The ranch at sunset. I get to see the sunrise and the sunset most days. I've missed the big sky of open plains. For the past four years I've lived mostly in mountain towns which means big sunsets are a rare occurance. Most mornings i see the sky go from black to bright through the shades and then in the evening I can sit on the Veranada and drink a beer or tequila and let the pale pastel shades of sunset wash through me. I feel good.

Despite being the winter in Mexico my tan is really coming on. It's generally pretty accomodating temperature and weather here. Warm enough for shirts off work, mild enough not to hid in the shade, and dry enough not to worry about what to wear. However it is occasionally quite chilly, including several days of SNOW we had. It didn't last and was only a dusting but no one was prepared for it.

There are nasty beasts here. There's cacti, Scorpions, Tarantulas, hungry Coyotes, Cougars, Bears (apparently) and Snakes. It's winter so most of these beasts are hibernating (Thank Dog!) but we dug this bugger up by accident. It was probably a foot undergound getting some rest for a few months when our picks uncovered its tail. We couldn't help oursleves so we had to dig it up. As we dug and pulled at it more and mor eof its length was exposed. It was about 5 foot once we got it out. It didn't seem very active or angry and just floated off into the cactus to dig itself a new hole. Once we got home we Googled it and found that two sites called it a Wagon Snake but one site said it non-venomous whilst the other said it was highly venomous. The Internet, full of useless bullshit. Glad we aren't here in summer because there are Rattlers and all sorts of nasty snakes. So far the Scorpions seem to be sleeping too, but we've uncovered maybe a couple dozen and they are pretty small so it would be easy to turn over a rock and get a wee sting. The Mexicans tell us that the smaller the Scorpion the more dangerous the sting is. It's always the little guys you gotta watch out for.

We are in the desert, but it's the mountain desert. We are about a thousand metres above sea level and the towering sentinels of rock you see in the picture above rise another thousand metres straight up. These rock faces make up some of the few features here we can see. The others are a few random hill ranges or mounds and then about fifty miles to our west there are twin towering rock faces. Basically a giant valley. The valley floor used to be prairie plains many moons ago but settling ranchers and their cattle took away all the long grass. Instead the place is covered in cactus now. About a million different types of bloody cactus. I feel like a pin cushion. The watering hole you see in the photo is a manmade construction for the benefit of the cattle that used to graze here. Looks inviting doesn't it? So far the wager is up to $100 for someone to swim across the cow piss. God knows how we got this photo, usually it looks like mud. No Photoshop though I promise!