The Socorro County Fair

Every year on Saturday we go to the Socorro County Fair. We look at the exhibits, peek in at the animals, and do some of the carnival and then wander home again. Not unworthwhile, but not a highlight of our year.

This year was different. It turns out that the key to The Socorro County Fair is participation. This year my daughter showed a Booster Goat. Boosters or Cloverbuds are the Brownie Scouts of 4H. They may show chickens, rabbits or goats (all small enough not to knock them over!). Their animals are exempt from most of the tagging, registering and tattooing (female goats still need a TB shot). And their show is non-competitive. Where the big 4H kids need to be able to answer questions about the breed, age, and how the animal was raised, Boosters are asked two questions they are unlikely to blank on in the ring -- What is the name of your goat? Why did you name it that?

I took Lynn out of school Thursday and Friday so that she could participate in the run-up (Nadya and Seneida are home-schooled so they are present for four straight days). Now I understand why during high noon on Saturday the fair feels a little dead. Thursday morning the trucks arrive, the animals are unloaded, everyone unpacks their stuff and gets settled near their assigned pens. The carnival (rides) is slowly being assembled but not open till Friday. Most of the booths are there, but only some are open for morning coffee and breakfast burritos.

There's constant traffic to and from the animal showers -- Thursday night is booster goats and 4H pigs -- "swine" according to the announcer. Animals have to be fed and watered, then restrained. The sheep eat the sawdust, so they get little muzzles. The freshly washed pigs get blankets or sweaters, and sometimes a board between them and their pen-mates if they don't get along. The goats just get yelled at for eating the shade structure.

The last four hours before your class is a mad dash to re-wash, re-sheer your animals, then a desperate attempt to keep them clean before they show.

There's constant changing of clothing -- on unloading, you wear your 4H camp t-shirt and 4H baseball cap. Suddenly, kids spout braids, bows, starched ironed jeans, and very large shiny belt buckles. The teenagers have several different sexy outfits -- layered tanktops for washing the cow, dusty broken-in cowboy hat, boots and holey jeans to prove they worked that cow, black drapey top with bling for after nightfall, then on show day, poofy hair, large belt with jewels in cross patterns, black cowboy shirt with rind-stones (no hats allowed in the ring). Did I mention sunglasses that would put Elton John to shame?

There's only two places in town to get cowboy clothes -- Brownbilts and Western Mercantile, so many kids are in the same shirt. Rather than this being a prom-type disaster, it's very cool -- especially if an older kid like Casey is wearing the same shirt!

The Booster goat show allows the kids to have the goats on halters. A halter wouldn't work for a pig -- you get sticks to try and control those. But the older kids are supposed to control their sheep and goats by holding the head and poking them in the butt when necessary. (Goats you haul the hind quarters off the ground by the tail.) After a lap around the ring, they line up in "inspection position". The kids pick up the front half of the goat in a hug then push it down and back. This encourages the sheep to push against against them -- much like a muscle builder flexing. In this position the judge feels the sheep all over for muscle mass. There's some tickling and tapping going on trying to get the sheep to stay tense. It's an art and there's a special award for "Showmanship". I didn't realize what a trick it is to control a sheep this way until one got loose late in the day. The Navajo girl chased it all over the ring, till they moved the gates to corner it.

It is hot and dusty and both days we arrived at 8 AM, left at 2 PM for a nap, returned at 5 PM and stayed till 8. We were exhausted. Not being farm people we don't normally stay out all day in the sun and heat. I know there's lots of prep we weren't there for, but I suddenly remembered all the animals AT HOME that had to be fed and watered. So there's at least an extra hour of work at either end of a very long hot day.

A Not Quite Sucessful Railrunner Trip

What could be better than a train trip to Santa Fe on a Saturday? Well, hmm...maybe you can help me figure it out.

The first hitch for rail travel is the very limited schedule on weekends. No lazy Saturday here. We had to set an alarm to make sure we were in Belen for the 8:50 AM train. It arrives two hours and twenty minutes later in Santa Fe. Now the Railrunner is awesome. It's clean and fun, the view from the top deck is great. There's a water fountain with conical cups and nice bathrooms (ask the conductor when you get on, which cars have bathrooms). You are welcome to bring drinks and snacks -- just no shoes on the seats.

But frankly, two and a half hours is just too much for age 6 and 2. They were very excited to be unbuckled and really wanted to run around the train. Making a few trips to the bathroom wasn't sufficient -- laps had to be done. As the train filled up, this had to be curtailed and the kids were uninterested in the books and coloring supplies we had brought.

