Where the Buffalo Roam...

Well, actually, they are called American Bison, and not Buffalo. We have lived in Alamosa for 23 years and there are still things around here that I don't know about. Case in point...the Medano-Zapata Ranch. So, I have heard of the Ranch and have seen the Ranch house as we drove by it on our way to the Sand Dunes. And, I do recall seeing something about it on the new maps when the Sand Dunes transfromed from a National Monument to a National Park. I just didn't know how big it was, or about the bison.

The kids in church have been learning about the animals of the Bible and I guess bison came up in their conversation. It turns out that the mom of one of the kids works at the Ranch so she arranged for a "field trip". Jamie was excited to go because it meant that he'd get to miss church. I decided to go so that I could learn more about the Ranch and take my camera out for some photos.

It was a perfect spring day, with just a slight breeze (those who know the San Luis Valley know that the spring winds can be horrendous!). We rode out into the field in a wagon, pulled by a Suburban. Once we were close to the bison, we went in separate loads in the Suburban to get up close and personal to these incredible animals.

our church group

 

After we had seen the bison, we were taken to the bison barn. This is where, once a year, they do a bison round up. They count the bison, vaccinate them, separate some for sale and then put them back out to pasture.

We all had a great time! There is more info about the Medano-Zapata Ranch here. We were fortunate to have this outing arranged by one of our kids mom because they normally charge $50 per person to do this tour! Yikes!

Hacked!

I know that I don't update this blog as often as I should or could. So, imagine my surprise when, yesterday, I happened to notice that there were FOUR new posts to my blog. These posts were all posted within the last 2 weeks and were NOT posted by me! These bogus posts contained information about weight loss products & "get out of debt now" scams. UGH!! Further investigation took me to my Yahoo! account which had, apparently, been hacked & had forwarded "get out of debt now" spam emails to everyone on my Yahoo! email list. I do not use my Yahoo! account for email so, fortunately, most of the email addresses were outdated & those malicious emails only made it to a few of my friends inboxes. I am uber diligent about online security so I'm not sure how this happened, although I do have a couple of theories. Needless to say, passwords have been changed & I will be paying more attention to both my Yahoo! & Google accounts from now on.

New School...New School Year!

Another summer vacation has come and gone! It was a summer filled with baseball, sleep-overs, swimming and a two week vacation to Salt Lake City & Denver...so much fun and the time flew by!

Jamie is excited to get back to school...he's looking forward to 4th grade and to being in the brand new school building!! His 4th grade teacher is Mrs. Kern and his BFF is in his class again (they've been in the same class together since pre-school!). There is only ONE other person from any of his previous classes in this years class and only 2 other boys that he knows from baseball...otherwise, it's a brand new group of kids for him to get to know. One of the boys he knows from baseball has some behavioral issues and I'm concerned about how that will play out. Also, Jamie is usually very shy until he's comfortable in a situation so I'm a little worried about how he'll adjust to having so many new classmates. I'm probably more stressed out about it than he is so I am trying very hard to step back and see what happens.

first day of 4th grade
(and as handsome as can be!!)

It's hard to believe that the new school buildings are ready for occupancy! From the ground breaking ceremony in October 2009 to the ribbon cutting ceremony on August 26, 2011, it's been almost two years of anticipation. The buildings are beautiful, the playgrounds are amazing and the kids & staff are excited to finally be in!

groundbreaking ceremony
(October 1, 2009)

new 3 -5 school building

There are 1000+ kids in the combined K -2 and 3 - 5 campus!
They were all given commemorative t-shirts and sat out on the turf for the ribbon cutting ceremony.

ribbon cutting ceremony
(August 26, 2011)

Updates

Just wanted to give a few updates on recent posts...

Outside Kitty is still MIA. He has never been gone for this long so we're assuming the worst. We've not decided on exactly what to do but we do feel like we should do a little memorial service of some sort to remember his presence with us and bring closure. He was a loving cat and we miss him.

My Gram is doing better. She's been in a rehabilitation center for the past couple of weeks, getting stronger and recovering from whatever it was that caused her decline. If all goes well, she will be discharged on Tuesday and will be able to go home. My cousin, Esteban, is moving back from Los Angeles to live with and help care for her as it has been determined that she can no longer live alone. My aunt and uncle (apparently my father has not provided any input or support...go figure!) have agreed to pay Esteban a salary for his commitment, time and work. He is excited for this opportunity and is planning to start a blog to share old family stories, recipes, etc. as told by Gram. I am so grateful that he is in a place in his life that he can drop his ties in L.A. and move back to NM to spend this time with Gram. I'm also secretly and selfishly grateful that he will be only 3-1/2 hours away, although I am sad that we never got to make a family trip to CA to visit him there.

