Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Living in Southwest Colorado

Hello, thank you for visiting CFHS today. I’m Linda Farmer Harris and I’ll be sharing tidbits of history with you on the 27th of each month.

As a recent transplant from Texas to Chimney Rock, Colorado, I'm bubbling with excitement over the history right in my own backyard. Below is the newly designated national monument as seen from our horse and hay pasture.


My gold panning equipment stays handy in our fishing shack at the Piedra River that runs across our property in the back pasture.


A neighbor showed me what the silt should look like and the little inlets are look promising. The river has yielded nuggets over the years. I’m looking forward to another season of gold-pan hands. During one of our upcoming visits, I’ll tell you about some of the women prospectors who made history.

I was born in Piggott Arkansas. The first fact I learned as a first grader about our community was that Ernest Hemingway was married to Pauline Pfeiffer, whose parents lived up on West Cherry Street. He wrote portions of A Farewell to Arms and some short stories in his studio in their home. My teacher challenged us to tell her a story and if she liked it, she would write it down for us. My story was one of several selected. I was hooked. This was a marvelous incentive to learn to write. When I mastered cursive, a whole new world opened up.

We moved to Lovington, New Mexico when I was ten. Everything about the Southwest enchanted me and still does. 

On vacations back to Arkansas, my brother, sister, and I took horned toads and sold them for $.50 each. On our first walk around our 129 acres of the P bar R Ranch West, we found a horned toad. It was like coming home.

We also sold cockleburs – New Mexico porcupine eggs – to our cousins for a nickel. Then there were the tumbleweeds…but that’s a story for another day.

 Jerry, my husband of 47 years, and I are acclimating to our new life. After 33 years of teaching school in Texas, retirement started Jerry’s dream of being a rancher with his brother. But he never mentioned snow, negative temperatures, mud, and more snow.

Below we're holding the metal P bar R sign of the ranch brand that is now above us on the wooden post of the porch. The tack house is loaded with saddles, bridles, and all the stuff horses need. We've put one of our welcome signs on the door.


The twelve months of Colorado winter – okay, only six months – puts a major kink in taking photographs in cemeteries around Southwest Colorado for Findagrave.com. My sister and I are researching our ancestry and wanted photos of tombstones of family in Benton County, Tennessee. We discovered Findagrave.com. One of their contributors took photos at no expense to us. In return, I passed along my appreciation by fulfilling requests while we lived in Austin and now in Colorado.

There's a lot about the history in a ten-mile radius around our home. We live within the boundaries of the San Juan National Forest. The remains of a stagecoach relay station is in our neighbor’s pasture. When the weather clears, and the library reopens, I hope to find some pictures and more of the history. I’ll share them with you.

One of the perks of living on a ranch, I renewed my childhood obsession with horses. Dakota doesn’t seem to mind helping me work my way back to riding daily. He's learning to be a cow pony.

March is CFHS’s give-away month. On March 27th I’m offering a hand made wool scarf from an 1898 pattern designed during the Spanish American war; plus a current pattern using today's popular Starbella Flash yarn. 


You're invited to make the CFHS Blog a regular part of your day. I'm confident you'll find interesting and beneficial information from a bevy of talented writers.

17 comments:

  1. Hello Linda, so nice to meet you. You are so right about finding interesting and beneficial information in these posts. This was a great idea, having so many talented writers in one place, each contributing something different. I look forward to more posts from all of you.
    Great pictures, you look great on that horse! Your own fishing shack and gold panning? Wow, sounds wonderful. Can't wait to hear more. Welcome to the blog and God bless!

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    1. Hi Debbie, delighted to meet you too. Thanks for stopping by. I'm still overwhelmed to be in such august company. Dear Dakota is 15 years old, but still going strong. I'm not looking forward to the day we're no longer riding buddies. The Piedra River that flows through the property is much wider than it appears in the picture and we own both sides back up into the mountain. The trout congregate in the pools in front of the shack. We do catch and release, which in my opinion, adds to the fun. Please stop by tomorrow and visit with Lynn Coleman. You'll be enchanted by her right off the bat!

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  2. Hi Linda nice to meet you and learn some new things. So if there is a plaque of horned toads in Arkansas it will be cos of you taking them there?
    not sure I would like 6 months of winter.

