A World On A String

[Jericho Mile]

Happy birthday..!!
Also found pottery shards about 2years ago while botanizing/hiking around local caves. The curve of the piece giving it away, matchbox size. Think it's San pottery, but only 3-400 years old, Europeans arrived here around 200years ago...
Photos are tip top!! Regards

Thanks !

I had to look up the San. Ok…now I know where you are. That culture predates the cultures of North America by a long ways. That’s cool stuff.

Here it is being rethought with the fossilized human footprints being found out in White Sands. Now it is theorized that humans were in New Mexico 20,000some years ago…as opposed to the old line of theory that humans have only been walking this continent starting 10,000 years ago. Big gap…or I guess not really in the scheme of things.

Ever notice Science can never be wrong? They just find new evidence…breakthroughs in technology…deciphering ancient codes….all kinds of ways to reinvent the same old wheels. I find everything is better with many grains of salt. I do not know anything. One thing aging has revealed to me. I know nothing Nothing is proven.

When I was a kid in elementary school in the early - late 1970’s they taught us that Earth was headed into an Ice Age. They also had us diving under our desks during drills for the Nuclear Holocaust…we were going metric within 10 years…and marijuana was very very very bad.

I caught the tail end of the Cold War hysteria during my schooling years. Tear down one wall and build another. The hypocrisies are amusing after a while…

This is what a painted piece of Mimbrẽnos pottery looks like. Depending on the period….it was black on white in geometric and animal designs. Love their art.

* that little pocket knife is another one of my mountain finds. Whoever owned it before used it for the same thing I use it for : cleaning out the ashes of my bowl seriously it fits perfect for the scrape. When I found it…it had the tell tale signs of such use…a little black glob/tar smear on the tip.

 

[Jericho Mile]

What a 100 year old Anheuser Busch beer bottle looks like. Hand blown…you can see air bubbles in the glass. It’s perfect.

Found this in a wooded drainage almost a year ago. Imagine a 100 years goes by since this dude copped his buzz…unbroken in this land of guns and monsoonal flash floods.

This was a standard size bottle. Don’t believe they were selling them in 6 pacs

* I have studied the history of New Mexico…history in general I should say…the subjective vs objective complex…and realized some time ago : a lot of people were under the influence of alcohol a lot of the time. Booze played a huge role in a lot of human atrocities. Our ancestors had to get drunk to get themselves fired up to go out rampaging…plundering etc or at the very least it deadened the inhibitions.

The Native Americans were also drunk. Many of the Pueblo uprisings and Rez uprisings started when the people got fucked up enough to get pissed off enough to get violent. Not just on white man booze. They had their own concoctions as well. I believe natives were under alcohol prohibition into the 1950’s on their own land. Until a few years ago distilleries were not permitted on tribal lands.

Alcohol is a common denominator in so many horrible acts. Totally acceptable

 

[Jericho Mile]

Sister 23. She yielded 2lbs of fluff. I didn’t give any of her flowers away. She is my favorite for running. I have found 1 self seed in her flowers thus far. I’ve maybe found 3 or 4 total from all the Sisters. Duly labeled and kept. Easy Mox Trilogy S2 they will be. I obviously like self seeds.

* The vacuum seal job has not kept Sister 23 as well as the other Sisters. Because her flowers were so fluffy to begin with…she dried out more. Her flavor too has suffered. Her head has not.

LATER THAT NIGHT : I do not know what I am talking about…23 still has her flavor. Smoked her all day long moving rock and log building a ridiculous cucumber garden. High to the stage of forgetting I am high…into the night stretching with bands to stay loose after heavy lifting hours of the day…UFC 312 Fight Night still blazing fluff

** With a 2 year plus cure some of the Sisters have really improved in their flavors. The last Sister we smoked (opened last week) Sister 24 has really just gotten better and moved up on my favorites list. Really it’s a flavor thing…because the potency doesn’t seem to have retreated in any of the Sisters. Within all this storage time I’m saying.

*** I’ll add a mandarin peel to the jar I put 23 in to raise the moisture in her dry fluff. She’ll fill back up. I know I’ve heard people say not to do this for some reason…but I’ve been doing it since I was a kid. It works for me. Just don’t leave the peel in there until it molds. Not like this weed won’t be smoked within the coming week.. It will be gone by this time next week sure enough

Hell yeah! The War Pony has reached another milestone. Still on the original motor and clutch. Ford Fucking Ranger! Best truck I’ve ever owned. The places we’ve been. Truck bed serves as a space capsule on many a night in strange mountains and deserts.

