I SLEEP IN THIS MORNING, and upon getting up, offer to help Ferdinand on the ranch.

First, we feed the horses while talking to Slim, a neighbor, about the Bible. Next, after he saddles up his horse and I get in the pickup, we go out to round up some cattle that got out of the pasture. Then, we go looking for two missing heifers and one missing cow. We find the two heifers in the back pastures but do not find the missing cow; the cow must have gotten through the fence somewhere.

About mid afternoon we go into the ranch house and Ferdinand cooks breakfast for both of us.

After feeding the horses again, we retire to the living room for the evening for more encouraging association and do not get to sleep until after eleven.

Up after sunrise and heat some water for tea. Then Ferdinand goes out to feed the horses and work with the two young trainers while I work on my Bible study inside. Just before eleven, he come in and invites me to join him in riding a couple of horses and I agree. He rides the chestnut named Pistol and I ride the paint named Tonto and in just a few hours on horseback I learn much from Ferdinand about riding a horse.

The local cowboy has helped me learn that the most important thing when riding a horse (at least a horse which has already been trained) is that after you give a horse a command, particularly with the reigns, and then the horse begins to execute your command, then let up on the pressure of that command because the horse is smart enough to follow thru.

This is the concept of pressure-release, or for a horse, it means that if the animal wants a release of pressure then it needs to move toward that pressure and once a trained horse has moved toward the pressure it gets what it wants when the cowboy releases or backs off on the pressure. In the perspective of a Horse: the best reward it will receive is the release of pressure, both physical and mental.

Ferdinand trains horses for nearby ranchers by training the horse to accept a human′s touch, direction and leadership and in doing so, this gentle′s the animal.

He also concentrates on teaching people how to provide the leadership that is needed in the human-horse relationship.

For more photos of the horse trainer in action with a couple of two year old horses, please go to the horses at Laughlin Mountain in the Mountain Passage.

Late in the afternoon, we come into the ranch house, clean up, eat and then head for the meeting where I meet the friends from the Trinidad congregation. Afterwards, we go with several of the friends to a restaurant for a meal and association. Ferdinand and I arrive back on the ranch just before midnight, feed the horses and retire.

Up to the regular routine here on the horse ranch, of course the first and last thing you always do is feed the horses. However, last night, there was a storm that blew in and there is now two to four inches of snow on the ground.

Also, the weather remains wintry all day keeping us inside for most of it.

Another very cold and windy day but the afternoon warms up enough for Fernando to work some with the two trainers. I remain inside and work on my journal and website.

When Raymond, the owner of the cattle on this ranch, comes by to drops off the trailer full of pellet feed for the cattle, I go outside to meet him.

Today, I join Ferdinand in feeding the livestock, first driving to the horses near the ranch and then out to the pastures to feed the cattle, I would say there are some 200 of them spread out on this large ranch.

We arrive back at the ranch house and Ferdinand continues his training of the two young horses. A little later, I join him with my camera and take numerous photos of the process. Next, we drive to the ranch adjacent to Capulin to deliver the two trained horses to their owner. After that, we drive to town to fuel the truck and have a sandwich from the sub shop.

Finally, we return to the ranch and you guessed it, the horses have to be fed again. By this time, most of the snow has melted due to today being a warm sunny day. Sometime in the late afternoon, a north wind pick up again, the temperature drops and this wind continues blowing hard all night. Just before retiring, I take a hot shower.

Upon awaking, I notice that the north wind brought with it an inch of snow. After feeding the horses, Ferdinand and I head to the hall for service arriving just before the groups leave. We are assigned to work with four sisters distributing the memorial tract and we are able to finish two territories.

In the early afternoon, Ferdinand makes a call on a young man and we go to a restaurant with him to study the Bible. Afterwards, we reconnect with the service group and return to complete yet another territory in the tract work.

It is about six when we begin our return to the ranch, feed the horses and retire for some personal study. Most of the snow has melted again but the wind is still blowing hard.

Ten days have past since my engine overheated and met its demise there on Interstate 25. Since then, I have been waiting for Larry, the brother who is a mechanic in Trinidad to find a replacement engine, have it shipped to his garage and then install it in my van. Today, I try to contact him by phone several times but only get his voice mail, so, this evening, Ferdinand drives me to his garage where we find my van still outside untouched.

I suppose that I will ask him about the progress tomorrow when I see him at the meeting. My desire is for the van to be repaired so I can return to Washington, sell my home and prepare for my move to Mexico. I will keep praying about all this.

