I almost quit the stuff genre this morning. The paper had an article this morning about the jailers in Santa Fe, our state capital, which will  not check license of jailed inmates. I guess they worry they will find they have broken another law…It flew all over me and I wanted to write about it being time for passports for Americans and other things, then I remembered I was now a stuff writer, beyond writing on such matters, leaving that kind of thing to the important type writer who can skirt the issues and not call profiling, kin-folking and other things…I now write only about stuff and would not consider using such langauge as that, kin-folking of all things…now who came up with that?…..I’m glad I just write about stuff….

Western Writers of America, of which I am an associate member, recently asked us to vote on our favorite western song. Well, dang, I missed the date to get it in….But, Bob Nolan had 21 songs listed as possible favorites. And I don’t know which I would have voted for, but it would have been either, “Cool Water” or “Tumbling Tumble Weeds” both Bob Nolan songs. I am pretty sure the fellow wrote over 100 songs, all of them great songs. Every two weeks I used to sing one of his songs….”When Payday Rolls Around”….”I’m dressing up in style, for in a little while, I’m gonna ride into town”…I’d have to think on it some to come up with the rest of it, but its about the cowboy heading into town to spend his money…Bob Nolan’s first two songs were also among my favorites, “Way Out There” and “One More Ride”….A few years ago I saw the Sons of the Pioneers in Branson, MO when they paid a tribute to Roy Rogers (Leonard Slye) who used to sing with them in his early years, a tribute to the man, his virtues, his life,  his horse Trigger….I grew up watching Roy and Gene Autry and a bunch of others, so when they did that tribute, showing pictures and film while singing some of their songs…I embarrassed my seat mate, big tears running down my cheeks, blowing my nose…well, it was touching and I could not help it…it was just, sad that Roy was gone, the carefree times..gone, youth..gone….5 cent movies…gone….5 cent popcorn and cokes…gone…the last three is enough to make a man cry anyway…That should have been posted in old timey stuff anyway…..But Bob Nolan should be the winner of the Western Writers Western Song contest and anyone of the 21 listed would have been ok..

On the camping stuff or CS for short,  Bluewater State Park is A ok. It passed no. 2 son’s inspection….Mine too…Let me tell you what happened. We were driving through the park looking for “that spot” and most of them are about 100 to 200 feet higher than the lake, a nice big lake…In other words, most of them are overlooking the lake and the trees are about 15 to 20 feet tall or so, yeah I know, you Alabama and Mississippi folk ain’t the least bit impressed, but when you are coming in off the desert floor looking at mesquite, juniper and tumble weeds, it is pretty nice (well, that will come later under my flora and fauna stuff post)….Let me see, where was I, oh, no.2 son exclaims, “Look Dad, there’s an eagle”.  People, you talk about a beautiful bird, wow…It came right over our head, it’s wing span seemed to stretch forever and it went to soaring over the lake, floating on the stift  wind…It flew like it was the boss of the whole wide world..and maybe it is…seeing that eagle was worth the trip over there…and we saw two blue birds…I don’t have any of them around my feeders….speaking of feeders, I need to tell you about some back yard stuff and bird stuff. I hate to combine more than one stuff, (is stuff plural or do you use stuffs if you are talking about more than one)….well, I am still learning the stuff genre and I am blazing a new trail because I have not heard of any other stuff writers. Have You?….what was I talking about…Oh, this morning while cutting the back yard I had a flock of gnats, now it was not a swarm of gnats, wasn’t enough for a swarm and just barely enough for a flock, but they did bring in a couple of those “yellow bellied something or other birds”. I got a good look at them, but I could not find them in my bird book. They have grey backs, a black mask over their eyes (and that’s probably why I can’t find since they are wearing mask like that) and a very pale yellow belly. They perch on the electic lines and when one of the insect fly within twenty yards or so, they fly out and catch the little suckers then return to their perch. Anyway, the gnats that were bothering me, they left them alone!….Kinda made me mad as that flock of gnats was following me and the lawn mower with ever step…well, maybe the insects were a little bigger up near the electric lines…..More bird  and back yard stuff later….(I like stuff writing, don’t pay much, but then my fiction ain’t paying much either)…..

