The Fall (failed) Vegetable Garden

     We have not been to the veggie garden since May or so, at least that is my recollection. After a good summer there was some harvest of the usual stuff; tomatoes, carrots, bell peppers, hot little peppers, radishes galore, and other things that slip my mind right now. In other words, the garden did fairly well with the amount of rain we had this year, so much better than last year.
     In mid August, for the third time in the past nine years, I had good soil with plenty of compost added to the garden. Each time I have ordered 3 cubic yards (27 cubic feet per cubic yard = 81 cft3). For those of you that work in the metric measurements this is 2.3 m3. In other words, it fills up a small truck and is quite heavy. Some of this soil has always been used to build up the flower beds and the balance, usually about 2/3 (or about 54 cubic feet) for the garden. Now in order to move it to the garden it has be moved by wheel barrow about 33 meters, not much if it is done in one or two wheel barrow fulls, but quite a bit when one had to move it in multiple loads. I have noticed that over the years, this soil, which is identical to the soil ordered previously, has gotten considerably heavier each time or is that a result of the mover of the soil having gotten older, each time about 3 years older, so by a factor of 3 times x 3 years interval x 13 wheelbarrow loads (117 times older???????? or is this what is called faulty math or self-serving math????).
      Anyway, after the soil was put in and tilled in with the existing soil, it was allowed to rest for a couple of weeks and then a fall garden was planted with winter squash, carrots, beets, red cabbage, cilantro, Italian parsley, fennel, spinach, onions, garlic and cauliflower.
      It appears that the soil is way too acidic, in other words, too much compost, because many of the plant began to develop nice leaves that then just withered and turned brown. Much of the rest of the stuff that survived is not really growing, it seems to have been arrested in development and is just sitting there waiting for something to "kick" it off.
      A few of the carrots seem to be growing, at a snails pace, as do some of the beets. Out of the 8 winter squash plants that survived 4 are developing fruit, one of which should be ready to harvest the end of this week. The rest of it just sitting there waiting for something.
      Here are photos of this sad tale of home grown veggies.


A view of the mostly empty garden plot with the surviving carrots in the foreground.

The beets, only half of the seeds developed to this point.

One of the four surviving Winter Squash plants with blooms and fruit as seen below.

This particular squash should be ready to harvest in a few days.

Out of six fenned seeds only three survived and they look kind of anemic.

The Italian parsley, which just sits there at this size, not doing anything, except looking like it really needs something,
perhaps it needs to be transplanted to Italy so it will feel at home. Other  years the parsley has grown almost to bush like proportions.

     As seen in the parsley above, the Cilantro is just as anemic. We have not had a tremendous amount of rain this fall, but have had some rather warm days and adequate water. It may be that I will pull everything there when ripe / ready, then till in a lot of fallen leaves and then let the soil rest for one year. We shall see as I have not yet made up my mind.

Go West .... (12) Loretto Chapel

     After our excursion to the Salinas Trail Missions we needed a day or two to unwind which was done in Santa Fe. If I have mentioned this before I apologize for repeating myself but ---- our trusted 2004 Subaru Forester must have felt like it was at a family reunion, it seems that every 4th or 5th car in Santa Fe was a Subaru of some sort, either Outback or Forester plus a few others.
    I may also have mentioned that we have switched from Windows XP to Windows 7 (Win 7 and I do not get along very well), meaning that our trip notes, which were saved on Win XP, suddenly have turned into "machine language" and they are no longer readable by ordinary human beings. As a result I have to rely on memory, which is a most dangerous thing at my age, as I have a number of fairly regular "senior moments" but can't remember why they occur.
     Our first stop of the day was at "Santuario de Guadalupe", which is the oldest sanctuary in the United States dedicated to the Virgin of Guadalupe. The church itself is typical Southwest and not very imposing. There were some helpful people inside and a rather small gift shop.
     One should note the various links to additional information about this particular church;
http://www.yelp.com/biz/santuario-de-guadalupe-santa-fe
http://www.bing.com/attractions/search?q=Santuario+de+Guadalupe%2c+Santa+Fe&qzattrid=w294718&qpvt=santuario+de+guadalupe+santa+fe&FORM=DTPATA
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=santuario+de+guadalupe+santa+fe&qpvt=santuario+de+guadalupe+santa+fe&FORM=IGRE

