NOW YOU SEE IT...NOW YOU DON'T...

Unfortunately, and sadly, there has been yet another theft on the Santa Rita. The first thing we saw as we turned into the T-Square was that the "No Hunting No Trespassing" sign had disappeared from our sign post near the road. We put that up after the break-in to our trailer, and the theft of our generator and garden cart last year. If the cows had eaten it, they ate every bit of it, even the staples.

So on up the drive we went. Through the trees, and around the corner.

We looked to the left, seeing the trailer, the water trailer, and a big empty space between the trees where our utility trailer had been sitting for the past 5 years. Bill and I looked at one another. Our jaws went slack. Expeletives running through both of our heads no doubt, but no words came out of our mouths.

We both just let out a sigh. Bill parked the truck and we once again held our breath as we headed around the corner of the trailer, not knowing what we'd find this time. Fortunately, all was well.

Every time we'd get over to the Santa Rita, turning that corner after coming through the trees we had held our breath, hoping that everything would be just as we had left it the time before. And it always was. Until last year.

While our luck had held out for the past five years, and our stuff had been left alone, things are obviously a bit different now out on the Santa Rita.

The substantial lock on the tongue of the utility trailer didn't deter them, the brazen thief just probably hooked chains to it and hauled it over the chocks we had under the wheels. They illegally scored themselves a nice utility trailer.

Thieves: 1. Us: 0.

So I called all the neighbors I could get a hold of, trying to determine the time-frame of when the trailer had been taken, and then I called the Sheriff's office to report the theft.

Then I went for a walk. Past the sign that I had place my first T-Square on. The T-Square I had gotten in art school. That T-Square was the first thing to be stolen from our property. Even if I had nailed it down to the sign, it probably would have still been stolen. At least it made it to the T-Square Ranch, my dream-come-true.

Obviously my dream didn't include the thieves that wander through the Santa Rita as if it was their local shopping center. The black-hearted thieves who are obviously getting more desperate and/or brazen as the years go by.

Ah yes, New Mexico...is clearly becoming the Land of Dis-Enchantment.