The Spider Web Maker

Look closely; you will see one of the Orb Spiders that make beautiful and huge orb-shaped spider webs at the corners of my portal.  This guy is about as big as a nickel. It will run away the moment it senses your presence. These webs are a site to behold when the early morning dew is sparkling on them.

Gail McGough-Maduena, Associate Broker

Air Quality -- Santa Fe, Albuquerque and Placitas

The annual “State of the Air” report published by MSNBC this week on the best and worst places to live in terms of air quality, stated that both Santa Fe and Albuquerque were among the top 25 cleanest U.S.  cities for long-term particle pollution.  In fact, Santa Fe was second best in the nation and Albuquerque placed 17^th.  Since Placitas is in between and a bit higher in elevation than Albuquerque, we don’t get the pollution they get when there is an air inversion.  And according to the American Lung Association, Sandoval County, which includes Placitas got an A rating for air quality.  So I surmise from all this that Placitas is among the top communities in America with excellent air quality, which makes it a terrific place to live.  We who are here already knew that but it’s wonderful to be verified nationally!

Sandy Poling, Associate Broker

The Yucca - New Mexico's State Flower

This Yucca is now blooming in our front yard; the birds love to nest in this yucca. The yucca was adopted as the State Flower of New Mexico on March 14, 1927. The yucca is a member of the lily family and a symbol of sturdiness as well as beauty. In the early summer, pale ivory flowers bloom at the tips of its long, fibrous stalks. At the base of the plant are broad, sharp-edged leaves that look like stilettos. The yucca sometimes grows to the height of a small tree.

Randall Phillips, Associate Broker

My First Home in New Mexico

In April of 1971, as a college sophomore on spring break from Indiana University, I visited New Mexico. It was love at first sight, even though I was raised in southern Indiana on the Ohio River where it is very humid and lush. I found the dry climate, unending views and daily sunshine very liberating. Upon returning, I immediately applied to the University of New Mexico. I was accepted and the rest, as they say, is history.

By that August, I had started school, stumbled across Placitas and the cooperative community called Tawapa. It was such a unique place then with five families who had built their own houses, while trying to live self-sufficiently off the land. After going to the community dinners a few times and hanging out by the stream, swimming in the pond and enjoying the shade of the cottonwoods, I knew that little valley was for me.

I was invited to join the group and build my own place. Since I was totally inexperienced in construction, I took some friendly advice to build a dug-out house. This sounded good, not because it entailed a lot of back-breaking digging, but it required very little carpentry or masonry knowledge. With two buddies who volunteered their labor and my wonder dog, Herbie helping with the digging, we picked and shoveled a big hole in the side of a hill next to the stream.

Porter, left, one of two brothers, Bruce or

Barry Haas from Indiana, "Herbie", center front

Once the hole was dug, we made trip after trip in my VW bus to pick up free ten-foot-long `end cuts’ from the Bernalillo sawmill. These were the left-over pieces from the cut trees that had three square sides and a jagged outer edge. The plan was to construct a big wooden box outside of the hole using some donated four-by-four-inch beams, upright, with the `end cuts’ nailed on the outside and inside. This created four inches of space to back fill with the dirt from the hole. The result was a type of rammed-earth house that was energy efficient for the desert climate.

I then bought four vigas, a window, a door and some hardware and got help installing those. Then we hauled the rest of the dirt from the hole onto the roof, and `presto’ I had a completed shell. We salvaged a fifty-five gallon oil drum to make a wood stove, threw some straw on the floor and hung some lanterns. Water was from the spring, the bathroom was behind the third bush from the left and before I knew it, I had a house for under 300 bucks. Soon, friends were dropping by to play the drums and I had my first home in New Mexico!

My Dug-Out Home, Carolyn from Wisconsin (I think!)

Porter Dees, Associate Broker

Chamisa and the Monarch Butterfly

I sit at my sunny desk and watch through my window at what looks to be Monarch butterflies (It could be the North American Viceroy, I suppose, but I don’t choose to think so) flitting here and there landing on the chamisa which is glowing in the sunlight, still beautifully golden—this clump not yet having reached the silvery going-to-seed stage. It’s such a lovely sight, and I saw the same phenomenon yesterday when I stopped to talk with the pinon wood salesman stationed between a bank of blossoming and gently blowing chamisa. Yes, I did buy wood as it is getting to be time for nightly fires in the kiva fireplace. It’s a treat to watch the fire while cooking and a cozy and warm atmosphere for eating dinner—celebrating the sunset and the end of another day on the high desert in New Mexico. ~ Lucy Noyes, CRS, CRB, Associate Broker