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    1. Hi Jennie, yep, any horned toads there came from the Farmer Kids Horned Toad Ranch. Our relatives had never seen one so we cornered the market. At home, we called them horny toads, but my grandmother was horrified by the name, so we had to go with the more formal title. When the toads puffed up and shot their blood from their eyes, the sale was a cinch. I don't mind the snow here as much as the mud. I'm learning to mop in the evenings, not every time mud gets tracked into the house. That way I end with clean floors and wake-up to clean floors. I hope you'll stop by tomorrow and visit with Lynn Coleman. She's a hoot!

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  3. Great post, Lin! Can't wait to go down or is it up from NM?, and visit some of your historical sights!! Love the pictures of you and Jerry.

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    1. Hey, Rhonda, any day is a great day for you to come "up" to Chimney Rock, Colorado. Thanks for stopping by. You know, it's all in the perspective — living in Texas, driving for two hours to someone's home wasn't a big deal. It took that much time to drive from Cedar Creek to Georgetown, just because of the traffic. When we moved here, going to Farmington, New Mexico, seemed a state away. :) We've been there enough now, I think of it as just the next town over from Durango. It's all in how you look at it. Don't forget to say hi to Lynn Coleman tomorrow. She's gonna have some great stuff to share.

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  4. Hi, Linda. Enjoyed reading about you and your husband and so happy that you are living out your dream. I never knew what a cocklebur looked like. Interesting :-)

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    1. Hi Susan, thank you. So glad you stopped by. Retiring and starting a new career is frightful and more challenging than either of us realized. The learning curve is higher than the rainbow sometimes. This is our second winter. It has been encouraging that we were better prepared for the first snow fall. It was still snowing on the day we arrived, May 1, 2011. Our drive winds down hill from the main road. We were so unprepared for the obstacles not having a four-wheel drive car presented. We purchased a four-wheel drive Expedition as quick as possible. I just hope the cockleburs didn't sprout and cover the landscape like Kudzu did the South. Come on back tomorrow and visit with Lynn Coleman. She's a master researcher. You'll love her entries.

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  5. What a wonderful adventure you are on. Love the ranch. I remember finding horned toads in Texas. Haven't seen one in years. Excited to visit your posts.

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    1. Hello, Patricia, thank you so much for stopping by. I didn't expect to see a horned toad here. Fortunately, I had my camera. One thing I've learned since we've been in Colorado is to have a camera nearby and charged at all times. We realized last week, that in our 47 years of marriage, I'm not in very many pictures. I'm usually the one behind the camera. We're going to try and change that this year. Can't wait to see what Lynn Coleman has to share with us tomorrow. I'll see you at her posting.

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  6. Dear Ms. Harris,

    Ooh my goodness! :( My computer ate my comment! :O I will try to recapture the highlights, which included the fact that I believe you and I have been tag teaming our comments on CFHS! I remember seeing your name either above or below mine, and how lovely it was to find this introduction posted on your behalf!! It was great getting to know about your childhood in capturing toads, your cross country adventures and the places you've lived that helped shape you into a woman who is game for tackling the life of a rancher in the second phase of your life! I'd love to trade in icky humidity, tornadoes, and hurricanes for an idyllic four season reprieve, whereupon if the snow + mud season were to be a bit longer lasting than I'd dream possible, I could always turn inward,... sit by a woodstove or hearth, pick up pen + notebook, write letters to friends or write out a scene in a story! I could play board games, knit, or read a book, listening the winds howl and my dearly beloved cats jump skittishly not knowing what lies outside the windows! Laughs. I think sometimes we're all up for a 'new' adventure, someplace wholly different than where we currently live and trade it all in for a chance at a different pace and a different environ! You rock!

    As for knitting, I was most keen on the shawl and pattern that your offering as your giveaway, as I am a knitter of prayer shawls {for friends and church ministry}, afghans, and scarves! Did you knit the two scarves that are up for the giveaway!? And, if so, how did you come into knitting?! For me, I dreamt about creating knitted gifts,... for my circle of friends as much as for charity, as I love giving back! I never knew quite how to start, so I convinced Mum that Spring 2009 was "the time" to get into it! Nearly four years later, and we're about ready to tackle intermediate patterns! My favourite yarns are natural {plant, animal,}, but there is sometimes the necessity for knitting with synthetics, but I try to limit it, as I love the softness of baby llama and alpaca! :)

    Looking forward to your next posts as the CFHS gets underway in March! And, I hope that the rest of your Winter is going to be a bit less on the snowdrifts and blizzards, so that you get a proper break from being bundled up inside and catching cabin fever! I've thought of everyone out West ever since I first heard of "Q!" What an apt name, eh!? As "Q" in Trek was always the most unpredicable character that would rile up Captain Picard's nerves!!

