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 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,

The cost of connivence…

I had an “ah Ha!” moment last week.

I have to give up pre-packaged baby spinach!

I live in a part of the country that has limited recycling. Once a month we can take soda cans/paper/cardboard to Socorro to be recycled. There is more recycling options available in Los Lunas and ABQ but we haven’t gotten that far.

Distance, Time and Storage are defeating us.

But putting things in the garbage that I would normally put the in recycling is making me edgy.

We don’t have a garbage disposal so food odds and ends are going into the garbage too. Right now I feed our veggies remnants to the desert cotton tails – yep! the Rabbits. Something I can’t do when we have a garden but is okay now. Still there is so much that goes into the landfill…

Which brings me back to pre-packaged spinach.

I wanted spinach for omelets and the stuff I normally get was beyond wilted… I just couldn’t face sorting through the slimy stuff to get half a handful of good greens. So, I caved and bought a bag of Dole Baby Spinach.

It was fresh, washed and convenient.

I’m alone a lot these days (and I am NOT complaining – I love it) but it does lead to talking to yourself or having imaginary conversations with your non-imaginary friends. Everyone needs a sounding board – and when I can’t get a real one, I imagine the person I would most like to talk the thing through with, and talk to them.

So, I’m in the kitchen cooking and looking at the baby spinach bag on the counter… and I think about a friend in Austin, and ask her “just how much money did it cost to design the bag?”

My imaginary conversation went something l like this…

1. You have the Dole logo, the images/text printed on the bag that went though multiple hands and departments and rounds of approvals and acceptance/market testing.
2. Then someone designed the size and shape of the bag and the technology that went into making a semi-permeable bag that keeps the spinach fresh longer.
3. Then you have the manufacturing process.
   1. The plastic – raw materials processed and made into sheets, then shipped.
   2. The machines that make the bag, prints the bag, insert the processed spinach and seals it up.
4. The actual spinach which is grown, harvested, packaged, shipped, washed and repackaged.
5. Those are then packed into boxes – branded, designed, and shipped.

I was exhausted thinking about all the steps, all the people, departments, companies, raw materials and non-renewable resources involved in getting a bag of baby spinach to my kitchen. The carbon footprint had to be huge!

And then – I put 80% of all that time and those resources into the landfill.

Then I think about the humble twist-tied bunch of spinach that I get for under a dollar…

There will be no more packaged spinach in our household – the cost is just too much. I even told R that if he would join me in the “no packaged spinach” movement I would happily wash any spinach he needed when he cooked.

The real version of my imaginary friend will likely read this so a funny aside just for her.

Our landlord was over and asked to use the bathroom – when he came out he asked what I was saving all the toilet paper roles for… I said many moons ago a friend gently took me to task for not recycling them, so they are waiting to be recycled 🙂

~ Tess

House Buying New Mexico Style – Pt. 1 The Learning Curve!

House buying here, in our little corner of the world, turned out more complicated than we expected.

First – what we want doesn’t exist. Fantasy is always the first sacrificial death!

So – compromise. The question was, what to compromise on. We have a mix of musts and wants:

• Adobe or stone construction
• Dark Skies – limited light bleed from neighbors and altitude – the “valley” is at 4,500 ft and the Village is at 6,500 ft. The difference is quite stunning.
• Places to put down cement pads for the telescopes
• Room for chickens, goats, garden and greenhouse
• Birds & other wildlife – if we feed, they will come
• Enough room for our stuff (yes, we want a dining room, and a kitchen big enough to cook in without tripping over each other)
• 2+ bedrooms ( 1 for company)
• A space for crafts/projects
• Office space
• 1+ bathrooms
• A propane range (after cooking with gas it would be hard to go back)
• The ability to have an outdoor living/cooking space
• Placement options for Catio(s)

Our goal is to keep the price down, since property here comes in two flavors – 500k+ move in ready (not in the budget) or 100-200k which always needs LOTS of work.

Robert really wants an adobe home. It was part of the fantasy of coming to New Mexico, and something we both agree would be an adventure. The problem with adobe homes is they are usually “in town” often very small square footage: kitchen, living space, bedroom and bathroom. And more often than not, on a small piece of property and those that don’t have major problems sell quickly. Which led us to looking at a mobile/manufactured home – something we had not considered before.

© Ken Price “Another Hermit”

Ahhh… we were so naïve.

The home in question sits on a 1-acre lot on the eastern edge of the Village of Magdalena. It is liberally sprinkled with out outbuildings, but the core is a 1992 Palm Harbor single wide mobile home with a 650 square foot addition to one side. It checked most of the boxes… was on village water and sewer and in our price range.

So… we made a verbal offer.

Then we sat down with the discloser document (yes, wrong order!). There wasn’t anything we weren’t expecting…. Until it was listed as being on a septic system?!?!!

Village water – Yes. Village electricity – Yes! Village Sewer – NO!!!

We continued with the offer, madly researching septic systems. When we signed our offer letter we read, with mounting dismay, the 6 pages of legalese we had to sign regarding the septic system.

