MERRY CHRISTMAS!

The day is here...the stockings are hung on the fireplace, and the gifts are on the hearth. I only had one request this year...that Santa bring me a new camera so I can take more pictures of life out at the T-Square Ranch next year.

Jay and LouAnn from the White Wolf Ranch are out on the Santa Rita right now, and I hope their heater is keeping them sufficiently warm because I think it's in the teens, or possibly the single digits on this Christmas morning.

Looking forward to getting back over to the ranch!

And maybe, just maybe...we'll have some new welcomed guests this year, and get to know a few more of our neighbors.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

It's been the first line of almost everyone's holiday newsletter...
"Where did the year go!?"

Seems like only yesterday, or at the most last month, that we all gathered at the T-Square Ranch for First Annual SRE Landowners Barbeque over Memorial Day weekend.

Time sure seems to fly when you're elsewhere.
That is somewhere other than on the Santa Rita.

Because when we're all on the Santa Rita, time does seem to pass a little more slowly. The sunsets are a little more glorious. You can sit and stare at the mountains until your eyes all but glaze over...

Wondering what daily life might have been like when the ancient ones used to walk that land...
Gathering water from what is now the big ravine...
Even though we see wildlife on our land, how plentiful was the game they used to hunt?
And exactly how many people called the Santa Rita their home?

Seemingly not much has changed on that land since that time, at least not that we're aware of anyways. But maybe much has changed.

Maybe what we call the Santa Rita could have been home to dozens if not hundreds of people. People who made their way up to Chaco to trade pots and peaches for other things they needed while they made their home out on the Santa Rita.

Might those things still be there, or did they take the items with them when they left the area?

As we continue to gaze at the orange mountain to the northeast, we can only wonder, speculate, imagine the daily lives of the people who used to live there, and hope that perhaps in the New Year that we'll find a remnant of their lives buried beneath the sand.

Or perhaps even think about leaving some memories and items of our own.

Wishing every one a very Happy Holiday season, and especially...
Happy New Year!

WHERE DID THE YEAR GO?

It seems like it was only a few months ago that we gathered at the T-Square for our First Annual Landowners Barbeque. The rest of the year is a blur.

Can't say we actually made it out to the ranch this year as much as in years past, and not sure we got anything accomplished out there in 2009. Hopefully some progress will be made out on the T-Square in 2010. If nothing else...

I'm designing a new sign...hopefully this one will be cow and wind proof.

We hope that Jay and LouAnn will have safe travels and a wonderful holiday at the White Wolf between Christmas and New Years. We look forward to seeing all the progress you've been making at the your ranch!

Happy New Year to all!

CAMERA IS BROKEN!

The sky was blue, the meadow was green...there was a cow...the driveway wasn't covered in water...and my camera was broken!

At about Mile Marker 8, that's a guess, I don't really have a clue, it was around Heart Mountain, because that's what I was trying to get a close up of...and the camera went whir and the picture went out of focus. It whirred again. I tried to shut it off...it wouldn't. The lens went out a little farther, but would not go back in all the way. A message came on the screen... Lens Error....

Oh, brother...it's broken...now I am really sad.

BEFORE THE SNOW FLIES

The temperatures are dipping into the 30's at night so we will make our last trip to the ranch until the Spring. Drain the lines and the tanks and secure anything that we normally leave out on the property during the rest of the year.

We had hoped to leave yesterday to have a little more time at the ranch today, but it was not meant to be. So the 5 hour drive will commence shortly, with a brief stop in Quemado to see if we can get a room at the new (well, almost a year old at this point) Largo Motel this evening. It's hunting season, so who knows if there will be any vacancies.

The weather is supposed to be beautiful all weekend, no chance of rain, thank heavens, so I know I won't spend the entire weekend trying to dig out the truck! With all the work we have to do, and getting back into town before nightfall, I probably won't get that long walk in either. Oh well, there's always next year, the mountain will still be there.

Onward.... I'll post pictures when we return.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

We got the driveway graveled last November after an experience of slip-sliding around on the mud in the back meadow. So with the graveled drive we thought our worries were over.

The ground had become so saturated with all the rain that had been falling on the Santa Rita over the past week, if not longer, that there was water standing all over the road. The flow of the water had washed a lot of the gravel away in areas...and when we hit a patch of mud, the truck fish-tailed and we headed for the side of the driveway...and once off the gravel, we were rim deep in mud! Some six hours of work later the truck was finally free of being bogged down in the mud!

Fortunately, as an artist I don't mind getting dirty and I love playing in mud and clay!

Quick Trip

Just packed up the truck to head to the ranch. Got a late start, but it doesn't really matter, in 5 hours we'll be at the ranch and unpacking the truck. Enjoying the scenery, and possible thunderstorm off in the distance.

And then before we know it, less than 24 hours later we'll be packing up the truck for the 5 hour ride home. 5 hours doesn't seem quite as long as it used to. But the time up there, less than 24 hours, seems to go by in a heartbeat.

It will be nice when we finally move to ALBQ, or possibly even Silver City, that will put us at least in the right state, and much closer to the ranch.

Pictures will be coming shortly from my hike up top of the ravine, to the base of the mountain. Unless of course it's raining, which it's supposed to be...all afternoon. Hopefully the clouds will scatter later in the evening so we can do some star gazing through our telescope!

Moon Gazing

Who on earth would think you could buy a telescope for a mere $15?! The tripod (ancient, but interesting was worth that alone!) The Goodwill store in Fountain Hills comes through again!

We will be able to do all sorts of moon, and milkyway and star gazing while at the ranch. We are so very lucky indeed!

NO PITCHING ALLOWED...

Seriously, I have never understood those people who just drive down the road, any road, even if it's out in the middle of nowhere and "pitch" their beverage containers out the vehicle window.

This morning I spent about 45 minutes walking the 1/4 mile of our property that is on the State Road, and picked up apx. 11 pounds of garbage in the form of cans and bottles that have been thrown from vehicles.

I will be "targeting" hunters who I know have traveled in our area, by writing to "outdoor" magazines. If you ever see a new campaign, in addition to the "do not drink and drive", now reading, "do not drink, and drive or pitch"...that would be my campaign folks.

I don't care if someone thinks they are out in the middle of nowhere, and not that I have anything better to do out in the middle of nowhere, picking up someone else's garbage is NOT how I want to spend my Sunday morning!

MOVING FORWARD

Even though we don't get to the ranch as often as we would like, and this "two-track" is now graveled, (and a lot less bumpy!) never the less it's just a great feeling to turn off the state route and head up the drive.

While we didn't get all that we had hoped to accomplish completed last year, and ditto for this year, we have still made progress. The storage container is on-site, and the road is graveled. We have water, a roof over our head, and a comfy enough place to hunker down when we do get to the ranch.

We're at least moving forward, but certainly not so fast that our angels can't keep up!

Next weekend we'll be rehanging the freshly painted T-Square Ranch sign, and dropping off a few things we've got hanging around that really should be up at the ranch.

And here's hoping that we can move to Albuquerque or Rio Rancho, or some other town in NM by this time next year. Hopefully by the end of this year.

Only time will tell, and until then, we just have to keep moving forward!

HOW DID THEY KNOW?

When I look at the designs on ancient pottery it never ceases to amaze me why they put designs on the pots in the first place. What possessed this ancient people to make up the dye, to find the right size twig, to sit and DESIGN a pattern on to these utilitarian objects they were creating with clay and fire.

To those reading who know me pretty well, it probably wouldn't surprise you to know that at times I've sat out in the sand on the T-Square Ranch, and have just been moved to tears by the "artwork" that is there.

HOW did they do this? WHY did they do this?
And most importantly WHO were the people who did this?

What was their daily life like? Whose job was it to find the clay, to haul the water, to make the corregated patterns, and build the fire that would strengthen these pieces. Strengthen and preserve them so that I could today hold the remnants in my hand.

Did they sometimes sit and cry when looking out at the mountain, because they also knew how blessed and fortunate they were to be living on such beautiful land?

Yes, I think they probably did. Yes, they probably knew.

It's the land, THAT land that does that to you.

YOU'VE GOTTA HAVE [HE]ART!

The above picture is what I call "Heart Mountain". It can be seen when we're driving on SR 601 going to and from the ranch, mostly from, especially when the light is right.

Not sure if it's just a beautiful break in the vegetation, or a bit of a landslide, but it's the "heart" that is a reminder of just how special that little piece of heaven is.

Like the song says...Oh, you've gotta have heart....to which every artist I've known always sings it as....Oh, you've gotta have ART!

Yes, we certainly do! And no doubt I'll make this photo into a painting someday.

LOOK TO THE SKY...

What a fabulous, wonderful weekend it was.

The weather was a bit unpredictable, but gave us all who came in for the First Annual Santa Rita Estates Land Owners BBQ a fabulous show. The days were overcast, with intermittant patches of blue.

The rain sometimes went around us, giving us a fabulous view of lightning and sheets of rain in the distance.

The wind...it came and went, not as constantly blustery as in past years, and it almost took "The Bill's" for a tarp-sailing ride when they were attempting to dismantle the tarp after the BBQ was over.

And on Sunday evening there was the usual grand showing of stars in the heavens. If only I could capture that blanket of stars to be able to show you what we are able to experience out there at the T-Square Ranch!

When we look to the sky we have much to be thankful for.



Can you see the antelope in the center of the picture above???

54TH BIRTHDAY

My birthday has always fallen very close to, if not on, Memorial Day. I've just completed my 54th year. For me, there is no better way to spend a birthday than at the T-Square Ranch. This is the fourth birthday I've been able to spend at my very favorite place in the whole world.

Granted, by birthday is after Memorial Weekend this year, it isn't officially until Wednesday, but that certainly didn't stop me from celebrating it this weekend, and eating birthday cake!

This year was especially special, because I was able to spend it with fellow Santa Rita Estates landowners who sang Happy Birthday to me while I cut the beautiful birthday cake. The wonderful chocolate cake was purchased from a wonderful old-fashioned bakery in Gallup, by LouAnn and Jay. And yes, they are wonderful people!

Here is the fabulous and colorful cake!



You're wanting a piece of cake now aren't you???

And here are the cake-bringers, LouAnn and Jay, from the White Wolf Ranch.

FIRST ANNUAL LANDOWNERS BBQ

At the "end of the driveway" at the T-Square Ranch the vehicles gathered. The clouds were gathering also. We were hoping like heck that the rain would go around us like it had done the day before. Unlike the past 3 Memorial Day weekends, the winds behaved themselves for the most part.




Welcome to the First Annual Santa Rita Estates Land Owners Barbecue!



Fortunately folks came "fashionably late". Bill and Karen set up the tarp, tables and chairs for a hopeful gathering of 8-10 folks. 10 it was.










Mark came down the hill. He's not a Santa Rita Estates landowner, but he did a great job on our driveway, and thought he'd like to meet a few other landowners in the area. Tom from Lot 1 drove 7 hours from the west side of Phoenix. LouAnn and Jay drove 17 hours from California. Joan and Bill flew in from Pennsylvania, via Albuquerque. And Tom and Darlene flew in from Florida, via Albuquerque, and a side trip to Canyon De Chelly.

Hail, hai...wait a minute....this is the wild west...

Yeehaw, Yeehaw...The gang's all here!

ON OUR WAY...

The truck is almost packed and we'll be heading out in the morning. Back to the ranch to meet with a few other landowners for the FIRST ANNUAL SANTA RITA ESTATES LANDOWNERS BBQ.

It's supposed to be raining on the entire drive over, but Sunday is supposed to be sunny and the high 60's, maybe low 70's. But as we all know...it's weather, it can change in a heartbeat. We just hope the rain goes around us, yet provides a nice show in the late afternoon. Then hopefully the clouds will disappear and we'll see the glorious blanket of stars in the heavens. It will be a new moon, and if we have a cloudless sky, it's going to be a spectacular evening.

I'll be posting lots of pictures next week when we return!!! I hope everyone has a safe holiday weekend.

And one last thing...don't forget to remember.

ANOTHER GLORIOUS SUNSET...

We couldn't have asked for nicer weather during our brief, two-and-a-half-day trip to the ranch. A few clouds moved in during the afternoon and produced yet another glorious sunset. Not sure if you can make it out in the photo, but in the clouds I could see the face of a little deer, or calf.

And later that night....the sky was filled with what looked to be a million stars. Glorious...simply glorious.

The next night we had a campfire...and the coyotes came pretty close. They were kind enough to let us know they were watching us, and howled up a storm!

E.T....PHONE HOME...

Every time we go out to the ranch we always check to see if we can make a call, via cell phone or car phone. Over the summer we weren't able to make a connection, which had us a tad concerned.

However, during the visit just this week, for some reason Bill was able to make a call using his cell phone, and who did he call? Liz, of course!

TREKKING FASHION...

It was so wonderful to get back to the ranch, even if it was only for a couple of days. Everything was just as we left it, and of course as soon as we got all settled in, I went visiting.

Okay, so I should have been wearing a hat, and applying a little of the sunscreen that was in my pocket wouldn't have hurt either...I was just raring to go break up some rock, with the...yes, official rock hammer seen hanging off my vest. It was a Christmas present from Bill.

PREPARE FOR LANDING...

Several posts ago I mentioned that I'd post the photo of our septic field that the wonderful Luis Munoz built for us. The septic field is the strip of dirt that goes to the background and is to the right of the big tree, and the left of the smaller tree (and ET looking tree stump)

It's a little more green in that back meadow now, but when the picture was taken the cows had stripped the land of its vegetation, right down to the dirt. Now the cows like to use the breather tube (at the far end of the septic field) as a chin scratching post.

The septic field will always look like a small dirt runway to me, but that's okay, landing strips, runways are in my blood.

A HORSE IS A HORSE...

While it was Karen's dream to own land, it's Bill's dream to own horses...

Karen used to ride horses while in college, but because of a horse riding incident many years later, she has not gotten back on a horse since. Even though Bill has been horseback riding in recent years, he's also been thrown by a horse by the name of Dutch, but is always willing to get back on a horse.

Karen also thinks he looks real good in a cowboy hat (he has several) and especially wearing said cowboy hat while sitting atop a horse. Preferably a horse that won't throw him. She certainly wishes and hopes to someday see him riding his horse in the meadow at the ranch.



To all of you reading this, please wish that his dream comes true, because Karen knows all too well, wishes are very powerful things.

Until Karen gets her courage up, and Bill finds her a nice gentle horse to ride, she'll be fine remembering her college riding days, and her most favorite horse of all...

MAY 27th...

On May 27th 1837 James Butler Hickok came into this world. Most people know of his background, his reputation, some fictional, some real. And most people know of him not as James Butler Hickok, but as Wild Bill Hickok.

How the name Wild Bill came to be is an interesting one. Due to his long nose and protruding lip, he was called Duck Bill, then JBH took it upon himself to change the Duck to Wild, and eventually the name stuck.

On May 27th 1955 Karen Dale Stefaniak came into this world, and not much as been said about her since then. She had a few nicknames over the years which didn't stick for too very long either.

She didn't grow up to be involved with the law, and she doesn't sit around in saloons and play cards. But for some reason folks have repeatedly think she looks like a nice person named Diane, or an actress they've seen on a television show which has something to do with law.

Well, whether James Butler is called Wild Bill, and Karen is sometimes mistakenly called Diane, once upon a time they both had their pictures taken while wearing cowboy hats, even though Wild Bill was a little better dressed for the occasion.

WAITING OUT THE WINTER...

The land is frozen, and the winds will come.

But soon Spring will also arrive, and it will once again be time to take long walks around the T-Square Ranch...

To watch the cows walk north...

and then south....

To go visiting...

To discover something new...

And to meet new neighbors.

To look for the tracks of the creatures...

who came to visit in the night...

and who may be watching during the day.

To enjoy the company of other landowners...

and to blow out the candles on my 54th birthday cake...

over the long Memorial Weekend.

To listen to the coyotes song...

While viewing the billions and billions of stars overhead.

To cherish, appreciate, and be thankful for...

everything that Mother Nature has to offer.

While it is hard waiting out the winter,

we also have Spring to look forward to.

A time of renewal...and possibly, hopefully...

More progress.

YOU SAY QUEMADO...

You say toe-may-toe, I say toe-mah-toe...
You say poe-tay-toe, I say poe-tah-toe...

Most say KWAH-mah-doe...it's really KAY-mah-doe.

Que? (kay?)

However you pronounce it...In Spanish, Quemado means burned.

Taken from a posting on the internet it says that...

"Jose Antonio Padilla settled by a creek east of the present town in 1880, he found that the surounding brush had been burned by the Indians, so he named it Rito Quemado."

