Considering moving to Santa Fe: Advice? (Rio Rancho, Las Vegas: jobs, health, house)

[Dancingearth]

Originally Posted by Lovehound

Don't remember that I remember that far back.

I just cut 'n pasted Bandelier from your post. Looks like the same area.I can't focus on this. Didn't we say the same thing? Do you not have any respect for almost-senior citizens? I go take a nappy now.

Any Santa Fe soapers out there? I'm about to try making my own soap...

LOL you got me--no clue! Isn't communication a kick? I know I have no sense of direction but the place I was at didn't feel connected to Bandelier -- I came up from I-25.

My daughter made soap--looked like fun but she lives in PA--I enjoyed using it. She also made paper from things she collected from nature (need any more ideas?) I want to go to Spanish Colonial days this week and learn to use natural dyes on wool and watch them shear the sheep and card and spin wool. Work really gets in the way. Hey watch who you're calling a senior citizen (almost)! Isn't that 80 now? Now you can take your nappy while I look at a map. If I find it, I'll scan it.

[Lovehound]

Jeez, you're getting my number. I was reading about making your own paper and got sorta interested. I don't know that I've ever seen any hobby or handicraft that didn't look fun and interesting.

DE, don't you understand that senior citizens get DISCOUNTS? As far as I'm concerned you're a senior citizen when you reach 62. I'm not there yet but I'm headed that way.

Santa Fe neither needs nor wants electronic engineers. I'll be an amateur artist and artisan when I get there, and an amateur chef too. I bet there's organized groups you can get into, where you cook for the group, and then other weeks you visit them and they cook for you.

I expect life will be fun when you don't need to turn a profit. More fun than now at least. In suburban Los Angeles...

[Dancingearth]

Lovehound,
I looked on a map and I never realized Tent Rocks was so close to Bandelier. As I suspected, the site isn't on the maps I have (I don't think it's in Bandelier National Park--it was part of the same group of people that built the ruins in Bandelier--does that make more sense?) It might be on pueblo land. What I was really getting at is that there are all kinds of ruins in New Mexico that aren't readily known because you have to really search them out or know someone who knows where they are. I like that.

A friend took me to the top of a mesa near Los Alamos where there were pot shards everywhere. They don't advertise it because the shards would be gone. There is so much here that they can't protect it. It was fun looking at them and putting them back--I liked touching a piece of a pot someone once made and used for storage or to cook dinner for their family. I wondered what the decoration meant to the potter. Another friend whose family owned land on Rowe mesa for about 200 hundred years showed me Civil War artifacts, arrowheads, and petroglyphs he had found.

I have felt history here as a living presence unlike in the east where it is mostly buried under asphalt and preserved in artificial ways. It is a place for endless exploration especially if you have a four wheel drive vehicle.

It's funny, I never think of myself as a senior citizen but I don't have any hesitation with saying I'm old--I figured a half century is pretty impressive sounding and people should get over their hangups about being old. Mostly I don't think of it until something aches. You must be missing out because I started getting (some) discounts starting at 50 Now that I turned 55 if I want I can get into 55+ communities. It's the new ego trip--show your license to make sure you're the right age. Whooeee.

[ziaAirmac]

I appreciate the compliments. New Mexico is an easy state to photograph! I'm not surprised Lovehound and Dancingearth have been to Chaco. I agree about the camping. My wife and I would lay with our heads outside the tent at night to stare at the amazing night skies. Between the altitude (minimizing the atmosphere's distortion) and the isolation from the light blooms of Santa Fe, Albuquerque, etc. the starscapes are breathtaking. We'd taunt each other with the latest shooting star sighting until the cry of the coyotes would send us retreating behind the imagined safety of a zippered piece of ripstop nylon. She retreating out of her silly fears and I with protective stoicism and bravado superbly masking my want to beat her to the safety of the sleeping bags. I can only hope my daughters will be campers. You never know, and it's nothing you can force on them.

As for advice on moving to Santa Fe, consider some of the great cultural events you can take in at places like the aforementioned Ranch of the Swallows (just trying to keep it legal, folks )

Xeric gardens around the volunteers house:


Volunteers in Spanish Colonial dress:


Near the Baca house:


The Royal Court visits from Santa Fe:


Volunteers show some local treats:


The old turret:


Young dancers:


The horses of Golondrinas:


Rendezvous (Note the teepees among the western tents)


antlers and spire:

[ziaAirmac]

Originally Posted by Dancingearth

....It's the new ego trip--show your license to make sure you're the right age. Whooeee.

Easy there, you're having way too much fun!

It always cracks me up when the teenaged clerk checks my license when I'm buying a can of spray paint. I want to tell them I'm having a hard enough time keeping my life together sober. Huffing paint would be like letting go of the steering wheel in the last turn at the Indy 500. Balanced all that way just to end up in flames in the bleachers.

[Dancingearth]

Ohh....I'm at work and want to be there. Could I use some of these as screensavers at my job? Then I could imagine I am there. I know the woman in the photo. I'm working with her on the Spanish Renaissance Faire in September.

Your description of camping reminded me of times I have been afraid--mostly when I hear a bear outside and realize how flimsy that nylon is. In campgrounds in PA they come into campgrounds and rummage thru dumpsters and campsites.

I started camping with my children when they were six months old--they're grownups now and they still love the outdoors and camping. Not sure why I love camping since I never did it as a kid but my love of being outside got me to do it with my children. Since my divorce my camping is primarily at the fur trade re-enactments since I don't especially like doing it alone. I confess I do tie all the door ties on my canvas French bell wedge tent in hopes snakes or mice won't crawl into bed with me. So far, it's worked

[ziaAirmac]

I hear you. I'm all for enjoying nature without all the big equipment, but come bedtime I prefer my spot at the top of the food chain to be untested.