We arrived in Santa Fe at 11:08 AM, a few blocks from the plaza. After 30 minutes of complaints about sitting down, we skipped the free bus, and walked to the plaza. But frankly, the Santa Fe plaza is not a very kid-friendly. The six year old wanted to shop, which was totally out of the question. Finally we spent $6 at the Five & Dime. It was hot and we had the limited choice of two departures: We could leave at 1:17PM arriving in Belen at 3:45PM, home at 4:30PM, or we could leave at 4:32PM, arrive Belen at 7PM and home at 8PM, really after the two-year old's bedtime.

I keep thinking about what would make this a perfect Saturday outing -- and I think it's just too long a ride. An hour would be about perfect, then ice cream, then return. But an hour takes you to downtown Albuquerque, walkable, but pretty quiet on weekends, and no icecream in sight.

So send me your suggestions -- where did you take the train? Was it great with older children? Did you take the bus to Museum Hill, get out of the tourist trap that is Santa Fe Plaza?

The Cat Walk -- a hike to remember

So it's a 3 1/2 hour drive from Socorro to the Catwalk. That is quite a ways. But it's such an awesome hike, and so perfect for kids, you have to fit it in somehow. It is actually an ideal stop on the Socorro to Tucson drive (the back way). The Catwalk started it's life as a mine sluce -- water from the Whitewater River was diverted down the sluce to bring the ore down to the bottom of Whitewater canyon for processing. When the mine was closed the sluce was a daring, scary way to hike up the canyon above the river. Now run by the US Forest Service, the structure has mostly been replaced with an open-mesh walkway with safty rails.

During the spring the river is roaring and the walk is especially exciting, but later in the summer as the river dies down there is more appeal in splashing in the river, especially near the parking lot where it runs broader and shallower. Unlike many New Mexico rivers I've never heard of this river running dry.

Minimum age for this walk is three -- there's a third of a mile of typical (but lovely and shaded) hiking before the first set of "catwalks". The total length of the Catwalk portion is 1.1 miles. The first half mile can be done with a stroller (maybe even a wheelchair) but then stairs and dirt trails finish the route. There's a prize at the end: "The Catwalk ends with a swaying suspension bridge leading to a cavern ledge overlooking a thundering waterfall." With a two year old and six year old this was a two hour stop for us.

Taking advantage of the Santa Fe Opera

A world class opera company is located in New Mexico. Doesn't seem very child friendly? A three-hour drive, shows start at dusk (9PM! but later in the season 8:30, then 8PM), ticket prices range from $27-$195.

But wait!

First you should know that not only is the singing good at the Santa Fe opera, but the casting is excellent, the set and staging is awesome and the acting is really good. What does this mean for young kids? There will be no fat ladies dying of tuberculosis at the top of their lungs. There will be action on stage -- most arias (solos to show off the lead character's voice) will have visual as well as vocal appeal. The costumes will be great. The Santa Fe Opera Company collaborates with a dance company. Several years ago we saw a modern opera (Benjamin Britten) where a line-dance of sheep held us spell bound -- I kid you not!

Secondly your child, age six or older, has a special invitation to attend. Youth Night At The Opera are full dress rehearsals where adults can attend only if they bring more kids that adults! Adult tickets are $15, child tickets are $8. There is a mini class for kids called "1-2-3 Opera" held before the show and during intermission.

You should know that the dress rehearsals are EARLY in the season (the full season is July 2-August 28, 2010), and they take place during the work-week:

Madame Butterfly on Monday, June 28
The Magic Flute on Tuesday, June 29
The Tales of Hoffmann on Tuesday, July 13
Albert Herring on Tuesday, July 27

All the operas are in their original language (OK by me since I can't understand the words even when they sing in English). Each seat (and the standing room seats!) have their own "subtitle" display -- in English and Spanish. For younger children this might not help -- after reading the translation they may turn to you and say "what does that mean?". After playing with the buttons you might encourage them to turn it off and just enjoy the spectacle.

We do a dramatic reading during our tailgate-picnic of the opera story from "A Night At The Opera" (Sir Denis Forman, rather than the album by Queen, or the movie by Groucho Marx). Forman's take on opera is lighthearted and silly, covering the basic plot (and pointing out gaping holes) with the right touch for kids.

How to get the most out of the opera? Arrive early with your child's favorite picnic dinner (we do Indian take-out from Albuquerque). If you are attending a non-youth night, prelude talks are given two hours and one hour before the performance. Admire the shiny sparkly stuff for sale in the gift shop. Have a tailgate dinner and watch the sunset, admire the opera house. Rather than getting sleepy, the kids will build excitement for the main event.

Buy sweets at the intermission to maintain the sugar high.

Should you dress up? The Santa Fe Opera has no dress policy: "Whether you prefer casual, informal, or formal attire, your own sense of style is welcome". Our daughter loves to dress up -- it makes the event special and grown up. We do the drive in t-shirt and shorts, then use the outside bathroom (to the right of the entrance) at the opera to emerge in full princess regalia. PJ's are the costume of choice on the way home. Bring a warm blanket into the opera -- you are outside at 7000 feet, and with a summer thunderstorm the temperature could go as low as 40 degrees.

