The JOY of the New Mexico Motor Vehicles Division

Today I finally finished my business with the NM MVD. Since it has been so much fun, I thought a blog entry was called for.

Let me begin by saying the closest MVD office is in Gallup, which is about an hour drive to the north. Granted, I chose to live remotely, but a trip to the MVD is an excursion at any rate.

Visit #1. I was truly naive at this point in the game, so I thought I would get my driver's license, and register both the van and the little utility trailer that I had purchased in Arizona all in one fell swoop. I drove to the Gallup office and brought about half a dozen items for proof of residency; the same paperwork I had used at the United States Post Office in Fence Lake when setting up my PO box. The clerk took my Maine license, my Social Security card and then started looking at my pile of invoices from the builder, solar contractor, propane supplier, etc. She immediately told me that none of it was any good. She said she needed BILLS, not invoices. When I pointed out the the invoices WERE bills for the work, she said that they needed something from a utility company. I said the propane bill was the closest thing I had, but she didn't like that because it was hand written. She said how about a cable bill, and electric bill, or a water bill? I explained that we lived off grid and had none of those services. She then suggested a mortgage statement. I explained that the property was paid off, there was no mortgage. She said well how about a deed or a tax statement? I told her my deed and tax statements showed that I owned 4 lots on Lonesome Pine Road, and one of the lots had a higher rate because it had a structure on it, but none of them mentioned my address of 46 Lonesome Pine Road. She seemed amazed that I didn't have any of these items at my fingertips. The only piece of proof she would accept was the contract from my homeowner's insurance. She then gave me a list of paperwork the MVD WOULD accept as proof of residency, among them being a credit card statement, a bank statement, and a motor vehicle registration. With the wait (I arrived 5 minutes after the office opened in the morning and was #24 in line) I spent over an hour at the lovely (not) Gallup MVD office.

I should mention at this point that the United States Postal Service does not deliver to my address. They do not deliver to any of the residents who live south of the town center, instead they give you a free Post Office box. Well, the MVD does not give a rat's tail about your PO box number and they seemed quite unable to give me any advice on how I was going to prove residency when all of the paperwork they wanted was delivered to a PO box


Visit #2. I was able to get Cabela's to use my residential address on my Cabela's Visa card, and my motorcycle registration (which does have our residential address on it) had arrived which had both Jill's and my names on it, since the bike is titled in both of our names. This time we went to the Grants MVD office. It is a little bit longer drive, but it is more scenic, and I was pretty disgusted with the Gallup MVD. We got in early and were quickly served. I was immediately shot down. No, they would NOT take a Cabela's Visa statement (no rationale was given, they just don't) and she could not take my Social Security card because it was laminated (the lady in Gallup must have forgotten to mention that). Meanwhile Jill at another window was having similar luck. They would not accept the motorcycle registration because her name was listed SECOND on the form. Never mind that the title was in both of our names, she didn't care. Sadly, the title listed our PO box, not our residential address, so she would not use that document. The homeowner's insurance form that the lady at Gallup WOULD accept, she refused because it was a copy. I asked her if she was unable to use some level of discretion in cases like this. She was not so able. Once again, we left empty handed.

Visit #3. I applied for and received a new Social Security card, and I had talked our bank into listing our residential address on the bank statement. We had the homeowner's insurance packet which had recently been mailed to us and it did list a residential address. We both had bank statements in hand, so off to Grants we went. I handed over my bank statement (the page with my address on it) and she said "I need a statement". I literally felt my veins start to throb and my armpits start to sweat. I was proud of myself that I managed to be reasonably calm when I told her that it WAS the statement. She turned it over in her hands a few times and said "where is the rest of it?". Fortunately I had brought the entire statement, even though none of the other pages had anything to do with residency. Grudgingly she accepted the statement and the motorcycle registration and issued my driver's license. Jill was also successful, and we left with our paper licenses clutched firmly in our grubby little paws.

Visit #4. In the interim between visit #1 and visit #3 we had traded the van for a Toyota pick-up. Since we got the Toyota at a dealership in Albuquerque, they handled all of the registration paperwork. That left only the little utility trailer. I had not bothered to try and register it on visit #3 because I didn't want to confuse them by sneakily trying to do 2 things in one visit. So visit #4 was for the sole purpose of registering the trailer. I handed the clerk the paperwork which I had received from the trailer manufacturer in AZ. She scrutinized the documents, then proclaimed that she could not issue the registration because the invoice did not have the vehicle identification number on it. Never mind that the invoice number was the last 5 digits of the VIN. Never mind that I had the certificate of origin with the VIN. Never mind that the description on the invoice was excruciatingly detailed (with the exception of the VIN). Never mind that I had the temporary AZ registration with the VIN. Nope, no VIN, no reg. Hit the bricks you shifty deadbeat and don't come back without the proper paperwork. Honestly at this point I wasn't even surprised. I had expected that there would be some glitch and no common sense standard would be applied.

Visit #5. KB Trailers in AZ graciously generated a new invoice with the VIN on it, so the Grants MVD clerk was able to register the trailer.

It only took about 750 miles of travel and a few more gray hairs in my beard, but my immediate need to deal with the NM MVD is behind me.

Pie Fest

Every year in September, Pie Town holds a festival. It is one of THE social events in Catron County, so Jill and I decided to go. It is worth reading a little of Pie Town's history; it is a quaint story. I would link you to it, but after Google deleted my last blog for "spam" violations, I haven't been putting in links.

The drive was about an hour and twenty minutes, which isn't that bad for this remote corner of New Mexico.

When we arrived, the pie baking contest had just concluded, and the kids were involved in a sack race. Jill and I wandered around looking at a variety of vendors, everything from beautiful vintage Native jewelry, to piles of broken tools and assorted junk. (I was able to pick up a set of vice grips at one of the tool tables, which I am sure will make the pair I have been looking for magically appear.

We treated ourselves to a "Navajo Taco" which was a delicious piece of Navajo fry bread covered with meat, beans, lettuce, cheese and green chili. It was very fresh and very good. Later the chilis (I took Jill's portion as well) necessitated the taking of some Tums, but it was totally worth it.

I was VERY pleased to find some native honey from a place in Caballo, NM. I bought the biggest jar they had.

All in all, we had a good time, and plan to do it again next year.

Last of the scrap pile

When we had the house built, I asked Mark Berry to save all of the left over pallets and scrap wood. When we arrived in late June, I was somewhat dismayed to see how much scrap a little house like the one at Mariposa creates.

Finally, the pile is almost gone. I have used the pallets for various things such as the compost pile and straw bale storage. I have used the bigger pieces of wood for  projects like the out-house, the solar shower, wood racks and the solar oven table. There were enough pieces of 2x4 to provide the bases for the stacks of 4 cords of firewood.

All of the rest of the wood I have slowly but surely been rendering into kindling for the wood stove or the rocket stove. It is my fall back chore when I have temporarily run out of bigger jobs. At completion it looks like we will have about 8 large totes full of wood ready for the winter.

Failures (or as Jill calls them "prototypes")

As I was expecting, not all of my stuff works out exactly as planned. I'm not TOO broken up about it since part of trying alternatives to conventional things is the fact that some of the ideas are just not going to be great.

Charlotte the washing machine has been removed from duty and stored in the pump house. As it turns out, it just doesn't get clothes as clean as the bucket and plunger rig which Jill was using last year. It also tends to get clothes jammed up around the agitator bar. Since it doesn't work well, I deem it a failure, at least at this point when I don't have the inclination to try and address the issues. Maybe when I get REALLY bored, I will pull it apart and see if I can make it better, but for now it is collecting dust.

The 50 gallon water barrel shower just doesn't get hot enough. I didn't think you could put something black in the sun around here and not have it become unbearably hot, but the heavy gage plastic and the volume of water apparently resist even NM sunshine. It was warmer than well water, but still on the coolish side, especially for Jill who prefers her showers to be scalding hot.

I ended up getting a black 5 gallon bucket which I covered with a glass plate (it was actually the rotisserie plate from an old microwave). I fill the 5 gallon bucket with slightly preheated water from the 50 gallon barrel and let it sit for a couple of days. It is significantly warmer, and I find it plenty warm to shower in. Jill still prefers to use the Sun Shower bag that my parents gave us.