150 years ago I’d have been a prospector with a burro

 

[Jericho Mile]

^ Down to the ranch where I had the 2022 garden. Still nobody living on this property. My grow spot over growing with all kinds of vegetation. Way too small of a footprint for the 12 plant grow I did. It worked but I’d had done even better with more prep time and space.

I went down today to pick up a chain saw, loppers, a ladder…and go through the boneyard to see if there was anything I needed presently. Grabbed 2 big bags of Juniper duff out from under a tree. Beautiful stuff. Building a Cucumber garden at the house in the barrio.

There’s a lot of hours and labor involved in lifting this footprint up a couple/few feet. Lot of rock (from a defunct 100 + year old Forest road) and logs (taken out of Forest Service burn piles. Trees were thinned out last June for a fuel break)….and bags and bags of forest duff. I’ve been working on it on and off since early October.

Cardboard. Lots of cardboard. I’ve been farming worms in this footprint for 3 years. Before I started work on it last Fall I moved the worm populations into an area that wouldn’t get disturbed from the work. I like to isolate populations with cardboard boxes. They break down nicely and still keep worms somewhat organized.

These boxes in the pictures are being used like building blocks. Eventually they will be covered over…but this garden is not going to be level…it’ll end up with some tiers in it due to its location…the need to maximize sunlight (also the reason why the footprint is being lifted…to catch morning sun coming over the house roof) and space. It’s just a challenge for my skills and will to get summer pickles.

^ Last summer I winged it with Boston Pickling Cucumbers and some volunteer Cantaloupe. I did well. I made it a game to use only pruned tree branches and zip ties to create the support system. This spot only opened up when the house next store had trees removed. Opened up the South aspect. It’s a terrible spot…but it’s fun. Still have to share space/sun with the Apricot tree in our yard…but I know tricks.

^ How it looked after I took the summer plants down and herded the worms into their winter spot. I had dug all the way down to the caliche base…and started sketching it out with logs. I bury logs for different reasons. One is to form up…another is to know where I am when I’m digging back down later on. I’m organized…making it easier on myself later. I tend to rearrange gardens each season….nothing stays the same for long.

* It’d take some work but this garden is made to move. Once removed the yard would be as it was…caliche and level.

 

[Jericho Mile]

Health. It’s more than a shot or pill. One thing I learned from the Covid shit show : people will quickly sell themselves out when they start fearing for fear’s sake. Big Pharma and government became their buddies then. Real quick.

From the outside looking in: I was disgusted

Talk is so cheap. Excuses handed out freely.

I go on

…but I will not forget or forgive those looks. When the unhealthy dictated terms to the healthy. Fuck you then fuck you now

 

[Jericho Mile]

Back down to the ranch for more primo Juniper duff

Roaming the property looking at rocks…found an old water tank…some old cans in there with a snake shed and couple mummified ground squirrels. Terrible way to die…the squirrels must have slipped and fallen in. No way out. Without water or food….brutal

Worked on the barrio garden footprint. Basically just added the Juniper duff haul…wetted it down and compressed it by walking over the boxes. There is so much duff that it retains moisture like a sponge…once it’s throughly watered. Takes a lot of water to get it right. There’s a lot more work that needs to go into this space. I have the basic idea but not the exact picture.

My neighbor’s Box Elder has not been well maintained. Several of its branches are reaching for the sun…which means…they are hanging over our yard and our single tree (Apricot)…forcing out sunlight. The neighbors are aware but not cool…not taking care of it…so I’ll use a ladder and a pole saw to cut the problems out from our side of the fence. There are wires but I’ll get it done. Pretty much told that dude to go sit down…plug back in to his computer…and shit on himself….or go fuck himself…I don’t recall…but I’ll never have to listen to his jabbering ever again. One should not shirk one’s task…especially when your neighbor asks nicely. The paradox of tolerance is that you become intolerant. I reached that place with this fool.

Landlady we rent this box from asked me if we wanted to buy it. Unless it’s next to free…we’ll hold out for something outside of town. I am enjoying this era of no responsibility. But eventually the right property will make itself known. Our rent is super cheap…and we really don’t spend our days on this property. The mountains are right there. Easy out.

Something about having a dope house up the next block…overdoses on the street…and some ignorant ass bigots faking like they’re not…living next store….just does not send up positivity. I’ll keep building the garden though…and create a little Eden amongst the unhealthy visuals that surround this property.

