Happy Anniversary, New Mexico!

A year ago, Friday, June 5th, R and I landed in New Mexico, for the first time – on a “proof of concept” vacation.

4am June 5, 2020

New Mexico passed, and a year later, everything is different.

Then…

Now…

We live in a different state, do a different job, don’t rent – now own.

We had an 18-month plan. We were here in less than three. I survived 3-days of travel with the cats in the car. R survived Salt Lake City in a rainstorm, at rush hour with a 26′ U-Haul. We’ve survived sub-zero temps with nothing but a fireplace and passive solar heating. Nights filled with spiders. Snow, then more snow! The addition of new members of the family – Castor & Pollux.

Then, we moved during a pandemic.

Since our move, we have survived: hatches of flies, moths, and bugs, an introduction to the world of cockroach identification, plumbing issues, dust and thunderstorms, and now 100-degree weather.

New Mexico is a new world. Really!

On Friday, as I write, the thunderheads are already gathering on the eastern horizon. Thunderstorms here don’t bring the relief they do in the Pacific Northwest. There isn’t enough rain – just hail or a sprinkling of big drops – and the temperature never wavers. These are desert storms that fracture the sky and rattle the windows in the Studio. The Farmhouse is unfazed – but then our inspector said he’d be in touch if the world was ending, the adobe farmhouse would survive anything. Oh, that and we have an irrigation well! The rain brings little relief to the parched ground. The storms are my latest obsession – I can’t get enough of them. Late afternoons – that used to be all about birdwatching – are now about wandering the property to get the best view of the storms.

As insane as the year has been, we couldn’t have planned it better.

As the pandemic began is progress across the country, we were safely ensconced in Magdalena. We could still work – granted internet access is an ongoing issue, but we are adapting. We were in a rural area that already self isolates, surrounded by PhDs and astronomy folk next to New Mexico Tech in Socorro – where we do most of our shopping.

Being near a college town, I believe, has impacted the population’s adherence to the Mayor’s requests, which exceeded the Governors – and Lujan Grisham’s were pretty quick and strict. The leaders have educated and continue to help everyone understand the ongoing crisis – and that this isn’t over yet. We despair when we leave the confines of our bubble and see so many people without masks, and business not following counting and sanitation protocols. We’ve written off major stores due to staff or patron misbehavior. They are now entered only as a last resort,

As someone said, it is a marathon, not a sprint – COVID isn’t going away anytime soon, sadly we are not New Zealand.

I can’t imagine what it would have been like to still be in Oregon, on leave or unemployed, since anyone working with kids was in one of the first shuttered industries. The Portland Metro Area has a larger population than the whole state of New Mexico. Sheltering in place in Clackamas would have been challenging. Not being able to get outdoors would have driven R crazy.

There is more to our story: Some of them may never be told – we are too close to them, or they are more someone else’s story than ours. But the stories keep piling up in my journal, and I’ll keep writing them and publishing some…

Happy Anniversary, New Mexico.

~ Raven & Hummingbird!

…and now this!

It is finally official.

On Friday, May 15th, we closed on our lovely 130-year-old* adobe farmhouse!

Then we went on a hike, then went to ABQ to get some plants for the yard and garden.

New Mexico is slowly allowing more businesses to open, although the nurseries have been open the whole time under various limitations.

R and I are slowly getting out more.

Carefully getting out more.

I don’t think my experience of the pandemic has been anywhere near the norm. I’ve been out more since April 6th than I’d been out in the prior 6 months. There wasn’t much choice, given how not “move-in ready” the house was. I’m not complaining, it’s been an adventure! I have my mask – provided by a friend in Magdalena – gloves from RACKS – and hand sanitizer that I lucked into at John Brooks. Socorro’s mayor has been proactive, and most of the folks who shop in the town are compliant. Considering how far many come to shop there – we are still seeing more families than we should – but people are trying.

Our local Fiber Arts Guild is still making masks – hundreds of them! Some for New Mexico Tech, the NRAO, Alamo (the Navajo Reservation north of Magdalena), and Veguita, others go to family, friends, and neighbors. They are amazing people!

There is so much to do here at Corvidae House.

So far, we have uncovered an old perennial garden that parallels the street, are pruning back trees, weeding the vegetable garden, and planting odds and ends just to make us happy.

Half the house dates from the 1880s, the other half from the 1950s. The exterior walls are all 18″ thick, framed interior walls inside the 1950s section creating the bathroom, pantry, and closets. The floors look like a layer cake – and decisions will need to be made about what to do. Add to the cake or take it down to the dirt.

Oh, and dirt… one of the first things we did was take a look in the attic.

