I skipped writing anything last week because we were really tired. We are still recovering from almost two weeks of fun with grandkids and adult children (who we love very much), but it’s a lot of work and stress as we get “gracefully older. “

I’ll begin by ranting that the Albuquerque Journal did not publish its annual “Cow Chip” awards for silly things that go on in New Mexico during the year. I’ve mentioned things in my blogs that I discovered in previous years’ Cow Chip awards. Memorable events included the time a State Police officer was caught on a dash cam having sex on the hood of his police cruiser (while he was still “mostly” in uniform) as a random Chihuahua dog observed the activity. There was also the time that the inaugural run of the Rail Runner commuter train was delayed after it hit a wandering cow between Santa Fe and Albuquerque. And who could forget the incident in which an Albuquerque city bus driver smacked into the rear of a car in front of him while munching on his burrito. And of course, there was video of a port-a-potty navigating traffic on Central Avenue in Albuquerque during a spring windstorm.

As a backup plan, you can always turn to Dave Barry’s “Year in Review,” which manages to skewer everyone, including politicians on both sides of the aisle, for learning about dumb things that happened during the year. This year, he warns us that the two greatest threats we face in the future are pickleball and Artificial Intelligence.

The link is below:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/dave-barry-year-in-review-2023-was-the-year-that-ai-and-pickleball-came-for-humanity/ar-AA1m90Uy

Finally, my new year’s resolutions this year are to play more golf, go fly fishing more and weed out the thousands of coffee mugs we have accumulated over the years from various vendors, places we worked, events, relatives and national Television News Show appearances (okay, just kidding on that last one).

Hope your 2024 is a good year for you and that you are not overcome by pickleball madness or artificial intelligence.

(Now where did I stash that coffee mug I was given at the 2001 Roswell Old Timers’ Hot Air Balloon Rally?)

I read an interesting article in the New York Times online edition recently about how skiing has become so expensive in recent years, mostly because of the monopoly of two giant corporations which have acquired ski resorts around the United States. One or two of those areas are in New Mexico.

I realize I’m sounding more and more like Andy Rooney from the old CBS 60 Minutes program these days, but I remember the good old days.

When you were in college, you could still find a $5 daily ski pass at what is now Pajarito Mountain outside Los Alamos — a “secret” ski area in the once secret town where the atomic bomb was developed. There was one chairlift and the vertical drop was probably no more than 750 vertical feet, but you could ski all day, then grab a bowl of “Danny’s Chili” for $1.25 and wash it down with some Buckhorn Beer that sold for 99 cents a six pack. What a deal.

I also remember that just four years ago, anyone over the age of 70 could get a free season ski pass at Ski Apache. Now it costs you $600. A daily pass for someone my age is $57 and for an adult, it’s $110. When I was in high school, just after the ski area opened, we had a program at our school that allowed us to count skiing as our PE requirement. We’d get off every Wednesday afternoon and go to the ski area where we could get lift tickets, instruction and rental equipment for about $10. What a deal.

Making the high ticket cost at Ski Apache even worse is the fact that much of the mountain has been scarred by a terrible forest fire a few years ago. Trees that used to protect slopes from losing snow in gusty winds are gone. At least one major lift is no longer operating because of the fire. And climate change has led to fewer and fewer good snow years on the mountain. Yet, we continue to pay more and more for less and less satisfaction on the slopes.

The New York Times story says that the average cost for a father and mother and their two kids to go skiing for one day in a major resort is now about $500. The article says that skiing is becoming more and more of an elitist sport, similar to what it has been in Europe for many years.

I’m okay with capitalism, but it seems that we’re in a pattern where the incredibly rich just keep taking things away from us that we all enjoyed when we were younger. Some of the best fly fishing waters where I once was able to go for free are now controlled by private landowners. A cheap round of golf is becoming a thing of the past in many places. A visit to Disneyland is almost becoming out of reach for many familes.

Well, I’m not going to give up. This coming year, my goal is to go fishing more, play more golf and yes, go skiing at least one or two more times.

And have I mentioned my plan to develop heavy duty drones with grappling hooks buzzing around ski areas to help older skiers like me get up after a fall? I’ll provide more details later, but I’m fearful some rich guy will beat me to it and it will end up making them a lot of money for my swell idea.

