I wish I knew you guys that visit the web site and what items you  read while visiting and what you thought about what you did read. The month of December has been far beyond anything experienced at this site before. Many of you come back to visit  so you must find something you like. But, its ok if you don’t comment, I just appreciate your coming by…..This month, December, 2010, 3289 visitors have come by reading 20,646 pages with 30,833 hits….Some of you came in for very quick visits and others of you lingered for a time….I’m glad you did, in fact, honored that you did….I am a home spun story teller and not a seasoned writer…By that I mean, I have not been a newspaper or tv reporter or editor with years of training behind me, and most of those guys expect to be heard and read…. I just enjoy writing….So I am especially happy when someone reads me….Know what I mean….But what ever your reason for coming by to visit, once again I say Thank You!!!!!! I hope  you will mark this site as a favorite and I promise to keep new posting available…Pete Hester

A special Merry Christmas to all of you serving in our military….Especially to those of you overseas….I get a lot of readers from other countries and I often wonder if it is Americans serving in those countries or citizens of those countries….If you are in the Military a big thank you and Merry Christmas and I hope you can have a peaceful day, one where you can feel the peace and tranquility that only Jesus can provide. We pray for your safety daily and for your safe return to your homeland. And if you are a citizen of another country reading my web site for the first time or a return visitor, I want you to know that I appreciate you coming by and I also wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and pray for God’s blessings on each of you…..Merry Christmas to all…..Pete

We all know and love Luke’s telling of the Christmas story, Luke, Chapter Two, verse 11, “Behold, for born unto you this day in the City of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.”  In the Book of John he says, Chapter One, verse 14, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Powerful words announcing Our Savior arrival. However we tell the story, all Christians celebrate His coming by gathering together, gift giving, loving one another, breaking bread and a time of fellowship. I hope you and your family will be able to share the season, hopefully all together.

 From the Hester Family, we would like to  wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

1, Snow stuff:  Man the past few days has brought New Mexico and Colorado some good snow for you skiers. Angel Fire, NM 20 inches, Durango, Co 49 – 53 inches, Red River 16 – 25 inches, Sandia (Albuquerque) 20 – 28 inches, Santa Fe 20 – 30 inches, Ski Apache (Ruidoso) 17 – 19 inches, Taos, NM 22 – 27 inches,Telluride, Co 43 inches and listen to this Wolf Creek, Co 77 – 79 inches…All those ski areas are close enough to Albuquerque that you can fly in here and rent a car for the last leg of your journey….come see us

2. Bird Stuff: Well, the little rascals can’t hide from our high tech counters…At Bosque Del Apache we now have 69,246 ducks, 455 Canada geese, 30,785 light geese, 6862 Sandhill crane, 4 Golden Bald Eagles, 0 swan’s a’swimming, 1303 American coot, 4 Shorebirds and 44 Hawks and owls (and that is probably why the shorebirds are not hanging around.)

3. Dumb stuff: The folks that live down around the railroad are bitching because the train is blowing it horn at the crossings during sleeping hours. And they want that changed. Well, folks, the railroad was there long before you were and it is a safety issue if they don’t blow the train whistle, so unless the crossings have a bar that can be lowered to stop traffic, I am not sure you have a valid complaint. Houses have built up around the tracks and around the air port and they were there before you bought or built. Maybe the noise can be toned down somewhat and if so, good…If not, you knew they were there going in…..

4. Ice Fishing: Ice is now forming on the northern lakes, but not enough to allow for ice fishing…I think some of the experts say you need something like 9 inches to support the ice fisherman….well, you need a lot more than that for me. Matter of fact, I ain’t gettin’ out on that crap…now you fish all you want, but I want solid earth under my feet when I am fishing or a good solid boat….Last year they were saying nine inches or more to take your pick up truck out on the ice,  un-huh, now that is crazy…..(this could also be filed under the dumb stuff item, if you ask me.)

5. Pecan crop: This year farmers are expecting to get 3.00 per pound for their pecans, in the shell. New Mexico farmers produce about 56 million pounds per year. Now that is pretty good, huh? Did you know that there is no pecans north of I-40 in the state of New Mexico? Las Cruces, Carlsbad, Artesia…all those places down is southern New Mexico enjoy pecans. I had 5 trees in my yard when I lived in Carlsbad. I could get about 75 pounds per tree a lot of years but the highest price I ever got selling them was 82 cents per pound. Anyway, I am glad our pecan farmers are having such a good year. I have heard that New Mexico may out produce Georgia this year,……. well, that’s what I hear…..

