Honk If You Love the Mountains!

Memorial weekend 2017, we packed the kids, cats and took off to my sister’s mountain property.  It happened to be my birthday (De) and it was a wonderful celebration.  I had a “bucket list” item checked off my list.  I had always wanted to chop down a tree.  Strange, maybe, but still it was on my list of things to do.  But first, let me back track a wee bit.  We stayed over night in Hobbs, New Mexico at a campground with hundreds of jack rabbits hopping around.  Their ears are very long and the kids had a fun time trying to sneak up on them.  Yeah, that never happened!  The next morning we fueled up with some lemon curd filled donuts.  (Delish!) Sure, we are acrobats, but everyone needs a vacation from the norm.  We started driving down an extremely bumpy road and we kept hearing a horn beep.  Beep, beep, beep-beep, beeeeep!  What the heck???  Our horn wires for the bus had short circuited and kept beeping with every single bump.  It went from funny to annoying rather quickly.  We were honking for the mountains!!!  We pulled over and resolved this amusing problem and off we went this time only bumping not honking along to the mountains.  Timberon, New Mexico is a tiny village oasis!  The hiking near it rivals any hiking we have done anywhere in the USA (except the Redwoods). Along the way, we stopped at a cute little petting zoo and brushed a camel among the typical petting farm animals.  Our 7-year-old son, absolutely loves goats and it was heaven for him. We arrived at the property, five acres of forest that is a work in progress of cleaning, thinning and eventually homestead building.  Hard work was never so much fun for all the kids.  Everyone had a chance to chop down trees.  A herd of deer live on the property and come up for food in the evenings and mornings.  It took several days until they felt safe enough with all the extra people up there.  (aka loud happy kids!)  We even had a chance to meet some “circus family” that lived there.  Even if you don’t know each other, it’s family and there is a deep connection.  The same goat lover son had an opportunity to meet our new friend’s monkey children.  The weekend was filled with lots of tree chopping, log tossing, hiking, good food and lots of fun!  My sister even made my favorite birthday cake which as you can see I didn’t share with anyone!  Just kidding, only had three servings!   There will be many opportunities to head back to the mountains and help with this long-term forest project.  We can’t wait to go hiking again up there.  It truly is a gem in the forest!  Old growth trees, aspen groves, wild orchids, wild strawberries, deer/elk, mountain lions and so many hummingbirds!  The elevation is about 9,000ft.  We set off on a hike and it ended up raining and hailing on us for quite a while.  It was COLD and memorable for sure especially in my Keen sandals and shorts.  We took refuge under a huge tree, ate some snacks and regrouped which way to go because, in fact, we missed the correct turn off in the weather.  It’s all about the journey and the stories you bring home from such adventures that we will take with us forever.    In circus, we never say goodbye, but instead “See ya down the road.”  So,  see ya down the road Timberon, New Mexico and we look forward to see you again!!!