In its heyday there were three cafes, (only one is currently open) three motels, (only two appear to be in operation). There are currently two garages, (J&Y has 24-hour pay-at-the-pump) then there's the quaint Country Store (a nice selection of food),
the hardware store (closed as of Oct. 09) and the Post Office.

And in between those "landmarks" there is a hodgepodge of buildings...a hair salon, a thrift store of sorts, (which may be closed) a realty and title office. The Magistrate's office...a laundromat...a "convenience mart", under construction...

Off the main street there's the fire department, the forest service office, the water company, a Baptist church...the Senior Citizens Center....several quaint adobe buildings and homes, a few mobile homes, an RV campsite, the water company...several dogs...I think I saw some goats, and heard a rooster...

It is also home to the only high school in the northern part of the county (very nice, modern facility) which is located at the eastern end of town, near the area that is known as Old Town Quemado.

Old Town Quemado is a place we have yet to explore, but heard there's a herb shop there, run by a nice woman who is on the water commission. She helped us when it was time to get our water tank filled.

There is also a small, cut-stone Catholic Church at the east end of town, which is very peaceful and quaint, and has rosaries hanging from every pew.

Quemado is the nearest "town" for the surrounding ranching community, and it definitely has a laid-back lifestyle. It seems like they prefer to keep outsiders (those buying up land in the area) at arms length for a while, somewhat afraid that the outsiders are wanting to come in and change or "modernize" the town.

Their town works for them just the way it is, and I hope they can keep it that way. The local folks are always kind and helpful to strangers, and they become a little more open and friendly to the newcomers who, day-by-day, become a little more familiar to them.

Although the town doesn't come close to looking like Mayberry RFD, in its own way it has a certain charm and definitely has a unique history, one which I was able to read about in Ruth Brown's book titled: Quemado New Mexico - 250 friendly people and a few old crabs."

While Quemado is a tiny town, less than a mile long, it has managed to do okay for itself and for its residents, those who call it home, and for those of us who live 26 miles away.

GONE WITH THE WIND...

I've referred to the winds in several previous posts, so now I will tell you a little about "the winds".

Between the months of March and June is when they hit the western area of New Mexico. Not quite gale force, but enough to make you want to hunker down and say a few prayers at times. They are constant, through the day and evening, between 30 and 40 miles per hour...slowing to 20 mph, which could be consider a break in the wind.

Our first experience with the winds was over Memorial weekend in '06. Let's just say there was no point in attempting to light the candles on Karen's birthday cake that year!

We hunkered down in our lawn chairs, under some trees for protection from the winds. After a couple hours of this non-stop thrashing, we decided to just sit in the truck which proved to be much better protection from this assault. We didn't have our travel trailer at the ranch yet, and had just planned to sleep in a tent.

Throughout the day it became clear that we wouldn't get a wink of sleep with the way the sides of the tent were billowing in and out in the wind. Scritch, scritch, whoosh, scritch, scritch, whoooooosh....

We slept in the truck that night, and headed back to AZ the next day.

After getting the travel trailer up on the land later that summer, the wind was much more tolerable with a hard-walled place to take shelter. Late one evening in the summer of '08, we were sitting in the trailer playing cards....

The winds came...and fortunately we had already taken our awning in, (unlike our neighbors who saw their awning go sailing across their meadow, probably that same evening)

Cue the intergalactic starwars fighter sound effects going on all around us, zing...ping....whoosh...zing...zoom...zoom...zing...

The little trailer was rocking and rolling and creaking like we didn't think possible. And it wouldn't stop. It didn't stop...for hours.

We tried to remain calm...continued playing cards.... me thinking that perhaps we should look into getting hurricane tie-downs or something for this little metal box we were hoping would keep us safe from the elements...namely the wind.

During March through June (we had been told it had been just through the begininng of May) we know to button up the long coat, and draw the stampede strap tight on the cowboy hat, and hope we don't get carried off across the meadow if we need to step outside for some reason.

Because with the winds we've experienced in the past 3 years, we wouldn't be surprised to see a cow go sailing by.

ALL IN A DAY'S WORK...

Lucky for us we've been able to connect with four upstanding, hard working gentleman out in the middle of nowhere. They were prompt, courteous, and didn't try to take us to the cleaners in regards to their services. They didn't wear white hats, but they could have.

