Thanks to a very generous daughter-in-law who passed a SLR my way I can capture some action shots.

The secret is many weeks of neglect. We found this carrot under three feet of weeds.

Just ignore the photoshopping.

This is the real one.

After spending  a little under two months on the road we returned to a well-watered and over-grown yard. We are excited to see what looks like some pretty healthy apples.

Not our view but from the college.

This is how we found it a few months ago, broken windows, ruined carpet, roof leaks. With some elbow grease and lots of help from Jose, a local fellow who only spoke Spanish, we have almost finished the interior.

We headed over to the Zuni Pueblo http://www.zunifair.com/ to look at some local crafts, have some barbecue, watch the Rodeo and meet some of the local folks. The local artisans are very skilled with silver and polished stones. We did get a long lecture about how many people are selling fakes imported from the Philippines. We finally decided to go into town rather than the fair to buy a items at an Zuni-owned and run facility which is known to sell only local products and the bulk of the proceeds go back to the artist.

We also learned that the old concept of “Cowboys and Indians” gets kinda weird here. All of the people riding horses in the rodeo are Native-Americans (previously referred to as the less PC-correct name “Indians”) But a rodeo is a cowboy event, so you see a all these Native-Americans, dressed just like cowboys, riding like cowboys, and the announcer calls them “Cowboys”. So here the “Indians” are “cowboys”,  . . . . really.

  I posted a short video (50Mb) of the drummers here

We also watched hours of native dancing in a pow-wow format. From 4-years-old to 80+ they were all out accompanied by drumming and dressed in very colorful costumes. A unique expression of true American culture.

I forgot to mention that among the 100s of folks attending the Fair we seemed to be the only white people.

We finished the day by driving back through the old hippie enclave east of El Morro, we had stopped on the way in to buy an expresso and stopped on the way back to find some dinner. Our waiter (waitress) wait-person or however you would refer to the young man in the mini-skirt with gloss lipstick and spangly-earrings, sang to us and swished back and forth with our food and then were introduced his boss/partner. They asked if we were there for the performance, a group of women singing and dancing in what he referred to as “angry anti-male” songs, and then we were told “too bad it is sold out”. I think their name was the “Cow-patties” After telling him “no” we were just there for dinner, we were asked if we were there with the “Wolf” reservation, I guess our confused looks were a clue and they asked me about the hat, I was wearing my “Wolf Sanctuary” baseball cap. Apparently the folks from the local wolf reserve were coming to dinner and the show. The dinner was fine, and great pie for dessert.

We went from ancient cultural performances by the Zuni to a very current cultural performance by the folks in Ramah, NM, one was very real and the other very felt farcical.

A scenic and interesting site about 40 miles from Grants. http://www.nps.gov/elmo/

Early proofreading error and correction (for Leila)

Fun pictograph. There were a bunch more of these but hard to see with a camera.

A few views from the hike

Karla and Maya, Karla is an old friend from Vancouver, WA now living in Los Alamos, NM

Patrick, Carolina and Emma came from Albuquerque, NM. We first met them in Haifa.

Martha Yazzie, a Navajo, from Chinle, AZ, she makes jewelry and weaves rugs, she is a new friend we hope to go and visit her home and her hogan–stayed tuned.

Some of the participants . . .

Sunrise across Grants.

The Harley’s came visiting this weekend. We headed out but the town was packed with folks in black leather making loud rumbling sounds. It was the annual “Fire and Ice” festival

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Taylor_(New_Mexico)

On the way to Grants we stopped in Moab, Utah. It is a touristy town fueled by two National parks close by, we visited one of them today.

On the way out of Salt Lake City we drove close by these (posted for Shaun).

We also drove by these Buttes (posted for Carissa)

And now Arches . . .

Driving through a lake bed

Great skies nearing the Utah border

Summer flowers

Then lunch in Snowville, UT, population 3,000

Shrine of the Báb

The Election in process

The entry to the main hall

The Exhibit
Delegates in the foyer

One of the delegates from Krygystan

The photographer for the exhibit, Ryan Lash

Dinner with the Samoan NSA

We took a road trip this weekend to catch some of the fall colors

Justin sent us this email on Thursday:

“Our yet to-be-named daughter was born on July 12th at 1:57pm.
She weighed 8 lbs 2.5 oz and was 21″ long.
10 fingers, 10 toes, lots of hair…”

We visited on Friday to see the new addtion to the family, and as a very objective grandparent I can say she is darling.

In an uncharacteristic weather day, bright sun and large cumulus clouds were seen in every direction. 

Starting Monday we will reside in Seattle, officially “Loyal Heights” neighborhood.

 

Come visit when you can!