One Month and 6 Days in NM

Go on, scroll to the end. I know you just want to see pictures. :)

We arrived yesterday from another 3-day venture to Durango. As we approached our destination there were dark clouds that looked threatening but didn't shed any rain. Breaks in the clouds displayed bright white fluffy linings with a perfect deep blue sky behind. Everything there right now is the vibrant yellow-green of spring. Google "spring", people of Los Angeles. It is a real season that exists in certain US locations and it is spectacular where we are headed. Lush green pastures with horses and/or cows stretch off into the hills of the nearer distance and the mountains further off. Lakes, rivers, streams, creeks - some different body of water seems to lie around every bend. I felt like a broken record for the 3 hour drive, oohing and aahing about how beautiful it was up there. I still can't believe it.

Things are looking good all around. We made friendly conversation with a couple who owns a nice vineyard and have a lovely wine tasting room in town (Brian and Michelle will be proud of our priorities). They just opened their Durango location in December so they offered lots of helpful advice on house and storefront hunting and Tim immediately went on his phone to see what craigslist had to offer. One 6 year old housing community consists of 30 green-built energy efficient houses in two sections of a 250 acre working organic farm. We drove up a dirt road past horses, llamas and incredible scenery. The 3 bedroom, 2 bath 1300 sq foot house was renting for $1395. The 1 bedroom apartment was $600. I actually just took a break and got totally distracted on craigslist again. We aren't going to have ANY trouble finding an awesome place to live. We also have some phone calls in to different commercial listings on Main St, one in particular that seemed to be a good size for us.

Turns out there are a lot of college students in Durango. Which kind of annoys me. Which I'm pretty sure means I'm getting old.

But, onward and upward...literally. Have I mentioned that the town of Durango is just over 6500 feet? Yeah. The good news is you can get a cardio workout just getting out of bed to pee in the middle of the night. I'm thankful for my 5800 foot Medanales interim time. It seems I needed the training of just standing up and sitting down in higher altitude. I think I'm pretty much used to it now until I work out. My stamina is getting better but I'm huffing and puffing like a 90 year old smoker after about 5 minutes of labor. Hey, at least I'm burning calories.

We are officially cozy enough in the guest house to be happy when we return. It's too remote to stay but I've become really attached to the serenity that open land brings. I think I just like feeling "home", wherever home happens to be at the time.

Separating ones self from a place one has called home for 35 years makes for some interesting inner dialog. At least it does if you're me. I've considered myself to be an individual and pretty independent lady for many years. But when the family and friends who have played a role in defining you aren't there all the time to remind you of who you are, you start to really feel the whole "on your own" thing. Beyond the moments of doubt which I think are perfectly normal in my situation, I thankfully seem to still be me.

A story to close: I've had a sharp eye out for the stupid violent dogs on the corner. Haven't seen them bark at a SINGLE car. Not one. Actually I've only seen them out once - a couple of days ago - and they were lying down in the yard looking harmless. I was just thinking it was a fluke when Wendy tells us that she saw those dogs walking through our back yard a few days after the near attack. DUN DUN DUUUUUUN! This, of course, immediately turns into a Cujo-style horror movie in my mind where these dogs are stalking us and waiting for the perfect moment when I'm alone and vulnerable. Can you see it? I'm outside watering my plants, quietly humming to myself, wind chimes softly tinkling....nobody else is home....cut to rabid dog's point of view panting in the bushes, watching me....the wind picks up and I think I hear something...I turn around slowly....cut to dog's point of view racing towards me, three other dogs in tow, lunging as I scream...aaannnnd cut! Don't worry. I kick all kinds of ass in my horror movies. I save the day. You know me. I'd never kill myself off in a story. But I'd kung fu kick the crap out of a few psycho dogs and maybe some stupid owners - oops, sorry. I'll let it go now.

Till next time, love you, miss you.

I took this from the passenger seat on our way home yesterday. There's not even any filters on it - this is really how it looked.

Here's a NM storm blowing through. I posted these pics in the order they were taken over the course of about half an hour. Pointed the camera all over the place because the 360 view is so totally different.

Tim in the gazebo looking at.....

a rainbow.

And here's a little game I like to play when Tim's in the arroyo. Where's Tim?

Recent local wildlife -

Phil the bullsnake says hello by hissing loudly and shaking his rattler. He is intimidating but not venemous. Seems to be living in a hole off the walkway by the big house. The parental Hassemers tell  us they've never seen a snake up here before. Guess they were waiting for us to get here. Phil is about 5 1/2 feet long. Yes, holy shit. I agree.

