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!

AND GLORIOUS RAINBOWS TOO!

Mother Nature never ceases to amaze me. She gave us a lot of rain last summer. So much that we weren't able to get our building project accomplished. But she also gave us glorious, far reaching rainbows. Double rainbows to boot!

The lightning show was pretty spectacular too, but unfortunately I wasn't able to capture any pictures of that. There's always next year!

GLORIOUS VIEWS...

In the beginning of Nov. '07, I got real adventurous and went out to the ranch by myself for a couple of days. Bill stayed home to go to a Clinton Anderson horse clinic. Just me, my pick-up truck, (we call her Sophia) and the open road...

Highway 87 from Fountain Hills, up on to the Rim, then eventually to Highway 60 to Quemado, NM...then the 26 miles of gravel road to the ranch.

It's a nice 5 hour drive.

A lot of folks couldn't imagine me out there, in the middle of nowhere, 26 miles away from the nearest town (of apx. 200 strangers) with no one else in sight. I did have a means of communication...satellite phone in the car, which I actually got to work on the property. I checked in with Bill when I got there (the both of us glad we could get the car phone to work) and then before heading back to civilization.

(The car phone no longer works on the property, however...more on that, later.)

It was a little nippy at night, getting down to near freezing, and stubborn me, I didn't hook up the battery or turn on the propane. Truth be told, at the time, I might have been adventurous to drive out there, but was not brave enough to start messing with the battery connections, let alone the propane tanks.

So I ate dinner out of cans...yes, cold corn, green beans, cold tuna and chicken. I read by the dining room window until it got too dark to read. Then I briefly went outside, took in the glorious display of stars and the Milky Way blanketing the heavens. Going back inside, I snuggled up in a sleeping bag, turned on a flash light and continued reading.

Not a lot of "conveniences" out in the middle of nowhere...
(short of the indoor bathroom and at those temps, glad to have it!)

But it didn't matter, I was on my ranch, and loving every minute of it. Even though I nearly froze my toes off the next morning! I had to prop my feet up against the dining room window the next morning to try and get a little warmth into them!

It was all worth it though, because I believe that for my bravery I was rewarded with a glorious sunset.

MOOOOOOVIN' On...

This is the back meadow, our view from our temporary abode, basically a view from the "patio" or the dining room window, if you will.

Sometimes we hear the cows moo-ing off in the distance, other times we don't hear a thing. Then, after a brief bit of shuffling, they appear...
as if they just dropped out of the sky.

And then they just mooooove on....

INSERT PICTURE HERE...

Well, I think I got the hang of inserting pictures. That's the T-Square Ranch sign, which was made from a recycled pallet, and hand lettered. I shaped the wood and did the hand-lettering, and Bill put on the hardware and bolted it to a T-post.

Not sure the sign will be standing the next time we visit the ranch, as the cows seem to like to make use of it as a head-scratching post. The whole thing is usually leaning like the Tower of Pisa.

And the wind, oh my heavens, the wind...which I'll mention in a future post, is always knocking off the hanging parts of the sign, regardless of how well we think we've got that taken care of.

So we'll probably be making another sign in the spring. Probably a bit more sturdy, and cow proof.

But really...we're finding out that nothing is "cow proof".

IN THE BEGINNING...

Welcome to my blog about the T-Square Ranch!

In other words...

WELCOME TO THE T-SQUARE RANCH!




A LITTLE ABOUT ME...
KAREN STEFANIAK TRASK

My roots are in Dearborn, MI. I grew up in a modest home, in a clean, safe neighborhood, and attended school in one of the best school systems in the country, graduating from Edsel Ford H.S in 1973.

Yes, this was Henry Ford country.
Ironically, I've never owned a Ford.

As a child, sitting on my porch on Roosevelt Street, or lounging under the tree in the front yard, I made up a Big Dream "To-Do" List. Being Creative... Being a Designer... Seeing the world... and...

Owning land...a LOT of land. I never set an amount exactly, as I wanted to keep my options open.

One by one the dreams came true. I was creative every day of my young life, drawing comic strips, or writing plays... graduating from Kendall School of Design in 1977...

I traveled the world, thanks be to Dad, any chance I could get on a plane, between my 15th and 21st year, which included circumnavigating the globe when I was a just 17 years old...

The last Big Dream on my "To-Do" list came true in my 50th year. The T-Square Ranch, just the way I had drawn the dream...

What a way to coast down the other side of life, with everything off THE BIG DREAM "TO-DO" List".

Thanks for reading, and perhaps someday you'll want to spend some time out in the middle of glorious nowhere yourself.

Happy Trails, and I hope you enjoy the posts!