Ride the Great Divide!

I took some of the students of Mojave Academy to help out at a local endurance ride... enjoy!

The Beauty of Central New Mexico

It isn't hard to find beauty here in the magnificent mountains of western central New Mexico. I think I'm getting spoiled! Here are just a few recent photos of the place I call home. If you click on one, you can see it in its original (larger) size. Note: none of these pictures were enhanced in any way!

cows near the road that leads out of our property

the forest behind my house

sunrise over Davenport Canyon



the road to town

Rock formations in some nearby mountains

another forest scene

fiery sunset from my window

the Datil Mountians

My son

I am so proud of my boy! He's learning so much here at this wilderness boarding school where we live... horseback riding, hiking, camping, rifle shooting (yeah, it's kid-paradise here)... he is also learning a lot about building things and taking care of property, working as an assistant to our Estates Manager. He's a natural leader, too. He's in charge of all of the animal chores, making sure the other kids do their work.

AND, he is now FLYING along on his studies... 3 grades ahead in Math... he will probably graduate high school a few years early!

(((((sigh))))
Proud Mama

Aunt Helen

I wasn't expecting the morning call
That my Aunt had passed through
To a world
That I couldn't see

I wasn't expecting
The flood of tears
For someone who held the same name
As me

For we hadn't spoken in so many years
Birthdays came and went

But the phone rang three times
And no one was there
As she began her skyward ascent

And my fingers were ice
When she held my hand
Asking directions of me

Her breath ever still and
Her voice always soft...
I told her that she could just Be

In the mountains so tall
In the valley so warm
In the clouds ever changing above

Beside me
Within me
Around me...
Wherever
She wanted to love

With death comes reminders
Of futures to know
Of changes demanding we learn

Beginning new dreams of
Tomorrows unseen, of
The wisdom we desperately yearn

Unprepared as I was
For this visit from Death
Life a thief, how he stole my breath

I could still feel her smile
As it landed beside me with
Her laughter to guide me
Along

Were her dimples still mine
Where the angels had kissed me?
She whispered a yes with a simple good-bye as
She melted into the sky.



...

Datil, New Mexico

While my new "home" is off the beaten path, it is very rich in history and adventure!

Along U.S. 60 in the northern part of Catron County, the largest county in New Mexico, three towns interrupt the remote mountain landscape. Datil, Pie Town and Quemado are a day's horseback ride from each other. Pickups have replaced the horses, but ranching remains the main occupation in the area although real estate development is gaining a toehold.

With more elk than people, the emphasis is on outdoor recreation in northern Catron County. Hunting for elk, deer, bear and wild turkey is extremly popular during fall and winter. The temperature averages range from 32 degrees to 70 degrees over 350 sunny days a year. Monsoon showers hit hard in July but do not last long.

Thirty-six miles west of Magdalena, at the western edge of the San Agustin Plains, the Datil Mountains rise and pinon and juniper trees emerge from the bush and grass. At the intersection of U.S. 60 and S.R. 12 at an elevation of 7500 feet sits the town of Datil.

To the Spanish settlers the seedpods of the prevelant yucca resembled dates, and "datil" is the Spanish word for date. Levi and Fred Baldwin established the first Datil store and post office in 1884 to serve the cattle ranching families. One of the early settlers, Agnes Morley Cleaveland, described ranching in Datil in the 1880s in her well-known book, No Life for a Lady. A monument to her parents can be seen on U.S. 60 five miles west of Datil.

The hub of Datil is the Eagle Guest Ranch which dates from the 1920s when Agnes Morley Cleaveland's sister, Loraine, and her husband, Tom Reynolds, opened the small store. With a cafe, motel, general store, gas station, and RV park, the Eagle Guest Ranch today serves as a general meeting place for the 150 townsfolk and the surrounding community of ranchers.

The Datil Well Campground, south of town, commemorates the site of a cattle watering well on the historic stock driveway from Springerville to the railhead in Magdalena.

Originally called Norman's Place, Pie Town is located 22 miles west of Datil on the Continental Divide. The altitudes of 7,900 feet has proven healthy for the town's 55 inhabitants.

Pie Town earned its name in the 1920s when Clyde Norman, owner of the town's gas station and cafe, began selling pies to automobile travelers on U.S. 60. In 1934 the area around Pie Town was opened up to homesteaders. Using dry land farming, the homesteaders grew pinto beans until 1956 when the lack of snow and rain made this unprofitable.

The Pie Town Pie Festival, held on the second Saturday of September, brings over a thousand visitors to the all-day affair featuring a balloon ascension, pie-eating contest, horny toad race, Old Time Fiddle Contest, western pit barbeque, and pie baking contest. Pie Town boasts two cafes, both serving pie. For the overnight visitor, camping is free in Jackson Park.

Twenty-one miles further west on U.S. 60 at the lower altitude of 6970 feet lies Quemado, named for the Spanish word for "burned." When Jose Antonio Padilla settled by a creek east of the present town in 1880, he found that the surounding brush had been burned by the Indians, so he named it Rito Quemado.

With three cafes, three motels, two garages, general and hardware stores and the only high school in the northern part of the county, Quemado is a service center for the surrounding ranching community and the 250 inhabitants of the town. The cut stone small Catholic Church at the east end of town with its tiny graveyard is well worth a photograph, as is the tree made of deer antlers.

Quemado Lake, 14 miles south on SR 32 in the Apache National Forest, offers excellent trout fishing, camping and hiking.

Great Pie on the Great Divide

The Continental Divide (also known as The Great Divide) in the Americas is the line that divides the flow of water between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Ocean. Rain or snow that drains on the east side of the Continental Divide flows toward the Atlantic Ocean, while precipitation on the west side drains and flows toward the Pacific Ocean. The divide runs from northwestern Canada along the crest of the Rocky Mountains to New Mexico. Then, it follows the crest of Mexico's Sierra Madre Occidental.

On my first trip to Pie Town, along the 2-lane ribbon of asphalt known as Highway 60, we drove by a sign that said "Continental Divide 6,355 Ft." It seemed rather uneventful. At first, I had wanted to get out and take a picture. But it was just an ordinary, green road sign without much of a view behind it. Then we got to the top of the Divide and I saw in the distance a small cluster of buildings, rundown and abandoned. A short distance ahead of that was a quaint downtown, nestled in the high hills, between juniper trees. And then I saw it: The Daily Pie Cafe-- our destination. "Great Pie on the Great Divide... it's all Downhill From Here" is their slogan.

Being from New York and having lived in LA, I'm no stranger to good food. Being a baker myself, I was a bit skeptical when I was told this was the best pie I would ever eat. I said, "I'll bet it won't be better than the Key Lime pie at Blond Giraffe’s in Key West!" I had one slice of blackberry.... now I'm willing to eat my words. And more pie, please!!

At this down home restaurant you can chat with locals, drink a bottomless cup of coffee for $5 (and then keep the souvenir mug), and order from the ever-changing menu board, otherwise known as "The World's Only True Pie Chart." Their cozy gift shop features T-shirts with aliens saying, "We came for the pie." Their mouth-watering array of heavenly slices are worth the drive from any star system. I'm still gathering the courage and the taste buds for their New Mexican apple pie, made with green chilies and pinon nuts!

Some Haiku from my book in progress

The Mountains Whisper