Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Lake Valley trip and newest wood burning project

9-14-2011
On Wednesday we headed out to visit the ghost town of Lake Valley. We had passed here a couple of weeks ago but didn't have time to stop. We both had remembered that the town was closed Monday and Tuesday, we work Thursday and Friday, so away we went. When we pulled in the gate was closed. We pulled up to the gate and just looked each other. You guessed it, closed Tuesday and Wednesday. I guess we are getting old and short of memory. I took some pictures from the gate and headed out. We still want to go back and check out the museum there and have a closer look at all the buildings.












We decide to head to Las Cruces to do a little shopping, Hobby Lobby, and get some lunch. On the way there we passed through the town of Hatch, known as the chili capital of New Mexico. The pic below was repeated all over town.


After leaving Las Cruces, we headed to El Paso so I could look at the Victory motorcycle, the other American made bike. When we left there we stopped at the Harley dealer in town. That is one big dealership. I sure would like to get my boat sold....lol Heading back to Deming, we ran into some pretty rain. We stopped at Subway for a bite and when we came out we were greeted to this site, a double rainbow!!


9-20-2011

While we were at Hobby Lobby I picked up a piece of basswood with the bark on. Yesterday, I did a woodburning for the park we are working in.






Till next time

Duane and Louise

Friday, September 09, 2011

Little Santa

Finished this little guy yesterday. He is carved from a 1"x1"x3" basswood piece. I made him to trade for a pine needle basket that a lady in the park made. We were both happy with the trade. This was the smallest full figure carving I have made. I think I will make a few more this size.



Till next time

Duane and Louise



Sunday, September 04, 2011

Road trip to Silver City and Gila National Forrest

This was the view from our rv Friday morning. We have great sunrises and sunsets around here. The weather this morning has cooled of a lot. We have our windows open and a nice breeze is blowing to keep it cool. The heat wave we have been having is suppose let up a bit for the next week.
Yestersay we took a field trip to Silver City. They had art show going on that I wanted to check out to see if I wanted to rent a booth to sell my carvings there. They have the show every Saturday till the end of Oct. There were only 6 or 7 booths there with not many people going through. I think I'll wait till later in the year and check it out again. After the art show we stopped at a Gem and Mineral show that was in town. It was a lot better attended, with a lot of vendors and a lot of people. We picked up a couple of things for gifts and looked around to see what all the jewelery was selling for. I think I may get out of making jewelery, to much compitition and to little profit...lol
We had lunch, then decided to take a scenic drive I had read about in a paper. This was the highlight of the day. The first site we came across was this copper mine. There was a nice pull out viewing area with boards telling all about the mine. They operate 24/7 365 days a years. The signs said that all this was going to be reclaimed when they were done mining, I'd like to SEE that. I don't know how that will be possible. This is one DEEP hole in the ground.








We left the mine site and headed into the Gila National Forrest on St. Rte. 152. This took us about 50 miles through some very beautiful scenery. The road climbs to over 8000 feet elevation with a LOT of curves. The speed limit topped out at 35 mph with many 10 mph switchbacks. We stopped at a lot pull outs to take in the veiws.


Lots of canyon views



Lots of neat rock formations


Then things started to flatten out a bit.




We turned south onto St Rte 27. Back to mostly flat ground a little over 4000 ft in elevation. This is cattle country. You have to drive with an eye open for cattle on this road, no fences, open range.




When we were about to the road to take to the house, Louise spotted a herd of antelope grazing in the same area as the cattle. They are the little dots by the power poles. There were about 15 of out there.




We picked up Rte 26 for drive back to Deming and house.

In our travels today we passed a ghost town that we will return another day to check out. We had run out of time as Louise wanted to get back in time to go to Mass. The town is now a historical site complete with a museum about the town. I hope we can get back there next week sometime as it looked really cool. Lots of old buildings still standing, at least for now.

Louise went to Mass, we went out to eat and then I went up on the roof of a friends rv to change the squirell cage blower on his air conditioner. The owner of the rv is awaiting hip replacement and can't climb a ladder so I offered to fix it for him. It didn't take very long to switch out the bad one with the new one.

Well that was our busy day. It was also my birthday, I turned 64. Man I'm getting old...lol.



The scenic drive was the highlight of the day. I would recommend it to anyone visiting the Deming area. The total mileage for the drive was around 150 miles with lots to see. There are a lot of hiking trails along the way that we hope to return to.


Till next time

Duane and Louise