Nothing New Under The Sun

You could just go re-read last week's post, I suppose.  Same deal- cloudy skies, no rain.  They remind me of this passage from Jude, in which Jude is talking about false prophets:

They are clouds without water, carried about by the winds; late autumn trees without fruit, twice dead, pulled up by the roots;  (Jude 1:12)

What we want to see is more along the lines of this:

Now it happened in the meantime that the sky became black with clouds and wind, and there was a heavy rain. (1 Kings 18:45a)

Or this!

Ask the LORD for rain In the time of the latter rain. The LORD will make flashing clouds; He will give them showers of rain, Grass in the field for everyone.  (Zechariah 10:1)

We've certainly had the flashing clouds and the result was fires all over the place.  One ranch south of us was almost entirely burned up and the owner, who took to the air in a plane said it was almost like it just burned along their property boundaries.  We, so far, have been spared from fires.  And the weather forecast is still calling for 10-40% chances of rain every day for the rest of the week.  So, while it's tough, it could be worse.

As part of the Ministerial Alliance in town I get 15 min a day on the local radio station about every 5 weeks.  The above passages are probably overflow from my most recent series, which was on....drum roll... rain!   I looked at a lot of verses on rain, and it was clear that God uses it to accomplish both chastisement and reward.  I did the same thing in 2008 and I'll probably do it again in a few years.

This week, the 58th Annual Camp Meeting is coming up and I'm doing the daily Bible study as well as preaching the closing sermon on Sunday.  In light of everyone's recent and current struggles, I'm thinking I'll look at Job, particularly:

And he said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, And naked shall I return there. The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; Blessed be the name of the LORD." In all this Job did not sin nor charge God with wrong.  (Job 1:21-22)

and

But he said to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?" In all this Job did not sin with his lips.  (Job 2:10)

Of course, times of trouble aren't easy- Job tore his robe and shaved his head.   The author of Hebrews says:

Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.  (Hebrews 12:11)

So, there's not much to do here but examine ourselves, try to ride it out, and hope for better times.  Hard times certainly make us appreciate the good times more.   Oh wait... here's the famous 2 Chronicles passage:

When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.   (2 Chronicles 7:13-14)

Well, that's pretty much my message for Camp Meeting this week!  :)  However, you don't get the brisket and beans that we'll be getting.  Yummy.

Moving to more mundane things, a neighbor came over on Monday and we "pulled" the windmill in last week's blog.  This involves hooking up ropes and pulleys and pulling the sucker rods up, unscrewing each one, laying them out carefully, and then getting to the valve which enables water pumping.  There are circular leather bushings on that valve and if they get rust, dirt, and junk in them, the mill won't pump.  We were getting some rust flakes when pounding on the pipe and so decided to see what was down there.  Found a couple of flakes, put new leathers on, and it seems to be a little better.  Sorry I didn't get pictures- next time!

On the falcon front, training of the prairie falcon is moving along.  She's a little challenging, but we're starting to make some progress and I've gotten her to eat off the lure and take food from my glove.  Here she is relaxing on her window perch.  This is good as it shows that she really can relax.  As soon as I get her out flying, she'll be able to burn off some of the energy and aggression that's causing our training issues and things should progress even better.

The peregrine is growing up:

Being taken at a much younger age, being a peregrine, and being a male, he's got a totally different attitude than the prairie.  He likes to play with us, is much more sociable (which will create its own training challenges in a bit), and far more vocal.  His feathers are growing by the minute and he's now moved from a creature who could barely walk 2 weeks ago to one that's flapping and running around  his mews (8' x 12').  I don't think I'd been able to take him at this age!

And finally, what with our ranch income uncertain, I've been stepping up the guitar business again. My intent this year was the reverse- back off the guitars and focus more on the ranch, but it just hasn't worked out that way.  So, I contacted all the people I put on "hold" and told 'em the gates were open. So far this week, I've done 2 bridges, 2 bridgeplates, 1 neck reset, 1 nut, 1 saddle, shaved a couple of braces, and I have another neck reset lined up once the guitar has a chance to react to the new bridge/plate.  I like working on guitars.

