Libations: New House and Old Cemetery

I finally made the effort to get a photo of me with the mask made by my mother-in-law. This is on our food shopping day, Thursday, in front of the Smiths before I went in. Russ waits in the car so we have only one person shopping; it's a requirement here in New Mexico. I've been shopping with a list from Russ' mom plus items for us (mostly vegetarian fake meat for me).

Ready to brave the supermarket. The mask fabric is

a print of cow skulls with red chilies.

The property has been especially lovely. The irrigation pipes are working properly, so Russ goes out to the field every day and moves water around. As we were standing on the edge of the field with Russ cousin who stopped by for some social distance visiting, a red-tailed hawk came down and struck one of the prairie dogs in the field. It was such a large bird that we weren't sure it was a hawk, but Russ confirmed that he saw the red tail feathers.

Small Black Birds in a Cottonwood Tree.

These are loud twittering birds that wake me every morning.

Close up of Elm Tree blooms.

Our niece with Russ in the R-Pod.

Brandy Time... but with whisky. Mom gave us

these mini bottles in our Christmas stockings.

Russ' mom with one of her finished quilt tops.

This still needs a backing and to be quilted.

We did drive into town to see the progress on Russ' brother's new/old house. They have been working on it since last year and are finally done with all the structural and utility work and are now finishing. The doorway here was widened and the dark-stained wood added to cover the beam and the posts. You can see the flooring stacked up behind in what will be the kitchen. Russ' brother and his partner decided to leave the original plaster and brick showing. They used the old wood floor boards to make the kitchen tray ceiling. This is the final look.

This is Russ' youngest brother. The floor has been laid since

this photo was taken. It looks amazing.

Russ and I have been taking the trash to the transfer station. There is no trash pick up here.

Odd sculpture at the transfer station made from salvage.

Stop. Pay.

Mailboxes at the end of the street by the transfer station.

Since we were over there on the east side of Highway 550, we went up to the Cedar Hill Cemetery. Russ's family has a plot there, so we paid our respects. It's up on the hill, so you can see views of the La Plata Mountains and the San Juan Mountains, as well as the Animas River below. The oldest graves we saw there were from around 1937, but some were too eroded to read the year, so there are some that are probably older.