This is a wee bit late. Between two interviews with Firebird Films on their documentary, the Paragon Foundation Seminar and the NIRA rodeo Friday and Saturday night, I'm behind on everything.

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE WESTERNER

Secret places

by Larry Gabriel

I suspect that nearly every farm or ranch has a secret place, where people go from time to time just for a little peace.

In a good secret place, no winds of adversity blow; no telephones ring; no clocks tick; no noise distracts; no people unexpectedly intrude.

It might be a particular spot in a hayloft, or under a bridge, or in a secluded bend of a river, or a small clearing in the trees, or a remote hilltop, but rural people know where they are.

Fishermen often have one secret spot. That is the place they go when fishing is an escape from the civilized world. They usually go alone. They won't tell you where it is.

Hunters have a similar thing. They will tell you stories from places where they sat for hours and watch as nature plays out a variety of dramas for them. It might be the place where the largest deer they have ever seen comes to visit. They just watch. They don't even think of lifting the gun. Sometimes it is not loaded anyway. They often don't admit that.

Their stories will contain a different reason why he "got away". They might tell you about the deer, but they won't tell you where he is, or how to get to that special place.

I know of spots on the creek totally surrounded by hills. The prairie winds never blow there, even when a winter blizzard is raging on the hills above. It is like walking into an invisible room.

It is a natural shelter and better than a barn. It requires no upkeep and no increased property taxes. Cows ready to drop a calf often go there.

It is a place of safety. It gives a feeling like sitting snugly in front of a wood burning stove or fireplace in our homes during a winter storm.

There are other such places for other times of the year. There are places deep in the woods where the heat of summer and the blast of a hot south wind never reach, and the earth feels cool and moist.

What rural folks do in such places is not much different than what some call a "wilderness experience" or "communing with nature".

Some people got the idea from John Muir (possibly America's most famous naturalist) that vast areas of true "wilderness" are needed for such experiences. That's not true.

John himself might have agreed that the primary point is to protect our secret places, not just a vast emptiness around them. Muir found hundreds of secret places and told the whole world about them.

Rural folks value special places just as much as the most ardent member of the Sierra Club. We just don't tell where they are. That's the difference. We can keep a secret.

Larry is the South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture.

The many promises of the land of mañana

By Julie Carter

I truly love New Mexico and all its idiosyncrasies that make it unique.

There are things about New Mexico you can only learn with time spent here and then it becomes just simply how it is. Most of these “things” are completely accepted and no one questions them. Those that question them usually don’t stay long anyway.

I have a list that some unknown person authored about living in New Mexico. I thought it to be humorous, correct and worth sharing.


All festivals across the state are named after a fruit or vegetable.

Onced and twiced are words.

Coldbeer is one word.

“Jeet?” is an actual phrase meaning, “Did you eat?”

You find 100 degrees a “tad” warm.

You describe the first cool snap (below 70 degrees) as good chilly weather.

You can switch from “heat” to “A/C” in the same day.

The wind blows at 90 mph from Oct. 2 until June 25; then it stops totally until Oct. 2.

When a buzzard sits on the fence and stares at you, it is time to see a doctor.

You come to know which leaves make good toilet paper.

You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.

You carry jumper cables for your own car.

You think everyone from north of Farmington has an accent.

You measure distance with time not miles. “It’s about 45 minutes away.”

Sweetened ice tea is appropriate for all meals and you start drinking it at age two.

You have only four spices in your kitchen: Salt, pepper, Catsup and Tabasco.

Sexy underwear is a tee shirt and boxer shorts.

All four seasons are: almost summer, summer, still summer and Christmas.

Fix-in-to is one word.

Green grass does burn.

Backwards and forwards means I know everything about you.

You work until you are done or it is too dark to see.

The sounds of coyotes howling at night only sound good for the first few weeks.

There is a valid reason why some people put razor wire around their house.

Nothing will kill a mesquite tree.

If it grows, it will stick you. If it crawls, it will bite you.

There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 live in New Mexico.

There are 10,000 types of spiders and all 10,000 live in New Mexico plus a few undiscovered varieties.

The local paper covers national and international news on one page but requires six pages to cover Friday night high school football.

The first day of deer or elk season is a national holiday.


In l985 when I first moved from the Denver area to this land of enchantment, my initial impression of New Mexico was that the clock had been turned back at least two decades.

While the charm of that was certainly as promised, very enchanting, it could also be very frustrating. Gearing life down from a metropolitan fast paced do-it-now we want-it-yesterday world was not easy to do.

But New Mexico has a solution for that too. It is called “mañana,”--a word that is more than just a word. It is an attitude that New Mexico wears like a badge of honor, a banner of royalty and a promise to all that arrive—don’t bother to get in a hurry because we don’t.

© Julie Carter 2005

===