Go Opera! Bravo! Brava! Whatever!

Golf for kids in Socorro

My introduction to golf at age ten, consisted of being woken up early, driven 45 minutes to the driving range, hitting three buckets of ball with dry granola for sustenance, and then being driven home. The great joke between the three oldest siblings is that we did it only for the strawberry milkshakes at the clubhouse -- and those were occasional treats. Needless to say I haven't golfed since.

However, my six year old just came back from a golfing date, glowing with enthusiasm for the sport. The moms played a lazy nine holes, starting a 5 PM. Lynn and her fellow six year old steered the cart, did somersaults down the greens, had drinks from the cart, and occasionally, hit a ball with a club. They found lost balls in the rough, watched the women tee off and enjoyed the cool weather as the sun set. Greens fees are $25-$28 and twilight fees include the cart rental (otherwise 25$ for eighteen holes). I suspect a golf course with higher demand than New Mexico Tech might be less forgiving about the somersaults down the putting green, but my daughter may very well grow up with a passion for the sport I never learned.

More information at the New Mexico Tech website.

Visiting with kids at Good Sam's

The Good Samaritan Village is a nursing home on Route 60, just across from Socorro General Hospital. If you have small kids, I would really encourage you to visit. It's a lovely place, smells good, the staff seem happy and they are very respectful towards the residents. While I was there they had to clear out the recreation room and one resident didn't want to leave. She was wheelchair-bound and clearly the nursing aid could have easily wheeled her off, but at her protest, everything ground to a halt, and first the nurse, then the director came and spoke to her quietly, consulting, listening. When I'm old I want my unreasonable demands to fetch the director.

The center has a huge finch cage with 6-8 nesting finches -- my kids love watching that as much as the residents do. They are also excited, I must confess, about the juice in the cafeteria.

There is a locked Alhimier's ward, and this is where I would take the youngest children. The ward is an open, airy, sunny large living room, and the residents sit at tables, pace, or in easy chairs. There are children's toys -- ballons, balls, crayons, and while I was playing catch with my two year old, half the eyes in the room where watching, some smiling and laughing, some just alert. The place is spotless and a crawling baby won't find anything to get into trouble with. When my baby headed toward the exit, without me, one of them spoke up and said "She went that way". A babe in arms would be greatly admired, a young crawler would be very appreciated and any child young enough to be cheerfully self-absorbed would be enjoyed by the residents. Next time I am going to bring some music and dance with my kids for the grandmas.

4H had a special "crafts day", and I know that schools sometime visit but really it's much better for a smaller group -- an ideal thing for a stay at home mom with two kids to do. Just the presence of the kids in the center makes a difference. It doesn't take long before the residents recognize you. Christina and her girls take nail polish and do all the residents fingernails.

While there are many visitors on weekends, during the weekday, especially during the work day, there are very few. Many of the residents really enjoy hanging out and chatting in the hallway.

During flu season, children under 14 aren't allowed, so you may want to call ahead. As with daycare I would follow the 24 hour rule -- no visit 24 hours after a fever, or vomiting.

Learn from a failed New Mexican Gardener

I cannot claim to be much of a success as a New Mexico gardener. Intermittently I get the bug, and rarely are my crops bountiful. But it occurred to me that like Edison, I've learned a lot from my failures. Since every gardening instinct you learned on the East Coast is wrong for New Mexico, I thought I would share my lessons.

Don't buy seeds or plants from Walmart, Ace Hardware, or Home Depot

The buyers at national chains are happy to sell you flowers that have no business in New Mexico. That pansy or daisy that was so perky in the store, will give it's last gasp the moment you lay it's cultured roots in New Mexico soil. I recommend you only shop at Plants of the Southwest and High Country Gardens.

Don't read any garden books from Santa Fe or Taos

North, high New Mexico is not the desert. It's not reality. They have cooler weather, get more rain, have more flowing plants. I've never seen a garden in Socorro which looked anything like those Santa Fe books.

You can never go wrong with roses

As difficult as everything else is, roses do really well in New Mexico. Roses are in fact desert plants and do really well here (even roses I've bought at Walmart).

A buried soaker hose is the best possible way to water.

The water stays underground, where the roots are. There's little evaporation. It lacks the satisfaction of splashing around with the hose, but much more water gets to the plants.

Even desert plants need a lot of water to get established

You might think that with the harsh conditions in the desert you can toss the right seeds on the ground and walk away. However, that turned out badly for me. I've done much better when I regularly watered my newly established plants. Books on starting xeric (low-water) gardens warn you that during the first 1-2 years, xeric gardens need just as much water as a lawn and marigolds.

When you are ready to go beyond roses, look for things described as "invasive", "pernicious", "tough", and "grows in cracks in parking lots".

