Living in Rio Rancho, NM

Rio Rancho, NM November 1983 to April 2003
There was a cinderblock wall around the backyard dividing our yard from the neighbors, except that it hadn’t been finished across the front. So the first thing we did was put up a board fence on the south side and a big double gate on the north side so that we could let the dogs out without having to tie them. The big gate was so we could drive a truck through to the back if we wanted to.
Our house was a new home built by AmRep a big housing developer in Rio Rancho. With the cost of the home came some landscaping in the front yard. A lawn, two trees, and some evergreen scrubs. Of course no one told us how much the water bill was going to be if we tried to keep the lawn alive. And keeping it alive meant getting out every time the sand storms came to sweep the sand off the grass. Yes, that is right I sweep the grass or else used a water hose to wash the sand off.
The first time my parents came to visit they said that it must sort of be like being pioneers. There was only one street to the west of us before the desert with nothing but sage and tumbleweeds. And the town wasn’t much. Just one main street named Southern Blvd. To this day it is still the main way through the town though the town has grown by leaps and bounds from the 10,000 population when we moved there to about 62,0000.
http://www.rioranchoregionalchamber.org/city.htm
We moved the cottonwood tree that the landscapers put in the front yard to the back. At first I thought we had killed it but in a few months it put on three shoots from the bottom of the truck and we cut the original dead truck off. By the time we moved from there in 2003 that little tree was at least ten feet in diameter. The three shoots had grown together up to about six feet above the ground where about four branches took off and the tree was about thirty feet tall or more. Dustin used to climb it and for awhile there was a tire swing from a strong branch for him to swing on. I used to really get mad at hot air balloonist that would fly over in the early morning and see how close they could come to the tree reaching out to grab handfuls of leaves off of the top. A loudly barking dog or two on the ground kept a lot of them away. I kept hoping one would get too close and get caught up and crash. But as of yet it hasn’t happened. One day Dustin happened to mention that about a week before he had climbed up in the tree and fallen out. He said it knocked him out for a little while. He didn’t say so but I know he knew he wasn’t supposed to climb the tree and was to embarrassed that he had fallen and would tell us for a while.
Over the years we added two spruce trees that we got a permit for and dug in the Jemez Mountains and put in the front yard. They were only about four foot tall when planted and were taller than the house when we moved. There was also a purple leaf plum, a mimosa, a redbud, and a jumpier in the front. The redbud had come up volunteer in the San Jacinto house when Dustin was born and when we moved I dug it, put it in a pot, and took it with us. We put it in the front yard where the cottonwood had been. There was a boxwood scrub that got to about 12 feet and an apricot tree plus a lilac on the west side of the house and some other scrubs closer to the street. On the north side by the driveway was a couple of poinciana bushes, (they were from seeds I had gathered at Mother’s house in Silver City) a century plant and a cholla cactus. In the back we added some lilacs, two cherries, a peach, a plum, a silver maple, and a shed for tools. There were about a dozen roses scattered in the back and in the front and at different times I had all kinds of flowers, and a vegetable garden. We only had a quarter acre of land with a house on it but I made the most of every inch of it while leaving enough room for the dogs and Dustin to play.
We hadn’t been here very long when one of the guys that Lee worked with wanted to sell a pair of older snowmobiles and a trailer. So we bought them. At first Lee had to do lots of repair work on them to get them running decently so that we could take them to the mountains and play with them in the snow. I am sure we did some really dumb things with them. It seemed like every time we got about ten miles or so out into the woods with them, one or both of them would quite running. That meant spending hours in the middle of no where working on them to be able to get back to the truck. And this was with a three year old boy with us. Dustin never seemed to mind how long it took. He never seemed to get cold, or tired of playing in the snow. And of course I loved the change to take lots of photos.
It had been about this time that my little 110 camera had quite and Lee had bought us a Pentex 35mm camera. I fell in love with it. I really liked being able to take photos that had a more professional quality to them, although it never was. At least they were better than what I had taken with the 110.
We lived here for about twenty years so there were a lot of different pets during that time. With in a few months of moving here we lost Ginger our Siamese cat. It about broke my heart.
Not long after Beth’s son Mike found a puppy laying beside its dead mama in the street as he was walking home. Beth didn’t want to try to raise her and called me to ask if I wanted her. I said I would try. I had taken in Rowdy when he was only about three or four weeks old but this tiny little pup didn’t even have her eyes open yet. She was mostly black with white feet and chest. We thought she might have been shepherd or lad or a cross but it didn’t matter. Surprisingly she survived. I used a regular baby bottle and canned goats milk that I mixed with water. Dustin was thrilled with the puppy and always wanted to help feed her. In a few weeks she was running around the house getting into all kinds of trouble. Sandy, Kelly, and the cats, Cotton and Spook had no problems excepting Bo as we named her. Bo was bigger than Kelly when grown but smaller than Sandy. At that time I still thought she was mostly shepherd but years later when I knew more about Border Collie’s I have wondered if she wasn’t a good part BC. Bo wasn’t to be with us much more than a year when she escaped and was hit and killed by a car.
Our friends Phil and Beth had let a stray cat stay at their place that had a litter of kittens. Dustin kept wanting to take one home one day when we were visiting and I finally gave in. She was a small dark tabby that looked very much like the tabby cat, Tiggy, that Lee and I had adopted right after we were married. After much debate she was named Oriental Teak which was shortened to Tikki. Dustin was four at the time he chose her and he and that little cat were good friends all her life. I remember having several photos of her reaching her foot into a cat of cat food then licking the food off her foot. She frequently ate this way.
About a year later we lost our old German Shepherd, Sandy, who was about 14. Wanting a puppy I went to see some that a woman was giving away. They were a shepherd mix she thought. At least mama was a shepherd. When I got there I could tell that there had been several fathers to this litter of pups and at first none of them appealed to me. As I was looking them over and just about decided not to take any of them, I noticed that one had gone to sleep on my foot. One I hadn’t noticed before, and it looked like I remember Sandy looking like as a pup. I said I would take that one even though Lee had said to get a male not a female this time. Well if he had wanted to make sure I got a male he should have gone with me to pick it out. Since Dustin was now seven I wanted this to be his dog. I wanted him to learn to help with caring and feeding for her. After considering all names Lee suggested D.D. to stand for Dustin’s Dog. But it was not to be. She was my dog. She and Dustin never did get that close. Dustin never has been much of a dog person. He loves cats but not dogs.
About the same time we got D.D. Beth got a Great Dane puppy she named Maggie. A year later Maggie had a litter of twelve pups and we took one, a male that I named Midnight Moon Chaser. Chase was a lot like the Dane Maraduke in the funny papers. I named him Chase for the way when he tried to chase us with his big, ungainly feet he kept tripping over them. And because D.D would try to herd him like a herding dog. It was quite a game between them; the clumsy pup and the smaller shepherd running round in circles. Chase was black with white legs, chest, belly, and tip on his tail. He was very tall when grown about 40 inches at his shoulders I would guess as he came up to my waist. A true Dane he loved everyone and but I thought it was great that everyone that saw him and didn’t know about Danes was terrified by this huge dog walking right at my side.
Our black cat, Spook had disappeared. He just never came home. It is bad when you loose a pet but worse, I think, when they don’t come home and you never know what happened to them. Knowing how much I had liked my old Siamese Ginger and that I was missing Spook who was probably part Siamese she gave me a Siamese kitten. Only this one had white feet. I named her Stormy as it rained the day we got her and she created a storm in our house as most kittens do. Stormy and Chase quickly became friends. I got a great photo of Stormy as a tiny kitten, playing with Chase. Chase had his head laid on the back of the couch that angled so that he could stand behind it. Stormy was on the back of the couch at the level of the big dogs head. He had his mouth open and she was sticking her head and feet into his mouth slapping at his teeth and tongue. At first I was afraid he would bite down on her but he never did.
I loved Chase but Lee and Dustin didn’t care for him at all. I knew I was doing wrong by the big dog keeping him in a small yard while I was at work and it seemed I didn’t really have time to do much with him when I was home. Mother told me of three little boys that had lost their parents in a car accident and were living with their grandparents in Silver City. The grandparents had agreed to let the boys have a Great Dane but not a small pup. I didn’t want to but decided to take Chase to Silver, meet the kids and see the place where he might be living. It wasn’t perfect but the yard was bigger and the boys loved him at first sight and he them. I left him there. I always hoped it was the right choice.
Now we were back down to two dogs, D.D and the older Kelly. Kelly was really showing her age and I frequently had to help her get to her feet. It wasn’t long before we would loose her, too.
I think it was about this time that I got a job with a plant nursery called Green Acres for a few months and then a job as a cashier at a nearby Walgreen’s. I disliked being a cashier but a job was a job. But I leaned how and it was to be my main job, off and on, most of the time I have worked.
When Dustin was about four we had a family move in next door named Lucero. Diane had one daughter, Melanie, when they moved in, but had another one while they lived there, Valerie. Dustin and Melanie became close friends as they were only children for the first two years that she lived next to us. Melanie was not quite a year younger than Dustin but they played really well together. Sometimes they ran back and forth between our two houses so much Diane and I never seemed to know which place they were. Melanie couldn’t seem to understand why Dustin wasn’t around for her to play with when he started school, as he started a year before she did. It seems as if Dustin was about ten when Melanie and her family moved back to Albuquerque. Diane and I still exchange Christmas cards.
