Kendra Ruminer's Two Cents of Real Estate

Take A Peek At Los Alamos, New Mexico

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You Can Still Have Fun Outside During Stage 3 Restrictions

May 20, 2022 /

There’s a lot of chatter around Los Alamos about the declaration of Stage 3 Fire Restrictions here in Los Alamos. There’ve also been reports that as of this morning, Thursday May 19, 2022, the National Forests have been closed as well. This move on the part of the Forest Service and Los Alamos County isn’t unlike a stern parent making a decision to limit the activities of their children for very good reasons. Sure. We’re all disappointed. School is about to end, the sky is blue, the sun is hot, and it would be wonderful to escape down to the canyon floor to enjoy a hike in the shade.

But last week we were talking about possible evacuations due to extreme fire danger and the Cerro Pelado fire. So this week, I want to focus on all of the amazing things you can still do here in Los Alamos in order to get outside.

For the Kids

This might be a really great opportunity to reacquaint yourself with the Pajarito Environmental Education Center! The outdoor demonstration gardens and nature play area are still fair game for visitors. Check out their website HERE and plan a visit soon! It’s a great way to get outside and enjoy the fresh air here in town.

Park Hopping

There are very likely more than a few parks here in town that you’re not aware of. It’s highly likely you’ve heard of a Pub Crawl. So why not do a much healthier version and Park Crawl all over Los Alamos County? Pull up a Google Map and type in “Parks in Los Alamos”. I bet you’ll see more than a few on the list that you’ve never heard of in places you’d never expect! Pack a snack and plan on visiting those parks one at at time until you’ve seen them all!

And while you’re doing your Park Crawl, don’t forget to check out the resting place for a lot of the old playground equipment retired from parks in Los Alamos County, the Miniature Golf Course. Many of you might not realize that Los Alamos County maintains a miniature golf course. During Covid 19 restrictions, the county opted to stop renting equipment, but you can always buy your own and make this activity a regular on your list of cool things to do in town!

For Everyone

Not that everyone can’t play miniature golf, but if you’re itching to get out and about here are a few suggestions for changing up your hiking, biking, walking, riding, running, or dog walking scenery:

Tour the Neighborhoods

Pull up that Google Map again and plan a trip to a neighborhood you’ve never visited before. Be polite to the residents as your walk their streets. Pick up the official Field Guide to Los Alamos Housing and then take yourself on a tour to find the various group housing areas of Los Alamos. Challenge yourself to discover the remaining Lustron Homes. In some of our neighborhoods, nature is just as close as it is out on the trail.

Don’t forget you can still use paved trails such as the Canyon Rim Trail. Try taking one of these in order to connect you to a neighborhood you’ve never visited before. You might be surprised what you find here in Los Alamos.

Tour the Acres

You may or may not know that there is a paved trail that meanders through Pajarito Acres and La Senda in White Rock as well. Perhaps this is your opportunity to explore country living in Los Alamos County and enjoy a walk or a run while enjoying some fresh scenery.

Now, my fellow residents, if you’ve got additional ideas of how to get outside and enjoy yourself despite fire restrictions, put them in the comments of my Facebook Post! I’d love to hear how you keep busy and stay active no matter what season it is. And when you’re ready to join our community here in Los Alamos, give me a call! I’d love to chat Real Estate with you!

What IS Good Information Anyway?

May 11, 2022 /

There is no doubt that a haze of anxiety hangs over Los Alamos. Sure, there’s a layer of smoke from the Cerro Pellado fire too, but the anxiety is a very real thing that many of us feel right now. Whether your anxiety comes from having to evacuate for wildfires in previous years, or it comes from never having done this before and feeling completely out of control, anxiety is still very real and very difficult to deal with. With that in mind, I’ve asked my friends at Los Alamos Family Council for some thoughts about mental health during these difficult times.

The Past

The 2011 Las Conchas fire was the last evacuation of Los Alamos County. That particular fire was burning very hot and moved quite fast. In addition, several of the public notification systems were quite new and there were still a few bugs that needed to be worked out. It’s true that evacuation was haphazard and created the need for residents to throw what they could into a suitcase at 2:00AM in the morning.

In 2000 when Cerro Grande burned parts of Los Alamos, the technology for both wildland firefighting and also emergency management was much less developed. Can you remember back to 2000? Here’s a fact to keep in mind: Facebook wasn’t even created until 2004. Created, not even widely used. Yes. We had Internet in the year 2000, but while information was more readily available, it wasn’t nearly the beast that social media has become.