Finally, we met some "good guys".

Good Guy #1: Luis...our septic guy. Thinking we had a useable well, the next thing on the list was to get a septic system put in. The guy we originally called wasn't able to take on the job, so unbeknownst to us, he called Luis, who then called us. Promptly. He also showed up promptly (making a 75 miles trip just to get to us) and gave us a reasonable quote to do our septic tank and field. He also filed the paperwork, and got our septic system permitted. Which was no easy task, apparently, being out in the middle of nowhere, and dealing with the New Mexico government at the same time. But they got it worked out, and Luis put in the system when he said he would. It's been in use for 2 years, and it's working! Thanks Luis!


Good Guy #2 & #3: Over the summer of '08 we had rain, rain and more rain. And while we were on the property we had wanted to get a storage unit, and contacted a gentleman about 80 miles away to haul a railroad storage box to the property. With patience on both our parts, due to the rain, Ray was finally able to get it painted, and had the unit delivered, just in the nick of time, because we were due to take Liz back to Phoenix for her flight back to Atlanta. But the sun, and Ray came through for us. Again, at a reasonable rate. The delivery driver, Chet, was also as nice as could be. Just like our friend Luis...Ray and Chet's parents raised them right.

Well how 'bout that...Chet IS wearing a white hat!




Good Guy #4: Our last God-send was a local gentleman by the name of Mark...he lived up on the mesa, in another subdivision. He also returned our call promptly and said he'd stop by when we were at the ranch next. He pulled in a short while after we arrived and chatted up a storm. Also got to work the very next day on our drive. Laid 800' x 8' feet of gravel in about five hours for a very reasonable rate.




These guys are all just doing what they like to do, and making a living too. It's just all in a day's work to them. They take pride in what they do, and I'm sure they made their parents proud.

We wish them all well.

GOING VISITING...

Once we get get to the ranch, unpack, settle in...

I then say to Bill...

"I'm going visiting."

I go visiting to say hello, to pay my respects, and to ask for yet another "discovery".

I stuff the standard "visiting gear" in the pockets of my photographer's vest, or fanny pack, or attached to a caribiner...

Walkie-talkie, bottle of water, camera, hiking stick...
sometimes a hammer...and a shovel...

Hammer?...Shovel? To go "visiting"?

Even though I'm only walking a few acres away, I never know what I might run into as I walk through the washes, or what might be lurking in and among the pinion and juniper trees on the T-Square Ranch.

The visitor...and the visitee...
At times, I'm not quite sure which one I am.

The very first time we visited the property we noticed at our feet the remants of an ancient culture. We were in awe, amazed. And yes, we we were going to be, and now are, the caretakers of it.



Our property once supported a "community" of Anasazi and Chacoan people. Water was a short walk away. Game was probably much more plentiful than today. And from research done in our area, peach pits were found in archeological sites.

Yes, they were able to grow peaches.
It's truly inspirational, and motivating.

So after getting settled in at the ranch, I take a hike...

I go visiting...

To say hello...

To hold small remnants of ancient utilitarian art in my hands...

To ask if I may find another treasure buried beneath the sands...



And to always...give thanks.

WE KNOW OUR BOUNDARIES...

Our boundary markers were a little hard to find at first, so to locate them more easily Bill glued several pieces of 10 ft. PVC pipe together, topped the poles with a bright red bandanna, and put them on the NE and SE corners of our property.

One of the things that sold us about this property was the fact that it is bordered by 13,000 acres of BLM land to the east, making for a gorgeous, unobstructed vista, as far as the eye can see.

A horse could be taken right off the property for a nice long ride, without being confined to just our 48 acres, as if that wouldn't be enough. But one does have to watch where one steps....

About a 10 minute hike from our eastern boundary is a water course.
Not easily seen as you are taking a hike, especially if you don't know it's there...




Just be careful where you step, because before you know it, the earth opens up,




and then goes way, way down...some 20 to 70 feet down!



Water....a life sustainer...and a truly powerful force.

WE ARE NOT ALONE...

Home, Home on the Range...(feel free to join in...)
Where the deer and the antelope play....

(you're going to be humming that tune all day now, you know...)

In our version of that delightful little ditty, yes, the deer and the antelope do play on our property...