I recommend Hollyhock, Evening Primrose, and Arizona Poppy, and mint.

Invest in an expensive water timer

You have to think watering new plants in New Mexico as bottle feeding an orphan kitten, not putting out scraps for a stray. That plant is completely, 100% dependent on you for moisture. We once were forced to reseed a lawn in May, the worst possible month to plant. The gardener set up the automatic water system to water three times a day for 10 minutes. Wow! You should have seen that grass grow!

Never, never plant trees in the spring or summer

Wait for the first cool weather in the fall, then plant and water like mad. Spring winds are terrible for drying out baby trees, and summer heat is aweful for tiny root systems.

Sow plastic in the ground

I feel bad about this but polymer water crystals (Soil Moist, Watersorb, Watercrystals, Moist Soil) have made a huge difference in my gardening success. Adding these little grains to the dirt (in or out of pots) means that my plants don't suffer nearly as much from dry spells. I worry a bit about whether they break down as enviromentally as they claim, but I swear by them. Skip the expensive dirt+polymer and just get the crystals themselves.

Container garden in a beer cooler

It may seem to you that the best way to oppose the dryness of the desert is to container garden -- plastic holds the moisture in, and you are watering a much smaller volume. However, if you plant one plant in a container and another in the ground, you will find that the one in the ground does much better. In New Mexico, plants in pots get their roots cooked. There's two solutions for this: buy containers that are made of styrofoam -- like a beer cooler. They look like terracotta but are rather light. Or, you can make your own insulated pots by placing a small pot inside a large one, with a layer of soil between the two.

Skip the RoundUp

Beside the issues of adding chemicals to the soil (and whether New Mexico ever gets enough rain to flush them out) they just don't work. If you spray a weed with RoundUp, you get a dead, mummifed, weed. It will stand there for months, until you pull it up, just as you should have done in the first place.

Contractors in Socorro

One thing that is difficult to get used to is that many, many businesses in Socorro are not in the yellow pages. (We'll leave aside the listing in the yellow pages that aren't actually businesses for the moment.) This is enormously true of contractors -- general, electrical, plumbing, etc. If you have moved to town and need a contractor the deck is stacked against you -- you don't have a circle of family, friends, and neighbors who know and have used contractors. (Socorro, like most small towns also has a large number of talented but unlicensed workers, but for the moment, we'll assume the licence is necessary.) In fact there may even be a bias against someone listed in the yellow pages. A licenced contractor said to me "I do a good job, people like me. I have more work than I can handle. Why should I pay to advertise?" I pointed out that newcomers like me get totally screwed by thinking there were only two contractors to choose from in town -- but I don't think I got the yellow pages another customer.

So here is my list, in random order, of every single contractor and phone number that I could find-- in the Socorro area:

General Contractors



• Bruce Burnett, Accurate Construction, 835-0454
  
• Gabaldon ??
  
• Frank Gallegos, New Horizon Construction 575-835-2232
  
• Brent Fazio, Orion Construction 575-835-1233
  
• Johnny Marquez, 575-835-0451 c 418-9656
  
• Larry Vehill, Larkco Construction 505-550-3193
  
• Rocky Swidor, Son Rock Builders, 505-859-2946
  
• Joe Martinic 575-835-0834
  
• Francisco Garrasco 575-835-9756
  
• Dewey (John) Christenson 575-443-3544
  
  

  Electrical

  
  
• Ross Electric, 835-1320
  
• Beatle Baca, Grizzly Electric 575-835-9562, 505-480-5668
  
• Midstate Electric, 835-0921
  
  
  

  Plumbing

  
  
• Bar J, 835-2708
  
• Jaramillo's, 835-1679
  
• Pino
  
  

My new years resolutions

I often think, if I moved out of New Mexico, what would I kick myself for not having done?

In that spirit, here are the events I really don't want to miss this year:

May 9, 10 Mother's Day Powwow
June Juan de Bautista Fiesta and annual Kelly town reunion
September 25-27 San Miguel Fiesta
October 3 Blessing of the Animals, Historic Plaza
October 10 Sevilleta Wildlife Refuge open house
December 7 La Pastorela

I also have never made it to the London Frontier Theatere in Magdalena which perform original plays in a building by the Works Projects Administraton. Their next play is October 23/24/25
THE BALLAD OF BABE & BEAU

Buying and Selling in Socorro

Shopping in Socorro is a little odd...many businesses aren't in the phone book, some of them do two or three things, so I thought I'd sum up what I know about buying and selling in Socorro.

• You can get a fair amount of pet (dog and cat) supplies at Southwest http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifFeed at 408 N California St.
  
• Need running shoes or children's dress shoes? Brownbilts at 111 Manzanares Avenue has brand name running shoes, some hiking boots and kids shoes...and, cowboy hats, boots and jeans.
  
