July 14, 2025: Bastille Day

It’s July and so it’s time for the Tour de France, (a perfect distraction from the news and sorrow over the loss of the North Rim GC lodge.) The TdF is Alan’s and my only sports interest throughout the year. Today is a big day in the mountains, as France celebrates its national day. Go Tadej! Go Sepp Kuss!

In other news, we have been incredibly busy here at 4Fords, partly due to the wonderful work ethic our Worldpackers bring to us lazybones. There’s been a lot of fence-building, enlarging the “yard” to a couple of acres, and replacing the old, rotting fence posts with T-posts.

Those old posts are being recycled into log check dams. If we can avoid a huge flash flood for a few years, there’s a chance these will create little green oases. Since living here, we’ve seen 6′ and 4′ floods during the first year, and numerous 14″-18″ runs since then. Our dams will survive up to 2′ of moving water, maybe a bit more, enough to deposit silt and seeds and build protection from future floods. When we moved here, there were no willow. Now, the willow is over 6′ tall. It’s all up to Mother Nature now. Here’s a couple of YouTubes of places successfully using this technique, from small to large: https://youtu.be/k7l-edx0-wg?si=NB44Zhwpt01X7oWd https://youtu.be/c2tYI7jUdU0?si=TvURhYrqewYtX0L3

In addition, we’ve finally begun fencing our large pasture; the one with 3 ponds that cattle love to hang out in and overgraze. The plan is to enclose the 10-12 acres with elk-friendly wire and include 2 big gates so cows can have access when there is plenty of both grass and water. That way it gets fertilized, but can start to regenerate. We’ve already added 2 ponds and some berm and swale to lessen the erosion.

Before that project, Alan became familiar with the backhoe by digging a 3′ hole for our new 1600 gallon cistern. This one is not capturing water directly from the roof, but will be for overflow, bringing our total capture to 5,000 gallons. Our hope is to increase that to 10,000 gallons in the future.

You can never have too much water here in drought-ravaged NM. Our creek is essentially dry for the first time in forever, putting a lot of pressure on wildlife. It is bringing a huge herd of elk, over 60 at last count, down from high up on the mesa, to drink from the last little holding ponds. Without rain, they, too, will be dry shortly. Some rain is in the forecast, but so far has skipped over the canyon to hit the mesas. Every day, I’m filling 2 bird baths and 2 dishes of water for bunnies, chipmunks, and squirrels. There are over 20 species of birds coming to the bird bath every day.

We managed to get out for a couple of great summer hikes in the high country at Navajo Peak (South San Juans). The Columbines were out in force, as big as my palm. There were plenty of little creeks for the dogs to get wet and muddy in, so they were happy.

The garden is doing well, although the daily wind, 40 degree nights, and 90 degree days are taking a toll on the tomatoes, peppers and corn. Not sure how much we’ll get from them. On the other hand, we can already pick potatoes.

Finally, we’ve taken on learning to make our own corn tortillas, thanks to one of the Worldpackers who taught us the skill. We bought a tortilla press. Alan is better than I am, and we’re enjoying plenty of tacos.