The oral history, recorded by the previous owner in the 1980s, stated the vigas originated at Fort Craig, which was decommissioned in the 1880s. We were excited to see what was up there and shocked at what we found.

Yes, there are vigas! But they are all over the 1950s side of the house. Rather than the vigas separated by stretches of latillas between them, they are placed side-by-side, creating a solid log roof.

There is so much dirt, we have no idea what is the “roof” of the 1880s side. Inside the house, it appears there are multiple ceilings, and each one is a different height. We now think these were put in to keep the dirt in the attic from seeping into the house.

It is a little disturbing just how much dirt there is up there, and it hurts my head to think how much it will cost in labor to get all that removed.

This isn’t a “get it done now” house – this is a long term commitment. We were estimating it would take us about 3 years, now after being here for a bit, we are extending our estimate to 5 years, and that may not include raising the roof. 🙂

Welcome to the first stages of the rest of our lives!

Home is where you put your corvid mat!

~ Tess

*I like to be exact, but it is impossible with this house. So here is what I think I know.

Fort Craig was abandoned in 1885, so the vigas wouldn’t have lasted long – someone would have repurposed them ASAP there simply isn’t a lot of wood like that laying around. San Antonio, which straddles the del Camino Real de Tierra Adentro and the railroad, was only a few decades old – oral history had it here in 1846. The first of the three mission churches predate that the likely date of the first mission San Antonio de SenecU was likely founded in the early 1600s and was destroyed in 1680 during the Pueblo Revolt. The second Church, San Antonio de Aquinas (?), was built on the site in the early 1800s and was gone by 1906. The people of San Antonio rebuilt at its current location in the 1930s. It is still standing but currently unsafe, but I’ve heard rumors the Church may start restoring it. Fingers are crossed!

The padres are still here – our property abuts the old churchyard where they are buried – and that land is held by the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. What I don’t know is, are they Padres from the Mission? Or from the Church or both? The existing cemetery is a few blocks to the north of us, and I need to go over and start recording dates. So much to research! 

The village of San Antonio itself doesn’t appear on a census until 1860.

The first mention of the house at the county assessors office is 1900. Vetting the dates is going to take time. I was expecting it to be an extended research project, but I wasn’t expecting a Pandemic – so digging into county, state, and federal records will simply have to wait.

 

Moving during a pandemic…

…what was I thinking?

We are now on day 17 of our move.

Still in boxes.

Still exhausted.

Still…

The laundry list of obstacles continues to grow, things that would be easier with help… but help around here is made up for friends and neighbors, more often than businesses you pay for services to.

Right now, that is a problem that I try not to look too hard at. It would overwhelm me.

So, we pick at the projects, trying to do the major ones over the weekends (Yes, we are still working during the week,) and try to ignore all the things that are not getting done.

I realized yesterday that I’m not alone in this situation. Not that many people are moving during this time, but in the rural parts of the country, like here, life is going on much the same way it always has.

You go to the store a little bit less, you call your neighbors rather than visit over the fences… but crops are planted, the cows and goats are milked, and the chickens fed. You may be stuck on your property, but you aren’t stuck in a small apartment or room. There is space here.

Added to the difference pandemic experience between urban and rural folks – there is the issue of all of the streaming events being offered up.

We can’t see them.

The lack of internet access in rural communities (And don’t even get me started with the dearth of connectivity in the Native American communities, especially the Navajo!) has turned out to be something beyond what I imagined when planning this move. I knew it was going to be challenging, but not how grim it would.

As I write, I’m connected via my phone’s hotspot, so here was my reality check.

In Portland, we were regularly using 250 of our 500 GB monthly limit. Here our mobile hotspots max out at 50 GB per phone with another 25 GB for phone activity. They promote these plans as “Unlimited” because they don’t prevent you from accessing the internet after you hit your max – they just throttle you back so far it is beyond painful. So rather than up to 500 GB, we are running on 150 GB.

The upload/download maxes are very different when you are talking about a 4G network vs. fiberoptic cable.

Although published upload speeds between fiberoptic and 4G are the same, download speeds are widely different. Comcast downloads range from 25 – 300 Mbps – Verison 4G ranges from 5 – 12 Mbps.

This makes updating everything from an app to Android Studio a decision point.

Do I have enough bandwidth? What time of the day can I get a consistent enough download speed and not get dropped? There are times when we get to the end of a major update, just to have it fail on us and we have to begin again – wasting away our merger data allocation.

We are easily paying 2x as much as we paid for our 500 GB Comcast plan in Portland. So the expense of connectivity is also an issue. We are lucky – we have the resources, but for many, it just isn’t possible to access the web due to the cost.

