End of summer, Q's bike

The Trek above will be Quincy's wheels on campus this fall. She finds it sweet. We took it tooling around campus today, and it suited her needs well.

Stu and Jake traveled to Oregon last weekend, and this year Stu flew back. Jake wanted a car this year and Stu has little time free because of his role in Faculty Senate. Jake has an apartment this year, so he will be cooking for himself. He took to Oregon fruits of the summer garden and frozen staples from the southwest. This year he should be able to get his fill of chile, pesto, and tomato sauce. No word yet on whether he can get decent tortillas in Oregon. Our freezer is well stocked with chile, but I still am making pesto for us for winter.

Busy summer. Both kids were home and helped Stu tile the master bedroom -- it looks beautiful and got Jacob a side job tiling a room in a friend's house.

Stu and I both have new offices. He moved to the Food Science and Technology dept in the Ag College, and I moved to Educational Services, although I am still in temporary space.

Q heads to Oregon in almost 3 weeks. The fall quiet time is about here...

The Beastie Bikes

Spent the last two nights in Ruidoso at the Inn of the Mountain Gods. We took the bikes and hit the Rim Trail for some high-altitude riding in the mud. Good fun.

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Great Falls of the Potomac

Was there Sunday!

US vs Jamaica

Watching the quarter finals of the CONCACAF Gold Cup at RFK stadium. Tied at zero an the end od the first half.

Mid June? Already?

Jake arrived back from Puerto Rico quite recovered from the malaise that taught him that he is allergic to mangos. Long story, but he does have an informed opinion about the Puerto Rican health care system. He had a lovely time, other than the mango fiasco.

Quincy is back from Oregon and prepared to work at the Rio Grande Theater for the summer. So patronize the arts!

The Wallow fire in Arizona is asserting itself in Las Cruces. We gasp not at the beauty of the sunsets; rather, we gasp for oxygen as the smoke gets increasingly thick.

But some of us leave for the East Coast Tuesday. Stu will have a few days with humidity but without smoke.

Oh, and Stu is now part of the College of Agriculture, Consumer, and Environmental Sciences. He moved across the road to help in developing a food technology program. Southern NM actually has a food industry, so he will enjoy working in an applied field again.

Today's Road Treasure

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More on spring, wind, and fire

Spring, so once again the Organs are burning. The Sun News this morning said it was 11,500 acres and there is no reason to put it out; Yesterday's paper blamed it on a live fire exercise on Fort Bliss that could have been put out the first day had the military not ignored it. The contractor supplying the quote was not identified.

The fire is on the east side of the Organs, and the low, gray cloud just above the mountains in the picture is smoke. Earlier in the week we could see a little of the glow, but the mountains are deeper than they look, and even after the fire crests the eastern ridge, there is still a lot of landscape before it heads down the western face.

We had spring fires in 2008, 2010, and now 2011, and never before that since moving here in 1990. I suspect we will continue to have these fires after years when the summer rains produce abundant grass and as long as the US is focused on Afghanistan.

Pictures of Afghanistan show a mountainous, rocky terrain that reminds me of New Mexico. I am not the only one who noticed the resemblance. The US Military built an Afghan village in the Organs, complete with real Afghans. And military personnel at Ft. Bliss have confirmed to me the our terrain is similar to that of Afghanistan. I think the fires are here until live-fire exercises in the Organs are not relevant to our defense efforts.

The birds are not liking it. Last week I added mountain bluebird and white-throated swift to the yard list.