Hi,
You may have known that Loretta and I spent 6 days and 5 nights at Larry and Esther's home in New Mexico. What a beautiful State and a fantastic experience we had. Larry and Esther accommodated our every wish with outstanding hospitality and welcomed us into their family.
Thank you Larry and Esther!
They have a beautiful home that they built themselves. It is located in a meadow surrounded by Pinion and Juniper trees.
Going across the arroyo is a view back to their home.
And this is the steep road Larry and Esther use to get up on top, about 150' rise in elevation to gather wood.
The road was a little too steep so at times it was hard for Esther to drive their ATV up pulling the trailer. Larry and I would do something about that later on.
This is a view of the arroyo we had to cross at the bottom of their 20 acres.
The next morning we were busy at it already. After a huge breakfast served by Esther, Larry showed us all around his place. You may have seen photos of the cantilever gate he made?
Larry noticed that it needed a little adjustment so we got some wrenches and straightened out the idler sprockets on it.
He made this gate himself (duh?) out of spare parts from his old elevator and garage door openers. It is fully automatic and pretty darn cool.
After that he showed us his beautiful motorcycles. Larry and Esther each have Intruders. They are powerful and smooth. So we decided to take a ride in the morning before we started work on the bulldozer.
Here is Larry preparing the bikes for the ride.
And off we go on the dirt road leading to the main highway.
That is Larry showing us the way.
Esther did not join us for this ride but Loretta did. She is the camera person.
Here's another shot of Larry as we are cruising.
Look in the mirror and you can see Loretta.
I had to get used to Larry's Intruder, but it didn't take long to find the sweet spot.
Here is a shot of Larry on Esther's Intruder as we were enjoying the ride.
This was great fun for me.
We took a break from all the fun and sightseeing and started working on the bulldozer, installing the new track rollers Larry had bought.
You can view photos and read about that adventure here:
In the meantime, Esther showed Loretta all her quilts she made and her handiwork as a professional seamstress and clothing magician. I could hang with Larry in what he does, but what Esther does is way beyond me.
Just look at these stairs Esther made ... just kidding.
They are in Santa Fe made by an unknown artist.
It is unbelievable how hard Larry and Esther work on their projects. They are truly admirable people.
On another day they took us to Sandia Mountain and Ski area which is 10,680 feet high above Albuquerque.
We went for a short hike on top of the mountain.
Here is Larry with Albuquerque in the background about 1 mile below.
From there we drove into Milan which is an old coal mining town. We had lunch at the Mine Shaft Tavern.
While Esther and Kim were shopping around town, Larry took Loretta and I to see the mining museum there. It was extremely interesting to see the old equipment they used up until 1962.
Here is Larry operating a huge old winch.
And checking out the locomotive train there.
Loretta was checking out some of the old coal mine shafts too.
