Rocky Mountain Marshmallows

 Aug 15 through Aug 24 I was camping in the Southern Rockies with my good friend Jimmie White. We spent most of that time in the cool mountain air of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado. We saw some beautiful country and had a lot of fun.

Jimmie just sat around and made me do all the hard stuff.

 
 We took Jimmie's utility trailer so we had all the gear we needed for camping. Then when we want to clean up we stopped at a motel.
 We had no schedule and no time limit so we were truly able to just wander around and explore.This was one of the most relaxing trips I've taken in years.

Me, trying to cope with the stress of the noisy San Juan River.

 The most unusual place we stayed was in Throckmorton, TX. Here is a  review.
 Oddly enough, the most vivid memory I have of the nine day rambling trip is shown in the photograph below. I don’t know where he got it, but Jimmie brought along the biggest marshmallows I’ve ever seen!

Huge Marshmallow Roast Near Wolf Creek Pass, Colorado

Little Bear Wildfire

Looking toward Monjeau from post office, Sunday afternoon.

After exploring Otero Mesa I headed back to Ruidoso on Sunday, June 10. When I came up the hill from Tularosa I started seeing smoke. After a while it became obvious that there was a big fire near Ruidoso.

 I spent the night on the porch watching as the western sky glowed orange and flames occasionally became visible above the dark silhouettes of the mountains. “Little Bear” wildfire was started by a lightning strike several days before and was spreading quickly in wind that gusted to 35 MPH..

 Thankfully the wind started blowing from the south and the fire moved away from populated areas as firefighters gained control of the flames.

Looking toward Sierra Blanca from front porch, Monday morning.

Follow Up on the Mule King

 The Fall 2009 issue Range magazine featured an article by Arlene Gaba entitled “Five Years with the Mule King”. It was about the time Mrs. Gaba spent living on a dusty ranch that belonged to her husband’s grandfather, John Prather. The story describes life on one of the last open ranges in the US and features the highlights of “Grandpa” Prather’s fight to keep his ranch from being confiscated by the Department of Defense. The army was attempting to make Otero Mesa part of the McGregor Range artillery training facility. The struggle between the military and the people they were supposed to be protecting inspired a novel by Edward Abbey named Fire on the Mountain, and a television movie of the same name that starred Buddy Epson.

 I grew up in El Paso which is less the 60 miles from where the controversy took place. I followed the story in the El Paso newspapers during the mid nineteen sixties and after reading the article by Mrs. Gaba in 2009 I decided to locate her, and any other members of Prather’s family I could, so I could learn more about what happened after Prather died and the army knocked his house down with a bulldozer.

In the summer of 2010 I was fortunate enough to meet with Arlene and her son Mike Gaba at a party at Bill Key's home in La MEsa,NM. During the few hours we visited the Gabas and we became friends. They were excited to share their stories about the confrontation on the range and Prather’s eventual victory over the army brass. I also learned from Mike and Arlene that John Prather had nephew named “Irv” Porter (see “Larger Than Life” posted 06/30/2010) who was still living near Piñon, NM. Before the party was over I had attained Irv’s phone number and directions to his home.

 During my next trip to New Mexico I located Porter’s home near Piñon and found him in poor health. None-the-less he was eager to have company and talk while he reclined on a sofa and breathed from an oxygen bottle.

 Porter’s wife Lessie and daughter Toni joined in the conversation and once again I found myself among new friends. Before I headed back to my home in Arlington, TX, I had taken copious notes including directions to the remains of John Prather’s home place.

 Finally, in April of 2012 I took all my notes and set out to locate the ruins of the Prather ranch and the place where the army allowed Prather’s family to bury him.

 What I found turned to be an ironic sate of affairs; a classic example of how government controlled land is poorly managed and natural resources allowed to be wasted.

 I turned east off US 54 and passed through a set of gates which were open, but fitted with all the hardware needed to lock them so the road could be closed on short notice. On, and to the sides of the gate, were “WARNING” signs to alert motorists to the fact they were entering McGregor Range, a US Army artillery test area. Along the, alternately paved and gravel road, there cattle guards that designated blocks of grazing land leased to individuals by the BLM for the purpose grazing livestock. The “washboard” surface of the road indicated stress applied by heavily loaded trucks.

 When my truck’s odometer reached the mileage I had calculated to be the point where I should turn off the main road, I began to see a few trees about two miles two south. Then a well maintained dirt road appeared and I turned right heading for the trees and some storage buildings. Upon approaching the structures various pieces of road maintenance machinery, marked “Otero County Road Maintenance” came into view.

 The dirt road ended at a complex of, what I estimated to be, around a hundred acres of stock pens, well constructed from steel pipe.  A large ramp used for loading cattle on to trucks explained the washboard effect on the main road.

