Forty years ago, Fred's father bought some property outside of Deming, New Mexico, with the possible idea of building
a home to retire. Fred's mother had other ideas, of course, but the property remained in the family and was passed on to his son and heirs. Fred and Dona finally took the opportunity to visit the land of their father's dreams.
His lot was one of roughly 100,000 half-acre lots bought in the late '60s for the tidy sum of $50-150 per lot. Each owner probably had dreams of developing a retirement community here, but as of today only 10% of the lots have been developed, and vast areas of desert have dirt roads accessing 90,000 undeveloped lots.
At the time of his purchase, we're sure the brochures showed potential property development like the young community we saw on the outskirts of Deming. Well, who knows? Maybe in another 50-100 years, the property may indeed be surrounded with a delightful retreat that people will desire as a retirement home.
In the meantime, we are the proud owners of some land surrounded by miles of flat desert with a view of distant mountains. We were eager to stand on our own little patch of desert.
The property comprises one acre on the corner of Hondo Road and Hermanas Avenue. Fred pours some of the sand.
Surveying his domain with a majestic mountain in view, and exploring the North 40.
Fred gathers some soil from his "ancestral home" ... and we look down along Hondo Road to another "mountain vista."
Between the mountains and us are many thousands of undeveloped desert lots.
Looking at our homestead from across Hermanas Avenue [left], and from across Hondo Road [right]. Hey! Here comes someone!
It's one of our neighbors! (or at least, someone who lives somewhere in Deming!)
[right] Across Hondo Road from our plot is the nearest neighbor -- the only home visible in any direction.
We drive around the block to see the front of our neighbor (the only opening in the fence warns us to beware of the dog).
We drive to the end of Hondo ... and a few blocks away is one of our only other neighbors, with his own satelite dish (off camera).
We hope you'll come visit us when we retire here haha! Seriously, maybe in another 50 years it will look like the community we saw on the outskirts of Deming [below]. At the time Fred's father purchased his property, this community probably looked just as desolate as his property still looks today.
The community looks new and just across the street is nothing but acres and acres of scrub desert (the desert starts at the end of the street you see in the second photo below).
