“Welcome to the valley,” Ricky Medina said when we signed up for a post office box. We had no idea what we were getting into. At that time, San Cristobal had the only legal water system in the entire United States that operated without a treatment facility: just pure water piped into a small number [...]
San Cristobal
Early spring, 2000
Iconic, isn’t it? To me, this says it all. When we moved from our comfortable old farmhouse on the Eastern Shore of Maryland to the mountain village of San Cristobal north of Taos in 1999, the shock was overwhelming. No, we hadn’t been there before—just to Taos, and only very briefly—nor had we actually investigated [...]
Only took the one shot here, no need to stick around
This photo taken early in the morning on February 25, 2001 in San Cristobal, New Mexico, was the basis for the cover of the first ebook version of Buffalo Lights, the amazing story of jumping headfirst off a cliff. No, wait, it’s about our moving to New Mexico! (Haha, just kidding, it hasn’t killed us [...]
Who the hell are you, they wondered
Sometimes a cow is just a cow, unless it’s a heifer or a freemartin or a cattlebeast. For that matter, these might be steers. (Those are all legitimate terms, by the way.) I usually don’t pay that much attention unless we’re talking about bulls or have to steal some milk. In that case, you’d better [...]
Telephoto shot from the back yard just this morning
We went to look at a house in San Cristobal yesterday. Just a peek-in-the-windows thing. Hearing the traffic go whistling past on the nearby highway killed the deal, but driving up that way again was notable. The mountain village was our first stop in New Mexico, you see. (For the lowdown on San Cristobal, Buffalo [...]
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