It’s a poor State. It doesn’t eat healthy or attempt to live healthy. Lot of people on assistance programs. Very much a cycle throughout generations. I’ve seen all this before…it’s the same shit…this is just a Hispanic Hillbilly version of it. Could just as easy be poor hillbillies in West Virginia mountains waiting for the coal mine to open back up….or pick your stereotype

Chihuahua Hill. The white folk have come in to gentrify the barrio…to make it adorable and charming. I know I’ll never be local. But these whites (Hispanic locals here call us bread)..who..like me…moved in from other States end up sounding like condescending bigots as they carry out loud conversations on the street. How they renovated this how they want to buy this or that….on and on. They don’t even get that these local people have ears…or entirely different outlooks. Silver City is not going to be Santa Fe.

The hill means something different to the people raised on it for sure. A real local accent is very distinct…you can tell when the person you are speaking with is from here. All the locals are related too. It’s not a big city. The people on my street who matter I get along with just fine. They are good people. Keep everything upfront not imposing don’t play neighborhood politics…mind my own business…pretty simple stuff. It’s the self righteous crackers and addicts dimming the view in my experience. Similar in the way that it’s always about them.

 

[pop_rocks]

great story man and it looks like you are improving the property and making it nice
dig the trash can man!

 

[Jericho Mile]

great story man and it looks like you are improving the property and making it nice
dig the trash can man!

Reading it back to myself…I might sound a little harsh…but no…actually that’s a pretty accurate assessment of our neighborhood on Chihuahua Hill. A white couple living beside us from Alaska pretending to embrace liberal ideology and New Mexico culture. Believing they are bringing something to the barrio. Aires of superiority (we remodeled a run down house in the hood! Look at us! We got it for next to nothing! We have hope,love,kindness for all !) ...clueless on how to act decently in face to face socialization. Bimbo Bread. Embarrassing really.

Everybody else (besides the dope house on the next block) is cool. Mostly people who were born and raised on the hill. Family people. I’ve kicked down herb to every neighbor that wanted some at one time or another…and believe me I’ve been fed with fine NM cuisine. All the time there is food getting sent over. The food is excellent!…but the kind that I have to run off my body. Traditional calories.

Silver City was racially divided back in the days of its inception (say 1870’s) and far into the 20th century. What is now called The Historical District of Chihuahua Hill (to make it sound charming and cleansed) used to be this hill barren of vegetation with shacks and dug holes for shelter. It’s where the Mexican miners from the State of Chihuahua were segregated off from the Anglos to live.

* Our residence is not a house. It’s a government building that was hauled up here from Fort Bliss after the 2nd World War….laid out on railroad ties and occupied by miners.

It’s been added on to…but basically it’s a plywood box with a divider wall running through the middle of it to make the bedroom and bathroom areas. It’s a 2 bedroom deal only because of the add on. During the 1980’s it was a church. A few years ago it was an art studio. I guess it’s still an art studio in a way. I paint my stuff in here (hobby)…and my wife runs her Thrift business (she has a separate shop in town for her skin care business) out of here. We don’t have much furniture. The “house” is an enclosed open space.

But yeah….it’s industrial by definition and a true Shotgun House. I can hit you with 00 buckshot from my 12 gauge from one end of the house to the other without hitting a divider wall. It’s also twisted and not level. The floor goes into various degrees of angles and slopes. But..

our landlady is retired out of San Francisco and supplements her income with rental properties. She’s happy to have reasonable tenants and does everything she can to keep us here. We installed a new furnace, hot water heater, and fixed a floor this winter. She’s a good lady. We haven’t been renters since the 1990’s…but now that we are…can’t complain. We don’t have to pay for or do all the maintenance/repairs. Kind of nice.

It is her crowd of folks though who want to turn the barrio into something it is not. Not her specifically…but her friends. Picture educated, very liberal and mostly gay, new age white baby boomers with money. You might be able to understand the neighborhood rub…with a poor old school
Hispanic style Catholicism localism VS what I just described buying up properties.

The world goes round

* The trash can : when using graffiti spray paints it has to be done outdoors with a respirator on. I painted it in the drive way over the course of a few hours (the spray is fast…the paint marker phase takes time) while watching the stream of homeless addicts making their way up and down this steep ass hill
to and from the dope house.

Fentanyl and Meth addicts you know…not much positivity in addiction. I’ve lost good friends over the years…my sympathy is almost nonexistent for addicts. Here the Mission gives them
food, showers, and clothing. I watch the addicts coming up with what the Mission gives them and trading it for dope. Sometimes it’s big hams or beef…stuff that has some value…and it does…it’s equivalent to a bag. The Mission enables the addicts to continue their descent. Saving Souls.

