It all started when our dinner guests mentioned that a piece of land was available on their lane, half-way between Silver City and Pinos Altos: 5 acres with south and southeast views. On a hillside, but not too steep. A sad history to go with it, but why not come out and take a look.
So we did go out that next day, a Sunday. And we went out again with our realtor on Monday. And we went again on Friday, and then again today.
The first trip, we admired the view; 270degrees and on a clear day, which is most days here, you can see, due south, the mountains just over into Mexico. In the shorter distance, you can see down into a lovely valley with two ranches, a large pond, a stream that you know is there because of the line of cottonwoods that cross the valley. To the north you see the twin sisters mountain peaks and the Gila beyond.
On Monday with the realtor, we talked about the price, the background of the property (too long and sad a story to relate here), and drove over to look at another similar sized piece nearby.
Friday, we went to see the sunset. We couldn’t see the actual sunset because it’s behind us in that 90 degrees that’s blocked from view. But there was a ghost moon, full and rising out of the mountains to the east. The skies from southwest around to the east flushed magenta to rose to peach, blue at the horizon, over which was suspended the huge, bright full moon. We didn’t want to tear ourselves away, but the breeze stiffened and was getting pretty raw. Today, we took tape measure and notepad to measure the existing house pad, and spent some time thinking about how we’d design a house to take advantage of the natural contours and the setting.
Now, for all of that, the piece of property hasn’t quite “grabbed us by the neck” as yet, so we’re neither of us absolutely committed. But each time we go, we find more to like. We have to “washboard” in, of course, but the road is good for all that. There’s a drop from the road to the house pad, with a relatively long drive. We’d have to put a good driveway in or no-one would be able to visit us without a 4 wheel drive. And it’s a day’s workout to walk up the drive to the road. But most newer properties are scraped onto the sides of hills, steep or not. In California, you’d worry about landsliding onto the freeway below in the first rain. Not so much a problem here, but indicative of the fact that old real estate here is on usable ground, and newcomers are buying for views, which are only to be found from vertical land.
We have some research to do – septic systems, water, relocating the electric line that goes overhead and the electric pole that sits about where the kitchen should be. And the listing price, like so much here and elsewhere these days, is way high. We know what we’d be willing to pay, depending upon the answers to some infrastructure questions. What we don’t know, is whether the owner would be willing to sell at that price.
Nutmeg loves it there. She scouts the property, getting braver each time we’re there, ranging farther and farther away from us. On the first visit, she slipped under the fence into the horse paddock which is part of the neighboring property, and discovered the gourmet delight of nibbling horse kernels. On the next visit, she discovered cats claw. Cats claw is a low growing bush that has thorns like claws, hence the (very appropriate) name for a painful encounter. She got herself into the midst of several cats claw and couldn’t extricate herself. I had to go in to untangle her and lead her out, which meant I was also picking cats claw out of my jacket and pants. Tonight, she nosed something in a den in the roots of an old oak tree and the rocks piled at the base of the tree. We could NOT get her to abandon the crevices between the rocks. We don’t know what she was after, but thankfully whatever it was stayed well hidden. Finally we retrieved the leash from the car and put it on her. She was smart enough to know what that meant, and so followed us around or just flopped in the middle of the cleared pad when we weren’t holding her on short lead.
We’re still also interested in the community in which we’re currently living, which Nick calls The Park. There isn’t much land left here, just a couple of one-acre pieces which are definitely downhill, so much so that they would take some creative engineering to perch a house on the side. There is one 5-acre piece but we hear that is $33,000 per acre, a little rich for us, although it has both a southern exposure and a nice little elevation. We are confounded that, here in NM with 350 days of sunshine a year, plus some very attractive tax incentives, people / builders just are not building passive solar, south-facing houses.
New Mexico does things differently: On New Years Eve, we went to MVA to get our NM drivers licenses and NM title and tags for the Volvo. We were told by the staff, “You’ll need an inspection to get your title and tags.” So we said ok, and because we needed to go back to the house anyway to pick up something we forgot, we left the window and the building. On the way back to the MVA with the forgotten paperwork, we stopped in at R&L Auto Repair to ask about scheduling an inspection.
They looked at us oddly, and said they knew nothing about inspections.
We explained that we were trying to get NM tags for our car and were told by the MVA staff we’d need an inspection. They said, sure, a vehicle id inspection, but no mechanical inspection. Oh. No check of the lights and brakes and turn signals and all the other stuff that is part of an inspection in MD. Well, we asked, where do we get an id inspection. Why, at the MVA, they said – the staff just goes out and checks that the vehicle id is the same on the vehicle as on the title.
We went back to the MVA, and after another 20 minute wait, we ended up at a different window. We concluded the drivers license part of our business, and then asked about a vehicle id inspection. She asked if we had our paperwork and the car and when we produced both – or at least pointed through the window at the car – she put on her jacket, took our title and went out to the car to read the VIN on the car compared to the VIN on the title. We now sport the newest NM plate – rear only – with the image of a classic hot-air balloon, a sight for which NM is famous.
And lastly, in addition to cats claw, other flora and fauna in the news:
- Nutmeg and I found a small lizard or gecko in the house a couple of days ago. After she chased it across the floor, I was able to capture it on a large sheet of paper and take it outside. I hope I didn’t do it more harm by "saving" it to the outdoors than if I’d just ignored it.
- I’m paying more attention to the bird life around this house. This morning I saw a spotted tohee and two curved bill thrashers under the silver oak outside the dining room window.
- And a raptor of some sort has flown, or should I say, swooped by my office window on the hunt twice, but too fast to figure out what I was seeing. I burst out with a "whatzat" each time, confusing and startling the individuals I was talking to on the phone.
- There is a vibrant and active mixed flock of bluebirds and finches, with something else thrown in that I haven’t figured out, that hangs around the wires on the side of the house, where I can see them from my office.
- I may have found myself in the midst of a flock of bushtits moving through the yard, but they were realllly small and were moving too fast for me to really id. Nutmeg started barking at someone knocking on the door the other day, but when I went to investigate, discovered it was two or three scrub jays that were vocalizing the knocking sound. And when I take her out the first time in the morning, about dawn, I can hear the wind brush through the fingers of the ravens’ wings as they fly just overhead.
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