What We Learned

The best news of all right now is that our emergency planning teams have learned a lot from past fires. Not just here in Los Alamos, but all over the country! When folks here in Los Alamos take a walk at the North Mesa Stables and see almost all of the animals gone, take comfort in realizing they have been preemptively and voluntarily evacuated by their owners in order to make things less hectic if a full scale evacuation actually needs to happen. Horses, cattle, llamas, sheep, goats, and chickens can’t just be loaded into the backseat of an SUV so they can watch a video on the way down to Santa Fe. The logistics involved in moving livestock is considerable. So let’s pause to be glad there won’t be a hundred stock trailers tooling down the mountain with you and your household pets.

The same goes for vulnerable populations like the residents of Sombrillo and Aspen Ridge. Taking time to move these elderly residents allows them to be treated with extra special care. Their caregivers can find appropriate medical facilities to host them and have ample time to make sure their routines and medical needs are kept as intact as possible. So instead of viewing this portion of the preemptive evacuation as alarming, see it as proactive and helpful to you and your family.

Just Another Trip

Picture the last time you boarded an airplane. Are you one of those people who wants an assigned seat and then waits until the last possible second to board so you don’t have to be squished into that airplane seat for hours on end?

Perhaps you’re a family with small kiddos or pets and you take advantage of the early boarding to get your kids on board and settled in. Maybe boarding early lets you set up the tablet and get the livestream going so your children aren’t driving you crazy during the flight. Or maybe your pets need some calming meds so they aren’t completely stressed out during their trip. Either way, there are decisions to be made in order to make traveling easier.

Think about this potential evacuation like an airplane trip. Do you want to stay off the plane (in your own home) until the last possible second or do you just want to get on the plane? Would you rather get someplace and get settled and just plan on being there for a little longer (and nobody can even say what that would look like right now)?

When To Take Your Trip

This decision is really important. But going back to the title of my post, it’s also critical that the decision of when to go, where to go, how to go, and when you plan on returning is made with the help of viable information sources. Don’t get sucked into a race to evacuate created by the recent Facebook Frenzy! This is not a race. Reports from the incident team and Fire Chief Troy Hughes suggest we’re going to have 24 to 48 hours to pack up and go. Be calm and get your information directly from the Community Updates or the Forest Service. Don’t get them from your favorite Facebook Group, Instagram, or Snapchat. Don’t give into someone else’s anxiety. Take a mental step back, check the real news, breathe, and make an active plan with your family. And if you’re really that worried, go!

Los Alamos is still an amazing place to live! We have so many things to do, beautiful sights to see, and a fascinating history to learn. For right now, I hope that all of you stay safe here in Los Alamos or wherever your plan takes you! If you’re truly feeling overwhelmed by anxiety, the Los Alamos Family Council Counseling Center will remain open until Los Alamos moves to “Go!” status and the counseling center closes to maintain the safety of their employees and the firefighting personnel with boots on the ground. Family Council offers telehealth services anywhere in New Mexico and has resources available for those in need regardless of their insurance or socioeconomic situation. And when things settle down and you’re ready to talk real estate in Los Alamos, give me a call! I’d love to chat with you!

Thanks to Karla Palmer, LMHC, of Los Alamos Family Council for her contribution to this week’s post!

Where Los Alamos Used to Shop

May 1, 2022 /

Along with concerns about the availability of housing, another common theme in Living Los Alamos is wishing there was more shopping. The pandemic certainly hit us hard, but the closing of CB Fox and other long time shopping locations has reminded me that there have been a lot of different stores throughout the years. Some might really surprise you. I’m going to give you a few names, and if you remember some more, please feel free to share them in the comments on Facebook!

Gibson’s Discount Store

If you or your parents were raising families here in Los Alamos in the 1970’s, there’s a really good chance you remember Gibson’s down in White Rock. Yes. White Rock. The Gibson’s building is currently housing Smith’s. But back in it’s heyday, Texas based Gibson’s offered a little bit of everything to the consumers of Los Alamos County. Clothe the family, buy your favorite candy, and even stock up on hunting supplies. Yep. No kidding. In an October 1972 issue of Field & Stream magazine, Gibson Products Co Los Alamos location is listed as being a participant in the great Cedar-Crest Kentucky Pistol Giveaway. Most of the moms from that era recall escaping with the kids to the air conditioned store where they could browse the aisles just for something to do.

TG&Y

If you lived in Los Alamos in 1983 during the now historically infamous Cabbage Patch Christmas Craze, there’s a good chance your mom or your friend’s mom spent a lot of time hanging out at TG&Y from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve. The store held raffles for the last remaining Cabbage Patch Dolls in the days leading up to Christmas. A winning ticket gave you the opportunity to pay $50 for a doll that retailed for $30 when they first came out only a few months before.

