Sundance Never Went to Sundance

Sorry about the misleading header, folks! We thought we were going to Sundance but with all the well craziness we stayed in Santa Fe.

Dad is going out to Santa Fe next week and I have asked him to continue my blog, even though I'm not going (woof!). I am going back in May.

After some discussion, I've allowed him to continue with the "Sundance ... Sundance" header, even though it's getting more misleading by the week.

This is a photo of the fake diner they built for my favorite movie, "Wild Hogs." That's "hogs," not "dogs." You can't get anything at this place, but you can pose for pictures. This is in the town of Madrid, which is where our land is. Actually it's not "incorporated," which means that all of us, hogs included, are in Santa Fe county.

Dad will be taking over from me as of April 14. In the meantime, as we Dogs say, "woof woof."

Serious Digging

This morning, Mom and I got up first thing and went out for a little walk in the neighborhood around Joseph's place, where we have been staying. Joseph is like family, and we love it here. You can see neighborhood photos on Mom's Facebook page.

Then, finally, after all the craziness and the real unhappy thing where our well driller Thomas's father got killed just last week, they actually got the rig onto our land and started drilling this morning.

I'm a very good digger, but I've never seen anything like this. However, I hated the noise and the great clouds of dust, and Mom and I retreated to a safe distance, where I dug my own very satisfactory Dachshund hole.

Unfortunately the bad winds blowing over this project continued today. They had a hard time getting down through 40 feet of gravel and so decided to start pumping water into the hole, to keep the hole from collapsing into itself. But the pump didn't work. So they took the pump apart and didn't find anything wrong with it and put it back together -- and the pump worked. So that was a bad wind turned around by smart people

But then the drill didn't seem to be drilling right, and so Thomas gave the signal to pull it back up out of the hole -- and the drill bit was gone! Not just broken off, but gone. "I've never seen anything like this in my life!" he said. (Mom and I hung low.)

Unfortunately, with a dead bit at the bottom, there was no way to continue drilling that hole, and no choice but to start a new hole, so that was 40 feet of drilling and most of a day wasted (not to mention a $750 bit lost in the hole).

The steadfast Thomas, who is a dowser, used a coat hanger to make sure he knew where the water was, and started drilling a new hole not far from the old one. When we left tonight to go home and pack, they were 20 feet in -- again, a serious problem turned around by smart people.

As I have had occasion to bark before, "We'll see what tomorrow brings." Let's hope the bad winds have swept themselves away.

Heading for the Hills

Today the "high" point was our hike in the Cerillos (means "little hills"). That's me and Mom at the top, with the Ortiz mountains behind us.

We walked about 4 miles, a lot of it uphill. By the end, Mom and Dad were pretty tired, but I was still trucking. I love to hike! especially when I am following the scent of horses the whole way. (Others, less hardy than Mom and Dad, ride horses over the trails. They sure leave some big poops, and a lot of them.)

This morning, Dad and I went out to check out the land, since there have been some crazy snows all around, but there was no accumulation, which means the well guy will be able to start tomorrow. Meantime Mom had a morning jewelry class one-on-one with an instructor and made a truly awesome Raven bracelet, which you can see on her Facebook page.

After our hike we drove up to Espanola and found this really cool little modular home for not much money (also on the Facebook page), which they're thinking of buying if the well produces water. So everything depends on that, and we probably won't even know before we drive away at noon on Friday ...

The way I see it, it all depends on keeping a cool head, a good nose and strong legs.

Our Gate Closes the Day

This morning Dad went off to work on the gate activity, and Mom and I took a walk into town. Nice to be in town after all the driving!

We walked off into the Railyard and started shopping. First stop was Teca Tu, a dog boutique in Sanbusco Station where I got a treat and picked out a new toy, a double-squeaky tiger which I am playing right now; Mom also bought me a Bully Bar.

Then Mom went shopping and got new shoes. After that we went to Ortega's, one of the top TOP jewelry stores on the Plaza, where Mom explored new ideas for making jewelry and I got TWO treats.

The weather was looking a little snowy and strange, so we quickly hiked home ... but it didn't snow. We spent the rest of the morning with Mom making jewelry and me playing my tiger squeaky.

