I Got to Pet a Wolf !!!!

 Yesterday we went to a Fall Festival and Farmer's Market in the little burg of El Morro, New Mexico. It's about an hour away from us. Home to El Morro National Monument which was closed due to the government shut down. Which was one of my goals to see this year.....

All in all, there wasn't a whole lot to see but everyone was so darned friendly, we had a blast! There is a wolf sanctuary not too far away in another little burg Candy Kitchen, New Mexico which is just outside of Ramah, New Mexico. Which is another little burg around there. I fell in love with the countryside. But back to the wolf. The sanctuary brought this white artic wolf to the festival. OMG, it was so beautiful!!!!  It's coat is double layered and really thick and it  has huge feet. It's pretty skittish around people so you have to let it come up to you. The lady said not to bend down toward it because it sees that as a threat. Well of course I wanted to bring it home and let it sleep in bed with us along with our three little bed huggers. The name of the sanctuary is Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary. They have various wolves, some dog/wolf hybrids, 4 or 5 dingos and 4 singing dogs.
They are from New Guinea and are related to the Dingo of Australia. Yes, someone thought they wanted them as pets and ended up with 68 of them. I don't know what happened to the rest but the sanctuary took 4 of them. Same thing happened with the Dingos. The sanctuary offers tours for $7.00 each. You can make arrangements to have a photography tour and actually go into some of the pens of the friendlier wolves and take close up and personal pictures. Don't know what that costs but it is now on my bucket list.
While at the Farmer's Market we talked to a lovely Indian couple who grow various melons. I was telling them about the seeds I took out of a Tuscan Cantelope from Safeway and grew my own. Pa told them about trying to grow Oklahoma watermelons in our climate. We ended up getting their address and I am going to mail them both kinds of seeds. We bought a huge cantelope type melon from them . Looks like a watermelon on the outside but a cantelope on the inside. Tastes like a mild cantelope.

 Isn't that huge?

 It smelled so good in the car on the way home.

Of course I scooped out the seeds to save for next year. Pretty yummy!
Tom went with us and luckily there was a lady who kept bees and had a easy home made bee hive. They must have chatted for 20-30 minutes. Tom says he doesn't like people but once he is around them, he never quits talking. That's one of the reasons it takes him all day and half the night to grocery shop. He strikes up conversations with every one. We won't mention that he has to compare every price on every thing. He hates to shop with me because I zoom in and out of stores like a bullet. He is fun to shop with tho because he likes to shop just like a girl. Very rare in a man.
Across the street was an old school house that is now a local art gallery. These were on the out side of the building.

 Aren't these cool? Pa could make things like this if only he wanted to. Not that I would want hands

 sitting all over the ranch but he could make other things.

 I wonder if that white streak in the sky is a flying saucer.
Back to the country side around Ramah, NM. So beautiful! Red sandstone mountains that the wind has carved in to beautiful shapes over the centuries. Little lakes here and there, pine trees, red dirt.

  Imagine seeing this out side your window every day.

 Bet the land around here is expensive.

 So beautiful!

 Wish you could see this closer. That formation in the front looks like a Chinese sentinel watching over the landscape.

I cropped the picture so you could get a better look.

After our day  at the festival, we headed for Gallup, NM to have dinner at Golden Corral. Everything was so delicious. They have the best fried fish! We ate some really good Honey Sesame chicken too. After waddling out of the restaurant we browsed Big Lots and then stopped at Home Depot so Tom could get some shingles for his roof. I can tell I'm getting old because I was exhausted! Good thing Pa was driving or else I would have fallen asleep at the wheel. Pa is just like a Timex watch, just keeps on ticking! I don't know where he gets his stamina. But he isn't carrying any extra weight around either, nuff said about that!
Earlier this week, Pa came in the house and said he got scared to death. He went to get something out of a box in the semi trailer and saw a rattle snake. He back tracked out of the trailer so fast, he fell down the step ladder. He grabbed some heavy gloves while I grabbed the camera.

 That sucker didn't want to come out of that box!

 He's going in the right direction

Whoops! There he goes right back toward the box.

Finally tossed him to the ground where he went under the shed. It turned out not to be a rattler but a bull snake but he wasn't the same color as our usual bull snakes. This was more weedy brown like you would expect a rattle snake to be. Our bull snakes have a lot of yellow on their bellies.
What else happened exciting this week? Oh, I almost ran over someone. Missed him by a gnats @@s. I was taking the back road to St Johns. Off in the distance there was something in the road. I thought it was someone on an ATV stopped in the road. As I got closer, it was some guy, sitting in the middle of the road on a box, talking on a cell phone. I slowed down and as I got closer, he stood up and started to head toward the right side of the road. I went to the left side of the road and almost as I got within touching distance of him, he spins around and dashes to the left side of the road. I slammed on the brakes and skid sideways. I had Tom and his dog Max with me. Max was in the back seat and hit his chest on the dashboard. Tom was yelling obscenities. I may have yelled one or two myself. You should have seen the look on this kids face. I bet he soiled his pants. Tom said he almost did. Everyone was ok. I asked Tom if he thought the kid did that on purpose but he said the kid was so intent on talking on the phone, he probably didn't hear me approach, saw me out of the corner of his eye and panicked. Thank you Jesus that you were in control of the truck  .
   After night time temps in the 20's, our garden is just a memory. I have a box of tomatoes ripening in a box in the kitchen. Today I made 6 jars of salsa using Mrs. Wages salsa mix. I put it in jars but will freeze it instead of can it. Easier that way. As the tomatoes ripen, I'm just washing them off , putting them in a bag and freezing them till I have enough to can or freeze as stewed tomatoes.
Ok, I'm tired of typing and can't think of much else to say. Taters till laters!