Ok, so here we go on the stuff writing…No 2 son has not had his camper out of my back yard for about a year now and the boy is really wanting to go camping…Well, I told you about him and his sweetie and his mom in law camping in my back yard this past weekend…Well, now he really has the bug, so we are going over to Bluewater State Park in the Cibola National Forest to check out the facilities over there. Looking at the map, the highest peak in the Cibola Natl Forest in that area is 9128 feet…Now that blooming park is split up into about three different sections, Bluewater being west of Grants, NM and south of I-40…some is east of Grants and north of I-40 and then the bigger part is west of Socorro, NM south of Albuquerque….Huge forest…well, I will write more about that in my National Forest Stuff post, which I know you are just jumping up and down about, but hold on as I’ll soon get around to it…Ok…now where was I…Anyway. no. 2 is just itching to get that camper out of my back yard for a few days…So we are scouting for a nice spot and right now I think he ain’t a bit choosy…We have had good snow cover all over New Mexico mountains this year, in spite of what the weather warming is said to have been, and the run off is good. They have even held back water to get the Rio Grande out of it banks to flood the Bosque  (we can’t call it swamps cause it ain’t even close, but its similar for all you Alabama and Mississippi readers) and since we built the levee system that area has not flooded…Now, here I go telling you about our river system and that has got to come in the River Bottom Stuff post…Now where was I, oh, the water level at the Bluewater lake should be at a high level and the fishing should be great. Did you know that old folks like me don’t have to buy a fishing license in the state of New Mexico? We really don’t…We pay a $1.00 processing fee and that’s it…But we have to have the license or they will arrest you and check your id to see if you are legal or not and its not profiling, its checking licenses you see…well, that will come up in my license and stuff post later on…no. 2 will have to pay full price, but that ok as he is willing and don’t mind them checking his license either, since he is legal…I reckon…Well, when we get over there finding the right camping area is of the utmost importance then  where to fish in the lake is the next item…We are hoping a park ranger will let us know stuff like that…That does come under the heading of Ranger Stuff, not my stuff, but when he tells me I’ll tell you….Ok, that does it for now on the first installment of camping stuff and more will come later….Well, this style writing grows on you if you will just give it a chance….I promise…Stuff writing don’t cause heartburn, but its kind of annoying keeping the stuff in the correct department….You know, where do you stuff the stuff? that’s the problem….Pete

Up until a few months ago, I always read the sports page first….Lately, I have been reading the news items first…big mistake…..I mean, I got enough problems just living and to read about what all the other folks are going through adds to my already overloaded pea brain mind…So, its back to the sport page for me…I mean, “how bout them cowboys”….now that’s news worthy of reading…even Tiger is good reading (my problems ain’t nearly as big as that boys problems and my bank roll would not even be Tiger’s petty cash drawer neither)….well, what I am saying is there is a whole lot of folks worried about the economy and banking and credit cards and oil spills and Israel laying the corner stones of the Temple and terrorist….I got to get back to writing about sports and stuff, all kinds of stuff, good stuff, fishing stuff, camping stuff, yard work stuff, dog stuff, kitty cat stuff, grandkids stuff, other household member stuff, neighborhood stuff, good buddie stuff, bad buddie stuff, that’s about all the stuff I can think of right now, but you get the picture…economy, immigration, politics, all that makes my stomach ache and gives me heart burn and we got a whole lot of folks watching out for that…Not so many looking out for stuff, that where I come in…filling that void…writing about stuff….come back for more on stuff later, I think I left some out, I just can’t remember…

Everyone that can travel this year needs to see Arizona ….the grand canyon…Sedona….Flagstaff….Tombstone…..Old Tuscon….Green Valley is an excellent retirement village….the weather is great if you like warm….good golfing…if you have not made plans for the summer yet, try Arizona…It’s a great place to visit….or to spend the winter….

