Farm and Ranch Museum Visit

Tuesday February 21^st

Got out of the trailer before noon and headed for the Farm and Ranch Museum which is just E of the University. To start with we rode around on a golf cart with a museum docent who told us about the attractions on the site and a lot about the animals on the site. They have various breeds of cattle to give an example of the types of cattle raised in NM. The most common beef cow in NM is the Brangus, which is a cross between Angus and Brahma. They have heat tolerance from the Brahma and the beef qualities of the Angus. We also learned about the Corriente breed of cattle which are tough little range cows originally descended from Spanish cattle brought to Mexico with the Conquistadors. In this country they are chiefly used for rodeo stock.

As we toured the grounds I kept seeing antique farm equipment that I used to work with! Nothing like going to a museum to make you feel old. Once we got done with the golf cart tour we started inside looking at the display that they are featuring on the New Mexico statehood centennial. I spent so much time standing around looking at displays and paintings that my back got tired. I asked Cathey if they had a café area where we could sit for awhile. She said that she had just walked by the theater and there was a movie of some kind starting so we could sit there to rest. Sounded good to me so we went in and sat down. The feature was about distracted driving and I thought it was a preface to whatever the main feature was. But as soon as it was over a person got up and started talking about driving safety and then it dawned on us that we had walked in on a museum staff safety meeting! We waited until the speaker started the next film and quietly left the theater (and then giggled about our mistake.)

There was not a restaurant on site so we left and went to an Italian Restaurant named Lorenzo’s near the University campus. Had a great lunch and then went to the University Barnes and Noble and bought a bird book for the Western Region of North America, since the one we have at home is just for the Eastern Region of North America.