Not Much Accomplished

In fact, it was more of an anti-accomplishment day in that I wasted a lot of time feeding the ducks. This morning, I took the pile of brewers yeast candy (brewers yeast and honey) to Ashley Pond and threw it on the ice and quickly got out of there. It honestly looked like a pile of cow plop. I wonder if anything ate it. I've thrown some really disgusting looking stuff for the ducks. I just couldn't eat it anymore. It's not that it tasted terrible - when I was hungry, it was actually quite good for brewers yeast but I don't need all that honey.

Then, this afternoon in an attempt to get rid of the blackstrap molasses (also purchased to make the brewers yeast palatable), I cooked the ducks up a nutritious batch of glop - aforesaid molasses, cooked whole quinoa, wheatgrass powder, canola oil, masa harina, wheat germ, soy-rice milk and I think that was all but that was bad enough. Actually, it didn't taste too horrible except it was somewhat gluey and I certainly didn't need to spend the next couple of weeks trying to eat it.

I feel badly about wasting all that food but if the ducks or some other animal eats it, I guess it wasn't wasted. It was just a really bad idea to buy the honey and molasses to try to use up the brewer's yeast.

In between feeding the ducks, I stopped at the library. After that, walked up to the first chain turnout and back down on Camp May Road. I swear - the trunks of the aspen sapling are already turning green! The skies were absolutely cloudless.

When I went out this evening to gave the ducks their blackstrap molasses glop (it was too dark to see if the faux "cow plop" was still there), the bank clock said the temperature was 29 degrees. It felt cold and I was glad I walked earlier in the day.

I'm still agonizing over ending the scanning of my genealogy records but I scanned all the records pertaining to our parents and then just plain ran out of steam to scan anymore. I just want to donate the records and get them out of my life. They're not doing anyone any good just sitting in a box in my closet. Maybe someone will find some value in the records and it will help in their family research.

Funny thing this morning - I went out to our trash barrel to pull out the empty bag that the Whole Foods salted roasted peanuts in the shell came in to see if they were recalled due to the Peanut Corporation of America salmonella scare. To my surprise, there were two pieces of trash on top of my twist-tie-sealed black, plastic trash bag. Each had some large pieces of dog poop in them! Once before I found large pieces of dog poop on our sidewalk. One morning when I had to get up around 6am, I noticed a tall man walking two huge dogs on our street. Maybe I'll start waking up at 7:30 am on trash-pickup morning to put out our trash barrel. I guess dog poop in the trash barrel is better than on our sidewalk but I really don't appreciate either!

Meandering Through Life

Woke at 8am. Swept gravel from driveway. Got started on kale soup - just kale, garlic, onions, water, canned diced tomatoes and seasonings, including chili powder, red pepper, thyme, mint, coriander, cumin, garam masala, mango powder, ginger, tumeric and sesame oil. Each night, I'll add it to beans or canned fish and add some miso for the salt.

The soup and brewer's yeast candy took a lot of time and I just now finished breakfast. Brewer's yeast candy consists of brewer's yeast mixed with honey. I had managed to finish a whole huge container of plain brewer's yeast and then bought another huge container but I balked at eating it plain (actually, I mixed it with orange juice) and discovered that honey nicely drowns the flavor. Our backyard neighbor, Irma, highly recommends the stuff but it doesn't taste very good. Even she can only stomach it with honey! I had even tried to make Tiger's Milk with it - soy yogurt or soy milk, brewer's yeast, wheat germ, molasses, and orange juice but that wasn't as good as the brewer's yeast candy!

Finally sitting down at the computer to begin scanning my father's Navy record and after that, the guardianship papers that sent all five of us to our aunt and uncle after we were orphaned when our father died in 1966. I scanned my mother's medical records the other night. Sad to read how quickly she went downhill and died at age 39 during her last hospitalization. I don't plan to donate any of these very personal papers anywhere but am trying to put most of my genealogy records in digital form. I will be scanning for hours today!

Spouse took grandson to see Inkheart. He is so good about taking grandson to the movies and they both enjoy it!

Tomorrow I check out both Deer Trap Mesa and Otowi Mesa (end of Los Pueblos) for the WI. I wonder what has happened to the snow we were supposed to get?

Pundits on Obama's Speech

Pundits on NPR are commenting on Obama's inaugural speech and saying it wasn't soaring or poetic like speeches he gave in the past. I thought it was just right because it was reality based and telling us that it will be a long, hard row to hoe to get this country back on its feet!

Daughter was watching inauguration on CNN and posted a zillion enthused comments on Facebook! I was delighted to read how interested and excited she is about Obama's presidency!