• Socorro has a Freecycle group -- it's a listserve where you can post items that you want to give away or items you are looking for (no buying!).
  
• While Socorro doesn't have a craigslist of it's own, if you go to the Albuquerque craigslist and search for Socorro you'll find lots of buying and selling -- more than 100 items last time I looked -- that's more than is in El Defensor Chiefton. There's also some rentals listed. I've been told that most of the selling is Socorro to Socorro.
  

Recycling in Socorro

Recycling in Socorro is a pain. The city briefly supported curbside recycling, but dropping prices for recycling and rising collection costs forced them to stop. Socorro is such a poor city that recycling is just not a priority for the majority of the residents.

Items that are still valuable, or downright dangerous, can be recycled piecemeal, as described in the list below. Or you can hire Morning Wood Cutters for $20 a month at your house. They recycle cardboard, paperboard, newspaper, computer paper, junk mail, magazines, glass bottles, plastic bottles, plastic grocery bags, tin, aluminum, copper, and steel.

What	When	Where
aluminum cans and newspaper	1st Saturday 8:30-11:20AM	lot south of Ace Hardware
aluminum cans	anytime	various cardboard recycling bins
mixed paper and paperboard	3rd Saturday 8:30-11:20AM	Plaza
e-waste	business hours	Computers by LTJ 105 Plaza
plastic bags	business hours	bin at Walmart or Smiths. Smiths gives "points" for bringing your own plastic bags
cardboard boxes, motor oil	anytime	next to animal shelter/UPS
vehicle batteries	business hours	NAPA Auto Parts
tires	landfill hours	landfill, 1$ charge (closed for high winds)
toner cartridges	business hours	Cottonwood Charter School
cell phone, rechargeable batteries, all toner cartridges	business hours	Rotary Club boxes at  Coffee Shop, Library, Smith's photo, Corner Copy

What about compost? There are two facts that you need to know about composting in New Mexico -- you must water the compost -- or it will mumify rather than compost. The second thing you need is worms.

Bad sunscreen, no skin cancer!

I belong to that embarrassing group of people who love New Mexico but who don't have the melanin to take the sun. I'm such a mixed race mongrel I don't know where our pale skin and glaucoma-prone eyes even came from; but I'm a hat wearing, sunscreen wearing, lover of New Mexico.

Bummer to find out that much of the sunscreen you can buy either doesn't protect against skin cancer or contains chemicals that are bad for you!

The Environmental Working Group has published a study on sunscreens, rating sunscreens from 0 (very protective, no harmful ingredients) to 10 (no UVA protection, cancer-causing ingredients).

Two things in particular stand out in their research: if you get a sunscreen that protects against UVB but not UVA, then you can stay out all day, not get burned, and still be collecting rays for skin cancer. Secondly, many sunscreens use oxybenzone as a UVB blocker -- but oxybenzone has been shown to cause cancer, and disrupt the reproductive system -- and other, better UVB blockers are available.


Surely the sunscreens (or at least the expensive ones) in our medicine cabinet are OK? No, most of them contain oxybenzone, and they score an average of 6 on the EWG scale. Of the thousands of sunscreens they reviewed, they made a summary of "easy to find" safe sunscreens. However, that list includes things never seen this side of Santa Fe -- I have never run across the brands "Mission Skincare" or "California Baby".




The one item I do take issue with is the recommendation against any use of spray sunscreens. EWG worries about ingesting and inhaling all sun screen ingredients, but is especially worried about inhaling spray sunscreens. As you can see in the picture, my babies have just a tiny bit of hair -- not enough to protect their scalp. We have done battle with hats, but finally spray sunscreen has come to the rescue. We only apply it outdoors, we spray from the back, but it protects her head and cannot be easily replaced by a oil-based cream.

So I did some research, at Smiths, John Brooks Supermart, Walmart, then in Albuquerque at Walgreens and La Montinita. Walmart had decided it wasn't summer anymore and taken out ALL OF THE SUNSCREEN. John Brooks had several "natural" brands of sunscreen, but all contained oxybenzone. Since the safest sunscreen recommended by EWG were extremely expensive, I have sorted this list of "locally" available sunscreens by price per ounce.

