Ants! Ants, ants, ants! The poor hummingbirds… Thanks to the late summer migrations, we finally have a large number of hummers in this little patch of Taos. But keeping them fed is another matter. I hung six different hummingbird feeders in various locations around the house, and the ubiquitous large red ants we have here [...]
Hhere in the old adobe on the hillside, life goes on. Every afternoon the clouds of the summer monsoon season gather and build, dumping rain all around us but leaving us dry. From the vantage point of this hilltop, it’s easy to see why: New Mexico is just so huge, so monumentally freaking big, that [...]
We were at a party earlier. The hosts had chickens, goats, a greenhouse, raspberry plants, and guard dogs working shifts to chase coyotes. An acequia ran right through the front yard (you Easterners have no idea), and there were mountains all around beyond the grassy plain. Yes, grass. It was something to behold, and the [...]
Out here where the realtors hope you rich rubes will never go is a different kind of Taos. I know, because it gets all over my shoes this time of year. Be that as it may, there’s something you ought to see. We don’t do things half-way in El Norte, no sir, and the last [...]
This is kind of ridiculous. I was just about to write a post about why I hadn’t updated FotoFeed, when my wife suggested we take a drive. I took us west of the Rio Grande Gorge and shot a bucketful of photos on the way back. FotoFeed, no problem! But there was in fact a [...]
There once was a time in Maryland when living in the cold weather meant getting up early to turn the thermostat up. Oh right, most people have programmable thermostats. Well, this was some time back. At any rate, I was always cold! The pitiful heat emitted by the radiators in the last house we owned was no better than the forced air heat the blew in friends’ homes, leading me to invent the phrase, “the dank chill of centrally-heated houses.”
They grow a considerable amount of their own food and draw spiritual sustenance from their very surroundings. They have a magic dog. For some reason I mentioned a survivalist website I visited once that spoke of “doomsteads,” or self-sufficient hideaways in which to weather the approaching storm. I had to explain what doomstead meant, of course. My buddy laughed and said, “Jesus, I’ve lived in doomsteads my entire life!”
See, it’s not all angst and primal bullshit with electrodes jabbed into your spinal cord. Sometimes you walk right into a moment that just works. It happened to me today in the local organic food emporium when I encountered a dangerous, wise-cracking personage of some repute whom I hadn’t seen in quite a while. He [...]
One of the great things about living out here in the West is the joy of road trips. It’s not like back East, where you’re hammered by traffic and congestion. In New Mexico, go just about anywhere: you’ll wonder where the hell everybody went and then be grateful for it. That is not the case [...]
This one could have been a keeper. The amenities of a suburban Taos horse property but authentic, chicken coop included, in a gracious setting I personally trust more than any Gringo Nation enclave. But all of this supposes something set on Planet Earth, not the alternative reality of Taos. The house itself is in an [...]