Back from Connecticut

It was a long three days helping my Dad. Having a fire where you are forced out of your home and where you lose so much of your belongings is a tough thing for anyone to deal with. I am in awe of my father who is almost 86 and mostly blind to be able to handle things. Fortunately I was able to be of help but it is frustrating to be so far away and not be able to be there. I spent 3 hours on the plane this morning writing 5 pages of detailed explanation for all the members of our family so I'm a little burnt out on writing about this. Maybe sometime this week I'll have a bit more energy.

In Connecticut

I'm just about done with my three days with o-I/Dad and finding out the full scope of stuff associated with his house fire and aftermath. I've go crappy internet and have to go to the public area to get a signal plus we've been working long days. I will get more detail out tomorrow on my flight home.

So Nice to Stop

I'm sure my micro cadre of readers know that when I write seriously (uh about .05% of my posts), I wax philosophically about how life is not meant to be a cake walk but is a series of challenges for us to over come and grow by.

There's been a lot going on in the de-I world in terms of challenges - Father's house burning down, child out of work, child's child with serious learning/speaking disorder, sink broken leading to having to replace counter, transmission needing replacement, etc., etc., etc. But don't cry for me Argentina. The business is hanging in there, no fatal illnesses, all are dealing with their challenges (what more could a parent ask for?), no one is living in Afghanistan or Zaire.

One of the real blessings of going though those challenging periods is how much it makes you appreciate all those little pleasures. This weekend with the whole Gary incident, I was possibly feeling the challenges a bit more. As Derf's wife Agent W was out of town working, I Derf if he come over to de-I Towers for as I said a much needed time of doing nothing with alcohol.

Derf obliged. He arrived around 4 PM. We toured the garden eating a peach of the tree and munching on berries. We sat down on our patio outside and drank some good vodka and olives. After an hour or so, I went inside and whipped up a salad from leftover grilled mahi-mahi, capers, and mayo, another salad with leftover chickpeas, oil, vinegar, tomatoes, cucumbers, basil and chives from the garden, a couple of artichokes from the fridge steamed and a sauce of sour cream, half and half, and dijon mustard washed down with a nice Chablis. Followed that with a little cheese and nice 10 year old Burgundy.

Eating, drinking, talking, enjoy the incredible quiet. Around 7:30 we go upstairs to our deck looking west to watch a fantastic sunset with a little pisco (a Peruvian brandy). Once the sunset is over, we went to the deck looking east to watch the moonlight mountains. Derf headed home around 11.

Not that complicated - taking a little time out - appreciating what you have.

de-I Outfitters Need Your Help

It has been a struggle to get my fledgling hiking guide business really going. Perhaps the continual misjudgments of distance, climb, heat, weather accompanied by near dire experiences has colored potential customers desire to book with us.

So you can imagine my surprise and glee when Gary from Nova Scotia contacted me for a guided tour of the La Luz trail. I don't even know how he found me. I got Gaius Derf to accompany us since he is a real affectionado of this trail.

We went really early so we would have Gary avoid a lot of the heat. The hike was great and we got to the lookout point (4.5 miles) at around 8:30 AM so we got to see the sun starting to shine on the mountains


The early morning sun brought out the red in the rock.
It was about this time that things started to go downhill. Gary pulls out this sunscreen with a floral scent. Never heard of anything like this before. It must be a Canadian thing. Anyway Gary is putting this stuff on and it is strong. I'm not thinking a whole lot about this until suddenly a hummingbird shows up. I wrote last week about my near death experience with the killer hummingbird. I started to tell Gary that I didn't think that this floral sunscreen was such a good idea. He laughed at me but the hummingbird was being very persistent.

Then it nicked his ear and blood started to flow.

Before we knew it a dozen birds showed up all swarming Gary...then it seemed like a hundred. Gary was trying to swat them and fight them. Derf was ready to wade it when I stopped him.

"Derf don't go! We need to check if he signed is release document!"
"Release document?"
"Yes, my insurance company said that in any kind of unusual situation I had to make sure that I have a release form signed allowing us to act on his behalf."

So I flounder through my pack but I'm not finding anything.

"Gary, did you give us your release form"
"Arrrrggggg!"
"I think it was in your introduction pack."
"Agggggggggggggg!"
"On page 358?"
"Grrrrggggaaaaaahhhhgggggg!"

"Uh de-I, I think it might be bit too late"

Well who would have known? They were vamire killer hummingbirds! When they all flew off all there was was a shriveled up hunk of poor Gary. So what the heck were we going to do? Well the first theing to do was to get rid of the body. I mean losing a hiker to killer vampire hummingbirds is not good for business. Fortunately we're over a big ole canyon in the wilderness so over the edge goes what's left of Gary.

But now the question arises, what are we going to tell the next of kin? I need your help. How should we spin this to ensure the continuation of de-I Sandia Outfitters? The winning entry gets a free weekend with hiking at de-I Towers.

First Tortoise Ever!

Much to our surprise last evening we found this tortoise meandering across our garden.



In other news, we ate our first peach...Holy Moly....Good.

Suggest you plan your flights for the peach festival (I suspect the entire tree will ripen on exactly the same day) for 10 days from now.

Produce Producing

We've had a very different year in terms of weather much like the rest of the country. Our May and June which normally are our hottest driest months were cool and wet. July which is usually cooler and wetter has been hot but still wet.

As a result Wife's garden is growing in a very different manner than in years past. The foliage of the plants is very skimpy but they are putting out a lot of fruit. We've already been using quite a bit which is not normal.

Our Peach Tree Peaching

We've got flotillas of peaches and they are going to all ripen at once.

New Mexico Green Chile

I've done a couple of meals with chiles already and usually they don't come in until late in August

Tomatoes as well - another one that usually is much later

Blackberries blackening

The golden raspberry bushes are going nuts

With plenty of fruit

The Pleasure and The Agony

I was hiking by my lonesome on Saturday so I went to a trail that is not favored by hiking partner Derf, The South Crest Trail. I've written about his a couple of times with pictures including my best time ever on it which I did a couple of years ago.

Hiking this year has been more of a leisurely affair this year. But since I was by myself, I decided that I would give myself a push to see what I could do. That means no pictures but you can go to the links above for those.

The trail is roughly 5.5 miles, 11 round trip, with a 2000 foot altitude gain. Somehow once again in my mind I forgot that and thought it was a bit shorter.

I break this hike into three sections of roughly equal lengths; an initial steep climb, a more gradual section, followed by another steep climb. My first interim time was right in the range I hoped for. It was very warm, in the 70's already when I started just after 7:30 AM.

Typically the second section is a break because of the smooth trail. However, because of the heavy downpours we've been getting the trail on all sections was substantially more difficult with lots and lots of rocks to be stepped on and navigated. Nonetheless, I was doing a very good pace at the second check point.

Going up the third section really hurt but I was in full competitive mode. I made it in 1 hour and 56 minutes! Only 4 minutes slower than my best time ever!

At the end of this hike is my all time favorite post climb resting place. I stayed for 15 minutes resting, drinking, eating a sandwich. I was almost dozing when this killer hummingbird comes within a foot of my nose scaring the hell out of me.

The way down was hell. All those rocks meant that you had to pay attention to every step. You couldn't make any time. Plus the heat was now up to the upper 80's with sun ablazing. I was wiped out at the end. Took me 24 hours to really recuperate.

Can't wait to see if I can break my record.