Summer Musings

August 21, 2022

Hello again,

So, another week has passed and we haven't seen any more snakes, so we're hoping that last week was the last of that type of excitement for the year. We're still having very unsettled weather, with nice mid-80s days at the beginning of the week and an all-day soaker on Saturday that barely cleared 60! This was probably the last week that we'll have with lows in the 60s at night and should see them firmly wedged in the 50s for the rest of the month, before diving even deeper into the 40s in September. We're getting awfully interested in finding an excuse to fire the wood stove up one day, especially if we have another cold, rainy day any time soon. The rain just keeps falling this summer, but is actually causing problems up in the burn scar area where the huge fire was back in the spring. The storm downpours are causing flooding, which is not only sending sediment and silt downstream, but also ash and it is badly polluting the water for Las Vegas and the other smaller communities attached to it. They actually just cut all of the townspeople back to 44 gallons of water per day and are making businesses reduce their consumption by 10% because they're afraid of running out in the next 1-2 months. There are efforts afoot to treat this polluted water before it reaches containment and also using water from nearby Storrie Lake, but as of now the town could literally run out of water before we have our first frost, depending upon how things go. Restaurants have all been switching to paper plates and napkins and plastic cutlery, and the town's two car washes have voluntarily closed. While there is tons of water from all of the rains, it is non-potable...the complete opposite of the other side of the 'hill' in Santa Fe, and up and down the Rio Grande, where there is nowhere near enough water to go around to all of the people and businesses that need it, let alone farms and enough to go further downstream to satisfy water agreements with Texas. We are nice and green out here on the ranch, and all up and down this section of the Pecos River, but still, the threat of drought is always looming. One offshoot of all of this is the absolute explosion of flowers everywhere out here. They're in Erin's garden and all around it, from past plantings. And then there are all of the wild ones that grow all over and come in some of the tiniest sizes that you could ever imagine. Many are low-lying and sometimes spread out over the ground, while others are really tall and spindly with beautiful, little flowers on top. Just this week all the native sunflowers have started to come on strong and should be absolutely dazzling and Georgia O-Keeffe-esque quite soon!

Work was quite interesting this week and I spent all of it out on the ranch here. The boss hired a local sculptor to make a grand stairway for the one section of the house that has a second floor. He's a metal sculptor and welder and has been making this for months and months now and finally had it ready to bring here and assemble. The first day was just one of the stringers that needed to be attached to the wall and was straight and easy to maneuver. Then, the biggest piece came the next day, plus two other smaller ones. And, finally, the last pieces arrived on Friday and we now have everything inside. They brought it on a flatbed pickup with a small crane and we used a big, handmade cart to get everything inside(having had to take out the temporary front door). Then, using a chain hoist and large, metal A-frame inside, we hoisted everything into place, with up to six people holding it at times! Then, each big piece had to be welded to the next, without damaging the rammed earth wall or any of the old beams and posts that are in there, and little by little it came into shape. This week we'll have to finish installing the railings for the second floor and then finish up everything else completely. I've been pulled off my normal duties to help this artist and the two workers that come along each day to help him, grabbing tools, finding the foreman for them, holding heavy things in place, etc. I was then asked by the architect about doing some welding for us once these guys are gone and he said that he'd start me out easy with smaller things that will help us to finish up this house and we can then go on from there. So, on top of all the other things that I've learned since I began doing construction about a year and a half ago, now I'm going to learn how to weld! I tell you what, that will really come in handy with my forty year-old cars!

So, another batch of pictures for everyone's enjoyment. First, a digitial manipulation of the rattlesnake that I trapped last week. Then, a closeup of our almost twenty year-old, former mill cat, Buckwheat...still living large after all these years, just like us, retired in the Southwest! Next, a shot of Rui napping in a quite comfortable and adorable pose. Then, four shots from the kitchen this week: first, the mountain of fresh lettuce that we have in the refrigerator; then, New Mexico green chiles drying in the dehydrator; next, some of Erin's homemade pizza that she makes every week; and, finally, one of her specialties, a clafouti, this time with some Rainier cherries from Washington state that she got through our food co-op. Next, a shot of the horses all lined up along the fence, right behind the new house, trying to see what's going on. Then, four shots showing the progress we made with the stairway this week. Next, a temporary solution to seal off the temporary front door that we had to take out to get all the huge metal pieces in. Then, two shots of a water catchment system that I put in behind the house to catch the large amount of water that comes off the main roof(via a custom metal piece). And, finally, a shot of me of me out weedwhacking before dark, testing Valentin's father's theory out that if you're full of beer the mosquitos will leave you alone...I must not have drank enough, because it was rough!

Take care.