Here's a 70's Martin D-41 getting a new bridge:

And, I guess that's it for today.  I need to go out and "doctor" a couple of sick cattle in the pasture, do some guitar work, get ready for Bible study tonight (we're going thru Matthew, chapter by chapter, reading it, and then seeing what jumps out at everyone), and praying/hoping for rain!!!   THIS is what it should look like this time of the year:

More of the Same

We're still waiting on rain.  Even though this showed up:

Clouds

It didn't do much.  I suppose it was raining under this cloud, but all we got at the house was a very light sprinkle- not even enough to register in the rain gauge.  At least it's cloudy and cool and not burning sun.

Of course, some days have been burning sun and worse, they've been windless days.  That led to the situation I described earlier where the windmills don't pump.  Since there's no ground water, this is a bad situation.  We fortunately have an electric pipeline that takes water to several pastures.  And we have a water trailer, so what I do is raid one of the larger pipeline tanks and bring water to the non-pumping mills.  It's a lot of work. The trailer breaks, the truck breaks, and the pump breaks.  Today, the pump quit on my last run at 8 pm, so the first thing I'll do in the morning is get a cup of coffee.  THEN, I'll go out and find out why the pump quit.

A pitiful stream of water

The water tank.  It'll take 4 of these to fill the stock tank.

Well, that's the ranch.  Falcon-wise, I've been working on my hawk house.  I have all the panels up, giving me an 8' x 24' structure.

Big Ol' Ugly Hawk House

It's ugly now, but I think I have all the supplies on hand to panel the outside with metal, like this:

Metal paneling

The roof will be green and there will be a green flashing covering the top 1' or so.  After I get it all up, I'll paint any exposed wood dark brown to match the interior and then I'll put decorative rock along the base.  I think it'll look good and more importantly, hopefully, I won't have to mess with it again for many years.

Here's an update on the birds:

The prairie falcon, happy on her block

The peregrine falcon, growing feathers

Mom and David are in ABQ for David's 4th transfusion.  Nothing much to report there- the doctors are still looking into a cause for his anemia and he's still getting transfusions which will, hopefully, allow him to grow.  Hope, hope, hope- it's all about hope!  I hope it rains, I hope I don't have to work on the hawk house, I hope I get the water pump fixed, I hope nothing else breaks, I hope we find David's problem and cure it.  Hope- it's sometimes all we have.

And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. (Romans 5:3-5)


Onward!

"Fire On The Mountain...

...lightning in the air"
- Marshall Tucker Band

That's mostly what's been going on here on the High Plains.  It is DRY.  We haven't had any measurable precipitation since I reported it in my blog back on, what, June 4th?  Last year by this time we'd had 3"+ of rain.  Currently, we've had 1/2".   On the upside, storm clouds are beginning to build but on the downside, they're just bringing lightning.  Last night there were 4 lightning strikes in a single area and me and B2 got called out on our first jobs as new Volunteer Fire Department members.  I have trouble with the radio so I'm a grunt, which is fine with me.  I ended up manning our water tanker.  Field trucks come by and fill up and what I did was basically just hook them up to our hose.  It was a cool job, literally, as I ended up getting pretty wet from spilling hoses.  We started about 5 pm and I got home around 10 pm.  B2 was still in the field and spent the night at a neighbor's house.

The VFD is all about team-work.

Fire on the mounta...err... sagebrush.

B2 awaits action

Portrait of the Artist as a VFD Member

On the falcon front, training is in progress for "Wendy", the prairie falcon.  Her feathers are all in and so I caught her one night, put jesses on her and she's basically been hooded ever since.  She's taken to the hood very well, as you can see here:

Hooded and Sleeping

Falcons are easy to keep

The great thing about falcons is that they're so easy to keep since they poop straight down.  Hawks bend over and shoot their poo horizontally which gets messy, obviously. 

The idea of this kind of hood training is to only remove the hood when the falcon is going to be fed.  Everytime she sees the falconer, it's a positive thing. You can leave them un-hooded on a perch, but then the falcon risks unpleasant experiences and is basically tied down against its will.  They come to resent that.  When they're hooded, they just shut off and the result is a much calmer bird.  Again, every time the hood comes off, there's a feeding opportunity and a pleasant experience that benefits the falcon.  After awhile, after we're flying and hunting, she can be left unhooded more and more, but by that time she'll be well-trained.  Right now, we're training.

