Splendor in the Mud

interior of old adobe in Taos, NM

7,000 feet and don’t you forget it

You can’t say we haven’t done it. Well, you can, but that would be wrong. I will forever be proud. If anyone ever mentions “old Taos,” this is what they mean. It does work. Inside thick adobe walls, we almost never hear a thing outside. It’s cozy in winter, even if the wood stove and the dust and God knows what else one breathes can lead to headaches, angst, and other strangeness. (Maybe plague and hantavirus!) We’re ready for central heat and insulated glass, however—oh, and yes, a dryer. A woman we know who lives way the hell out in the goddamn boonies with elk and bears and shit was listening to my wife explaining about drying laundry by that stove. “You don’t have a dryer?” she asked. I mean, come on.

Sign up for email delivery of JHFARR.COM posts via Substack! Same content sooner with bigger photos! ⬇︎

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  

  • Carmel January 29, 2016, 6:10 AM

    I’d give you our drier if it were feasible 🙂
    Here, where the sun shines almost every day, we’ve been wrangling with the landlady of our newly rented house because there’s no clothes line. Fortunately, she’s relented, and her handyman erected a line today. I love the smell of sun-dried clothes.

    • JHF January 29, 2016, 7:19 AM

      Hi Carmel! Well, the sun shines almost every day here as well, but it’s summer in Australia now. Our ten-minute summer won’t start for months, of course. We dry clothes outside when feasible.

      • Carmel January 29, 2016, 7:35 AM

        Yes, it’s summer, but even in winter, except, perhaps in the deep south. There’s a downside though … all that sunshine can be boring.

        I remember your outside clothes line.

  • kaye January 29, 2016, 9:16 AM

    looks great….but where’s Callie the Wonder cat? Could you post a picture of her soon? thanks!

  • Byron January 29, 2016, 10:36 AM

    John, I second the motion for more pics of Callie even though I already have 24 of her which I have saved to Photo Gallery in the past 8 or 10 years.

  • M.J. January 31, 2016, 7:08 AM

    Cool! I want to roam around in there and look through all your fascinating artifacts that make your adobe so quaint and interesting. As for Callie, (my mother-in-law’s name, whole different story, not so cute and cuddly) that cute cat probably knows the best places to hide up high. As for lack of things, it looks like your managing. I have always had a need for the simple life, that way you are ready to hit the door to the outside for a nature lesson at anytime and not trapped with things on the inside.

Previous post:

Next post:

Browse ARCHIVES

Browse CATEGORIES

Latest Posts

Discover more from JHFARR.COM

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading