John Southwood and I led 6 people on a month-long mission trip to Penasco, a small town close to Taos. Two of us rode bikes, four rode in the van. The many abandoned old homes along the Arizona roadside grabbed my attention. Made of stone or blocks or wood. Many with missing roofs, all deserted. People built them, lived in them, worked to scrape out a life in the blazing desert, only to leave them. So why did they take off?
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The debris and tools from removing pathetic plants
Cut Our Losses
When we moved to Newbury Park back in 2009, we bought a fixer upper. Maybe the last two words should be in bold and all caps. After a year remodeling the interior, we then crafted a backyard sanctuary. A water feature became the focal point in a corner, with a stream and waterfall and small pond. Some greenery flanked it to soften the look: a purple lilac vine on the left and a jasmine on the right grew abundantly. So when we returned to Temecula in 2015, we wanted to duplicate our Shangri La. A slightly different water feature, and the same plants. But…
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