We took a drive 'up top' last Sunday through our connecting canyon which is Mark's confessed favorite pure leisure drive. In this photo (if you click and enlarge it), you can almost see where we would previously drive straight ahead instead of taking a new curve off to the right. If you attempted that now, you would plunge over a cut a dozen feet deep, probably taking out a high pressure gas pipeline in the process. Ill-advised.In case you missed the heads up, I am about to get metaphorically obnoxious here so return your tray to the upright position and extinguish all smoking guns.
Just like that road, we have found that what seemed like the clear and obvious path of our plans out here can change in a matter of months or even from hour to hour. The Rock of Damocles was a minor concern but what a gas field rep said yesterday was not. What he learned yesterday was that the five mile road to our Rat Town was not classified as a road used by several gas field operators. What that meant, ominously, was that if the creek gnawed further into the hard rock of the mesa walls in a few places and washed out this elevated road, it could be officially abandoned ... and not replaced. As you might imagine, this was not joyous news to these two people living at the very end of it. The alternative routes are just as seasonally affected (or more so) and would add at least an hour to our established and already prolonged access to civilization.
Now I am wondering if the delay in receiving our pre-fab new buildings was not but more benevolent works of ethereal allies. Having pragmatically ignored such synchronicity in the past to my detriment, I am inclined to have the new buildings delivered 'up top', far removed from these crumbling roads and the The Rock of Damocles . This is where the oddball and the engineer often clash with a brilliant display of sparks, where the unseen and intuitive collide with calculable hard data modeling.
Tomorrow, I would like for the two of us to journey up top once more, to revisit that area which we had both considered a good future home site last August and then compare it with the other possibilities Mark has come across since then. It may well help decide if we should change our time-line abruptly now or remain in the Rat under the Rock until further notice.
I will return in a few days with the results of our exploratory trip. Rat Town might well arise three hundred feet above my lofty dreams of just last month, then again, it might not. So many logistical, natural and human factors to weigh in so little time.
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29 comments:
Hi, you 2 happy wanderers! Just how much land do you 2 own thereabouts?? I've been been looking at a Las Cruces website for a seniors "manufactured home" community that I've always admired and could actually afford compared to most of Las Cruces. I have friends who moved their from a palatial home they'd built out on 17 acres or so outside of Las Cruces. They could have afford almost anything and chose this. Who knows I may retire back to NM yet!! I know I'd be in good company!!! Take Care! Belle
Well, I'd bet the view is pretty up there. I hope everything works out for the best. Sucks to have your fate dictated to some degree by those gas fuckers, but I guess that's life in these modern times of ours. Thing is, you don't need to be under that friggin' rock anyway.
I would seriously consider crawling out from under my rock, in this case...!
Makes ya' wonder if that well-hidden gas-tap isn't somewhere in that area of the "could be abandoned" road?
How funny. We were just talking about the Sword of Damocles here just one hour ago!
I am abandoning hope of discovering a meaning through context, and find the need to ask something plainly. What exactly is the "rat?"
Belle, that sounds like a great retirement find, especially if you already know people who live there and like it ... hint! I'd be inclined to that myself when this ranch becomes too far removed for us.
We own a couple of sections but it's spread out in chunks so it covers a pretty good area. The chances of ever having visible neighbors are pretty slim and that was part of what we were looking for.
FHB, I knew you might see the bright side as getting out from under the Rock. We'd certainly be hard-pressed to find another one to fall on us up there.
They definitely can't let the bigger roads up there go to pot so that is a BIG plus right now. If we get any more settled in down here, I know I won't have the strength to pack and move it all again.
That just might happen now, Bruno.
According to local hearsay, there is more than likely a grand-fathered tap hiding around here but they sure aren't going to volunteer anything on that.
The parts of the road inclined to wash out are a couple of miles from here. There will be some major pipeline hanging out in the breeze when it lets go but that doesn't seem to worry them at all. Guess they build those lines tough.
Craver, isn't it odd how less common words or phrases can start popping up in groups out of the clear blue?
Sorry about that ... 'the Rat' is the familiar name for our rat trailer. The word 'rat' in this case comes from an old show category for motorcycle judging and means one that has been neglected for ages. Oddly enough, some folks take great pride in winning this award. The term drives some of our friends and family crazy since it is slowly unratting on us but it has become such a short and comfortable name for it by now.
Well I think its a real adventure!
Again, we spent the easter break on washed out roads quite similar to yours!! :o)
Well, Simon, given your deep familiarity with mud driving over there, I'll let you drive my truck but ONLY if you promise to wash the mud off when you're done! smirk
You may have to invest in a helicopter... if worse comes to worse.
Happy belated Easter. We were away in Sydney, hence the long silence ....
``Return your tray to the upright position and extinguish all smoking guns'' ..... you are brilliant, Lin.
Oh Alex, having a heli here would be fabulous. Drats on budgets, they crimp even the quasi-practical fantasies.
Happy belated Easter to you, too, David! You certainly have an incessant wanderlust.
grin ... I felt obliged to warn and prepare readers for some metaphor turbulence ahead.
