Art has Arrived. Now what? 9/11/2022

Last summer, when we started prepping the house for sale, we needed to de-clutter in a big way. We not only sold things like our flock of chickens and raft of ducks, but beds, easels, tillers, a milking machine, the huge dining room table, bee hives, a horse trailer, the Snorkel hot tub, and innumerable other things we’d collected and no longer needed. (Well, I’d argue for another hot tub). But, we also had to store a lot of things. Unfortunately, due to Covid, there was an extreme shortage of storage units, with minimum 6-month waitlists. We eventually rented a Zircon container and a friend who owns a storage facility let us put it at his yard. Over months, we got 2 other small units, one in Bayfield and one in Aztec, NM. And we crammed them full. Once we moved here, we had a moving company bring everything from 2 of the 3 units. (Being off-season, they charged us less than half-rate, too, what a deal!). We didn’t have to run around buying new furniture and towels and such once we settled here. I hate shopping, so in the end, the storage insanity was worth it.

Well, today, we are unpacking the last of those boxes from the last unit, including the above paintings. While we sold or gave away much of our art, we kept these, our favorites. Unfortunately, they are too big to hang at 4Fords. We have no humungous bare walls. Adobe/strawbale homes just aren’t built like that. So, we’re going to have to get creative. I think we’ll end up keeping all but 1 or 2 in one of the sheds, and rotating them out when the mood suits. Or sell a couple. Or hang them outside. Or burn them during a long winter’s night. Who knows? All is ephemeral.

We figure that we got rid of about 50% of our possessions in the move….but that remaining 50% is still too much! I’m working on cutting it down even more, but much of it is tools, gardening and canning supplies, camping gear; things we use all the time.

We also got our big chest freezer here, and it is plugged in, working great and full of food. Thanks to our wonderful ex-next-door neighbors who put up with having it in their garage for 14 months, and to Tobia and Michael who kept our second little freezer at their house all that time.

The garden is winding down and I am picking beans, potatoes, greens, carrots, onions, tomatoes, herbs, and peppers daily. I had no idea it would be so prolific. I’m putting beans in the above-mentioned freezer already.

Alan heads to Denver tomorrow to see his family. I’ll hold down the fort, harvest potatoes (about 100#, I think), and continue on daily projects of getting this place ready for winter. We got the new gutters installed, and I’m insulating the aboveground cistern in hopes we can keep it flowing with drinking water all winter. I’ve seen amazing water systems here in NM, aboveground, below ground, massive and small; all bringing the best free, filtered rainwater you ever paid big bucks for in a restaurant. Being illegal in Colorado to capture more than 110 gallons of rainwater, this concept is relatively new to us. We’ve decided to wait ’til next year to move all the water storage underground to give us more time to learn about the complexities of off-grid pumping and filtering. So, in the meantime, this is what I’m working on for the cold season. Once done, it will be all black and, I hope, less ugly. And ice-free.

NOT ugly: We found this lovely pillow at the Chama Valley Art Festival over Labor Day weekend. The artist, Linda Chase, lives in Abiquiu, (think Georgia O’Keefe) and creates lovely art from found objects. This is made from painted leather scraps she had from old projects, used ribbons from a horse’s tail, and pieces of old serape. Hopefully we can keep Zane from eating it.

Finally: