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By Hannah Grover NM Political Report  A new agreement allows the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District to store water in Abiquiu Reservoir for up to 10 years as work continues on El Vado Dam.
One reason that the Rio Grande in the Albuquerque area has experienced drying trends over the past couple of years is that the MRGCD has not been able to store water in El Vado Reservoir that could then be released during the summer. In 2022, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation lowered the water levels in El Vado to allow crews to perform necessary safety upgrades and improvements. That construction came to a halt in March and assessments of the structure revealed that steel faceplate and underlying supports in the dam are in much worse condition than previously believed. That meant the existing contract for the construction had to be terminated and the Bureau of Reclamation needed to perform a new evaluation. According to the Bureau of Reclamation, it will be at least three years before work can resume. That left the Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District in a bind. The Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority has the rights to store water in Abiquiu Reservoir and, on Monday, the Bureau of Reclamation announced that an agreement was reached that allows the MRGCD and a coalition of six Rio Grande Pueblos to store up to 100,000 acre-feet of water. “The agreement represents a win for all users,” Eric C. Olivas, chair of the ABCWUA’s governing board, said in a press release. “It helps the Albuquerque Bernalillo County Water Utility Authority and our customers by requiring strategic releases of stored Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District water to maintain flows at the central stream gage above 200 cubic feet per second, allowing us to continue surface water diversions instead of tapping groundwater reserves.” The agreement is only a temporary solution, though, and the Bureau of Reclamation must still move forward with repairing El Vado Dam. In the meantime, storing water in Abiquiu Reservoir provides the MRGCD with additional flexibility in how it manages water. The Bureau of Reclamation plans to do what is known as a first fill test over the coming months. This will be done to evaluate how El Vado Dam performs when water is added to the reservoir. The Bureau of Reclamation will incrementally raise the water in the reservoir and will assess the dam’s stability and performance at various water depths. Depending on the results of the first fill test, the MRGCD may be able to store some amount of water in El Vado during the safety upgrades. The test will also help the Bureau of Reclamation develop and implement a long-term solution for storing Rio Grande water. The water used for the test comes from the ABCWUA, the city of Santa Fe and the MRGCD. “Thanks to the flexibility of our partners, we can continue our evaluation and repairs of El Vado Dam while ensuring the safe storage of water for Middle Rio Grande irrigators, water users, and for Rio Grande Compact purposes. These strong, cooperative partnerships help us use every drop of water for multiple benefits,” Reclamation Albuquerque Area Manager Jennifer Faler said in a press release.
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 By Hilda Joy
Feeling sorry for persons who had no place to have Thanksgiving dinner and wanting folks who did have plans for the holiday to get together with others at her home, the late Dawn Sanders on the Sunday before Thanksgiving hosted her annual Thanksgiving Rehearsal Dinner. People came up from Albuquerque and down from near the New Mexico-Colorado state line. Dawn roasted two enormous turkeys, and talented cook Rick Quintana peeled many pounds of potatoes which he cooked in an outdoor turkey fryer and then mashed with generous amounts of butter. One party morning, I went to Dawn’s after Sunday Mass and a stop at Bode’s for a green chile bacon breakfast burrito and coffee. I asked Dawn and Rick if I could help in any way. Rick said, “Oh yes - start squeezing” and sat me down before a bowl and a large baking sheet jam-packed with individual cloves of olive oil-roasted garlic to lace the mashed potatoes—best ever. One year, Dawn roasted one turkey and baked a large glazed ham. Before she discovered and moved to Abiquiu, Dawn owned a deli in Albuquerque that introduced the spiral-cut ham to New Mexico. She developed three distinctive white-sugar glazes for the hams she sold; one, of course, featured green chile and jalapeño peppers. Dawn moved to New Mexico from Texas, where she successfully practiced dentistry for more than 20 years. She was the only woman in her dental college class and was pregnant to boot. Upon moving to Abiquiu, Dawn apprenticed herself to a well known micaceous clay potter and became expert at this challenging art form. In addition to making traditional pots, she created unusual pots. Dawn had many careers. I first met Dawn at one of her Thanksgiving Rehearsal Dinners as a guest of Wanda Roach, one of Dawn’s best friends. Introductions completed, I handed Dawn two pie plates of bourbon-laced sweet potatoes topped with toasted pecan halves. “Oooh,” she enthused, “but only one for the table - I am refrigerating the other for myself for later.” I knew immediately that we would become close lifelong friends. Now, that large dining table was filling up fast. I found a hot plate for the sweet potatoes. Every guest, 50 to 60 or so, contributed something to the feast, Guests who did not cook brought wine or boughten pumpkin and apple pies. Wine and desserts were set up in the spacious back kitchen. Dawn had and needed two. When it was time to eat, guests were asked to take what they wanted from the table and then walk through a passageway to the front kitchen where Dawn served the turkey. “Light or dark?” asked our gracious hostess. Rick dished out the mashed potatoes and, if requested, ladled on rich gravy from a pot keeping warm on the stovetop. Then guests searched for a seat in Dawn’s sprawling house. Many years, it was warm enough to eat outdoors. Dawn never asked for any particular food, but magically every year the meal was balanced, starting from appetizers. Guests went out of their ways to bring really good dishes and somerimes offered recipe cards to be copied. The big hit one year was an