Infinity Acres, New Mexico

A little piece of land, endless possibilities!

Infinity Acres Established May 4, 2018. Ah the dream came true! Finally! After a couple of years searching online for cheap, undeveloped land, I finally found it. Not only did I find it, I OWN it. Whoa. I “own” trees! Imagine the thought of owning a small forest… Right now, as I live in my Florida condo, I don’t even have a backyard. Boy do I miss the outdoors. It’s not the same when you have to share it with other people in parks & beaches, etc… No place like home. I recently found myself reflexively thinking of my wild land in New Mexico as home. I’m trying to get home. This is where I am in my life right now, a transitional period. Like a werewolf’s metamorphosis, it hurts! I want to be there NOW! Until then, I am so grateful for my little condo in Clearwater, Florida. Miles of coastline and beaches to lounge on.

Here (above) is the aerial view of my 2.5 acres. The road on the right is Gabe Road. Notice the structure in the far left of the photo, not on my lot. This (below) is the front door and what it looked like in real life from the ground. I’d been sure it was just a well, looking at it from the aerial shot.

I’m getting ahead of myself. In September 2018 I finally had the chance to go find my land, only having GPS coordinates and a vague idea of how to find the way via dirt roads. WHEW! What a harrowing trip that was! I got lost on foot with no water for about a half an hour looking for the road I had planned on taking from the south as my lot is in the southern most section of the subdivision. Subdivision? Yeah, technically it is one.

The things one can find when they take the path less traveled… The below is what I came across when I was temporarily lost. It appeared to be 3 graves of either horses or cows. Who knows, someone may have had a pet Elk or three! Fun fact; Elk is hunted in this area of New Mexico.

We finally found our way and what a sweet sight this was…

Red Dirt! That was my main requirement. I love the red dirt. Back in 2018 I didn’t spend much time on my land. After the crazy trip to find it, we were both quite spent. Luckily we made it back out of there, too. But a few months later I made it to my land in May 2019 and stayed for 4 days and 3 nights. I was fortunate enough to buy a 4WD Tacoma to feel competent to take on the off road terrain. Toby is his name and he is beautiful!

What an awesome time I had on that trip! I absolutely love working the land. I dug a fire pit. I was and still am so proud of my fire pit…seems silly.

I cleared dead wood, burning a lot of it, also clearing it to make a driveway onto the property. A small ditch runs along each side of the road in most places. I began filling in the area of the ditch I wanted to make the driveway, but unfortunately I didn’t finish it before I had to leave.

I left a little earlier than I had tentatively planned because I learned rain was coming. Even though I have the 4WD, I didn’t want to chance getting stuck out there in the middle of nowhere! The roads can be very muddy when it rains. But it never did rain, as it turned out it freakin’ SNOWED! On May 20 snow. I had planned the timing of my trip in an attempt to avoid snow.

Fun fact; I intentionally stayed in the Golden Desert Motel, where a scene from the movie “Natural Born Killers” was shot a long time ago. Above picture is their parking lot.

Yet again I am getting ahead of myself! Whoa Nelly! One of the days I was there I had a visitor who turned out to be a very good friend for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Minding my own business, just puttering around in the trees and dead wood and rocks and dirt (my hog heaven) and having been out there a full day by now I felt comfortably at ease. Until I saw a face trotting towards me! As my brain went through almost instantaneous evaluations of; is it an animal? Yes. Is it dangerous? No. Is there a person with it? No. Not a wild animal. It’s a DOG! Looks friendly? OK. Whew! All these thoughts shot through my mind in split seconds as this beautiful brindle pit (maybe mixed) galloped leisurely towards me through some brush. I was careful and a bit apprehensive, but I knew I had my pepper spray. Though I’d be more likely to suffer a bite rather than hurt the dog with pepper spray. I have wanted a dog so very badly for some time now…one day. She spent the whole rest of the day with me. She was PERFECTLY behaved. Never begged for food. Never grabbed when I shared a little. Never barked. Never jumped on me. I named her Sadie cuz I had to call her something and she looked a little aged. I later learned her name is Kyra.

You might’ve noticed her eyes look a little lopsided or something. She has one brown eye & one lighter colored like a golden eye. Another attribute I LOVE in a dog.

