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The High Desert Ledger

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

A closed wooden ranch gate across a dirt road running straight through a sagebrush flat toward red mesas under a wide, pale desert sky, low sun casting long shadows from the gate and fence posts.
Plate SK-002 The sky over a valley like this one changes its mind every June, and the ground has to answer for it.

Latest record on the rack How the Southwest Monsoon Season Actually Arrives

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

7 / 9Alphabetical index of records
A folded paper road map and a bottle of water resting on the open tailgate of a pickup truck, a dry Southwestern valley with distant mountains stretching out behind, two pencils lying across the map, soft late afternoon light.
Owning the land in this valley has never meant owning the water that crosses it.

WT-002Water in dry country

Name

How Water Rights Work in the Desert Southwest

In the desert Southwest, water belongs to whoever put it to beneficial use first, not to whoever owns the land it crosses. Here is how that rule is administered today.

Particulars
Water in dry country · 854 words · 4 sources
Caveat
this record cites only ose.state.nm.us, dwr.colorado.gov, new.azwater.gov (+1)
A folded USGS topographic map on a truck tailgate in low desert light, a pencil and a water bottle holding down the corners, dry arroyo visible in the background.
A folded USGS topographic map on a truck tailgate in low desert light, a pencil and a water bottle holding down the corners, dry arroyo visible in the background.

WT-001Water in dry country

Name

Water Maps a Desert Keeper Reads Before a Crossing

A desert keeper reads old water maps and archives before a crossing. What the records hold, what they leave out, and how to plan with them.

Particulars
Water in dry country · 1224 words · 2 sources
Caveat
this record cites only usgs.gov, blm.gov
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.
Worn octavos, a dented cash box, and pencils: a season's whole budget on one table.

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 record 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 working dog rests at the gate, still on the payroll, not yet retired.

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 record 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 holds the day's warmth into the cold night.

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 record 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 handwritten load list on the fuel tank sizes this desert standby system.

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 · 1269 words · 1 source
Caveat
this record 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 hand-dug soil pit exposes dark topsoil over caliche in dry grassland.

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 · 1080 words · 1 source
Caveat
this record cites only nrcs.usda.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.

A folded paper road map and a bottle of water resting on the open tailgate of a pickup truck, a dry Southwestern valley with distant mountains stretching out behind, two pencils lying across the map, soft late afternoon light.
Owning the land in this valley has never meant owning the water that crosses it.

WT 2 records

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.

WT-002WT-001

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 hand-dug soil pit exposes dark topsoil over caliche in dry grassland.

LD 2 records

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 closed wooden ranch gate across a dirt road running straight through a sagebrush flat toward red mesas under a wide, pale desert sky, low sun casting long shadows from the gate and fence posts.
The sky over a valley like this one changes its mind every June, and the ground has to answer for it.

SK 2 records

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-002SK-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.
Worn octavos, a dented cash box, and pencils: a season's whole budget on one table.

WL 3 records

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 records

6 letters · 9 records
A
C
H
O
R
W

The sources cited

  • archives.gov
  • arts.gov
  • blm.gov
  • dwr.colorado.gov
  • energy.gov
  • lasacequias.org
  • loc.gov
  • new.azwater.gov
  • nps.gov
  • nrcs.usda.gov
  • ose.state.nm.us
  • ucanr.edu
  • usgs.gov
  • weather.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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