The peregrine chick is doing fine, too.  He's much smaller and younger and his training is different.  While I'm trying to tame and calm the prairie, the key with the peregrine is to not let him get too tame.  If that happens, he'll look to me as the source of food and start screaming and food begging.  He has to be taught to tolerate my presence but to search out food on his own.  His training will be me giving him opportunities to feed instead of me feeding him.  Therefore, what I do with him is provide him with a bowl of food at all times.  He feeds when hungry and seeks that food out.  It's almost like you need to make the chick wild and then tame it.  The older prairie is already wild and my job is just to tame her, or more correctly, create positive experiences for her.  When the peregrine gets older and starts flying, I'll take him to the field and create feeding opportunities for him using a lure and later on, pigeons.  In this way, he'll become a hunter and aerial predator instead of a bird looking to me to feed him.

The Peregrine Ledge

In the box

Stuffed peregrine

 
The peregrine lives on this ledge during the day.  It's filled with gravel and he has a little box he can hide in to get away from stuff.  There's a bowl of chopped quail on the ledge and he eats whenever he wants.  He'll go into the box for awhile and then sit out on the ledge for awhile.  Not much else going on with him- just feeding and some casual handling.  He'll start getting hooded before too long.

And finally, even though I haven't had many pictures of it, I do work on guitars quite a bit.  I just sent an early 60's D-18 home after some renovation and I'm finishing up a 50's 0-18 that got a neck reset and new nut.  The little guitar is a lot of fun to play and is just great for hybrid (pick and fingers) playing, swing chords, stuff like that.  

Original Martin bridge w/ my saddle

Martin 0-18

Peregrine success!!!

If you've been following my blog, then you know I've been checking peregrine falcon nests all spring in hopes of taking one (completely licensed, of course.) Well, today, after thousands of miles of driving, hours of rappelling practice, disappointments, and hopes, it happened!  Arrangements were made with NM Dept of Game and Fish, BLM, and a couple of other falconers and we all met at the meeting spot.  After a 1.6 mi hike in (carrying a 32 lb pack stuffed with ropes, carabiners, webbing, helmet, stakes, etc), us "top dogs" were in position, guided into place over the aerie by the "under dogs" down there at the cliff base.  I threw the rope once... was told to move it a little... pulled it up... and ouch!!!  It was covered with small cactus spines.  And of course I'd left my gloves back at the truck.  I had to toss and pull the rope 3x before the under-dogs were happy with the placement.

After getting the rigging done- I tied to 2 trees at the rear and picked up a 3rd tree a few feet farther, something I'd previously practiced- it was over the side for me.  Up to now, no one on the ground had actually seen chicks and there was a possibility that this whole thing might be a dud.  Indeed, as I leaned out over the cliff (roped in, of course), I could see the ledge, but no chicks.  A few feet down, though, I saw them- 3 little chickies all huddled together on the ledge.  Yee-haw!!!  NMDGF requires before and after pictures, so I took them before I landed on the ledge.

The Three Musketeers...

...suddenly becomes the Dynamic Duo.

The new addition

After taking the chick, I ascended back up the cliff.  It was a pretty easy ascension and  I just had to be extra careful not to knock rocks off.  I left my shunt connected to the rope on the ascent for extra safety and it was no extra trouble, so I'll probably continue to do that.  I was really happy with the shunt's performance as, once again, I let go of it at the nest ledge and it held me there as I got the chick and attached all my ascending gear.


Back on the ground, it was high five and congrats time.  Taking a wild peregrine is kind of a big deal and it definitely was an accomplishment for me to go from searching to monitoring to the final take.  And now, it's time to raise and train.  Fortunately, the prairie and the peregrine are different ages so I'll be able to work with each differently to keep things interesting.  The peregrine's got about 3 more weeks before he gets his feathers and starts to look like a real bird.

And now, off to feed the prairie falcon!

Dust Bowl Days

Well, not quite, but it is incredibly dry out here on the plains.  It is the driest I've ever seen it and a lot of old-timers are calling it the driest they've seen since the early 60's.  And here's a really bad situation: hot, dry, and no wind.