It happens every year right before Christmas. A frantic search for votive candles and the right size paper lunch bags. I start looking for candles in July every year, knowing that the shelves where they can usually be found are stripped bare by the 15th of December.

And while paper bags are not quite as difficult to find, I still find myself making mental notes of where I can find the best ones — not too large and not too small. And most importantly, quality that makes it wasy to fold them.

In our home, while I watch football games and my wife bakes multiple varieties of cookies, I am in charge of folding the tops on our luminaria bags that we put out every Christmas eve. The folding operation, as I’m sure many of you know, is a somewhat delicate procedure. The bags rip easily and you have to train your thumbs to turn down the top of the bag just so in order to have the perfect amount of fold at the top.

But what I have noticed this year is the annoying sound of the folding process that makes it difficult to hear what’s happening in the football game you’re watching or my wife’s attempts at conversation while she is baking.

New Mexico has an official state question (red or green), an official state odor (roasting green chile), an official necktie (bolo), official vegetables (chile and pinto beans) and other nonsensical officialities. So why not an official sound of a New Mexico Christmas — the crunching, crinkling sound of folding luminaria bags.

Okay, that’s a stretch, so I’ll end my Christmas musings with you by sharing my version of a New Mexico Night Before Christmas and hope you readers have a wonderful holiday season.

T’was the night before Christmas in New Mexico

And everywhere luminarias were starting to glow.

The stockings were hung by the horno with care

In hopes that Pancho Claus soon would be there.

Outside on the porch, ristras swayed in the breeze

And as the sun dipped down, it was starting to freeze

Los ninos were dreaming, all warm in their beds

And swung at pinatas that danced in their heads

Mamma and Chester were snoozing away

In a bed that left me no room to lay

So I sat in a chair watching the pinon fire die

When I heard a strange noise coming down from the sky

I ran to the back door to look out on the lawn

Which was soft and white from a snowfall at dawn

We don’t get much snow in the desert, you see

So the view outside was exciting to me.

Then suddenly I spotted something that was even more to behold

It was pack of coyotes with a wooden cart in tow

In front of the coyotes with a beak that was red

Was Rudy the roadrunner, who was always ahead

And driving the cart was a fat jolly man

Wearing a sombrero and a waving his hand

It was Pancho Clause, of that I was sure

And he called to his coyotes as they ran in a blur

“Now Pedro, now Carlos, Jose and Miguel,

On Cisco, Jesus, Juan and Manuel

Over the mesquite bush, don’t linger and stall

Through cactus and sand dunes, now dash away all”

So up on my casa the coyotes flew

With a cart full of toys and Pancho Claus too

And a noise from above gave me a start

Coyotes howling as he stepped off his cart

He slid down the chimney with his bag full of toys

And began his work without any noise.

He wore a pony tail at the back of his head

And his velvet Navajo shirt was a cheery red

His shirt was laced up with fine goatskin leather

And his face was rugged from the Southwestern weather

His eyes were like turquoise, his dimples so sweet

His nose and his cheeks were like red chile heat

The steam from from a pot of posole in la cocina

Formed a shape over his head that looked like a Zia

He was a true Land of Enchantment elf

And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself

But seeing his smile, I knew I had nothing to dread

Knowing that soon I would be back in my bed

He said “Ya-ta-hey” to me as he started to work

Filling up the stockings, then turned with a jerk

He’d noticed biscochitos we’d left him for a snack

And stuffed a few of them for later in his pack

Then before I could blink, back up the chimney he went

Leaving only the smell of a sweet pinon scent

He sprang into his cart, gave his coyotes a shout

And was gone just like that, to the next hacienda, no doubt

But I heard him call as his cart flew away

“Feliz Navidad, In New Mexico we say.”

A new type of restaurant opened in the last couple of weeks in Las Cruces that calls itself “The Roasted Rooster.”

Its specialty is waffles and chicken, but they have several other things on the menu, including an odd-sounding green chile and cheese waffle. The chicken is baked, not fried as you would expect from a regular chicken and waffle menu item, and the waffles are a kind of soggy whole wheat variety.

What is interesting about the place is that it has 15 spaces to plug in your Tesla while you await your order at the restaurant. In fact, there are more parking spaces for Teslas than there are for regular cars that rely on that oh-so-yesterday fossil fuel. There is a drive-up window where idling gasoline powered vehicles can spew carbon-based gunk into the air while they wait a long time for their chicken and waffle combo to be hatched, baked and toasted.