In New Mexico, as it is elsewhere, that is impacting students’ education – from Kindergarten to College students – the cracks in access to a resource many of us take for granted are showing.

When was the last time you thought about your data plan?

As the pandemic works through the world and groups reach out to brighten our lives and ease the stress – the rural and the poor are left out, again. I would love to have watched the Met’s At-Home Gala,  Audubon’s I Saw a Bird, or the reimagining the The Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Yes, I am an Opera Loving, Ornthoglist aspiring, Anglophile nerd.

But each time something comes up – whether it is watching the latest episode of John Oliver, losing myself in TV series or listening to music… at the back of my head is the question, “Will this impact our ability to work?”

This gulf between the haves and the have-nots is being illuminated by the global pandemic and goes so much farther than access to healthcare, clean water and air, safety and security. It includes access to information and education, which impacts the next generation and the generations to come.

R and I consume media – from how to install a water heater, what is the closest hardware store with copper pipe, to what dish shall we make for dinner, and what type of tile are we dreaming of for the floors – or should we try an adobe floor? How are those constructed? It is endless. For us, the internet is a tool that we no longer know how to live without, but which we have to constantly manage.

Now we try to remember to use our phones when possible, keep track of our data usage on the mobile hotspots, and make offerings to technology gods – in the hope we will make it through another month.

~ Tess

PS then someone at Tech sent R this link, in an attempt to insert some cheer, so we used some data, and it was worth it 🙂

…and the house fell down!

-Love that song, especially the words…Taupin does lyrics like no one else.

With a rolled up note I’m hovering on that line
Three days on a diet of cocaine and wine
And a little weed just to level me sometime
I put the clock in the drawer ’cause I’ve cancelled out the time…

Sadly, no wine, cocaine or weed… but I’ve got a little vodka. 🙂

I’ve found I’m envious of the bored, and the restless. I would love to put the clock in the drawer and disappear for a while. But I can’t. Not bored, not restless, there is simply too much to do.

Moving during a pandemic isn’t what we’d planned, but so it goes. I hurt. R hurts. And so a little tequila and a little vodka, but if you had some Rare Darkness to share, I wouldn’t say no.

So…

A little history – we found a 130-year-old adobe farmhouse in a small town called San Antonio – not the one in Texas, the one in New Mexico. Even the guy at the local Home Depot got it wrong (different story).

We fell in love, we made an offer, we moved… during a pandemic.

There are around 120 souls in San Antonio, so it was an upgrade from the 800 or so souls in Magdalena. Magdalena is a village, San Antonio is a Sensus Designated Place! Which translates as “a wide spot in the road.” But a wide spot with a farmers market, access to the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge, and three restaurants – The Crane, The Buckhorn, and The Owl.

So, yes… middle of nowhere, but a comfortable middle-of-nowhere even in a pandemic. The Buckhorn is doing take-out! According to Bobby Flay, they have the best green chili cheeseburgers and are #7 on GQ’s list of burgers you must eat before you die. You’ll have to ask R – he’s had one.

It was not “move-in ready” and did not meet my requirements – 2 bathrooms, high ceilings, fireplace, sliding glass door – but the land is amazing, the birds are amazing, and the adobe walls are 18″ thick, and the vigas may have been pilfered from Fort Craig in the 1880s. And R loves it, so here we are.

Our move started last week – just the random carloads, it isn’t like the KIA can carry much. The main move began on Friday – and 4 truckloads later (we were only able to get a 15′ UHaul) and an untold number of KIA loads – we were finally done on Sunday. We even got R mostly up and running for work on Monday.

We are playing a bit of Jenga – and yesterday it came crashing down when our single toilet started backing up into our single bathtub. We started with a trip to the local hardware store for a snake – I came back with 2 of them (hoarding seeming to be a trend during this pandemic and I didn’t want to make two trips). A small one that would work from the bathtub end and a larger one that was recommended for working from the septic system into the house.

We tried and failed… and tried again… and then called our real estate agent for a referral. Thank you Jenilyn! And thankfully, Romero’s Plumbing was available! They were here within an hour, but even they failed.

This was the first try….

And they went back to get more equipment, and brought out the Big Guns!

In the end, they had to remove the toilet and use the size 6 snake to tear through the tree roots that had taken up residence in our pipes.

But after a day of not having a toilet, an adventure in itself, we are back online!

On to the next disaster…

~ Tess

 

Day 7 – Prep for Camp

Today is mostly about prepping for Camp NaNoWriMo! Which, part of the Well-being list plays into… sort of.

I’m sure many of us are not alone in having a mental loop playing in our head due to the pandemic – but as of tomorrow, I will need to turn that off and dive back into the world of The Green Man.

