puppysitting!

The 4-legged Audrey is gracing us with her presence, while Janie + Joa are in Albuquerque overnight for some Dia de los Muertos festivities.



awwww.... wshoozzacutie?

Hey, We Went There

sank-ah-WEE

After an unsucessful attempt to go to Nambé Falls/Lake on Saturday, we ended up at Tsankawi instead. The 1.5 mile trail winds up to the top of a mesa, where there are unexcavated ruins of a settlement built sometime in the 1400s.

Try to find Bram in this picture:



In many sections, the trail is worn down into the rock by quite a bit:



The hike was pretty easy, mostly level, except where the trail dropped (or climbed) between the 2 levels of the mesa. There, you could see the old "rock ladders" — hand- and toe-holds cut into the rock. To reduce wear on them (and because they were kinda scary), there were ladders to use instead:



About halfway, there were little caves to explore. Apparently, the Tsankawi people added on an additional structure at the front of each cave. All that's left now are smoke stains on the cave ceilings, and holes in the rock where the roof support beams were. Here's the view from one of them:



It was a really nice day and hike. Click on the panorama for a bigger version:

Sod Poodles

To my great relief, I did a little research and discovered that prairie dogs do hibernate. That explains their absence from the median strip at the bottom of the hill. Their condo — I think it's too small to call a town — is in the divider between the highway into town and the little road that leads to our place. This also explains why they weren't out at Jackalope when Monica and D— were there last week.

So, until the spring, we have to make do with P. Dawg, the mascot for the Santa Fe New Mexican's poll for favorite teen spots in town.


Unfortunately, no illustration credit given in the paper

(Yeah, we got a scanner. Some brief research revealed that we more than paid for one with all the scans at Kinkos these past few months).

Both Ends

Look to the left.



Look to the right.