Also in the last ten days since my engine went south, I have been the recipient of nonpareil hospitality. What I mean by this is that immediately upon my contacting the brothers here in this area, they have been both willing as well as pro-active in providing for my well being during this unforeseen mishap. Even during the worst of weather conditions, my needs have been provided for; I have had warm shelter, tasty food and good companionship. Not only have I had my needs taken care of but neither have I been in want in any way.

Truly, Jehovah provides for his people through this wonderful brotherhood.

After feeding the horses, we go to the nearby pasture to feed the first calf heifers and then back to the house to get ready for the meeting. On the way to the hall, we stop at a brother′s home to give him some encouragement. Then we arrive for the meeting and David gives the public talk.

I also talk to Larry and he tells me that he did not have phone service where he was Saturday. Also, he assures me that he will have the van fixed this week. I asked him "You mean by next weekend?" and he replied yes. That is good news!

Afterwards I join some of the brothers for lunch and later go to a location with WiFi to check my email and do some banking to get the money for this repair. Finally, Ferdinand and I make a few calls and afterwards, head to the ranch where the horses get fed and then we go inside.

Sunrise at five minutes before Seven and we get right to work feeding the horses. Then we get into the truck, feed the livestock in the pastures and then head for the westernmost two pastures, called North NC and South NC to search for seventy-six year-old calves. They were originally put in the North NC and even though an initial search finds none of them we go back to the North NC to try again.

The circuit around the north pasture takes over three hours and again on this search we do not find a single calf. So, we continue the search in the south pasture and after an hour we find thirty-nine head by the windmill. In a further search of a separate area we find another seventeen head. Next, we drive them out of the South NC down a steep narrow draw to the gate but in the process, many are lagging behind, so I hop out of the truck, grab a rope and get behind the calves to bring up the rear.

This works fine until we get to the gate when several decide to go every which way. Normally, my position would be manned by a cowboy on a horse which would make it much easier but I persist on foot and get all five strays back on the right path even though I slip in the creek three times. With all of the calves through the gate, I lock it and begin driving these last ones up the hill to catch up with the herd.

I run for several stretches to push the calf in order to catch up and use my deep breathing technique so as to keep me going at this seven thousand foot elevation. Soon, we all arrive at the twin dirt ponds, leave the calves here and go back to the ranch for a horse to make the twelve mile cattle drive to the William pasture.

It is the early afternoon when we arrive back at the twin dirt ponds and we begin by shaking the feed bucket which gets most of the calves to come-a-running. The remaining calves need to be driven by the cowboy on the horse. Meanwhile, I drive the truck slowly, stopping occasionally to get out and shake the feed bucket which keeps the calves moving so that we can drive them to the Williams pasture.

It is a long hot drive for the calves because they still have their winter coats and the road is dry and dusty. Along the way, when the calves see a tank in an adjacent pasture, they go to the fence indication they want to drink. However, we do not have access to these pasture, besides, there is a tank waiting for them in the Williams pasture. During the last two miles, shaking the feed bucket no longer works and because the calves have become tired and thirsty, they begin to walk very slowly. When the calves arrive at the open gate into the Williams pasture, they go right in and gather together to wait to see what the two cowboys are going to do.

I get in the truck, drive towards the tank, begin honking and the calves follow the short distance to the tank. Upon arriving at the tank and in order to get the stragglers to keep moving forward, I park directly behind the tank and keep honking. All the calves finally make it to the tank and quench their thirst. It has been a good cattle drive and I hope that the next time I will also be on horseback.

We head back to the ranch and guess what, we still have to feed the horses and the penned cows with newborns. We finally make it in to the ranch house to clean up and eat and afterwards, Ferdinand asks me to help him feed the calf whose mother died a couple of days ago.

Ferdinand prepares the bottle and then we both go to the corral where Ferdinand ropes the calf while I hold the bottle. The calf knows exactly what to do and sucks it down quickly. After eating, Ferdinand takes the rope off of the calf but it does not move away from me, thinking now that I am it′s momma.

We finish this day after sunset and I notice that the moon has risen and looks to be only one day from being full. This has been a tiring twelve hour day on this ranch here in northeast New Mexico, but the sky has been clear and sunny the entire day, a good day for working hard on the ranch and now this night promises to be a good one for sleep.

The Memorial of Christ's death is held today after sundown and is celebrated in this way due to the fact that the Memorial of Christ's Death is patterned after the annual Passover celebration held by the Israelites each year after sundown on the first full moon after the spring equinox. (Exodus 12:14)

The date of the original Passover celebration was appointed by God to be on the evening of Nisan 14, 1513 BCE when the angel of death passed over the houses of the Israelites and allow them to leave Egypt free from Egyptian bondage.

