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

Crazy, hazy days of summer

Wild days of summer, with so much to do, so many plans and smoke from the surrounding fires in the air, it's definitely harder than you  might think to just stop and breathe. The west is on fire it seems, and no matter where we go, the smoke is there to great us.

Susan's Skybus

We spent the weekend of the fourth in Taos, incredibly enough, visiting our fellow Earthbagger Susan for her "Bus warming." The place is great. An old school bus in the sage, out on the Mesa, in the foreground of Two Peaks. It was an adventure, as most trips to NM usually are, and we met several interesting people at the party, some I'd like to get to know better in the future maybe. It was hot out there under the New Mexican sun without any shade, but not as hot as our little homestead in Southern Colorado, which I nicknamed upon arrival here two years ago, "The Surface of the Sun."

Two Peaks

The sagebrush soothed my soul and standing out there in the midst of it, staring at the Taos Mountain, I felt very much at peace, although I did have to silently ask said mountain why she decided I could not live there? I never got an answer, but as Richard, the kids and I spent a morning driving around town, remembering it all, I realized it was no longer a place I wanted to live, that it felt commercialized, somehow, but more importantly, it held too many lost dreams and tainted memories of things that went bad.

Little boy in sage

Still, I was so glad we went and even the two almost sleepless nights in strange places were worth the few moments of bliss I experienced standing in that good old beloved New Mexican sagebrush. Even the smoke couldn't dampen my feelings of euphoria, nor could my son, running off into the sage so I had to sprint my fat self after him for about two hundred yards. Overall, the kids had a delightful time, playing with their little friend, Susan's young daughter, and for the most part, the tantrums and strange OCD behaviors stopped. New Mexico is good medicine.

Our makeshift camper

Strangely enough, or maybe not, the morning after we got back home, the tantrums and spacey behavior started up in earnest, full blown, and Richard and I began to wonder if it is this place that is causing it? The house, the town, the geographical region? Do the surrounding prisons create a vortex of negative energy like the vortex of positive energy that exists in such places as Taos, Manitou, and Crestone? Something to think on.

Several of our new acquaintances spent time talking to Richard about life, the future and spiritual paths, and perhaps it made some impact upon him, because after we got home, he decided he was interested in returning to college to pursue his Masters, and he began researching Universities...in NM.

The trip was wonderful and I long to return to the Land of Enchantment, where my spirit belongs.

 

Back here at the farm, everything stays the same, for the most part. Before our trip we took the llama boys up the mountain to the Stage Stop Llama Ranch to get them sheared, and Vader looks foolish now, parading around as a giant poodle.

So, new plans are in the works which may involve relocating the farm to some quaint little burg in the NM landscape. Hope it works out, but at the same time, there is so much unfinished here, and so much to do just to get ourselves prepared for such a jump into the glorious unknown. I will simply allow the Universe to do as it will, riding the waves of change as they come, and who knows, maybe next summer I will be back in the New Mexican sage, on a more permanent basis.

UFO'S for Christmas?

It finally snowed here in our high desert land! For a while I wondered if we were ever going to have winter with our 50-60 degree sunny days. It has been so dry we have been watering all of our gardens and trees for fear of losing them to the drought conditions. When Richard went to pick up hay today, one of the farmers in town, who recently attended a soil conservation meeting where the stats for the century were available, said it was shaping up to be the driest, windiest winter in history. Oh boy. Global warming in action.  

I  know we haven't seen any moisture for several months. I am beginning to feel a bit concerned. If we don't have enough water, we are doomed. Needless to say, I've been trying to find a location we might permanently relocate to,  a place with enough water that we could survive on water catchment and intelligent garden design systems. Richard thinks the magic number is 15 inches per year. We don't get that here. We are short by several inches and if it continues to dry out, there is no hope. When the town runs out of water, we run out of water. We don't have a well. We are on the town water system. It is still illegal in Colorado to collect rain water, although I'm considering going renegade on that law. In ancient civilizations, when the drought came for an extended period, the people all died. Simple. We need water. A sustainable homestead takes the physical needs into consideration when planning for an unknown future of Peak Oil, global warming, societal collapse, etc.

So, where could we go? Richard thinks a place without building codes would be ideal for building an Earthsip or earth bag house that we could live in as we went, which is true, but where in the world is that? It turns out there are a few counties in Colorado without building codes, including one to the south of us, and one of the little towns over there gets about 8 more inches of moisture per year. Perfect. But then there is New Mexico, the land that I love, which allows rain water collection, and has more lenient building codes anyway.  The Earthships originated in NM.

So, even though we can't afford to move, I've been snooping around on the internet, trying to find another perfect spot. I do this fairly often, feeling restless and annoyed by suburbia and the covenants imposed upon us. 

I've been learning some interesting things about Rio Arriba county in NM. There's a little town down there called Dulce (it's not wet enough to move to, and on a reservation) that has quite a colorful history in the world of Extraterrestrials. Look it up to learn more about it. It involves the Archuleta Mesa and underground military installations and all sorts of bizarre goings on. Is this for real? And if it is, what does that mean for the rest of us? And does the location of my little homestead even matter anymore?

