So we volunteered to help during our stay. The first week, Mark ran a chain saw and then he delivered logs to the splitters.
That first week Denisa was one of the splitters. She had never ran one of these big machines that exerts 27 tons of pressure on a piece of wood.
But she got a little instruction and a lot of experience before the day was over.
The couple that told us about firewood angels were there to help as well. She was pushing the wheelbarrow that Denisa was filling with split wood, and delivering big logs to Denisa as well. That's hard work for anyone, and we find it hard to believe that she just turned 82! This seems to be proof that full-time RVing keeps you young!
The second week Mark went with the logging team to cut down trees. Someone had a grove of dead aspen that they wanted removed.
The guys with chain saws cut the trees down, then cut them into 4-feet sections. Mark's job was carrying and loading all those logs into the trailers.
That week Denisa stacked wood and pushed wheelbarrows. We finished the day when the logging crew returned with three loads of aspen logs that now needed to be unloaded.
They hope to have 50 cords of firewood ready to donate by the end of the summer.
Because the wood is stored on land owned by the New Mexico Girl Scouts, we also provide wood for their camp fires and to fit into their cooking ovens. This summer all their camps were cancelled, so they won't be needing this growing pile of wood until next year.
We would love to attend church with our fellow firewood angels, but they aren't starting in-person services until after we leave. We watched their church services that are streamed each week, and their pastor and several members live in our RV park. We actually found a little Lutheran church in Angel Fire that is having services at their church. It's such a small congregation that they can social distance without any problem. The first week we noticed that they didn't have anyone to accompany the hymns, so Denisa was the guest organist for the next Sunday.
One of the things we had looked forward to this month was Angel Fire's annual balloon festival. We read that the balloons usually track right over our campground. But like every other festival, this one was cancelled. But we were still excited to see a balloon in front of the mountain silhouette taking off one morning.
The city of Albuquerque just announced that their annual balloon festival won't happen this October. That's one of the biggest festivals in the country, and we are sad to see that this virus is still causing so many cancellations!
The pictures of the balloon were hazy because we are getting some of the smoke from the forest fires in Arizona and southwest Colorado. For several days this month our blue skies were hidden by a smoky haze.
Besides spotting hot air balloons, we often spot elk in the meadows. A herd of more than 100 can always be found in the same meadow on the way to Red River. Those tiny brown dots are the elk.
This large herd of mothers and babies are enjoying the plush grass in the meadow during the day. But we have found them on the highway every time we have been on that road around dawn or dusk.
Most winter ski resorts have added summer activities that bring in tourists during their off-season. Angel Fire has turned its ski slopes into mountain biking trails. If you look carefully, you can see half a dozen mountain bikers making their final descent on the easy slopes close to the bottom of the mountain.
We found that people come from far and wide, dressed in body armor, to ride down these steep ski slopes. We had several camping neighbors that made the trip to Angel Fire just for the mountain biking.
For the price of a chair lift ticket, they can load up their bikes on special racks, and then follow them in the next chair to the very top of the mountain. Then their bike riding is all down-hill.
Red River's ski resort is also using their chair lifts for summer activities. Earlier in the month we saw their 800-foot-long tubing hill. When we returned at the end of our month, we saw the hill in action. It was fun to watch the tubes zoom down the mountain. The chair lift in the background transports the tubes and the riders to the top of the hill.
We watched as a lone figure made his way down that same grassy slope. He seemed to be skiing--but on the grass?!? We talked to him at the bottom, and he was happy to explain the grass ski with wheels that he and his son were still perfecting. His ski poles have hand brakes to slow the wheels down on steeper slopes.
We have driven through the tiny little mountain town of Eagle Nest many times this month. But during our final week we finally took the time to stop and walk around. The only eagle we found in Eagle Nest was the statue at the little park on Main street.
Main Street includes signs with descriptions and pictures narrating the history of this little village. One picture told the story of a burro named Bosco. This 25-year-old wild burro is the "ambassador-at-large" for this village. By walking four blocks off Main we got to meet Bosco for ourselves. He greeted us with enthusiastic braying, but was a little disappointed to find that we had no carrots to share. If we had only known about Bosco before we left this morning, we would have brought the appropriate treats.
We found that birds also like to hang out around Bosco's pen. We found this female mountain blue bird on the barbed wire fence,
and the bluer male was hopping on the ground,
while this hummingbird actually sat still long enough for a picture. We might not have found eagles in Eagle Nest, but we found plenty of other feathered friends.
We have revisited some places in our month-long stay. When we first arrived we took Denisa's Mother to the Vietnam Memorial where they are putting in a new Veteran's Cemetery.
By the end of the month we returned to see that the trees and bushes have now been planted. The cemetery is almost ready to be opened.
On the first day we arrived at our campground, we heard the buzz of tiny hummingbirds. Occasionally we would spot one in the air, but it took Denisa a full month to actually get a picture of one of these tiny birds in our campground.
It's been a great month, and we'll be a little sad to leave this very comfortable park with its very comfortable summer temperatures. We've also enjoyed some nice sunsets this month, so we'll wrap this final Angel Fire blog in the same way that God wraps up a day--with a nice sunset over the mountains.
No comments:
Post a Comment