Saddle Scenery

	Every meal requires fresh tortillas. Shucked corn is soaked overnight in lime water. The lime starts the process of breaking down the tough outer surface of the corn. Next the corn is ground into a coarse meal by hand - and it's hard work!
	After grinding, the corn is reduced to a meal using a mano and metate. It may not seem like much but notice how her back and both hands are positioned - more hard work. Finally the corn meal is pressed into individual tortillas and cooked on a hot metal grill. Served hot from the stove, the taste is wonderful. The one concession to modern time is the use of a press. Tortillas used to be patted out by hand.
	Recently outside Batopilas, we came across this operating gold mill. Powered by water, a rotary mill grinds the ore releasing the gold particles to be settled out.
	In the back country, this escape artist is under house arrest! Most of the pigs were unrestrained but this individual has obviously squeezed through the confines of the pen once too often. An Elizabethan collar kept him confined.
	The time-honored method of plowing - virtually all parts of the plow are made of wood. The plow in the ground has a metal faceplate - the only metal used.
	Without hardware, everyone improvises. A gate was needed but hinges are not available. Hewn from a single log using only an axe and a knife, the upright post allows wooden bars to be slid in. This gate kept a bull from straying.
	We still haven't quite figured out what is going on here.
	In the Munerachi boarding school, the kids are separated by age. One of the teachers is giving these girls some work assignments after the day's classes have ended.
	At the Cerro Gallegos overlook, we frequently find some Tarahumara women patiently waiting to make a sale.
	The thorns of the Pitaya cactus are blood-red in color at their base.
	After leaving Naranjo earlier in the day, we finally reach the Urique River. It's the low-water season and this flow represents barely a trickle. With the summer rains, it would be over our heads here.
	In a high plateau, a viga has been prepared for a construction project somewhere in the valley. One man will either carry or drag this single viga several miles and several thousand feet down to where it will be used. Each viga requires a separate trip.
	Across the river from Batopilas, most of the original buildings comprising Sheperd's operation lie in ruins. This one small part is slowly undergoing restoration.