LAKE VALLEY

Its been said that third time's a charm and yesterday was ours. We finally found the ghost town of Lake Valley open and had time for a nice walking tour.

Lake Valley was a typical silver mining town. Silver was first found there in 1878 but the big boom started in 1882 with the discovery of the Bridal Chamber just 40 ft beneath the surface. A single piece of silver from this mine was displayed at the World Exposition held in Denver in 1882. It was valued at $7000 at a time when silver was selling for abut $1 an ounce. In 1884 the railroad was extended to Lake Valley. At the height of its prosperity, the town boasted 4000 inhabitants, a school, several churches, stores, banks and other businesses, most of which were brothels and saloons. Prosperity took a down turn in 1893 when Pres. Grover Cleveland replaced silver as the monetary standard in favor of gold. Silver prices plunged overnight. In 1895 most of Main Street was burned. A few settlers who had put down roots stayed into the 20th century. In the 20's and again in the 50's the area was mined for manganese ore. The last resident died in 1994. The BLM has since instituted a program to protect the area.


The walking tour begins and ends at the (second) schoolhouse. One end is a restored school and the other a nice museum. A well-informed on site docent welcomed us, gave us a lot of information and showed us around the museum.


As is typical of people leaving an area there was a lot of detritus, including this old washer

a '36 Plymouth (not going anywhere with the engine on the outside) and lots of glass and tin cans.

Originally a home, this c. 1920's building was last used as an Episcopalian chape.

Railroad Ave. was the longest street in town. It was entered by two dead end streets called Main and Keil.

Remains of the (railroad) coal sorter on Railroad St.

Adit and tailings of the manganese mine. Notice the little cabin on the far right. The big silver mine is behing the hill behind the cabin. The big mountains are across the street. No silver was found there.

The manganese mine is on unstable property and so was fenced off. I guess they really mean it!

Old railroad depot

Residence of Mrs. Blanch Nowlin. Her husband was the railroad superintendent for Lake Valley. She became a local dealer for Continental Oil Company (Conoco). She lived in this house until her death in 1982.

In her later years, her only neighbors were Pedro and Savina Martinez. They resided next door in the old Bella Hotel until August of 1994. Mr. Martinez arrived in Lake Valley sometine in 1904, as a child of two. He remained there for some 90 years and provided a wealth of information about the history of the town (to the BLM).

This is a railroad coal storage building. Note the remains of the coal sorter on the left.

Home and office of Dr. W. G. Beals. Later the Martinez family lived here for many years.

Another view of Beals office.

View of Main Street. Most of the businesses here were burned in the fire. The business row was never rebuilt.

To our friend Marsha, they didn't have the blacksmith shop idenified so I couldn't get a picture of it, sorry.

We were thinking of postponing our trip here until next week but decided to go on Friday. Good thing! The weather turned from sunny with a cool breeze to overcast with a cold wind by the time we were done touring. Today is worse! We really enjoyed our tour, though and recommend it to others.

Nuff for now,

Louise and Duane

Local movie set.

We had heard that there was a movie set here in Deming, so today we went in search of it. I went to the visitors center to see what they knew about it. The lady there made a phone call to the man that owns the place. She gave me his number, I made a call and off we went. Wallace and Wanda, our managers, went with us to check it out. The man in the first pic is the owner who interduces himself as "Duke". He ask that you call ahead, I guess so he get into character. He built the town to give the movie studios a place in southern NM to shoot. He says that he was a stunt man in his early years and had worked with " The Duke" and Clint Eastwood. We were there for an hour and he never quit talking about all the films he was in and all the people he knows. I am not what sure what was true and what was not, but it all was interesting. He told us that the fim company that is getting ready to film a new "Lone Ranger" in NM has contacted him to use the set for the movie. In the movie Johnny Depp is going to play Tonto.


The town is pretty cool with a mix of old and not so old. We have been on several movie sites in our travels and most of them have walls that move in make rooms bigger. This one is all fixed walls so I'm not sure if the insides of the buildings would be used without remodeling. In conversation with Duke, he talked about the films here using the street for shots but never mentioned them using the inside of the buildings.

All in all we had a good time and enjoyed our visit to the site. We will wait to see if the "Lone Ranger" decides to use the streets for the new movie.

blacksmith shop

Main Street

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Not much new here.

