Trip to CA

I stayed at G-ma's Shari's house in Lomita while I was in LA for the week. It was perfect. Max and I were and happy there. G-ma and I have lived together before so we moved about with out any trouble. Her 3 cat's weren't thrilled to have Max there but they were incredibly hospitable too. Once I had a home base I was free to run around and catch up with as many people as I could.

Wednesday evening, Lisa stopped by Grandma's on her way home from work so we could visit. She got to meet Max and we got to catch up on what's new with each other. Later that night, I had desert at BJ's with Kathy, Angela, & Rebecca. I was introduced to the famous BJ's Pazookie (cookie sundae) very good stuff! We caught up on hugs and baby stories.

Thursday I had lunch with my aunt Laurie at Red Onion in PV. Yum!! We ate for 10 minutes and talked for an hour. So great to catch up! That night Shannell & I went to an event in San Pedro for an organization she works with, Operation Progress, that helps inner city kids with scholarships and work opportunities. A ton of people from the Boston PD were there and some were performing Irish Drinking songs for the crowd. That was cool.

Friday, my mom's friend Janet cut and colored my hair. Just cleaned it up and added some dark auburn low lights to play up my color. Still look great. Thanks Janet! Then I met up with Kathy for the afternoon. We had dinner at Chipotle and then hung out at her mom's for a while and watched the kids play in the great summer beach weather. Then headed back to her house to catch up and visit. I didn't get home until after 1:AM. We are such party animals. :)

Saturday I took Max to the dog park and he had a ball. He was nervous when my mom and I took him earlier in the week but he was ready to run and play this time. We got to see adult Westies and i talked to their owners for a few minutes. So far, everyone has only good things to say about westies and i agree! that night Mom, G-ma, & I had a movie night at Grandma's; we made dinner and watched Confessions if a Shopaholic. Such a cute movie!

Sunday morning mom and I took Max to the cove in PV to hike around. He wasn't sure what to do with that but it was sure cute to see him all wet out in the water. After that I just hung around the house with Grandma. Reading, napping, relaxing, wonderful! That evening I met Kathy and the rest of the gang at Life Covenant church. Then several of us went to Pat & Oscars for dinner. After dinner I went to visit Grandma Edie, Grandpa Larry, & Jeremy. They had just got home from my cousin Alex's wedding in Visalia, CA. I brought some pictures from CO/NM so they could see what I've been up to over here.

Monday evening I went to Crystal's for a going away party. She was getting married to Bear in Vegas Tuesday and moving to Kansas! So I got to meet him and wish them a happy life together. Turns out they were going to be driving through Gallup on their way to Kansas so I hauled some of their stuff back with me to make a little more room in the car for part of the trip. That also meant that Crystal and I would get to see each other one more time. :)

Tuesday morning I got up early and hit the road. I couldn't wait to get home to my hubby. I was soooooo homesick by the end of my trip. It was great to catch up but it's always great to be home. Next time I'll pack Trace in my suite case!!

Trip to CA (stop in AZ)

Monday June 22, Mom, Max, & I set off for California. I decided to drive my mom home instead of having her fly home on the ticket she already bought...sorry about that. :) But since I'm still looking for a job Trace and I thought it would be a good time for me to take a girls trip back to the beach to hang out and catch up with everyone for a few days. We stopped to see aunt Lu and the family in Cornville, AZ (near Sedona) Monday night. Max got to play with their dogs, Dukie and Roxie, and we got to hang out and stretch our legs and visit. We went to dinner at Pizza Hut and then went to watch my cousin play Softball after. Game was good, all was well...Till our family almost went to the dirt with the other side!! Seriously! The other team was losing badly and they weren't happy about it. So they were being snotty the whole time and I'll admit our side of the bleachers were a little rowdy but not really us. When the game was over the two teams slap hands, good game, good game, all that... Well the pitcher wouldn't shake hands, he just made a fist and walked by... so my sweet innocent 5'2" aunt (okay, maybe not so sweet and innocent) said "come on pitcher, don't be such a poor sport"... so after the game he walked over and started talking smack! Something like "say that to my face old lady!" so she just said he was showing poor sportsmanship. Seriously not cussing or being nasty. Well that exploded and as we were walking to the cars, their whole team started following us and yelling and then my family was getting pissed. I have 3 cousins, 18-21, and they weren't happy with they guys talking to their mom that way; but we were all trying to convince each other to get to the cars. So the rest of Adams team stepped in and we were able to go home with out throwing blows but holy moly, it was crazy!! Never a dull moment with Aunty Lu! :)

Mom's Week in Gallup

The next week mom and I hung out around the house a lot and cruised around town. Gallup is located on Historic Route 66 and there are lots of old shops and little museams with the old neon signs and lots and lots of Native american art & jewelry. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day they have Indian Dances in the Town Square every night so we made a point to check that out too. The dancers that night were from the Zuni tribe. Their reservation is about 45 minutes SouthWest of Gallup. The guys are doing the buffalo dance and the lady is doing the pottery dance.

