January 2010

Wow we are in a New Year even a new Decenia, in Magdalena, New Mexico. Margreet, Ian and Allison left at the end of December 09 for their big trip and will be back around the 5th of February 2010. That gives Darren and myself almost 6 weeks in a house with a "none moving kitchen, bathroom" and the best of all a few of our "own" pets.

It is very nice to have a break from travelling and being able to digest all we have seen and done in the last year. The West Coast of America, including Alaska and Canada have been spectacular. So much so that we have decided to stay all of 2010 in the States and Canada as well, and travel the East Coast of both countries. Darren and I used our time in Magdalena to plan for the next 12 months and to make sure we have a camper that takes us every where we want to go, without too many hick ups!

Most of our time was spend in and around the house with the animals and that was fun. The weather has been very varied with huge winter snow storms and very spring like sunny days. But overall it has been a desert winter with cold nights and sunny days.

Fisrt of January traditionally oliebollen day for the Dutch. Darren has learned to make and love them from Henk in New Zealand and he had to of course try before giving them out.

This is what the batch looked like, Yummy.

We did go for some drives around Magdalena and one of our trips took us to the little ghosttown of Rilley, where some "joker" put in a busstop. If you where to wait there you would definitely not make it to anywhere!

Darren ripped out the old(dirty) carpet in the RV and replaced it with wooden overlay. He did a great job and it looks nice and will be so much easier to keep clean.

We were never short of helpers, or for that matter curious animals they were everywhere we were and gave us plenty of laughs.

Where there are horses there is poop, I scooped up many a wheel barrow which will be used by Ian to fertilise the vegie garden.

In the morning around 6.30 am the horses come to the house, moving around restless, whilst making enough noise so that you get the message"out of bed, we want to be fed"

For all our groceries and other shopping we might have needed we drove into Socorro, about 30 miles East from Magdalena. A nice small country town that offers everything you want.

It was fun to have such a well stocked kitchen and I made good use of it.

We went with Sonja and Jackson to Alberquerque about 100 miles North of Magdalena, for the day. We started of at the markets which had any and all varieties of chili on offer, aside from everything else.

Lunch at the markets was Indian frybread with mince, beans, chili and lots of salad very tasty.

On to some iceskating after the markets, Jackson and Sonja were good and Darren and I had to get our balance sorted first but than we were off too. We had a very nice day out.

Show offs!!

This is our road to the house from the village (of Magdalena) just 3 miles but it can be very dusty or bumpy or icy but it also guarantees total peace and quiet once you are there.

Another "fieldtrip" we took was to Mountain air and Willard, two old country towns located along old highway 60 which goes East- West, and used to be the main travel corridor.

One of the mornings were we woke up to about 5 inches of fresh snow.

Not only the horses help fertilise the vegie garden, all the kitchen greens go in the compost tumbler ready for spring fertilising of the vegie garden.

All though Ian had left us a mighty nice pile of firewood we went out into the forest and got some more. Not so much because we needed it but it was fun to do.

Darren did the chainsaw work where as jenna and I picked it up and brought it back to the truck for transport home. The ground was covered with snow but the day was nice and warm.

This is the king of the castle Patches, he is a hoot and we have had lots of fun with him and his sister Chrissie.

Some more snow!! the second of the three big snow storms we had, the rest were just flurries. This one closed the schools in the area and even parts of the highway.

"The tribe" going fo a walk, Micky and Diamond the horses, Jenna the dog, the two cats and me.

Circus came to Socorro, and Jackson, Darren and I went to see it. All though only three families presented, they did an amazing job and we had a fun afternoon.

On the last weekend of the month there was a "car show" in Alberquerque and we went and had a look. Darren named this one V8 beach trolley!

All in all it has been a great month, with lots of rest and also lots of fun things to do. We are now ready to hit the road again but not before going for a week into the "real' snow in Taos. A ski area about 300 miles North from here. We are going by car and will be staying in motels, alittle too difficult for us in the camper as it can snow easily a feet in a night there.

January 2010

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