Life in Chimayo!

Hello! An update for the curious!
On Tuesday morning, March 29, I departed Boulder, my home of over 4 months, after a filling short stack (okay short is an exaggeration, they were huge) of pancakes from the Village Coffee Shop courtesy of my p-diddy Seth (who also sent me on my way with a magnificent bag of Whole Foods goodies that I will be stretching through as long as possible). Chimayo is in Northern central New Mexico, between Taos and Santa Fe (about 35 miles north of Santa Fe). I took 25 down south to the High Road to Taos, on south to Chimayo.

I am working at El Rincon Farm with the Trujillo family. This farm has been in their family for hundreds of years, but only recently have they reacquired and begun organic farming some of what they own (about 3 of 20-some acres). Their most special product is the Chimayo Chile, a green chile that's one of the best ever. Literally. I'm not much of a spicy person (low tolerance), but these peppers are grand. They use heirloom seeds that go back to when the Spanish conquistadors came up from Mexico, that haven't been cross-breeded, and produce a medium, to medium-hot chile. Such good flavor, I eat it on everything. So they harvest them, roast them, and freeze them in 1lb bags to sell at the Santa Fe Farmer's Market (we went today-which is why I know the spiel). And yes, they ship them.

So anyway, the Trujillos are wonderful, and then there's Mario and his wife and kids and brother-in-law Ramon who are wonderful and are from Mexico so I've been practicing my Spanish (it's a shame I cheated so much in high school--why didn't they tell me that someday I'd be working on a farm with two Mexicans with little knowledge of English??) Kids, eat your green chiles and practice your foreign languages, it's practical, really.

A little about Chimayo, it's a really interesting area. There are a good amount of neighbors, and we're on a dirt road off one of the main roads in the valley. The roads are all one-way, dirt roads, named in Spanish. There are tons of Chihuahuas (don't ask me why, but one was tragically run-over yesterday), Magpies, random dogs without collars (including our own, Whiskey) and old broken down cars in peoples yards. My phone's always dead or out of service (or broken because I dropped it on the floor), only adding to the feeling of being completely lost in Mexico. Two days ago I went out phoneless-dead as usual-to look for an alleged grocery store, only to get lost, find some sort of expanded liquor store where everyone was speaking Spanish and I looked like some weird, sort-of-sunburned white girl that's completely out of place with her own bag trying to buy produce instead of cigarettes. Everyone's really nice, though, and I haven't really gotten weird looks, and everyone waves back when I do that "hey" nod-and-wave. I don't know, I learned it in West Virginia (certainly not in New Jersey). But sometimes I find myself wandering around, wondering how I ended up in another country without my passport. New Mexico is certainly a new experience for me, and I'm loving every minute. Especially riding the two-year-old paint mare they've got, albeit in a western saddle. Always something new. Helmets and appropriate gear are for the birds.

So while it was sad to say goodbye to everyone in Boulder (roommates-thank you SO MUCH Marina, Remah, and Seth, BMoCA-mates, and friends picked up along the way-it's been splendid, and let me repay you in seafood and snuggles), I'm happy to say I'm happy, and really looking forward to my time here. The landscape is so excellent, I'll be excited to start shooting and drawing and brainstorming artistic ways to incorporate it.

My address:
c/o Marisela Trujillo
PO Box 1026
Chimayo NM 87522

Adios!

photographs!

For all ya'll itchin' to see my photographs thus far in Boulder (I admit, I've been pretty bad at getting them uploaded), check out my flickr page, I just added a bunch (no, not brunch!).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wesleylaudeman/

hope you enjoy, and hope I add more at some point.

have a wonderful day

end of november!

I recently heard an outcry about my lack of updates! Coincidentally, I was thinking today about a new post, it was brewin' in my head all day.

I still have no job. I still find it difficult to locate volunteer opportunities. Seth's changing oil and working in an auto repair shop caddy corner from our (hah, a liberal use of the word) apartment. The old roommate moved out, a new one moved in and she's just sweet as honey and doesn't mind our sleeping on her couch. Which is great news because it's starting to get cold at night and I haven't yet figured out the warmest spot to sleep outside.

Thanksgiving was tasty! During the day, Seth and I drove out north of here where there are dirt roads and stretching plains of nothingness so that he could practice driving a manual transmission. We actually ran over a prairie dog, but it somehow didn't get squashed, and Seth didn't stall! We came back, ate a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken and pumpkin pie from Whole Foods, and I made my mother's famous corn pudding and my favorite butternut squash recipe (cinnamon, maple syrup, cayenne, paprika, mmmm) along with a couple other sides and crescent rolls (of course). We shared a double bottle of wine and watched Let the Right One In, a Swedish vampire film (really good).

If I'm not vacuuming/sweeping/washing dishes here at the apartment, I'm doing it elsewhere. I've been going over to the LGBT house to volunteer at least once a week and until today all I was doing was cleaning.

