Story of the house

I lived in this house for a year. Its charm is undeniable.It's a quirky little place.It was built by a ranching and farming family in 1915. I had first seen it when I went to pick up Bob the tourist there with my friend Leo. The details of that day can be read about in bordertowns. I kept thinking about the house. The hopeful prickly pears planted in rocky beds, the salt ceders and the stumps of cottonwood, even the desolate dirt fields surrounding it. I was compelled to move there. I simply had to so I did. From the front porch I could look to the Swiss Helms and the Chiricahuas. From the back I could see the Mules. I miss the porch. I miss the windows. I dont miss the dirt.

Its flaws were wound into its charm. The wind seemed to blow from October to August. The lopsided construction and lack of insulation made for gaps. Big gaps that no matter how hard I tried, I couldnt plug up. Dirt devils seemed to plant themselves there in my corner of the sulpher springs valley. The lifeless drifting soil that could spawn nothing more than tumbleweeds came in through the walls and under the doors. Each day a fresh carpet of fine red dust replaced what I vacuumed and swept. It coated the inside of my mouth and nose. The nights were often in the teens that winter. The propane flowed and flowed into my heater and into my house and then out into the yard I guess.

I learned a hard lesson about desert housing. I had to weigh practicality against charm and character. The house was wonderful to behold but horrible to live in. If I were a wealthy person I would buy that house and fix it all up keeping the exact lines of the place but making them true. I would buy the forty acres attached to it. I would rescue the ground and give it nutrients and plant it with durable desert grasses and plants. I would buy hay for the cows across the road living a mean existence of slow starvation. They frequently had broken out and come to eat the weeds that grew in the shade of the house and chew off the lower branches off the chinese elms. If I were rich I would certainly feed those cows.