The Oklahoma based five and dime store was the place to shop back in the eighties for residents of Los Alamos. In fact, this YouTube video for a 1984 back to school shopping ad is probably going to make you laugh and cry at the same time. (Try not to look at what things cost back then!) TG&Y originally occupied a good chunk of the storefront at the Mari Mac Village Shopping Center where you can now go and hang out at the Pajarito Brewpub. Back in “the day”, Smith’s occupied the Central Avenue side and TG&Y occupied the Trinity Drive side with the chain store “Revco” sandwiched handily between to handle the prescriptions, cosmetics, and other drug store needs of Los Alamos residents.

TG&Y went through several rebrandings, including MrCrory’s and Coast to Coast, and eventually became Bealls before being sold again to Gordman’s, and finally closed thanks mostly to the pandemic of 2020. However, the space is still there so who knows what might pop up in the next few years.

Anthonys

Yet another Oklahoma based chain store used to occupy a large storefront where you can now enjoy a bagel at Ruby K’s. Los Alamos Drug was conveniently located in the corner spot where Starbucks is (until they move to their brand new location), but Anthony’s required the rest of the square footage for their racks of clothing, shelves of shoes, and even an assortment of fabric and sewing supplies for the busy housewives of the seventies and eighties. Here in Los Alamos, it was the place for go for your cowboy boots and brand new jeans for the first day of school. The Anthonys chain went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1991, and in 1997 the chain was acquired by Stage Stores Inc. At that time the store in Los Alamos had already been closed. Ironically enough, the remaining Anthonys stores were mostly rebranded Bealls. Go figure.

Now, these aren’t the only places we used to shop. In an upcoming post I’ll be talking about some other stores that used to provide the population with some important necessities for daily life in Los Alamos.

As we look back on the places we used to shop in Los Alamos, I’d like to point out something that’s actually a bit encouraging. The topic of small business in Los Alamos is always something we hear discussed. But all of these stores above went out of business not because of local taxes, unreasonable rent, or other locally based problems. These stores were casualties of retail issues that happened nationally. Every small town in America has had these problems thanks to big box stores and now cyber shopping. Perhaps we should just be patient and see where the next wave of retail fads take us. A few more specialty stores such as Seeking Chameleon or The Cricket Window would be welcome. And while we might pretend to wish we had a Walmart or Target, the truth is that when those bigger box stores move in, it pretty much kills any smaller retail competitors. So hang on, Los Alamos. Shop Small! And when you’re ready to talk buying and selling real estate, give me a call! I’m your hometown real estate agent and I’d love to chat with you!

Hope & Help For Parents to Be!

April 22, 2022 /

There’s no doubt in my mind that parenting is tough! Not just because you’re tired both physically and emotionally by the everyday tasks of raising your kiddos, but because raising kids these days is expensive! So because spring always feels like the season of babies, I thought it might be a great idea to mention two very special organizations that offer support to parents in our community.

HOPE Pregnancy Center

For many of you, the building right across from the high school fronting Diamond Drive will always be the old “Ed’s Supermarket” building, (more about that in another post!) But around the corner from the entrance to Gracie Barra, you might see the letters H-O-P-E in purple. The letters stand for Health Options Pregnancy Education and the organization is a national faith based non profit that focuses on exactly what it sounds like.

These days HOPE has moved to a location closer to the downtown area in the old bank building at 1650 Trinity Dr. They’re in Suite 107 right across from Sonic and are still helping everyone who walks through their doors.

Testing

The most critical piece of information when you’re worried that you might be pregnant is that first question. Am I? HOPE offers free pregnancy testing to anyone no matter their age or their religious affiliation. This is an incredible service for anyone worried about that all important question. Perhaps you don’t know which test to buy, how to take it, or maybe you’re just too intimidated to even attempt it on your own. After all, if you discover you are pregnant, what then? HOPE offers appointment based testing in a safe, supportive environment. You’ll be treated with respect by someone qualified to help you through the experience regardless of the answer.

Education

Never considered yourself parent material? Don’t worry! HOPE has classes to help you through the uncertainty of pregnancy. Once you’re holding your baby close, HOPE offers classes on parenting to help you navigate the questions surrounding basic baby care and even best practices surrounding discipline, child development, and safety. Sometimes just taking a class makes you feel more secure. After all, kids don’t come with an owners’ manual!