Italian olive oil cake. I copied the recipe and made the cake. And one year, my Brussels sprouts with bacon and dried cranberries disappeared early. A guest said, “I always disliked Brussels sprouts, but these changed my mind about them. One year, I brought a guest, Lou Wise, now back in Oklahoma. He was charmed by Dawn and admired her reason for bringing so many people together in such a unique and meaningful fashion. When Lou left, he took Dawn’s hands and said, “Dawn, you must be exhausted. Leave the pots and pans in the sink. I’ll come over early in the morning and scrub them and do whatever else needs to be done to get your house back in order again.” “Coffee will be on.” An insite into ABIQUIU LIFE Hillda M. Joy Lisa Faithorn and her husband Djann Hoffman had a vision when they moved to Medanales: they wanted to create a community-focused space which would foster environmental stewardship, local engagement, and artistic expression. In 2006, they bought a 20-acre farm by the Chama River, “long and narrow, like most of the farms around here”, Djann told me when I visited them. “We have an acequia that runs right across the middle, a very old ditch from the 1600s. But we didn't really know we were going to bring the farm back to life when we moved here!”  Farm with hoop house. Image credit: Lisa Faithorn. Of course I wanted to find out where they had moved from. It turned out that Djann had lived in El Rito for almost ten years in the 1970s, homesteading and weaving – ("I was a hippie then”, he said). He left for California in 1979, and that’s when he met Lisa. After give or take 25 years they both felt it was about time to leave the state, although they had a lovely house in Walnut Creek. The Bay Area was becoming too noisy and too crowded. They were looking all over the map, searching for the location of their new home. Djann still owned the cabin in El Rito which he and his son Josh had resurrected,, but it was up in the mountains on a bad dirt road. It wouldn’t be suitable for Lisa. “I was working for NASA at the time, on a project based in Houston, and I had to fly there for a week at a time”, she told me. “I needed to be near enough to an airport, and I needed the internet, plus I wanted to garden. The El Rito cabin was too high up in the Ponderosa forest for that. At first, we were looking for a place to garden, not a farm”. Djann found the location where they’re now with the help of a realtor, but he wasn’t sure whether Lisa would like it. It seemed too big, with several studios and outbuildings. But they had dreams of a larger community, of people coming to join them here, and when Lisa met Djann to look at the place she fell in love with it. This is what she told me: “That first summer we arrived in July, and it was hot. We would walk every day, just getting to know the property. And one big field out here was filled with little elm trees because it hadn't been farmed for at least forty years; the previous owners were artists”. “So we were on one of our daily walks, and I actually heard a voice that said, ‘I'm a farm, wake me up’. Now, I don't know if you can put that in the article, people will think I'm a little nuts, but that's actually what happened. We felt like this land spoke to us”. Well, I for one don’t think that Lisa is nuts, because I’ve had similar experiences. I believe that we humans don’t hear a lot of things; partly because of all the noise we make, and partly because we don’t really listen. Lisa continued: “Djann felt it too, and he said, ‘if we're going to do that, we have to do it right: conserving water, using solar energy, and planting organic’. So that's what we dove into”. They hired a neighbor with a tractor who lived down the road, and she pulled all the elm trees out of the field. After a cover crop, Lisa and Djann planted garlic. They got bulbs from Stanley Crawford in Dixon and had great results. There also was a big orchard with about twelve old apple trees, and in the second year they planted lots of grapes which they got from Stan Bader at Las Parras. In addition, they put up a couple of hoop houses and started to grow vegetables, also during the winter. But it was a lot of work for just two people. Lisa explained: “I had a full-time job, and Djann was a working artist. There were only so many hours a day we could dedicate to the farm, plus, we didn’t have much solid knowledge. We decided to keep growing healthy food for ourselves and others, and see what would happen”. Djann was still building furniture and doing pottery. I wanted to hear more about this. “I was building furniture like these pine-slab tables–” Djann pointed to the table we were sitting on, and to another one in the room – “and I've been doing pottery for a long time. I use micaceous clay (which I buy in Santa Fe) and throw by hand, mostly dishes and big platters, and they get fired in a campfire or an electric kiln”.  Djann’s platters and other collectibles. Jessica Rath. “He has a kiln and a pottery studio”, Lisa added. “Part of our vision here was not only producing food, but also art and healing. We imagine this is a center for art and healing and education and agriculture. We've had healers in residence, and we've had artists in residence over the years. People who’ve stayed in our casita fell in love with the place, and some of them were teachers, and they asked, ‘Can I bring my students here?’ And so we had an Adobe class here, we had a yoga class, and we had a group of archeologists stay here”. Djann shared the next chapter in the Farmer Saga. “Two years ago, we met a young couple who had recently moved to Abiquiú. They had been successfully farming in Taos and had a steady market. for four or five years, and did a really good job. They started farming on their new land in Abiquiú, but there were some issues with water rights. A friend told them to contact us because we had an irrigated field and two hoop houses on the land that we weren’t using. So we met and agreed to lease the land to them. They’re in their early 30s , I think, and have incredible energy! They began working immediately, covered those two greenhouses, and within three weeks they had filled them with plants. And in six weeks they were selling produce”. LIsa added: “They're phenomenal growers, they call their business ‘Umami Gardens’. They sell at the Taos Farmers Market, and more recently at the Santa Fe Farmers Market, and supply several restaurants”. Maybe they would be an interesting topic for a future Abiquiú News article! Djann was successfully growing hemp for three years, but then the market tanked because there were too many people in the business. Farside Farm was growing medicinal hemp, and Djann and his friend Cat Stanley learned to produce a painkilling salve. They also developed a mosquito spray that soothes mosquito bites and heals red ant bites. It's made from hemp that is infused into aloe vera over four or five weeks, strained, and then turned into a spray. When it’s mixed with some coconut oil and beeswax, it becomes a salve which is a great topical pain killer and has anti-inflammatory properties. “Actually, somebody bought some of my distilled hemp oil stash a few weeks ago because they're working on cancer tumors, treating cancer tumors with CBD salve”, Djann continued. “We're beginning to develop our own products, which we can soon sell online or around the neighborhood. We had our crop distilled, turned into a syrup, and frozen, so we have enough hemp for about ten years ”. Both the salve and the spray sound amazing. They help with arthritis, with sore muscles, and muscle aches in general.  The main house. Image credit: Jessica Rath. Lisa has her own big garden she tends to. She’s growing vegetables and lots of flowers. “It’s a meditative, healing thing to do”, she said. We briefly reminisced about the different growing conditions in the San Francisco-Bay Area, where we both had lush, beautiful gardens. I remember that I spent a good deal of my time trimming and cutting back; everything was growing so fast that one could easily end up with a colossal jungle. Lisa agreed: “It was quite a learning curve for me, too, making that shift. The climate is completely different. It’s mostly sand here, but we’ve been putting in organic additives over the years, and there are a lot more worms now, and we have many pollinators”. Lisa’s garden is thriving. Djann has a number of other projects he pursues. One of them: he collects pottery, besides throwing pots himself. He has been collecting pieces for over 40 years, and most of them are Japanese, because of his study and practice of Japanese Tea Ceremony. When he lived in the Bay Area he took classes at one of the Zen Centers there. That’s when he learned to appreciate the beauty of the pottery items being used. He’s currently starting to photograph his vast collection. Both he and Lisa have been to Japan several times, that’s where he acquired an eye for good Japanese pottery, Djann told me.  Mayumi Oda print and Djann’s platters. Image credit: Lisa Faithorn. Both Lisa and Djann also collect prints, first and foremost by acclaimed Japanese artist Mayumi Oda. And at this point, I must inject a personal note: my wonder about the serendipitous connections I’ve had with this couple. Lisa Faithorn was a professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), a university in San Francisco where I got my Master’s and completed the course work for a PhD. I took a class about Deep Ecology with her in 1996 which I enjoyed a lot. Beyond that, I had no personal connection with her; imagine my surprise when I met her again at an alumni event in 2006 or so when I discovered that both she and I now lived in or close to Abiquiú! And when Djann mentioned that he collects prints from Mayumi Oda, I remembered that I had met her several times when I lived in Berkeley/CA. She was good friends with the owner of the futon store where I worked, a Japanese expatriate who had gathered around her a small diaspora of similar-minded, strong and independent Japanese women and their spouses. I connected with them because I had met one of them, a woman I knew from Kyoto, walking down the street in Berkeley. What a small world. Back to Lisa and Djann’s collection of Mayumi Oda prints. Djann told me: “I currently have some framed, and we're working with the Zen Center in Santa Fe, the Upaya Zen Center and Roshi Joan Halifax. She's from California and we've known her for a long time. They've got a huge new Zendo there, and so she's going to sell the prints to make money for the Zen Center. So that's another project”. “Over the years, we collected quite a few other prints, some Japanese, some American wood blocks. I've always really liked wood blocks, and I collected a lot of scrolls which I bought in California. I had a delivery company for medical records where I drove all over the Bay Area”. Lisa elaborated: “Djann had a law degree and was with a law firm for a couple of years, but then he realized that he didn't really like the work. So he started a legal courier business, a delivery service for medical records and legal papers. It was before fax machines. So there was a lot of driving around, and that’s how he started this collection, which he calls ‘Found in the West’. All this is the Art part of the Art, Agriculture, and Healing basis of our farm”.  Platters by Djann Hoffman. Image credit: Lisa Faithorn. “I'm so happy to have younger people do the farming now”, Djann continued. “Not only do they have the energy, but they are highly skilled and informed in a way that we never could be, and it's their passion. We've been here almost 18 years now, but the property had been abandoned as a farm for 40 years. It’s good to see it come back to life”. Lisa explained her philosophy to me, as far as the farm is concerned. “I'm an anthropologist and have a PhD in anthropology. After living in Papua, New Guinea with indigenous people and seeing what the Western world was doing to indigeneity, my focus shifted back to the US, social justice and the environmental crisis. So somehow being here in this landscape and providing the way for this farm to thrive and for people to benefit, I hope to counter in some small way the negative forces that have destroyed so much of the planet. My focus was very global for a long time, and living here is a much more local focus; it's satisfying to me to see things come back to life”.  The acequia. Image credit: Jessica Rath. “There are so many young people moving into this area now”, she went on. “We had a wonderful couple live in our casita, they just bought a house. They're in their 30s, they fell in love with this area during the pandemic because they could work remotely. Through them, we’ve met other newcomers, and we noticed that a lot of people moving here are much younger, who are buying farmland and want to farm, not just live there”.
