a crock pot and deer antler fireplace tools.

Before the bidding begins, everyone partakes of a potluck. I forgot to take a picture of the wonderful array of food, probably because I was the first one in line for the food. I really was. My excuse was that I wanted to get food quickly for Desert Boy so he would eat and behave. The reality was he only would eat desserts and he wanted to run around with the other kids.

Here are a couple nice ladies enjoying the delicious food. I just have to include their picture so if they look at the blog they can yell at me.

I was the only one taking pictures, so the kids had fun making faces for me and then wanting to see how the picture turned out. The wonder of digital cameras.

An original way to wear a headband.

Making crazy faces.

And then the auction began. I love bidding, it's so fun trying to figure out how high the other person or people are willing to bid. And because the money is all going to a good cause, it's okay to bid a little higher than you might otherwise. Apparently a lot of other people like to bid, too, because we had some fun little competitions.

My husband followed Desert Boy around as he tried to ransack the place, allowing me to bid on whatever I wanted. And I saw something that looked really neat, made right here in our valley, and I won the bid.

Here it is, a horseshoe lamp. The horseshoes are even from a couple local horses, so their memories will be preserved. It was a good night, and hopefully the funds raised will help the schools get all the supplies they need.

Just wondering, what's your favorite object you've bought at an auction?

The Old, Abandoned Trail

One day while I was tromping through the woods, I came across this sign, "Trail not maintained for public use." Hmmm, what did that mean?  I figured that there was something important enough for someone to have built a trail there in the first place, even if no one was using it now.

So I did what anyone else would do and kept going.

Actually Henry took the lead, clearing the trail and ensuring my safety. Okay, probably not, but at least he was getting some exercise. 

The trail was really an old road, wide and easy to follow. My curiosity grew. A road meant that there might be something important ahead.

And then I saw this log off to the side of the old road, a rough-cut old log. It reminded me of a Lincoln log like the ones I used to play with in my grandma's basement. After we got done making all sorts of neat houses, we had fun catapulting the little lincoln logs all across the basement. She's probably still finding them in the corners.

On the other side of the old road was an honest to goodness Lincoln log cabin. The ends of the logs were notched so they would fit together. It was extremely cool. As you can see by the tree growing in the cabin, the roof fell in a really long time ago.

The scenery was nice, but why did someone build a home here? The answer was just a little further up the road. A big pile of dirt, a tailings pile, alerted me to a nearby mine. It turns out that they used to mine silver up this canyon. I'm always amazed at the really remote places people lived in the old days. Today modern vehicles shorten distances, but it still took nearly an hour to get to where I started hiking. In the old days, it would easily have been at least half a day in a wagon. These people were tough, not being able to pop into a convenience store to get some milk or eggs or ice cream when they ran out.

Seeing the old cabin made me appreciate what I usually take for granted. Maybe it's good to take the road less traveled every once in awhile.

Hot Tamales

Yesterday I heard a knock on the door in the evening. I opened it to find a friend seeing if I wanted any tamales. She had just made them and they were still hot. Of course I said YES! Tamales are one of my favorite foods. I developed a taste for them when I lived in New Mexico and a lady brought them to work everyday to sell. I ate so many tamales that summer that I think my Spanish improved just from ingesting Mexican food. I never got tired of them. In fact, long stretches often go by that I find myself tamale-less, and those are sad days. A good tamale just makes the day go better.

I peel back the warm corn husk to find the inviting corn meal inside. The smell is fabulous, my taste buds are salivating (if taste buds salivate), and I can't wait to devour the tamale.

Except I have some competition. Desert Boy loves tamales too, and he can eat an entire tamale by himself. I don't think a 23.5 pound toddler should be able to eat a whole tamale. He should leave at least half for me.

Fortunately I bought two dozen, so we have enough to get us through a couple days. Yum. I'm in tamale heaven.

Prescribed Fire

Yesterday this was the sight when I looked up at the mountain--lots of smoke rising into the air. If it seems a little late in the season to have a wildfire you're right, most of the wildland fires here occur from July through September, during monsoon season when we have a lot of dry lightning. This smoke is from a prescribed fire. Firefighters lit piles of slash on fire to reduce the fuel load in the woods. 

The idea of a prescribed fire is that the amount of fuel can be reduced safely, so that when a wildland fire occurs, it won't burn as hot and will be more controllable. Wildland fires used to occur a lot more often than they do now, probably because whenever we see smoke we (that's a societal we), tend to panic and want to make the smoke stop. As a result, in a lot of places throughout the West, the fuel load is so high that when a fire starts, it becomes a raging inferno and costs hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of dollars to put out. Spending a little more money setting prescribed fires in strategic locations will result in saving a lot of money trying to extinguish out-of-control fires.

Seeing the smoke up on the mountain brought back some memories for me.

Here's a different prescribed fire up on the mountain a few years ago. The firefighter (me) is wearing Nomex (flame retardant) pants and shirt, leather gloves, safety helmet, and leather boots. I'm carrying a drip torch, which allows fuel to be spread at a steady rate. 

Here's a safety meeting at the fire. Safety is of utmost concern at every fire. In order to have a prescribed fire, weather conditions have to be just right, enough fire-trained personnel have to be present including a burn boss (a person who has had additional training in setting and managing fires), and the paperwork all has to be signed.

Winter is a great time to have a prescribed fire, because the snow keeps the fire from spreading too far. The goal of this prescribed fire was to burn slash piles. The forest had been thinned a couple years earlier, and the wood stacked into large piles to dry out.

Having several piles rather than one enormous one helps keep the fire more controlled.

Nonetheless, there can be a little extra excitement from time to time, like this live tree catching on fire from the slash pile next to it. Not to worry, a firefighter is keeping a close eye on it.

Probably the best thing about being a firefighter is that you get to be close to fire and see the beauty of it. The colors are amazing, the heat is intense, and the smell takes you back to many evenings spent around the campfire.

Eventually the fire reduces the piles of wood to piles of ash surrounded by slightly melted snow. The next summer, the gaps in the forest will help slow or stop a wildland fire if it happens to occur there. If you're interested in learning more about wildland fire, check out the National Interagency Fire Center website.

Desert Boy Rides a Horse in the Kitchen

This morning I was in the kitchen eating breakfast when Desert Boy came trotting in on his horse. I couldn't help myself, I totally cracked up. The little stuffed horse is tiny in comparison to him, but still he thought up the idea all on his own and had a lot of fun riding his horse.

He even had some good horse riding noises and made the horse go in all different directions.

After a bit of riding nicely, he decided it was time to get adventurous.

His California cousins do vaulting, gymnastics on horseback, so maybe he was inspired by them as he started doing some interesting moves.

How low can you go?

Golly, I wish I was so flexible!

But alas, even a toy horse can buck, and Desert Boy ends up flat on his back on the ground.