Summer 2010 Howdy folks, This is a mass mailing, update on our summer at 9000 feet among the banshees and vampires in the Santa Fe National Forest. I am hugely, enormously, gigantically and overwhelmingly aware of how insignificant I am and how my life may be so profoundly not interesting to some of you. So if you would like to be deleted from this list, please say so and it shall come to pass forever. I get high with a little help from my friends, gonna try with a little help from my friends……………..I get by with a little help from my friends For most of my life I struggled with the meaning of life and all that mess. Eventually, I stumbled upon the idea that, never mind all

the cosmic stuff, our purpose is to keep each other company and that ultimately, friends are what matter most. So I built this house to have a place for friends to come and enjoy the San Pedro Wilderness in our twilight years. Six months ago I was 18…………whoosh! Many of you have visited our mountainhome when it was still very primitive. Well it ain’t so primitive anymore. In fact, it’s pretty cozy, cheery and has most of the amenities of city life. Exceptions: washer-dryer (maybe next year) microwave (for sure next year). Originally I had planed to have TV and Internet but after a while I realized how much I enjoyed their absence. We can call out on cell phones and there is a clinic and emergency helicopters to Albuquerque in Cuba. Our music is at 95.5 FM.

Every night at 9000 ft., we have a big fire in the fireplace. We sometimes see Dick Cheney in there and that’s as much as I want to hear the news and be connected to the world. It cost about $100.00 a year for propane to operate the house and that’s it. It’s completely Off Grid, partially underground (55º), wide Double Envelop, provides its own water, electricity, heating and cooling and is just barely starting to provide vegetables and herbs…………it’s as Green as I know how to make it. Folks often ask: Have you finished that house in New Mexico? It is not something to finish. “Use it or lose it” It is something to do with what’s left of our lives.

This is an invitation to any and all of you who might want to come and enjoy our Werewolves of Jemez……………..it really is as much fun as a pile of squealing pigs and of a bucket of toads.

Yukiko arrives from Japan and we take in some local attractions……….. Abiquiu Inn.

A little later, Sandi & Benito arrive from Encinitas, CA.

Sandi, however, takes a slight detour on the way and retrieves a staple from Salt Lick BBQ. PICTURE……………….?

There is a missing picture here which I will eventually forward to whomever is left on my list after cancelations. I can’t wait for it anymore so here is a little background: I met Sandi & Benito through Temple Wynne when she was at Montessori school in Mexico City…………….I was down there on some other monkey business and trying to form a band. We had a little band for a while and we were trying to do some kind of Latin American-Tex-Mex-Rock & Roll fusion mess (we played a lot of Tu Solo Tu stuff, Santana, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry, & Little Richard) and we had some fun. This picture is real important to me because it’s the first time I’ve done this in a long time. For three nights straight, we and some

other folks, picked and grinned until the wee hours (with plenty of stuff to go around) and wore my old raggedy ass out………….and I had a lot of fun. Sandi, who sang right along while doing it, videoed and photographed it all and I couldn’t because I was pickin’. Young whippersnappers that they are, Sandi founded and runs a Montessori school and Benito runs a restaurant. They haven’t had time to send me a picture yet but they will when they do and I have to get on down to fix my Lake Whitney house, which I have neglected for 20 years………….had to use a machete to get into it last spring.

After gorging on Thurman's Pride - Brisket,

We take in some local attractions………... Soda Dam & a dip in the Hot springs.

Our next-door neighbors, the Montaños, have a large family (they made me an honorary member) and they throw giant parties on holidays (this was the 4th of July). From left: Benito, Sandi, Clay, Toni Montaño and the old poot. Johnny Montaño was taking the picture. Johnny is retired Air Force. There were 7 full sized trailers and who knows how many people.

Next come Aaron, Zandy, Hunter & Stormy from Round Rock, Texas.

Aaron arrives each summer and I describe my present project and problems. He invariably has better solutions than I have and his help has been beyond value through the years.

Zandy has taken an interest in our wild, edible mushrooms

and gathers a good harvest……….e.g. Boletus edulis

My best friend from childhood, Ed Werth arrives…………… Ghost Ranch.

Ed is an architect and formerly a Ft. Worth chapter president of the AIA. On the right is Judy Johnsen, whose NM hospitality and support over the years has enabled us to build the house………we could not have done it without her.