It’s so comforting to know that Lisa and Djann’s vision to have a sustainable farm which supports and attracts growers, artists, and healers is taking shape and blossoming. Thank you for providing us a glimmer of hope when the climate crisis and other realities can overshadow our view of the future.
Abiquiu, NM – The Grand Hacienda Inn on Abiquiu Lake is thrilled to announce that it has been honored with the coveted 2024 Best Craft Lodging Property in the West Region award by Select Registry. The Best Craft Lodging Property Award recognizes properties that exemplify the spirit of independent hospitality and offer guests a truly unique and memorable experience.
This esteemed recognition underscores the property’s unwavering commitment to exceptional hospitality, luxurious accommodations, world-class amenities, exceptional culinary offerings, and impeccable service. "It is an honor to be recognized by Select Registry with this prestigious award," said Carolyn Calfee, owner of The Grand Hacienda Inn. "This recognition underscores our commitment to providing unforgettable guest experiences. We are grateful to our guests for choosing The Grand Hacienda Inn and sharing our passion for this extraordinary destination." “This award is very well deserved and such a testament to the dedication, warmth, and hospitality The Grand Hacienda brings to every guest’s experience,” said Heather Taylor, Director of Marketing for Select Registry. “The hard work and passion from The Grand Hacienda team shine through and this recognition is a true testament to everything they have built and the incredible experiences they create.” Celebrating its fifth season, The Grand Hacienda Inn continues to impress guests and industry experts alike and has become a sought-after destination for discerning travelers. Every detail at The Grand Hacienda Inn whispers of the region's rich culture and history. Authentic adobe architecture seamlessly blends with modern eco-friendly practices, creating a luxurious and sustainable haven. This award is a testament to the hard work and passion of the entire team at The Grand Hacienda Inn. Select Registry is a curated collection of independently owned and operated hotels, inns, and B&Bs across North America. The organization sets the standard for luxury accommodations and personalized service. For over 50 years, Select Registry has set the standard for excellence in personal hospitality at independently owned inns and bed and breakfasts. Today, their craft lodging properties include over 260 boutique properties across the United States. The Grand Hacienda Inn transcends the traditional bed and breakfast experience. This intimate, adults-only retreat perched on a mesa overlooking Abiquiu Lake in northern New Mexico offers unparalleled tranquility. Nestled amidst vibrant red, yellow, and purple cliffs, the inn boasts breathtaking vistas, including the iconic Ghost Ranch. More than just a stay, The Grand Hacienda is an experience and destination in and of itself. www.TheGrandHacienda.com https://selectregistry.com/awards-winners Making forward progress—even while going in circles. By Zach Hively The best part about these shortened days and standard time is that—after eight months otherwise—I remember all over again what it’s like to make dog walks the center of my workday. Which, to be clear, they should be.  Walks inspire my most creative thoughts. My subconscious untangles a great many of my problems on walks, even as the walks reliably tangle my hair. At times, I even remember these solutions. I receive this momentary clarity of vision in was many people report experiencing on mushrooms. And—perhaps of the greatest benefit to my workaday self—I am unreachable by email. This is not even to mention that I become a more pleasant representative of my business (aka myself) for those necessary client and customer interactions. Plus, walks wear out my dogs enough that I can usually make another americano and check Instagram* before they start hounding me to go outside again. *Watching reels on the work Insta account counts as research, okay? I don’t know if I actually do better work during the winter. But I feel like I must. Even if—or maybe because—I do less of it. In the summers (and the springs) (and the falls), walks have to happen as close to eight o’clock as possible. AM or PM, doesn’t matter. With little else to do during the heat of the day, I usually resign myself to going to the lake. But when I’m not at the lake, I’m getting ice cream. But when I’m not doing that because it requires driving somewhere, I work. I work, and when I’m all done working and the world has cooled off just enough for dogs to touch it without booties, we walk. We walk, lest my dog and his pent-up doggishness chew the flesh off my forearm.   Advocates from WildEarth Guardians, New Energy Economy, YUCCA, and Physicians for Social Responsibility held a news conference in support of a proposed statewide ban on “forever chemicals” outside the Roundhouse on Oct. 21, 2024. (Photo by Austin Fisher / Source New Mexico) New Mexico environmental regulators will consider new rules this week that would require companies to disclose what chemicals they use in oil and gas operations, and prohibit them from using so-called “forever chemicals” that can harm human health. The state Oil Conservation Commission will hold a four-day hearing that runs from Tuesday through Friday to consider establishing new rules banning PFAS in oil and gas operations, and mandating full disclosure of the chemicals companies use. The commission will be accepting public comments on the proposed rules. PFAS – which stands for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances – are synthetic chemicals used in everything from industrial processes to household products. They