Mesilla Blog

Wednesday, June 6th, 2007

Mesilla Plaza – No Smoking

The Mesilla Plaza is a smoke free zone.

Tags: Mesilla, Mesilla Plaza, News

Thursday, May 3rd, 2007

2 Gates

The normal state for a gate is closed. Here’s a gate doing its duty.

This gate is gate in memory only. Most of the adobe wall it once served is gone.

Tags: Adobe, Misc Images

Wednesday, April 25th, 2007

Spineless Cactus

If you look around many of the older homes in the Mesilla Valley, you’ll see an odd-looking prickly pear. It’s thornless.

Alien mutation?

Nope — the non-prickly prickly pear is the creation of the eclectic Luther Burbank, “The Plant Wizard.”

Burbank was born in 1849 and had no schooling beyond 6th grade, but he did have an intense fascination with plant breeding. He is credited with creating over 800 strains and varieties of plants, including the “impossible” plumcot, which he called “a cross which man said could never be made.”

The 12 volumes of his 1914 magnum opus, “Luther Burbank: His Methods and Discoveries and Their Practical Application” is available online, includes wonderful color photos, and still makes interesting and enjoyable reading. His self-promotion, however, sometimes leads him to sound like a cross between a used car salesman and P. T. Barnum.

He began developing a spineless cactus in the late 1800s with the goal of producing a plant that could grow in the desert and serve as food for livestock.

He says of this effort, “the work through which this result was achieved constituted in some respects the most arduous and soul-testing experience that I have ever undergone.”

Here’s a picture from the book showing Burbank examining cactus seedlings:

It may look like a loving relationship, but…

“For five years or more the cactus blooming season was a period of torment to me both day and night. Time and again I have declared from the bottom of my heart that I wished I had never touched the cactus to attempt to remove its spines. Looking back on the experience now, I feel that I would not have courage to renew the experiments were it necessary to go through the same ordeal again.

Not only would the little spicules find lodgement everywhere in my skin, but my clothing became filled with them, and the little barbs would gradually work their way through the cloth and into my flesh, causing intense irritation.”

The spines on the prickly pear (and other cacti) evolved from leaves on its ancestral parent. These leaves, over time, became sharp spines and acquired the capacity to detach easily when touched, a very effective defense against being eaten.

What Burbank succeeded in doing with his selection and cross-breeding was to produce a plant that grew only rudimentary spines and then dropped them voluntarily. In this photo from his book you can see the vestigial leaves with the spines gone.

Burbank’s hopes for millions of acres of desert growing spineless cactus as animal feed was never realized, but for a while the un-prickly pear was quite popular as a landscape plant around homes in arid areas like Southern New Mexico.

Here’s a planting around an old Adobe home in Mesilla:

A planting in Las Cruces:

A planting in Organ:

A planting next to an abandoned, decaying Adobe in Doña Ana:

A cactus without spines is defenseless. The photo below was taken about 2 months after the one above:

Someone, in an act of pure vandalism, has stomped the plant.

Tags: Spineless Cactus, Luther Burbank, History, Adobe

Friday, April 6th, 2007

Saving the Pat Garrett Marker

Mesilla’s sister city of Las Cruces is considering the incorporation and development of 6,480 acres of state land. This is a big increase in the area of Las Cruces — amounting to over 10 square miles. The local paper reports that this area could ultimately contain as many as 90,000+ homes.

It turns out that one of the proposed development blocks contains a concrete marker built by Pat Garrett’s son (Jarvis Garrett) on the location where his Dad was shot. This is a well-known and famous event in Las Cruces, but evidently the existence of the marker has been a secret known only by a very few up until now. I understand the reason for the secrecy was to prevent vandalism.

Now that the marker is in danger of being destroyed by the proposed development, a local organization called Friends of Pat Garrett has been formed to save the marker. Details about the campaign are available on the web site:

www.FriendsOfPatGarrett.com

Here’s a photo of the marker courtesy of the web site:

The marker was evidently put up by Jarvis Garrett between 1938 and 1940.

In this close-up you can see “Feb 1908″ scratched in the concrete. Pat Garrett was shot Feb 28, 1908.

This is an excellent cause. Information on how you can contact the Las Cruces City Council to support saving this marker is on the Friends of Pat Garrett site.

Tags: Pat Garrett, Billy the Kid, History, Las Cruces

Thursday, March 1st, 2007

Adobe Restoration

Part of preserving Mesilla history is restoring and maintaining its old adobe homes. This isn’t a cheap proposition and most home buyers won’t do it.

Here’s a wonderful example of a new home owner who’s willing to buy a neglected adobe and restore it:

This structure was built originally as a single room adobe in the 1860s, then added to over a period of 40 years. Here’s the original part of the house:

The lintels show the location of entrances, later closed in. Here’s a better view of the blocked doors:

Here’s a view of the living room and the corner where the fireplace was located and will be restored:

Another corner showing a blocked window and a restored wall:

In order to preserve this wall, it was necessary to add a new wall beside it:

Another example of repair:

This is one of the wonderful features of the structure, an arched door:

After the adobe walls are made structurally sound, they will be plastered inside and out, making an energy efficient home that will be naturally cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

Tags: Adobe, History, Mesilla, Restoration

Tuesday, February 27th, 2007

Mount Bhut Jolokia

Just as soon as Bhut Jolokia is identified as the hottest chile in the world, someone steps forth to conquer it.

Guwahati, India – A woman from India’s north eastern state of Assam is hoping to set a world record by eating a maximum amount of chilies in the least time. If successful, Anandita Dutta Tamuly will also be the world’s first person to eat a massive quantity of the world’s hottest peppers.

Tamuly is extremely confident of besting the pepper, because she’s an experienced summiter already.

“I have created history on Indian television by munching 60 of the chilies in two minutes. I am more than confident of creating a record once I reach London.”

“I have been eating Bhut Jolokia since my childhood and never felt the hotness in my mouth. I can even break the chilli and splash it on my eyes. I tried this on TV and had no problems whatsoever.”

The Assam government will pay for her trip to set the record. The previous world record appears to be 8 jalapenos in a minute, a pretty small bump compared to 60 Bhut Jolokias and a little Bhut Jolokia eyewash.

One consequence of the chile’s new fame is its price is climbing.

“We never thought Bhut Jolokia was so hot until news came in that this is the world’s hottest chilli. Now we have hiked the prices by Rs.50 a kg and people are buying it like hot cakes,” said Nalini Ram Thakuria, a vegetable vendor in Guwahati.

Note: In New Mexico, it’s spelled “chile,” not “chili.”

Tags: Chile, Chili, Bhut Jolokia, Anandita Dutta Tamuly