Watched Barack's Inauguration on PBS

Even though I said I was only going to listen to the inauguration on NPR, as soon as I heard mention of Aretha Franklin's arrival, the Queen of Soul, I caved and turned on PBS's inaugural coverage! I bawled during Aretha's singing of My Country Tis of Thee! I bawled at various other moments too. I've now turned off the TV and am once again listening to the NPR coverage.

Barack slightly flubbed the oath but Biden recited his perfectly. Barack's inaugural speech was stirring and makes me wish there was something like a silver corps for seniors by which I could do service for my country. Michelle Obama and Laura Bush were both stunningly beautiful. I felt sorry for George Bush but happy to see him go back to Texas and Cheney to Wyoming.

I hope Barack Obama is a great president who does great things for the United States and the world! God bless and protect his family!

Quiet and Tired

That's from going to bed at 1am the past two nights and waking up at 9am.

Walked ski hill bypass road today for my four miles. Upped weight vest to seven pounds.

Grandson here now. Spouse took him to see a movie. Daughter and son-in-law are driving back from trip to Las Vegas, NM where they looked for ghosts in Plaza Hotel and toured Pecos Monument and Fort Union. Spouse will fix dinner for them tonight.

Started project of going through genealogy files to organize them to donate to Stark County District Library when we visit Ohio this year. May work on it during the day tomorrow and walk downtown in the evening.

Haven't heard from WI's on Wednesday outing. Saw Susi at MPL and she's interested in going.

I have a rash on the back of my hands. It may be from the Aubrey hand lotion that I bought. I plan to return it. I've been not wearing gloves and the lotion may have caused a photo-toxic reaction.

Road to Pueblo Canyon Sewer Treatment Plant

Hey, they've fixed it up - there's no more small stream running across the road at the almost two mile mark and the ice skating rink right before that is gone too. All this is apparently due to the county having repaired the gutter that drains the treated effluent water underneath the road.

Saw several other couples out walking the road with their dogs. Saw a runner at the parking lot with shoes full of mud but he must have ran far to get that muddy because the road had recently been graded and was the least muddy, snowy and icy that it's been in recent years. Saw two climber-type dudes wanting to get up onto mesa east of big Otowi Ruins. They wondered why on one side of the fence the signs read DOE - stay out and on the other side, San Ildefonso - stay out! Does seem a conundrum!

Only went as far as muddy trail into Bayo Canyon.

East Fork Is Lovely!

I had an enjoyable snowshoe on the East Fork today. Parking is somewhat limited because of snow piled up in the back of the parking lot but there is a bare strip wide enough where people can parallel park and even double park.

There were seven vehicles parked at the trailhead so I had to turn around and park at the sign that reads "Snow Plows Ahead", near the Las Conchas rock climbing area. That was fine because you can actually snowshoe/ski over to the trail/river from there and I did just that in the afternoon to get back to my car. There's space enough for maybe three or four vehicles where I parked.

At the start, I actually walked on the road from my parking place and carried my equipment over to the trailhead. I went down through the gate on the left. The snow was thin and semi-icy but it was much less steep than trying to negotiate my way down to the river from the right edge of the parking lot.

Going downstream, I mostly snowshoed along/in the frozen, snowpacked river and tried out as much of the trail as I could on the way back. I went all the way to where Trail 137 turns left to go steeply uphill and where the river goes into a narrow canyon at the VCNP boundary. Here, the river resurfaces from underneath the snow and ice.

I managed to avoid crossing any of the wooden bridges. The area of the river between the first and third bridges has some obvious spots that are melting out but I could easily avoid them. (When I say first bridge, I'm referring to the first river crossing that used to be a hop from rock to rock underneath a stony overhang. That's now been bridged over.)

I saw lots of snowshoers and skiers. I saw one couple that hiked all the way to the end. I asked if they sunk in much and they said it wasn't too bad as long as they stuck to the packed trail.

Skies were sunny and blue. Views along the river were stunning and made more so by all the beautiful snow. The WI's could enjoyably hike, snowshoe and ski on this trail as it is today.

NM-4 is in fine condition. Along the way, people will enjoy stopping at one of the VCNP's parking aprons to admire the Preserve all cloaked in white!

No New Cookstove After All

Last night, CO detector went off for second time; first time happened was a month or so ago.This afternoon, called county utilities department and they came right out and pronounced the cookstove healthy. It's an 18 year old Kenmore gas range. Guess we'll keep it for now. The CO detector has only gone off when I've had a stovetop burner on for several hours cooking my stews. Solution is open a window or turn on the vent fan during the process.