She stuck around the rest of the afternoon and evening, right up until I ‘went to bed’ in my truck. She laid right down behind my truck and I was already thinking to myself that I’d take her back home to Florida with me when I left if she was still there! But yet I had another day and night out there to explore. In the morning I was relieved to see she was not there as it frosted that night and would surely have been too cold for poor, sweet old Kyra to sleep on the open ground.

In the above picture, taken from inside the backseat where I slept, you can see the frost beginning to melt as the sun rose. Yes, I slept INSIDE my truck even though I had a tent. For one thing it was cold as you can see, likely getting down into the 30’s (Fahrenheit). Another reason to sleep inside a hard sided anything was that this was my first experience in that environment and I had no idea what kind of wild animals or bugs I might encounter. My last night on the land I heard the coyotes howling in the not so far distance and I was ‘in bed’ that evening well before it got fully dark!

My favorite day out on my land was when I met my neighbor, RC. Prior to meeting him I had only estimated and staked out half of the front border of my lot which was relatively easy since I had the road on one side and in that road is a spot where the light colored rock comes out through the red dirt. From the aerial view I can see that my most south border is right where the rocks protrude or the white spot in the road. I had determined that on my first trip out there in September 2018. So, when I arrived this time I was eager to establish my borders as my land is not surveyed or has any border markings I knew of or could find. I got as far as estimating the mid line of my rectangular lot, then measuring 100 feet deep into it just with rope.

RC arrived one early afternoon (maybe it was afternoon, I never really paid much attention to any clocks out there as there was no need to) and shouted “HELLO!?” from the road. I learned that was the proper country living etiquette when there is no doorbell! I was more than happy and eager to meet a neighbor! Generally I am a loner, introvert, independent explorer. That’s one reason why I bought undeveloped land away from ‘civilization’. But when I’ve been all alone, and left alone for a while, I begin to be HAPPY to see people, any people! How lucky to have met a genuinely nice and helpful person! I was so proud of my fire pit I invited him to check it out while I iced up my coolers before we took off exploring on foot. After seeing his place I felt really silly about my little fire pit pride. RC fetched his measuring wheel and we went to work finding the deepest end of my lot, leaving markers like a cairn or big stick periodically about every 100 or so feet. My lot is deep and narrow, about 160 feet by 600 feet.

We went for a walk around the ‘subdivision’ and he introduced me to another neighbor. He showed me his place explaining what he had already done and his future plans. And he knew the dog’s name that had visited me, Kyra. I learned from him that YES I can get internet and cell service out there, it IS possible! I am so grateful he is there and I met him then. In hindsight, I’m now sure that it was his music that I heard briefly when I was there the prior September. In the middle of nowhere, I felt it a bit eerie to hear music float over with the wind that day. I’ve watched a lot of horror movies, think “Devils Rejects”. In fact, that was my very first thought when I saw that hand made structure in person. (pic above)

It was RC who looked up the weather a few days ahead and how I learned some precipitation was forecasted in a couple days. That’s when I decided to leave for pavement before the rain came and possibly strand me in the mud. As I mentioned, it turned out to be snow.

Side note; I planned this trip later in the year to attempt to avoid snow as I don’t know how to confidently drive in the snow for lack of experience. I was in a hotel in Gallup when the snow began to fall that morning of May 20, 2019. I did have a minor panic attack, but reasoned myself out of it. Here’s the ‘funny’ thing, to me; I planned for everything I could think of and assumed snow wouldn’t even be a factor. I considered and planned for; snakes, psycho killers, bears, flat tires, constipation, dead battery, food, gasoline, hygiene, solar lighting. All of these things (and more) I considered before embarking on my epic trip to my land. The ONE THING I assumed wouldn’t be a factor and I wasn’t mentally prepared for, happened! But of course! THAT was my challenge. I figured it was a lesson for me and it didn’t take me long to realize as I pulled out of Gallup laughing at the Universe’s sense of humor! I even drove through the same storm as I drove east out of it, stopping to explore Blue Lake, then it caught up to me and I had to drive east out of it again. I took another excursion to Acoma (my reason for having land in New Mexico, there is/will be a post about Acoma) and for the third time I drove through the same storm! I’m still not proficient or happy about driving in the snow, but I am less apprehensive about it after this exercise!