Parts of New Mexico Are Greener Than Memory Recalls

It has rained, and boy! has it rained. Right at the end of July, I went up in the mountains northwest of Grants, NM. My old friend Mark says it has been raining every day for a month, more than any time in his memory. He has been slowly building a Navajo hogan-inspired cabin out there for a long time. He took an eight-year break but has now returned to it. He says it’s 95% complete, pending some “fixes” to problems that arose. It may never be finished, not 100%. I help out occasionally, but I took the same eight-year period of time off to work for a winery. I took photos up there, as you might expect, only after each day’s work had finished. Mark is aging rapidly, with problems with the veins in his legs, and drives the short distance from his old airstream up the hill to the cabin. He is hiring people to finish the work now, as he is just not that strong anymore. Construction is hard work, and, with unusual problems, professionals are best.

He had built one wall of the structure into the hill, using local rock to create a vertical wall. However, it turns out that the rock is porous, and water seeped right in. Messy. But friends are working to waterproof the wall, and dig drainage channels along the wall, so water doesn’t run down the hill and build up against the wall. There are other finishing touches going on, but the roof is solid without leaks, so hopefully, the fixes will keep the rainwater that flows downhill outside away from the wall. Or perhaps this is a never-ending project. He already has a refrigerator and a wood cooking stove in the house, so habitation is near. Next time I will get some good shots of the interior, and the portal that was under construction then. Meanwhile, Mark invites people out and feeds everyone who comes. He pays the professionals. The food is always good. The scenery is spectacular. So, photos follow freely (click on the first one and scroll along to see them full scale as some of them are panoramic):