So many logistical, natural and human factors to weigh in so little time.
Aiieee. This post sounds sorta ominous, not to mention expensive, no matter what you decide. I don't think I'd put my chips down with Ma Nature, though, where the integrity of the roads is concerned.
Rock. Hard place. Ouch!
Hey Lin,
You write well. Spose you know that. You write lots. Spose you know that.
This site is enormous! Spose you know that, too.
I found you from a post on The Atavist. Glad I found you, and if I don't croak first, I'll finish reading your blog from the beginning. Croaking seems more likely . . .
I think you're crazier than a shithouse rat, but you're a hell of a lovable shithouse rat. Me, I'm a little more keen on green, so New Mexico is not on my list of good places to die. I did meet a great number of simpatico oddballs out there, and it's the only place I've ever been where I discovered sinus cavities. With no pollen, they drained and air went into them. Since the air was about 30ºF in the morning, I could feel it very well. I had heard of sinus cavities but since mine had always been filled with something, I did not realize they were actually cavities.
This is supposed to be a comment? Keep plugging away. As tho you need my encouragement . . .
Fraydoh
Hi! I'm over from David's blog. You write in an excellent style! Raining metaphors! So glad you explained the Rat in a previous comment - everything clear as mud now!
An enjoyable post even if I can feel the frustration and unfairness of the situation. Hope you get sorted out soon.
Buck, I'm definitely distracted by the ominous here - both the expense and physical energy that will be needed if we make the big move up. Ya know, 30 years ago, I would have been saying' "Well? Whadda we waiting for? Let's take a load up right now."
Have you thought about an ultralight? (Hang glider with a motor) not as expensive as a helicopter. They're proposing them for us Westsiders who have such a hard time getting across the bridges in Albuquerque. Hope everything works out for you. Seems silly but I find more New Mexico bloggers at Authorblog and he's in Australia!
Fraydoh - don't give up on New Mexico for green yet! There are HUGE, gorgeous areas of pine forests that you probably didn't see. There was even one spot that reminded me of Vermont. We just happened to find a large drier patch at a more reasonable cost.
Oddly enough, I lost my sinus cavities after a year here but I think it had everything to do with suddenly living in a very small area with now fully confined cats and no filtered circulating air system.
Yep, we certainly have been declared 'crazier than shit-house rats' and it seems as accurate a descriptor as any. And NM is proving the right place to be able to do it most comfortably since there is always someone more eccentric than you around. So don't write off NM yet!
CrazyCath, did you and Red ever hook-up by e-mail? He wanted to send you some good info and resources on PTSD.
I know what you mean about 'the Rat' being a nebulous term to new readers. I have been very tempted to compose a glossary for all the terms which surface repeatedly as the journal progresses. It's somewhere on my 'to do tomorrow' list, NM time.
PMP, you know, I have thought about ultra-lights - even talked about it with a doctor in town (among other distractions such as her gorgeous office antiques). I think it is the John Denver legend that keeps me from looking further into it though - the older I get, the less quickly I bounce back from hard landings. I think it is a great way for you folks to avoid the AQB bridges though - and you don't have to worry about our quirky canyon updrafts either! Hope you found ABQ's Querky Turkey in my links as well - you'll enjoy his ABQ banter and he will certainly appreciate your bridge laments.
I also seem to find NM bloggers by traveling to the other end of the earth and back - go figure (and bless David while we're at it). Glad you found us!
We have to ask. With all the piping and skirting you have done to the rat, will you be able to haul it to the top of the mesa somewhat intact? What about keeping the freezer inside; that can't be light? I know we're way too pragmatic for the two of you; but I can't help but ask and hope the answer is a positive one.
The St. Louis relatives
You know I stepped into your blog after it was well underway. After seeing all you went through to get the new freezer, I'm wondering what in the world you went through to bring the Rat in? Or did you buy it already in place? Is there a post about that I can read?
Hi gang! Those are realistic questions; ones that we have already added to the stew of thoughts bombarding us in the last week. The skirting, the addition, etc. will all have to be dismantled either fully or partially for the Rat to ever make it out of here to a new location. Everything inside will have to be repacked or secured. But there is much more outside the Rat to deal with moving. The whole idea is a little overwhelming at the moment.
Goddess, you lucked out - the story of getting the Rat here is the very first entry in the journal archive (titled "We Really Made It!"). I suspect that moving it back out of here will be at least as trying (plus a LOT more prep work since it has filled up and been added to since then). Not looking forward to the prospect at all.
Hi Lin; I was reading this earlier when we had to go out to babysit Owen. If the gas company is not going to maintain the road if a washout occurs and with the Rock of Damocles overhead, My humble opinion (?) is move to the top. I don't want to lose you two.
Thank you, Moose - you vote does count (especially since it happens to agree with mine and Slim's)! I may have to ask you to prod Mark with an antler or two as well if necessary.
I vote move to the top. If I were there I would Feng Shui your Rat.
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