No wind = no water

As you can see from this picture (if you click on it, it'll go full size), the windmill's not turning.  If it doesn't turn, it doesn't pump water.  That's not good.  Note how dry it in this shot, too.  Now part of that is because it's around a mill and that's a high traffic area.  There are some patches of good grass out in the pasture- the trick is getting the cattle to them.  To do that, I'll feed the cattle over there and put salt block in those areas.  Anything to let them know there's grass there.  It'd be fantastic to get water to those sections, too, but hauling water isn't feasible. 

Feeding cattle

While we wait on rain, we're just feeding the cattle and doing the best we can.  It's tough all over and the only reason we're able to stock any cattle is because we've grazed conservatively over the years, thus leaving a good stock of grass.

"Hard times, hard times, come again no more!"

On the upside, this was yesterday and the wind IS blowing today...

Driving My Life Away

We had a lot of fun these past few days.  The easiest thing to do here is quote my dear wife (I've added a little bit):

David had his 3rd transfusion today.  We received the results from the blood tests sent to the Mayo Clinic.  Apparently, David does NOT have thalassemia or Hemoglobin F issues so those are scratched off the list.  He is still shedding lots of prophyrins in his urine and that's a whole other set of hemoglobin issues but the hematologist is still scratching his head since David doesn't have the other symptoms of these disorders.   So....

....they are talking with a Dr. at Sinai Hospital in NY.  The UNM Dr is hoping this new dr. will be so intrigued by David's "weird" symptoms that he'll do the blood test genetic sequencing for free.  That's what the Mayo Clinic had done so maybe this Dr. will too.  By doing the sequencing they can see if and where there are mutations.  So at this point they are saying he has an idiopathic hemolytic anemia since his bone marrow is producing red blood cells but something is destroying them.

Well, we just got home and it's after 11 p.m. We left the house at 5 a.m.  Our Suburban transmission went out between ABQ and SF this afternoon on the way home from the doctor. [the transmission refused to shift down, causing the RPM's to go sky-high]  We limped to Bryan's mother's house in SF and "borrowed" her vehicle.  The suburban took up so much room in the garage that we left the trash bin locked in the entry porch.  We plan on taking a trailer to pick the truck up and bring back home to get it repaired.



And sure 'nuff, Friday morning found us heading back to Santa Fe where we loaded our crippled 'burbie on the trailer and hauled it all home.  A new transmission is going to cost between $3,000 and $4,000.  I'm really debating on whether to just call it quits with the Suburban and put that money into a new car (something actually car-like that gets 25+ mpg).  The 'burbie does have 182,000 mi on it.  However, as-is, it's worth nothing and a Suburban with a new transmission (100k mi and 3 yr warranty) IS worth $4000, esp since the engine is not giving any problems, we have new shocks, and new front end stuff.  It still gets close to 20 mph on the road and has tons of room.  The paint's in great condition and there really are no other issues.  

Plus, our cattle season is way behind and income may be an issue this year.  And then there's David's medical expenses to consider as insurance only covers some of it.  I would not want to spend $10k on a newer car and then hit a financial wall this fall.  So, I guess the plan is to fix it, but start looking and saving and if we survive the summer and fall finds us okay financially, then we'll move to a newer car.  I still think the Suburban would be useful for a lot of things, even if we get a car.  I mean, if it's worth only $4000, I'll turn it into a hawking truck or something!

Chevy towing Chevy

My new falcon is doing really well.  We're just working with her in the hawk house and she's jumping down off her perch and coming to us for food.  That's a great start for a bird I've only had since Tues night.  I spent all day Weds hustling to get my hawk house back up and it's still only partially done.  It's really ugly right now, but I'm waiting on some metal which I'll use to cover the outside.  When I do that, I think it'll look pretty sharp. 

UGLY!!!  But just wait...

More panels waiting to go up.  When done, it'll be 8' x 24' long.

Wendy in her new home

Here's a little video that David shot with my phone:
Video of falcon training


I'm hoping to take my peregrine this Thurs or Friday. 


In other activities, we're slowly getting cattle in- about 600 on the ground.  We normally have close to 2,000 by now, but this is the driest spring I've ever seen.  I'm taking a lot more active role than usual in moving the cattle to places with grass and so far, we're doing okay.