Well, I'm not sure what to believe anymore. When we went to Taos for the first time in November of 2001, Richard and I had our own close encounter...about five or six green glowing, round orbs in the night sky. "Are you seeing this?" I asked him.  You have to understand that back in the day, Richard was about as straight edge, conservative, discount anything he couldn't see or prove, as a son of upper middle class suburbia could be, trained in cynicism for anything metaphysical. "Are you seeing this?" I asked him that night long ago, wondering if my mind had finally slipped into fantasy land. Sure I had heard about UFO's in NM and joked about them taking people and mutilating cattle in the San Luis Valley. It was part of the quirky history of the Southwest. Right?

"Let's follow them," Richard said. He apparently was seeing it too. But no one else driving on the road stopped. There were no people standing, car doors flung open, gawking at the green lights in the sky. I tuned in to the local radio station (KTAO, one of my favorite stations to this day) and there was no mention of this mysterious thing in the sky. Helicopters? They aren't green these days are they, I wondered? It was crazy New Mexico weird, but we followed the lights as they headed slowly up toward Taos mountain and the Ski Valley. Richard drove his little Subaru right through the snow until the road dead ended into a snow bank too big for us to cross...and the lights disappeared behind the mountain.

I never forgot. When we came back to Colorado, I searched the internet for mention of the mysterious lights. Nothing. We decided to move to Taos that night. It was a sign after all, even if it was one we couldn't understand. How cool was that really? A close encounter of the first kind in the Land of Enchantment where anything is possible. I was thrilled, but wary about mentioning it to anyone, knowing most people were well on their way to thinking me crazy anyway.

And so it comes back. Life is a circle, isn't it? I once painted a painting of circles and circles and circles, intermixed, crossing, intertwined, confused and chaotic. Everything comes back around. Here I am again, ten years later, contemplating the existence of ET. 

We're not going to move to Dulce, it's on a reservation and I don't think we could anyway, and Chama, where I was originally looking, is on the other side of the great Divide from that alien activity that is rumored to be occurring there. But, I know that the Southwest in general seems to be a hot spot for alien activity. What is going on in these parts? Is the government hiding this from us too? Most certainly. They can  garble information about our food, our planet and conditions about global warming, and it seems the information they dish out to us unsuspecting Americans is the information that keeps us in our sheeple suits.

I never did fit into mainstream society and the cute little lamb costume they had me fitted for, I burned in a bonfire built from the rage of a misunderstood teenage girl. It was my right of passage. And to that fire I added everything that would hold me down, keep me a prisoner to the American Dream and the herd mentality. That included Christianity, materialism, capitalism, government and anything else that tried to put me in the box of the unthinking, mindless zombie like 9 to 5 ers who were sleepwalking around me, everywhere I looked. I wanted no part of it. I still don't.

In this season of materialism, I always have a hard time coming back to the expected reality I feel is forced upon me. I hate Christmas. Every year I feel the same unease about participating in consumerism, letting everyone buy my kids things they don't need. And every year I wonder how I could just bow out of that too. Hey folks, I'm not doing Christmas anymore, so don't buy me anything and don't expect me to go out shopping to find some token gift that will never be used. It's all ridiculous. The only positive I have to remember is that Christmas is really a pagan holiday, from the tree to Santa Claus, the gift giving and the feasting, the reindeer and the yule log. I'm cool with that. Santa is a shaman and Jesus Christ may not have even been born in December. How about that? If only we as a society could stop with the crazy shopping madness. Give a handmade gift instead. 

So the Universe gave me a little gift this season. Maybe a little comic relief...it did make me laugh when I read that aliens of many species are living underground, with massive tunnel systems that traverse the globe. Some of the governments are in on it. Sure why not? And I most assuredly am having a great time now researching the whole secret world of ET. Who knew? Fun, fun for the holidays. And I continue to look for the perfect, safe, alien free homestead location, ruling out various places for lack of water or...extraterrestrial presence. Don't want to live there and let my children become the next abductees in the endless parade of genetic madness and experimentation rumored to be going on. But then, is anyone safe anywhere? What could you do really if they came for you?

I'll just go back to my farming, my little piece of reality in an insane world. I can still eat healthy and take my vitamins (Did you know Vitamin C can cure cancer? Another cover-up.) Sometimes I look up into the sky and wonder. Maybe the 2012 end times involves an intergalactic underground battle that will have far bigger repercussions for us Earth dwellers than even global warming. Who knows. I've still got to do my part to save the planet, but this new information has my head spinning. I'm hoping that the rumors of benevolent ETs are true too, to help mankind save itself from itself and heal our great planet. Just a gift from the Universe...something to keep in mind as we plan for a sustainable future for our children and grandchildren.

Something new happens every day. Gifts. Miracles. Pieces of the puzzle. Tidbits of information that may one day come together to be useful or to make the bigger picture easier to see. I am thankful for the interesting, unexpected and fun gifts that expand my mind.