There’s been no moss growing on my shoes recently as the 20th season of the Moab Music Festival has been taking up a lot of evenings. Live music of the sort I most enjoy is a rare find in Moab, so I try to take in all I can when it is available.
However, I found myself overbooked last weekend, as I had arranged to be at the Navajo Churro Growers and Breeders Association meeting in Chama, N.M., in addition to it being last weekend of the music festival. I’m no longer a Navajo Churro grower or breeder, though I once was, until both a bear and a puma killed all my animals. Living on the banks of both Mill Creek and Pack Creek is not a good recipe for raising timid stock like sheep.
But I like rubbing shoulders, as it were, with folks who do raise sheep, and this last weekend’s soiree was no exception.
There are a couple of ways to get to Chama. We took the more southerly route going over Friday. It’s a five- to six-hour drive (like Moab to Ogden or Logan). That took us through the lands of the Jicarillo Apache, where I found a marvelous basket in their craft shop. The thing about baskets is that they can’t be made by a machine.
On the agenda of the meeting was the short trip up to Tierra Wools in Los Ojos, N.M. Tierra Wools has been famous for years for their marvelous weavings. The general economic downturn caused them to reevaluate what they merchandise, and they have expanded into whatever the local people make. Since the weavings cost more of an arm and a leg than I had brought with me, I was delighted to purchase a pine needle basket to go with my Apache basket. And I also found a tanned sheepskin, which feels great under my bare toes.
Altogether, it was a great trip.