Tag: State Of New Mexico

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Animals dumped in Rio Rancho

A KOAT article “Animals Run Wild In Rio Rancho, Retired Officer Says” says that stray animals from the rest of Sandvoal County are being dumped in Rio Rancho.

“They’re either being brought by the citizens, who are dumping them in Rio Rancho, or they’re wandering in, and that’s just a burden in Rio Rancho,” he said.
Sandoval County leaders said the only animal control officer was transferred after he was involved in a criminal incident that was still under investigation.
Sheriff’s deputies were expected to continue to respond to certain animal control calls. Because they cannot transport animals, county leaders asked residents to take stray animals to local shelters to help with the problem.

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The Village At Rio Rancho Will Be Here Some Day

The Village At Rio Rancho, a Albuquerque Uptown style outdoor shopping center, is still coming soon. According to the Rio Rancho Observer the city planning and zoning was to approve the plan on January 24th (and they did) which would allow the developer to start work on the Cinemark movie theater.

Building a new movie theater so close to the recently built Premiere Cinemas is a mistake according to me. I’m more interested in having the rest of the complex built where I predict there will be an Apple Store.

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Some Company To Build Fake City In New Mexico

Some Company I never heard of is going to build a fake city somewhere in the Albuquerque Metro area. the 20 square mile city will be used to… test technologies? Why they can’t do the same thing is a real city is beyond my understand of the press release.

Pegasus Global Holdings, an international technology development firm, is announcing plans to develop The Center for Innovation, Testing and Evaluation (The Center), a first of its scale and scope fully integrated testing and evaluation facility for new and emerging technologies. With offices in Washington, DC; Reston, Virginia; and London, UK, Pegasus Global plans to locate the privately owned, commercially operated facility in the State of New Mexico
The Center will resemble a mid-sized American city, including urban canyons, suburban neighborhoods, rural communities and distant localities. It will offer the only of its kind opportunity to replicate the real-world challenges of upgrading existing city infrastructure to that of a 21st Century smart city, operating within a green economy.

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Serious Eats Reviews Blake's Lottaburger

From Serious Eat’s A Hamburger Today review of Blake’s Lottaburger.

But the green chiles are the real draw, of course. Each chile chunk was warm and juicily popped open, hot and sturdy, under the teeth. And whereas many fast-food chains tone down their “spicy” creations for a mass market, these were the spiciest thing I’ve ever tasted on a fast food burger. Without the green chile, the burger is still better than McDonald’s and Burger King, but the green chili really makes it a star. The Green Chile Lotaburger comes with lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, and mustard. None of the other toppings are spectacular, not that it matters much since you can barely anything beyond the green chile.

I’ve lived in New Mexico for 15 years and I have yet to eat at Blakes. I probably wouldn’t like the spicy green chile anyway.

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Does Arizona's Dust Storm Mark The Beggining Of The Monsoon?

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/RLGCmnX_yH4?version=3&hl=en_US&hd=1

In New Mexico and Arizona we are waiting anxiously for some rain. Arizona’s July 5th wall of dust known as a haboob seems to have marked the beginning of the Monsoon. These walls of dust moving into the Phoenix area are not new, I remember them nearly every year when I was growing up. This year it was a particularly large one.

The weekend outlook from the NOAA shows the seasonal shift in winds and moisture from the south.

Weekend Outlook

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Wired Magazine On The Southwest Megafires

Wired.com’s article “Megafires May Change the Southwest Forever“

The plants and animals of the southwestern United States are adapted to fire, but not to the sort of super-sized, super-intense fires now raging in Arizona.

The product of drought and human mismanagement, these so-called megafires may change the southwest’s ecology. Mountainside Ponderosa forests could be erased, possibly forever. Fire may become the latest way in which people are profoundly altering modern landscapes.

