Ten Things I love about New Mexico (so far)

1. Being swarmed by hummingbirds when I carry the feeders out early in the morning.

2. Listening to elk bugle on the hills around our house.

3. Eating lunch at El Paisano in Capitan, where the same family has been cooking traditional New Mexican food for 62 years.

4. Watching the sun light up the mountains around my house early in the morning.

5. Watching deer come and go around the house all day.

6. Picking raspberries and drinking lavender lemonade at Lavender Spring Ranch.

7. Roasting fresh picked green chiles and making green chile stew.

8. All the art galleries in the area. New Mexico seems to attract artists of all kinds.

9. Going barefoot at White Sands. The gypsum sand never gets hot, no matter how hot the day is.

10. Eating green chile pistachios and chile pistachio brittle and drinking pistachio flavored wine right on the ranch where the pistachios and grapes are grown.

Check out the new i-House from Clayton Homes

These little homes were featured in a recent issue of Mother Earth News. I like what I see so far in their attempts to provide affordable green modular homes. The Clayton i-House would definitely be worth checking out if you are looking for a more sustainable lifestyle.

We lived in Clayton homes on our farm in Texas. They have won many awards for their excellence in modular and mobile homes. The little mobile home I lived in was built in the 80's, but had 2x4 framing with studs on 16" centers just like a stick built house and the floors were solid 3/4" plywood covered with carpet or vinyl. It was suffering from neglect, but with a little work it made a comfy and cozy cottage.

Life lessons

My little dog, Bashful, passed on very quietly last week. His health was declining due to congestive heart failure and then he got an infection in his mouth on top of that. We had been to the vet to see what could be done to help him, but I think the medications on top of the added infection were just too much for his little system. It was difficult to clean his teeth because the vet was leery of sedating him with his heart condition. I was leery of brushing because he hated it and I did not want to stress him because of his heart. We buried him on the hill below the house with a beautiful view of the valley below. He was a sweet, kind little dog and we miss him terribly.

I've learned the hard way that there are things you need to do to keep your pets healthy beyond the standard vaccinations. Keeping their teeth clean will do wonders for their health. Some people do it successfully by providing chewies and breath buster tablets and some by brushing. Otherwise, a trip to the vet as needed to have their teeth cleaned before gum disease sets in will do wonders. My mother-in-law has a large Weimaraner that is going on 12 years old and he still bounces around like a puppy, but she has had his teeth cleaned professionally every six months or so since he was about 2 years old. I sincerely believe that it makes a big difference and will be much more diligent about tooth cleaning from now on. It is as important for them as it is for us.

My cubeecraft boys

This is the cubeecraft.com version of my boys, Inkmo and Jackmo. Those nicknames have evolved into alter egos that my son often uses in his cartoons. If you check out the Cubeecraft website, there are lots of other cool things to do with cubeecraft.

Novel ways to recycle bottles

This article from the Daily Green has some very novel ideas for recycling plastic and glass bottles. In particular, check the video at the very end--made by folks who obviously have too much time on their hands.

Charities for crafters

Busy hands are happy hands, so I have been looking for charity projects that would allow me to use my crafting skills for a worthy cause. Here are three that were recently highlighted in my Yarnmarket Knitting News e-newsletter:

Project Linus--make blankets of all kinds for babies and children that are hospitalized

The Snuggles Project--snuggly blankets for animal shelters

Socks for Soldiers--hand knitted socks for soldiers

These came from the Lion Brand web site:

Knots of Love: knitted and crocheted caps for cancer patients going through chemotherapy

Any many, many more in the Lion Brand newsletter