Skiing stuff: All ski area are open, you can ski to your hearts content, if you can get there. Roads have been closed all around Albuquerque but I think they are all open today, 43 inches on Sandia Peak, wow…Ice Fishing: At Jicarilla Apache Lakes there is 10 inches of ice and the Annual Ice Derby is on…Stone Lake the ice fishing is “hot”, reports are the fish are fat and feisty and to be prepared for a fight..Eagle Nest is open to foot traffic ice fishing but no vehicles out on the ice..Fenton Lake is iced over but is not open for ice fishing due to “unstable conditions”….I just can’t get warmed up to “hot” ice fishing, can you?……………. Malpais  stuff…(badlands) volcanic lava from Mt. Taylor eruptions of 54,000 years ago, plus or minus a few years. That eruption took 3000 feet off Mount Taylor..It’s over 13,000 feet now so that was a good size mountain at the time, huh…Anyway, they have guided tours through the Malpais and you can read all about it in this morning’s Albuquerque Journal, Feb 3, 2011…Bat stuff: Well, we have to shut down some of our bat caves due to the White-nose syndrome that has been found in 11 states, none here yet, but visitors to our caves could spread the fungus, Myotis lucifugus officially. List of the cave closed in also listed in this morning Albq Journal…..Cougar hunting stuff: You gonna hunt cougars in New Mexico, wellllllll, if so, you gotta be able to tell the female from the male.The state don’t want you shooting no dad blame female cougars. That means you gotta go to school to learn which is which and of course, you gotta have a license. Go to www.wildlife.state.nm.us for more information……Albuquerque’s Eclipse Aerospace is hiring, again, where 80 people are now working. The on again, off again, production is on, thanks to investment help from Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. Production could start again as soon as the aircraft market improves. Presently the company is providing maintenance and upgrades to the existing fleet of 260 twin engine jets built between 2006 and 2009 by its predecessor company, Eclipse Aviation.That’s good news for Albuquerque, huh?…Global Warming Stuff: Hey, its working..today’s temp’s are to get up to the twenties for the high.. We started the morning at minus 6 degrees. The global warming got here just in the tick of time…Jeez…….

14 degrees right now, 4:30pm…..that just ain’t right….weatherman says it could get to minus 8 in some locations around town. I think about 3 degrees for the Paradise Hills area tomorrow…..I would like to turn in a formal complaint,….. Governor Bill is no longer around to blame….If this is what global warming is all about, I am tired of it already…..Somebody needs to figure out about this global warming crap and just who is getting it…I read in the paper the other day where it is reported the Pacific Ocean is colder than it has ever been since we have been keeping records and that is the reason for all the snow and cold nationwide: La Nina or somebody, whoever he is…We need to chase that little fellow back up to the Arctic Ocean or where ever he belongs….I think I have had about all the global warming I want for this winter….How about you?…

ps. it is 6:40 am 2/2/11 and the real temperature is 1 degree. with the 23 mile per hour wind, the wind chill is minus 23 degrees….At the present, global warming would be welcomed….check in with me this summer…provided we don’t freeze….

If you have read me very much you know that I have posted several times about the number of other countries that visit this web site…After reading about the Internet being shut down in Egypt, I notice that I do  have a few readers from Egypt..I hope they get the Internet service back soon. Troubles all over the world. The world is becoming smaller…Folks visiting from all over….That’s kind of nice, huh, Middle East, Far East, Europe, UK, lots of visits from Russia and Germany…The Netherlands are big this month, reading 3555 pages….This was not a record setting month but it certainly was a good solid month with lots of visitors and readers….Lots of comments from the spam guys, come on guys, use you regular e-mail addresses and I will publish your comments….I do thank all of you for coming by….I’m honored, especially when you come back for another visit….May God Bless you all where ever you live…Pete

It was a very fitting send off today….BYU is leaving the Mountain West and today was their last conference game in The Pit and the Lobo’s kicked their butts out the door…Coming back from being down 13 points or so, the Lobo’s played as hard as I have ever seen them play. Jimmer played well, 32 points, but 2 or 3 of our guys kept him company all day long….It was a great game….The Lobo’s may not, and probably won’t, win the conference this year, but the rest of the teams in the conference better bring their A game or we will…. The Lobo’s have one senior this year, losing Gary, so look out for the Lobo’s for the next few years. But back to this year,  what a game…If you didn’t see it you  missed a good’un..Lobo’s win, 86 – 77…THE PIT was jumping…..GO LOBO”S…..

Folks down in southern New Mexico are now having to protect their nuts… Oh, well, lets make that “protect their nut crops”…. Seems as though people are coming onto pecan owners property and stealing pecans. One fellow said he had a 5 gallon pail of pecans on his porch and some dude came up on his porch and stole it. The city trees have been used for years for poor folks and charity and now folks are helping themselves to them. When pecans are selling in the shell for 1.75 per pound or so I reckon some would be pecan harvesters are harvesting wherever the crop is located, no matter who the property owner is. I should not be surprised as I remember some folks would help themselves to corn crops all over the south…Matter of fact, I harvested a few ripe watermelons from various patches myself. Only difference, the pecan thieves are taking all they can get their hands on. The Roswell police Captain said if he caught any of them they would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law…..Folks arrested just  might become nut cases, huh?