New Mexico has a septic system problem – a plethora of unpermitted systems that do not meet code. Homes sold for cash “as is” with out inspections or appraisals, and a limited amount of readily available history. Turns out this area of New Mexico didn’t start using MLS until 2005 so finding out anything previous to that is difficult. Our research led us down one rabbit hole after another and given the age of the Mobile Home – 1992! – information was scarce.

We were concerned, so we kept digging.

After finding the New Mexico Waste Water permit site we started our search…. and came up with nothing. We then documented our search and filled out a form for the office of permits to do a search for us. They came up with nothing too.

So, strike one – septic system isn’t on the Village system and isn’t permitted.

Limitations of a septic system…

• Septic systems have a limited lifespan. Usually 20 – 30 years with good maintenance (i.e. pumped regularly) – and we were reaching the upper limit of that.
• The tank and the leach field cannot be built on. Which would limit where we could build the pads for the telescopes and our outdoor cooking area. Although an acre – there are so many existing outbuildings and structures they limited our options.

So, we wanted to know what kind of septic system, where the tank was, and where the leach field was – in order to make some decisions…. We also wanted to know the cost of hooking the house up to the Village septic system ($300) and the cost of routing the waste water to it (unknown).

Our real estate agent had a plumber and contractor come out and we had the house inspected.

Everyone was able to find the tank – although the plumber discovered that the circumference of the pipe used to drain the tank was too small for a modern pumping systems. Which begged the question how long had it been since it was last pumped? As hard as everyone looked, no one could tell us where the drain field was. The Village couldn’t tell us where the hook up and we couldn’t find out if it was actually possible to hook to the Village system due to the slope of the land – waste water doesn’t go “up hill” although a pump could be used, so yet another unknown possibility.

This left us feeling… well, we were beginning to lose sleep.

Next came the inspection.

Our inspector, Charles, was wonderful! Do to our own lack of knowledge we spent part of a Saturday with him following him around as he did the inspection. Learning and soaking it all in.

The owners had offered us a generous amount to repaint and re-floor the single wide. So, we had already budgeted time and money to that project.

But then came all the other odds and ends that started mounting up as we wandered the property with Charles.

• The skirt of the mobile needed to be replaced, according to NM law, they won’t loan on a mobile home with a bad skirt.
• Then there were the windows – all of which needed to be replaced (I couldn’t open and close them and the exterior vinyl was flaked and decayed so their insulating properties were compromised).
• The outbuildings – which we did not get inspected due to lack of access – were going to need maintenance and upkeep.
• The south facing wooden front porch needed refinishing or replacing.
• And little things went on and on – like the welds on part of the gate and one of the hand rails had broken…

The list just kept getting longer.

So, we researched, measured, and priced out flooring, paint, sheetrock, tile, windows and skirting… and the tools to do all of it, figuring we could still make it all work. We would put in the sweat equity and have fun redoing the place.

The lending became our Catch-22.

After looking at the property (but before the appraisal) the bank came back with their offer. They would lend us up to 70% of the purchase price.

In the moment – we were stunned. There was at least 30k worth of work to be done… and that would have to go into the downpayment rather than into the remodel. We would be house-poor, exactly what we did not want to be. House poor limited the remodel, chickens, cement pads for telescopes, goats, catios….

After we breathed a bit, and did more research online. After several days we were surprised the bank was willing to loan that much… mobile homes of this age are often “cash only” and “as is”. Most banks are not willing to touch them at all due to depreciation.

Mobile and manufactured homes – esp. those build before the late 90’s – deprecate more like cars.

And that is when it hit us…

Nothing, absolutely nothing we did to it would ever make it increase in value. Which made me physically sick. The place is adorable – but we weren’t looking for a lifetime commitment – and we would never get back even a smidge of the effort and money we put into it, if we could even find someone to buy it. Home as albatross!

After a sleepless night, we rescinded our offer.

It was harrowing… but we slept better.

We are still looking, wish us luck!

~ Tess

 

New Years Catch-Up

Welcome to the new year…

The holidays came crashing down on us, add in Castor & Pollux and some serious house hunting, and well…

…the chaos never seemed to end.

So a quick update:

Castor is doing well after his umbilical cord hernia surgery. I take him in next week for a check up and for both the Gemini to get their boosters. They are lovely, insane creatures.

Fun & Games

By the fire

Annoying Sass

Too Cute

Office Cats

Trouble

Writing Lap Cats (that won’t last long).

I had to shut down my feeders between Thanksgiving and Christmas due to an outbreak of Bird Pox (I have a draft post somewhere about it…) Feeders are back online, and we’ve had multiple visits by a Sharp-Shinned Hawk. It always makes me feel successful when an apex predator shows up.

We got a “cat tree” rather than a Christmas Tree this year. Some of my ornaments date from the early 90s so we thought this was a better use of the Christmas decorating fund. Not the best pics – but they so rarely are all in the same place at the same time…

Bugging Soph

Went to a delightful Magdalena Electric Light Parade (pics to come) and a soggy Christmas Eve Luminarias display in Old Town ABQ. You can tell it doesn’t rain much in ABQ – the streets and sidewalks puddle in odd ways.

