About Big Birds and New Mexico Living.

For awhile (in the mid-late 90s) I made frequent and lengthy trips down to southern New Mexico to work on numerous projects with Olin Calk. We dragged an old shed to the back of his ranch and put it down beneath a shady Chinese Elm. That became my 'bunkhouse'. We worked together on art and re-cycling projects, and these culminated in one where we built the 'world's largest roadrunner' out of non-degradable trash from the Las Cruces landfill.


I dressed up the door with a window, and a little bit of trim wood.


Some decor for the side of the shack. I called this one, 'Wolf in Sheep's Clothing".


Mesquite was the wood of choice for cook-outs, but I scavenged a few limbs to make a chair for the shack.


Some friends from Tennessee hung around for a few days.


A small bird stands outside the shack. We made six of these in order to study how best to build the big one. The big one would be 21 feet tall, and 40 feet long, so we needed to know what we were doing.


Thanks to the Any Mountain Bluegrass boys, and some other talented pickers, there was often a festive atmosphere going on.






I know it looks like I had one too many here, but I was framed! The neighboring rancher called me over for a beer with some of his buddies. They rigged a lawn chair so it would collapse upon sitting in it. I was handed a cold beer, and told to 'take a load off'. They were ready to snap the shot as I went down. However, take note. I did not spill the beer!


The daughters of a friend pose as nicely mannered young ladies.


Actually, they were very serious little mischief makers!


Olin makes a mirror frame for a friend out of Valentine candy!


And here, she expresses her appreciation!


To get started on the big roadrunner, we had to build a sturdy armature or skeleton. Sometimes it was better to work in the cooler air of night.


The armature is constructed primarily of 1" re-bar iron, although the legs were heavier gauge to withstand the weight, and the desert winds.


The roadrunner's torso is loaded on a flatbed for a ride out to the landfill where we will attach the head, and tail feathers.


We begin to dress the bird out in trash. Here, automobile headlights make nice eyes, and some rusty roofing tin makes a nice surface for the wings that we would later layer over with more trash.


It is pretty hot working under the desert sun, so we made a shady oasis on the edge of the landfill, using thrown away chairs, and even a big plastic palm tree!


We made regular trips to the dumpster behind the local Goodwill to retrieve shoes they had discarded. We cut the shoes up on a band saw, and used the soles for 'feathering' the bird. Darker shoes on the neck.


The roadrunner's breast is typically 'whitish', so we used white shoe soles there.


The bird sits surrounded with trash we gathered from the landfill for possible use.


The big bird's final perch on a mesa overlooking Interstate 10 and the city of Las Cruces.


One of the smaller bird models loaded for a trip to Santa Fe, and the Children's Museum there.


One of many reasons New Mexico is called The Land of Enchantment. The sunsets.