We also drove about an hour away to a wolf rescue and took the tour there. that was awesome. The taught us about the wolves as they walked around and we got to see most of them. There are 4 types of gray wolves: Arctic, Tundra, Timber and Mexican gray. they had the first 3 there at the rescue. the Mexican Gray is local to this area but endangered and trying to be restored. This is a picture of an Arctic Wolf. They live the farthest north and have long thin legs that help them get through the snow.

We went to the Lion's Rodeo at Red Rock State park in Gallup on Saturday, June 20th. Alpine Lumber was a sponsor so we went to check it out. It was really fun. They had two arena's side by side with alternating events happening at the same time. The ropers and barrel races on one side and the bucking broncos and bull riding on the other side. They also had the little kids riding sheep. they were soooooo cute!! The rodeo cowboy was a comedian with little skits and comments during the down time. We checked out the dance after but it was super crowded so we just hung out for a little bit while we were waiting for the parking lot to clear out.

Instead of mom flying home as planned, I decided to driver her home and hang out in LA for a week. But I'll save that for the next post.

Taking mom to the Ranch

My mom came to visit us in Gallup for a week. She flew into Albuquerque on June 11.

We took her to the ranch to visit and help us do some projects. First on the list was to repair some fencing. There were several of us there to help. In our truck was Trace, his mom, my mom, & me. And with us was Trace's uncle Dave, his cousin Brandi, and Brandi's husband and son. I was mostly in charge of re-nailing wire to the posts that had come loose. Trace was re-stretching wire and reattaching sections that had broken from weather or elk. We worked on two sections and it was fun. The weather was good and we got a lot done. We did plenty of sight seeing and wondering around too. The wildflowers were beautiful and everything was green. We had a great time!

Sunday was time to brand the calves. We got then in the corral and separated from the mamas first thing. Then brought them down into the chute one by one. I think the first guy up was bandit. We named him that because of his white face and black patches on his eyes. The process for a boy is the cut the bottom of his "sack" then Trace squeezed out the testicles and pulls the hell out of them. then they put pine tar which really just looks like tar but smells like pine to the cut and that part is done. then we put an ear tag in with what looks like a giant whole punch. I was in charge of giving them the antibiotics. a big-ole shot in the shoulder. Last on the list was to brand them. that part was worse than the castrating... it's a large cast iron branding iron that they heat up with a torch and then press into their sides.... they didn't like that part. But as soon as they were out of the chute and back with mama, they were pretty happy again. it took a day or two for the boys to walk normal but they took it surpisingly well!

Milking a cow

May 30, 2009.

We were at the ranch for the weekend with the intention of branding the calves. But the weather wasn't great and one of the cows had just had a calf that was too young to brand. But we weren't off the hook just yet. The cow that had just had the latest calf had a huge impacted milk bag. She was even having trouble walking because she was in so much pain. We could tell that the new calf was nursing the front two teets but not the back... and we weren't even sure if she was letting the calf at the front because she was kicking dirt and soar.


So we got her in the corral and into the chute. We decided to milk her out to relieve the pressure and hope the calf would begin sucking on all four. Mama cow was not happy to be in there, that's for sure. Casey had her back leg tied up so we could get to her and we rubbed some vasoline on the nipples to soften them and then milked her. Trace and I took turns while Casey watched that we didn't get kicked in the head. Thanks Casey!

By the time we switched sides, she didn't even need to be restrained. she was so happy to have the help. She was practically purring. So I felt like a real country girl that weekend and I was happy to help the mama cow. Turns out the calf did take to all four and mom and baby are happy.

Catching Up!

Wow, it's been forever since I've posted anything. Let me catch up...

El Morro National Monument

Yesterday we took a drive to check out the area and we started by going to the Zuni Pueblo about 30 minutes away. Most of the town was very old brick buildings, I'm sure there were many older buildings, they have been there a long time. we couldn't take any pictures with out getting a permit so we just drove around and checked it out. Then we headed east from there to the town of Ramah. it wasn't Native American at all. Seemed like a very white town with farming and good size homes in the middle of what what we thought was the Navajo Reservation. We wondered around there and found a little lake in the canyon.

Then we continued East another 15 miles or so to El Morro National Monument. http://www.nps.gov/elmo
that was very cool. There is a natural spring that is tucked back into the Sandstone bluff that travelers have been stopping to camp and water their horses for hundreds of years. There are petroglyphs on the sandstone and some time around the early 1600's the travelers began to etch their own names and messages along side the ancient drawings. We did the 1/2 mile walk to the bluff and back to the visitor center or we could have continued walking the full 2 miles up to the top of the bluff where there are Native American ruins. we'll do that next time when we're better prepared. It was awesome though. To think how many people passed by here... The Wild West.