Title

July, 2007
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Diary of a Ranch Trip -- 07/03/2007 through 07/08/2007
	After I worked half a day on 07/03/2007, we took off for the ranch! Here is a picture of our latest ranch gizmo (which added much to the wieght of the trailer), the swamp cooler. This baby keeps the cabin a good ten degrees cooler than outside, plus it provides a strong breeze. Unfortunately, we have to run the generator (seen to the side) in order to yse the swamper, and the generator is loud!
	Yup, you guessed it -- this is a blue water jug! I had this sitting around, and I decided to let the kids use it as an archery target, thinking that the kiddy arrows (dull as they are) would not puncture it. WRONG! Still, that's OK, since I then filled it with sand and shot at it. Sand it very dense, and it can stop a 30-06 bullet. If you look closely, you will see several bullet holes in this. I used my 30-06 and took three shots at 100 yerds, three at about 50 yards, and another two at about 10 yards. Of those eight shots, seven hit the jug.
	After taking the shots described above, I emptied out the sand, to retrieve the bullets. Here they are. As you can see, the bullets have expanded nicely. These bullets would do a lot of damage!
	On the fourth of July, we drove over to Lyman Lake to meet the Namkungs (our neighbors). They had rented a Yurt there, and so had a good spot to watch the fireworks. Before the big show, we grilled up some dogs. This and the next four pictures are of the kids eating at Lyman Lake, before the big fireworks show (which was a bit disappointing this year).





	On 07/05/2007 we took a trip into New Mexico to see the sights. From our place, we headed north to Az Hwy 61, which we took east to the New Mexico state line (where Az Hwy 61 turns into NM Hwy 53). After we passed through cool towns like Zuni and Ramah, we got to El Morro, our first stop. El Morro is a national monument dedicated to graffitti. At El Morro, there is a reliable water source, and for at least the past 700 years, people that came for the water, also carved things on the sandstone that surrounds the water. The oldest carvings are the petroglyphs, but there are many very old spanish carvings here as well. The english carvings are much more recent (they only go back into the 1800s). Here are our kids, sitting by the water hole that brought all of the sandstone vandels to El Morro over the years.
	Here is my lovely wife, also by the famous water hole.
	Our kids, next to stop number seven on the inscription walk. If you look really closely, you may see a few inscriptions behind them. One is translated: On the 25th of the month of June, of this year of 1709, passed by here on the way to Zuni, -- Ramon Garcia Jurado.
	This is a picture of the oldest inscription (besides the petroglyphs) at El Morro. It is translated: Passed by here the Govenor Don Juan de Onate, from the discovery of the Dea of the South on the 16th of April, 1605. The "Sea of the South" is the Gulf of California. Note that this inscription was made FIFTEEN YEARS BEFORE THE PILGRIMS LANDED AT PLYMOUTH ROCK!!!
	After we were done looking at the inscriptions, we followed the trail up on top of the mesa. This was a long, hard climb, especially for Nettie. Not only is El Morro at 7200 feet (meaning the air is thinner), but the trail is steep. This picture shows some of the switchbacks that we had to climb to get to the top.
	This is a picture of the "box canyon" that the mesa surrounds. I liked the sandstone column in the middle, so I had to take a picture of it.
	A view from the top of the mesa. See the road down there? That road is at the same elevation as the start of our trail!
	On top of the mesa, are these very old indian ruins.
	After we left El Morro, we travelled on down the road a little ways to the Bandera Volcano and Ice Cave. The Bandera Volcano is now dormant, of course, but it left this very impressive lava flow behind. The rocks in the background are all lava.
	Deep under the lava flows is this ice cave. The temperature in this cave never gets above 31 degrees. All water that falls into this cave, therefore, freezes. This is a picture of the ice pond.
	Here are the kids standing in the ice cave (but you can't see the ice in this photo).
	After climbing down and then up a bunch of stairs to get into and out of the ice cave, you can then hike up and into the cone of the Bandera Volcano. Here we are standing inside of the code of a volcano (neat, huh?).
	This is an extra shot of us inside the volcano, just for good measure.
	Here is a picture of the cone, without us in the way.
	This is the continental divide. Every rain drop that falls to the east of this sign will eventually end up in the Atlantic Ocean. Every rain drop that falls to the west of this sign will eventually end up in the Pacific Ocean. This is also where our camera filled up (meaning no more pictures), so I'll have to tell the rest of the story here. After this picture was taken, we turned off onto the "Chain of Craters Backcountry Byway". This is a 33 mile long dirt road that takes you past many cinder cones from dormant volcanos. It really is a very pretty drive - I enjoyed it a bunch. The dirt road comes out on NM Hwy 117, which we took to NM Hwy 36. We took Hwy 36 only to a little town called "Fence Lake", where we left 36, and pavement. NM 601 is a gravel road that heads off south towards Salt Lake. The reason we took it is that it also goes to the gravel road that is the NM version of Apache County 6040 (which is the county road that is part of what we call the "back way" to our place). While driving along that road, right before we crossed back into Arizona, I saw two badgers (too bad nobody else did), and we all saw about seven antelope. We didn't get back to our place until around 630pm or so (we had left about 9am), which made for a long day. A good day, a fun day, but a long day.
	I am going to let Ne--ie explain these next photos, as they are incomprehensible to me... "These 6 photos were relating to a post on www.xanga.com/nettieheidmann wherein I was describing the blanket I was crocheting for Jacob."
	"Trying to accurately photograph the colors."
	"Observing the length."
	"Here I had to explain to my readers how it was possible for me to crochet anything in the midst of the summer heat. Jacob is shown sitting in my Favorite crochet spot, being blown by the gale-force winds of our industrial-size fan."


