Artesia, New Mexico

17 years ago this was our home in Artesia, a small oil town in New Mexico. Prior to that we were living in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where Heidi was born. The house has been added onto, but the pole fence is still the same. I wish I knew how to scan pictures, because I would love to through a few in from back then. We had ten acers, horses, chickens, (we still have the little red bucket Hilary and Heidi would gather the eggs in). I tried everything in that little red bucket to prevent the eggs from breaking in route to our kitchen, straw, paper towels, it was just too much of a temptation to swing that bucket around. We had 10 or 12 pecan trees, a garden, Butterfly the lamb, and another older lamb, that liked to butt the girls, and Mousie the Jersey cow. I will always have those sweet memories of the girls, in their jamies, coats wrapped around them, little red boots,walking out to the barn while I was milking early in the morning.

This was the pump house, where we would have leaks. The girls loved it because they could play in the huge mud puddles the leaks would make, and poor Steve, he did not like fixing those leaks.
This was the cattle guard in the driveway to our house. It was just a given to say "cattle guard" each and every time we went over it. Cattle guards are made of metal pipes. As you go over them it is bumpy, and makes a clumpety clump noise. The girls didn't even have to see them to say "cattle guard" they could hear it and feel it.
The fence back then was not closed in like it is now. It was a piped fence. A rancher that lived in town kept his horsed behind our property. Everyday, twice a day, he would have to go in and out to feed the animals. He started leaving little treats on the fence for Hilary and Heidi. He didn't want to girls to know who was leaving the treats, so we just called him the post fairy. Each day the fence was checked by 2 little girls, and most days they came in with a surprise.
The 4H fair was a big hit each year, and we would spend all day there. The people, the animals, the smells. The fair in Artesia is nothing like the Jacksonville fair, 1/4 the size and no rides. Much more fun to me. The girls participated, and one year Hilary brought home a trophy almost as big as she was. She was in what was called the lead line class, and the participants would lead their lambs around the arena. A friend let Hilary borrow a lamb, she named him Butterfly. Each day she would work with this little lamb, and teach him how to lead. It was not normal nor did lambs like to lead, but she succeeded. That year Heidi also participated in a pet class, she was too young to do anything else. She lead Johnny the older lamb around. I made a flower lei for Heidi to wear and also one for Johnny. While Heidi and Johnny were standing there, Johnny decided to eat her lei, the local newspaper photographer was right there, and captured the whole thing, right through to the tears in Heidi's eyes. Hilary and Heidi both had their pictures in the local paper that year.