Today was different. I got to enter info onto a spreadsheet, which was surprisingly fun (it was college students reacting to a lecture by a transgendered woman and a gay man--cool stuff). I also got to climb up into the attic to find Christmas decorations. The ladder that dropped from the ceiling couldn't quite reach the floor because there was a desk in the way. So I was sent to do this task by adults that don't really know me, and they went off to do their thing. My first attempt to scale the ladder was met with the crack of glass. I panic. I look down and see that on the desk (the one in the way of the ladder) there was a framed newspaper article, in glass. The glass was cracked, and cracking more by the second! I lift the ladder a little and see that the damage is done. I've broken an 11x14 sheet of glass in a nonprofit's office. The 5 year old (okay, 14 year old) inside of me screams,

HIDE IT.

I look around the room, there's nowhere to put it.

THROW IT IN THE TRASH, QUICK.

I take a deep breath. I am an adult. I shouldn't be ashamed, it was an accident. I don't need to scramble around, this is totally legitimate. After all, the lady in charge told me to give the ladder a try. She approaches. I explain the situation, like a calm, apologetic adult-volunteer, and she lets me know it's okay and asks if I got hurt.

Lesson: don't always listen to the child inside of you, even though they sometimes have a really cool view of the world.

And that's about it for now, have a glorious day and thanks for reading again!

greetings from boulder!

somehow the days just slip by, and my intentions of updating my blog go flying out the window (or down the drain?). anyway, I'm sitting here in Boulder Colorado, trying to write something real quick before getting a nice cold beer (it's been almost two days). the picture above is my "Mezuzah"(thanks Emily and Rachel), which is this Jewish thing you put in your doorway and kiss on your way in and out. so I kiss this mamacat/babycat (or try to remember) when I get in and out of my car. this is when we're getting into Colorado and the sun is setting and it's starting to snow. it's holding a rooster feather I stole from Boone (noo I didn't kill the rooster...)

I guess I should tell of my journey to get here, but I don't have too much time right now, and I want to get to the current stuff. I stopped in Louisville, KY and stayed with Susan, a rollerderby player who took me to this aweeesome hotel/restaurant/art gallery all in one. I have so much to say about that, but perhaps that's for another time. The next night I stayed with Rachel and Jared in Kansas City, MO, who were wonderful and sweet and had a dog who shyly hated me, but I got to eat Indian and drink some local beers on my own (in West Port? a sort of city outside of Kansas City), which was tasty and fun. slept on a very comfy couch and was awoken at 6am by a radiator spewing water straight into the ceiling, before enjoying cereal and local milk.

Seth and I are staying with Marina, a lovely lady who graduated with me (though I never met her) from CofC this past May. She's living out here doing AmeriCorp and is nice enough to let us sleep on her couch/futon. We spend most of our days wandering around, asking businesses about job openings, perusing Craigslist (for both jobs and housing), attempting to socialize at coffee shops, and making meals. Seth is currently on the floor, maps spread out, trying to trace his route thus far (for those of you who've missed his story, he's bicycling across the country, working on organic farms, meeting tons of people, staying with strangers/camping in their yards/accepting warm showers and food from the multitudes of lovely people in the world. his blog will be updated, as soon as I finish updating mine and start bugging him to update it).

Last night, while at a coffee shop, we decided to make a list of priorities. Like, for instance, finding Seth some pants (he has one pair), finding jobs, finding an apartment, sending postcards, getting a library card, updating our blogs. Most importantly, though, we've decided to try to converse with at least one stranger a day (both of us). So today we split up in the afternoon, and Seth handed in some job applications and tried to befriend a Patagonia employee, and I went to volunteer at the local LGBT group. I met some really cool and nice people, and was immediately put to work. I figure since I've got some money, I won't really rush into a job at Marshalls or Office Depot or anything, though they're hiring (heeeyo). maybe I'll check that seafood restaurant to see if they have oysters that need shucking (eeeh don't know about "fresh" oysters in the middle of the country).

Since it's dark by 5, I'm usually ready for bed pretty early, but we're enjoying playing bananagrams and all varieties of card games late into the night.
and if you want to write to me, the address here is:
2437 Spruce St. APT 4
Boulder, CO 80302

oh! and for those of you interested in my artistic processes, I've started a new digital photo project in which I will be photographing public restrooms across the country. I started in Kentucky and did public rest areas along the road. I really found them kind of beautiful and interesting, and the light's always good inside, and there is always something weird to be captured. I think it'll be a sort of lifelong project, or at least until I get tired of sneaking around ladies rooms all sketchy-like with a camera. I'll admit, it's sort of fun to almost get caught, or to figure out how to make an exposure without anyone hearing. so here's a preview...
"Arriba, CO, 3:12PM"




until next time! and thanks for bearing with me for my strange habits!

moving along

okay, working on a short post before I leave Boone. I plan to leave tomorrow morning after a tearful goodbye to my llamas, chickens, dogs cats fish goats people. definitely the people. Diane and Rob have been wonderful, so trusting and generous and sweet, and I've met a bunch of other really sweet, genuinely nice people (Emilie at the Todd supplies store, Ashley and April, Samantha and Shamba, Steve the next door neighbor, the guy that works at BeansTalk coffee shop, so many more random people).