My Dad has been gone several years now, but I still miss him a lot….I guess I always will….He lived up into his nineties and was still very quick witted and agile for some one that age…You know up until about age 82 or so, I think he could have whipped my behind any day should he had chosen to do so..Thank goodness he never did…At age 82, he was out cutting weeds on a ditch bank and had a heat stroke which started a down hill slide for him that included him losing his drivers license at a later date. That seemed to take a lot out of him, though he kept going strong for a long time. But he learned to live with each new episode of life, graciously and with humor…I loved to hear him laugh…Back in the late forties we went to the little store in Coal Fire to get some items…He asked for an item and they were out of it, he asked for another item and it was on order, another item and it had been back ordered and did not come in…Other than the owner, I was the only other person in the store..Dad turned and looked at me and said, “You know, this would be a damn good place to have a store.” There are many other like sayings I could lay on you, but I won’t do it today…..I loved my Dad and today I honor him on this Jan. 25th, his birthday…..Some of you folks around Reform, AL might remember him also…He was about 5’4″ tall, solid muscle and a lot of  heart…a whole lot of that was heart……

I asked number 2 son the other day if he had visited the Bisti Badlands, “no, he did not think so,” he said. Well, I want him to take a day trip with me to see this area of New Mexico. I don’t think there is any advertising about them and I don’t know why not. It is a beautiful area of eroded land, eons of wind and rain eating at the sandstone hills of that area. You can google the Bisti and view some of the pictures and also get directions to this area of New Mexico.  From Albuquerque, we will probably journey west on I-40 to Thoreau, turning north on NM 371 and along about mile marker 70 or 71 turn right on a county road and I hope you will see some signs or info directing you toward the Bisti. I have been there but it has been years and you need better info than I am equiped to give you at this time. But you will enjoy seeing these formations. I have borrowed a photo  from one of the web sites, www.americansouthwest.net/new_mexico/bisti/photographs and you can go to that site and view several nice photos of that area. This is another good area for you to visit should you come out our way. No. 2 son and I will try and get a few shots of our own whenever we can get over that way…I will keep you posted…Pete

This Ruben Navarrette, Jr. fellow really gets under my skin…He is continually trying to stir up trouble….Republicans do not like immigrants he says….Totally wrong, we love immigrants….We dislike law breakers, Mr. Navarrette, repeat, law breakers…..What’s more, you know that and ignore that fact….Stirring the hatred is all you are doing….I am a republican…I do not hate Latinos….I have many, many friends who are of Mexican descent…Most of them seem to like me. Please learn that there is a difference between an immigrant and a illegal alien, big difference…In my opinion, you appear the bigot, sir…America welcomes legal immigrants…..Always have, always will….

Going through the community of Claunch, NM kind’a reminds me of Coal Fire, AL…But Coal Fire is huge compared to going through Claunch. In Claunch, a couple of buildings grace the community, one of them a church, and  two or three houses and one wonders where they get enough people to keep the church going. Every ten or fifteen miles are so you see a ranch house around Claunch and you see houses all around Coal Fire…There is a church in Coal Fire, but the only thing is, there are many churches….and many houses within a few miles…In Claunch, no so much and I think one denomination fits all or at least they make it fit. But they get together in the community center, play music, games and have fun…Takes one back to the good old days when the tv was not so important..Folks still get out and visit….When one of the ranchers is having a round up, folks come from miles around,  branding and dehorning and giving shots, etc , all of them doing turn about to help each other out….I like the life style down ’round Claunch…It’s like the good old days still exist in some parts of the world….I’m gonna have to go down there again soon..It kind of takes you back,  back to a slower, easy living pace….Most days they can have a beer and drive home and never pass or meet one single car or pick up on those gravel roads…probably send a herd of antelope scurrying along though…Just so you’ll know, the main road through Claunch is paved…a good road too…..

There was a picture floating around the Internet today, circa 1953 or 1954….High School, no less…..Yes, I was in it along with a bunch of long lost buddies…Buddies that I am sure have forgotten me, or best shot, a very faded memory of an old boy who used to stalk the halls around Pickens County High, Reform, AL….The heck of it is, I recognized most of the guys in that picture, but I wonder how many of them I would know if we passed on the streets today…And how many of them would know me?….This was Sadie Hawkins Day festivities…I was Marrying Sam.. I remember that…But it took this picture to remind me of that fact…A cousin of mine was in the loop of e-mails the picture was passed to and he passed it on to me….Thanks, cousin, I enjoyed looking at the picture. I have it downloaded and stored away…I have enlarged it up a couple of times and seems like every time I do that, I remember something else…It was good to see all the gang and remember them from way back when…..