I think it’s actually an interesting marketing concept. It’s located right next to busy Interstate 10 — just block from either the west or east-bound lanes. And the menu seems to be geared towards people I think would most likely buy a Tesla — lots of vegetarian options with recyclable serving accoutrements.

However, I think there’s one flaw with the operation. It was built adjacent to the city’s sewer processing station and waste disposal site. On a windless, cold evening with a temperature inversion pressing the atmosphere close to the ground, the smell around the surrounding area is — well (if you’ll pardon the pun) — fowl.

So if you’re caged at the Roasted Rooster on one of those nights for one to two hours while your Tesla gets charged, you may lose your appetite (or worse) while you wait. I’m sure many Tesla drivers will not have a fond memory of their stop in Las Cruces if they require a charge on one of those days.

There are other dining options nearby if Tesla drivers are willing to “cross the road to get to the other side” and visit the nearby Shell or Pilot truck stops. But of course, you may be forced to smell diesel exhaust fumes while waiting there. And maybe you’ll figure out the answer to that age old question.

A couple of quick updates for my readers.

First, my good friend from Albuquerque, Ken Tabish, and I got the fish tank filled and running this week at White Mountain Elementary School in Ruidoso.

If you’ll recall, Trout Unlimited sponsors programs to allow elementary or middle school students to raise trout in a large aquariums in their classrooms for eventual release into nearby cold streams or lakes. The program is designed to help kids appreciate the need for clean cold waters in the United States, take part in the process to raise trout in their own classroom and encourage them to participate in fishing.

I will help in the process to bring rainbow trout eggs from the Lisboa Springs hatchery in northern New Mexico to Ruidoso in mid January and put them in the tank we have been preparing. The third graders will be able to see the eggs hatch into fry and then grow into a size that can be released into nearby waters late this spring. The students, who are very excited about the program, will be on hand to see the fish they helped raise be released into the wild.

The New Mexico council of Trout Unlimited received some very good news this week that its request had been approved for a $40,000 grant to expand the Trout in the Classroom program at other schools around the state. The grant was from the newly created New Mexico Outdoor Equity Fund to encourage outdoor recreation and conservation projects around the state.

Other schools around southern New Mexico are hoping to get Trout in the Classroom projects going next year, including Mesilla Park Elementary in Las Cruces and G.W. Stout Elementary School in Silver City. Schools in Alamogordo and Artesia have also expressed an interest in starting programs.

As the project progresses, I’ll give you updates.

____________________

On another subject, I’m glad to report that the intersection of Interstate 25 north and Interstate 10 east has FINALLY been reopened. I ranted in an earlier post about how long it had taken the New Mexico Department of transportation to repair this important interchange between two major U.S. Interstate highways. An accident on July 21 caused damage to an overpass from I-10 to I-25, but it took five months to get the work done. I am still convinced that if this kind of interchange had been damaged in Albuquerque or Santa Fe, a repair would have been completed in significantly less time.

I the last few years, I’ve taken an interest in reading newspaper obituaries of people I’ve never heard of or known. I think it’s a natural curiosity about people’s lives that comes from my background in journalism to gather information. My wife says when I’m introduced to new people, I often end up “interviewing” them like I would do when preparing a story. I’m interested to learn what they contributed to the world, what fascinated them, why they ended up in New Mexico, where else they might have lived and unexpected things about their lives.

Last week, my wife found an interesting claim in an obituary printed in our local newspaper. It was about a 96-year-old resident of Dona Ana County, Leandro “Chino” Chavez. The obituary said Chavez served in World War II and was a lifelong farmer in the Mesilla Valley. The obituary went on to say he had “a very good mechanical sense” and is “credited in designing and the building the first chile roaster.”

“Being the modest person that he was, he claimed it was “probably” the first (chile roaster) as he had never heard of one being built before his,” the obituary said.

My hat is off to Chino for developing that and making mass chile roasting possible.

Before the invention of the roaster, the process was probably done on simple flat grills that made roasting uneven because of the gnarled nature of most chile pods. The roaster seems to have solved that problem by allowing them to tumble randomly in a cage that exposes the pods to a hot flame on all surfaces.