         Then we went on to that absolutely must see place in  important place in Santa Fe, the place with the miracle staircase that has been the main "actor" in a movie or two; the place everyone knows about - Loretto Chapel.
        Rather than giving you, the reader, a lot of details about this chapel I will add links to the various websites dedicated to the chapel and its history, however, in the context of American (US) history it is important to note that Santa Fe was established as a city 10 to 11  years before the Pilgrims, those of our nations founding myth, even left Europe. The links will follow after the photographs however I need to recommend that you see the 1998 movie "The Staircase" with Barbara Hershey and Diana Ladd. I seem to also remember a much older B/W movie from years ago on the same subject but can't find it by "googling".


The Altar area of Loretto Chapel

 



A view of the famous staircase as it looks now.

The choir loft which necessitated the staircase as previously
 the good sisters had been using a simple ladder to get  up and down.

Another look at the staircase.

 

Loretto Chapel from the outside (that should be obvious).

Another view of Loretto Chapel.

And the promised links which offer much information.

http://www.lorettochapel.com/history.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loretto_Chapel
http://www.philipcoppens.com/santafe.html
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/ghosts/loretto.asp
http://www.lorettochapel.com/

     It is rather difficult to put into words the images and impressions one gets from a location like Loretto Chapel, it has to be experiences, preferably not as a "tourist" having to see this and that, and then checking off a list of "I have been there and there and done this and that. Rather it should be a spiritual journey walked with those early sisters as they struggled to build this place and to make it function.
     When you go to Santa Fe, make this a stop.

A detour from the West

    From time to time a benevolent soul or two offers a fishing trip, a real fishing trip, with a large boat, saltwater, and many hours.

    Such an opportunity presented itself recently and being in the throes of withdrawals from fishing, not having fished since early July and then not catching anything except at the grocery store, I said yes.

     We were to meet for a trip on the New Buccaneer out of Galveston, a large catamaran style fishing charter vessel, operated by Galveston Party Boats - http://www.galvestonpartyboatsinc.com/boats.html

The fish hanging on the bulkhead are not the catch of the day, but from another time.

    It is a large boat, like I said, a catamaran 85 feet long, 33 feet wide and powered by 4 diesels. It is equipped with the latest fish locating and navigation equipment, as well as a galley and grill, basic toilet facilities, one for each sex and a so called sundeck..
     At the appointed time all met at pier 19 in Galveston and awaited the arrival of the "New Buccaneer" eagerly looking at the catch of the "morning" trip fishermen / women. Some had large fish, some had very small fish, some had a small hammerhead shark, most had no fish at all.

   It should be noted this boat carries a large quantity of "fishermen / women". If fully booked I would guess about 100, which means you are standing shoulder to shoulder, each with a fishing rod, so the fish, if there are any, have a great choice of bait, which in this case was squid, sort of along the lines of "should I bite on this one or that one, or that one over there?"

    When 1:30 PM rolled around the boat left the dock and slowly powered out past the US Coast Guard Station (no wake please) and then powered up to full speed for the Gulf of Mexico end of the North Jetty where anchor was dropped not far from the jetty. On the journey out everyone is full of anticipation as well as a few people probably being concerned about having to make their own personal sacrifice to King Neptune.

    While on the way out to our destination bait is distributed by the crew of the boat, the bait being cut up squid. Not very appetising, but at least if no fish are caught we can take the remainder home and fry it up or make a fish soup - we do not expect this to be a favorite dish.

    Everyone, about 45 people on the starboard side, about another 45 people on the port side, and perhaps 10 people across the stern. When will we get the word to drop lines in the water ... anticipation is killing everybody as most have sold the skin before the shot the bear, or in this case, have promised a good fish fry for dinner, but before the fish were caught.

     Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, or at least like purgatory, the word was given. Lines were dropped in the water, and everyone is waiting patiently for fish to bite, ----- patiently .... patiently ---- patiently .... patiently ---- holding rod, finger on the line hoping to feel that nibble on the other end.

     We fished that location for about 45 minutes, a few very small hammerhead sharks and one black tip shark were caught as was some very small catfish, but not by any member of our party.
The captain announced we were going to try another location; fishing lines in, anchor  up, power a few miles to the ocean end of the South Jetty.