Etching of Vendome Green Man by Simon Garbutt

So, onward…

Day 6 – Future Imperfect

It is Week 2 – Day 6 of WriMo’s #StayHomeWriMo and the challenge begins to drill down into planning.

Which feels strange with so many things in our lives on pause.

This weekend, after an outing on Saturday to help with the cabin fever, Sunday became a day of doing not much. Although I am pretty sure Covid-19 has not made it to our Village, I was unwell and spent most of the day in bed. A little news, a little cooking (I made brunch, R made curry), and the beginning of a needlepoint project was as ambitious as I could make myself be.

The distraction of a needlepoint project was exactly what I needed.

Thank you Amerian Needlepoint Guild.

I love the guild. A few years back we were snowed in for a week and I spent the time obsessed with their Stich of the Month from the year before (I’ll find the pics). Every year the guild produces a year-long project which they place on their website. The Stitch of the Month is available for members and non-members and if you like to needlepoint you really should check it out.

The Stich of the Month is a long term commitment – and not really suited for being locked down so they have added HUMs Holed Up Minis! Each week they will add a small project to the website the first of which is entitled Portland. So I just had to give it a go. The idea is the projects are small enough that we can dig into our stashes, and never have to leave home. My stash is present – but my stand is lost in the purgatory of our storage unit, so, yes Virgil, that is a bag of rice holding my scroll frame.

Closeup

But I digress…

Time for the #StayHomeWriMo Mental, Social, Physical, and Creative daily check-in.

Day 5 – The World Outside

Those who are living under a “Shelter in Place” rule, I can’t really imagine what that is like. Here in Magdalena, we are surrounded by wide-open spaces. I’m a claustrophobic homebody –  I like being in my own space, but I like having a view. Last night, lying in bed, we watched the crescent moon sink down to the horizon followed by Venus.

Before that, we watched the (what do you call the light show opposite the sunset?) light show over the ridge.

And right now I’m watching the birds and the clouds streak past the Magdalena Mountain. And they are streaking – we’ve had some amazing wind in the last 20 hours.

The #StayHomeWriMo self-care list includes two outdoor activities to maintain our mental health and spur our creativity.

Day 4 – Secret Keepers

#StayHomeWriMo journey of self-care and creativity continues…

Mental – Make two quick lists: things you’re gratful for now, and things you ‘ll be grateful to get back in the future.

Grateful for now: The Raven aka Robert, our cats – especially the new additions Castor & Pollux – they are great for comic relief… or a good nap,

Day 3 – Write on White

Okay, so time to check in with the to do list for Day 3 of NaNoWriMo’s self care check list.

Mental – read a poem, an old favorite or a new one.

Old… What if a Much of a Which of a Wind… and New… I’ll go check the NaNoWriMo twitter feed and see what other people are recommending.

Social – Join the Virtual Write-In

Hmmm… it is here the link…

Physical – find a 20 second passage in a book that you like and memorize it to wash your hands to.

Something new… I keep coming up with things already in my head. Things that work… not really reading much with passages that stick in my head, but I’ll keep thinking.

• The Raven One stanza – two if you are really fast 🙂
• The Bells Sleigh bells work great – a little long. (Guess I have Poe on the brain)
• Anne of Green Gables – apology to Mrs. Lynde – up to X Line
• “In Flanders fields the poppies grow”  by John McCray, front matter for Starship Troopers by Robert A. Heinlein
• “Fear is the mind killer” from Dune by Frank Herbert – but intone it slowly…
• The Jabberwocky from Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carrol – I get to “he took his vorpal sword in hand”.

Creative – Set your text to white and try free writing in invisible mode. No inner editors allowed!

Ikes! For the sake of anyone who tries to read this – I will correct spelling and typos, otherwise, it would be just too painful. My daily free-write is 20 minutes/800 words (whichever comes first) so guess I’ll do that… really, IKES!

Day 2 – Word Salad Challenge

#StayHomeWirMo Day 2 report and short story.

• Mental – set a timer for 10 minutes. Meditate or breathe deeply.

Vaguely remember doing that Tuesday morning… but for some reason, it seems a long time ago…

• Social – set a group chat for just for sharing funny gifs…

Hmmm, how about a Facebook post about the funniest thing you “spot sanitize” mine is the spray bottles I use for training the kittens 🙂

Sad… the best I could come up with was my moisturizer and the anti-kitten spray. My life is boring 🙂

• Physical – try out a new recipe…

Does it count that I did that Monday? Banana Bread was yummm…. Tuesday was too chaotic 🙂 Wednesday is going to be a lot of the old standards.

GF Banana Bread from Bob’s Red Mill

Then the point of this whole exercise…

• The Creative