But perhaps the best benefit of roasters is the massive production of that great green chile roasting aroma that permeates New Mexico from August through September and beyond.

So next fall, when you smell that uniquely New Mexico odor, thank Chino Chavez for his contribution.

Imagine that a 911 operator gets this phone call from a frantic woman in Questa in northern New Mexico:

“Please send the fire department and an ambulance. My kitchen is on fire. The grease from cooking tortillas caught my curtains on fire and splashed hot liquid on my arms!!!”

The response from the 911 operator:

“Okay, hang in there. We’ll be at your house in about five and one half hours.”

Am I prone to exaggeration yet again?

Well check out the photo below, taken in our neighborhood this morning.

I’m hoping this is a surplus vehicle awaiting transformation into a food truck or handy man’s carry all. If not, there will be some very anxious folks awaiting a 911 response in that almost-in-Colorado town.

I looked up the driving distance and time between here Questa and found that it could be up to five hours and 42 minutes, depending on traffic to cover the 277 miles. That doesn’t include stops for gas, snacks and to use the restroom.

The house where I spotted this vehicle has had some other strange things in the driveway in the past. Check out this bargain Tacoma, only needing a set and wheels to drive it away.

I kind of hope that the Questa Fire Department and Ambulance wagon turns in to a local food truck. I’d keep the same paint job, sirens and flashing lights for a real marketing statement. Just think of it — Mexican food so hot that you need an ambulance on call after chowing down that enchilada or chile relleno.

Sports venues around the nation have long been given nicknames by fans. There’s “The Pit” in Albuquerque, home for the University of New Mexico basketball team. The Albuquerque Isotopes baseball team has played for years in “The Lab.” In Las Cruces, we have “The Field of Dreams” for our joint-use high school football stadium. And of course, there are the “Big House” and “The Horseshoe” for Big 10 football rivals Michigan and Ohio State.

At New Mexico State University, our football stadium has been known only as “Aggie Memorial Stadium.”

However, recent events have made me think we should rename the facility as “The Menagerie,” “The Farm” or maybe “The Zoo.”

At last Saturday’s football game, won by the Aggies with a last-minute field goal, not all the drama was on the field. It seems that at some point during the game, a skunk wandered into the bleachers and paraded amongst the fans.

A season ticket holder named Laura Justus captured the video below of the wandering skunk, which was posted on a Tweet by Athletic Director Mario Moccia, who proclaimed the critter as the Aggie “Rally Skunk.”

Was anyone tracking on the Aggies own “Rally Skunk” at Saturdays ⁦@NMStateFootball⁩ game? Laura Justus season tx holder provided the video!! ⁦@NMStateAggies⁩ NATION we have a new live mascot 🦨😂 pic.twitter.com/0uuuHhL7LX

— Mario Moccia (@MarioMocciaNMSU) November 27, 2023

It was interesting that the animal from the Mephitidae family trotted right underneath a woman’s legs during the game. Neither the skunk nor the woman seemed to be overly excited about the intrusion.

It brings to mind other animal related events at the stadium.

A few years ago, construction at the stadium had to be halted when workers discovered a colony of burrowing owls inside a grassy area. The birds were captured and relocated to a more appropriate living space.

For a while, we had a horse carrying Pistol Pete rumble into the stadium at the start of each game. I’m not sure why that tradition was discontinued, but it was probably because it was too dangerous for the horse running on the artificial turf. Or it might have been that a young woman was once knocked to the ground when the horse rushed by her as the animal and Pistol Pete entered the stadium.

And then of course, there have been the Border Collie “Wonder Dogs” who retrieve the kicking tee after each Aggie kickoff at the stadium. The first dog was named “Smoki,” the next was “Striking and the current pooch is “Wave.”

Wave had a little more attention during the final game of this season when a member of the opposing football team seemed to be rushing onto the field to grab the tee before the dog could get to it. Wave, however, persevered and continued his tradition of entertaining the fans by retrieving the tee.

Here’s a link to a story about Wave from the Las Cruces Sun News.

https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/news/local/2021/10/22/nmsu-football-wave-replaces-striking-tee-retrieving-wonder-dog/6128217001/

Wave also has his own Facebook page and you can buy t-shirts with his image on it.