 All this in the middle of the desert was quite a surprise, but then I saw a round water tank, about five feet tall and twenty five feet in diameter. An open spigot was pouring water which was overflowing out on to the desert sand and evaporating. I could have been any more surprised if I had seen a flying saucer land.

 The Coalition for Otero Mesa says, “Preliminary findings suggest that there are at least 57 million acre feet of groundwater…” in the aquifer below Otero Mesa. Even so, the southwest is going through one of the worst droughts in its history and is seems criminal to allow water to be pumped out into the sand and wasted.

 In light of the fact that this area is co-managed by two Federal and one state government agency, I couldn’t help wondering how many other crazy things were happening on the 1.2 million acre mesa.

 The only effort being proposed to change the status of the range is being orchestrated by a handful of environmental groups including; New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, and Kevin Bixby’s Southwest Environmental Center. These groups’, comprised chiefly of peacenik tree huggers and  frustrated occupiers, want to prevent drilling exploration by turning “Grandpa” Prather’s prairie into national grasslands. Then the National Park Service can step in and create some camp grounds with plenty of water, so illegal immigrants and drug smugglers will have a comfortable stop over on their way from Juarez to Albuquerque.

It is amazing to consider the fact that just a few decades ago the US Army wrestled this resourceful area away from food producing ranchers and condemned it for the use of target practice. Now livestock is, again, thriving on the Otero Mesa. If the federal government and the environmentalists seize the land then the whole process starts over.

A Rare Sight These Days

 I spotted this little critter on the Otero Mesa last week. It's the first one I have seen in years.

What's so Hot About the 6.5 Creedmoor?

L to R:   .308, 260 Remington, 6.5 Creedmoor, 6.5X47

 When I ponder the advent of a new cartridge I do so with skepticism. The first thing that comes to mind is the fact that a new cartridge calls for the production and sales of new guns that will fire these new ballistic marvels. A current example of this process is the rage over the “6.5 Creedmoor”. The very name of the round caught my attention. Creedmoor is a name I associate with antique weapons that were used on long range targets. However, when I compared the performance of the new-comer to the .260 Remington and 7mm-08, I found little difference.

Then I came across an article in Real Guns magazine that kind of lends credence to my Creedmoor theory. Here’s an excerpt:

                                                The Creedmoor Reference

 Product names often are established to trigger transference; the emotions associated with something in past memory, hopefully positive, carried over to something new, prior to acquiring any actual direct experience. A common example of this is when you meet someone for the first time and feel as though you've known them for a long time. Frequently this happens because the new acquaintance shares traits in common with a person you know, or had known, well.      Creedmoor was a great name to Hornady, the designer of the cartridge, to reference. It was the name of the rifle range opened by the National Rifle Association in 1873 on New York's Long Island. Creedmoor was host to the famous American - Irish long range rifle competition held in 1874. Of course, there is also the term "Creedmoor" applied to a rifle, which is shorthand for parameters defining rifles used for Creedmoor long range competition. I was surprised to learn that there was no "Creedmoor", only the family name "Creed", the people who once owned the range's site and the site's similarity to the moorland of Great Britain. The name "6.5 Creedmoor" instantly evokes a sense of tradition, imagery of long range shooting and expectations for a high degree of accuracy. Ruger chambered and defined a rifle fitting for those expectations.

 

 Some research revealed the acreage purchased from a farmer named Creed was in an area that could be described as a “moor”; thus, the name Creedmoor was give to the rifle club

 I always thought a Creedmoor was a specific make of rifle like a Sharps, but it turns out that that it is a class of long range, single shot rifles. Hornady Manufacturing’s marketing team apparently cashed in on this misnomer when they named their, not so unique, cartridge design. 

 

Sp why the big push for the 6.5 Creedmoor? I the “Slamfire” said it well on the Firing line Forum: …”gun writers are shills for the industry, paid to write promotional articles, all of which are geared to raise revenue in one way or another. They get fully paid “writer symposiums”, plant tours, and fully paid hunting trips. These hunting trips cost between $5000-$10000 dollars when you cost in time, food, hotel, guns, gear, and guides. So if in the articles you read, if you see some poor animal killed by a grinning gun writer you know the article was financed by an entity with big pockets.”

 We may be reaching a point where there are just too many cartridges available, but we need to be careful that the anti-gun folks don’t manipulate this statement to suggest there are too many guns. There ain’t no such thing as too many guns.

Charged up Fishing Hole

 Most folks who spend a lot time outdoors have had at least one uncomfortable experience with electrical storms and lightning. I’ve personally had my wits frazzled a few times by sudden flashes of ultra bright light and the ensuing “crack”, “rumble” and “roar”. However, one time while fishing, an electrical storm actually  formed above my buddy and me causing some pretty weird things to happen.

I think we're gonna need a bigger motor.