We drove by the ice sculptures today. Well, we drove by what is left of the ice sculptures. The buffalo is still standing but the horse has collapsed and the bear is now headless. Such a shame that these pieces of art did not last very long. The temperatures were in the mid 50's this weekend, nice for being outdoors, but not conducive to ice sculptures. The weather forecast is for 3-5 inches of snow and colder temperatures this week. I feel fairly confident that the temperatures will cool down but, as for the snow...I'll believe it when I see it!

Hangin' Out with 3rd Graders

Jamie's class went to downtown Alamosa for a field trip yesterday. They went to see the ice sculptures and to drink hot cocoa at Milagro's. The weather in Alamosa has been unseasonably warm and half of the ice sculptures, the ones on the north side of Main Street, are already gone after only 10 days. I'm glad that I stopped last Monday night and snapped photos of them all with lights or I would not have seen the deer sculpture at all.

The sculptures on the south side of the street are in the shade most of the day but, they too, are showing signs of melting. The little buffalo that was on top of the big one is gone. I don't know if it melted or if someone took it. The grizzly bear also has a hole in it's neck where the ice is already melting.

At Milagro's, we drank yummy hot cocoa and talked about the sculptures. When we got back to school, the kids had to write about the sculptures. It was overcast, cold and even snowing for the hour or so that we were out but, of course, the skies were clear and the sun shining by the time school let out. Crazy Colorado weather!

Ice Sculptures at Night

I remembered to take my camera with me tonight so, after scrapbooking, I stopped downtown and took photos of all of the ice sculptures with lights. The thermometer at the bank said it was 32 degrees and my car thermometer said 33...way too warm for 10:00pm in the middle of January!

Sunrise, Sunset

Today was a beautiful January day, bookended by an amazing sunrise and a stunning sunset! I was taken with how far to the south the color extended! Both photos are taken looking toward the south, with San Antonio mountain in the background.

sunrise 7:00am

sunset 5:19pm

Ice Fest 2011

This weekend was the 2nd annual Ice Fest in Alamosa. Huge blocks of ice are set out in several locations on Main Street and are then carved by ice sculptors over the weekend. Last year the theme was Trains and this year the theme is Wildlife. We went in on Saturday morning to watch the process, from start to finish, of the bronco sculpture. It is pretty amazing what they can do with a chain saw and other tools.

At 10:27am, this was just a block of ice, with a pattern of a bucking bronco taped to one side.

Two sculptors, armed with chain saws started to work. It looked dangerous in that they each got awfully close to the others' chain saw blade in the process. One of the sculptors talked with the crowd about some of the tools they use and one comment he made was, "we usually have to modify most of our tools for use on ice...like, remove the safety features". Yikes!! Bill asked him if they still had all their fingers under their gloves and he said, "no"! I don't know if he was kidding.

Here, he is using an iron to heat a portion of the ice so he can add another small block for the tail. Wonder what setting he uses?

Click to watch some video of the artist at work!

They also had to add another block of ice to the top for the ears. Instead of using the iron, they just poured water over it.

They also used chisels, wicked looking disc sanders and rotary die grinders to get all the fine details.

The finishing touch is to take a blow torch to the entire sculpture. This smooths out the edges and makes it crystal clear.

After 2 hours and 22 minutes, here is the finished project at 12:49pm.

There are supposed to be a total of 6 ice sculptures and 3 snow sculptures. Only 2 of the other ice sculptures were completed when we were downtown, the bird and the trout. They were getting ready to start the buffalo after they finished with the bronco. I heard that there will also be a bear. The cool thing (pun intended!) is that Alamosa is typically one of the coldest spots in the nation and these works of art will hang around for a good month or two. We have been having unusually mild temperatures this winter, though, so they did put some insulation around the sculptures on the north side of the street. They add lights to the sculptures for night display and I'm hoping to take my camera in one evening and get some shots of all of the sculptures with the lights.

This is the beginnings of one of the snow sculptures. The artist said that it was originally going to be a penguin on an inter-tube but that he was having a hard time because the snow was so soft. I'll have to get a follow up photo of this as well.

Alamosa is a small town but we do have a lot of little things like this Ice Fest to get the community out to mix and mingle. We really do love living here!