Arizona is full of Americans….We have not heard a lot from those folks..yet…but you will if it need be…And if the battle becomes more fierce look for some other Americans to join in…This is still America, still the land of “We the people”…that ain’t changing for a while, so I am going to shut up and let the rest of America speak, but mark my word, when the time comes for the Americans to stand up and be counted….The count will favor the Americans, big time…So, toot your horn, wave your flags, brag on your country of origin (why I don’t know) and say what you got to say….Then remember that America is no longer the land of plenty to be thrown around…We now have to be accountable, we now have to figure out how to handle a trillion dollar debt, we now wonder how to take care of our own…And it ain’t looking pretty….So Arizona is just the first of many…Count on it….Pete

Now, a lot of you and maybe even all of you have been reading in the Albuquerque Journal  about the alleged ponzi scheme of Doug Vaughn and how he owes about 600 people 87 million dollars. Now, Mr. Vaughn, apparently a fighter til the end,  is stating that, “if you throw me in prison you won’t get much of that back. If you leave me out, I will go to work and get it all repaid.” I mean, you got to hand it to the old fellow, he scrapping, huh? Seems like he’s saying I just need a little more time….Well, it got me to a’thinking….Bill, up in Santa Fe is always investing New Mexico money somewheres else, like New York City and Dallas, TX, to people unknown to the residents of our fair state and they make off with it or a large portion of it and  who knows where that money ends up….Now, here, we have a reputable Albuquerque business man, who was just a little short of getting out of a mess, er, deal, and just needs a little more time and money, so if Bill will invest in the “schem, er, I mean investment plan, within just a short time the 600 investors will be paid back and Mr. Vaughn will have worked through his problems and the state will be getting a return on the investment plus New Mexico taxes paid…..I mean,  this sounds as good as some of the other plans that floated around the state capital, huh?….Matter of fact, after re-reading the above, I think it’s a dang good plan…..huh, Bill?….

This is probably not the first time ever but it was the first time for me….No. 2 son has had his camp trailer parked on my r v pad since he moved to Albuquerque…But he has not had time to get out camping….This weekend he, his wife and his mother-in-law…spent the night in his camper in my back yard….’We had a camp fire, well, one of those metal fire pits, but it was nice..Temp got down to under 50 last night…we had camp fire coffee, made two pots….roasted some wienners over the fire pit, serving hot dogs with chilli, potato salad, taco salad, dips and chips, tea and soft drinks…no hard stuff, well, except the coffee and it was very good, just a little bit on the stout side…The old back yard became a camp ground and it worked pretty good…we all got into the spirit of camping out except me and momma slept in out own beds and let them tell us how good the beds were in the camper….must have been ok as they slept fine, well the dang neighbors dog howled all night long,  but other than that they had fun…we did too….try it some time…you save gas….

I have done a couple of post on the Cooper Hawk that claimed my neighborhood in his territory….You remember I told you about feeding the birds and rabbits, etc, while he was feeding on the birds and rabbits we were keeping fat for him. Well, I had not seen him around for months and we thought that was strange, as he had been a regular visitor seen perching on the houses and in the trees throughout the neighborhood. Come to find out, a neighbor, and I will not say which one, had some traps set out for  squirrels that had become pests and had set one or two on the top of the house…..You guessed it….Mr. Cooper Hawk got caught…I kind of hate it as he was a beautiful bird and was only doing the job the Lord had assigned him…Of course, now the birds and rabbits are multiplying fast….It’s kind of like Roseanne used to say, “it’s always something”….But the rabbits will let us walk right up to them if they think we are bringing food out, just moving over a foot or two to let us by…Then here they come…usually they go after the apples first, then the carrots…they are not very crazy about lettuce…they eat grapes and raisins pretty good…only in our front yard…..silly huh, but we enjoy them coming around…no. 1 daughter got us started while up taking care of her mom after hip surgery a couple of years ago. She was taking care of one rabbit to start, and then when going home…..She left us a bi-zillion carrots with instructions to “feed the rabbits”…..Are we the only ones that do that?…My brother, Sam, used to feed the birds down in Alabama and I must say that he had a much wider variety of birds than we do out here. He had some beautiful birds coming to his feeders….Here I have dove, sparrow, house finch, wrens, hummers and every once in a while a “yellow breasted something or other” that always flies away before I can get my bird book out and identify it. And some blue jays and scrub jays…They are smart..I had a feeder for them with peanuts in the back yard, it had a lid on it and they would lift the lid and get the peanuts…Once, while in the front yard working, this dang jay flew into the front yard and set on the fence screaming at me..Finally, took some peanuts back to the feeder and discovered they were out….He was there as soon as I walked away from the feeder… he was helping himself to the goobers….Dang smart alex bird…..So, now our Killing Field is a “Growing Field”…..and that’s good….Pete