Columns

PEEC Amateur Naturalist: Tadpoles and Temporary Streams

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PEEC Amateur Naturalist: Tadpoles and Temporary Streams
By ROBERT DRYJA

An estimated 88 percent of the miles of streams in New Mexico are intermittent as shown in the hydrographic map.

Extensive permanent streams exist only in the mountains of northeastern New Mexico. The Los Alamos area is typical of this pattern. The few perennial streams are in the higher elevations toward the Valles Caldera, while many intermittent and ephemeral streams are in the lower elevations toward the Rio Grande.

National Hydrography Dataset, https:////nhd.usgs.gov. Courtesy/Robert Dryja

The temporary streams Read More

Peterson: How Simply Breathing Can Become a Royal Pain in the Neck

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How Simply Breathing Can Become a Royal Pain in the Neck

By Kreig Peterson
Medical Massage Therapist

Many clients suffering from neck and shoulder pain are actually creating this painful condition simply by breathing improperly, and need some convincing before they believe their chronic headaches, numb hands or debilitating neck pain can be caused by the routine act of breathing.

So what’s the connection? If the diaphragm doesn’t do its job well, secondary muscles in the upper chest (pectoralis minor) and throat (Sternocleidomastoid and scalenes) and shoulders (trapezius and supra spinatus) Read More

How the Hen House Turns—The Human Factor (Part 5): Goose Whispering

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How the Hen House Turns
The Human Factor (Part 5): Goose Whispering
Column by Carolyn A. (Cary) Neeper, Ph. D.

My strange relationship with Bobbi goose began when she grew into adolescence. I didn’t know then, that geese will establish a pecking order by mounting another goose when no gander is around. (The ducks also do that.) I thought Bobbi must be a male, and Bobbi thought I must be some kind of strange goose she needed to dominate.

Bobbi has never attacked me with a serious bite, but whenever I stay too long in the pen or herd them down the hill too early, the hackles rise along her long neck. (She is Read More

Solo Traveler: Held Up In Mexico

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Travelers dance around their combi during the ‘hold-up’ for Benito Juarez’ birthday. Photo by Sherry Hardage
 
Solo Traveler: Held up in Mexico
By SHERRY HARDAGE

In 2012, I decided to rehydrate my desiccated high school Spanish with a six-month swim in a Mexican lake. San Cristóbal de las Casas, in Chiapas, was the perfect choice as there were few English speakers living there to distract me.

I found a teacher and some other Americans whose language skills were similar to mine. We met twice a week for a couple of hours at my casita. Once in a while we would walk to the market or a nearby Read More

‘Motorcycle Diaries’ Story of Young Che Guevara

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Movie Poster for ‘The Motorcycle Diaries’

Review by Kelly Dolejsi

Why do some of us only think or want, while others do and make? How do the seeds of true revolution first begin?

Walter Salles’s “The Motorcycle Diaries” (2004, rated R), screening at 6:30 p.m. Thursday at Mesa Public Library, examines a young Che Guevara’s journey across South America, where the aspiring doctor witnesses continent-wide poverty, disparity and injustice, the magnitude of which might have been enough to inspire his future.

Toward the end of 1951, Ernesto Guevara de la Serna (Gael Garcia Bernal) and Read More

How the Hen House Turns—The Human Factor: Calm Persuasion (Part Three)

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How the Hen House Turns
Calm Persuasion: (Part Three)
Column by Carolyn A. (Cary) Neeper, Ph. D.

It’s amazing what a low, quiet tone in a human voice will do to influence an animal’s reaction. The skunk that lived under the Hen House for a while didn’t even raise a threatening tail when I crooned, “Oh, hello, sweetie.”

I had run into him when coming out the back door and when I caught him stealing eggs. Of course, backing off also gave him the clear message that I wasn’t going to trap him there in the nest box.

During early mornings on the front porch, a soft noise gives the scrub jays the message that peanuts Read More

Food on the Hill: Goat Cheese and Cranberry Appetizers

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This Week’s Recipe: Goat Cheese and Cranberry Appetizers
 
Ingredients:
 
Puff pastry, thawed
Goat cheese
Can of whole cranberry sauce (like the sauce your mom would serve at Thanksgiving)
1 egg, beaten
 
Directions:
 
Cut the puff pastry sheets into 1/3’s  and then again into squares. Take a few spoonful’s of the cranberry sauce and put it into a sieve. Rinse it under running water until most of the sauce is rinsed away.
 
Photo by Sue York/ladailypost.com
 
Place some of the goat cheese and some of the cranberry’s in the center of each square
Read More

Harkey: Outrunning Modern Tigers

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By MICHELLE HARKEY
Body-Connection Coach & LMT
 
You’ve probably all heard of the fight-flight-freeze response, which the body and mind employ to survive stressful or life-threatening situations. That rush of adrenaline, which made it possible for our early ancestors to flee from saber tooth tigers or fight bands of marauders still shows up in our modern lives but what we do with it is much different.

The complex combination of chemicals released by a stress response inhibits digestion and immune response and increases blood pressure, respiration and blood to the limbs. Read More

Cinema Cindy Reviews ‘The Hundred Foot Journey’

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By CYNTHIA BIDDLECOMB
Los Alamos

“The Hundred Foot Journey” is a sweet, visually pleasing film that will make you wish you could enjoy aromas and flavors in movies.

The story is about the Kadam family from Mumbai, India, coming to Europe to escape the political turmoil in which they lost their restaurant as well as the wife and mother of the family. The family consists of Papa, played by Om Puri (The Ghost and the Darkness; Charlie Wilson’s War), Hassan played by Manish Dayal (90210; The Good Wife), Mansur; Mahira,Mukthar and Aisha.

Movie poster for ‘The Hundred Foot Journey.’ Courtesy/Reel Read More

Herbal Wisdom: Boost Your Immunity For The Change Of Season

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Herbal Wisdom
Boost Your Immunity For The Change Of Season
By KRISTI BEGUIN

The start of the school year reminds us that cold and flu season is not too far away. There are many ways that medicinal herbs and foods and lifestyle choices can help to boost immune function. Your daily habits, including the foods you eat and your exercise and sleep routines, have a significant effect on your immune strength. Even if your lifestyle choices are exemplary, environmental toxins, chronic or extreme stress, and the wear and tear of aging can all weaken immunity.

The immune system includes the thymus gland, Read More