Dad came home at lunch and he had been successful working with the guy putting the gate in, so now we have a neat new green gate at the entrance to our land. After lunch, we took a big drive looking at manufactured homes, since Dad had found one he liked; Mom liked it too, so now they are no longer vomiting about that idea. They also found another one that may be good. At the end, we saw the gate and posed for this photo, then returned to Santa Fe where Mom and Dad went out for dinner with our friend Joseph, who owns this casita, while I slept.

A nice day!

All Day in the Car!?

It was just as I feared. I woke Mom and Dad up at 5 a.m. and then the first thing I knew, we were in the car. Mom drove for three hours down to Zuni while I slept in Dad's lap. Then Dad drove to Gallup, and then to Santa Fe while I slept in Mom's lap; we got back to Joseph's casita at about 6 p.m. On the plus side, I did catch up on my sleep.

In Zuni, Mom and Dad bought mainly fetish carvings. I woke up a couple of times to bark at the Dogs of Zuni. We did have lunch, with me getting a couple of milk bones and a chew on an old marrow bone.

In Gallup, Mom and Dad bought a bunch of stuff, and I did get to go into the store -- they were all very friendly, although Dad wasn't about to let me get to their lunch leftovers (I certainly tried!).

Tonight we're settled in while Mom watches "Dancing With the Stars." She promises me that tomorrow will be more interesting with the two of us up in Santa Fe, while Dad chases around down in Madrid with Tom the Gate Guy, trying to at least get a gate installed, even if we can't get a well drilled before we leave. (There's another storm coming in tomorrow.)

Hike to the Mica Mine

This is me and Dad at the mica mine, a hike we took this morning to celebrate Mom's birthday. She and Dad went out for a blue corn pinon pancake breakfast (using our own maple syrup) and then we drove up to Ojo Caliente, a famous hot spring resort ... but we didn't bother with the resort, just walked the 2 miles up a trail to the mica mine. The trail and the countryside were beautiful. Not sure why they ever wanted to dig mica out of the ground, but the stuff they left was all very shiny and pretty cool.

Then we drove down this very scary road over the Rio Grande gorge and got to Mom's secret sage fields, where she clipped sage, and Dad followed me around while I waded in the Rio Grande, rolled in the grass and got tangled in the sage next to Mom.

After that we drove back to Santa Fe and drove up and down Cerillos Road for a couple of hours, a big highway with lots of traffic and shopping malls which I never saw the point of. However, we did get to go to Jackalope, this crazy store that has a prairie dog village in it, and after I saw the prairie dogs I went nuts for the rest of my time at Jackalope.

Tonight, Mom and Dad went out for a fancy dinner and I slept. We're back at our casita and I'm doing some serious sleeping.

Art for Dog's Sake

Today was another one of those days. The main item we planned on was driving down to Madrid to meet the guy who would be putting in our gate today. But when we woke up this morning, there was 8 inches of snow on the ground.

So we were driving down Cerillos Road on our way to meet the guy at about 9 a.m. and ring-ring, here he was calling us: he can't get out of his driveway. ("manana")

So we figured we were that far down the road, and we would check out the manufactured-house place. Hello? Nobody there. So we figured we'd go to Jackalope. Hello? Nobody there. I guess these New Mexico places aren't as tough with snow as we are in New Hampshire.

Then we went up to the top of the road and started again with the Farmer's Market, where Mom and Dad got some nice greens. Then we headed down to the bottom of the road and the double-wide guy was there and Mom got a look at it. Driving out she made that gesture where people make themselves throw up by sticking a finger in their throat ... so I guess we're not doing manufactured housing.

Jackalope was open and the prairie dogs were awake and I was ready to jump into the pit! But Mom and Dad didn't let me. Also they were out of blue corn pinion pancake mix which is why we went there ("manana").

So at that point, we drove up to Espanola where Mom remembered a good manufactured house site, but they were out of business ("adios"). So we headed back to Santa Fe and ended up walking all the great art galleries on Canyon Road; it was a nice afternoon, with lots of pleasant people and beautiful gallery exhibits. I love art! but I especially love art with animals in it, and I really did like this outdoor bunny sculpture -- he looked very friendly.