Author Archives: Patrick Lamb

Imagine that you’re walking along the dusty main street of Taos, NM, 125 years ago in April. It’s a pleasant day with fragrant flowers and fruit trees in blossom, temperatures in the low 60s, no blustery spring winds and a receding cap of snow on towering Taos Mountain just to your east. Somewhere in theContinue reading “There weren’t any EV charging stations back then…”

The chair I’m sitting in as I write this and used while writing all my previous blogs was a roadside find. A home just down the street from us had placed it outside in hopes someone might want it. It was a classic design, solid oak, in need of a new cushion and some structuralContinue reading “Roadside relief…”

An update on the story about the Mexican Gray Wolf below. The Albuquerque Journal reported this morning that the wolf had been found dead. Cause of death or location of her death has not been confirmed. Very sad. Two stories in the news last week about canines caught my attention. Both showed how clever theseContinue reading “Canine chronicles…”

Last week, we accompanied our grandkids on a tour of Lincoln County where I grew up in southern New Mexico. Our trip included stops at the Smokey Bear museum in Capitan, the Malpais lavabeds north of Carrizozo, old Lincoln, Fort Stanton, Ruidoso and other points in between. On the way, we stopped at the InternationalContinue reading “Atomic rocks…”

Yogi Berra’s famous quote may have more significance than I thought, given some developments around our house. My wife recently started noticing a dramatic decline in certain items in our every day eating utensils. We were down to just two forks and four spoons after originally having eight of each when we acquired the setContinue reading “When you come to a fork in the road, take it…”

Being as close as Las Cruces is to the border with Mexico, it’s not surprising that smuggling — in both directions — has been going on in this area for centuries. As you may recall, I resurrected my finely honed investigative reporting skills (yes, that was a joke) about three years ago to find outContinue reading “Why did the chicken cross the border?”

I’ve been working my way through a book edited by my former journalism professor, Tony Hillerman, entitled “Best of the West: An Anthology of Classic Writing from the American West.” The book contains 142 short stories on a variety of subjects, mostly historical in nature. Under the section of the book entitled “Tall Tales andContinue reading “Fur bearing trout…”

A friend and neighbor asked me last week if I was interested in helping with a project that I had never known about until he extended me the invitation. It’s called the “New Mexico Ramp Project.” It is a volunteer-based program to construct wheelchair accessible ramps to homes of low-income disabled residents in 15 NewContinue reading “Ramping up…”

The New Mexico Legislature, which I covered as a reporter for seven years, always seems to have time in between debate on major issues to bring a bit of levity or silliness into their work. Witness in the last few years that we have added adopted legislation that declares the “official” state almost everything. WeContinue reading “The state state…”