house sitting in cañones valley

House sitting here is excellent. The first shot is looking west towards the house and greenhouse and then a shot past the greenhouse facing east. Not bad. The third photo is past where I’ve got the casita set up. Early each morning I go into the house and feed the dogs. Every other morning, after yerba mate, I mountain bike up the dirt road two miles, stash the bike in the brush and go off on a run up the mountain for a couple hours. Heaven must be like this. If I don’t come across any elk, at least I see plenty of deer. After breakfast I go out to the greenhouse to water the plants, weed and check out what I will have for lunch. Pat brews beer so there are a slew of hop plants to water once a week. Ate all the rhubarb but it was at the end of the growing cycle. Guano. Wish I knew how to bake a pie. Sometimes in the morning but at least every evening, I take the dogs for a walk. Other chores are mowing and trimming the grass and watering the indoor and patio plants, watering and turning the compost. Not bad. Really lucked out with this gig and lucked out with the owners of the property. Nice people.

I was thinking about trying house sitting and caretaking after I met Debbie the other summer up in Utah. She and her husband have been doing it for 20 years. Now that I have an idea of what it entails, I’m thinking of joining one of the organizations that post positions on the web and see what comes of it.


There are numerous small ponds like this all through the valley. It really is a choice location. I was out with the dogs one evening and saw an elk that could not have been more than 2 days old. It was SO cute but they seem SO vulnerable when that young.


I was out mountain biking one morning while I was still over at Siscily’s place and came across these black bear tracks. I think this might be the first time I’ve come across bear tracks. I asked around and there’s a good deal of sightings in the area. Wish I could run faster.

As always, play is important to me. With this field so handy, I’m starting to get the hang of throwing a boomerang. Nowhere near consistent, but after watching some youtube videos and experimenting with the variables, it’s starting to make sense. Something else I tried was making a bola. I drilled through 3 golf balls and attached them with 2’ lengths of 1/8” line. Even throwing something as simple as this is taking a while to get the knack of. I also set up a target and am back to shooting my longbow. Life is good. Well, except for my time with my new electric sailplane but I’ll save that for its own entry.

Have also been meeting some really nice people. Had breakfast down the road with some new friends on the 4th of July. We made omelets in bags. I’ve read about it but haven’t seen it done. Way cool. RJ had a table set up outside with bowls of various items to put in an omelet and a pitcher of whipped eggs. We each took a ziplock freezer bag, put our name on it, poured in a ladle of eggs, different items from the bowls, pressed the air out of the bag and dropped it in a big pot of boiling water. Served on paper plates with plastic forks sure made short work of cleanup for 8 people. Definitely will be trying this on my own.
Went to the fireworks in Chama with another group of new friends. Sure am getting my social fix. Two of these people were also into running ultras. THAT was a pleasant surprise. Have gone on some runs with one of them and boy, does she make me feel like a wuss. I’ve said for the last couple years that I would like to get strong enough to run another ultra, probably only a 50K, but the way my running has been progressing (or not), realistically, there was no way I’d be that strong again—but then I arrived here. I can’t believe how much I’ve progressed in just one month. Between the mountain trails and being pushed by my new running buddy, I’m beginning to feel that it is possible. Not bad for a transplant survivor. But this lady has been through way more than me and she’s out there pushing even harder so it’s not like I can just continue to wimp out here. We’ll see.


Went on a 12 mile trail run from Heron Lake SP down to El Vado SP and back on the Rio Chama Trail with Robin and her sister. VERY nice time.

The Dutchman was passing through the area and staying down at Heron Lake. Ed’s been full-timing in a casita longer than I have. I stopped down and had a good visit. He assembled his Klepper folding kayak and has been putting time in out on the lake. I might see him in southern New Mexico this winter since he has been wintering down there also.

July Night Sky—Comets are pristine remnants from the formation of the solar system that are comprised of minerals, rock and mostly ice, much like a dirty snowball. They travel around the sun in elliptical orbits and can be inclined to the plane of the solar system at any angle. Comets can sprout tails extending many tens of millions of miles, during their closest approach to the sun. Short period comets are thought to come from the Kuiper Belt on the outskirts of Neptune’s orbit and further, and longer period comets are thought to come from the Oort cloud, a vast spherical shell that surrounds the solar system at a huge distance. Recent spacecraft encounters with comets seem to raise more questions then they answer and some finds are quite unexpected. NASA targets some of these bodies with spacecraft loaded with instrumentation that help tease out the secrets lurking in these icy bodies.

Do something you WANT to
not something on your SHOULD DO list.

RVwest article ‘Following a Free Spirit’
FOR INDEX OF POSTINGS GO TO JULY 2006