Old buildings, Johnson Mesa NM

Here's a few shots of some old barns, and the Johnson Mesa Methodist Church (built in 1897).

Local Road Trip

On the way back from Manzanola, we went south from Knapp's, and got these shots.

A thunderstorm in the far distance, the other side of the Oakley Indian Mound. The Mound is one of the largest repositories of human artifacts in southeastern Colorado.

Horses along County Road 18, between US 50 and CO 10, near CO Road BB.

Leece shot this tree, with the rather dramatic sky. She was shooting almost directly into the sun.

Looking to the east northeast, toward The Holy Land and The Smile Hi City.

Ark Valley Fair

We went over to the fairgrounds this evening, visiting the fine arts/photography exhibit, the quilts and needlecraft, the 4-H swine and goats, and generally wandering around.

We have a few shots up here:

Mike and Leece's image galleries

Look under Events.

Smoky grilled corn salsa

We recently tried this recipe from Country Woman magazine:

It was the grand prize winner for the magazine's Corn Contest. It was submitted by Alicia DeWolfe, of Gloucester, Massachussetts.

6 plum tomatoes, halved
4 medium ears sweet corn, husks removed
2 medium sweet yellow peppers, halved
2 medium green peppers, halved
3 jalapeno peppers, halved and seeded
1 medium red onion, cut into 1/2-inch slices
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Grill the tomatoes, corn, peppers and onion, covered, over medium heat for 10-12 minutes or until tender, turning occasionally. Allow vegetables to cool slightly. Remove corn from cobs; transfer to a large bowl. Chop the remaining vegetables and add to corn.

In a small bowl, whisk the cilantro, oil, vinegar, garlic, salt, sugar and pepper. Pour over vegetables; toss to coat. Serve warm or cold. Yield: 6 cups.


We subbed chunked Early Girl tomatoes for the halved plum tomatoes, and we subbed real Vidalia onions for the red onions. Texas 1015's would work too. The peppers and cilantro came out of the garden.

We grilled Peaches and Cream corn, then shaved the kernels off the cob.

While this is really good warm, we liked it better after an overnight in the refrigerator.

A nice basketful ...

We got another load of tomatoes and peppers out of the garden this evening. Cayennes and Anaheims on the peppers.

The work we put into building up the soil is paying off. This spot used to be a parking spot next to the garage. It was covered with pea gravel. The lads shoveled all that off the ground three years ago. We have been mixing in all the leaves from the fall, and a trailer load of horse manure from Tab Ramsey's corrals over on Road BB and 23. This has had a very good effect.

Our pasta sauce this evening was full of chunks of our squashes and tomatoes, with a bit of Italian sausage. It was most excellent. Steverino cooked the pasta to a perfect al dente.

Cathedral of the Sacred Heart

We were in Pueblo today, and had the opportunity to stop by the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart just before the noon Mass.

It's a beautiful church. If you get the chance, it's worth a visit.

We took some photos, which you can see over on WritingPlaces.com, linked from our galleries page:

Mike and Leece's galleries

under "Road Trips."

Mount Capulin Volcano National Monument

Saturday we took a road trip down to Mount Capulin Volcano National Monument, just across the state line in New Mexico.

We have a gallery of images up on Mike and Leece's image galleries under "Road Trips."

We followed CO 109 down through Kim, then on US 160 to CO 389 down to Branson, and from Branson, across the New Mexico line, picking up NM 551 to its intersection with NM 456, the "Dry Cimmaron Highway," to NM 325 in Folsom, which took us to the National Monument.

You can find the official info about the site here: Mt Capulin Volcano National Monument

We stopped several times along the way for photos. We'll have a separate gallery up on the road trip down to the site.

The park is easy to find and easy to get into. There is a small visitor's center, where we found that the NPS staff was - as we have come to expect - helpful and friendly. This included the staff at the center as well as up at the parking lot on the edge of the crater mouth.

We had lunch in the picnic area, which is about 200 yards up the volcano road from the visitor center. There was no shortage of tables, and the picnic area was clean and well-maintained.

There are a number of trails available at the site, including a wheelchair accessible nature trail near the center. You can find more about these trails here. We did the trail down into the crater, and the rim trail. Neither would be very challenging down at altitudes we are accustomed to, but the rim is nearly 4,000 feet higher than The Holy Land. Flat land cycling leaves a little to be desired for conditioning for these altitudes, as we discovered on our visit to Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument. We found that taking some of the steeper ascents more slowly than we would have down lower helped considerably. The view was well worth a bit of huffing and puffing, however. Actually, the view was more than well worth the huffing and puffing; the view was spectacular. It was a magnificent day for the trip.

Capulin is part of the Raton-Clayton volcanic field, about 8,000 square miles worth. It's larger than the state of Massachusetts. From the top of Capulin, you can see many other cones in the varying distances. You can get a better feel for the extent of the field by using Google maps and examining the aerial view of the area.

After leaving the volcano, we went over to Des Moines, about 9 miles away, for gas. We looped back up through Folsom and then on 72 across Johnson Mesa. We'll have more on that as well as a gallery of images. This leg of the trip was an adventure in its own right, but more on that in a following post. Capulin is also known for its wildflowers, but most of Leece's best flower shots came from the Johnson Mesa excursion.

Interesting footnote: Capulin erupted in a rather spectacular display some 60,000 or so years ago. Of course, that is incorrect, since we all know the entire universe was created in the wee hours of Sunday morning, 23 October 4004 BC. Huh. I guess if we elect someone like Bachmann or Huckabee or Perry as president we can kiss the NPS goodbye, hmmm?

Romans 1:20 - High Plains Summer

Saturday Leece and I went up to DIA to pick up Froggers. On the way back we stopped at the Rush Creeks and other places along CO 71 for some photos.

Go to:

Mike and Leece's image galleries under "Road trips."

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

It was that kind of day. Who needs this nonsense?