Tinkertown Museum

Stephen has been spending a lot of time working on his Camaro, and he has to go to Texas for work this week, so he proposed that we spend Sunday afternoon doing something fun together.  We first noticed the Tinkertown Museum last fall, but it had closed for the season.  Since then, the daughter of the founder has had a book published about the place, and interview on the local University radio station renewed my interest in seeing it.  Here is an excerpt from the Museum website,

"It took Ross Ward over 40 years to carve, collect, and lovingly construct what is now Tinkertown Museum. His miniature wood-carved figures were first part of a traveling exhibit, driven to county fairs and carnivals in the 1960s and ’70s. Today over 50,000 glass bottles form rambling walls that surround a 22-room museum. Wagon wheels, old fashioned store fronts, and wacky western memorabilia make Tinkertown’s exterior as much as a museum as the wonders within."

There is a sign in the museum that reads, "This is what I was doing while you were watching TV."
The dioramas of Old West scenes with carved wooden people, some of which move when you push buttons in the wall, are detailed and feature a very specific sense humor.  In addition to these, the building itself, with its low ceilings, wood or cement and bottle walls,  and narrow hallways that change level room by room, is amazing.  There's no possible way to see everything in one visit because you could spend hours standing in one place, turning 360 degrees then looking down at the floor, which is decorated with license plates in many areas, then up at the ceiling to see pictures, signs, or architectural oddities.  There are hand painted signs everywhere featuring wit and wisdom from various sages and from Ross Ward himself.  The outside is as interesting as the inside.  At one point, you leave the building, walk across a ramshackle footbridge over a weedy, grassy area, and come to a pole barn with a sailboat inside it and the story of how a man circumnavigated the globe in this dubious craft.  We never did figure out how the boat got to New Mexico! 

I'm afraid my photos don't tell a complete story, so you'll just have to come visit.  For those of you who were on the Maine Mission trip, it kind of reminded me of Corinne's place with the yurt and cabins connected by walkways.  It was hard to take pictures of that too!

Back Yard

When we were house hunting in ABQ last fall, we wanted a xeriscaped yard, no grass, and no swimming pool.  The house we bought has a nicely landscaped yard, mostly xeriscape with water-wise plants and stone and rock mulch.  We replaced a few shrubs that needed more water than we were willing to give them.  But along the back of the house by the covered patio, there is a patch of grass that is about 10' wide and 70' long.  What to do with the grass?  A lot of it looked dead already since the irrigation system had been turned off for several months.  In the spring I took a Saturday morning class at the Water Authority in which the instructor went over irrigation systems, water budgets, the ABQ laws regarding watering, and water-saving tips.  Using the guidelines in the handouts, I programmed our irrigation system and watched to see what would happen with the back yard.  I also planted 4 little plugs of nepeta (catmint) in the shadier area, and 5 little plugs of creeping thyme in the sunnier area, and I scattered a bunch of red clover seed on the advice of the folks at Plants of the Southwest. 

The red clover sprouted and covered the bare spots pretty well, but now it's dying off.  It is a biennial, so we should see some of it coming back in the spring.  The thyme and catmint did VERY well, and I plan to add a lot more creeping thyme (most of the area is sunny).  At one end, the grass survived well enough that it looks like lawn.  At the other end, some grass survived -- enough to create a need to shorten that grass.  I did not bring any lawnmowers here from NY, so I used my weed whacker to keep things under control for a while, but it's heavy, noisy, messy, and gives a somewhat uneven-looking result.  So yesterday I sent Stephen to the local big-box store to get this:

I assembled it in about 10 minutes and then spent about 10 minutes mowing the "lawn."  (Remember, in my book, if it's green and I can mow it, it's lawn.)  Another 10 minutes of raking and done!  It doesn't look great yet, but if I get more thyme in there this fall, next summer it should look better and need less water.

Bandelier National Monument

Bandelier National Monument is West of Santa Fe, and covers 33,727 acres.  I was particularly interested in visiting the part of the park in Frijoles Canyon, where you can see ancient Pueblo cliff dwellings. 
Stephen and I went to visit Bandelier on Labor Day.  We got a late start, so we had lunch in Santa Fe first.  I wanted to go to the Annapurna World Vegetarian Cafe.  Stephen agreed, but when we got there it was closed for the holiday, so we went to the Yummy Cafe next door, which offers a variety of Asian dishes.  I had baby bok choy with black mushrooms and it was indeed yummy.

Had we done a little more research, we would have discovered that if you want to drive to the Visitor's Center at Bandelier, you have to get there before 9 AM.  Otherwise, you have to park at a campground area and take a shuttle bus.  The lack of clear signage was confusing and we wasted some time driving around trying to figure out the system, but we finally caught the bus,taking our water bottles and hats and camera with us.  It was around 90 degrees and sunny when we started on the trail at about 2:30 PM.  The park ranger warned everyone as we got off the bus that it had been raining on the mountain and the Frijoles creek that runs parallel to parts of the trail would soon flood with a wall of water.  She gave strict instructions not to cross the creek.  Fortunately, we didn't need to cross  the creek to visit the sites we were interested in seeing.

Our annoyance over the difficulty of getting there soon dissolved as we were awed by the amazing cliff dwellings.  The rock is compressed volcanic ash, and some parts of it are harder than others.  Wind and water erosion created intricate designs and holes, some of which were hollowed out further by the Pueblo people to create caves large enough to sleep in or even stand in.  Visitors are allowed to go in certain caves which are marked with wooden ladders.  In some places, steel railings have been added for safety, and the trail has been improved and marked.

 We both climbed up into some of the caves.  This one would be good for sleeping.  Another was large enough to stand up in, sort of a round dining-room size.  There wasn't enough light to get a good picture inside.

Stephen took a picture of this area because of the colony of cactus growing on the bare rock.  Incredible!

 In some places, the Pueblo people also built square rooms of adobe adjacent to the caves.  Here is one such house.

 In the background here you can see the foundation walls of a round series of rooms.  The guidebook says they were probably used for food storage.  There was also a kiva; a round hole lined with adobe bricks that would have had a domed roof and was most likely used for rituals and storytelling.  The photo below has a better view of the foundations.

Just about the time we reached this point on the trail, a wall of water did come down the creek and caused it to become a raging muddy river.  You can just see it through the trees in the photo above.  Of course, a few yahoos had ignored the ranger's advice and had crossed the creek, and were stuck on the other side.  They had to wait until the flood waters subsided and the one remaining bridge (the others succumbed to earlier floods) was no longer under water. 

Stephen and I turned back with much yet to be explored.  I had caught a cold from my new students and was not at my best.  But we are greatly looking forward to going back and seeing the Long House and the Alcove House, both of which are farther along the trail.  So if you come to visit us and want to visit Bandelier, we will be more than happy to go back!