Once upon a time in the west people came across the USA walking, on horseback, wagon train, stagecoach or by whatever means they could.
Hearing that there was good grazing in Southern New Mexico, people claimed sections of grasslands and started to ranch.
After living on the road for months or even years on end, it was time to establish a permanent residence.
There weren’t a lot of trees to build a house so they settled upon using dirt, sand and dried grasses of which there was an abundance.
Using dirt, grass and water they made mudpies, forming them into bricks and leaving them out in the sun to dry.
It took a while to make the number of bricks needed and depending on the dimensions could take up to a month to cure and dry.
This was what was called adobe.
Leaving openings for door and windows the house was built up to the desired size and height with the bricks using adobe for the mortar.
Then covered with more adobe to seal it.
Keeping your fingers crossed that no rain fell during this operation as it could turn all your hard work into a muddy pile.
Once the house was sealed it was then treated to a coating of lime plaster and whitewashed.
This helped protect the building against any moisture that fell from the sky.
A roof was put on and now you had a snug home for all seasons.
New Mexico can be desert-like in some areas with hot days and even colder nights but a house built in this fashion was well insulated from the temperatures.
Even after all these years, remnants of old structures remain with newer generations adding-on to an already solid foundation.
These were our ancestors and they knew how to build ’em.
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