...when the mountain lion, bobcats and coyotes aren't out prowling, looking for their next meal, that is...



Yes, we've got them, we smell them, and we can see their prints all over the place in the sand.




We hear the coyotes song at dawn and dusk, and throughout the night...

...and they are very close by.

A gentle reminder that while we may own this property...

This is their land...they were here first.

THE 975 FOOT MONEY PIT

You can see it glinting, a bit of bright blue, between the trees, all the way up the drive. The bright blue well casing, topped with a silver cap. The top of a 975 foot hole that was drilled in hopes of finding water...drilling a well, being self-sufficient with our own supply of water.

Well? Well...it didn't happen.

We heard later from locals (which we are getting to know) that what the well drilling outfit did to us was pretty typical of what they had done to other new land owners in the area, adding that we were lucky that they only took us for $17,000.

Apparently they took others for far more money, yet they left us all with one thing in common...that little reminder...

That little bit of bright blue, topped with a silver cap sticking out of the ground.

If somehow water has found its way into the casing since it was bailed dry, I'll figure out a way to get it out of that $17,000 hole in the ground. Someday I'll just turn it into another project or physical exercise to keep me busy on the ranch.

Two years later...In the summer of '08 we did finally bring water to the land, via a lovely 500 gallon water trailer, which takes approximately one hour to fill up...with a garden hose!



You can be sure I'll share that experience in another post!

INQUIRYING MINDS WANT TO KNOW...

For those folks just reading about the "Adventures On the T-Square Ranch", for the first time...we realize that, just like digging the holes for our pier foundation and filling them in with concrete, there might be some parts missing to this blog, so I will try to fill in those parts for you in the next few posts. Fortunately I have pictures to jog my memory of what I've left out, and what you may be curious about.

Maybe I should start with the fact that James Butler Hickok (aka: Wild Bill Hickok) and I share the same birthdate. And I have a picture taken of me when I was very, very young, in a cowboy hat, that looks very similar to a picture of him that I found in an encyclopedia, except that I was much cuter, and much younger, of course.

Okay, maybe that's going back a little too far.... So fast forward to September of 2005. After 15 years of living in Fountain Hills, AZ, it was time to get the heck out of Dodge, so to speak. Bill wanted a place to have horses, and an internet search had been going on for years to find this "horse property".

Both Bill and I had lived in AZ since 1978, and didn't know of any other place we'd rather live...other than....

New Mexico. The Land of Enchantment.

We initially looked in the Silver City area, but found that the price of land was a little too high for our pocketbook. We found a couple places farther north, but a few things in the minus column kept us from signing on the dotted line.

Another internet search, however, pulled up a new "subdivision" just opened in Central Western New Mexico... It seemed reasonably priced, and had good terrain to raise horses. We both would have liked something at a little lower elevation, because, as you found out in previous posts...it gets darn cold in the winter time. And don't let me forget to tell you about the lovely winds...

So, here's the run down on our area:

Our "subdivision" is in what the land seller called: Santa Rita Estates.

On a map, yes, it's parcelled like a subdivision, but on a much larger scale.

There are 24 lots in the Santa Rita Estates, sized from 26 to 120+ acres.

Our lot is 48 acres and some change. It's around 6,800 ft in elevation.

It is approximately 1/4 mile on each side, and somewhat square-like in appearance. I would reckon to guess that it has less than 15 acres that is actually flat. The full mile hike around the property is a really good work out.

And the views...spectacular, especially when a storm is approaching.



The purchase took place over a piece of pie in a local cafe, a two-page contract, with a down payment and a hand-shake. A month later it was a done-deal.

The dream had come true.

BRING ON THE CONCRETE!

If it had just been Bill and I attempting to do this, we probably would not have completed the 10 piers in one day. With Liz there to help, we beat the rain, and had someone to share our success with.

THANKS, LIZ!

CAPPING!!!

Before we put the tube forms in the holes...we had to get everything all squared and leveled. Unfortunately, it's something we had to do...twice.



It took several hours, if not the whole day. We had everything squared and leveled to a half inch...and then...at night...

Some critters came and knocked down the batter-boards!

(We won't completely blame it on the cows, it could have been deer or elk)

But yes, it was probably the cows...I used to love the cows...
Yeah, now...not so much.



