suznok's posterous

Oct 31

I read Posterous updates in mail but hadn't been here in some time. I finally get over here to notice that there is still the blog and now there are spaces? Very confusing. What has happened since I was here last.

My mom passed away almost a year ago and her house has been on the market since February 2011. She was a hoarder. Not in the typical sense but in the sense that they kept everything that came into that house since 1952. All my relatives that passed before her left them things and they just kept a lot of memorabilia. It took from October to February to empty the house, paint it, and get it ready for sale. Since then it has been broken into 6 times. This last time they took a cinder block to her back door and just smashed it in. It was a big heavy door but the destruction is unbelieveable.

I am still going through mom's papers and found a something I had never seen among her things. I found hundreds of old photos of relatives and their friends and even some tintype photos that belonged to my grandmother. There are also letters from the civil war and letters from my grandmother to my grandfather before they were married. She was on holiday with her mother and sent my grandfather a letter every day. She was 20 years younger than him and must have been very young when she wrote the letters because most of them professed her undying love and affection.

We went south to New Mexico, and north to Michigan and the UP. I got to meet Blondii, and Laurie, and Cyn of my online friends who I had never met but been friends with for the last 7 years.

In photos here is what I have done in the past year. Some of it anyway. The handle instructions were ignored as my kids ripped it off trying to get the box open. The note about parking was left on my cousin's car when she was not in a legal parking space but couldn't find anything close for my 90 year old uncle. Someone needs to learn to spell. Remember before you pass judgement, realize you don't know the whole story.

We went to Laura Ingall Wilder's home, a farm that grew heritage seeds, St. Louis over the fourth, Colorado, the lakes of Oklahoma, and caves in New Mexico.

May 26

At the lake

Apr 11

Spring

I am basking in the weather that is spring this year. It was a long hard winter and there is a lot to do outside. The much needed sunshine is a bonus. I haven't even minded raking this acre I tied myself to lately. The windows and doors are open and there is no gale force wind today.

Dec 7

Orton Effect and Other Things

A friend of mine, I call her blondii, and I spent some time in PSP playing with some pictures she took last night. We were following a tutorial from here for the Orton Effect. Definition here. After doing the tutorial we just spent some time playing with the pictures. We made it black and white and then I used an overlay I had made using another blend mode on it, which made it look more like a painting.

The first one follows the tutorial

The second one was made black and white.

The third one was made following the tutorial, using the overlay but changing the blend mode to darken on the second image. Your blend mode of your overlay will depend on the color of overlay you use.

She got some awesome shots of this old house by the way. Thanks for the use of your photos blondii.

Nov 4

Santa Fe

The last two are outside of Santa Fe. They paint everything. It is very cool. All the bridges and retaining walls have different pictures. I didn't take many pictures in Santa Fe. We were too busy walking around looking at things.

Nov 4

Colorado To New Mexico

The Puye Indian Ruins are in this batch. The cliff is 200 ft high and the Indians made their blocks for building their houses out of tuff which is rock consisting of volcanic ash. The site was home to about 1500 Indians. They built their homes up to three stories but the homes only went into the face of the rock a rooms width. The guide told us that they didn't use the ladders you see leaning against the rock. They carved hand and foot holds into the side of the cliff to climb up to their homes. There are about 740 homes carved into the cliff face. There is a community house on top of the cliff. Pottery was made and is still being made and sold by the Santa Clara Indians. The Tewa language is still spoken in Espanola and the surrounding areas. Puye translates to "pueblo ruin where the rabbits assemble or meet."

Nov 4

Creed, Colorado to Lake City, Colorado

Nov 4

Creede Colorado

Nov 4

Oklahoma-Colorado-New Mexico Vacation

We just recently took a trip to Colorado from Oklahoma, back down to New Mexico near Santa Fe for a couple of weeks. It was perfect. I had never been to New Mexico in the fall but let me assure you that is the time to go. It got down into the 40's at night and up into the 70's during the day. There were only a couple of short bouts of rain and being able to go in the off season is a real bonus because there aren't as many other tourists out there. In New Mexico you will run into some snow birds who over winter in New Mexico but it wasn't congested anywhere we went. I just love a road trip when you don't really have any destinations in mind or nothing really planned.

