One of the things we noticed as we were digging in the soil was the quantity of heavy, black, pock-marked stones in each shovel full. They range in size from peas to boulders, some of them well over 50 kilograms. We began collecting them for later use and stacked them in several piles around the building site. The small to medium stones will make excellent filler for a rubble trench.
Archive for May, 2009
With the boundaries of our house and garden set, we commenced with the task of clearing the cordoned area of it’s sage brush and grasses. Traditional house-building would say that this is the point where we hire a bulldozer or grader to come in and prepare the site. In fact, one of our neighbors strongly suggested that we hire someone with a tractor to come in and clear the entire 20 acres.
Once the location for the house became clear to us we set about measuring a rough area that would include the “fenced in” area encompassing the house, outdoor spaces and gardens. With some gardening stakes in hand we marked off the rough plan for the house(s) and garden.
After the warranty deed was recorded we made a few trips out to the land just to walk around and get a feel for the space. The first trip, of course, involved a bit of champagne and was far less productive than otherwise might have been. Still, we wanted to spend some time scouting the possible locations for the house. On the next trip, slightly more serious-minded, we found the perfect place to put the house.
Looking for land in the Taos area turned out to be more of a challenge than we’d counted on. Our plan was to complete the purchase by the end of January, but by the beginning of February and a couple of failed deals later, we were still without land. We realized that in order to find acreage in our price range we were going to have be pretty far from town. As I said in the previous post, we were looking for 5 to 10 acres and in the Taos area that will run you from $75,000 to well over $200,000.
If you read our previous post about the Search for Land you know that we spent some time creating a list of requirements for our new homestead. With those criteria, and guided by the desire to be in a place we both love and where we could become more or less self-sufficient, we began our land search.
I thought it might be a good idea to stop here and explain why we chose the title of this blog. What exactly is a “Hogan” and why are we building one?
First, a bit of background. The term “Hogan” comes from the Native American Navajo word “hooghan” and it was their traditional dwelling place. When you research the Navajo Hogan, you’ll find that the structure was much more than just a house. It was also a sacred ceremonial place. The earliest Hogans were circular in shape, came in a variety of sizes and were built of logs, sticks and mud. The door was always placed on the east side of the house to welcome the rising sun, for good health and fortune.
Once you commit yourself to an idea, it seems to create it’s own momentum. We had barely finished the thought of starting something new when we were already scanning the maps for a suitable place. Having spent most of my adult life travelling around the United States I was already pretty sure of where I didn’t want to live. That narrowed things down by about seventy-five percent. After taking an hour or so to contemplate the pluses and minuses of each region we decided it would probably be better to make a list of the things we wanted, so we could evaluate a place based on our wants and needs, rather than some perception of perfection.
There is nothing quite like starting something new. The blank slate, the endless possibilities that go along with taking that first step. It can be exciting, exhilarating, life-affirming and can bring us to the highest of high places. It can also be a curse. It can become a compulsive pattern that endlessly repeats. Like a drug that once taken grabs a hold of us and never lets go. An addiction that can’t be beaten no matter how hard we try because the high is unlike any other we experience.