 One overcast afternoon in June, 1980, James Johnson and I ventured out on to Lake Whitney which is located about a hundred miles south of   Fort Worth. We had hopes of catching a view big stripers (not "strippers"; as Spell-check insists). At that time Lake Whitney was known for producing some of these feisty boogers that weighed over 35 pounds.

After launching my little 16 ft boat, we headed for the Brazos River channel where the water depth drops, from the lake’s average depth of 25 feet, to over 80 feet. The fish had a habit of staying down in the river channel and, from time to time, came up to feed at edge of the drop-off.

 When we got close to the area  we wanted to fish I turned off the 115 hp. outboard and. James  took control of the boat using the electric trolling motor. When the first group of fish appeared on the depth finder James turned the electric motor off and the boat slowly drifted while we baited our hooks with pumpkin seed perch. We were using two identical rigs— they were both seven foot fiberglass rods fitted with steel Garcia reels  with 17 pound test mono line. We then let the one ounce weights carry the baited hooks to the bottom.

 The air grew heavy and still. Thick black clouds dropped to within a hundred feet of the surface of the lake and churned above us. The atmospheric pressure fell  causing the lake to seem stagnant and fetid.

 As we drifted slowly in the direction of our lines, I reached into the ice chest for a beer. That’s when James said, “Dennis, look at your line”.

 I quickly looked up and saw that, instead of the slack line floating on the top of the water, it was rising up into the air. James stopped reeling in the slack and the line from his reel also began to rise up toward suspicious looking,  low clouds. We looked at each other and laughed.

 I asked James, “What in the world is going on, man?”

 Before he could answer my reel started making a slow clicking sound about as loud as chop sticks being broken in half. The volume and rapidity of the clicks increased and then, James’ reel started to do the same thing. We exchanged puzzled looks as our lines appeared to be nearly touching the dark ceiling that hung above us and the noise from the reels continued to get louder.

 I hollered above the noise to James “Reel in and let’s get out of here before we get struck by lightning”.

 I started the big motor and headed away from the spot as quickly as possible. Less than 20 seconds later there was a bright flash of light and loud explosion behind us. We turned around and saw a juniper tree smoldering from a lightning strike. The tree was on the side of a cliff on the opposite side of the channel;  about 100 feet from spot we had just vacated.

 We headed for the boat ramp and got the boat loaded on the trailer during a downpour. When we made it to higher ground we stopped to talk about what had just happened. We decided that an electrical charge was building in the dark clouds above us and the static electricity was drawing the line upward. The clicking sound must have been produced by a charge that traveled down the fiberglass rods and into the reels where it began arching between the ball bearings inside.

 That was enough excitement for one day , so we headed to the lake house to drink beer and celebrate being delivered from near disaster. In those days it seemed we could always find some reason to celebrate as long as we had plenty of beer on hand.

Occupy the Bastille

"Tell me again. Why are we walking around with these signs?"

The basic desire of the Occupy movement is to establish a Participatory democracy which is a process that emphasizes the broad participation of constituents in the actions and operation of the political system. The protestors feel the current system is an Oligarchy which is the name given to a system which is led by the elite and the rich.

 The origin of the current Occupy movement in the U.S. can be traced back to the Arab Spring which began with demonstrators in Tunisia and spread across the Arab world. The demonstrations in Cairo’s Tahrir Square seemed to have been given the most coverage by the news media and probably encouraged the actions of Spanish Indignants movement. The Canadian anti-consumerist publication know as Adbusters suggested that numerous simultaneous protests throughout North America could and should be organized with the use of the internet social networks such as Facebook, which are accessible through cell phones.

 Advances in communication technology has placed  powerful tools in the hands of the people and, as with any other tool or weapon, the merits or faults of modern information access on the  New World Order have yet to be determined.

 I would venture to say that most folks, who are defined as Conservatives by the current sociopolitical system of political pigeon holing, think that an overhaul of our system of government and financial system will require a violent rebellion. Many of these people began stock piling weapons and provisions during the Y2K frenzy. After the 21^st century began without disaster, many Americans became motivated to prepare for survival through because of fears generated by economic instability brought about by the Government’s mismanagement of the nation’s monetary resources.

 The folks who have come to be known as Liberals or Progressives have subscribed to the belief that change can be brought about through public demonstrations which will encourage a shift control of government closer to those being governed. This assumption is reminiscent of concepts such as “States Right” and other means of making the rules closer to home.

 If any major changes come about it may be through a combination of stratagem and unity of the above named camps and will need to include more emphasis on election by popular vote rather than the abstract notions like the Electoral College.

 Some people feel that history repeats itself and that the US has just about ran its course as far as longevity of a nation goes. Hopefully, however, the people won’t have to resort to revolution and can just “storm the Bastille” in order to get the country back on track.