 

[Jericho Mile]

There is a Western New Mexico University campus in town. No doubt we are sophisticated. On campus there is a museum dedicated to South Western Native American artifacts/art. Wife and I visited today.

^ Archeological sites that surround town. Just a small piece of the overall picture

^ picked up some books from the library on the way home. I use the library…not all the time…but often. Sometimes I need to have a book open and in hand to solidify the reading experience. Knowledge. Information on the internet is cool and fast…but when it comes to history I prefer books…because…well writing a book on historical subjects takes more effort than…say…writing a blog on history. Stuff is usually proof read and generally better researched.

 

[Jericho Mile]

^ It is believed that the people drilled/poked holes into the bottoms of their pottery to free the spirit of the piece…after…it was no longer going to be used. Most of the pottery will have these liberation holes.

I like the idea of a pottery spirit…as I’ve said before concerning rocks having a life force…it coincides with my own experiences. Life force.

 

[Jericho Mile]

Often collections come into the hands of the museum after a site looter has died. A lot of artifacts were looted of course. There was no rules back in the day.

In the 1960’s and 70’s there were also a lot of fakes/modified pottery. In some cases the museum points out where a hole has been deliberately made (it was believed to bring more money on the black market because some pottery plates were put over faces during burial ceremonies) or patched…or a plain piece was painted to bring up the value…all kinds of trade tricks. If something looks too perfect or detailed it’s often a fraudulent piece.

 

[Jericho Mile]

 

[pop_rocks]

holy f'n wow man! i dig museums and that is some cool stuff
im diggin the petroglyph style paintings adorning the pottery and even the shards are cool pieces of history
that sounds like a fun outing man and i always loved the desert

liberation hole! ive seen it but dident knwo what it was i was looking at
thanks man!

 

[Jericho Mile]

 

[Jericho Mile]

holy f'n wow man! i dig museums and that is some cool stuff
im diggin the petroglyph style paintings adorning the pottery and even the shards are cool pieces of history
that sounds like a fun outing man and i always loved the desert
View attachment 19150514
liberation hole! ive seen it but dident knwo what it was i was looking at
thanks man!

Yeah man. I’ve been enamored with this style of art since I first started coming to the Gila back in the 1990’s. If I start to really concentrate on finding pottery pieces in the places I run…it’s not rare to come upon them. We’re having some weather today…cold and windy. Good day for this outing. Outing?? Campus is right down the street.

I could have spent hours in there reading…but with the wife so it was more a photo opportunity and a quick glance. I’m going to read the books I checked out of the library to get more information and then go back by myself to grok it heavier.

To me it’s mind bending. These cultures existed 1000’s of years ago…and I am still discovering their remnants.

* After looking at some jewelry the mimbrẽnos made…I realized that my wife found a piece of a bracelet the other day. We couldn’t figure out what it was…and I had thought she took it with her…but she did not. She left it. Too small to really go looking for now…but at least I understand what it was.

** Also from the museum visit I realized the earthen/red pottery pieces we found the other day were what they were. Legitimate pieces. Depending on the period the Mimbrẽnos made pottery that color. I was unsure before because all I had found previously was black on white painted pieces.

^ This might have been my favorite artifact though. Fucking awesome. You could put your drink on it and chop up your blow too Some things were just better back in the day.

 

[Jericho Mile]

Cool mural done up on campus. Look at those wintery skies.

On the way back up the hill. Felony take down How many cops does it take? 5 cruisers worth. No gun fire and they weren’t stopping traffic. Right in front of the court house….definitely skirted around that nonsense. There’s a lot of Foos in Fooville. Outside of town you don’t see any of this bullshit. It’s beautiful.

* Note the New Mexico roads. They’re always fucked up in states of repair…pot holes everywhere…random speed bumps…uneven shoulders. I swear it’s all about job security. Nothing gets fixed fast or for long.

And this is a town with a big low rider culture. I saw a Chola cruising a lowered ‘53 Chevy pickup the other day…solo cruising it…beautiful all way round. I have always had a thing for Cholas…that entire look and attitude. This girl was badass.

…then the maniacs rolling coal in lifted monster diesels that cost more than their houses. Crazy shit

 

[pop_rocks]

View attachment 19150534

Cool mural done up on campus. Look at those wintery skies.