This was in the kitchen of the big house. I can't believe the cat hadn't gotten to it yet and I don't know which is luckier for that - the cat or the spider. Tim was sure this was part of the tarantula family but it turns out it's a type of wolf spider, of which there are numerous species in NM. There's a penny in the upper part of the frame but Tim ended up cropping most of it out so you could get a good look at the spider. It's body was a little longer the penny. Yes, holy shit. I totally agree.

Tim eating the bunny food that Wendy puts out. No, not really. Good pic though, huh?

An Eventful Day

I had enough happen today that I thought it would be a good time to catch up. Well...I guess it was only two eventful things that happened today but one of them was an adrenaline filled self-defense experience and the other covered me in dirt. But I'll get to all that later. 

The last week and a half was as nice as the previous few weeks before it. We spent an evening in Albuquerque at Marisa's house collaborating on the GIANT job we'll all be working on this weekend: renovating her kitchen. Tim built an amazing, inventive and beautiful 5' by 5' island. Over the course of 4 days her asbestos ceiling needs to be scraped (which is a job I am going to respectfully bow out of), a wall needs to be torn down (which I'd surely injure myself doing), the island needs to be reassembled (which Tim would never let me touch), new tile needs to be put in (which I don't know the first thing about) and the garden needs to be weeded and planted which (hooray!) I am more than happy to do single-handed. I got some practice planting a tree in the front yard and potting some flowers for the front of the guest house. It's been an impossibly long time since I'd left an area of earth prettier than it was when I found it and I'd forgotten how gratifying it is for me. I'm looking forward to doing more of it in the next few days.

Easter was great. Just the parents, the siblings, the significant others and Joanie. I made deviled eggs with duck eggs and decided they should never be eaten any other way. Drank Bloody Marys, ate lamb and potatoes, sat on the gazebo with Tim playing guitar and called it a really nice day. I missed my peeps (people, not marshmallows) but it was as nice an Easter as I could've hoped for.

I continue to learn new things about Espanola, NM. For instance, you may see a stray dog, stray horse, stray cows or stray human at any given time on the roads here. I have personally seen all of the above. Some instances are funnier than others. Cows were funny. Not funny is when said stray dogs come dangerously close to attacking you which is what happened to Tim and I today when we made the mistake of walking to the post office. The people who live across the street from the PO have SIX dogs, four of which ran across the street at us and got into snarling, barking, growling, hunched and ready to lunge attack mode. You're going to have to excuse my profanity a minute when I say those fucking dogs were serious and it scared the living shit out of us. I hid behind Tim the entire time. I've got 15 years of experience in what to do if someone attacks me or someone I love but I have almost no experience in what to do when insane furry creatures attack. Not that I'm opposed to kicking anything in the face. If it's violent, it's fair game far as I'm concerned. Thank god (and thank Tim) they backed off eventually. Ironically enough, it's totally safe to walk down into the wilderness of the mesa. You're only in danger if there might be stupid idiot people around cuz they might have stupid idiot animals. So...yeah. I'm going to go ahead and drive everywhere. I'm going to go to Lowe's and drive across the parking lot to the Wal-Mart. You think I'm kidding?

Here was the other excitement for the day - the dirty story, as it were. We bought 200 feet of weather-proof burial-safe ethernet cable, plugged it into the wireless hub in the Big House, dug a 6" track to bury it and put it through the window in the little house. I learned a couple things doing this. I learned (again) that I don't mind being covered in dirt. I learned that accessing the internet at your very own computer in your very own living quarters after 4 weeks without it can be embarrassingly exciting. I learned that as thankful as I am that my in-laws are extremely kind and accommodating, it's still really important to me to be as self-reliant as my situation allows.

All of it - planting trees, digging tracks for ethernet cables, even sweeping the floors - makes me excited for the day when I can do these things at my own place. We are heading to Durango again next Thursday to do some more looking, make some more phone calls, etc. Right now when I stop typing and look out the window I see 10 acres of beautiful wild land and it makes me that much more clear about what I want when I look out the windows of my future home. I'm excited for the endless possibilities of tomorrow and it's a great feeling.

Till next time, love you, miss you.

Last night's sunset....

I took this today. This is a pretty typical NM sky though I thought this one was extra awesome with the sun rays coming down.

My new potted flowers.

Phase Two: Progress

I'm sitting in the gazebo with the sun to my back, drinking a cup of coffee, enjoying the sights and sounds and expansive view and Tim's company. This has become one of my favorite new morning rituals. I've spent many a morning looking out front doors with a cup of coffee in my hand, listening to leaf blowers and loud neighbors, looking at other people's houses, daydreaming about when this moment right here could be a regular thing for me. It does good things for the brain and body - space like this, quiet like this. At least it's doing good things for mine. The curved-billed thrasher sings a particularly nice morning song. Turns out exile isn't always so bad.

