Lucy Ann and Jack's place is their new house in the rocky mountains at Red River New Mexico. I visited them for six days during the last week of September, 2001. I arrived about 2:30 on Monday, September 24 after completing the long drive from South Texas in about 16 hours driving time over a two day period. A total of 801 miles had registered on my trip odometer. In the title picture above the house is pictured against its backdrop of dark green fir foliage and aspen in the process of transformation from the light green of summer to the golden hues of fall
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The second pictures shows the house from the other direction looking down the valley. Jack and Lucy Ann are on the front elevated deck. The first enlargement is a larger version of this picture. The second option is a second picture giving a closer view of the house and its owners One night while I was there Jack woke up about 12:30 AM to notice the outside lights had been turned on by the motion switch. He got up to investigate and saw four or five female elk grazing on the front lawn. He woke me to see the site and I saw them too calmly grazing on the grass, Jack walked to the other side of the house . "Come see this one," he said, I barely made out his words. It was a full grown male elk with a magnificent set of horns. It was quite a site, perhaps more impressive than the flock of 100 wild turkeys that I saw in the pasture immediately behind my SouthTexas house one Saturday morning last January. |
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Lucy Ann and Jack finished much of the interior of the house
themselves. Here Jack is putting the final touches on the bookcase
section that when raised to position will rail the stair wells
leading down to the garage and up to the bed rooms above. The house
includes the main floor with living and dining area, kitchen and one
bedroom and bath. Up stairs are two bed rooms and a bath
room. The down stairs provides space for the garage, storage and a
workshop.
Being from South Texas, it seemed strange to me that there was no air conditioning for summer cooling. At 9,000 feet elevation it is unnecessary. When I was there the last week in September there was a thick coating of morning ice on the Windshields of car parked outside. The principal heat source in the winter is a wood burning stove. |
