Sunday on the Rio II [Revised]

Rio Grande at Pilar, NM

Rio Grande at Pilar, looking upstream from the wooden bridge

It was warm yesterday when I shot this in the canyon at Pilar, low 70s, in fact. It probably looks the same today, but Nature’s serious and colder air is blowing in. We could even get a touch of snow tonight.

Meanwhile back in Llano Quemado, invisible buzzards circle the the twin Adobes of Doom. The two warring parties in eternal probate invested plenty back in June to fix the illegal septic system shared between two houses, and yet two days ago, our toilet stopped up cold without a warning. You’d think we’d flushed the cat.

Ignoring for the moment that in the aftermath of the septic tank repair adventure, the sloping yard now funnels rainwater and snow melt directly to the tank—who cares, adios—this whole affair has been quite the entertainment and a lesson in “old Taos,” so long as I ignore the years spent dealing with the fallout. When we’re in our next place, though, I write the book!

(A Taos book, I think, although the thing has not been done right yet by anyone afraid of being hanged.)

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John Hamilton Farr lives at 7,000 feet in Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, U.S.A. As New York Times best-selling author James C. Moore tells it, John is “a man attuned to the world who sees it differently than you and I and writes about it with a language and a vision of life that is impossible to ignore.” This JHFARR.COM site is the master writing archive. To email John, please see CONTACT INFO on About page. For a complete list of all John’s writing, photography, NFTs, and social media links, please visit JHFARR.ART  

  • Mir_b October 15, 2013, 9:06 AM

    Get an rental until you find your house to buy. You don’t have to be so picky about it, because you are not staying in it. Yeah, I know, it means moving twice, but you do NOT want to face winter in the Adobe of Doom under these conditions of increasing disorder..

    • JHF October 15, 2013, 9:42 AM

      Right. We really need to get out of here. My wife is iffy about buying, though, and I can’t blame her. But I’d truly rather not rent. Trying to thread the needle here.

  • Bethie October 15, 2013, 10:10 PM

    It isn’t going to get better. Shit or get off the pot John. Buy some fucking thing before next year when you’ll be obliged to also purchase PMI, or so I’ve been told by RE agents. I am thinking about re-fi before the end of the year to avoid that, while interest rates are down.

    • JHF October 15, 2013, 10:26 PM

      HAH! Hi, Beth. 🙂

      Good advice, I’m sure. That’s what I’d like to do. Kathy needs convincing, but the right place might do it. We have a buyer’s agent. Just haven’t seen anything affordable we could stand. Would need the mortgage insurance anyway, probably. To get something decent at 20% down would take every penny of savings, and that’s no good. There have been properties that would almost work, I have to say, but nothing that arouses the lizard brain lust to possess the place. It’s time, though.

      • bethie October 15, 2013, 10:37 PM

        PMI is the devils work. (LOL) Didn’t help me out AT ALL when I lost that stupid house I was convinced into building. (Greed! Greed! Ever regretful.) But yeah, where you live you are in a seller’s market I’m sure. I’m thinking about going into about $4 grand of debt and adding on a greenhouse and growing our own food. We quit eating animals and dairy products about nine months ago. If I had a greenhouse to supplement the summer food (we have fruit trees and I could make a garden) all I would need to buy is beans. N E HOW! buy something. The security of that is worth it.

        • JHF October 15, 2013, 10:54 PM

          We need the security. That’s why I want to buy. I don’t want to do this moving shit any more. Heck, I’ll be dead soon anyway. Not exactly a seller’s market here, though. Most houses take forever to sell. It’s just that they’re high to begin with, and a lot of this property is held by out-of-town owners who are content to rent it out or let it sit, so it’s not a buyer’s market, either. Houses do sell, but usually only after a while, and almost always at a healthy discount. It’s just that high bar at the outset.

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