Rio Grande Refuge

01/08/2024

Jeff and Jesse in front of our Christmas ham. And it's been a snowy January so far. Lovely, clean, cold. And leaning into a good crop of mud when it melts. The big project for the winter it to finish the concrete floors complete with radiant heat, flushing toilet and a bath tub!! I'm ready for a few comforts!

08/19/2023

A fun interview with my old friend Joan Sotkin.

Jeff Hood is the owner and developer of the Rio Grande Refuge. In this episode Jeff shares his long journey to finding his place of peace on the Rio Grande and how he is now developing it for others to share. I’ve known Jeff for 25 years

08/13/2023

Last post was in April!! Guess we've been busy here. Upstairs is lovely and livable, kitchen coming along, and this extraordinary batch of mushrooms appeared this morning after the summer's first rain!!

04/26/2023

Spring is sprung here in Northern New Mexico, wild plum blossoms and a cubic yard of charcoal ready to be inoculated and included in our healthy soil efforts. Birds are singing, geese are mating, the river is full and muddy, and we've befriended a baby bull snake hungry for bugs and mice.

03/06/2023

Progress! believe it or not, this is the same window.

02/24/2023

Winter is playing leapfrog with Spring. But the sun is higher in the sky and stays up longer, so we know the warm days are coming, along with dreams of planting and swimming. Bring it on.

01/08/2023

Moon Set over the Rio Grande, morning of 1/7/23.

I think heaven is both a state of mind and physical place. It happens in our hearts and souls as we are intimately connected to the living breathing ground under our feet.

12/14/2022

The Migou and I pondering the end of a winter day, feeling so grateful that we get to live in such a place, and appreciating the inevitable slow down of winter. At least that my interpretation. Hers is more like, "I know there's a goose or a duck or a muskrat down there, but I ain't goin after em. Not in this cold water!

11/26/2022

First Thanksgiving on the farm. Friends, family, music, yummy food from all over. Cooked the turkey on hot rocks buried in the ground!

11/09/2022

And of course all priorities change with winter coming on. Insulating the roof is number 1 and following the advice of loved ones, I'm going to hire it out. So I can spend more time sitting by my very healthy river.

09/01/2022

Now that the roof is on, I get to tear into the interior. Thinking I'd start with a new staircase I started making a hole in the adobe wall from the livingroom hallway. Then realized I could open up the kitchen a bit to the living space, then thought I could expand the kitchen because the 20" thick adobe wall wasn't holding anything up. Then realized I could use the rubble from broken adobes to fill in the subfloor, so I'll now tear out the rotten kitchen floor, put in radiant heat tubing, pour a slab, build a new kitchen wall and THEN get to build my staircase! In the past 3 days, I've hauled around 130 -4"x10"x20" (100 year old) adobes each weighing at least 40 pounds. And I can see the toasty bright kitchen this winter already! It should be illegal to have this much fun.

08/24/2022

Twelve days in Wyoming, up in the Wind River Range. Now back in NM picking string beans and tomatoes and making a farmer's list.