Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs 50th Birthday Celebration

For the last couple days of my 50 Birthday Week, my friends and I planned an overnight at Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs and Spa. Two days of soaking and mudding along with a night in the cozy historic hotel. 

The scenery around the mineral springs and spa are beautiful and serene, purely New Mexico!

The mineral spring pools were varied and spread throughout the resort area.

After soaking for a bit, I sprawled out on a chair. Later on, I even crawled into one of those blissfully comfortable hammocks and took a nap!

My friend Yvonne with the beautiful rock backdrop.

Me and my buddy Yvonne!

My friend Gin and I!

And me and my friend Ginny!

Yvonne, me and Ginny at one of the mineral springs pools.

Later that evening, after about 4-5 hours of soaking, we went back to the room to enjoy our own happy hour and get cleaned up for dinner. And my friends surprised me with gifts!

A cute hat and a lovely framed picture with images of me and my very special Apache mare.

And a bunch more goodies, a fun sign for my chicken coop, socks, and a few other goodies not shown.

The entire weekend, I never had to pay for a single meal. My friends took turns treating me in restaurants for all of my breakfasts, lunches and dinners.
The following are just a few photos from some of those delicious meals!

This was the fancy 50th Birthday dessert that the Ojo Caliente Mineral Springs and Spa Restaurant served me, along with a birthday song, of course!

Thankfully, there were four delicious truffles...one for me and one for each of my friends! 

During dinner, there was a powerful rain storm that even caused the electricity to briefly shut off.
But by the time we were finished with our meal, the storm had passed.
After dinner, we went back to our room and put our bathing suits back on and we made our way out to the mineral springs to soak some more. The air smelled so fresh and clean after the rain storm, but we were grateful for the comforting warmth of the mineral springs pools, because the temperature had cooled off considerable and was quite cold out of the waters.
We ended up soaking until they closed the pools at 10pm. It was heaven! 

After a cozy and comfortable good night's rest, we woke up and had a delicious breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then we made our way back out to the mineral springs. After soaking for a couple hours, we decided it was time to head over to the mud pool.

The sink to the left of my friend Gin sprayed continuous smooth, watery mud. We stood there and scooped up handfuls of the slippery, warm mud and painted it all over our bodies with our hands. We even helped each other spread the mud onto each other's backs. 

The idea of mudding, is to sit out in the sun and allow the sun to bake and dry the mud, so it helps draw out toxins and tighten the skin.

My muddy selfie!

Yvonne and I getting muddy together!

Me and my buddy Gin having fun getting muddy!

Ginny and I posing with mud on our face....A big disgrace, kicking our cans all over the place....singing..... we will, we will, rock you!" (Sorry...I couldn't help it! haha)

A nice (and muddy) mineral springs visitor offered to take a photo of the four of us bathing beauties covered in mud!

We had such a fabulous two days! And I can't remember having a better birthday than I had this year with my three dear friends. They really treated me well and we had such a great time together!

And for the entire following week, we all noticed how silky and smooth our skin was!

Life is Good!!  

Cross Cut Saw Certification for BCHM

The following weekend after our BCHM Memorial Day Weekend Camp Out and Work Projects, some of us had signed up for the National Forest's Cross Cut Saw Certification Class.

 It's important that all of our volunteers know how to handle saws, wedges and axes safely, while understanding how they work and how fallen trees react and the safest locations to saw a log, so that it doesn't cause anyone any harm.

On our work projects, at least one volunteer must be Cross Cut Saw certified and have a Sawyer Certification card. And that was why we were attending this all day class up in the Pecos.

My son Jax showing how to use a bucking cross cut saw alone.

 My son posing with an ax after he cleared the bark off of a log in preparation for sawing.

 We all had to take turns demonstrating the correct and safe way to use each tool and technique.

 Cutting away the bark with an ax prevents the saw from becoming dull.

 One of the techniques using a cross saw is underbucking, basically cutting up from the bottom.

 Some of the things we have to observe and discuss about every log or tree to clear, are compression, tension, slope and if there are rocks or foreign objects underneath or beside the log, because they can all affect how the log reacts when cutting it, and can greatly affect the safety of everyone nearby.

Myself and Sandy showing how to get 'er done!

Underbucking.

 

It's important to learn where to stand or squat, and to know where your body is at all times. It's also important to understand how to position and move the cross cut saw as well as how to use team work to your benefit while sawing. We learned a lot at the this class and it was so much fun!

 

My son took these photos of me. I looked so serious and focused.

 We totally rocked it!

 

 The guys demonstrating good teamwork and skills.

 After the sawyer class was over, several of us hiked down to Panchuela Creek to enjoy the flowing water and the beautiful warm day, before driving an hour back home.

My silly son, Jax and friend Sandy beside Panchuela Creek.

Pecos Memorial Day Weekend Camping and Work Projects with BCHM (3)

On Memorial Day several of us decided to go for a ride up to the Pecos River to check on the quality of the bridge that crosses the river and see if we needed to do any maintenance on it on a future work project weekend.

But first, we needed to assist a couple of riders with water crossing reluctant horses. Richard offered to work with another member's Arab mare to help her cross the creek, but it didn't go as planned.

In fact, it didn't go very well at all.

Thankfully no one was hurt, but the horse and rider were not able to join us on the ride because they weren't able to conquer their fears of crossing flowing water.

The next horse and rider were assisted by Sandy, who ended up getting knocked off her horse into the creek.
She was a good sport about the experience, even though she was soaked down to the skin.


Richard had better luck with this rider and her horse and after about 15 minutes was able to coax them into and then across the creek.



Standing in the creek to get the mare past her fears.



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After the water crossing, we continued up the mountain towards Jack's Creek Campground, but turned toward the Pecos River and the bridge instead.



We were riding towards Iron Gate Campground.




The beautiful Pecos River was flowing fast below us.

Sandy being silly and demonstrating how to cut down a tree. We may be here a while......

So exciting! Riding beside the Pecos River. I can see the bridge up ahead!

Riding over the Pecos River on a bridge that the BCHM helped build and maintain.

The beautiful Pecos River looking north.

Apache and I riding across the bridge with the Pecos River below us.

The Pecos River looking south.

We tied up the equines and checked out the bridge.

Richard in his element.

I can't get enough of the sound of flowing water. It's manna for my soul.

After creating a list of supplies needed to do maintenance on the bridge, and enjoying a little lunch break, we mounted back up again, and rode back the way we came.

On the way back, Richard ground tied the molly mule he had with him, so he could pick up some trash some litterbug left on the trail. Well, the mule didn't belong to him so he had no way of knowing that the mule had never been trained to ground tie. So when he dropped the lead rope, the mule took off running down the trail.

Thankfully, the mule didn't go far and she stopped before reaching the road, and got busy munching on some grass.

What a great weekend!!