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The High Desert Ledger

Field notes on water, land, weather and work across the American Southwest

A long folding table in a church fellowship hall at dusk, stacks of worn choral octavos, a dented metal cash box, and a paper cup of pencils under fluorescent light.
Latest entry on the rack WL-003 A long folding table in a church fellowship hall at dusk, stacks of worn choral octavos, a dented metal cash box, and a paper cup of pencils under fluorescent light.

The High Desert Ledger

An independent regional journal on the American Southwest: its water, its land and maps, its weather and its seasons, and the working life of the small towns that hold the high desert.

Latest entries

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A long folding table in a church fellowship hall at dusk, stacks of worn choral octavos, a dented metal cash box, and a paper cup of pencils under fluorescent light.
A long folding table in a church fellowship hall at dusk, stacks of worn choral octavos, a dented metal cash box, and a paper cup of pencils under fluorescent light.

WL-003Work and community

Name

A Chorus Season Built in a Kitchen

How small Southwest towns build a choral season from amateur voices: auditions, programming, dues, boards, and summers that empty the room.

Particulars
Work and community · 1040 words · 1 source
Caveat
this entry cites only arts.gov
A stock dog resting in the shade of a pickup truck at a ranch gate near dusk, pads dusty, water bucket at the bumper, long shadows across caliche.
A stock dog resting in the shade of a pickup truck at a ranch gate near dusk, pads dusty, water bucket at the bumper, long shadows across caliche.

WL-002Work and community

Name

Working Dogs on Southwest Ranches, and the End

What ranch dogs do, how they are kept sound through a hot season, and what happens when a working dog can no longer work.

Particulars
Work and community · 1429 words · 1 source
Caveat
this entry cites only ucanr.edu
A thick adobe wall at the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, late afternoon sun raking across the mud plaster, a wooden canale projecting through the parapet above, shot from the sidewalk at an angle that shows the depth of a doorway reveal.
A thick adobe wall at the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, late afternoon sun raking across the mud plaster, a wooden canale projecting through the parapet above, shot from the sidewalk at an angle that shows the depth of a doorway reveal.

SK-001Sky and seasons

Name

Adobe Walls: Mass Against Sun and Frost

Thick adobe walls hold heat and cold, and flat earthen roofs shed the monsoon. A look at how Santa Fe's old buildings answer sun, frost and rain.

Particulars
Sky and seasons · 1215 words · 1 source
Caveat
this entry cites only nps.gov
A diesel standby generator in a shaded metal lean-to beside a desert well house, intake vents open, a clipboard with a handwritten load list resting on the fuel tank, late afternoon light and dust in the air.
A diesel standby generator in a shaded metal lean-to beside a desert well house, intake vents open, a clipboard with a handwritten load list resting on the fuel tank, late afternoon light and dust in the air.

WL-001Work and community

Name

Off Grid Power Is a Load List, Not a Battery Box

Off grid power in the desert Southwest is a load list, a fuel plan and a maintenance calendar read against the seasons. What a household or small town keeps

Particulars
Work and community · 1284 words · 1 source
Caveat
this entry cites only energy.gov
A shallow soil pit dug by hand in dry grassland, two feet deep, showing a dark organic layer over pale caliche, with a folding ruler laid across the exposed face and a clipboard resting on the ground beside it, low morning light from the east.
A shallow soil pit dug by hand in dry grassland, two feet deep, showing a dark organic layer over pale caliche, with a folding ruler laid across the exposed face and a clipboard resting on the ground beside it, low morning light from the east.

LD-002Land and maps

Name

Reading Dry Ground the Way an Ecologist Does

An ecological assessment reads soils, water and plants. In the arid Southwest that reading is less forgiving, and it decides what a parcel can carry.

Particulars
Land and maps · 1079 words · 1 source
Caveat
this entry cites only nrcs.usda.gov
A folded 19th-century survey sheet of a Southwestern territory spread flat on a wooden table in a county records office, late afternoon light from a west window raking across the paper, a brass magnifier resting on the corner, the map's contour lines and section grid visible in the frame.
A folded 19th-century survey sheet of a Southwestern territory spread flat on a wooden table in a county records office, late afternoon light from a west window raking across the paper, a brass magnifier resting on the corner, the map's contour lines and section grid visible in the frame.

LD-001Land and maps

Name

Reading an Old Map of the Southwest

A historic map of the Southwest records who surveyed it, what they named, and what they left off the sheet.

Particulars
Land and maps · 1230 words · 3 sources
Caveat
this entry cites only loc.gov, archives.gov, usgs.gov

The slices of the repertory

An independent regional journal on the American Southwest: its water, its land and maps, its weather and its seasons, and the working life of the small towns that hold the high desert.

WT 0 entries

Water in dry country

What the rivers, acequias, reservoirs and wells of the Southwest actually carry, how water is measured, shared, stored and lost, and what a household or a town can do with the share it holds.

A shallow soil pit dug by hand in dry grassland, two feet deep, showing a dark organic layer over pale caliche, with a folding ruler laid across the exposed face and a clipboard resting on the ground beside it, low morning light from the east.
A shallow soil pit dug by hand in dry grassland, two feet deep, showing a dark organic layer over pale caliche, with a folding ruler laid across the exposed face and a clipboard resting on the ground beside it, low morning light from the east.

LD 2 entries

Land and maps

How the Southwest is read on paper and on the ground: land grants, surveys, historic maps, public land, soils, arroyos and the boundaries that decide who may build, graze or cross.

LD-002LD-001

A thick adobe wall at the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, late afternoon sun raking across the mud plaster, a wooden canale projecting through the parapet above, shot from the sidewalk at an angle that shows the depth of a doorway reveal.
A thick adobe wall at the Palace of the Governors in Santa Fe, late afternoon sun raking across the mud plaster, a wooden canale projecting through the parapet above, shot from the sidewalk at an angle that shows the depth of a doorway reveal.

SK 1 entry

Sky and seasons

Drought, monsoon, dust, heat and cold in the high desert: how the seasons arrive, what they do to roads, roofs, gardens and herds, and how to read a forecast for this country.

SK-001

A long folding table in a church fellowship hall at dusk, stacks of worn choral octavos, a dented metal cash box, and a paper cup of pencils under fluorescent light.
A long folding table in a church fellowship hall at dusk, stacks of worn choral octavos, a dented metal cash box, and a paper cup of pencils under fluorescent light.

WL 3 entries

Work and community

The working life of small Southwestern towns: ranches, trades, off grid power, working dogs, volunteer seasons and the institutions that keep a place going.

WL-003WL-002WL-001

Alphabetical index of entries

4 letters · 6 entries
A
O
R
W

The sources cited

  • archives.gov
  • arts.gov
  • energy.gov
  • loc.gov
  • nps.gov
  • nrcs.usda.gov
  • ucanr.edu
  • usgs.gov

Other desks, other country

0

Pages kept elsewhere that take up a question this ledger only opens, each read before it was listed here.

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