are frequently described as “forever chemicals” since some don’t degrade naturally. One cause of concern linked to PFAS in New Mexico is oil and gas production. The state generates billions of gallons of toxic wastewater from oil and gas drilling and fracking, which the industry calls “produced water.” The U.S. Geological Survey in 2021 found PFAS in water samples from the Pecos River and produced water samples from the Permian Basin. In anticipation of the hearing, climate activist groups on Oct. 21 delivered more than 4,700 public comments which urged Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham to build on her efforts to address PFAS contamination by supporting the proposed rule. PFAS can be harmful in many ways, said Dr. Robert Bernstein, a medical doctor and president of the New Mexico chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility. They can raise cholesterol, disrupt thyroid function, cause liver and kidney problems, reduce the body’s ability to fight infections by interfering with the immune system, increase risk of birth defects, and cause cancer, he said. It is unclear when the commission will decide on the rule. How to participate: The hearing begins at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday in the Pecos Hall Hearing Room in the Wendell Chino Building at 1220 South St. Francis Drive in Santa Fe. It will continue through Friday.
People can virtually attend the hearing via Microsoft Teams by clicking this link. The meeting ID is 266 932 579 58 and the passcode is cGzkrG. People can also dial in by phone by calling 1-505-312-4308, ext. 812829678#. The hearing will be livestreamed on YouTube here. More information about how to make public comment can be found in the hearing notice.  63 computers Update week 4
For me anyway, 63 is a lot. I know I’m down to fewer, with the broken ones. Let’s say 50, and maybe 20 I’m not going to work on because they are a bit older. I have 20 computers that are, in themselves, refurbished. I have 3 laptops and 2 mini computers, and a small form factor computer ready for a new home. A very nice woman from Medanales gave me 10 power cords, which brings me up to 16 which is how many I needed immediately, so that’s great. I found a third monitor in my office, which was good, and I found a couple of mice and keyboards. I still need about 10 more mice & keyboards, and 12 monitors, just for the current batch I’m working on. I’m getting there. If you just need a new computer and already have the keyboard/mouse/monitor, let me know. These are generally 8th generation core i3 computers with 8gb ram, 256gb solid state drives, and not necessarily WiFi, but definitely ethernet. WiFi will be another purchase and I’ll probably start ordering some small USB WiFi adapters. See below for last week's article. After opening all the computers and plugging about half of them in, I’ve been able to recycle some of the broken ones, and segregate the newer/better ones I want to start working on. I have 15 Small Form Factor (SFF) computers that I am buying memory for, plus I have 2 mini-computers and 3 laptops, needing memory and hard drives which I have also purchased. Most of these computers are Core i3/8th generation which will run Windows 11 24H2, which is the latest version. I have installed Windows 11 on all 20 of those computers, and one I have already given away. The mini computers and laptops all need power supplies, for which I bought 3, and another one is on order. I have been given several keyboards, some mice and four monitors! I bought video adapters for the desktop computers as they are almost all Display Ports, which isn’t very common, so they need to convert to HDMI or VGA. After these computers are done, I will consider working on the 8 or so Core i3/7th generation desktops. While a tad older, they are still quite capable and can seemingly run Windows 11 24H2. I had a problem with one 7th generation laptop and redid the OS to version 23H2, so, last year's Windows 11. Still very good. I need standard desktop power cords, keyboards, mice, and monitors, if you can help out. Thank you. Brian (last week's article below) A blessing and a curse By Brian Bondy If you were a fan of Monk, then you might recognize that phrase as something he seemed to say on every show. Last week, someone gave me 63 computers. 52 desktops and 11 laptops. I am actually thrilled, as I like working on computers. That said, none of the computers had memory, and only 15 had hard drives. I am starting with those that have hard drives. I had a couple of sticks of memory that would work well enough for me to test them, and install Windows 11. I also have a monitor and 2 keyboards to test with, so I could sort of do two at a time, by sharing the monitor. I’ll need screens, keyboards, mice for all of them. I ordered some memory, but I’ll need more, and most of them do not have WiFi. So that’s what I’m asking your help with. If you have any USB keyboards, mice, or any monitors that you aren’t needing, please consider me. I’ll also need some desktop and laptop DDR4 memory, if you happen to have any of that laying around. So far I’ve found 6 computers out of the 63 not working, so those will go to recycling. Another 25 or so are older and I may recycle them as well, since there are so many. Another 8 or 10 are good enough to keep, but they don’t have memory or hard drives, so that gets more expensive to re-deploy them, we’ll see. If you can help me out, I’d appreciate it. I’d like to give these away as they are decent computers with some more life in them. Let me know what you have. I’m at bdbondy@gmail.com, or you can text me at 5059013300. Thank you! Brian Note from Carol: Brian has been refurbishing computers and giving them away for sixteen years. Although he stopped keeping track he's