There is not much new happening here in New Mexico. Since we got back from our Dallas trip it has been work our 2 days, hang out in the park and taking rides on the motorcycle. I have put over 500 miles on the bike in the 3 weeks since I got it. I made 2 trips of over 100 miles, all the rest short trips around town just getting use to all the different road condition and the traffic. Louise rode on the back Monday for the first time. She said she had a good time and is ready for more rides. I think we will go on a site seeing trip to a ghost town near here that we haven't made it to yet. We will see what she says after a 100 mile trip....lol
Our time here is getting short. We will leaving here the end of November heading to Texas to visit the kids, take care of some doctor stuff and have Christmas with family there. We are not sure yet if we will get to Ohio over the holidays or not. Airline prices are going up and we don't have the air miles to cover it so we are thinking about driving. I am not to crazy about going there in the winter. I think they should move Christmas to June....lol, so it would warm when we got to Ohio. I guess we have to make our minds up pretty soon so we can make plans about leaving the trailer somewhere safe while we are gone. We are going to Congress, Az the first of February and will be working there till the end of April.
That's it for now
Duane and Louise

My new toy

We left Deming on the 27th headed for Dallas to help our son and family move to a new home. Jr. has had my bassboat every since we hit the road. He did not have room to store it at the new place so I decided to try and trade it for the bike I have been wanting. We made several trip to a dealer that handles all types of outdoor vehicles including boats. They have a good selection of used bikes. After 2 days of negociating we reached a deal. When we sat down to do the paperwork the deal had changed and not in my favor. I had the original paperwork in hand and told the guy that was all I was going to pay. Seems the guy that wrote the deal had messed the figures by about $400.00. I told the the closer that I would go out and hook the boat up and be on my way. He left the room, came back and said they would honor the deal as written. Part of the deal with the salesman was helmets for Louise and me. When he refigured, he said one helmet was with the deal. I said you better go back and talk to the salesman. He left the room again, came back and said one helmet was not going to stop the sale. So, paperwork done, I saved a little money, they helped me load the bike in the truck and off we went.
We left Dallas area on the 4th about 7:30 AM heading back to Deming. The trip was about 750 miles. I decided I would drive it in one day. I didn't want get a motel with the bike in the back of truck. We arrived at home about 8:00PM. The next day I went looking for a place to unload the bike. I found no good spot to do the job. Then I had a great idea. Back the truck up to the trailer, put the ramp of the trailer on the tailgate of the truck, roll bike in trailer, move truck, roll bike down trailer ramp and out.... Problem.... trailer is backed into a spot, up to a fence, can't lower gate. No problem, move trailer. Problem, bike in truck, took hitch out help son move. Ok no problem, just have wait till friend gets back so he can move the trailer for us. He got back about 6PM that evening. After moving the trailer the unloading, loading, unload worked like a charm. The bike is on the ground. Thursday we had to work, plus the wind was blowing about 30 miles an hour, didn't get to ride. Today, worked, wind came up, decided to wait to ride. Hopefully the weather will improve tomorrow so I can get out on it.
The bike is a 2002 Harley Fatboy. It is dark green, looks blue in the right light. It has a lot of add ons and a lot of chrome.
We had a great time visiting with the kids and grandkids while in Dallas, but it is always good to be back in our own place.
Till next time
Duane and Louise

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

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

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

Now we know

First the news on our front. After returning from Texas, we got back to work. We work Thursday and Friday, have rest of the week off. It has been to hot to do much out in the desert, 100 plus almost every day. We spend most of our time working on projects. I have a bunch of carvings started but no new ones finished. I need to get all the carvings done that I am working on for Christmas. I go to rock shop every Monday to shape and polish stones for jewelery. Louise made 2 quilts and is working on some presents for Christmas.

We have decided to take Dec/Jan off. I think we will go to Texas for a few doctor appointments and family visiting time. Come February, we will be in Congress, Arizona working for Escapees at their North Ranch location. North Ranch is the place that they hold the Carving Classes in March, followed by Bead Week. We will work there until the end of April. Then we will be heading to Ohio on our way to Knoxville, TN where we will spend 3 months starting in July at Escapees Raccoon Valley Park. The plan is to go to Bushnell, FL for the winter after TN. We hope to go up the east coast after that.

Now for the family BAD news. Son, Duane Jr., broke his heel and will have surgery on Monday to screw the bone togather. As many of you know, Jr. installs cabinets for a living. He was working on ladder installing a cabinet when it started to fall. He jumped off the ladder to keep from getting knocked off of it by the cabinet. He landed heel first and broke 2 bones in his foot. The worst was the heel bone. I saw the xray and it is bad. He will be off work for at least 6 weeks. When you are self employed, that hurts!! We pray it all works out ok for them.
That's it for now
Duane and Louise

A quick trip to Texas

Last week we received a call that our daughter-in-law Jennifer's mother had passed away. On Thursday of last week we packed a few things in the truck and headed for Rockdale, TX. We stopped for the night and arrived there on Friday afternoon, 720 miles. The services were on Saturday. Sunday we headed for Kilgore, TX to put a few things in our storage trailer we have there that we have been hauling around with us for the past year and never used. Since Jeremy and Jennifer were still in Rockdale, we picked up our mail and headed to Celina, TX to visit with Duane Jr. and family, a travel day of 350 miles. We spent the rest of Sunday and all day Monday being entertained by our 2 year old twin granddaughters. What a hoot those 2 are!! Needless to say we were worn out after 2 days of playing with and trying to keep up with them. They are 2 of the cutest, smartest and sweetest little girls in world, at least Grandpa thinks so....lol