Name	Size (oz)	Cost	$/oz	Score	Where to Buy
Coppertone Water BABIES - “Pure & Simple”	8	$12.00	1.50	3	Walgreens
Banana Boat Kids Tear-Free UltraMist Spray 30	6	$9.65	1.61	4	Walmart
J.A.S.O.N. Mineral	4	$7.99	2.00	2	La Montanita
Neutrogena “Sensitive Skin”	4	$9.99	2.50	3	Walgreens
Walgreens Sunblock with Zinc Oxide, SPF 45+	2	$5.00	2.50	3	Walgreens
Blue Lizard “Face”	5	$14.99	3.00	3	Walgreens
Blue Lizard "Baby"	5	$14.99	3.00	3	Walgreens
Blue Lizard "Sensitive"	5	$14.99	3.00	3	Walgreens
Neutrogena “Pure & Free”	3	$10.99	3.66	3	Smiths, Walgreens
Burt's Bees Chemical-Free Sunscreen, SPF 30	3.5	$15.00	4.29	4	La Montanita
Kiss My Face Face Factor	2	$12.49	6.25	4	La Montanita
Solar Sense - “Clear Zinc Sport Stick”	0.45	$4.49	9.98	3	Walgreens

I will mention that many of the "safe" sunscreens leave me with a white pasty face all day -- which is fine for my busy unselfconscious children, but not as acceptable for grown ups.

NMT Mineral Museum

I confess one reason I love the NMT Mineral Museum is that I grew up near a grocery/rock shop with a very similar museum in the back. Some deep part of me believes that childhood requires a rock museum you can return to, over and over again.

The NMT Mineral Museum has two large rooms of lovely rocks -- some sorted by the exact mine they came out of, and best of all, a glow-in-the-dark room (sorted by New Mexican and non-New Mexican specimens).

The Museum is free and is directly east of Macey Center park. It's open seven days a week. For my five year old it's good for about 15 minutes of serious browsing. I extend her interest by playing a game called "dibs" -- each of us picks out a favorite rock in each display case. Lynn's favorites are fool's gold and quartz.



I don't normally schedule outings entirely around shopping, but I have to say the BEST thing about The Mineral Museum is buying rocks. It's cool, educational, and the price is right. Graduate students are on call for questions or to sell rocks -- dial the number posted near the phone. Eschew the rotating display case (too awkward for kiddos) and ask them to pull out the trays of 25 cent rocks from the cupboard. Two dollars later you have a rock collection. I think it's cool that each rock comes nestled in packing material with a typed label identifying it -- naturally the kiddo strips this all off the minute we get home.

While the museum is upstairs, the elevator makes it wheelchair and stroller friendly. Bathrooms are around the corner.

A YouTube course on Media Literacy for Five Year Olds

Our five year old is media deprived. She is not allowed to use our computers. We go to great lengths to make sure the TV she watches is commercial-free. Everything she watches has to pass the our idiosyncratic family rating system -- Disney movies are too scary, the violence in Kim Possible, The Muppet Show, and Scooby Doo is fine. Home is a nice protected environment.

A few months ago our daughter went to a friend's house and had a transformative experience -- she spent a few hours playing on Barbie.com. For the next three days we talked about nothing but Barbie.com. I heard about the games, about the paper-doll dress-ups, the toys, the rockstars. While there's nothing I hate more than Pepto-Bismol-pink Barbie, really, I'm not all that upset. I remember going to my friends houses and making a beeline for MTV. I remember eating nothing but Cocoa Puffs and Captain Crunch three meals a day my first few weeks in college. She does need to be exposed to the real world somewhere, and a few hours of braincandy is not going to undermine our 24/7 home life.

What strikes me, in a bad way, is how powerful TV and the internet is. Since she'd had no exposure to any of this, she sucked it up like a sponge. My gentle prompting that Barbie.com has something to sell had little effect. So, fight fire with fire. I hit the internet, and found the makings of a course on media literacy for five year olds.

I suggest that you don't try to do this in one day -- both because kiddos have short attention spans and because they need time to think about their questions. Repetition is good -- I've shown this to her two or three time, seizing the chance when a friend is over. The second time I showed it to Alexander he gratified me by turning to me and saying "The Typhoon II isn't so cool, it only runs nine minutes before the batteries run out".

HBO has a great series from the 1990's called "Buy Me That" which is surprisingly undated. Available on YouTube is a 3 minute video on the reality of commercials: Buy Me That: Helping Kids Understand Toy Ads, Typhoon II

Next onto fast food commercials:

There's a wonderful food stylist video on YouTube -- she's a bit like Donna Reed as she puts cardboard in your hamburger, straight pins in the lettuce and Styrofoam in the french fries. I like to follow this up with the musical montage of real vs. fake. Encourage the kids to yell out "Real!" vs. "Fake!" as the images are shown.

Now I need a segment on product placements in movies, kid eye-level marketing in grocery stores and brand-orientated web sites. Suggestions anyone?


(for local parents in Socorro I have the full VHS tape which has:

• Typhoon II episode (toy doesn't work as shown)
  
• How the GI Joe Battle Copter ad was made
  
• Product placements in movies and video games
  
• Kids Clubs
  
• How special effects make everything sound better on TV
  
• Does buying everything make you a bigger fan?
  
• Do Nike shoes make you jump higher or run faster?
  
• How much Corn Flakes do you have to eat to collect all 15 3D baseball cards?
  