     The routine described above repeated itself, again only a few fish were caught, so after maybe 45 minutes the anchor comes up again for a try at a third location; a place called the boat cut in the North Jetty.

     We hit the mother lode, depending on where one was standing on the the boat, because each person was assigned a location to fish from and a few people on the starboard side caught fish, I was not one of the few, nor were any of the others in the our party, even though we were on the starboard side.

    The good people on the port side, particularly those near the stern got into a school of Bull Reds, all requiring special tags because they were over 28" (71 cm) which one is allowed per licensed fisherman / woman per year in Texas waters.

     The fish box on the boat is filling up, for a few people anyway.

    Finally it is time to call it the end of the day. We didn't catch any but had a great time, and we did catch a lot of sunshine, while crew members are busy sorting the fish and getting them ready for "display".

     The gulls were having a great time as the remaining bait was thrown overboard as we decided that perhaps bringing it home was not the greatest of ideas.



     This is what the front of the bulk head looked like on arrival back at the dock.

     Can't claim a single one. However, the experience just verifies my understanding that it is called fishing for a reason, it is not called "catching", and on a similar note, it is not about catching fish, it is only about catching fisher men / woman and their dollars.

    And thus endedth a great day.

Go West Young Man (11) - The Salinas Pueblo MIssions

     Based on hindsight and experience, perhaps Santa Fe was not the best base for visiting the Salinas Pueblo Missions as they were quite some distance from Santa Fe and the driving to and fro did take quite a bit of time; lesson learned. The town of Mountainair would have been a much better base of operations, so for those of you entertaining the thought of visiting these missions, use Mountainair or even Albuquerque.

      Before we get to the pictures though we have to relate a couple of interesting little events which occured on the way to the missions.

      As we are moving at a good speed down highway we come upon the good town of Madrid, it looked like a delightful little place with banners across the road advertising the chili festival;



Perhaps the car up front, which I drove around, was supposed to block traffic?

but it appeared that the people there were not at all that welcoming. There were lots of trucks with trailers parked along the roads and  people yelling at us get off the road and out of the way. Now we have been many places where people from Texas are perhaps not liked and maybe our license plate gave us away, but this was the rudest welcome we have ever experienced.
     Then Norma turns to me and says, "there is a movie in the making here, that is why all this stuff is here and why they are yelling at us". She must have seen something on one of the trucks. Sure enough, we drove right into the filming of some of the scenes of the Disney movie "Wild Hogs" with John Travolta and Tim Allen and others.
     No, we are not in the movie, surely we were edited out as the language used on a couple of occasions to get us out of the way would have gotten the movie a triple X rating. This was quite an experience, which was either preceded or following by a short visit to a three horse town, but I can't remember if that visit came before or after the Madrid incident.

     We also came up on a rock sitting along the road that resembled the head of a Spanish soldier of the time with his helmet on. Some people say that I have a vivid imagination, and that is perhaps so. Take a look and decide for yourself.

The "Spanish Soldier" looking North and thinking "Are we there yet?"

 

 

 

     Now as to the three horse town we were just driving along when we saw a sign about the old church in "I can't remember the name of the town" so we turned off the road and went to see it. I think it was in Los Cerrillos, but I am not sure. We found a neat little church, a nice "court yard" behind the church,

Norma at the door to the couryard.

The Pieta in the courtyard.

The Church front seen from the street

     In addition to the church there were several buildings with "historical building" plaques on the doors or walls. On one of those we saw a door open and decided that it would probably be a good idea to look at such a historical building, and we were talking about it as we walked towards the door, and we suddenly hear doors slamming shut here and there, in other words, people had been observing us the whole time, but we didn't see them. The only moving things we saw in town were three horses in a corral, so therefore, not a one horse town but a three horse town, in other words, a town of some importance.

     Somewhere along the way we came upon another little adobe church sitting along the roadside with what appeared to be an interesting cemetary, and we just had to stop and take a photo.

A small country adobe church somewhere along hwy. 14 in New Mexico.

     Looking at the order of the photos in the original folder it would appear that we came upon the  "Spanish Soldier" first, followed by the three horse town and the Madrid with its Chili Festival and movie making and the little church mentioned directly above.

