Views by Valerie: 3rd Quarter 2019 review

The beauty of this location in west central New Mexico high country is that there's less than a week of temperatures over 90 degrees. We had four days over 90 this summer. The sun makes it seem much warmer than the thermometer reads, so Larry and Gracie can bake away in the sun and I am comfortable in the shade.

What keeps it comfortable is in July, August and September this area gets monsoonal moisture. Much of our recordable precipitation is during this time of the year. We love thunderstorms! We had some doozies. The clouds, the rainbows, I couldn't quit taking pictures.

July was when we, well I did anyhow, started to finally let down and start relaxing. The big stuff had been done, our company had gone and I just kind of crashed. Larry had gotten himself busy assessing this counties public service communications problems and volunteering to help because it's a hot mess and a safety issue for our deputies and fire service county wide. Which with our history, isn't acceptable.

Most of you know Larry had his own, very successful communications business in northern California and he could see this county had been lead down the primrose path by their local radio shops. That's the short version. He's not interested in starting up another business, but he will volunteer and consult while they want his help. Everyone he's talked to has been clueless about how things work, are supposed to work, and how to remedy.

We had our driveway and parking area graded and rocked the end of July. The driveway had a low spot that became impassable during heavy rain. Despite this being high desert the dirt when wet is slippery, sticky clay. You need a jack hammer to dig during the dry season. This made our lives and delivery drivers lives much easier getting in and out of here.

thistle

Oh, yes, we get Fed Ex and UPS right to our door, five days a week. Our mail gets delivered from Datil to a central mailbox area about three miles from here on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Shopping online makes living out here so much easier!!! We dislike going shopping and have gotten what we need and when pretty dialed in now.

juniper tree

A hummingbird photo bomb!

We kept our eyes peeled for snakes. We saw our first rattlesnakes out on the road during our daily walks. A couple dead ones, and one that we gave a wide berth. None of them were huge..thank goodness. Sadly a bull snake had been run over too, they're the good guys. In July we had a big bull snake go through the back yard. In the dry summer dust on the road we could see snake tracks, lizards tracks, and all kinds of mammals, even a couple of mystery tracks we still haven't figured out.


My office, I LOVE this big desk

A couple of my MANY card decks I use for my readings

July and August we got up and got our walks in before the sun got too high. Which brought out the flies, which would be annoying while walking!! The heat would get to me...which means mid 70's, but as I have said the sun makes it seem so much warmer.

The weather was gorgeous in between thunderstorms and crazy winds. The new driveway kept a LOT of dirt from blowing now. We spent most evenings on the front porch watching the sun setting and just enjoying the beautiful skies after dark. Oh my the STARS!!! If it was too windy we would watch the sunsets from the living room. The colors that come and go, stunning!

watching the sunset

on the front porch

We saw elk and coyote most often, after birds and rabbits. The pronghorn not often. We learned they can't jump, so fencing is a challenge for them. They have to go under somehow. We usually spot them out on the plains when we head for the highway and the big city. The elk just seem to step over the fences around here.

friendly bull snake, about 4 feet long

two of five big bull elk that hang in our 'hood

We only have a fence line across the north side of our land, it separates this "subdivision" from the one north of us. We don't have animals, so don't plan on fencing. Gracie has to stay on a leash because of the coyotes. They like to lure away small animals to kill them, it would break my heart to hear her screaming and she believes she's a rottweiler and takes off after stuff and will not mind. So Miss Tasty Morsel only gets to run free in the house.

hummingbird on lookout

pinyon blue jays

While Larry was still busy organizing our storage container so he could find stuff, I was enjoying nature and my new home. I was doing a lot more Intuitive Card readings via phone, which I LOVE doing. I was painting more too once I decided I was done trying to follow tutorials. They were making me crazier as my perfectionist couldn't get my hand and brushes to do what I wanted. When I started just painting from my imagination, I started having fun.

I was thankful I didn't let Larry leave our electric lawn mower behind in Idaho. Not having a truck, not having gotten a riding mower but needing to keep vegetation clear around the house so we could see sneaky snakes, we mowed with our little ole electric push mower. It's a beast though and does the job. Good exercise too. I had more patience for it, so tried to keep up with it...Larry was always busy doing something. Either here or at the fire department, or down at the county seat in Reserve at meetings.

cotton tail

pinyon pine

desert asters

We were so surprised by the flowers everywhere! Spring brought them out once it warmed up, the cactus were amazing, but all summer long and into the fall there were always flowers somewhere! I love it! No work and no watering for us!!! Our trees here are a pretty even mix of Pinyon Pine and Juniper. Pinyon's are slow growers and take about ten years to grow a foot, so many of our trees are very old! There are quite a few of large OLD juniper trees too, they have so much character. And the ROCKS, cool lichen covered rocks everywhere!

hawk

Walks out across the property always revealed a hidden cactus, or yucca. We had run across a couple horned lizards, they've gotten pretty rare as we have learned. Larry has even spotted a badger not too far from here. Closer to the Horse Mountain area south of us people have seen javelina and a wolf. Hopefully they stay over there!

moonrise

Birds! I'm always running for the binoculars and my bird books to identify new to me species! Several different woodpeckers, two kinds of bluebirds, sparrows, thrushes, finches, owls, hawks, ravens and in the summer buzzards, and so many more kinds!

I had a couple of hummingbirds show up, so put out my feeder. It was low key for about a month and then the migration started in mid August! The wars! They smack each other with their wings, land on each other...all to get to the feeding spout. Some times they would share and sit two on a perch and take turns sipping. The Rufous males would designate a feeder as theirs and would keep all from using it! For long periods of time! It was fun figuring out which species came through. Some would linger for several weeks. I had three feeders, one out front and two in the back and there were times I felt I needed more, but I was already going through a LOT of sugar water and cooking big batches most every day!

a deluge, for its not soaking in

We absolutely love it here. We are HOME. Which is the first time in all our years we have felt that this is IT. No more waiting and looking. As life usually does, it all worked with impeccable timing. We weren't ready to live out in the middle of nowhere. We are now!