Our route takes us through the pan handle of Oklahoma. I must say there is a whole lot of nothing out there but if you ever go through this area at sunrise or sunset you will know why people live there. The sky is just amazing as are the thousands of wind turbines they are putting up there.

We go through the corner of New Mexico and Raton, over La Veta Pass (the route of the DR&G railroad, cool photos here) as you get your first glimpse of the mountains, Sangre de Cristo Mountains. There is also a volcano here, Capulin, where you can drive a winding two mile road to the summit.

On up the road just past South Fork is the beautiful San Juan National Forest Campground. No hookups here. A fun place to explore. This was where the trees and color was the most beautiful.

In Colorado we usually go up around the Creede area which we love because it is so much less commercialized. There aren't a lot of people even in the summer at peak time. We have been going there for 20 years and love to four wheel over 4WD roads and logging roads in the mountains. We didn't do any of that this time due to early snow and really cold temps at night but we did travel up into the areas where those roads begin. There is a 4WD road behind Creede. You go through town on the main street and it winds up around the back side of Creede for about ten miles. You can also take paths off this main road. It is a pretty area with a couple of old mines. There is also a fairly new museum about the mines in Creede.

From Creede we usually take a day to go to the Lake City area. It is even more remote and a little farther from civilization but they do have jeep rentals and snow mobiles for rent. You have to travel over Slumgullion Pass(more info here and named this after a stew made in the 1800's which was the same color as the rocks) to get there so it would be a little harder to get to in the event of snow. Also on the way is Lake San Cristobal. A link to it at the above link. Then there are Clear Creek Falls. You can't go down into the falls but there is a beautiful view of them from a viewing area. We have four-wheeled a lot in this area and it doesn't look like much from the road at times but the views from the top are breath taking. In this area is Bristol Head which is a plain bump of a mountain and an all day four wheel excursion to get there but well worth the ride.

This is mainly through the Rio Grande National forest on the Silver Thread Scenic Byway (which is 115 miles long) following the Rio Grande River.

In New Mexico we stayed in Española, New Mexico. We have a large overhead camper and can dry camp. We sometimes have to in this area because camp grounds are few and far between. It is a centrally located area though and is handy to Santa Fe which is fifteen minutes away. In Española are several casino's if you like to gamble. There is a brand new one with a Hilton attached that is just amazing and worth going into just to wander around the upper floors to see a couple of larger than life bronze Indian statues and pottery behind glass.

There are also some falls here and the Puye Indian ruins(home to the Pueblo Indians who spoke Tewa and lived there from about the 15th century to 1577). Both fun little day treks. The falls are called the Nambe Falls and you go through the Nambe Pueblo. ("nanbe" a tewa Indian word which roughly translates to "earth roundness" to get to them. The Nambe Pueblo is a National Historic Landmark) It is a nice little hike, about twenty-twenty five minutes uphill but the falls were sadly disappointing because the area at the top is fenced and the falls are still some distance away. You have to pay ten dollars to get into the area and an additional five to take pictures. You are still at an elevation of over five thousand feet so with a steep climb and a not so great path so be forewarned if you have some trouble with breathing or altitude in these areas. The main roads are flat but in the site seeing areas there are some hills and climbing.

Of course there is Santa Fe where there is The Cathedral of Basillica of St. Francis of Assisi and the La Fonda Hotel(info and old picture) which sits at the end of the Santa Fe Trail and is 400 years old. We have stayed here before also at the hotel and it is a wonderful place to stay. Even though they have updated the rooms they are still small and original to the hotel. This is on the plaza, the old part of Santa Fe, with a park in it's middle. There is lots of fun shopping and history in this area. If you go you must try the Sleeping Dog Tavern at 114 W San Francisco St. It is a locals spot where they have beer made in the area and wonderful food! They also have the Blue Corn Cafe & Brewery which looked awesome too.

Pictures through San Juan National Campground. Additional pictures labeled by place forth coming.