View attachment 19150535

On the way back up the hill. Felony take down How many cops does it take? 5 cruisers worth. No gun fire and they weren’t stopping traffic. Right in front of the court house….definitely skirted around that nonsense. There’s a lot of Foos in Fooville. Outside of town you don’t see any of this bullshit. It’s beautiful.

* Note the New Mexico roads. They’re always fucked up in states of repair…pot holes everywhere…random speed bumps…uneven shoulders. I swear it’s all about job security. Nothing gets fixed fast or for long.

And this is a town with a big low rider culture. I saw a Chola cruising a lowered ‘53 Chevy pickup the other day…solo cruising it…beautiful all way round. I have always had a thing for Cholas…that entire look and attitude. This girl was badass.

…then the maniacs rolling coal in lifted monster diesels that cost more than their houses. Crazy shit

hahahah sounds like you have it all there
chollas do have a certain look and i have always been a fan of heavy eye make up and a little spanish goes a long way
hahah those look like san diego roads, ive driven better tracks off road and like you said they are in no hurry to fix anything
that is a cool mural and i dig the southwestern motif, hopefully it dosent get tagged up
more desert pics

living history is all around us

 

[Jericho Mile]

hahahah sounds like you have it all there
chollas do have a certain look and i have always been a fan of heavy eye make up and a little spanish goes a long way
hahah those look like san diego roads, ive driven better tracks off road and like you said they are in no hurry to fix anything
that is a cool mural and i dig the southwestern motif, hopefully it dosent get tagged up
more desert pics View attachment 19150604
View attachment 19150605
living history is all around us

That’s most excellent! I find them occasionally. There are plenty of sites around Cooke’s Peak lower down on the desert floor. I need to get to Cooke’s…have not been to the top of that mountain yet. Very prominent in this part of NM. You can see it from far off.

SD. You’re SD? I think I saw you say something in the LA Fire thread…ok yeah cool.

I lived in OB for a long ass time until ‘04 when we bought the house in Pine Valley. 15 years there. Now here almost 4. This thread goes way back to the days in Pine Valley. My old running grounds. I’m known out there getting chased by Border Patrol while setting off their sensors good times flipping off the helicopter.

Starting the Migrant Invasion threat…finally finding BP waiting at the top of Espinosa Trail (Japatul) pissed off because they thought it was the mother load. I used to work out of the Fire Station there…back in the 90’s …some Wild Wild West shit going on out there back then. It calmed down by the early 2000’s. Action moved east.

Cutting firewood. That’s Pine Valley. Looks like a punky ass oak log Must have been piecing out the best of it.

 

[pop_rocks]

yes! san diego man
/i was raised here
ive spent many wasted nights in ob man, but that was just the style at the time and the south mission beach to ob strip was the happening place to be
a lot has changed man but there will still always be those funky pockets in san deigo
i know pine valley well and depending on where in anza borego i would go sometimes i would drive the southern road home
/i want to say we followed a mormon trail in teh desert that eventually deposited you near the 8
we used to make trouble up north of there and dropping in through the mountains sort of camping out around anza borego
/ever hear of fish creek?
lots of cool places to visit and explore and like i said man i just love the desert

 

[Jericho Mile]

yes! san diego man
/i was raised here
ive spent many wasted nights in ob man, but that was just the style at the time and the south mission beach to ob strip was the happening place to be
a lot has changed man but there will still always be those funky pockets in san deigo
i know pine valley well and depending on where in anza borego i would go sometimes i would drive the southern road home
/i want to say we followed a mormon trail in teh desert that eventually deposited you near the 8
we used to make trouble up north of there and dropping in through the mountains sort of camping out around anza borego
/ever hear of fish creek?
lots of cool places to visit and explore and like i said man i just love the desert

I know those places.

I used to run an Ultra race out of Anza Borrego to the top of Cuyamaca and finished at the lake. Lost Boys. Great 50 mile race. Part of it was on the old Butterfield Trail (which also passes South of here around Deming)….then up one of the truck trails into the Laguna Mnts. Steep climb out of the desert.

Used to also work out of the Camp Ole Fire Station on Laguna. I defended that mountain during the Cedar Fire. That was a burn show. Had to do a burn out operation there, and around the west and north side of Pine Valley and up Guatay Mnt…..that shit was tight. We pulled it off big. Couldn’t buy a drink for a month after. Everything on the house. Glory man glory

After that fire went through it gave me access to all kinds of spots I couldn’t hit before. Best time to make a trail or look for artifacts is after a fire. In that type of fuel model anyway. Nothing like California brush fields. Shit is gnarly.