I hope Wave, the horse, the owls and now the skunk can work an NIL deal with the Athletic Department — they’ve certainly made going to the stadium more entertaining.

*NIL (Name, Image and Likeness). An NCAA rule which allows student athletes to make some money from use of their name, their image or a likeness of them by businesses.

I followed with great interest a story out of California earlier this month about a fire that had severely damaged an overpass on Interstate 10 in Los Angles.

Initial analysis by naysayers said it could be weeks or maybe months to get the heavily traveled section of one of America’s most important east-west routes repaired. But recognizing the importance of the highway link, can-do California Caltrans workers had the section of road back in operation in about a week.

I recall a similar story from back East in which a section of a major north-south Interstate had been damaged. Again, initial estimates by pessimists were that the road could be closed for months to repair. Yet, when officials recognized the gravity of the situation, traffic was given a quickly re-worked alternate route and permanent repair work may already be done.

In our Land of Manana, things don’t move that quickly.

In early July, a truck smacked into an overpass linking Interstate 10 with northbound Interstate 25 on the southeast side of Las Cruces. The truck, carrying some kind of fuel, then dumped the flammable liquid on the roadway and created a major conflaguration on the roadway and next to the buttress supporting the flyover.

So here we are five months later, and the repair work still hasn’t been completed. This is not part of a dirt county road near Chamberino, this is a major east-west Interstate and the major north-south Interstate through the West.

To add insult to injury, the lack of the link has not been well communicated to drivers on east-bound Interstate 10 who join I-10 at the South Main exit. By the time you get to the warning sign that the exit is no longer available, it’s too late. At that point the only option is to drive south by about 5 miles and do a loop around at the Mesquite exit — an annoying 10 mile “detour” that I’m sure had many drivers spewing expletives at the experience.

I became so annoyed with the lack of progress that I wrote e-mails to the New Mexico Department of Transportation, including the District Engineer for this part of the state. I learned that we do not currently have a member of the Transportation Commission representing this part of the state — the position apparently has been vacant for some time.

I got responses, but of course it was the usual:

“It’s a very complicated project and we’ve moving ahead as fast as we can, blah blah blah blah.”

There were newer responses by the Department of Transportation posted on an El Paso TV station’s website. Among things reported:

“The environmental cleanup took longer than expected” (interpretation — we ran out of Dawn dishwasher soap).

“We ended up having to get somebody on contract to do the repairs. (Well, um — isn’t repairing highways one of the main jobs of the Department of Transportation?)

“The problem was… getting the materials to us.” (interpretation — the burro cart with a load of cement was held up by banditos near Spaceport America.)

I can virtually assure you that if this damaged overpass had been in Albuquerque or Santa Fe, the repair project would have been completed months ago. But here in southern New Mexico, the true land of manana, we’ ve become accustomed to things moving very slowly.

I suspect the original construction was done with adobe bricks, bailing wire, duct tape and straw. I think the adobe for the repair project is still curing in the sun while we await the appointment of a new commissioner for our district, who I am SURE will speed this project along.

State Police reported that they were summoned to investigate a knife attack on a passenger aboard an Amtrak train during September.

The train — en route from Los Angeles to Chicago — had to be stopped along its route through Valencia County so the incident could be investigated, according to a report by KOAT-TV in Albuquerque.

The story identified the attacker as Gerald Bell and the victim as Charles Cowley, who suffered a knife wound to his head. Witnesses on the train said the knife used in the attack was very large — more like a machete. Authorities say that the incident started as a result of a shouting match between the two passengers. At one point, one of the men claimed the other had a gun, but no gun was found during the investigation.

The suspect in the stabbing has been charged with attempted murder. And when authorities questioned the victim, they found 20 pounds of methamphetamine in his posession. For reasons not clear, he was not charged for that incident.

New Mexico has had its share of strange incidents on trains. The RailRunner commuter train between Albuquerque and Santa Fe struck a wandering cow on its first trip between the two cities. And another time, the train was late starting its route because the engineer could not find the keys to the locomotive.

But perhaps New Mexico’s most notorious train incidents were robberies initiated by the outlaw Thomas Edward “Black Jack” Ketchum and his gang. I know I’ve written about this before but it’s still a spicy tale about the Old West.