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    1. Hi Jorie, so glad you stopped by. We did seem to tag team didn't we! My life is really hectic this month, yet I wanted to visit each post. This is one talented group.

      Yes, I knitted the two scarves I'm offering. I learned to knit and crochet over 45 years ago, but traded it in for time to write. With time a premium when I was working full time, everything had a concrete slot. I didn't have time in the evenings so I wrote five books on my lunch hour alone.

      In the last five years my arthritis and trigger-finger has gotten more troublesome. I needed something that would exercise my hands. Squeezing a ball seemed like a time waster. Crocheting made my hands hurt more. Knitting was key. It exercises my hands, doesn't waste time, and produces a gift. Of course, knitting is mentioned in my books in some way or another. I'm drawn to books that mention things I'm interested in.

      Don't get me started on Star Trek! We're still doing marathon sessions during the winter when we can't get outside. Thankfully, both of us enjoy Treking. Glad to meet a fellow Trekie.

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    2. Hallo again, Ms. Harris! :)

      Ooh I know what you mean, as that is a dream of mine! To be able to have all the Trek series on seasonal dvd so I can just pop them in and nestle into a marathon without having to wait for a station to run them! :) :) The original series, next generation and DS9 I was able to follow as they aired, up until the middle to last chapters of DS9 {due to school!}, and Voyager,...ugh! I didn't always get out of class in time to get home to see it! :( Sighs. Enterprise is the series I never had the pleasure of seeing at all whilst it aired which upset me, as I have liked Scott Bakula since Quantum Leap! :/ Which are your favourites or do you re-visit all of them!?

      I'm so happy for you that knitting could stay in your life, but also provide you with an exercise that will work with you, rather than against you! Knitting wasn't as easy for me to pick up as it was for my Mum, as I tend to knit in a unique way that is a bit of a hyrid of both American and Continental styles! Laughs. I think its the dsylexic in me coming out, but thankfully, no matter if we have an issue with arthritis or in the way we understand things,... knitting seems to be something that works for everyone!

      I applaud your ability to write creatively on such short time intervals!! Lunch hours go by so quickly, you must have truly zoned into your muse!! My hat's off to you!! Yes, I agree, I am prone to uncovering books that run the gambit of my interests too,... which is why Elm Creek has come to be so beloved! I think as I started in on Elm Creek {Jennifer Chiaverini's historically rich tapestry of a quilting group!} I saw shadows of what could be as I grow more in knitting,... the sisterhood connections to other knitters, the mastering of more complex patterns, and of course, in the back of my mind, I yearned to understand quilting too!

      I was thankful to find another Trekie too, as I think we're a few of the last! :( I find myself saying more often: no, sorry, I am fan of Gene Roddenberry's Star Trek. Sighs. How could over 40+ years of Trek suddenly dissolve in everyone's minds!?

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    3. Hi Jorie, I quilt, too. My first quilt, and several thereafter, was done on a 1900 bullet bobbin treadle machine. That was a lot of fun. A lot of time until I could get the treadling consistent, but fun.

      If you sew, go to http://tamarackshack.blogspot.ca/2012/11/microwaveable-fabric-bowl-tutorial.html and look at the Microwaveable Fabric Bowl Tutorial. This is my next project.

      Learning to write scenes and sequels is the key to making the lunch hour work. It's actually only forty minutes by the time you get your stuff out then at the end of time putting it all away. Knowing the scene I needed to write, or the research I needed to do, helped me maximize my efforts.

      Do you write?

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  7. Hello, Patricia, thank you so much for stopping by. I didn't expect to see a horned toad here. Fortunately, I had my camera. One thing I've learned since we've been in Colorado is to have a camera nearby and charged at all times. We realized last week, that in our 47 years of marriage, I'm not in very many pictures. I'm usually the one behind the camera. We're going to try and change that this year. Can't wait to see what Lynn Coleman has to share with us tomorrow. I'll see you at her posting.

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  8. Linda,

    You're living my dream! I always wanted to live on a ranch. And what a beautiful location for a ranch. Have you thought about hosting writers? :D

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  9. Hi Vickie, yes, I have considered hosting a writers retreat. In fact, a friend of mine has a retreat center just up the road in Pagosa Springs. We're talking about putting something together in 2014. Of course, my home is open to traveling writers. If you ever are in this neck of the wood, please stop in for a while.

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