We are settling into The Hassemer Guesthouse more and more - moving chairs around, finding extra closet space, installing a bathroom door for privacy.....I should probably explain that one. When we went to Costa Rica, Tim's dad (a.k.a. "Pops") fell in love with the open bathroom attached to the master bedroom they stayed in. No door. Perhaps they have soundless bathroom experiences - I dunno. What I do know is that because of that experience the master bedroom in the guest house has an attached bathroom without a door. HAD no door. Tim installed one yesterday. We who share the back bedroom no longer have to use the bathroom in the hallway that DOES have a door. It's beyond me how a man who thinks it's "uncivilized" to set a dinner table without a spoon at every plate thinks it's perfectly acceptable to have a bathroom without a door. Anyway, my point is that we are settling in quite nicely. It sort of feels like very luxurious camping. The "tent" is small and kinda awkward but once you step outside you're in nature's paradise.

Tim and I took our first scouting trip into Durango last Thursday through Saturday and had a great time. It's big enough that there's a lot of options when it comes to grocery stores and restaurants but small enough that locals encounter friends when walking down the main drag in town. The population is large enough that woodworking and repair will be in demand and it's definitely touristy enough to bring in plenty of business for people who want to impulse buy a smaller, packable handcrafted piece of art...perhaps a jewelry box with a new shiny pair of earrings to put in it. There are a lot of art galleries. We have several numbers to call today for commercial rental listings - one of the perfect-size spots in an incredibly good location was already taken but it was $1250 a month which is great news. We are looking for a spot well traveled but off Main St. I do know you can rent a 3 bedroom house on 2 acres of land for about $1500 a month so I don't think finding a place to live for a reasonable price will be a problem. Some of the people we encountered were so nice it was almost disorienting. A clerk in the grocery store stopped us to make sure we were finding everything ok and was so friendly telling me where the bottled water was that Tim and I actually looked at each other weird when she walked away. Jaded city folk.

Places as far off the beaten path as Medanales, NM offer some unique character traits. Driving down the "highway" (i.e. two-lane road), it looks to me like every "town" (i.e. a few houses here and there, maybe a business or two) starts with a couple of burned down and/or abandoned buildings. Apparently when you have this much space, when something is dilapidated the owners just sorta walk away. No need to rebuild...why waste all that money when you can just do something else on another giant plot of land? Espanola - the local "town" 15 minutes down the road - is difficult for me to describe. Try this: take Bakersfield, remove the white trash, leave the hispanic population and add a spattering of Native Americans and you've got something close to Espanola. A local bar/liquor store (yes, both) called "Saints and Sinners" (yes, really) made last week's front page when some guy got shot in the head in the parking lot. We stopped at a gas station/overpriced grocery store down the highway. I sat in the passenger seat and stared at the trailer home next door that looked like something straight out of Deliverance. It even had a crooked self-made wooden porch with a beat up leather recliner chair on it. One of my favorite scenes is down the "highway" where a car from the 1950s has been sitting in the mesa for so long it's half-buried in mud. I photographed it years ago but I'll have to do it again.

There is also no amount of lotion to make up for how dry it is here and there's no amount of sweeping that can keep house clean when you're completely surrounded by dirt.

On the other hand, there's a spa down the road called Ojo Caliente, framed by classically beautiful New Mexico rocks and landscape, sporting delicious sangria, that is just $18 for a day pass. When Diana was still here we met there with Heather and her friend and spent a day lounging and catching up. We are heading into Albuquerque Tuesday to hang out with Marisa and talk about some home renovating she wants Tim to do. We'll stop in Santa Fe on the way back to see Adam, Dionne and the kids who are getting really big now. It's been awesome seeing people I don't usually get to spend much time with and I'm excited for more good times and adventures to come.

Till then, love you, miss you.

Hitting golf balls into the arroyo. I'm taking this picture from.......

here! Coffee time in the gazebo.

The view I face when I make jewelry. 

A day of golf in Durango last Friday. We happened to hit the course on the first day of the season. You'll like it here, Brian.

Our fancy new bathroom door with a glass pane installed above that lets the light through from the bathroom window. I took this picture from bed and the toilet is just on the other side of the sink. Can you say awkward?

The door to the left leads to the Guest House living room, the door to the right leads to the garage a.k.a. temporary wood shop. The gazebo is directly behind me, as is The Big House.