Children's radio program now online

For years we have listened to The Children's Hour -- an hour of talk and music on the "local" public radio station KUNM. We've had terrible luck buying children's music -- so much of it is cloying. We've found a lot of children's music we really like through The Children's Hour but the big problem is that if we forget to turn it on at 9AM on Saturday, that's it, it's over.

Now two weeks of archives are available at their website. The archive format is a bit awkward -- rather than select a show, you must select a time slot, so remember, Saturday 9AM to 10AM. So next time you need an hour of kid-friendly cheerful music, The Children's Hour will be there (maybe even two hours!).

If you listen often, please do remember to donate to KUNM. Public radio, like everything else, is suffering a lot during the economic downturn. Streaming and podcasting makes it seem like the programs come out of nowhere, but in fact there are real people who need real salaries (and health insurance!) behind the programs.

The New Mexico Starter Library

New to New Mexico? Welcome to the wild west. This article is not specifically for kiddos, rather it is a list of recommended books for adults (we deserve some reading above the level of "Hop on Pop"!).

So without further ado, here is my recommendations for New Mexico books:

Be My Guest, Conrad Hilton Conrad Hilton grew up in San Antonio, just twelve miles south of Socorro. His dad ran a grocery store/hotel, then they moved to the "big town" of Socorro. The first half of this memoir is well worth reading. Conrad's father stands out as one of the few settlers of the wild west who refused to carry a gun. He claimed that carrying a gun meant that sooner or later either you or the person you pointed it at died. There's a harrowing scene of him talking a drunken cowboy down at gunpoint.

Blood and Thunder, Hampton Sides This book is much bigger than Carson alone. It tells the rich and complex history of the "taming" of New Mexico and fills in the detail of the brutal campaign against the Navajos. The US Army (hopelessly unsuited to New Mexico) has the duty to protect the pueblos and the Hispanic settlers only lately inherited from Mexico. The governor and army desperately want a Napoleonic style war, with a single leader to negotiate with, and had no idea how to deal with raids carried out by small groups of young male Navajos...thus the tragedy of Bosque Rondondo. This book explained something I never understood -- why anyone thought that interning Apaches with Navajo was a good idea.

The Harvey Girls, Lesley Poling-Kempes If importing brides to the wild west leaves a bad taste in your mouth, don't worry, by the end of this book, you are left with the joy of being a young women in 1900, getting to leave home (with chaperon), travel west (live in a dorm), draw a salary, and transfer between Harvey Houses! I've written more extensively in my article about the Belen Harvey Museum.

The Great Taos Bank Robbery: And Other True Stories of the Southwest, Tony Hillerman If you like mysteries (or even if you can just only stand them) you should read all of Tony Hillerman's mysteries. They are set primarily in Arizona, but the country, and traditions are New Mexican -- Hopi and Navajo did not draw those state borders. This light book is from Hillerman's newspaper days, and is a "Prairie Home Companion" take on New Mexico. We are a small town at heart.

No Life for a Lady, Agnes Morley CleavelandThere are intertwining strands in the rope that makes up New Mexico, this book is about the strand made up of Anglo ranchers. The roughness of life on the frontier, the joy and the practical jokes are all described. The horse culture, where the only acceptable reason for being caught walking was chasing a horse, is described with energy.

The Milagro Beanfield War, John Nichols This fabulous book is a wonderful romp through small town New Mexico. I hate to say much about -- I don't want to give anything away. Hispanic farmers, innocent and well meaning university volunteers, land developers and ghosts cavort. It should be required reading for anyone who crosses the border. I wish I could recommend all the books in the trilogy, but they get rapidly weirder and more violent.

Things that every kid should know

Here's a list of things every kid who grows up in Socorro should know:

• Sedillo springs, which used to be the town's water supply is the only known location of Socorro Isopods, a pill bug that lives in the water.
  
• The town's name means "help" and can be used positively (as in assistance) and as a exclamation --"Socorro!".
  
• Despite what your mother says about running the water while you brush your teeth, Socorro is not a desert. It gets 12 inches of rain a year, two inches more than deserts, making it merely "semiarid".
  
• Socorro Texas was founded by Piro Indians who left Socorro NM to go back to Old Mexico during the Publeo revolt -- they were in trouble for helping the Spanish.
  
• Socorro is nationally known among birders for the Bosque del Apache wildlife refuge and among amateur astronomers for The Enchanted Skies star party.
  
• Elfego Baca, the Hispanic folk hero, was born in Socorro and served here as mayor and sheriff. When he was 19, he deputized himself, went to Frisco (present day Reserve) and tried to arrest a Anglo cowboy who had abused Hispanic ranchers. There was a 30 hour shootout, involving more than 1000 rounds of ammunition. Since his law enforcement credentials were a bit shaky so he later had to stand trial for the arrest. The story grew in the telling and Baca had a long political career.
  