Bought cookbooks for Christmas from Powells (and PJs – its cold up here). Looking forward to recipes from Peru and Gluten Free WishList . 

First bunch of greens, holy basil, and catnip is growing! In the middle is our makrut lime tree!

Took a trip up north – this image is looking west over Ghost Ranch near Abiquiu. Some of the most spectacular scenery in a place with spectacular scenery! I put it on my LinkedIn page 🙂

Picture by Robert Collins, Jr.

First new story in 8 years is in the works! Whoop!!!!! More on that later.

Think that covers it…

Happy Belated New Year!

~ Tess

 

Castor & Pollux

We have two new family members, R calls them “a good start” to my menagerie.

Introducing Castor & Pollux.

Castor & Pollux

It is amazing the trouble you can get into when in a mellow mood, sipping whiskey in front of a fire.

R and I were having a lovely lazy Sunday at the end of a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday when my phone buzzed. An email from the ever interesting MagEBoard. Up for adoption, two male siamese kittens.

I turned to R and showed him the pic. What do you think, shall we get them both?

To my surprise he said yes.

So late Sunday night drive I drove out to Abbe Springs and back (I wish I had a picture of the KIA she was liberally splashed with slushy mud) – and I arrive home with two very vocal 10 week old kittens.

The boys were great, if noisy, and they settled right in, finding all sorts of trouble (which is slowly driving me crazy) and then turning into purring love-bugs (which makes up for most of the trouble).

They are INSANE!

We had a vet visit last week – and will be going again on Wednesday – Castor has an umbilical cord hernia that needs to be seen to. It is too large to close up on its own.

I’ll try to get an audio file of their “hungry” cry…. OMG it is the most insane sound, and in stereo no less.

Luckily – they adore R. So as soon as he gets home they are all his and I can be left alone in peace… for a few moments at least.

~ Tess

 

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are very thankful we made it home last night!

We drove over the Rio Grande, and through the juniper to get home last night in a snow storm that left us with an asymptotic* drive home. Although we had a plan; everything took longer than anticipated.

ABQ-ians apparently don’t like bad weather. We had just a few more stops. We got to Talin Market for our non-traditional-Thai-inspired-Thanksgiving-dinner and by the time we came out, the streets were deserted. Two more stops – Sprouts for meat, Peet’s Coffee and a red chili ristras for R. We gassed up and headed into the storm.

Traffic was the usual mix of the ABQ insanity. But once we we made it to Isleta we were on the home stretch… only 95 miles to go.

Where we would usually do 80 mph on I-25, we were doing 60-65 mph with slow downs where ever people got skittish… I drove until Socorro and then R took the climb up to Magdalena. (I wish we had pictures but I spent most of the trip up to Magdalena trying to look relaxed while unobtrusively clutching the car door arm rest.)

That is where things really slowed down…

We had made it up the curves (Go KIA!) and were happily doing 40-45 mph on the flat of the plains when we saw hazards flashing in the distance. It took us a good 10-15 minutes to catch up with them. When we did, they were a big red truck doing 30-35. R commented that he never wanted to push someone past their comfort zone so he hung back. It was still in the low 30s the snow had covered the highway and was coming down enough to make the world beyond the road invisible. The plow had left a ridge of snow between the two opposing lanes, which made passing a possibility of last resort.

We saw the truck slip a little, and R postulated that they were rear-wheel drive, which would be scary! No traction and the possibility of flipping around and finding yourself going backwards down a hill. We gave them some space.

We went about 6 miles and another car slowed into pace behind us, everyone seemed pretty content (or resigned) to the 30-35 mph slog.

There is a stretch of road they call “Dead Man’s Curve” about 12 miles from home. The speed limit drops from 65 mph to 55 mph, and there are reflective signs, warnings, and arrows along its length. It goes up and around, making an elegant 90° turn.

The red truck in front of us slowed, and then slowed again. By the time we hit the steepest part of the curve we are only going 25 mph, and having to back down our speed as our friend slowed to 20.

It took forever… it was painful.

And I thought, once they hit the flat straightaway to Magdalena they will speed up…

No such luck, they crept, and crept, and crept…

I’ve never been so close to home and unable to get there. We hit the elevation sign that marks the edge of the village, and they slowed. We made it to the flashing 30 mph sign… and slowed again I really think it was just a reflex from always slowing down… but now we were trudging along at 20 mph.

At this point I turned to R. If they turn down Main Street I’m going to cry.

Ristra & KIA

Thank goodness they didn’t… and I wouldn’t’ have. We turned down main street and trundled in the dark to the house, and finally were home.

There were about 2″ on the ground, we woke to 8″. Snowed in for Thanksgiving!

Hoping everyone is having a safe and savory Thanksgiving!

~ The Raven and the Hummingbird

Taking Care of the Birds

Shoveling

Shoveling

The backyard!

Sass-o-Vision

* Thank goodness math and reality don’t always aline. We would still be approaching home if they did.