God commanded the Israelites to commemorate the anniversary of that pass over with subsequent annual celebrations to be held each year on Nisan 14 after sundown, a day in the lunar calendar of the Israelites and always on the night of the full moon.

The Memorial of Jesus′ Death, also an anniversary celebratio,n then would appropriately be held only on Nisan 14 each year thereafter. (1 Corinthians 5:7)

Up early to spend time cleaning and organizing my gear. Later, Ferdinand comes in and asks me to help with the bottle fed calf. When I arrive at the pen, Ferdinand has a surrogate cow′s hind leg roped and pulled up. He wants me to hold the calf′s head against the cow′s utter while he hold the surrogate cow still.

The calf tries to suck but does not get any milk and stops. I keep holding its head in place but it does not continue sucking. I ask Ferdinand if he has any milk left from the bottle feeding and he tells me to go inside to check.

When I return to the calf, I pour a little milk on my hand and rub it on the cow′s teat which immediately encourages the calf to resume sucking. This sucking could stimulate the cow to resume producing milk for the orphaned calf. ¹

Later, during the afternoon, I work on organizing my web files and creating a template for my photo pages, one which I hope will help me create new photo pages without much effort. After sunset, I cook spice rice with green peas and tea for supper and afterwards resume working on the template.

When I awake this morning, Ferdinand suggests that he calls Larry to check on the progress of my van and I tell him that is a good idea. Larry tells him that my van should be completed by Friday evening, Saturday morning at the latest. Yes, after two weeks, it would be nice to be sleeping in my van again.

Later I finish the photo page template and then start creating the first photo page which only takes three hours; this is much less that the three days it used to take me. I hope to refine the template page even more and as I become proficient in using it, maybe I can reduce the time even more.

Early in the afternoon, Ferdinand and I leave for town and we do the same thing as we did this past Tuesday for the memorial. He drops me off in Raton, here in New Mexico at a restaurant next to the interstate highway, one that has WiFi and he goes across the state line to Trinidad, Colorado.

We leave early because he has business to do and of course I have the internet to occupy me. In the evening we both go to the meeting (myselƒ being picked up by a local brother) in the different towns and then Ferdinand picks me up on his way back to the ranch.

It is midnight when we arrive back at the ranch at which time, I go right to bed.

The sun rises shortly before I wake and the wind persists all today. I prepare my usual breakfast of rolled oats and Tea Tree tea and sit down to work with my new template. This template has given me an idea of how to reduce much of the work I do for both my web sites as well as my paralegal work.

I go outside several times today and find that it is very cold outside and continues all day in the low thirties. The wind finally abates in the late afternoon.

At about six this evening, we made a call to Larry but get his answering machine. He calls back at eight and says that the van would not be done until Saturday afternoon. I am a patient man but Larry has had my van for fifteen days now and Saturday will be sixteen days even though according to the rate book, this is a two day job. I am not sure why this is taking so much time, Larry has not told me about any problems that he is having and the motor was put in a year ago so there should not be any "stuck" parts that would slow him down.

Back on the eighteenth of March when I asked how much this will cost, he told me very clearly, twelve hundred dollars and then later he added another fifty dollars. I should have asked another very important question: How long will this take? Well, I will just keep praying about this concern for another day.

Awake to the howling wind again today. Upon putting my jeans on, I find that I need to cut another hole in my belt, this being the eleventh hole my waist has shrunk since starting this journey.

I go first with Ferdinand to feed the horses and first calf heifers. Then Raymond arrives and the three of us go to feed syrup to the year old calves. We drop two liquid-feeding containers, each near a water tank, filling them both with syrup and then drop salt blocks at each the water tanks.

After changing trailers, we go to the cow herd and feed them with cake pellets. When we come back to the ranch to drop off the trailer, I come inside and prepare a cup of hot tea while Raymond and Ferdinand go back out to do some other chores.

At four this afternoon Ferdinand and I go to check on my van. Larry is able to get the engine running but there is something else wrong. We work on it and determine that that the transmission has also been damaged.

Ferdinand had worked on transmissions for many years so, we pull the transmission out, take it apart and find the problem. Larry says that he will order the parts Monday and they should arrive by Tuesday, which means, I suppose, that I will be here for several more days.

We get up at sunrise and head for town and Ferdinand drops me off in Raton at the same restaurant. Then, I get in contact with Mike to have someone pick me up for the meeting and Paul arrives a little after nine.

Today is the last day of the circuit overseers visit here in the Raton congregation. The circuit overseer, David and his wife Trina are from the San Juan Islands very near to where my home is for sale on Whidbey Island. He even came, I would guess seven years ago, to the Oak Harbor congregation to be a substitute circuit overseer about. The public talk was excellent and entitled What is God′s Kingdom doing today?