6. Political stuff: Say what you will about President Obama, but he is sure trying to work across the aisle. And I for one would like to see our politicians do what is best for America for once and not what is best for their party…Amen?

That’s about all the stuff I can think of for right now…I will write some Christmas stuff tomorrow, Baby Jesus and our greatest gift and other stuff…..thanks, Pete

Wow, did you read about our governor over in North Korea? Sounds like he may have done some good and eased things up a bit.  He is a good negotiator. I was wondering…..Reckon he could stop by New York on the way back and see if he can negotiate some of New Mexico’s money back from the investors (or crooks) he used who bilked us out of several million investment dollars? New York got some of their money back from these same rascals…..Come on, Gov, give it a shot, how about it? Talk to them a bit, ok? …..At least get a few bucks to pay for those Cuban cigars, huh?

Bernie_and_Them_Chapter_Seven and  Bernie_and_Them_Chapter_Eight

If you click on the “older” at the bottom of the page of posting it will take you to the older postings. Somewhere back there you will find Chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and six. I will add chapters 7 and 8 tonight. Or just click on the downloads over on the right and all chapter are there… Hope you enjoy them. You can tell that I’m just an Old Kid at heart….

Well, last report was the snow amounts at the various ski resorts…Well, nix all that..I do not know all the totals but the Sandia Ski area got 20 inches…We got about three inches here at my house….Snow amounts varied ….Red River got about 16 inches…So you skiers from across the nation, New Mexico and Colorado resorts are ready for you…A couple of more storms may be headed this way….Lots of snow….Come on out this way and play in the snow…

At Bosque Del Apache: (A bosque is a low lying area, not really a swamp, but when we use to have heavy rains and no levees, water would cover the area for a time. Nowadays we route what water we can spare and flood the area for the birds. Contract growers provide fields of grain as feed for the fowl and wildlife.) Ducks: 73,582, Canada geese 457, Light geese 41,126, Sandhill cranes 7,995, Golden Bald Eagle 5, American coot 828, Marsh and water birds 4, Shorebirds 5, Hawks and Owls 27. The following rare birds have been spotted, White tail kite, Hooded and Common Mergansers……I’ll keep you posted on the counts as the winter progresses….about 15 white wing dove sit on my fence or power lines each evening. I provide feed and fresh water for them and who ever else comes flying by…By the way, I do count them from the ground using the one, two, three method…It works with them…..error should be less than 1%, I hope….I’m not really a birdwatcher, but I do love to watch them…crazy huh?….

As you regular readers know I have spent a lot of time talking about the bird counters at the bird and wildlife refuge areas around the state. Specifically, about the counters of the birds and them being able to count those little suckers while they are at the sites. You know how they say, we have 14,262 snow geese, 27,341 sand hill cranes, etc, etc…..Well, this weekend I was driving down south of Belen on I-25 and there was a field of some type grain or grass along side the road….That field was filled with sand hill cranes….There ain’t no way I could count them little rascals, well, those big rascals, so I am asking you….How, I say how, do the counters pretend to count them….I can say there were probably more that fifty, could have been 100 or more….If I was a counter, I would count in flocks…One flock over yonder, another flock down there, that’s two flocks and so on….If one of you bird counters would leave me a comment I would greatly appreciate it….How do you get them to still still?   How do you know if you already counted one?…..If flock 1 joins flock 2, how do you know if you counted them in another field….You guys are really smart, that’s all I can say about that, real smart…..or guessimators….or liars…Pete

Been to the post office lately?…When I go it seems like everyone is going….the line is always there when I get there..The other morning, Sweetie says to me, “take this to the post office. If you go now there won’t be anyone there.”….I did…Wrong, the line stretched from the counter all the way back to the door…One clerk to serve 15 or 20 people and most of them with multiple packages. About three or four of them got out of line and left, not having time to wait I suppose…Then a clerk called out from the back, “those of you here to pick up mail or packages come to this door”, about four left the line for that. Still, four or five were left in front of me. This one guy must have had eight or ten packages. The lady right behind him had four or five packages….The lady right in front of me had a couple of pieces of mail and a sack. When the many packages guy got to the counter, another clerk showed up. A loud “Thank you Jesus” went up from the crowd, er, well, that was me…That got a few chuckles anyway. Finally, the lady in front of me got to the counter. She opened the sack and had many, repeat, many photo type envelopes inside that dang bag. They were still working with her when I got called by the other clerk. Behind me,  the line still stretched back to the door… Well, I made it, but it sure makes you want to stay away from the post office, don’t it? Makes you feel for the one clerk working and everyone waiting…No wonder postal clerks go “postal”…..