I think I'm taking 81N, to 77, to 64 with my first stop in Louisville, KY. then I'll continue on 70 and stop again around Kansas City, MO the second night, and onto Boulder the next day!

my last couple of weeks have been interesting, I've been alone at the farm watching everything while Diane and Rob were down in Florida getting some business done. I got stressed out a few times, angry a couple, was filled with wonder all the time, and only cried twice.

I kept all of the llamas and livestock alive, the dogs are well, cats fine. My chickies, which turned out to be a huge part of my everyday life, are okay. I brought them into the barn last week because it turned really cold and even snowed for a couple of days (didn't stick, just light, fluffy flurries and sunlight!), so the first night they were locked in a stall and two of them disappeared. I imagine they were taken by a rat or snake, because I couldn't find them anywhere the next morning (cry number one). so I took to locking them up at night in a cat crate, up off the ground, in a stall with the llamas (they're supposed to be 'guardians' for all different animals, they're protective), which has worked so far. I lock them in a cat crate at around 6 when it gets dark, and get up early in the morning to let them out again (The Chickens Are, indeed, Restless--The Far Side, anyone?). so that's fun. for the past two days I've been letting them roam around with the mama hen, free to eat bugs and worms (they were really getting antsy inside the barn, and it's been so warm out!) and I've been successful with that. until this afternoon, when I approach them, notice that one's missing, walk around the barn and find it drowned in one of the llama's water buckets (cry number two). why the hell wouldn't anyone have gotten it out? the mother hen could have easily jumped in there to get it out, it's not more deep than she is tall. I was so mad, but I buried the little one, said a few words, and cried some more.

my angry times were mostly in the middle of the night when either Indy (the needy maltese loveable poo-head) or Miss Lucy (the geriatric calico cat) tried to get into bed with me. uh, no, Indy, I don't want your dried-egg-yolk-face all up in my space. and no, Miss Lucy, I don't want you to sleep on my head. and if I shut the door (which I hesitate to do because I already sleep like a rock and don't hear anything), they scratch/bark/yowl incessantly. seriously, I tried ignoring them but it actually doesn't work. serious dedication there.

I was filled with wonder on a daily basis, either when I woke up to look out of my gigantic bedside window with an incredible view between two mountains of the sun rising, moon rising, full sky of stars, etc. at the beginning of my stay it was a full moon and it lit up my entire bedroom and the entire farm, I could see the llamas from about 50-60 feet away in the middle of the night!
A girl that Diane works with (prarie home companion friend), Ashley, took me for a drive on the blue ridge parkway for a bit the other day, which was very enjoyable despite the fact that within the first 15 minutes I had her pull over so I could barf up my egg breakfast (I'm blaming it on the eggs, not the driving, and yeh, I barfed. it's been literally years since I threw up, I can't even remember when). luckily she's in the medical career world, so she didn't hate me (in fact, she was incredibly nice, even post-barf!). we walked around Price Lake looking for otters, didn't find any, but it did start to snow really lightly as we were sitting on a dock looking at the gray steely calm lake (quite romantic, actually). I'm not really used to vast bodies of water being so still (what? a lake? not an ocean?).

went for a couple other drives with Shamba, we also went to First Friday art walk in downtown boone last week, which was wonderful. there's a really great gallery called the Turchin Center for the Visual Arts that had a few really really cool collections. drank a bunch of beer, hot apple cider, and had some tasty snacks as well. Sam and Shamba have been so wonderful, they even brought over some movies to watch the other night (uh Repo Man? awful).

so this isn't quite as quick as I'd imagined, but then again, it's been quite a while and I've been doing so many things! my days pass so quickly, perhaps because by the time dark rolls around, I lock myself in the house and consider it bedtime.

the abbreviated plan for Boulder is this: Seth should be arriving there around Friday (by bicycle, if anyone's missed this reference, check his awesome blog). I'll be getting in around Saturday. we don't really know where we're going to stay immediately, but he has some contacts around there that might have us for the first week-ish. we'll look for jobs, we're not planning on doing farming since it's colorado in the winter, but we're thinking maybe Ski Resort, maybe food&bev (egh), maybe awesome art space/coffee shop (hah!). whatever we can find. long term living? weeelll not so sure about that yet.. but I should be there for a while (probably trapped by snow, Buster's not really the 4-wheelin' type)


my maps are laid out, my outreach texts are sent, and I'm all packed up. if you know anyone in Kansas City or Boulder that need a couch warmer, let me know! if you know of any job opportunities in the Boulder area, let me know! if you know of any place I just HAVE to see, let me know!! thanks for reading, see you later