New World

April 18, 2021

Hello everyone,

Not much to report on this week other than the constant up and down of the weather and the rhythms of the work needing to be done around the ranch. Last Sunday was in the 70Fs, Monday in the 60Fs and the rest of the week in the 50Fs...with a high of 40F yesterday and foggy, misty, wet snow showers. This week will see us steadily climbing back up into the 70Fs by next weekend. We had another scorpion incident in the house, as the earth has warmed up enough to start shaking all of the little critters out of their slumber. Erin and Kim had a Girl's Night Happy Hour Friday night and Erin awoke a little groggy on Saturday morning and nearly stepped on a fat, little scorpion that was hanging out in the shower...the shriek instinctively told me: scorpion, snake or spider. Now that we've seen a few scorpions, though, the initial shock of it has gone and they seem no more bothersome than bees or spiders. I did feel bad about killing the first one that we saw a few weeks ago, so this time, I let natural selection take care of it and I trapped it in a glass jar and deposited it between the bird feeders and nearby junipers that the birds like to hang out in. Also, it was 30F outside, so I have a feeling that it ended up in a pinyon jay's belly! Much like I did at the feed mill that we used to have, I made sure that we had enough cats around for the rats and mice so that we didn't have to put poison out everywhere or be overrun by them. While staying in the category of creepy-crawlies, my co-worker at the new house, Valentin, lives along the Pecos River and relayed to me that while he was talking with a friend at his house a few weeks ago, he had a tarantula crawl right around the corner, outside, and nearly walk over his foot. I know there's an annual migration through these parts up to the plains of southeastern Colorado in the late summer, but I guess I didn't realize that they live here year-round. You all will be the first to know when we see one of them! Apparently, when they migrate, they're often on the roads in large numbers and it's hard to avoid them...I've been told that driving over them sounds like popcorn popping.

Speaking of Valentin, he has an amazing story and comes from an amazing place...Chihuahua, known for its rugged mountainous terrain and wide river valleys. It is Mexico's biggest state(just smaller than Wyoming, the US's 10th biggest) and it borders New Mexico, which is directly north of it. He and I have been working together now, under the guidance of our foreman, Cisco(who's originally from Taos!), and we've been chattering back in forth in a mixture of English, Spanish and Spanglish. We both are very good with our non-native language, but still hesitate and our tongues get tied, our brains stall out and you run out of words to use, so it's been a lot of fun to bounce back and forth between the two languages as we work throughout the day. As I've gotten to know him I have found out that he came to the US twenty years ago and has been busting his hump working at various places around the country before settling in this area, which is now only a 12 hour drive back to his home. His dream is to return to Chihuahua and his family and hopes to accomplish that in the next five years. He put it very plainly and said it quite simply: in Mexico you have to work a full week to be able to buy one complete outfit; in the US you only have to work one day to do the same. That explains the whole complex story of migration in one simple analogy. Even cooler yet, I found out that he is actually an Indian with an Apache father and a Raramuri grandparent on his mother's side. It sounds like his family follows more in the Raramuri tradition and he even speaks some of the language; it is from the Uto-Aztecan language family, which includes languages such as: Hopi; Comanche; Paiute; Ute; Shoshone; Pima; Yaqui; and Nahuatl(Aztec). Most of last week was spent with him using a huge, special drill bit to chip away at the back fill(some places soft like sand, others hard like concrete) inside of part of the house whose floor needs to be lowered a few inches with me hauling away all of it by wheelbarrow. After 40 minutes, an hour, etc., we would take a break and take our ear protection off and then continue our freewheeling conversation from before in our best Spanglish! In honor of his homeland, please see two links below about what he feels are Chihuahua's two most amazing spots: Barrancas del Cobre(Mexico's Grand Canyon); and Paquime(Mexico's Chaco Canyon).

https://www.visitmexico.com/en/chihuahua/barrancas-del-cobre

https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/560/

I mentioned Cisco earlier and let me tell you, he is my source of all kinds of information. We've been interacting every weekday since I got here and I've been picking his brain right from the start, asking him all sorts of questions about the flora and fauna here, hunting, hiking, let alone everything at the construction site and involving the buggy and tractor(he's helped me out with all kinds of things mechanically!). And, the great thing is, he has answers to all the questions that I ask. I feel like I've freed his hands up to take the million and one phone calls and texts that he gets every day while trying to help Valentin get things done, as well as setting up and receiving all of the product that gets delivered. I'll literally see something chugging along down the driveway and think, 'Oh, I should text Cisco and let him know...' just to see him magically appear out of nowhere and take care of it. Also, Valentin is using all sorts of tools that I haven't used yet, so my strong(and sore) back is freeing him up to do some more of the skilled tasks so that we can move this project along. Just as our finding this ranch job has been a godsend, as well as our subsequent relationship with Kim(especially between her and Erin), I feel that I'm fitting in well with the other two guys and we're really starting to pick up some momentum! Some days there are roofers and others here and there might be twenty people on-site, other days it's just the three of us and it can quickly turn into a ghost town if the three of us are working in three different areas. Apparently, I'm the shovel specialist of the outfit and need to get ready for us to have to dig the trench to accommodate the new sewer lines going down to the existing septic below our house...more feet than I care to think about and closely approaching the 'that buck's a little too far away to take a shot at' range!

As for the pictures today, I start with a few from our dog runs, including my crew's first encounter with the horses. Then a few more horse shots ending first with Xena goofing around by the water trough and then Freedom. Then, there is a shot of the scorpion in the tub, the garden with manure freshly spread on it and a peculiar cloud formation. Lastly, a few plant closeups and then a final shot of Starvation Peak from the building site. As of May I will no longer be sending the weekly letter out directly from my personal email and we will be posting it directly onto the website instead. If you would like to receive a notification each time a new letter is posted, please go to the website and sign up for the mailing list. If not, then just check back often and get ready for some cooler and cooler merchandise to appear in the store as Erin works her magic with my photos and drawings and more stories and pictures are posted about all of our crazy experiences.

Take care.