The Baby Boutique

The Baby Boutique is an amazing service offered by HOPE to their families. Stocked with new and gently used baby and toddler gear of every description, the boutique has a “baby bucks” program that offers material help to bridge the gap between what parents need and what they might be able to afford in a tight spot.

Volunteering

If you’ve raised your kiddos and are looking for a great way to get involved in the community, check out HOPE’s volunteer page. Put your skills to work organizing baby clothes, doing office work, or offering support to new and expecting parents. Volunteering is the best way to really make friends and carve out your very own niche in a new community. So if you’re looking for ways to expand on my previous post about Newcomers in Los Alamos, this could be the opportunity for you!

First Born of Los Alamos

I’ve mentioned this organization before on my blog, but honestly, if you’re expecting your first child here in Los Alamos, you should really reach out to this program! The most incredible resource they offer is the home visit. Now that Covid restrictions have lessened, home visits are once again taking place. This is an amazing opportunity to have someone come to you with an offer of help. Even if it’s only a piece of advice here or there or a kind smile and a “you’re doing great!” That can be the difference between feeling secure in your parenting and feeling like a hot mess!

The best way to get a good picture of the First Born Program is to check out their introductory video here. Honestly, I can’t tell you about them more effectively than they can tell you themselves!

Regardless of your parenting status, I hope you’ll agree with me that it’s wonderful to be part of a community that offers so many resources for people in every stage of life! I love it here in Los Alamos. And I hope when you decide you want to talk real estate in Los Alamos County, you give me a call!

Shooting Sports in Los Alamos

April 16, 2022 /

You may have already visited Rendija Canyon while in Los Alamos. The canyon is situated at the bottom of Rendija Road, just below Barranca Mesa. Where San Ildefonso Road dead ends just past Dinosaur Park, you’ll find yourself diving down a narrow, curving paved path leading to a rough dirt road. If you followed it too much farther you would essentially leave civilization. Generations of Los Alamos residents have enjoyed off road adventures down there. A gravel parking area hosts plenty of hikers and bikers and trail runners heading for the Rendija Canyon Loop or one of the other plentiful trails. But where the trees thin for a brief span, you might have noticed a collection of well kept metal buildings, some locked gates, and probably a lot of cars.

Los Alamos Sportsmen’s Club

In October of 1947, circa end of World War II, a group of Los Alamos residents formed the LA Rifle Association. They met in an old building in the downtown area to share their love of shooting, practice their skills, and teach anyone interested the basics of shooting and hunting safety.

The Association eventually moved to an outdoor range atop Barranca Mesa. When housing was privatized and multiple phases of housing developments on Barranca Mesa went up, the group relocated to the bottom of Rendija Canyon in the 1960’s. The group was granted a land lease by the then Atomic Energy Commission and today holds a lease from the Department of Energy.

The Purpose

The current Sportsmen’s Club is a non profit organization that includes more than 500 memberships with more than 1000 members from families and organizations of all shapes and sizes. Their purpose is to promote safe enjoyment of shooting sports and to educate the community about the amazing opportunities available to those who enjoy the sport.

The Sportsmen’s Club offers basic shotgun, rifle, and handgun classes to teach beginners how to be safe while enjoying the sport. For Los Alamos residents looking to enjoy some of the hunting opportunities around the state, the club hosts NM Hunter Education Classes. You can see a full offering of training and classes available here.

Programs

The Sportsmen’s Club is one of the only ranges in Northern New Mexico to offer practice for all three phases of competitive clay pigeon shooting for shotgun enthusiasts. Our Los Alamos High School affiliated Junior shotgun team is nationally ranked and one of the best ranked teams in New Mexico! Even if you’re not a competitive shooter, you might really enjoy reliving your Nintendo Duck Hunt experience and challenging yourself with a group of supportive fellow shooters on the shotgun range.

The rifle range offers measured targets from 25 to 300 yards with covered and uncovered shooting stations allowing a variety of methods to be used. If you’re looking for something old school, Los Alamos also hosts a division of the Single Action Shooting Society Single Action is also known as Cowboy Action. So if you’re ready to pull our your Wyatt Earp costume and blast a few targets with either a rifle or a six shooter, you’re in good company!

Speaking of six shooters, there are a number of handgun opportunities at the Sportsmen’s Club. You can even utilize the indoor range on cold or windy days. And if your taste runs more to archery pursuits, the beautiful archery range hosts competitions and educational opportunities as well.

