Stuck in a Ditch, Cards and Sketches

In the Southwest and Western Art Forum, 'Round the Campfire,  on wetcanvas.com, we have been talking about the cold weather.  What else?  Lisa in South Dakota was talking about the water tank being frozen and fixing the heater and carrying water to the horses.

That reminded me of my folks breaking ice at the Pie Place ranch when I was about 20 years old and worked in Albuquerque.  The Pie Place was about 80 sections of a 214 section ranch where they worked.  A section is a square mile so they had quite a bit of territory to cover to keep the water tanks available for the cows to drink.  Horses can break ice, but the cows didn't.  My folks would go to the different tanks and my dad would break the ice with an ax.  Mom and Dad would take coffee and a lunch and drive about 50 miles with a different route on different days.

I decided to drive out to see them on a three day weekend.  I had a Ford Galaxy that sat pretty high off the ground.  It covered the dirt roads in fine fashion.

It was snowing when I got up that morning and there was about 10 inches of snow on the ground.  I headed west from Albuquerque on Interstate 40.  There was one lane only up 10 Mile Hill and trucks were jackknifed and cars stranded.  When I got up to the exit to the ranch there was one track going down the dirt road.  I decided I would rather follow that track than face the horrible traffic trying to get back to Albuquerque. By then the sun was out.  The wind had stopped blowing, and the dirt road was sort of cleared by the wind.  

There was about 30 miles to go off the highway and the road looked OK.

I got about 10 miles from the house and slid off the road into a ditch. I waited a while figuring that someone would come by,  then decided I had better walk.  I walked about 5 miles along the road and built a fire to warm my tootsies. I used to smoke cigarettes in those days so had matches with me. 

I looked up and saw my folks a couple of miles away at a tank breaking ice. Boy I jumped up, waved my arms and hollered. Of course they couldn't hear me. Luckily (I thought) my mom was looking for cows and said to my dad, "There is some fool walking over there!" They came in the four wheel drive pickup to rescue me. Dad decided to go see if we could pull my car out. Well, he slid into the same ditch so we were both stuck! 

Dad had walk to the house and come back in their car.  Problem solved, right?  Mom and I waited in the pickup.  It began to get dark so we ran the engine every once in a while to stay warm.  We ran out of gas and had to build a fire.  It was a long night and we were a bit worried about my dad. 

In the meantime, he made it to the house and started out in their car and the transmission went out about a mile from the house! Hard to believe, I know. He went back and got the only horses that were there. That took a while to round them up.  He finally got my old spoiled horse that had asthma and a horse that he was breaking. 

Dad showed up about daylight with a thermos of coffee and cookies or some sandwiches.  The three of us went back to the house taking turns on the horses as mine couldn't carry two and the younger horse hadn't been ridden enough. 

My dad then rode one of the horses back with some gasoline and finally dug out the pickup. We got my car the next day. Luckily the sun was out and in New Mexico that makes it not too cold, just muddy. Ha.

It turned out that if they hadn't rescued me I could have just walked on to the house and saved all the mess! 

The next day it was back to work in Albuquerque for me and back to breaking ice for them!

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I haven't sketched or painted for a couple of days.  Our hot water heater went out and Gene spent a couple of days working on it.  He had to put in a new one.  It was great to get the dishes washed and a shower!  Yay for modern conveniences that we take for granted!

I did work on some cards.  I used Karen Margulis' idea and ordered some blank cards, had some photos of my paintings printed at Walgreens.  Karen has great instruction, info and help about painting in pastels.  She experiments and teaches so you can always learn something reading her blog.

The cards came out very nice cards and very inexpensive.  It costs more to mail them than to make them.  I added a couple of things that she doesn't do.  I printed my logo and website on the back before I folded them to add the photos.  I also printed our return address on the envelopes and will address them by hand.

I sketched this morning for Scavenger Hunt 340 in the almost finished sketchbook with the Prismacolor Premier 03 marker/pen. I was feeling guilty for not sketching.

Number 1,  related to art - my easel and pastels
Number 2, made of fabric - the towels

Number 3, plastic - bowl
Number 4, glass - measuring cup
Number 5, related to baking - baking powder
Number 6, made of wood - spoon

Off to work on cards and then cook dinner.  Dinner will be meatloaf and scalloped potatoes. I haven't fixed that in a loooong time.  I really don't cook much anymore.  Guess I don't do much of anything anymore.  Why do I never have extra time?  Hmmmm.  I need better time management. Ha.