November 12, 2008
Went home for lunch and worked on El Kid churning up a steep hill in the snow, climbing a snowbank, relentless in his quest to find a good bowl of green chile:



When he finally reaches the adobe, high up in the mountains, where he knows a fresh pot of green chile is simmering on the stove, he finds a frozen creek too dangerous to cross on top of the ice. So he throws several big rocks in, busting up the ice and then leads his horse across, on foot. Dripping with icicles he leads his horse to the front door:



This is actually based on a true incident where one of the cowboys in the Billy the Kid story (Evans? Siringo? I can't remember, but Fred Nolan will) got caught on the wrong side of a frozen creek and worried that his horse would break through the ice and drown them both, he broke the ice, then waded across, leading his horse, and rode to a nearby ranch with frozen pants on (not to mention other probable frozen extremities.) Every time I see a frozen creek I think of this true incident.

Gee, I wonder what Edgar Allan Poe has to say about this theme:

"Never to suffer would never to have been blessed."
—Edgar Allan Poe