Yesterday during the solar eclipse, Gina, Mike and Noah took a hike up to Tome Hill. The goal was to get a few great photos of the eclipse, but instead Gina was able to get a few great photos of our amazing village.

One of the things I love most about Los Lunas is the fact that we can travel five minutes and be in town (we live in an agricultural part of the village) or five minutes in a different direction and be absolutely taken back by the sweeping mesa.

In the photo above, she was able to capture both…side by side. Amazing right? No, nothing was done to the photo to make it look like complete opposites…that’s just how the village is. 🙂

Before we moved to New Mexico a few short years ago, I can still remember telling Dom that if we do move there, I can’t live out on a mesa…that I need trees and green things around. I was NOT fond of moving out to the high desert, nor did I ever appreciate the breathtaking mesas, simply because they were “brown.”

I had no desire to live here, and my final compromise with myself in order to make coming to New Mexico something that I would be able to stomach, I said to Dom, “I want to live in a place where if I turn around I see green trees, plants and grass, and when I turn again, I see the the hills, mountains and typical desert scene.” Yes, I was THAT removed from the beauty of New Mexico at the time. I had never been to this great state, so all I had was prejudice since it wasn’t Maryland, Michigan or New Jersey.

Isn’t it amazing…the power of spoken words? A simple statement said out loud can determine the outcome of a situation.

Even more stunning is the fact that on our property, if we look east, all we see is hills and brown, but if we look west, all we see are trees as the sun is painting a masterpiece in the sky as it sets.

It didn’t take long after moving out to New Mexico to finally make the decision that we were lifers here. We didn’t have a permanent home at that time, but still, we knew we could live nowhere else in the world. This is our hometown now…the place where we witness the awesome different life forms that live out here. Trees that strive to grow tall, plants that yearn to stretch and fight for a permanent position in our garden, weeds that are vibrant, long lasting, and full of gumption.

Masanobu Fukuoka once said that if anything green grows in what looks like dead soil or sand, its not dead. If something green pops up, you can grow anything there. Of course I’m paraphrasing his words, but its true. I can’t tell you how green our property is with weeds. Everything grows here if you stick a seed in the ground. Really the only thing needed is water.

We’re about to test Fukuoka’s wisdom by planting out a totally experimental garden. We will not be using any compost, special amendments (other than duck poop water) or other fancy garden techniques. It will be only using water, duck poop water and sun and fingers crossed. LOL Actually, it was John Seymour that said that in the desert, all that is really needed is good aged manure watered regularly into our sandy loam, and POOF! we’ve got a garden. Okay, so he didn’t say POOF! in his book, but you get my point right?

Out here in the high desert, the most critical thing needed in the garden (next to water), is some sort of mulch to keep the moisture in.

On a funny note, this solar eclipse is one that I will never forget. Okay, this is what happened:

Dom went outside to see how amazing the eclipse was. Our neighbor next door had a welding mask so that we could safely view the eclipse. Dom went over to the edge of our property to meet our neighbors, and I stood there speechless by the brightness of the sun as I tried not to look at the sun. Anyway, Dom came back and sent me over to view it. The sun was peeking out through some trees at the time, but I had a clear shot to see it. I looked through the mask, and kept weaving around since it looked like something was in the way. Michelle said, “Can you see it clearly or is the tree in the way?” I said, “No…the tree isn’t in the way, but I can’t see the sun.” AHAHAHAH! At that moment I realized that I was looking at the eclipse, and the both of us start laughing at the stupidity of my statement. I’m laughing as I write this. How amusing…right?

Here are few more captured moments up on Tome Hill:

At this time last year:

Click the photo below to be taken to last year’s post on this date, “I Love My Life, How About You?” The photo below is of the first swale and berm. In the swale, we planted large dead trees, filled the hole with water and buried the trees. This area holds a lot of water. The berm is now planted with Western Soapberry trees.