Just a few wells in the neighborhood...should generate some revenue for the county.

Since last April, we have been surprised to share our pristine mountain views with the big oil companies, who seem to be moving in post haste, taking advantage of that every 40 acre rule. Say hello to our new neighbors!

This first well is the second to come to our neighborhood--added about a month or so ago. We can see this one from our house, but at least we can't see the evaporation pit.

Oil Well #2 -- second well in the neighborhood

The second well in the photo below was the first one that came to our quaint little town last April. Big producer...or so I hear. 100 barrels a day. Is that why they added another pump? And still the drill is there...or maybe that's the pipe machine.

First well in the hood, but second in distance from our house. That fence contains the evaporation pit.

Oil Well #1. Still drilling. Going another direction maybe?

And the newest drill in our rural atmosphere....

Oil well #3...they look big and scary when they are actually drilling.

Oil Well #3 --pumping in that water (or...)..helps with that "horizontal" drilling

Big and scary. Drills with little red lights on top, flashing in the night so the planes won't hit them. Kind of ruins the view of the bright stars and the Milky Way.

Took these photos on our way up to the Springs for my daughter's first Occupational Therapy session. It went well. Even got to spend time with the angry teenage girl (my second oldest) who doesn't seem so angry now that she's discovered the calming effects of a little herb we'd all like to legalize. My oldest though, who lives in Texas, is pro-cop, anti MMJ, and anti-Occupy. Makes a mama proud.

Noticed some other odd activity in the hood: bobcat taking out trees up the road toward the national forest land. More fencing going in. Unused roads look like they are seeing some traffic. My guess? I think we've got two or three more oil wells coming in.  And it just F*** 'in pisses me off! There was no disclosure about this crap when we bought this house! Fracked up, man!

On the positive side (Is there one?) I did get a few responses to my CL ad looking for a rental in the Land of Enchantment. And one was another Earthship. Go figure. I guess people who build/live in E-ships are just my kind of people. It sounds perfect! A place of opportunity and healing...a divine structure to reside in while we search for our new permanent place. The best thing is we get to head down there to check out some of these rentals. Nothing beats a road trip to New Mexico. Except staying maybe.

Negatives: need to find homes for some of the critters...maybe. Guineas, cats, some chickens. Need to move before Wells Fargo repossesses the truck, and our house falls into one of the old coal mine shafts (fracking DOES NOT cause earthquakes or tremors. Oh, wait, it does.) Need to move before they begin on the new coal mine to open between our house and the good old Uranium, Superfund Site, Cotter Mill (which is trying to get a license extension, in case they decide to re-open perhaps).

This place is just getting way too toxic for the likes of humans. It is time to bail on the Prison town and begin again in a place that fights the Big Corporate Oil/Gas/hazardous materials energy companies like their lives depend on it...because, they do.

Good luck little Chuck!

I gave away my baby rooster today, to a nice woman who I think will appreciate the bond between a gal and her roo. One of Charlie's sons (looks just like his dad) has gone on to rule his own roost and take care of his own harem of laying hens. Good luck little Chuck!

And, it turns out the other chick I hatched from an egg is also a rooster...Chuck's brother, a Barred Rock,  Black Star Cross. Kind of funny looking, but he's coming into some pretty tail feathers now and some have a hint of green. Interesting boy. Not crowing yet. A late bloomer? I think I will call him Gideon, from a dream I had some weeks ago of a baby with the same name. Didn't understand the relevance of the name in the dream, but it seems fitting for my lonely little orphaned rooster who is just nineteen weeks old.

I have been so caught up in the Occupy revolution, I have not been writing or doing much of anything really.

Took the kids to the city for their autism screenings. Turns out my son is fine, perfectly normal...well, his role  model, his older sister, has taught him a thing or two, which might be questionable, but otherwise, it's all good.

My little girl, however, is another story. That's how the doctor told us. Another story. Diagnosed PDD-NOS, which in autism lingo means not full blown autistic, but on the spectrum. Pervasive Developmental Disorder - Non Specified. She has many autistic traits, but she also speaks and can communicate, even if it is a little off. So there we have it. They'd like my daughter to undergo therapy once a week. Speech, occupational, behavioral...learn how to be social, in a normal way. What does that mean? I'm not even social in a normal way. Although, I have to admit it has been an issue for me in my own life. Maybe my daughter can learn how to talk to people and stand to be in the same room with more than say five individuals. If not, hey, I will understand.

Still got New Mexico on the mind. In a bad, bad way. Or good. I search through Craigslist daily, trying to find a place we could rent with all of our critters. But I also have been trying to find homes for some of them. Anyone want a nice, male, neutered indoor cat? It turns out my son may be allergic to all of the animals anyway. His next blood test will tell us.

The oil drilling in our neighborhood continues. There are now three within a mile of our house. Fracking? Yep. Heard it from several people now. But "there's nothing to worry about,"and "it's not that bad," and "maybe the town will use the revenue to fix the roads," or "a little fracking is not as bad as a lot of fracking." Right?

Wait...what?

"Oil fracking is not as bad as gas fracking." and "give it some time and they will go away."

How long? Long enough to grow a tumor out of the side of my head? Or maybe when our water smells like fuel? Or maybe when the ground starts to shake and our house actually falls into one of the old abandoned coal mine shafts 300 feet underneath of us? How long? Maybe when they put a drill in the empty lot next to us? There's one in the next town over...sits smack in the middle of four houses. I'd say those lucky families are less than 300 feet away from that nightmare. Evaporation pits. Sure, they are using chemicals. "Not that bad"...how do we know if they won't tell us what chemicals?

Abandon ship! Abandon ship!

I think it's time to move on now to a community that doesn't favor profit over human health.

Not in my back yard, damn it!

And since NM still calls to my spirit, I think it's time to listen and find another place. They have autism therapists down in Santa Fe. I checked. Even a DAN! (Defeat Autism Now!) doctor. And the home school laws in NM are a bit more lax than in Colorado. Plus, you can collect and harvest rainwater. It's not against the law. Imagine that! And, as everyone knows, the Land of Enchantment is home to the most interesting people one could ever hope to meet. As one of my old lovers once told me...I'd fit right in. And as my family and friends always ask...who'd want to live in New Mexico? Exactly! Too many people here know me now.

I'm going to die in New Mexico, I promise. It'd be nice if I could do a little living in the land Georgia O'Keeffe came to love. The land recorded by Ansel Adams and written about by Tony Hillerman. It is an artist's paradise...a land where the muse runs free with wild and crazy abandon, dancing with the wind under skies ablaze with glorious, smoldering  sunsets. 

It is home. Even if I don't live there yet. I will get back to the land where my spirit sings in harmony with the energy vibrations of the mesas and mountains and the beautiful sage. I'm coming New Mexico, I'm coming!