Another entertaining week in magical Taos

This past week we went to the Blue Moon/labyrinth/Regeneration ceremonies at the New Buffalo Center. We took the back road across the mesa and down into the gorge and crossed at the John Dunn Bridge by the hot springs. It is pretty down there. I haven't been down there for like eight years or so. The Hondo Valley seemed incredibly green. More so than I remembered when we used to live there.

View of the gorge and Rio Grande from John Dunn Bridge road.

New Buffalo is wonderful. It's very green with gardens full of growing vegetables. I guess Bob, our host, took corn directly from the garden and then the ears went into a boiling pot of water on the kitchen stove. Wish I could have tasted that fresh from the garden corn on the cob. Richard and I were fasting, so we did not partake in the wonderful  food that everyone brought for the potluck. We took gluten and dairy free zuchini bread, which Richard made, and the kids loved.

Turns out our children were the only kids there, until much later when another boy arrived, and so they became the center of the ceremony honoring the youth in our community. We walked the labyrinth with the little ones. The labyrinth was quite large and located in the field below the Barn, or formally the house Richard and I started building ten years ago and gave away seven years ago. (Long, sad story, fraught with emotion.)

My son visiting with the Crystal Skull. Barn house in the background.

One of the most exciting things...well, there were many, was the arrival and presentation of the crystal skull that some kind man brought. Being an anthropologist, I was interested in this very old and rock like petrified item. It looked like the skull of an ancient woman, which the man claimed it was. It also looked like a rock, which it also was, being thousands and thousands of years old. Very interesting. It certainly lent an air of mystery and awe to the event.

The sun set in an amazing show of color as the big, old, full moon rose in the east at the same time. Pretty incredible. The kids were pretty good, considering the ceremony was much longer than we can really expect them to sit still and be focused. They didn't do anything too strange, and I never even alerted our host and former neighbor Bob about my daughter's autistic condition.

The most fun was back in the remodeled community room at New Buffalo, where we had a drum circle. It never ceases to amaze me how incredible the drum parties are in this town. There was a harpist, the man who does the maintenance on the Earthship we live in, and guitarists, and everyone else was just free styling it on the drums. Wonderful. The kids loved it, picking out different instruments from the basket on the shelf behind our built in bench.

Drum circle and music at New Buffalo.

New Buffalo used to be a hippy commune in the 1960's. The movie Easy Rider has a commune scene in it based on New Buffalo, although the setting was staged in California for the movie. The first time we lived in Taos, we bought a small piece of land and the old commune dairy barn from the original owners, who were still there at the time. We turned the barn into a house...a much too large house we couldn't really afford, and so it eventually was sold off to the current owners. Bob bought New Buffalo around the same time and has since turned it into a thriving, community based learning and sharing center.

So our Blue Moon celebration was interesting with the fasting, the old emotions welling up over seeing the barn after so many years, the crystal skull, the kids being the honorees, and the time and place all coming together to create a magical evening. Thank you Bob.

This week, I also got to sit in the gallery where the Arte de Descartes XII show is being held. All of the artists were supposed to volunteer some time to help manage the hours of the gallery during the show. I spent my four hours studying the art, making tiny house plans for one of our cabins, and occasionally talking to potential customers.

That's my recycled wood art piece: Safariarte.

Out on the land Richard got the window put in the pallet shed and put on a door from the stack of glass doors and windows we took out there. We have been moving these glass panels around with us, hoping to build something with them. It looks like we will use them in our house. We also cleared some more sage in the location where our 20 x 20' house/cabin will be.

Pallet shed with window and door.

Richard held his chicken processing class this past Saturday, which was a success for the two folks who came. He plans on doing another in a few weeks to eliminate the many roosters we have in our flock.

Processing chickens.

Also next weekend (September 15), Richard is holding a canning class our here at the Earthship. Hope to see lots of people at this one. Food security is so important as the craziness in our world continues. If you are in  and around the area and want to come, please contact me in the comments. Also, anyone interested in the art, contact me. I will pay for half of shipping if anyone wants to hang this piece in their kid's room.

Fire on the hill, art, and working on the land.

Fire on Wind Mountain, Taos County, NM.

The fire is still burning north of our Earthship.  It was started by lightening on July 17, 2012. Some days it appears worse than others. Yesterday when we got back from working on our land in the southern end of the valley, the fire was raging. When it got dark, I could see the flames. There is no updated news on the NM fire info website, but I suspect the fire has grown now that it has jumped the ridge. Thankful for the highway between us and it. We do have corral panels moved down to our land in the event we have to move the llamas.

In other news:

The art opening was a blast. Arte des Descartes XII at the Stables Gallery in Taos, NM. There was an incredible amount of art there...all of it made out of recycled materials. Wonderful. Even the live band was a "junk" band called Check Magaphone. They were absolutely splendid. The little kids danced. There was food and a wonderful assortment of colorful characters that make up this great place I live in. Isn't it great when so many people are out there, not afraid to be themselves, no matter how quirky? I love this town!

Check Megaphone at Arte Des Descaters XII, Taos, NM

The little gallery, that before seemed just an old adobe building with cracks and peeling paint, was transformed into a haven for artists and art lovers, a mecca of fun under the trees, and I was transported back to another era when Mabel Doge Lujan might have held such a party, or salon, at her home. I imagine the same sorts of artistic and interesting people would have attended such an event and even lived in Taos at that time. This is a town that seems to draw the most amazing folks to it. We must attend more art openings.