[Lovehound]

DE and Airmac I enjoyed reading your posts. This is a fun topic although I'm not claiming any particular credit just because I started it. It's kind of turning into a sort of magazine and I like it!

DE, you'll find Native American cultural and architectural remains all over NM, AZ, UT and CO. The national and state parks and monuments are just the more popular ones, and I'm sure you know this. (I'm addressing the folks who may be reading but not posting in thread.) I've stumbled on a few of my own discoveries although I'm sure they are no big secret. It's rather nice to sit in your own (for a while) kiva and know that nobody will come along and bother you. I've never seen shards in the wild. I do have a super-fantastic arrowhead collection, collected in my youth in the Eastern Sierra mountains in CA, and maybe my collection (and the western movies) was the beginning of my being seduced by the four corners states. I just love this "Indian" stuff!!! In fact from what I've seen (I could be wrong) NM has a greater "Indian" presence than AZ, and I like that presence, seeing the Native Americans selling their jewelry, rugs and pottery, seeing the architectural remains of the ancients, seeing (at least what I perceive as) the ancient influence on present day Pueblo building. Yes I know that's more a Mexican or Spanish influence, but it appears to me that they were influenced by the older native architecture. Heck, I could be wrong, but I like what I see and that's what matters to me. For sure if I move to S.F. I'm not going for the modern, ranch style homes. Count me out if it doesn't have the flat roof and vigas etc.

If I move to S.F. the first thing I'm gonna do is dump my California license plates, and the second thing is that I'm going to start telling people I've lived in NM my whole life! I'll become a naturalized native!

Airmac, I think your daughters will become campers if you take them camping often and do it every year until they become adults and move out. (Hope it's not too late for that.) That's how I became interested in camping, because my parents took me camping 3 weeks every summer from age about 6-7, in the aforementioned Eastern Sierras. My summers (3 one week trips) were full of camping and fishing and exploring and hiking and horse back riding. I got hooked! Later as an adult I had trouble interesting friends in going camping, so I finally said heck with it and went alone, to the Grand Canyon, to Monument Valley, to Mesa Verde, to Arches and Bryce and Zion, and had the best time of my life! (Chaco Canyon came later.) I had been worried that I would be too lonesome by myself and might have to come back early, but it ended up I spent almost three weeks on that trip! Since then I've fallen in love with all the four corners states, and that's why I want to live in one of them.

I'd rather not be getting older but the alternatives are worse. One thing I'm looking forward to, in several months I'll be 62 and eligible for the America the Beautiful Senior Pass, good for free admission in all national parks and 50 percent discount on camping! It's good for life and costs only $10!!! I'm gonna get that my very first national park visit after my birthday. Under 62 an annual pass costs $80, and one time visits to parks are $20, $30, maybe more. The Senior Pass is an incredible deal!

By the way, I carry a folding cot on my camping trips, pitch my tent, then put the cot inside and sleeping bag on top. It's far more comfortable and I never worry about having the critters join me in bed.

[Towanda]

Lovehound,

I was going to post that information on the National Parks Senior Pass, but I see you have already done it.

We were at Bandelier in February, and we inquired about getting the passes, but I still had two months to go to my 62nd birthday. I'm there now, so when we get to NM we will get our passes! It's an awesome deal.

[Dancingearth]

Lovehouse--Another reason for Santa Fe is the art walks on Friday night. If you like looking (sorry—too lazy to post it under artist towns where you said “….it's fun to look at art even if you aren't buying it.”) Not only are the walks up Canyon Road fun for looking at art but also a great people watching and listening place.

Yes, I want my own personal kiva. Now you are sounding like a water sign. Birthday in a few months…Cancer? My son dug up some arrowheads in PA – we lived along a trail to the jasper mines. We found out there was a trail going through the woods by our house when we took the arrowheads to a museum to ask what they were. He always liked digging outside and finding things.

I want to make my house that I designed in a clay model. I really like territorial style with the red metal roof and front porch going across the entire front of the house. When people ask me where I'm from I typically answer “I was born in Michigan and now I’m from here.”

I am seriously jealous of you 62 yr olds—senior pass for free admission to the National Parks. Which reminds me of another thing I like about Santa Fe. Because it is a tourist town, there are a lot of free things to do and volunteer activities to get things free—great for retirees.

[“By the way, I carry a folding cot on my camping trips, pitch my tent, then put the cot inside and sleeping bag on top. It's far more comfortable and I never worry about having the critters join me in bed.” ]

I’ve heard that mice and snakes can climb When I needed a new bed I commissioned a carpenter friend to make me a medieval Norwegian bed that would come apart thinking I could use it at home and take it to rendezvous to get me off the ground but it’s too heavy. I have a thick foam pad for camping that my son use to complain about taking because it’s bulky (and my eight wool blankets and sleeping bag I told him it’s important that I can sleep or I won’t want to go and I never heard another word. I would like to find a cot but so far haven’t found one that I find comfortable—I like being able to turn over and move around – that U shape is annoying. I’ve heard they’ve improved so I’ll have to look before going in June.

Towanda - when do you move here permanently? Isn't it soon? I think all us CD'ers need to meet on Canyon Road and do the art walk one of these Friday nights.

Lunchtime--going to walk to the studio and see if any new pieces have come out of the kiln.