I was thrilled when Dustin was five and finally old enough to go to school. He only went half days to kindergarten but he liked it, and I sure needed to have a break from him part of the time. Being an only child he really needed to be able to spend more time away from me and with other kids his age. Dustin when to school all the way through grade school and then junior high or mid school in Rio Rancho. I was glad to be able to have him do his schooling all in one area which I had never been able to do. I went to seven schools in seven years from fifth through eleventh. You don’t get to make and keep friends that way, but it was a heck of an experience. His dad had gone to school all twelve years in Petersburg West Virginia.
Dustin went to Puesta del Sol Grade School which was about a mile from our house. Most of the time I took him since the school system thought we were to close to qualify for a school bus. As soon as Dustin moved on to Mid School they had busses. Sometimes he would walk with his friends. I remember Anthony Perea that lived across from us and down a couple of houses. His mom, Sally, was a casual friend. There was also Wade and Andy. Dustin was in Cub Scouts with Andy and they were friends all the way through high school. Again I knew Andy’s mom casually. While in Cub Scouts, Dustin, age seven, built and painted one of the Derby race cars that all Cub Scouts build with the help of their parents. Lots of cars seem too be built completely by the parents but we only helped Dustin having him do most of the work. It wasn’t near as fancy or well made as the ones done by parent for their boys but we were thrilled then it won the Derby car race for our small school area. I think many of the parents who had built the cars for their sons were a bit shocked when Dustin’s won as you could tell by looking at it that Dustin had done the work himself. Dustin went on to compete at the Albuquerque District level but didn’t get very far. At least we had the pleasure of winning the first race. Dustin never seemed to care for the car after he didn’t get any farther with it but I have kept it for him. Maybe some day he will want it back.
Mid School or junior high as it used to be called was at Lincoln Mid School and was a couple of miles from us. Dustin rode the school bus most of the time. High school was at Cibola High School about five miles from us and actually in Albuquerque instead of Rio Rancho. While Dustin was in school Rio Rancho schools were part of the Albuquerque school system. It was in Dustin’s last year that Rio Rancho had the first year of their own school system. The Rio Rancho High School opened that year but did not except any senior kids or 12th graders that year, and Cibola didn’t really want to except the Rio Rancho seniors. Even though they had to let them go to school at Cibola they didn’t provide bus service. Dustin started driving to school as soon as he could get his drivers license. At first it was our older International Scout 11 that Lee and I had bought just months before Dustin was born. (We still have it or I should say Dustin has it where he is.) With Lee’s help, Dustin bought a 1968 Mustang that he drove during his senior year, and that he still has now. I do think that the little car was full of Rio Rancho senior going to school most morning and coming home in the afternoon.
We had the 1979 Scout and the 1970 Duster when we moved to Rio Rancho. It seemed we went through a long list of trucks while we lived there. Next was an older 1984 Chevy pickup that didn’t stay around very long before we sold it. Then Lee bought a 1987 Dodge Dakota pickup the first year the Dakotas were sold. Then I bought a 1988 Jeep Comanche pickup. With the Scout Dakota and Comanche we decided there was no need for the 1972 Duster and sold it. We have always regretted selling that little car. It was the only car we ever bought new and was a good one. Later Lee bought a 1970 Dustin, which we still have, but it was never as good as the first one. Not being satisfied with the automatic drive in the Dakota or the gas mileage it got, Lee traded it for a 1992 Dodge Dakota with a five speed in it. That one we liked and soon I bought a used 1987 Dakota and sold the Jeep Comanche. We still have both Dakota, both being good trucks that have done lots of work for us. They just haven’t been a big or been able to pull as big a trailer as we would like. In 2001 we bought a well used 1990 Dodge Ram Charger. It had the room to seat more than two people and power to pull a trailer but the gas mileage was horrible, especially at a time when the price of gas suddenly shot sky high. We still have it at this time but would like to sell it. Oddly both Dakotas and the Ram were a silver/gray in color. The Scout was starting to fade from the bright flame orange it had been when we bought it so Lee painted it gray as well.
We, also, went through several different snowmobiles during the time we lived in Rio Rancho. First were the two older one, a 1976 blue Kawasaki, and a 1973 red Rupp. As they were pretty well worn out we bought a 1983 yellow Skidoo, which is the excepted color of most Skidoos. The Skidoo never did seem to work the way it should have so Lee bought a 1996 red Yamaha Mountain Max and then a1997 black Artic Cat Cougar, followed by a 1998 black Artic Cat Jaguar. We still have all of them or we have four and Dustin has two but none have been out in the snow in several years and I doubt if any of them would actually run. It would take a lot of work to get them working again.
We decided we needed something we could use on the mountain and desert trails in summer, spring and fall like we did the snowmobiles in the winter. ATV’s seemed like the perfect answer. First we got a 1999 Artic Cat 300. Green and black are the main colors of most Artic Cat vehicles but most of their ATV’s are red. Ours are. In 2000 we got an Artic Cat 500. We have run them over many a mile of desert and mountain trails and have used the 500 as a “tractor” where we live now since that is one of the few vehicles we have never had.