That's Liz and I using the water level. Tricky thing, that water level. If you don't cap it, yes, the water will run out. So...after the level was achieved, we'd shout out....CAPPING!

I don't know what Liz thought of the experience, but I thought it was great fun!

FIRST THINGS FIRST...

Before we could put the cement mixer to use we had to drill the holes for the piers. The piers being the foundation for the small out-building that we had hope to get weather tight before Fall of '08.

Yeah, it didn't happen. The water tightness, that is, and well, the building in general.

We did get the piers put in though, and what fine piers they are too!
All 10 of them! Okay, so there was supposed to be 14, but we thought we'd forego the piers for the porch. We can always do them later.

The fact that we came away from the experience with 10 piers completed, and ourselves relatively unscathed, (outside of a couple pulled muscles) was darn near miraculous.

(You thought I was going to use the word glorious, didn't you?)

The cows came by to see what all the commotion was about, just in time to see us loading the auger back in the truck, which took place out in the front meadow, away from the actual building site.



Unloading and loading that gangly, awkward, heavy piece of machinery is a story unto itself, but with strong straps, a come-along, and the culvert in the front meadow, we got 'er done! Wish we could have got it unloaded/loaded like the folks at the rental place did. They just used a forklift and dropped it into the back of the pickup.

I almost forget to mention about getting equipment like augers out in the middle of nowhere. We rented it for a day from a place just across the border in Arizona. All in all, we made a 300 mile round trip to do a few hours work with that piece of machinery.

Guess that's one of the trade-offs for living out in the middle of nowhere, which is still, I think, the best place on earth to be.

And thank goodness for help! Bill's niece came out from Atlanta for a week to see what the T-Square Ranch was all about. What a trooper! And being the first to come out and offer her assistance, she garnered a small bit of the ranch for her very own. And when we get this building weather tight, it will be named, "Elizabeth House" in her honor. Yes, Liz...it will.

AND ABOUT THAT PROGRESS...

Once we thought the threat of snow had passed, or at least hoped the threat of snow had passed it was time to take a shot at building. So the cement mixer was purchased. There is a concrete batch plant in Quemado, but it didn't seem as cost effective as mixing the concrete ourselves.

Labor and sanity effective? Well, that remained to be seen.

Believe me, this cement mixer was big enough for me to sleep in if I had wanted to take a siesta, but there was work to be done. Holes to be dug, concrete to be mixed and poured... Piers, beams...back and forth along 26 miles of gravel road into town for supplies...

Oh my heavens what were we getting ourselves into?

Did I mention we had never...emphasis on NEVER...
done anything like this before?

But hey, this lovely cement mixer sure would beat trying to mix batches by hand in a wheel-barrow! Yeah...30-some bags later...we would have been found dead, face down, encased in concrete.

As much as I initially thought that we would be better off (for health reasons mostly) just hiring the concrete company to haul the mix out the 26 miles of gravel road, I'm glad we bought that mixer. It will always come in handy for other projects...But more so, just because it was very rewarding and satisfying to know that we did it ourselves.

SUMMER TIME FUN!

No, I didn't get the picture in the wrong spot! Would you believe this was taken over Memorial Day weekend '08?

Well...Believe it!

Mother Nature threw campers a curve ball, because this was indeed the scene on The Rim in Arizona. A place where folks flock to on the weekends, especially long holiday weekends. There was well over a foot of the frozen white stuff, coming down in near blizzard proportions. We could only imagine what we were going to find on the ranch.

In between The Rim and The Ranch there was over a hundred miles and a multitude of elevation changes, but we eventually got out of the snow, although there were traces to be had on the side of the road once we crossed into New Mexico.

Granted, Quemado (more on this tiny town in the future) looked like it had just come out of a deep freeze. A bit of a strange site for the end of May. The trees had just begun to bud out, (the leaves would be a while in coming) and we had heard they got a few snow flurries the week before but nothing stuck. We had run into snow flurries when we were there the first week of May also, but thought that perhaps it was just a freak storm. In hindsite, that was just the coming attraction.

The 26 miles of gravel road to the ranch wasn't too bad. The road crew does a nice job of keeping it passable. All in all, it turned out to be the usual windy Memorial Day weekend.

And of course, there was birthday cake for Karen!