Homecoming

We arrived at Las Mananitas yesterday evening around 6:00 p.m. after two days of uneventful driving across the plains and over the mountains, 1260 miles door to door. As we drove into New Mexico from Colorado, the first thing we noticed was how green everything looked--not exactly lush, but certainly greener than on any previous visits. As we pulled into our driveway, we saw that weeds and little tufts of mesa grass had sprung up everywhere, giving our previously barren landscape a more lived-in look. The heavy spring rains worked their magic on the mesa, and now even the alpacas down the road have a new field of grass to munch on.

Once inside, we found evidence of rodent visitors scattered throughout the house, and Steve discovered a little mousie in the utility room, patas arribas. There were also a few more cracks in the plaster, and we plan to call Santos to remedy the situation. But it was wonderful to be back in our casita, listening to the coyotes howling at night.

Speaking of critters, we saw a young coyote pup running across the road as we were on our way to dinner last night. It ducked under the fence into the Pueblo land with our neighbor's dog, Zoey, in hot pursuit. We were a little worried that Zoey might be lured by this wily guy into a hungry pack of larger coyotes, so we stopped the car and called to her to come back home. Of course she paid no attention and kept following the pup deeper into the sage. But all ended well; this morning we saw Zoey in her usual spot lying next to Lars (her Great Pyrenees buddy) in Karen's driveway.

We'll be doing lots of cleaning today to get the house ready to receive our summer visitors. We're waiting for Matt and Adam to come tomorrow!