We left Tuesday morning to head back to Deming, NM, stopping in Van Horn, TX for the night. When we got to El Paso Wednesday, I stopped at the license bureau to get my motorcycle endorsement, I took the safety training the week before. Boy was that place crowded!! 3 hours later I left with everything in place. Got back to the rv park about 4 in the afternoon. The whole trip covered 1900 miles. Thursday it was back to work. We have to work three days in a row to make up for the day we missed last week. After tomorrow things will back to normal for us.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

Just hangin out

Not a whole lot to report from Deming. Louise works 7 hours Thursday and Friday, I work 3 hours the same day. The knife blade cover in the picture is my latest carving. I plan on carving covers for all my knives. Louise has been busy making quilts. On Monday I go to the rock shop to work on stones for jewelery. It has been way to hot, 100 +, to venture out in to the desert hunting rocks. We are finally are getting some rain so maybe things will cool off a bit. Our big adventure is a trip to Las Cruses every couple of weeks. Deming has a Walmart, that's about it. Cruses has everything. Deming has no good pizza places, so when Louise wants pizza, off we go. That's where the Lowes, Hobby Lobby, JoAnn Fabric, all the stores we frequent are. They even have Texas Road House.
The Holiday Inn next door to the rv park lets us use their swimming pool and work out room. There is a gate from our park to the lot so it is short walk. Louise goes to the pool every day. She just started getting on the stepper machine before going to the pool. I go to the trend mill about 5 days a week. The days that I work, I don't go over. By the time I get done doing the yard work in the heat, I figure that's enough for one day.
That's it for now
Duane and Louise

Hangin out in Deming

Not a whole lot going on here in Deming, NM. We now work Thusday and Friday. I pass my time carving and working on shaping rocks. Louise has been working on a couple of quilts and working on bead projects she started in AZ back in March. The weather here has been REAL hot, 100+ just about every day. Last night the first storm of the monsoon season hit., High winds and a lot of rain. One of the residents said they had 2" in their rain gauge. To say they need the rain is an understatement. That was the first measurable rain since Jan. When I went to get into bed, my side was all wet. After changing sheets and blankets, putting towels down, I went to bed. This morning I went up on the roof to try and find the leak. It was easy to spot, the rubber seal that seals the tv cable had come loose and allowed the rain to run down the cable right over the bed. Fixed that sucker right away...lol


This Roadrunner jumped up on the electric post right outside our window. By the time we got the camera in hand and it had moved to far off to get a really good ppicture.

This is a stone that I just finished shaping. I didn't realize till I got it about shaped how cool it looked. It finished looking like a desert scene. I think it is about the neatest stone I have done to date.

This is my latest carving. It is a walking stick with 9 animals carved down the shaft. The eagle head on the top screws off so I can put a camera mount in it's place to make it into a monopod.

It has been way to hot to go out into desert rock hunting. Hopefully it will cool off so we can get out. We have a lot of time left here to hunt so we aren't going to go out there and get heat stroke. I need to start going through everything we have on board and try to cut some weight down. Guess we don't need to go out rock hunting after all...lol. Really, I would like to lighten up at least 500 pounds maybe more. Before we leave here in the fall, I hope to move out a lot of "stuff" that we just don't use or need.

We are not on the road now, so not as much to blog about.

Till next time

Duane and Louise

A HAPPENIN' PLACE!

Well, we've been in Deming at Dream Catcher (Escapees) RV Park for 2 weels now. In that time we've worked 4 days, gone to Las Cruses twice, enjoyed the holiday with a bbq and fireworks with our 'family', played games, exercised, and did chores. In other words, whatever everyone does when they are at home. Today we finally saw some wildlife besides birds and cotton tail rabbits. This little beauty of a tarantula surprised us in the driveway. I had never seen one "in the wild". I had never seen a black one before. This one would fit in my palm.

We also saw this lovely gopher snake curled under a tree. The work crew was cleaning out tumbleweeds along the fenceline and apparently disturbed this beauty. It pretended it was a rattlesnake by hissing, shaking its tail and getting into strike position.

Oh, I forgot. We saw this horned lizard outside our door on the 4th. It so nicely sat and posed. Notice its lovely white stripe. It has another on the other side of its spine. In the desert this guy and the snake would have been all but invisible.

After all this excitement we went shopping in Las Cruces and ate pretty good pizza for lunch. Back home we exercised, ate salad for supper and went to the clubhouse for a (card) game of hand and foot (aka hands and feet). Back home again, I decided to do a little ironing. I put water in the reservoir and heated up the iron. Out crawled about a hundred tiny ants! We picked them up a few months ago, but I didn't see them very often, and then only a half dozen or so. Now I know where they've been holing up! I filled and swished the reservoir a couple of times before all the ants and their eggs came out. Fortunately, my reservoir is clear, so I could see when they were all gone. What a full day. We're exhausted! Tomorrow we work, so nitey nite!

Louise and Duane