Ketchum and his brother Sam were originally cowboys who grew up in San Saba County, Texas, then moved to New Mexico to work on cattle ranches. When they learned that a more lucrative trade could be had as outlaws, they formed a gang which sometimes rode with the infamous Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch.

Eventually, the Ketchum gang began a habit of robbing trains in northeastern New Mexico. Their method was to stop the train, decouple the mail and express cars, move them about a mile away from the rest of the passenger cars and then proceed to loot them.

A train heist by the gang on July 11, 1899 apparently was the last straw for lawmen in northeastern New Mexico. Although Black Jack was not involved in the heist that netted the robbers $50,000, the gang was chased back to their hideout near Cimarron. In the ensuing gun battle, Sam Ketchum and others were wounded. Sam was taken into custody, placed in jail in Santa Fe but died from gangrene before he could be tried.

Brother Black Jack, apparently unaware of his gang’s train robbery and the capture and death of his brother, decided to hold up a train near Folsum, NM, on Aug. 16, 1899. A conductor on that train had been robbed three times before and had had enough of these incidents when Ketchum showed up in the mail car. The conductor drew his gun but was shot by Ketchum first. However, the conductor still managed to get a shot off that almost severed the outlaw’s arm. Ketchum tumbled out of the mail car and managed to get away on horseback. Because of his frail condition, he gave himself up the next day.

He was taken to a hospital in Trinidad, CO, where his arm was amputated, then was convicted of the crime of “felonious assault on a railroad train” and sentenced to be hanged. (Ironically, the law was later deemed to be unconstitutional, but the ruling was too late to benefit Ketchum.)

On the day of his hanging, Ketchum was led to the gallows and told onlookers “Hurry up boys, let’s get this over with” and then admonished them to “bury me deep so the coyotes don’t get me.” When the sheriff cut the rope and Ketchum’s body fell through the trap, he was immediately decapitated. His severed head was attached to a black shroud that had been pinned on his torso prior to the execution and appeared to be the only thing that kept it from rolling toward onlookers gasping in horror.

Fortunately, the undertaker was able to sew the Ketchum’s head back on the body before his funeral.

If you want the gruesome details, there is a photo of the decapitated Ketchum after the hanging. Scroll down a little further and you’ll see it:

I confess, I like junk food and eat it more than I should. Maybe once a week (although my wife would probably argue that point.)

This morning, as part of our usual routine to pick up groceries, I grabbed something for breakfast at McDonald’s. I placed my order for an artery-clogging Egg McMuffin and hash browns and pulled up behind a car bearing an official state license plate.

Upon further inspection, we discovered a tag on the bumper indicating the vehicle was from the motor pool of the Department of Health (The circled letters DOH). Wait, aren’t these the people who are supposed to be looking out for our health?

To quote John 8:7 from the Bible:

“He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone…”

So I will avoid passing judgment on this event as I munch on the bad-for-my-health Egg McMuffin. But you get the irony, I hope.

Pity poor Asha, the lonely Mexican gray wolf who has wandered around a good chunk of New Mexico this year looking for a proper mate, but still hasn’t found the right guy.

In June, I wrote about how the animal — ignominiously identified by federal wildlife officials as wolf #F2754 — had strayed from her relocation in the Gila country to areas as far away as Taos in northern New Mexico. She has a collar which allows her to be tracked.

After her first re-capture, she was placed with a male gray wolf at a holding location in central New Mexico in hopes that the two would breed and have a litter of wolf pups. And although the two animals got along, they apparently never “got it on.” After the failed arranged romance, Asha was released back into the Gila wilderness.

Now she’s been tracked again wandering far away from the Gila country, this time in the Jemez mountains north and west of Albuquerque.

Because she seems focused on being somewhere north of Interstate 40 instead of southwestern New Mexico, authorities now say Asha may be allowed to just keep roaming until she finds the right guy.

A representative of a group known as Defenders of Wildlife says the wolf’s movements may show she is interested in getting as far north as Colorado to find a mate and some new digs.

“This is a clear sign that wolves will again roam from the northern Rockies in Canada to the Sierra of Mexico if we let them,” the representative said.

An official representing the New Mexico Cattle Growers Association says they are more concerned about the roaming wolf population. They claim wolves kill their livestock and pose a danger to humans.

