Live and Learn New Mexico!

The problem is a statewide one...more and more people are living on the streets. As I've watched and learned from the homeless in Albuquerque over the last few years, I've often thought, there but for the grace of God go I. It doesn't take much to imagine myself in their situation.  What can we do to help these unfortunate people besides give them handouts? The City of Albuquerque has set up old buildings to house them but many don't want to live in them. Mental health plays a huge part in the problem. Why don't we take the doctors and counselors out to the homeless rather than try to herd them up and relocate them, especially since many are resistant? It works along the same lines as my ideas for the Be Kind Network, where educators go out in the community to teach rather than send students to school.  Let's send those who can help out to the homeless where they live -- in the streets.  Group counseling could happen in commun

I've noticed over the last few years an abandoned motel along Rt. 66 in Moriarty called the Lazy J.   I've also noticed that the curio shop/thrift store/artist mall business in the east mountains is growing by leaps and bounds.  Church Street Market in Edgewood is a good example. Local artists/artisans can rent a space and sell their wares. It's a little out of the way but even people from Albuquerque visit.  The Lazy J would make an excellent artists mall, too. I loved the idea so I decided to find out who the owner is and if they are interested in renting or selling the place. Not as easy as you would think.  I searched online and found nothing helpful.  So I stopped by the motel to see if there were any signs on the property that might lead me to the owner.  There was a handwritten sign on the office door...quite old but with a phone number. I snapped a photo of it and made a mental note to call the next day. Then I promptly forgot about it.  About a week lat

I'm going to get straight to the point on this post -- we have to pay attention to our mental health, especially in these new times of Covid.  I have been on a personal mental health journey and have shared it on social media because I know I'm not the only one looking for help, hoping for relief.  And I have found relief, much to my relief. I feel so much better since learning more about my anxiety and the effects it has on my overall mental wellbeing. I take two prescription meds and vitamin/mineral supplements like magnesium, and I try to get daily exercise. I continue to enjoy healing with cannabis, now legal in New Mexico. I meditate.  I take photos wherever I go and share them online, enter contests, etc.  I have a new hobby that arose from my vast collection of rocks I've found over the last few years. I make what I call good energy rock art. Creating it calms me.  I urge anyone who is hurting, is depressed, angry, hope

I've been snapping photos of the many places in the state that I've visited or at the least, driven past, for years now. I love New Mexico. I often find myself imagining what life was like when some of the abandoned homesteads were alive... someone's dream back when life wasn't so complex. But then I think, wait a minute.  Honestly, I'm 60 and for all my many years, I really don't think there ever was a simpler time.  I grew up with my parents' expectation that I would graduate high school, get a college degree and move on to steady employment at a job I enjoy, am good at, and will retire from. I grew up anxious and depressed. Today, I see that my kids and friends are even more anxious.  It's crazy! We have technology to make life easier, maybe even simpler, but our kids are still expected to get a job, make a "living", work hard. I don't want that for my grandkids. I want them to grow up NOT feeling the pressure to succeed or c

New Mexicans are all about honoring the past, appreciating the present, and dreaming to the future. We see beauty in the simple things, even in the ugly things.  Fences evoke a nostalgia in us that is hard to explain. Although they are meant to contain, maybe even imprison, fences out on homesteads give us a sense of peace and comfort. We like fences.  I was pleasantly surprised on this post to have more than my usual number of good photos to post. Of fences!  So many kinds -- wire and wood plank fences -- but my favorite is the picket fence made with wobbly wood posts.  I wish that I had a nifty fence embracing my homestead instead of the wire one that was cheap and quick to erect. One day, I hope to put up a picket fence. I will probably phlog about it. Until next time, peace.

What can I say about the many dilapidated barns and sheds scattered all over our state?  Like many New Mexicans, I see beauty in them, reminders of a simpler time. Not that it really was simpler... I assume that they were part of the farming lifestyle of rural New Mexico. A little research reveals that there are about 24,000 farms in NM, and 95% are family owned. But how many are still in operation? I also learned that the shape of a barn indicates its use...was it used to store grains, beans, etc.?  Or was it used for cattle or horses? I do see cattle on land that otherwise seems abandoned. Is someone checking on the cattle? Is the barn still being used?  The homes move, leaving behind the barns and sheds to tell the stories of New Mexico. Until next time... peace 

"Country roads... take me home"...an old John Denver song we love because it evokes a kinder, gentler time of life and going back to our childhood.  I think that people react the same way to my photos of remote and abandoned places in New Mexico. There's a nostalgia at play. We wonder who lived there and why did they leave?  Most of our enchanting state even today is rural. Many of us are lucky to live off country roads... peaceful mornings...clear clean air...birds... There's also a romance to the country road. I like to imagine walking down each to a warm, friendly home at the end, accompanied by my dogs. Like a true New Mexican, I love to explore all our state has to offer, traveling the side roads and country lanes, blasting the music. New Mexico country roads...aaah! the stories. Until next time, peace. 

My son Daniel has been helping a friend clean up his property and I've gone along to help watch my grandson Oliver (shown hooking up a car to tow) or just to get out and about.  This friend is what I will call the typical New Mexico car "collector" -- hard working, dedicated individuals who start out buying one of a favorite kind of car to fix up and end up with their rural properties littered with more fixer uppers of the same make/model usually.  In the case of my son's friend, it is BMW for the most part, with a Porsche or two scattered around. His cars are shown in this post.  Snapping pictures as I hung out, I thought of Dad, another car collector. When I was a kid, he was into Alfa Romeo.        We lived in neighborhoods that didn't have room for car collections but I remember a little old Spider sports car in the rocks at the side of our driveway. I don't think Dad ever got it running. But he had it forever. O

I couldn't wait to write about the old billboards dotting our interstate highways but once I sat down to do it, I wasn't sure what to say.                                              So I did what I always do when I'm unsure... I started researching their history.            I am a nostalgic soul. I love to think about traveling the interstate highway system when it was innovative and new, reading the billboard ads for upcoming rest stops and travel centers...Dairy Queens.  Turns out billboards were conceived long before the automobile and highways came along, around 1830 in fact. They were basically large posters hung outside businesses to attract passers by. Barnum and Bailey's circus was advertised on early billboards.  Other early billboards enticed travelers to stay in local hotels, eat in local restaurants, shop local stores.  Then came the automobile and the billboard business took off, even more so with the advent

When I think of New Mexico, my thoughts don't rush to all the trees our beautiful state has. It doesn't seem like we have a lot. We do, however, have five national forests.  In those forests are many pinon and juniper trees, trees that survive well in hot, dry climates. As I ride along NM roads and snap photos of trees I see, though, I'm not taking pictures of pinon or juniper. I'm taking pictures of trees that  people dreamt of having on their homesteads, trees they planted to make home more homey.  When a family moved to their homestead, they may have planted trees for shade in the yard (great spots to work on the cars) and next to the house. They were planted with love and hope for a peaceful future.  Often, at the end of the drive was a gate flanked by two beautiful shade trees.   Many of the places I see once had mobile homes on them, I'm guessing. When the family left and took their home with them, we