Building An Outdoor Living Space

In May of 2005, we moved "up the hill" from our old ranch-style single-level cookie-cutter home on the Pajarito Plateau, to a custom home built some 10 years earlier at the base of the Jemez Mountains. When I say the base of the mountains, I mean, at the base of the mountains. Our back yard is a steep sloping hillside covered with poderosa pine and oak scrub, and the girls wanted a place to go outside.

Right out our back door, about 10' from the back door and running parallel to the back of the house stood a retaining wall nearly 10' tall, the hill sloping upward from there to the back fenceline. The back yard was not a place to spend quality time.

In the summer of 2008, after much deliberation and planning, I started a project to dig out the volcanic rock of this hillside and create a livable space. The plan was to dig down and level off the center of the yard, pushing back the top rows of the retaining wall, lay patio pavers, add a stately arbor to provide shelter from the intense summer rays, add seating and a fire pit, and start to enjoy the outdoors.

Well, the ground here is volcanic tuff -- what a pain. With no room to get much equipment in, tons (I estimate about 6 to 8) of rock were removed by hand using a pick, shovel, and my ATV with a trailer. I tied the retaining wall block into the existing wall on both sides of the area to make a natural transition that appeared like it was planned from the start. The real difficulty was creating a trail from the house to this new area. Lots more retaining wall block and a whole lot more pick work.

Add a massive arbor, some oil ship lanters, a custom railing, some outdoor furniture, and whalah, a great place to sit and enjoy a summer evening.

Oh, did I mention I broke my ankle working this project? So, add a couple plates and 16 screws in the ankle to the cost of this new outdoor living space.

Floating on Air

Multicolored floating rigs of ripstop nylon atop wicker gondolas dot the sky, their blazing hot propane burners casting a warm glow in against the breaking dawn, emitting sounds reminiscent of Darth Vader's ominous mechanically-assissted breath.  Heck, there's Darth Vader himself, reflected as one of these hot air craft rising from the grassy field at the base of the Sandias, his squadran of fully costumed Imperial Stormtroopers and a few bounty hunters manning the ropes. 

Such are the sights and sounds of the 2010 Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, where over 600 balloon and their human masters take flight in morning mass assensions and glowing brightly in tethered evening glows, all vyng for prizes in competitions, performing "splash-n-dash" maneuvers in the Rio Grande, or just drifting gently aloft, propelled by the cyclic winds of that unique meterological phenom called the "Albuquerque Box". 

This is the place to be in early October each year.  Here at Albuquerque's Balloon Fiesta Park, tourists and balloonists from across the globe gather to be part of this great spectacle.  It's an event that stimulates children to dream and photographers of all ages to create.  Here are just a few pics from last Sunday morning as my youngest and I mingled amongst the balloons and photographed the world of hot air ballooning.  You can find a few more on my Flickr site, though I have a load I'll save for other use.