Good morning.
We had some Kossak visitors to the high desert caravansary yesterday morning, Land of Enchantment and jnhobbs passed through trying to beat the storm that never actually materialized on our side of the mountain. With dog.
hobbs is regaining his mobility after hip replacement surgery and doing pretty well. I took them across the pasture and down to the river, walking the path of the short-cut on the old Santa Fe trail that we think ran right down our driveway and down the river a half-mile to a rocky ford, where remains of the trail coming down the east bank of the canyon can be detected.
If you were in a big hurry, and your wagon wasn't too heavily laden, this short-cut would probably have saved a day or two getting to Santa Fe, another 80 miles west, over 150 years ago.
I've known fellow NM Kossak Land of Enchantment for years, but it was a real pleasure to meet Kossak jnhobbs, who is a serious professional country western musician and a big friendly bear of a guy. He worked at it a bit, but he was up to navigating the path to the river and even joined me in the requisite ritual skipping of the gravel ceremony wherein country men relive boyhoods in which they bounced rocks across the water of a river or lake. hobbs is determined to exercise that hip back to full mobility, and he has the good ole boy grit and determination to do it. Next time he comes by he'll be ready for the hike up into the canyon to see the acequia diversion dam.
The adobe repair job is a small piece of work trailing along behind it a baggage train of paperwork and protocols. The good news is that the State will let us do the repair without having to bring the whole old dump into full compliance with modern codes. The bad news is it will take some time to line up all the ducks. But it feels good to be back in the saddle, and there is another potential job shaping up as well.
This exercise is an example of how bureaucracy and paperwork combine to complicate a simple job and triple its cost. Even in a State that cherishes its old adobes and the traditional villages and does what it can to help them survive. While not officially on the Historic Register, this old building was the tavern and dance hall for this tiny village nestled against the east face of the Manzano Range east of Albuquerque.
Show time. What are you working on this week?