I love my rooster

Ron's sister Cheryl and her daughter Jenny came to visit us during Balloon Fiesta. When I came down 2 years ago, not a single balloon went up beause of the wind. This year the weather was picture perfect, blue skies and calm. There were so many balloons that went up (over 250) that you just didn't know where to look. We found ourselves telling the others, look at that one, oh no, look at that one. The final balloon that was inflated was this rooster. All I could think about was my Dad and the silly song he taught us, "I love my rooster, my rooster loves me, I love my rooster in the cottonwood tree, my little rooster says 'cock-a-doodle do', dee doodely doodely doodely do".

Los Lunas sunrises

When we lived with Emily, Ron used to wake me every morning to tell me there was a gorgeous sunrise. After moving into our house, he kept it up. After weeks and weeks (months and months) of gorgeous sunrises, I've finally convinced him to take pictures and share with me at a more civilized time of day! These are pictures taken from our back patio looking toward the Manzano Mountains. At night, we have to go out our front door to see the sunsets and there are houses in the way. But for sunrises, we are really fortunate to have an unobstructed view to the East.

UFOs???

OK, it’s not a UFO but it was sure strange to see our pool flying above our house. After a lot of research, Ron decided to go with a fiberglass pool—it is less maintenance, it lasts longer, and it could be done faster. I didn’t care as long as we got a pool. They are still working on installation; the pool lights went in today. But it should be completely done within a month. We hope you’ll consider taking your next vacation at the Bergener B&B!

How do you get a dog in New Mexico?

You take another dog for a walk. Ron was walking Henry a few weeks ago when another black lab came up to them. Ron noticed that she didn't have a collar or license and so he and Henry started to walk away. She followed them home. Ron took her to the vet to see if she had been microchiped; she hadn't. He then took her to the Los Lunas pound. Unfortunately, he found out that this is a kill pound; if she wasn't adopted in 4 days, she would be put to sleep. Ron couldn't handle that so he brought her home. He put up signs around the neighborhood and walked her up and down the streets asking if anyone recognized her. Several people thought they knew who she belonged to but when he went to those homes, their black lab dogs were with them. So 2 weeks later, we have a dog. Ron calls her "girl", I call her "your dog", and Emily calls her "Abby". We'll see what sticks!

El Malpais National Conservation Area

El Malpais National Conservation Area is a stunning area to visit. It's an area filled with lava flows and sandstone bluffs. The Ventana Arch is a natural arch that is really beautiful. We had hoped to hike right up to the arch but the trail is closed to protect "the natural resources". Then we headed out to the sandstone bluffs. These bluffs overlook a 100+ foot drop to the lava flows. Ron made me very nervous as he scrambled around to get some great pictures. He said there were some natural holes that were as large as a hot tub. I imagine that after a summer rain there are probably people who take a dip to cool off.

"Contact" and VLA

Ron and I wanted to see where Girls Camp was going to be this year (it starts next Tuesday and I'm not ready!). We were told to drive south on I-25 to Socorro and turn west. As I looked at the map, I realized that we were going to be really close to the Very Large Array (VLA).

Now those of you who have seen "Contact" with Jodie Foster will remember these radio antennas. They are located about 50 miles from Socorro in the Plains of San Augustin. The area is surrounded by mountains which keeps other radio frequencies from interferring with these VLA. The 27 antennas are in a y-shaped formation. Each antenna is 82 feet in diameter! The walking tour takes you right up under one of the antenna and it was amazing.

More pictures

Here are some pictures of the interior of the house. We borrowed one of Emiliy's chairs to see how that looked around the island but it's just a little too dark so we'll keep looking.

The family room color is almost exactly the same color as our old family room--I guess this house was meant to be ours.

The screened-in porch will be a nice place to sit on a warm evening

The ceilings are all very high. In the living room, they are about 12 feet, the kitchen/family room and our bedroom are all 10 feet, and the rest of the house is 9 feet. So we should stay fairly comfortable even when the AC is running.

We are New Mexico homeowners! It's hard to believe that we'll be leaving Emily's home for our own home in Los Lunas. We are about 3.5 miles from Emily (on the other side of the freeway). The house is a single story Spanish Territorial style. It's U-shape with the bedrooms (3) on one side of the house. The living/dining room is in the center (along with a den) with the kitchen and family room on the other side. There is also a screened-in porch off the kitchen. From all the rooms in the back, we have gorgeous views of the Manzano and Sandia Mountains. Our stuff from Olympia will be delivered on April 12. We are anxious to have visitors join us in the "Land of Enchantment".

First day of spring!

I know that everything is thinking that I've fallen off the end of the world but I'm still here. Life has been so crazy. I'm going two jobs at work and haven't left the office before about 6:00 PM and often take work home with me.

But no more excuses. I'm going to be better about blogging.

Yesterday was March 21--the first day of spring. This is how New Mexico celebrates the vernal equinox. We had over 3 inches of snow. Ron and Emily took Henry for a walk and he had a great time running in the snow.

Now the other thing you need to know is that by noon, all trace of the snow was gone and the skies were blue. It stayed in the mid-30's most of the day but the sun came out in all its glory and the snow melted quickly.