Mish mosh stew very good but there's a lot of it! Had to freeze some.

WRSC Hike in El Rancho

Wandered around the streets of El Rancho, dodging cars. No one interested in walking along Nambe River but I was. Eight of us, including new couple, Beverly and Frank, who have only gone twice with group. They like to go to the low impact aerobics fitness classes at the WRSC. Says that the class exercises to a Richard Simmons tape every time but they don't get tired of it and everyone enjoys it. I had one of his exercise tapes once. He was fun! Enjoyed talking to Beverly. She said she hiked with the LL group back in 2000 and remembers me.

We drove to SF after hike and hit Walmart and Wild Oats.

Spouse is beginning to sign into my Facebook account a lot as a way to keep up with daughter!

Turned out that Barbara wants East Fork Trail at Las Conchas checked out for possible WI snowshoe next Wednesday. I'll do that tomorrow. This is pretty exciting for me - a volunteer position requiring me to snowshoe trails!

Monday, daughter and family come over for spouse's homemade baby back ribs.

Wish I Had a Brain!

I offered to check out snow conditions on specific trails for the WI's. Kathy thought that Water Canyon and Valle Canyon looked promising. She asked if I would check them out and let Barbara know because she will be leading the next two Wednesday snowshoes.

Today I snowshoed up Water Canyon to FR181 and then down old FR181 to West Jemez Road and walked that road back to my car.

You can park alongside West Jemez Road at the Water Canyon entrance road or those with adventurous vehicles can drive in. From West Jemez Road to the Water Canyon trailhead locked entrance gate, there is thin snow and ice cover but I was easily able to snowshoe down from the road. The snow is thin right at the locked entrance gate and if the warm conditions continue, may get bare this weekend.

After that, the snow is hard packed and most recently traveled by hikers. Then there is a section that gets lots of shade where the snow was softer. In the area on the left of the first major side canyon to Water Canyon, which gets a lot of sun, there was a bare spot which was easy to get around.

When you get to the meadow where you have to cross the stream (the crossing is getting marginal but a fraidy cat like me was able to do it!) there are some bare spots in the meadow but the trail into the Water Canyon narrows on the left was fine.

I didn't think I was going to go up Water Canyon to FR181 by myself because I can get spooked in narrow canyons but it seemed friendly enough. The snow was nice and had been snowshoed enough to pack it nicely until you got closer to FR181 and then it was less traveled but highly doable. I managed to slide off and into the snow when I crossed the final stout fallen log across the trail before going up to FR181. Imagining a mountain lion coming in for the kill, I got a bit perturbed at myself as I frantically tried to extricate myself from the soft snow.

FR181 was like a groomed trail because a narrow axled motorized vehicle had driven over it. The vehicle tracks went almost halfway down old FR181 until the sharp curve area where it gets really rutted. Surprisingly, no one had recreated on the old road since the last storm. At one short area of southern exposure, there were outright short bare stretches. When I got to the area where the Perimeter Trail (coming from Water Canyon) intersects old FR181, I couldn't see any tracks and decided to walk down to West Jemez and return to my car via the road.

It was a beautiful, warm, sunny day of bluer than blue skies with high, silvery clouds and fantastic views, from FR181, of the Sangre de Cristos.

Distance snowshoed today was 4.4 miles and walked about .5 miles on West Jemez back to car. GPS batteries died so got the mileages from Craig Martin's book. Took about 2 1/2 hours.

Hopefully, I'll be checking out Valle Canyon on Sunday or Monday.

The Wish I Had a Brain! refers to my experiment: I wanted to see if the snowshoes would be healthier for my feet if I wore waterproof shoes and no overboots. Big problem was, though, that I forgot my gaiters at home! I only remembered that I had planned to wear them when I noticed cold snow going down the back of my mid-cut Keen Targhee hiking boots. At the end of the hike, my socks were soaked.

I need to dry the Keen's out for a week and then try the experiment again but this time with the gaiters! I did feel I could move my feet more naturally without the overboots but getting soaked feet is certainly not an ideal situation. Still, it may work with the gaiters on short trips. All day trips would definitely require the overboots!

I'm going to make a huge stew: onions, garlic, whole wheat pasta, jarred red peppers, canned pumpkin, jarred artichoke hearts, black soybeans, jarred tomato paste, canned tomatoes, leftover red coleslaw, okra, spinach, seasonings and olive oil. The canned foods are low in sodium except for the jarred artichoke hearts and jarred red peppers and they are reasonable amounts that will provide the sodium for the stew. In addition, I'm making spouse a potato kugel. I have to get to work now!