Month: May 2022

Alan and I have been so focused on our many projects (a bit too intently) it is easy to lose the forest for the trees, or the fun for the details. Having friends, family, and CDT thru-hikers visit have helped to resharpen our essential worldview: play more, work less!

To that end, we went camping up near La Manga pass (Elk Creek). It rained all night! What a joy it was to listen to it on the tent. And it snowed up in the high country above us, prompting the CDTA (Continental Divide Trail Alliance, the group that cares for the trail and the hikers that use it) to urge all hikers out of the South San Juans for a couple days. As a result, our nascent plan to backpack north up the CDT fizzled. We couldn’t go south, as New Mexico has closed the National Forests due to fire danger. So we tried to hike up the Red Lake trail, but it was festooned with blowdown and snow. Then we tried the CDT, but got blown off!

The next day, we had a very successful hike up into the Chalk Mountains by Navaho Peak. It was stunning: green, wet and sunny.

Once back home, we settled back into our many projects: the garden and greenhouse, getting the driveway graveled and drainage ditches dug by a local construction crew. Unfortunately, that night of lovely rain did not reach 4Fords, and we are as dry and dusty as ever.

We have, however, made headway: there’s running water in the kitchen and at the yard spigot. The lab report came back from Green Analytic Labs: the water is high in fluoride and iron-reducing bacteria (IRB). Nothing else, which is the good news. We’ll need to build a filtering system for those 2 things next before being able to use the water for everyday stuff.

Fluoride is a poison to plants, blocking photosynthesis, so, over time, the garden will not flourish. For now, I am using it. Once (if) we get rain, I’ll switch to rainwater.

To get rid of IRB, we have to shock the well with bleach or bromine, then most likely install a UV light to kill what’s left. IRB is not harmful to humans, but the water can smell and feel funny.

I’m leaving this post with this:

I’ve been reading about and realizing that I revel in the role of being a “Ecocentrist”, a term used by Paul Kingsnorth, a prolific British author about environmental issues. He refuses to consider humans as separate from nature:

“I was egocentric because I did not believe….that humans were the centre of the world, that the Earth was their playground, that they had the right to do what they liked or even that what they did was that important…”

Paul Kingsnorth, Confessions of a Recovering Environmentalist, 2017, Greywolf Press

Tom Robbins is and has long been one of my favorite writers. The recent article from Rainshadow Journal (http://www.rainshadownorthwest.com) by Fred Obee, May 9, 2022) is the story of a commencement address he gave in 1974. I love it, especially the current update on Robbins’ thoughts about it 48 years later, at age 90. He is the writer who never grew up, who uses language like a game of tag, with a mix of strategy and madcap running down a steep hill.

Life continues as busy and chaotic as always: multiple projects at many levels of completion. We pray for rain. We study the cliffs overhead for birds of prey (and find hidden monsters). We raise a puppy. We have welcome visitors, human and other. All is good.

Busy times here at 4Fords. Spring has sprung, and suddenly all the projects we have been planning need to get going! Where does one start? Here’s the most recent to-do list:

1. Get filtered water running in the house. (We have water to the outdoor spigot, but it’s not adequately filtered yet.)
   • Get well water tested (I have all the bottles, just need to get it to Durango to the lab)
   • Design/plumb parallel rainwater/drinking water system from the second cistern.
2. Build 8kw solar array in back yard.
   • All materials are here, the design and plans are in place.
3. Install the composting toilet
   • It will run on the 12v solar system.
   • Needs a vent through the roof.
4. Landscaping
   • Finish building/repairing fence around yard for dogs. I’ve made a good start!
   • All plants are here, need to be put in the ground.
   • Set up irrigation for them.
   • We have a permit to dig up 6 aspens in the Nat’l Forest, if we find time.
5. Plant garden (it’s going to be small, believe me!)
6. Empty the one remaining storage unit (mostly our artwork).
7. Enclose generator area and insulate for winter back-up.
   • One wall is framed, one more to go.
8. Find someone to stucco the sunroom and generator room.
9. Finish the major clean-up around the barn and sheds.
   • In progress: he’s coming Monday. 3 dump trailer loads.
10. Gravel the driveway/parking area (have it lined up to be done soon)
11. Find a fence builder to build a fence around 15 acres to keep cows out.
12. Replace gutters for rainwater capture system on house, barn, and greenhouse.
    • I’ve learned how to use a rivet gun and have put one 30′ section together already.
13. Finish interior wood work: cabinet doors in bath and kitchen, etc. (probably next winter)
14. Remember to have fun!

The weather, as many of you know, has been unusually windy, with daily gusts up to 60mph. This in turn has dried everything out quickly, turning too much of New Mexico into a burning inferno. We did have one unexpected 4 hour rainstorm that seemed to be only directly over our house: a 1/2 mile up or down the canyon remained bone-dry. We got a few hundred gallons in our rainwater cistern from that one.

I spent a couple days around Santa Fe with my brother, which was fun. What was not fun: seeing the Hermits Peak fire up close: (https://inciweb.nwcg.gov/incident/8049/). It was man-made: started by a prescribed burn that got out of control. Maybe the worst fire I’ve ever seen, as the winds were (and continue to be) chaotic. Nearly zero visibility on the interstate. The hotel we stayed in was completely taken over by fire fighters. Before I headed home, I got to have coffee with the Incident Commander, who spoke of his concerns for how this fire might play out and about the exhaustion firefighters experience every year now, as fires start earlier, run larger, and last longer. They use the hotel as R&R for the fighters to get showers, good food, and sleep.

Back home, water is now getting pumped to the upper cistern, 1000′ from the well, allowing me to start some landscaping and a small garden, and water it with a sprinkler. As it is still freezing most nights, I’m not putting many plants in yet, and everything I’m planting is hardy to Zone 2 and drought resistant. And perennial. I also bought permits to transplant a half dozen aspens from the public lands, if we get to it.

Zane Gray is growing and started puppy classes last week with Tobia and Jessey and their pup, Frankie. Zane is a real handful: adorable and a brat at the same time. Clair is a good big sister, but gets exasperated with him and hides in the bedroom sometimes. Can’t blame her. Those sharp little puppy teeth HURT!

In a way, we have more of a social life here than we ever had in Bayfield. People stop by to visit and ask about the previous owner or where the cows are. I’ve joined a little group who get together weekly to talk about the Emergent Properties of Complex Adaptive Biosystems and why capitalism can never understand or work to the benefit of the environment. Scientific Monkey-Wrenching among the older set. We’ve gotten to know most of our neighbors, and talk whenever they’re around. I know all the baristas in Chama (all 3) by name.

I follow a few long-distance backpacking through-hikers on YouTube. I’ve always wanted to be a Trail Angel (someone who helps hikers, by leaving water or snacks on the trail, or donating funds. We’ve offered one guy who is doing the Continental Divide Trail (CDT) to stay in Pippin once he reaches Chama, while he waits for the snows in Colorado to melt a bit more. That should be fun. You can catch his channel: “travelinbeat“.