given away over 500 computers, almost all in Abiquiu and surrounding communities - giving old a new life and keeping them out of the dump. Computers are always free except if he replaces parts and then there is a nominal fee. His time is all donated. All equipment deemed too old is taken to electronic recycling. By Jessica Rath According to Wikipedia, Abiquiú has a population of 181 people, based on the 2020 Census. Say what? That doesn’t sound correct; when I moved here in 2000 there must have already been many more, and since then I have witnessed a steady stream of new residents. How many people who live here now know what life in Abiquiú was like in the late 1970s, for example? I thought it might be interesting to interview somebody who was born and grew up here, and I asked my friend Lynn Jacquez whether she’d talk to me. I got to know Lynn when I was a volunteer with the Abiquiú Volunteer Fire Department, the only “Anglo”, from 2003 to 2009 if I remember correctly. Lynn was always kind and supportive, which helped a lot once I learned that most of the calls for AVFD involved traffic accidents, rather than fires.  Lynn and her husband Arnold Jacquez. Image credit: Lynn Jacquez Lynn’s grandmother Angelina is a native of Abiquiu. Her grandfather's father came from Gallina and his mother was from Rio Puerco. They moved to Abiquiú in the early 1900s, and they had several children including her grandfather, Procopio Maestas who married Angelina Garcia. They had three daughters, Madgie, Mabel and Dulcinia (Dutsie). Lynn is Mabel's daughter, but she was raised and adopted by her grandparents, Procopio and Angelina. She has two brothers, Procopio and Antonio (who passed in 2019), she is married to Arnold Jacquez and has two daughters, Angelina and Mikeala, and four grandchildren: Jason, Unica, Jasiah and Natalia. Her upbringing was a bit different from the way the other kids her age were raised, it was more like children who were brought up in the old days, she told me. She lived with her grandparents from the time of her birth until they passed away in 1999.  Lynn and her family at a Pumpkin Patch. Image credit: Lynn Jacquez Lynn went through a dreadful experience when she was a young child: “In 1978, I believe it was November, our house caught fire. I was seven years old. I don't remember too much about that, other than the trauma of the house burning. I could see the smoke from the school because at that time the elementary school was just behind Bode’s house in the Pueblo. I could see the smoke. And one of my friends, Demetro, told me to look out the window because my house was on fire. I could see the smoke, and I was really scared, because I thought my parents were home. So I ran home, and a teacher’s aide followed me. I'll never forget her name: it was Helen Suazo. When we both got there, sure enough, the house was fully engulfed. I was crying for my parents. I didn't know where they were until somebody told me that my parents had gone for wood, so they were not home. Being seven years old, I didn't know what was going on!” Can you imagine the sheer agony the little child must have felt. Her whole world, everything that kept her safe and that she loved, symbolized by her parents, was violently ripped from her for a few moments. It must have felt like eternity. What a relief it was when she heard her parents were safe. I bet she didn’t care much about the house and all the stuff they lost as long as her parents were with her. Lynn continued: “At that point, we didn't have a fire department here in Abiquiu, and by the time the Espanola Fire Department came, the house was burnt to the ground, along with all our possessions and everything we owned.” “We were a very tight community back then, and if I remember correctly, my parents rebuilt their house in about six months. They own land near the river by Bode’s, and my father wanted to build down there, because they were having to deal with all the rubble and everything that was burned. But my Mom did not want to. She wanted to live where she had lived since they got married in 1945. I think they bought that place probably in 1946, shortly after they were married. The community came together and helped clear out the area and help build the house again”.  Firefighters Lynn and Arnold with their two daughters at an event for AVFD. Image credit: Jessica Rath And that was the beginning of the Abiquiu Volunteer Fire Department. Espanola was just too far away for an emergency like that. With donations from local residents including the late Georgia O'Keeffe, the first Abiquiu fire fighters under Chief Juan Lopez bought a Mac fire truck and built the old station in the village on land loaned from the Abiquiu Land Grant. One year later, the substation in Medanales was constructed.  At an event for AVFD in 2004. Image credit: Jessica Rath Lynn continued: “My parents were elderly, so Dutsie, Mabel, Madgie, and I took care of them until they died in 1999. My Dad died on March 20th of 1999 and my Mom on July 21st of 1999. My Mom died at home, and I was devastated, because there was nothing I could do; I didn't know what to do because I had no medical knowledge at the time. So in 2000 I joined the Fire Department, first as a firefighter, and then a year later, I became an EMT. I felt that that was a way of making up for not being able to help my Mom”. Lynn was a fabulous EMT. I often saw her in action at one of the frequent motor vehicle accidents or some other medical emergency. She quickly took charge and eased people’s pain until the ambulance arrived. It was no surprise that she decided to go to nursing school. She enrolled in 2009 and quit the fire department in 2011 because she was working full time, going to school full time, and had her children and family to take care of. When