     The Salinas Pueblo Missions are a National Monument and the history attached is very interesting; picture this in your imagination, you are a Franciscan Friar or Brother, leaving Mexico City and heading North into this hostile land now called New Mexico, but at that time it was part of Tejas. You have with you perhaps several good pairs of sandals, maybe one or two more cassocks, a donkey to carry some of the supplies and perhaps an oxen to carry the water barrels. Then you start out walking or occasionally riding on the donkey at the dizzying speed of 3 miles / 4.8 km an hour. Now assume we only walked 6 hours per day the trip would have taken about 7 or 8 weeks, a distance of roughly 1,200 miles / 1930 km not allowing for terrain variations and not knowing the exact route taken from Mexico City to the first Mission.
     These were people with some guts going off into the unknown, not knowing when and where they would find water, hunting for protein (you can only eat so many beans and then the gas will get you). They encounter local people and they do not speak each others langauge, their cultures and customs are worlds apart.
     The thing that really amazes me, aside from the journey, is that now these Franciscans convince the indiginous people, who perhaps much rather have removed the heads of the heads of these intruders, to build buildings, a people that in this area didn't build anything, but who lived off the land and in tune with the land and on the land.
     First they have to be turned into stone masons, then they have to learn rudimentary math in order to figure out how many stones long and wide and tall walls will have to be and how many stones it will require as these mission churches were not built of adobe. They also had to go long distances looking for trees that could be turned into roof beams, door beams and posts, gates and all the other things that wood is used for in construction. In other words, they also had to become carpenters. But perhaps most interesting of all is that in the culture of the natives based on the division of labor, women and children did most of the work.
     What is left of the three missions; Gran Quivira, Abo and Quarai, speaks well for the work of the Franciscans and the indiginous people of the area. Before the pictures of the missions here are a selection of links to information about the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salinas_Pueblo_Missions_National_Monument
http://www.nps.gov/sapu/index.htm
http://sangres.com/newmexico/national-parks/salinas-pueblo-missions-nm.htm
http://www.gorp.com/parks-guide/salinas-pueblo-missions-national-monument-outdoor-pp2-guide-cid9316.html
http://newmexicohiking.wordpress.com/2012/05/20/the-salinas-pueblo-missions/

    Here are some of our photos from the missions, beginning with I beleive Quarai and ending with Gran Quivira. One would really liked to have had more time.

  

This fellow should work harder and he would get rid of the belly.

                                  

Watch out for the local fauna, it may bite with serious consequences.

 

                                  

     After a long and interesting day we headed back to Santa Fe for some rest and libation, but not before we stopped to take just one more photo along the way, as the sun was setting in the mountains.

      More to follow in the next post which will be about our visit to the Loretto Shrine and Chapel and some of the other churches in Santa Fe.

Go West Young Man (10)

     After an uneventful, sans flat tire, arrival in Santa Fe it was time to do a bit of laundry and other things so the first day was somewhat dull except we did take a bike ride around Santa Fe, this time having had the good sense, learned through the experience of "toasted buns", to place the bicycle seats in the car when we are driving. We went to several places in town and got some good pictures and had a nice lunch with a fantastic beer (Santa Fe Honey Lager on draught).

At the entrance to where we would have dinner in the evening.

Norma among art work by a local artist.

Norma waiting for me to take the picture so we can have lunch.

The Cathedral in Santa Fe, the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi

The Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi, Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe

     We also decided to go out to eat in the evening at a place next to the Loretto Chapel. The dinner was absolutely fantastic; a plate with a bit of this, followed by a plate with a bit of that, followed by a plate of a some of this and another with some of that, you get the drift. One should remember that when one orders from a menu without prices one must not go into shock, nor should one ask for the smelling salts, or the "nitro" tablets, when the bill arrives. It was only $175.00 (not including tip) which is $87.50 per person and at that point the most expensive dinner we had ever had. It still ranks as #2, since the most expensive one was in Denmark three years later ($1200.00 for four people, $300.00 per person),  but one of my brothers paid for that one. Since we were going out and we had clean clothes we stopped at the motel next to where we were lodging because of the decor in its front yard and had a picture taken.

My fantastic and beautiful wife all dressed up for dinner.

Her prince has arrived, not in a royal carriage, but in a New Mexico wagon now used as a planter.

Norma among more art work.

     The next day was a busy day which will follow in the next post - The Salinas Mission Trail.