What Was It?

Even when you're underneath it, the T.A.R.S. Aerostat doesn't look twice the size of the Goodyear blimp. That's because this "weapon" in the so called "War on Drugs", is on a 25,000 foot tether.

The one in my picture is one eleven that the Air Force operates from the Carribean to Arizona. It is located, as you might guess, outside of Deming, New Mexico. It's purpose is not to catch "il-ee-gals" (sorry Todd), but "radar interdiction" of planeloads of illicit drugs coming from the south. So, while Rick correctly identified what it is, Cindy was the only one who got the hint.

There is no prize... you all should be proud of a job well done.

Fundraising Update.

Thanks to all who have ponied up and ordered the DUTCH T-shirts to help out with the Salmon family expenses in the wake of Buddy's illness. Thanks, especially, to those who also got quilt raffle tickets, and ordered items from Dutch's bookstore.

We got orders from local New Mexico residents, and also from as far away as Florida and Massachusetts, Eastern and Western Canada, including the Maritimes, and Great Britain! Dutch has a lot of friends, but also there are strangers out there who just wanted to help.

The T-Shirt orders have dropped to a trickle as of today, so we'll pull the plug on them on February 1st. I'll remove the "Donate" button then. That will give us time to order up the blank shirts and other paraphernalia Margaret will need to produce the final product, and get it to all who donated in a timely fashion.

We'll add our check to the one the quilt raffle folks will be giving Dutch at his Pack Hunt in mid-February.

Thanks again!

Shot On Site. Going...going... ??

The other day I posted a picture of a beat up 2-story barn in the middle of some very spacious ranch land. We had our listing guide in hand and used up more than a half tank of gas looking at various levels of abode.

Today, we got more serious, and called a realtor, so we could look at one place in particular that captured our fancy. She told us about another place that was just coming on the market, and not listed yet. It was, she said, "in the mountains". The price she gave got our attention.

We met the agent at a nearby crossroads, and followed her, as promised into the mountains. The North Florida Mountains to be precise. Which means one of the views from the porches is...

...The South Florida Mountains. Look behind, or to the North and the North mountains are practically in the yard. This little, (about a thousand sq ft) house sits between Rock Hound State Park, and Spring Canyon State Park. The view straight west from the front porch is of the Deming Plain, far below.

For people who would want to come visit, there's a bonus:

This little guest cabin sits behind the main house, on the 1 1/2 acre fenced lot. It has a kitchenette, bed, and 3/4 bath. The main house comes with a washer and dryer, side by side fridge with ice maker, dishwasher, 2 full baths, a perfect room for an office, and one bedroom. Yes just one, which is probably why the price for all of this on a nicely cactus-landscaped lot is.. wait for it.... $60,000. Margaret loves this place. So do I.

But we still wanted to see the house we originally called the agent about..

...an adobe "work-in-progress", 16 miles south of Deming. Also 1000 sq ft, with 18" thick walls, the owner/builder began this project in 2004. There's a detached workshop/garage as well. I really like this place, but it's priced considerably higher than the mountain house. But not out of reach. And there are miles and miles of jackrabbit habitat right out the back door!

Interior is still under construction, and is only two rooms. The bedroom is to the right of the bed, which had been moved to install the bedroom floor tiles. Next, this large main room will get tile on the right, which is the kitchen side, and the left will get hardwood. Love the exposed beam ceiling!
As if that weren't cool enough... he's put in Sherita's shower!

...and added a cedar plank ceiling. On 4 acres, this one goes for $79,000, has views of the Florida Mountains as well as the Tres Hermanas mountains near the border, which is only about 20 miles south.

We've probably never been closer to getting off the road, and settling down than we are right now, right here.

But don't worry. Shot On Site Photography is not going away... at least not completely. If we do this thing, we'll still have the Hare-Brained Express, and will continue to shoot the high profile sighthound events like the ASFA II, and breed specialty trials, and we'll probably continue to travel East to Georgia at year end. Margaret would insist. It's that grandchildren homing device implanted in her brain.

We'll be starting a new business in this neck of the woods, too, doing photo and video home inventories for insurance and estate purposes. In fact, Margaret ordered the software today.

And a photographer could make a career out of just recording the various faces of the Florida Mountains. Plus, there's so much more of New Mexico to explore and discover.

Just a heads-up. What a day.

Panic Much?

A few of my blogger friends have recently posted gloom and doom pieces about an animal rights whacko President Obama has placed in charge of something called the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Oh NO!! There goes our pure bred dogs. It'll be Tofu for lunch every- single- freakin'- day!

No?

Fortunately, we have people like "Terrierman" Pat Burns, to actually do the work to uncover the real story behind the viral email panic. Patrick is kind of a DC insider, and he's not panicking.

You should probably read the whole thing. I did and learned a new term: "Chain pull".

Home On the Range.

The other day we took a long drive around the Deming area, looking at land and homes for sale. This wasn't one of the places, and while the "house" is probably in our price range, the land most certainly isn't.

Search on...

What Is It? (With Hint)

Just a fun diversion from all the seriousness here lately. This is a little game that Patrick play over at Terrierman blog. Just post your answers to the comments section, and all will be revealed in a couple of days.

Playing isn't a requirement, and you don't need to whine about it. You can just say "no".

You People Are Great!

When asked to step up, you respond with vigor.

While we're not exactly swamped with DUTCH T-Shirt orders, we've gotten more, in a short time, than I would have expected. Some people have even donated the $28 and decided to fore go the shirt so the whole amount goes to Dutch, which is cool. Other people are sending cash, with no strings (or T-Shirt orders) attached.

Thanks to bloggers Steve Bodio and Todd Birchfield our original post went nearly viral. On the first day we broke all visit records, logging 247 visitors!
We received donations from Great Britain, as someone had cross posted Steve's post- which linked our post- to the British website, The Hunting Life. We're still getting several visitors a day from that site.. and a lot of them are off to the bookstore, as many of the comments were about Dutch's landmark book, Gazehounds & Coursing. I think he may be moving a few copies this month.

I've heard from the quilt raffle organizers, and they've raised over.. well, a lot of money, and that was before you all read about it here, so a lot of money may turn into a shitlo boatload of money.

And if you follow the live traffic feed over there on the sidebar, you'll see that a goodly number of blog visitors have left via Dutch's bookstore . Dutch has confirmed one book sale... a very expensive book, in fact.. as a direct result of our post.

So.. why not keep up with the good news:

Buddy came home from the hospital on Saturday, and in Dutch's own words, "is on the mend". The snowball effect of which is that Dutch was able to bring out his hounds yesterday.. hounds who hadn't run in nearly a month.. to put the fear of god your deity of choice into a few jackrabbits. We took this opportunity to give Dutch his own shirt. He likes it, and thinks everybody should get one! ;o)

Other than the fact we had to walk 2 hours before jumping the first one, a good time was had by all. We'll be doing it again tomorrow.