she graduated from nursing school she became an RN and has worked many jobs since then, as a home health registered nurse, and as the Director of Nursing at a nursing home. She’s currently working as a hospice nurse. Lynn specified: “As hospice nurses, we care for patients in the comfort of their homes. Hospice care focuses on quality of life, dignity, pain and symptom management for those who no longer are receiving curative treatment. As a hospice nurse my responsibility is to provide symptom management, emotional support, provide education, coordinate care and advocate for my patients”. “The frequency of nursing visits depends on the acuity of the patient, and visits range from one day or two days per week to daily visits. It's a very rewarding job, because you're not only providing comfort and supportive care to the patient, but their families as well. I currently work for Del Corazon Hospice in Santa Fe. The staff at Del Corazon are a caring and supportive team of nurses, physicians, nurse practitioners, social workers, chaplains, hospice aides and volunteers. We support each other and we support our patients”.  Granddaughter Natalia. Image credit: Lynn Jacquez. I asked Lynn about her childhood in Abiquiú – what was it like to grow up in the village? “Oh, it was great back then”, I learned. “You didn't have to lock your doors. You didn't have to worry about anybody. We would go out trick-or-treating, we would walk everywhere we wanted to. These days, you gotta drive your kids trick-or-treating and everywhere else. It was a very tight-knit, family oriented community back then; everyone knew you and you knew everyone, and everyone helped each other out. It was beautiful”. When I moved to Abiquiú in 2000, from Berkeley, California, I remember that my neighbor, the potter Dick Lumaghi, left the car keys in his car. I had never heard of anything like that, coming from a big city. I must have experienced the last remnants of that carefree time, and I asked Lynn about it. “Yes, you used to be able to leave your car keys in the car”, she confirmed. “You left your car unlocked and your door unlocked. My parents always left the doors open and unlocked. People came to your house, they knocked and walked in, there was no fear back then”.  Lynn and her daughter Mikeala (Mikie). Image credit: Lynn Jacquez. I wanted to learn more about Lynn’s upbringing. “You said you were raised by your grandparents, and that it was a bit different from other kids. Were they more strict, or were they more old fashioned, and in what sense?” I asked. “Well, you worked. You got up early in the morning, you made your bed, you went to school, when you came back from school there was always something to do”, Lynn told me. “My parents always had a garden, so in the spring and summer time that's what we were out there doing. My Dad (Grandpa) never had boys. He had three daughters, who were out there helping him with the cattle, ranch, and garden. As they had children, it was up to us, the grandchildren, to help as well.” “Were there any stores up here in the village?” I wanted to know. “When I was growing up, there was Bode’s Mercantile and the bar. My parents owned the bar that was next to the church. I remember sitting behind the bar all the time. I remember being small enough that I could sit on top of the bar, on the counter. There were many memorable moments but the one that is unforgettable was a gentleman, his nickname was Sarge, he was one of the regulars. He had false teeth, and as soon as he'd walk in the door and see me he'd push his teeth out with his tongue. I thought it was the neatest thing at that age, I might have been four or five years old, I'd sit there for hours trying to pull my teeth out, because I thought it was the greatest thing ever, and I wanted to do the same”. I had a good laugh, imagining little Lynn trying to wiggle her front teeth.  Lynn with her granddaughter Unica. Image credit: Lynn Jacquez. “There was a lady who lived across from the bar, she used to make the best tamales. My Mom would give me money, and I'd run across to her house and buy tamales all the time. I think she sold them for 25 cents or 50 cents a tamale. They were the best”, Lynn remembered. Do people still make them, I wanted to know. “I do”, Lynn confirmed. “I make them once in a while, around Christmas time. And I make empanadas, also. My Mom used to make tamales and empanadas for the holidays. I hadn't made tamales in years, until this past Christmas when I made both tamales and empanadas, just the way my Mom used to make them. We make them with beef, not tongue as a lot of people do”. Next, Lynn told me about her knowledge of plants and herbs which she had inherited from her elders. “When I was a kid we used to pick our own herbs, and we used to pick guaco. I don't know if you've ever heard of guaco, it is like spinach. It grows tall, has thin, long leaves, and when it matures, it gets a pink flower at the top. Native Americans used the plant and flower for dying their wool, but we would pick it before it flowered, and my Mom would cook it with fiero (iron) bolts that my dad had brought her. The purpose of the iron is to neutralize the bitterness. Guaco has a very bitter taste, but if you cook it with iron” – I had to interrupt her. “Hold it – you mean real iron bolts? I thought you were talking about some vegetable?” “No, no, real iron bolts. You boil it with the iron in the pot and it neutralizes the bitterness, it tastes really good”. I had no idea!  Verdolaga. Image credit: Salud y Cuidado “And we used to pick verdolagas – purslane? It's a little plant with little tiny leaves, it grows everywhere, and we would also pick quelites, that's wild spinach. I haven't seen quelita in many, many years, but there's still guaco, and there’s still verdolagas”.  