Before leaving for NM, I smoked a brisket because I wanted to share some Texas BBQ with our NM friends. Mountain neighbors from left: Larry is a retired Air Force (Major) pilot. Like me, there are many ex-military folks around us. We enjoy sitting around the

fire and telling lies about those good old days. There are also retired scientists from Los Alamos and the Sandia Labs. Myra’s father was such a scientist. Myra was originally from Nacona, Texas but grew up in NM. Next are Ray and Mable Baca. They were among the earliest inhabitants of our little mountain community.

This shot has Mable and Masako’s face.

This was a later visit with Larry and Myra. They have a beautiful adobe home in the Bosque.

Myra’s father had an extensive collection of pre-Columbian artifacts.

Frequent contributors of NM cuisine are Mariana and Richard Silva.

This is Richard and the old poot.

If you come at the right time, Cheri might even give you a haircut.

We all got one that day and next year I might put in a barber’s chair.

That evening we had some of my BBQ and Cheri is holding a bottle of pepper sauce that I made form our little garden. Jessie, another next door neighbor is left of Cheri.

Most things are stunted at 9000 ft because it gets too cold at night, even in mid summer, but next year I’m going to build my little greenhouse here, the plans for which are on this page: http://geriatricgourmet.com/Garden.html

I’m often hungover in the morning but no matter. Richard and Mariana fix wonderful breakfasts with things from Richard’s garden.

And we feast “al fresco” in front of the house.

This year, Richard and I got started on my outdoor kitchen, where I can make a big mess and then just hose it all down after.

At day’s end we all settle around the fire to watch Dick Cheney and tell lies.

Next year, the clear plastic (Lexan-same stuff as my greenhouse), which is started at either side, will replace the tin (which was temporary) and go all the way across the little (sun-roof) in front and I will add another row of solar panels on the big roof up top to make it a full-fledged passive- active Solar House. Esthetically, the idea is to make the house New Mexico (Adobe) on the outside, Andalucía on the inside and look like it was built by Spaniards 300 years

ago………a fake antique. The colorful doors on either side are to the Double envelop which surrounds the house and is mostly underground. It is wider in back and its primary purpose is insulation but it also provides a refrigeration area, my shop, a wood shed and general storage.

Arriving late in the year are the Minatos (owners of Mr. Shushi) and Tsutomu Sanado (owner of Shushi on McKinney).

Yoko jumps right in.

And lays out a full spread for Shushi at Cuatro Alamos………..the name of our place.

Totemo oishi desu! To, totemo kirei desu!

Compai!

We have 2 bedrooms (divided loft) upstairs and 2 couches that fold out into beds and plenty of blankets downstairs. This one folds out but Tsutomu, who owns a condo in Beaver Creek, like Ed, liked it better this way.

Folks bring toys and sometimes we have our own little country club, with golf course, rifle and archery range, trout fishing etc.

This is Herb, our neighbor over the hill…….he is both retired Army & Navy.

This is Annie, Herbs wife. We have lots of good times at their house and they at ours.

Herb taught me how to find arrowheads which are abundant in our front yard. First we lose our grandparents and we begin to lose a few friends and other relatives. In a while we begin to lose our youth………our vitality, energy and strength. Eventually we lose our parents and other friends and relatives. Then our sight, hearing,

hair and teeth begin to go. When George Burns was near 100, he was asked why he looked so young to which he replied “All the old things keep falling off”. I like my contact lenses My dentures fit me fine My hearing aid is perfect But Lord I miss my mind Life is a series of loses until finally we lose it too. As the years pass, I regret more and more the foolish way I have squandered mine and all the mean, insensitive, arrogant and stupid things I’ve said and done. Clearly, life sucks! AND! There is more fun to be had.

Each summer, we have a great, grand pie of it so come and have a slice. I get on well with the rangers and hope to eventually have a, complete with porta-potties, dumpster and medical aid, a Green reunion and our own mini, geriatric Woodstock. We have a steady stream of folks from the Americas, Europe and Asia so let me know a few months ahead. You’ll Come! PS, When I get my little flea-bag, dumpy shacks around Lugano and Lagos, you’ll be invited there too.