Moving Forward

February 19, 2023

Hello again,

Well, somehow a week has flashed by and I never did get around to making my update on time.  In any event, one thing led to another and suddenly it was the weekend again.  So, looking back more than a week, I remember the weather ranging from as low as 8 degrees and again one afternoon briefly brushing upon 60.  We ran the whole gamut of rain, sleet, snow, fog, clouds, lots of wind and even more sunshine.  As we examine our current restlessness and Erin's desire to be doing something on her own, she's struck upon the idea to start making soap.  Now, this is a new venture for her, but keep in mind that she's been cooking and gardening since she was 9, working since she was 12 and over forty years has turned her start in the kitchen and in the garden to expertise in preserving, canning, butchering, pantry-building and, in general, figuring out how to live less dependently upon commercial consumption.  Just in our time here she now makes her own laundry soap, tooth powder, mouth wash and other types of antiseptics and disinfectants.  She's turned her eye to actually making bars of soap, perhaps also bars of shampoo and conditioner, and we're eagerly gathering supplies to begin the process.  She's already thinking of ways to incorporate all the local, natural products around here into them, like: juniper berries; pinyon sap; yuccas; cactus paddles and tunas; cholla; and lots of other things that we haven't even thought of yet.  We started the website a little over two years ago with the idea of selling our own products and artwork through it, but as of yet it has just remained informational with all of the weekly updates and pictures.  Erin already has lots of ideas about other things that this could turn into, coming up with other products that we could make here on the ranch.  You know, only about 5% of the world lives higher than a mile above sea level(5280'), and we're another 1000 feet above that!  We've had to adapt in so many ways to the high altitude lifestyle, from initially allowing the time for our lungs to adjust to simply being able to breathe.  Consumption of alcohol was nearly impossible at first and still, even after some 27 months, neither of us drink anywhere near the level that we did back at 500' above seal level.  This is on one hand a lifestyle choice, but on the other, when you're visiting Taos from the East(like we did in 2019) and can't even manage to walk back to your hotel after two drinks, you know the altitude is already affecting your lifestyle.  Erin's figured out all kinds of adjustments to make while cooking and baking and has noticed that things really begin to get crazy once you reach about 6-7000'!

Work on the boss's new house keeps slowly inching towards the finish line and it sounds like I will be kept on to do all the landscaping work afterwards.  There is a lot that needs to be done in the realm of earth-moving, bringing everything around the house up to the proper elevation and grade.  Also, there are continually washouts and other problems that arise during the monsoon season.  I believe that the boss also wants the whole area around the new house planted with irrigation, so it looks very promising for me in that department.  As I've mentioned before, I have no interest in going to town, so getting paid to work on the ranch every day is just heaven.  Now, going on a roadtrip to some Native American ruins a few hours away or finding some really exotic place to go hiking is another story and I'm always game for a weekend jaunt!  I do appreciate watching a good soccer match on the weekend, too, especially a European one that I can blare in our tiny, little casita in either Portuguese, Spanish or French!  But, mainly I'm more than content to be outside all day, up with the horses at dawn, starting my eight-hour shift at 7:30 with a brief half-hour lunch, walking around in the late afternoon with the dogs, then finishing up with the horses again, not only feeding but this time filling the water troughs and rearranging hay in the barn, too.  To add to that getting to work all day with our big Case backhoe or our little Kioti tractor would be a whole bunch of fun.  There are more horse ponds that need to be dug, more areas that need to be fenced off, more current spots that need to be re-fenced and I'd even like to build some kind of lean-to out in the pasture that the horses could congregate in when it gets really windy and wild.  So much to do up in this crisp, clean air at 6200'.  Erin can go to town and do her gigs, get her new business up and running and I'll support her in every way, but I think I'll save trips to town for going out to eat and getting to drink a few beers!

Now again I have another batch of pictures for everyone's enjoyment.  First up, a shot of a metal sign on one of the horse gates out here that I played around with. Then, where the horses like to congregate when it's windy, on the lee side of the hill...a perfect spot for some kind of a lean-to or dugout to break the wind.  Next, six shots from what I did this week up at the jobsite: first, a shot of a New Mexico power breakfast: red chili potato chips and black tea; then, three shots of the two main vigas that I had to apply two coats of tung oil to; followed, then, by two shots of the even higher viga that I had to do the same with, using a combination of scaffolding and ladders...and not too much movement!  Then, three shots from the water troughs: first, while filling them up at night during a sudden downpour; then, two shots of the smaller tank covered with a thin layer of ice.  Next, two shots of Starvation Peak, just about the coolest thing that you can look at first thing in the morning...and always a little different every day.  Then, two shots from the hay barn after a snowstorm blew in overnight from the east for once(they usually come out of the west).  And, finally, a shot of the mesa perfectly showing the boundary between New Mexico's Central Highlands(cloudy) and New Mexico's Northeast Highlands(not cloudy) that at this particular spot is the Pecos River, which runs at the foot of the mesa.

Take care.