The two closest fires to me are still burning. The Las Conchas Fire in the Jemez Mountains near Las Alamos is at 92,735 and is close to being the largest fire in New Mexico. The Pacheco Fire near Santa Fe and the Pecos Wilderness has burned a measly 10,000 acres and is 24% contained.

The Donaldson fire is much more south of me but has burned over 43,000 acres.

We are getting signs of Monsoon weather.

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Raton Track Fire Caused By An ATV

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/de21nEfXvmc?version=3&hl=en_US

The Raton Track Fire has burned more than 27,000 acres and caused 500 people to be evacuated, was caused by ATV spewing exhaust.

New Mexico State Forestry says exhaust particles from an ATV in the area is what most likely caused the dry brush to catch fire.

According to findings from investigators, the ATV driver or drivers trespassed onto private property then headed onto land owned by the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway.

The Track Fire is 98% contained.

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Pacheco Canyon Fire In Santa Fe, New Mexico

Santa Fe, New Mexico Pacheco Canyon Fire As Seen From Rio Rancho by gregjsmith, on Flickr
Santa Fe, New Mexico Pacheco Canyon Fire As Seen From Rio Rancho

Say hello to New Mexico’s newest fire, the Pacheco Canyon Fire In Santa Fe. The fire was visible from my house in Rio Rancho on the day it started but I haven’t been able to see it since Saturday. On Sunday there was too much smoke from the Arizona Wallow fire to see much of anything.

InciWeb says the fire has burned over 3000 acres and describes it as extreme.

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Arizona's Wallow Fire In Albuquerque

Sandias Covered In Smoke From The Wallo Fire In Az

The view of the Sandia Mountains from my front window the last few days has been obscured by smoke from the Wallow fire near the New Mexico border in Alpine, Arizona. This fire is affecting the Albuquerque area by creating a cloud of smoke which besides the smell has caused some ash to fall from the sky.

Normally I have a clear view of the Sandias except when we have a storm.

This one is over

It’s bad enough that the last two nights I have had to turn off the cooler because it was filling the house with the smell of forest fire.

This is going to be a bad year for fires unless we get some rain, which the Albuquerque area hasn’t received a significant rain storm since early this year.

The Arizona Republic as a good FAQ on the Wallow Fire and An image from the NOAA shows the smoke plume (I don’t know if the NOAA has a direct source to this image).

Wallo Fire Smoke NOAA

Update 06/07/2011: The trend for the last few days is the smoke goes away during the day and settles back in during the evening. It feels like a nuclear winter. Here are a few pictures I took from the office building last night, note the red dot which is the sun.

Wallow fire smoke as seen in Rio Rancho, NM

Wallow Fire smoke as seen in Rio Rancho, NM

While the smoke here in Rio Rancho and Albuquerque is bad, it’s not nearly as bad as for those who actually live where the fire is. The local paper The White Mountain Independent has information about all of the evacuations in the area.

Latest map from the NOAA.

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Cows And Guns In Rio Rancho

Back in October, the local news station KRQE recently two stories about Rio Rancho. I like living in Rio Rancho, I like being on the edge of civilization and I will deal with the occasional scorpion, dust storm. Or cows.

When I moved here 15 years ago I used to drive around in the desert that is now Northern Meadows. There were cows then just like there are cows now.

Residents in Rio Rancho’s North Meadows say they don’t know what to do with a growing problem. A cattle herd has been traveling from the west ends of the city limits into neighborhoods causing car crashes and eating gardens at some homes.

Another thing I did when I moved here was to go out and shot guns at the end of Southern Blvd. Then there wasn’t a house in site but now that the area has developed, people, not me, are still out there shooting.

That’s because Sara–who asked News 13 not to use her real name because she fears retaliation–lives in an area that is a popular but illegal shooting range. She said she often hears nonstop gunfire, especially on weekends, from people shooting weapons in the desert near her home at the far west end of Southern Boulevard near 38th Street.

Having people guns near and at your house makes having a cow problem not so bad.