After the meeting, Paul drives me back to the restaurant and I check my email and work on my web site. There is a problem on my computer, the restaurant server blocks my access to the Internet saying my computer has a virus so I go to the adjacent restaurant, access the Internet, download a new antivirus program and clean up my computer.

Later, Ferdinand picks me up and we head back a the ranch, and upon arriving, I go to my room and go to sleep.

It is now after midnight as I begin recording today′s entry and while I write in my journal, I eat some rolled oats and raisins, the only solid food that I have eaten today. Ferdinand just earlier offered to make me a sandwich but I turned him down because I feel that I have overextended my welcome here by several weeks. I have always adhered to what Benjamin Franklin once say: “Fish and visitors, after three days begin to smell.”

I know now that I need to depart from the generosity of Ferdinand′s hospitality because he gave voice to his true feelings earlier today when he said, "I have put you up for fifteen days, rebuilt your transmission and driven you every where" after I commented on the fact that we got very close to getting my car running again. I apologized for any inappropriate words that came from my mouth and assured him that when I said that “We have gotten very close to getting my car running again” that I in no way meant to insult him.

In truth, it has been fifteen days that I have been living with him and this also shows that he has been counting the days. However, he is wrong in his statement that he has driven me every where because I have never asked him to take me any place but have gone with him when he drives to town. I only asked for him to drop me at the restaurant at the interstate when he was driving by it. It is true that he made a special trip to Trinidad today to work on my transmission, but this has been the first time that he has driven me somewhere he was not going.

The most important thing that I have learned from this experience is that the brotherhood continues to be the most important thing in my life despite the imperfections of my brothers. I have found that there are those who are still less mature in the brotherhood and I must continue to make allowances for such immaturity, forgiving my brothers when they lack the necessary maturity in the truth. Still, I know well that I am not perfect either, and must needs give even more forgiveness and love.

Nevertheless, in respect for my dear brother Ferdinand I will continue to give him the kudos he deserves simply because he has put up with me for over two weeks and despite him being new in the truth (he had only been baptized for two years) I am totally humbled by his superior grasp and recall of the holy scriptures. Further, I know that this special gift of being able to quote verse after verse will be a great asset in his service to Jehovah so I pray fervently that Jehovah will help him find the most appropriate way in which to utilize this gift.

I must close today′s entry in stating that I love my dear brother Ferdinand and will do anything in my ability to help him spiritually, now and in the future. Therefore, today, I told Ferdinand and Larry that no matter where I am, that they would always be a welcome guest in my home.

Nevertheless, I pray to Jehovah that tomorrow will be the absolute last day that I am to impose myselƒ upon these fine and beautiful brothers here in this place.

Up again at sunrise, get my gear ready and then begin reading while waiting to be driven to get my van. At three, we get into the truck and drive to Trinidad.

I pay Larry the fourteen hundred and seventy dollars he asks for the repairs, not saying anything about his quote, thank both Larry and Ferdinand immensely, start the jammer engine and drive out of Trindad heading south.

My first stop is at the g-mart in Raton, NM to resupply my pantry with oats, raisins, an onion and a couple other items after which I fill the gas tank with fuel.

I have decided to drive south to Interstate 40 and then west because I have heard that there is a winter storm on the mountains west of Denver which has dumped a lot of snow in the IH 70 mountain passes. A short time later, I call my brother Robert and he confirms that IH 70 would not be a good route at this time, especially since I do not have tire chains, neither do I want to buy a set.

So, I start out on IH 25 south past Santa Fe and Albuquerque, New Mexico to I-40, turn west and continue driving late into the evening. Driving after dark without a vehicle heater requires me to wrap up in my wool blanket while wearing my gloves and even pulling my bandana up over my nose.

I am able to make it to Grants, New Mexico on one tank of gas and when I pull off the freeway to fill up the gas tank I see a d-mart where I immediately pull in, park and get right into the sack.

Before I sleep, methinks the past two week have been both a blessing and a test, and thank Jehovah for helping me to get through both safely and for providing me with new experiences to both learn from and write about in my journal.

The predawn light wakes me and I get up an go into the store to wash up. Then I fill up the gas tank and head out west on the IH 40 and soon cross the continental divide near the NM-AZ state line.

I call Robert again for another weather report and when he confirms that the storm in only in the higher elevations, I decide to head north on US 191 through Arizona and Utah in order to return to IH 70 and travel west to connect with IH 84 which I plan to take back into Washington.

While in Moab, UT I stop briefly at a ff-mart for WiFi to check e-mail and then just north of Moab, I stop at Canyonlands National park for a few photos.