Happy birthday Ian!

And just like that, Ian turned 17 yesterday!

I took him to El Paso to get his Eagle neckerchief, slider, and uniform knot/badge at the Scout store, then some dress shirts and slacks for his high school work experience program.

Leah and Catherine did a cooking experience with Leah's friend from Maryland - it sounds like they had a nice time.

Otherwise, nothing terribly new here - the photos were just an excuse to break out the cameral gear. Cheers,

Marc

Middle of Nowhere, New Mexico

 

On our drive home from the kids high school yesterday they asked me to stop at the pull out at the top of the mountain pass we take to get to "town" (Las Cruces).  One of them wanted to take a picture of the mountain from there.  I thought it sounded like a fine idea, so decided to take a couple of pics of my own. 

I also thought everyone might enjoy getting a good view of where we're living now from up there.  So, here is a view of our base: 

Can't quite see it? Here is my zoomed in version from the overlook.  You can probably just make out the water tower & other sights we have on base here: 

We really are in the middle of nowhere, but it sure is pretty here. Thought I'd post this pic from our backyard that I took the other day.  Not such a shabby view for where we are.  However, it is quite a change from living on the East Coast for 6 years.  I do have to plan my grocery store trips a little better...

Will try to post a few pics of the flowers I've been enjoying seeing here soon!

Catherine

Dripping Springs Hike

Like I said in the last post, we had a STRONG storm Saturday night. That effectively locked us on base for the day as the road to Las Cruces was closed...again. So after an early start to my brew day (Helles Bock), Ian and I drove over the pass to the west side of the Organ Mountains to Dripping Springs. The road that goes to Dripping Springs had two large washouts, one still running with water.

We stopped and pulled the car off the side of the road to inspect things. High clearance vehicles had no problems on either side.

We ultimately stuck to the left (high) side of the washout, and had no problems.

The hike from the visitors center to Dripping Springs (more of a waterfall with all the rain we've had) was mostly uphill, but the path was gravel, and so easy to travel. We only had to scoot around 2 tarantulas along the way.

It was only about 1-1.5 miles up, and the scenery was spectacular. 

This photo (above) is from a picnic area - La Cueva. I love the rocky ridge here - very photogenic. I'll be sure to come during a sunset one of these days.

Have a great day everyone!

Marc

Not technically a desert anymore?

We had another crazy night of rain last night - it was raining HARD for a solid hour. We are basically stuck on base - the road to the north is closed in both directions while the NMDOT folks work to get mud and rocks off the highway (again). IF that road is not fixed by Monday morning, the kids have a LONG way to get to school. It also looks like the road was damaged this time, not just mud on the road. Meanwhile, the road to the south had some flooding damage, too. I think that one is still open, but there is a bridge over an arroyo that is detoured around.

This is the arroyo - normally a dry gully in the desert. I love the sound of running water - it is just weird in the desert.

I keep trying black and white conversions - this one is a bit dark in my opinion, but it gives me something to play around with.

With these two rains (mid-July and now mid-August), I think we've blown past our upper rain limit, disqualifying us from using the desert label.

Stay dry everyone!

Marc

My favorite people

What a way to close out July - what a day!

Today was an early start for a brew day, making an Irish Red. I brew out in the garage, so getting an early start to avoid the heat of the day is how I do it. I opened the garage doors to get some airflow, which is how I noticed the sky fire - the clouds were bright orange and pink in the east. I heard a little rumble of thunder to the west, so I took a look there, and ran to grab my camera. This rainbow disappeared a minute or two after taking my photo. True to form, Catherine really is the rainmaker - it might be raining here more than it did in Maryland!

My brew day was relatively uneventful - which is a good thing. I took a nice nap after lunch, and then Catherine, Leah, and I drove to El Paso to pick up our new glasses. We all got prescription sunglasses which is super nice in the desert.

It was time for dinner when we got home, and I decided I wanted to play with my camera again, so I broke out some flashes and went to work.

The set up and tear down took longer than the photo shoots. It took me a bit of time to dial in the lights, but once I did, the photos went quickly.

No doubt these are my favorite people - for quick photos, I think they turned out well and may be my favorites so far for this year.

Cheers!

Marc

Rainbows and Monsoons in the Desert

We had quite the storm a week ago, with a flash flood/landslide that closed the road to Las Cruces for 3 days. We had high winds and hard rain for a couple of hours, and on/off hail. It really was an impressive storm. There was a motorcyclist who took refuge under an overpass, but since it was low lying, it was filled up with sand and silt. The motorcyclist abandoned his motorcycle (he got out), but it was buried up to the handlebars in mud/sand/silt.

I was planning to go for a bike ride this morning, but it was raining. I looked out the window and saw this magnificent rainbow. I snapped a couple of photos, but the vantage from the backyard is not that great. So I loaded up in the car and drove 2 minutes to another location with unobstructed views of the Organ Mountains. This is what I saw.

I stayed for about 20 minutes grabbing photos as the light and rain changed, but this is probably my favorite. The rainbow lasted about 45 minutes, it was really pretty cool.

Cheers,

Marc

New Mexico Road Trip!

With Christina visiting, and the long 4th of July weekend here, we all decided to take a road trip through south-central New Mexico.

We started with a drive to Cloudcroft, complete with stops at the White Sands National Park visitor's center (get park coins for Leah and a sun hat for Catherine), at the Fresnal Creek tunnel view in Lincoln National Forest, a country store to pick up knick knacks and some food, and the Mexican Canyon trestle just below Cloudcroft.

We ate at a great barbecue place in Cloudcroft - we got there about 1130 and the line was already outside. Thankfully, they also have a food truck, which is where we picked up our lunch. From there, we drove north to Ruidoso, the Gatlinburg of the Sacramento mountains. We continued north until we drove down out of the mountains, chased by thunderstorms. We made our way to Valley of Fires, a BLM recreation area technically on the northern edge of White Sands Missile Range. It is an old lava flow where the cacti and other plants are slowly taking over.

It rained a tiny bit on us here - not even a drizzle - but it felt great compared to the mild heat of the desert floor.

Catherine found us a very nice Mexican restaurant in Tularosa, with some fantastic chips and salsa! We continued south towards home, which we were having a good bit of rain when we arrived.

We even had a complete, double rainbow, which was pretty cool.

Happy Independence Day!

Marc