We're also getting ready for the 58th Annual Camp Meeting.  This is a preaching, eating, fellowshipping thing that goes on at a nearby ranch.  I've been chairman for 3 years.  Attendance has been dropping steadily for the past 10 years and there's thoughts of quitting, but so far, we're still doing it.

Better Blood, Beef on the Ground, and A Bird in the Hand!

It's been a busy week!!! Last Tues, David had his blood checked and his platelets came back at 26k.  At 20k, a person can spontaneously bleed internally so the doctors were understandably concerned and asked for another test on Thurs.  If he hadn't improved, then it would be off to ABQ for a platelet transfusion.  Thurs, though, his platelets were up to a whopping (for him) 44k.  That's basically the highest they've ever been for him.  Me and him celebrated by going to Dairy Queen where I had a Blizzard for supper.  I actually only blew my daily calorie count by about 50 calories, too.

David got to check his own blood!  This is the machine that does it all.

On the falcon front, my goal this year was to take 2 birds- a peregrine and a prairie falcon.  I want to fly them in different ways and I want the prairie to be a female (they're larger) and the peregrine a male.  It's been harder finding prairie falcons this year than peregrines!  I have 3 sites near me and 2 came up blank.
 
On Sunday, I visited my last hope and was greeted by a chick standing on the edge of the nest.  Alas, there was only one.  It's legal to take the sole chick, but the ethics of it bother me as the parents don't finish the nesting cycle and may consider it a failure.  On Monday, I checked a new site where we saw a male flying around and screaming over a new cliff, but repeated visits have turned up blank.  I really wanted to find birds, but after 3 h of seeing nothing and me climbing to the top of the nest cliff, I had to call it a dud.

The view from on high.  VERY dry this year.

Portrait of The Artist As a Disappointed Falcon Seeker.

Monday night I decided to re-visit the single chick and make a decision on the take then.  I wasn't too happy about taking the sole chick, but in the long run of the scheme of prairie falcons in the West, it wouldn't make any difference.  I still wasn't happy about it, though.

But, before I could do anything, we had cattle to deal with.  A truck with 84 fresh head arrived and once the ladies got back from Vacation Bible School, we put the new beeves out.  The move went very well, with me on an ATV and Brianna riding my horse. 

Cowdogs and a Cowgal.

The View from an ATV

 We got all that done and then dealt with a minor horse issue.  Seems that our geldings are a bit jealous of who gets to pasture with the mare.  Sandyman (my horse) is out in the big pasture and we'd really like him in the small trap because it's easier to catch them for work.  Ross is in the small pasture and we'd like him in the big pasture.  B2 tried to switch but the two geldings immediately started fighting over the fence.  So, we had to do a little re-re-shuffling.

Then, finally, it was off to the prairie falcon cliff.  Upon arrival, I put my new spotting scope on the nest and whoa... there were two birds on the nest!  I went up to 60x (I love this scope!) and really thought I could see a 3rd bird laying down on the nest.  It would be unlikely for the parents to be sitting on the nest with the young at that age, so we almost certainly had at least 2 young.  Hallelujah!!!  I shouldered my pack with ropes and gear (24 lbs!) and started up the slope with B2 carrying a smaller pack.  Tie-off points are scarce on the rocky slope and my plan was to tie to a rock I'd previously scouted, pound a stake for a 2nd tie-off, and then use B2 herself as my 3rd anchor.  Our friend Shane joined us up on the slope and I put him to work, too, sitting on the strap tied to the rock to make sure it didn't pop off.

With all that done, over the cliff I went.  Imagine my joy when I landed on the nest ledge and found 3 chicks.  There were 2 males and 1 female and I grabbed the female and gently put her in my backpack.  Then I rappelled on down to the bottom.  Shane and B2 cleaned up the gear on top and joined us all on the bottom.  Everything went perfectly and my shunt was great as I just let go and it locked me in place on the nest.  I felt pretty comfortable on the rope.

Adult falcon overhead

Starting the rappel.  It was only 6' or so to the nest.

At the nest.  The males were hiding in a crevice to my left.

Chick in the bag, heading down!

Everyone gathers 'round to see.

Our new friend- "Wendy"- a pun on "Windy".

And, on the way home, we saw this:

A bull elk!

And that was our day!  Everyone's pretty tired, I think.