Out at our place, we finished the roof on the pallet shed. It's coming along nicely. It still needs a door and to have the window installed. Soon we will put some mud plaster on the outside walls. We are thinking of trying a straw/mud insulation on the inside walls.

Roof framework on pallet shed.

Metal on pallet roof.

And we got another course done on the Earthbag Cistern. We are four high now. We decided to cover the first three layers with plastic and then back filled with gravel to keep any moisture away from the foundation of the cistern.

Four courses and gravel back fill on Earthbag cistern.

It is slow going out on the land, trying to live in another place and get out there to do enough work to make a difference. I wish we could just move out there, but it will be a while before we can get a live-able structure up.

This week Richard begins his fall series of classes at the homestead. This weekend will be a chicken processing class, where he and participants will butcher four of our old chickens and prepare them for the freezer. I can't take part in it...not yet, and I don't want the kids to see that. That would send my autistic daughter off on a fit I might never see the end of. So, the kids and I will hang out in the house, in the back rooms, like we usually do during classes.

The following week Richard plans on doing a canning workshop, which has garnered so much interest we might have to schedule more than one. Can it be that folks are finally interested in food security? It is definitely a good skill to have as the times change. Plus, if you have a backyard garden, canning allows you to preserve some of the lovely fruit and vegetable bounty. I sure do miss the raspberries we had at our old Victorian house in Colorado Springs. And, I really enjoy making grape jam from local grapes. Maybe I can find some around here somewhere. Maybe down in the river valley towards Santa Fe where the vineyards and winerys are.

As we head into Fall, we are doing what we can to create our own food security and long term security on our little piece of land in the Taos Valley. There is always so much to do and I feel like winter is fast approaching. We still have to get hay and build a place to store it! We have to top off our propane tank (for hot water and gas cooking stove), resupply our wood pile, pick up some organic potatoes and straw from the San Luis Valley in Colorado, which means we have to get a hitch put on the van and get it running more reliably.

Still so much to do....

We bought a van, man, and delivered some art.

Adventures in the NM sun...some we'd rather not have.

We traded in the rainbow truck for a 15 passenger van. Actually the mechanic bought the truck and we found the van on Craigslist for hardly more than we got for the truck. It has a big engine and can tow the water trailer and the horse trailer. Plus, we can all ride in it, with room to spare. It just needs a hitch.

The "new" van.

The van is in pretty decent condition. It used to be used by the town and then a local school district. The man we bought it from got it at auction. Unfortunately it got vandalized while it was sitting at the auction lot. One of the big side windows got broken out and all of the rear lights were removed...wires cut and the whole housing taken. Weird.

Lots of room in this van.

So we vacuumed out the glass and put plastic on the window and ordered the rear tail lights, which would take a day to come in. The manager at the auto parts store said a receipt would be enough if we got pulled over. What? A receipt in lieu of lights?

We picked up the van on Wednesday and lucky for me it was plenty big enough to hold my art piece, which I had to take to the gallery in town, for the show that opens on Saturday. We layed the piece on top of the back three rows of seats and still had enough room for all of us in the van. It was a little rough rolling along the dirt road out to the highway and I had to hold my art piece up off the seats to some degree. I was afraid it was going to shake apart on the washboard road. But we made it.

Art in the van

 

First stop: pick up and install the tail lights before we try to drive through town traffic to the gallery. Done. But then, the van won't start at the auto parts store. Why? We bought and installed a new battery when we picked up the van. Okay, time is running short. Have to get the art to the gallery. The clerk jumps the van and we are off, taking back roads and trying to keep the van from stalling out (the idol is a little rough).

We make it to the gallery and deliver the art without too much trouble. I worry about the van starting and ask Richard if it is a good idea to turn off the van? He isn't worried. But what choice do we have anyway? It takes both of us to carry the ginormous art piece into the gallery. Why do I make such monstrosities, I wonder, as I see other artists carrying their artwork in one hand?

Stables Gallery, Taos NM.

Excited to see the art show taking form. Pick up some postcards to hand out and keep for my scrapbook.

Oh, now it's time to leave, and guess what...the van won't start. Are we surprised? Not entirely.

So I go back into the gallery and ask all of the people I don't know if anyone can jump the van. The wonderful lady putting on the show has cables and we push the van out so she can get her truck next to the battery. But that doesn't work. She tells us it is a strange day for cars at the gallery. Ours is the third that has had issues.

Now the battery cable clamp has broken and some other men/artists are trying to help Richard put a makeshift clamp on the terminal. That doesn't work either. So we push the van into a parking space...it was in a fire parking zone or something, and I take the kids to the park while Richard runs off to the auto parts store for a new terminal clamp.

After a couple more hours and another trip to the auto parts store, Richard calls the insurance company for a tow/jump. Wonderful. The tow truck driver jumps the van and tells us the alternator belt is no good. So, off we go to the auto parts store again where they test the alternator, we buy a new belt and they tell us the starter is going bad. Great. We do not turn the van off again.

Eventually, the adventure is over and we make it back home with the traitorous van. All the people are in one piece, but nerves are frayed and moods are cranky. (Big sigh.)

There is something to be said for not having a car payment, but sometimes I wonder if it is worth the hassle. At least most (not all) new cars are fairly reliable and under warranty. Too bad we can't buy a new car with cash.

Needless to say, we will take our reliable Kia (which still has a warranty and still has payments) into town for the art opening Saturday.

ARTE de DESCARTES XII  

Stables Gallery 

133 Paseo del Pueblo Norte

Taos NM.

August 25, 2012

4 -7 pm