Quelites. Image credit: blog.xcaret.com. “Up in Vallecito – back here in our Vallecito – we also picked oregano. And we would pick yerba del manso in Barranca, that's an herb for stomach issues, cough and colds, and mucous production. These are the things that my Mom grew up doing, and she passed it on to us. I still pick herbs, I still pick cota, or Indian tea, it grows all along Hwy 84 and 96. It's good for the bladder”. Lynn explained that the children would learn this from their elders. They learned that all these herbs and plants are useful, they learned what to do with them and what they were for. What a wonderful tradition. “We also picked poleo and yerba buena, peppermint and spearmint. We got the poleo in Youngsville at my aunt and uncle's house, and also yerba buena. When you were not feeling well or when you had a cold, you drank all these herb teas to get better”, Lynn went on. “Some other herbs we collected were manzanilla (chamomile) and alucema (lavender). My Mom used to give that to the babies when they had colic, and that's what I do with my kids and with the grandkids. We make teas for fevers. Arnold taught me to use coffee and salt for fever. You rub the warm coffee with lots of salt on the person, it helps to break the fever quickly”.  Granddaughter Unica and grandson Jason. Image credit: Lynn Jacquez. Lots of things have changed since Lynn was a kid. People don’t leave the keys in their cars any more; newer cars don’t even HAVE keys. But it’s good to know that the tradition of gathering herbs for teas and wild greens for salads is still alive. Young people don’t learn things like that at school, but I want to believe that knowing about plants and their benefits form an important counterpoint to our increasingly technology-driven culture.
Thank you, Lynn, for taking the time to talk to me! It was a lovely afternoon.  Please contact your state legislators and Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham to voice your support for adding $30 million to the New Mexico Rural Library Endowment.. Contact List attached.
Citizens without running water can fill their jugs at their local libraries in Capitan and Dixon. Students with no internet at home went to school at their library in Vallecitos during the pandemic shutdown. Villagers celebrate the lives of those who have died at libraries like the one in El Rito. But despite these and other services rural libraries provide to sustain their towns, most struggle to have sufficient funds to keep their doors open and pay their employees. The New Mexico Rural Library Initiative advocates for a statewide endowment of $60 million dollars, $1 million for each of 58+ eligible rural libraries, more than half of the 98 public libraries recognized by the New Mexico State Library. Over half of the rural libraries in the state are run by only one paid employee or volunteers. Many need repairs, technology, employees, and more. Many library directors are paid minimum wage or slightly above it. New Mexico’s rural libraries are state treasures. Most were established by grassroots efforts of local citizens. They provide invaluable cultural, educational and economic development resources. Unfortunately, most have no dependable operational support. In New Mexico, libraries are traditionally funded by municipal gross receipts taxes. Many rural towns are unincorporated. Their non-profit public libraries have no access to municipal funds. Other towns have only a small commercial sector with insufficient tax revenue to provide local services. Consequently, rural libraries struggle to stay open. The endowment would provide each of 58 community and pueblo libraries with about $45,000 per year depending on earnings of the fund. Additionally, grant funds will be available for the establishment and support of new libraries in small communities that don't already have one. It will also fund specialized services to rural libraries though the New Mexico State Library. The Endowment was created by the state legislature in 2019 and signed by Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham. It currently has $30 million, which could provide about $23,000 per library per year. We are requesting the New Mexico Legislature appropriate an additional $30 million. This would sustain these libraries in perpetuity. # # # A poem for all times, not just today. By Zach Hively Nov 7 I’d be lying if I said I was happy with the state of the world right now. I might truck in hyperbole, but never (I hope) in untruths. It’s not as if my team just lost the Super Bowl. It’s that I don’t trust that we’re all playing by the same rules. And that gets dangerous when the rules are such things as Are people people? Today is a day for a poem. All days are, really. But this is a day for this poem. The anger churning me as I write should actually be part of my every day; maybe it will be, now. Maybe this anger will grant me the clarity I need to work for what I think matters in this world.  Stardust, Collected
I’m one of the lucky ones. I have too much going my way to ever despair completely. For there are always dogs in the world, and sunsets, and good people when you bother to look for them. But they don’t not a one of them stop the anger from raging —nor should they. For there are those who think themselves to be the only people who are people while the rest of us, those I love who might be more obviously otherable than I am, are things to be ignored until useful. Joke’s on those fools-- we are not going anywhere —not a one of us. Just as even when a star ends its life the atoms don’t die, so too will we persist in raging and loving and delighting in dogs and sunsets and each other, even when we seem tattered and torn-- maybe especially then. |
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