• Socorro used to have a roller skating rink and a bowling alley. Those were the days.
  
  
  
• Conrad Hilton, who founded the Hilton hotel chain, was born in San Antonio and moved to the "big town" of Socorro. The first half of his autobiography, "Be My Guest", is all about growing up in New Mexico
  
• New Mexico has the highest numbers of Ph.D.s per capita in the U.S. Within New Mexico, Los Alamos has 261, Albuquerque has 76 and Socorro (city) at 67 per 1000 (PhD or professional degrees, US Census, 2000).
  
• The Nicotine Patch was invented by a former professor at NMT and he and NMT share the patent for it.
  
• New Mexico has the second highest teenage birth rate in the country: 64.1 per 1000. Socorro (2006) "only" has 57 per 1000, placing it 17 out of 33 counties in New Mexico.
  
• The Pueblo Revolt of 1680 was the single most successful Native American revolt against European invaders. The revolt drove all Spanish from New Mexico for 12 years.
  

A Hike to Sedillo Springs

This two mile round trip hike is described as part of a longer bike ride at the Fat Tire Fiesta website.



The hike is through desert scrub, then on dirt roads, to the old Socorro water supply. We love hikes (rare in New Mexico) that end with water. The view of Socorro is lovely. Have your kids check the water temperature (80 degrees!) in series of small concrete baths and look for the Socorro Isopod -- a pill bug that lives in the water. The Socorro Isopod ONLY lives in these springs! The baths are the remains of a spa called "The Evergreen" (like the road).

New Mexico Game and Fish PDF on the Isopod says:

In August 1988 the entire population died out
at the spring when the flow of water became
obstructed and the habitat dried up. Fortunately,
a population of the isopod, which was housed
at the University of New Mexico, saved the
species from extinction, and a transplant has
restored it to Sedillo Spring.

Directions:

1. From California, drive west on Spring Street. Rather than turn south onto 60, stay on Spring Street, watching for a residential road branching from the left, Evergreen
   
2. Take Evergreen to the end. We usually park on the right, in front of an abandoned house.
   
3. The first land you cross belongs to a retired Socorro police officer. It's clearly marked "No Trespassing" and "City Vehicles Only", which he explained is designed to keep drinkers and spray painters away. The Fat Tire Fiesta map shows a trail under the powerpoles but there is no trail. Either cut cross-country toward the tank, or if you have a jogging stroller, take the driveway marked "No Trespassing".
   
4. From the tank, pick up the dirt road, headed east. At about a mile, there will be a small trail to the left, leading towards the cottonwood stand (always a good sign of water in New Mexico). At the empty holding pond you can continue toward the adobe ruin, then cut cross country back to the car (barbed wire fence), or retrace your steps, return to the car (or and add a another half mile by climbing to the top of the hill behind the springs).
   

Belen Harvey House Museum

Taking the train across the wild west from 1817-1917 was quite an adventure, and worst of all, you were on your own for food. You packed a picnic and it had better last. Trains actually stopped in small towns for meals, and some shifty restaurants took your money, then just waited for the train to leave -- your empty stomach on it. To compete with other railway lines, the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway (ATSF) "branded" their railway with Harvey Houses -- regularly scheduled stops where you could order a full meal in a civilized setting. After a drunken fight put his black stewards out of business for the day, Harvey started hiring girls. Waitressing wasn't respectable on the East Coast, but Fred Harvey opened dormitories, hired chaperons, demanded strict manners and brought pride to the profession. Working at the Harvey House gave girls a chance to travel in a chaperoned manner -- they signed six month contracts, were given a free trip home every year, and could transfer between the Harvey Houses, 87 different locations at their peak. The supply chain was very impressive: uniforms were shipped to Newton, Kansas to be laundered, ice was shipped from northern climes to every Harvey House.

An unintended consequence of importing adventurous east-coast girls to male dominated towns of the wild west was that the girls married local cowboys, settled down and brought the Harvey manners to the next generation -- from "Gold Rush" to small town America in one generation. And then the next train brought in a fresh new crop of Harvey Girls.

The Belen Harvey House contains a small museum (the menu is really impressive!) and the model train club. I would watch "Harvey Girls" first, the 1946 musical with Judy Garland and the memorable "Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe train song". The movie is good for age 5 and up -- there's a scary fire and threatened gunfight and some rather tame "women of ill repute" (a young Angela Lansbury). The museum is good for about 20 minutes, trains go by, and then the model railroad is fun.

Open 12:30-3:30PM T-S, (575?) 861-0581



Belen is a 45 minute drive from Socoro

Nuisance Dog Map

At Google Maps I've found a Socorro Nuisance Dogs Map. Each location in Socorro with a nasty (or annoying) dog is marked -- people are free to add any other sitings!