	"Here are some school photos - Megan working on her Jaguar report (seen below in its entirety for your admiration)."
	"Jacob working on math."
	"Geneva reviewing a unit on the state of California."





	"Laurent spent a day with her dad at General Dynamics. While there she was given a tote filled with various take-home souvenires."



	[Paul again] : These cakes meant a lot to me. They were made by Samantha ("Sam") and her family. Sam's family are not really Church people, but they made these cakes for us anyway (and in the shape of a cross and a heart, no less). They were tasty cakes too!


	"These photos were taken a few days after the previous shots, to show the progress I had made on Jacob's blanket."

	This being the middle of July, the birthday of the Meg is upon us. Preperations must be made! Here is the "birthday tree" (whatever on earth that is).
	The envelope containing the card by Poobie to Meg.
	And this would be Button. And Jupe. Clearly, we can't have five pictures in a row without Button being amoung the subjects. And Jupe too.
	On the way home from the fourth of July trip to the ranch, I somehow lost the tailgate to Paul's Trailer just north of Globe. This being the case, I had to make a new tailgate. Here, we can all see that I am indeed a talented craftsman with wood.
	Just to rub it in, my darling wife had to take this close up.
	This and the following picture are of the pagan symbols that my girls drew on their hands with sharpie markers. Cute kids.

	This is more like it. At least the tailgate fits! Let's have no comments about the crookedness of the hasps.
	Again, to further rub it in, my very darling, precious, wife, has provided this close up of my crooked hasp.
	I am happy to report that Mastercard has graciously provided this new bike as a birthday present for Mooms. Nice bike Mooms! Be sure to send Mastercard a thank you card (my mother always made me write thank you cards -- I hated writing thank you cards).
	This picture proves that Mooms can indeed ride a bike (in case any of you were in doubt).
	Is there anything else to be said?
	The birthday cake of Mooms.
	This is the birthday supper that Mooms specified. From left to right, halluptures, cake, corn-soybean stuff, and plates.
	Looks like Mooms has grown rabbit ears.
	The birthday supper of Mooms.
	Cheers!
	This picture is very blurry. Nevertheless, it illustrates the fine art of pat-a-panning.
	Ain't it just special?

	Here, Poobie has shown herself to me a daughter after my own heart. She has shrunk wrapped Moom's present in several layers of tape. Have fun with that, Mooms.
	These slippers were Roo's present to Mooms. Roo made them herself.
	This and the next picture are of the present that Mooms got from Miss Susan (from Church). Lots and lots of candy!

	This photo bears witness to just how messy our laundry room can become. My family is just too big... Nettie: THAT is ridiculous. If anything, we need MORE children to help with the laundry!!
	I was taking these pictures to prove that things got a little out of hand is all...
	and I got stuck in the doorway and had to step over all this stuff!
	And on that same morning, my daughters had been having a tea party, and left the table looking like this, which got them hollered back to the table to clean up their mess.
	All the laundry (8 baskets) neatly sorted.
	THE FLOOR!
	My mother, who is very irresponsible, sent my daughter MONEY (the root of all evil) for her birthday. My wife, who is crazy, allowed my daughter, who is ridiculous, to mutilate her body in this fashion. To think, we paid someone MONEY to PUNCH HOLES in my daughter's BODY!
	Here is another picture of this, this, this, argggg!
	Our doggy door broke. It was a really cheap doggy door anyway. I went to Pet's Mart, and purchased the only doggy door that would work (for $150 -- OUCH). Here I am installing it. Nice bald head, huh?
	That same day, I had to install a new shower fixture in the master bath. To do this, I cut this hole in the wall in the laundry room.
	It really is a nice hole, huh?
	My company sent me to Boston to integrate a sensor. After finishing early, I went downtown Boston. This is the entrance to the replica Cheers bar (pictures of the real one are below). Much of the stuff from the TV show (like Norm's stool) is here in the replica. Sometime you want to go where everybody knows your name!
	CHEERS!
	This is the outside of the Cheers replica. It is in the Faneuil Hall area. This is a very historic area in the heart of downtown Boston. It is several city blocks square, with the streets only for walking. All the buildings are very old, there are shops everywhere, and there are many street performers.
	Speaking of which, this was one of a group of break dancers performing for a few bucks.
	This is a picture of a team of acrobats. These people were incredible! I had no idea that it was even possible for people to do the things that this team did (and they were funny too).
	This sign says it all. It describes how Faneuil Hall came to be (built in 1742).
	This is the original Faneuil Hall (this is the building that was built in 1713).
	This is Quincy Hall. It is right next to Faneuil Hall, and was built in 1826. It was built as an expansion to Faneuil Hall, because the latter had become too small for the growing market.
	This sign is attached to the building in the following picture (The Old State House). Click on this, you should be able to read it.,
	This is the Old State House.
	This is the real, original Cheers bar. It was fun going in here to see where it all happend!
	This is another shot of the Cheers bar from accross the street.
	This is a small part of "Boston Common". The following snippet describes the cool history of this place: The Boston Common is known to be one of the oldest public parks in the country. The park is almost 50 acres in size. Today, Boston Common is the anchor for the Emerald Necklace, a system of connected parks that winds through many of Boston's neighborhoods. The "Common" has been used for many different purposes throughout its long history. Until 1830, cattle grazed the Common, and until 1817, public hangings took place here. British troops camped on Boston Common prior to the Revolution and left from here to face colonial resistance at Lexington and Concord in April, 1775.
	This is a picture of some cookies. Roo made these cookies.
	Cookies.
	This and the following pictures are of art work that the kids did./







	More pictures testifying to the mountains of Laundry that can accumulate around here.