I get that. But I’d really like to spot one in the wild some day — at a really safe distance — and hear one howl.

I found a school of them (pardon the pun) at White Mountain Elementary in Ruidoso last Friday. They’re excited and ready to watch tiny trout hatch and grow in their classroom this coming spring semester and then be transplanted as fingerlings into rivers or lakes near them in the Lincoln National Forest.

Here’s what’s happening:

Because of my lifelong interest in fly fishing and long-time membership in Trout Unlimited (TU), I’m helping head up a project by TU called “Trout in the Classroom” at a school in my alma mater in Ruidoso. (Well actually, my elementary school back in the Dark Ages when I attended was only named Ruidoso Elementary and later Nob Hill Elementary that’s since been torn down, but that’s beside the point.)

My good friend Ken (from Albuquerque) and I helped set up the fish tank in the third-grade classroom of teacher Michelle Thurston at White Mountain Elementary. It was a Friday, the first snowstorm of the season, a couple of strange men setting up weird equipment in the classroom and a hot cocoa award event, so you could expect the kids to be especially wild (I actually liked that). But all of the kids seemed really interested in the program. Ken and I will be back in a few weeks to get the equipment fully prepared and then I will be back in early January to bring about 35 rainbow trout fry or eggs from a nearby hatchery in Mescalero to put in the tank. The project will be shared among all four third grade classes at White Mountain Elementary. Michelle is exactly the kind of enthusiastic teacher that you need to spearhead the project, and I know she’ll do a great job.

The program provides teachers in third and fourth grades with an opportunity to raise trout either as eggs or as fry in a 55-gallon tank in the classroom and watch them grow into fish that can be transplanted into local waters. Students record data on such things as water temperature, Ph balance of the water, feeding schedules and estimated growth during the four months they’ll have the fish swimming around in their classroom tank. Toward the end of the semester, the students will take a field trip to a local fresh cold water river or lake to release the trout into the wild.

I think it will be similar to FFA or 4H kids who raise animals for the county fair, then sell them at auction to a bidder who will likely turn them into tomorrow’s steak, bacon or chicken nuggets. The fish that will be raised at White Mountain Elementary may eventually be caught by local anglers and consumed. Like a lot of the kids who raise livestock and see them sold at the fair, I suspect there will be tears when the tiny fish (many of whom may be named) will be released back into the wild for an uncertain future.

The point of the project is to teach kids about responsibility of caring for living things and the importance and protection of clean, cold-water streams and lakes in our country. My hope is that they will become fishermen and fisherwomen (like my own wife, son. daughter and grandchildren) and appreciate the great outdoors as much as my wife and I have over the years.

I’ll keep you updated over the coming months. I think it will be a fun project.

It’s a great program, and if you’d like to learn more go to this website:

https://www.tu.org/conservation/outreach-education/headwaters-youth-program/explore-watersheds/trout-in-the-classroom/

After a 14-hour day working the polls on election day, Tuesday, Nov. 7, I am finally recovering.

This year’s experience as a poll worker was much less intense than last year’s election. I first worked as a “Same Day Registration” and “Sample Ballot” clerk for two weeks beginning Oct. 21 through Nov. 4. On election day, I did the same thing and was also the “Machine Judge” for the polling place. And no, I don’t judge machines in that position. The job involves taking any absentee, spoiled or provisional ballots, along with the voting machine data card and printed tabulation report, to the election headquarters immediately after the polls close.

With only local candidates for municipal offices and school board positions, along with several bond issues, there was much less on the ballot compared to the general election last year.

Last year, we had poll watchers peering over our shoulders the entire time. This year, because none of the candidates or other ballot issues were tied to major political parties, we had no observers.

As I concluded last year, it would be virtually impossible for anyone to stuff the ballot boxes or change the outcome of the election in our County. There are seemingly endless protocols and security measures in place to block any attempt to fiddle with the results. I’m even more convinced of the purity of the process after this year’s election.

Yet, I’m sure when next year’s general election rolls around, there will be those who again raise the issue of manipulated results. I’d be glad to talk to anyone about what I know and have seen, not what I might be able to read on misleading social media sites.

I feel good about my experiences in helping the democratic process and I’ll probably volunteer to work the election again a year from now. And please exercise your right to vote and work toward what you think is important through a process that has served us well for almost 250 years.