Community

The Sportsmen Club offers the use of their range for 4-H and Boy Scout activities in an effort to promote the shooting sports in a fun and safe environment. 4-Hers can qualify their projects with the help of mentors while enjoying themselves in the beautiful Rendija landscape. Both the regular scouting activities as well as the mounted troop practice on the range. LAPD and other law enforcement agencies from surrounding jurisdictions utilize our range for their qualifying programs, and the range also frequently hosts ROTC members for educational purposes.

The Future

I’ve heard plenty of rumors lately regarding the club’s future in Los Alamos. The most recent rumor was that there would be a closure of the club and a housing development going up. While Los Alamos is always looking for good places to put houses, Rendija Canyon is realistically very low on the list. The electric services aren’t sufficient to support housing, there is no public water or sewer services, and the costs of installing these basic infrastructure necessities would be astronomical.

At this time, the Sportsmen’s Club has just signed a fifteen year lease with DOE for the property. While there are historic issues with possible unexploded ordinance from the war years and various concerns with land contamination similar to other canyons in the Los Alamos region, none of these things currently affect the club’s use of the land, or the use of the surrounding canyon area for public recreation. For more information about this, check out the club’s home page for a letter from the club president.

Regardless of your personal interest in shooting sports, there is no doubt that this is a unique and amazing opportunity to add to the list of things to do here in Los Alamos. The club hosts several open range days each year for non members to enjoy the facilities. Members welcome anyone to come out and experience target shooting, clay pigeon shooting, or handgun shooting, even providing equipment and tutoring to those who need it. Shooting sports are just one more piece of our Los Alamos History puzzle. And when you’re ready to be a part of Los Alamos, get in touch with me! I’d love to chat Los Alamos Real Estate with you!

Newcomer’s Survival Guide

April 9, 2022 /

There’s no doubt that relocating can be stressful. Buying a new home is always exciting, but each move comes with its own set of unique circumstances. Whether you’re leaving one community for another, moving across country, or just relocating neighborhoods, leaving established relationships in order to dive into new ones is never an easy thing.

As many of us know from first hand experience, moving to Los Alamos has its own set of challenges. But the good news is that there are so very many wonderful resources and opportunities here in the city on the hill. So, if you’re looking for a way to connect with new people and establish yourself in this wonderful community of Los Alamos, prepare to take notes.

For Families & Especially Mothers

If you’ve got kids of any age, the best way to meet new friends is to help your kiddos settle into a new friend group of their own. The first stop in helping your kids find a group is to check out the Family YMCA of Los Alamos. You can see a short brochure of their offerings here. With child care available to younger kids while their parents enjoy an exercise class, the YMCA is a wonderful resource for new families in Los Alamos. Sign your kids up for a team sport, volunteer, and get involved! This can be the first step in meeting new families that share your interests and goals.

And if you’re a mother of a young child, don’t feel as though you’re here all by yourself! Make some time and reach out! Go to a yoga class. Take advantage of the child watch at the Family Y and do something for yourself. Nothing could be more important for you, your kiddo, and your family!

In the past, I’ve spoken about the Family Strengths Network. But I have to say that as a resource for new and existing families in our community, they really know how to offer support! If you visit their website at LAFSN.org, you’ll find a list of support groups, classes, field trips, and activities for everyone. There’s no better way to find people you have things in common with than to take a class or attend a field trip or discussion group. These are perfect places to strike up a conversation and make new friends!

For Everyone

If you’re a happy couple or even a happy single, don’t worry! There are plenty of places for you to find friends and like minded people to just hang out with. The key is to get involved. Remember the Scooby Doo cartoons? The theme song lyrics are, “Come on get involved, there’s a mystery to solve.” I challenge anyone to get out and get involved. Sometimes it becomes an easy habit to sit in your new place and tell yourself you don’t know anybody. It might be true. But you will never know anyone until you get out and get involved!

The Family Y – While you might not need child watch services, the YMCA is a fantastic place to take a yoga class, or use the climbing wall. The listing of available classes has some truly unique opportunities.

FLACL – Or, perhaps you’re more of a bookworm. Volunteer with the Friends of the Library here in Los Alamos and meet some fellow bibliophiles. Find more information about that wonderful group of people here. They collect, catalog, and maintain the Friends of the Library just inside the Mesa Public Library building and do other volunteer work with our county libraries as well as other public service library organizations.

Los Alamos Sportsmen’s Club – Are you an outdoor type who likes to hunt? What about target shooting? Would it interest you to know that one of the top Junior Level Shotgun Shooting teams is located right here in Los Alamos? The Sportsmen’s Club offers training classes for novice and beginner shooters of all ages whether your interest is in sporting clays or target shooting with a pistol or a rifle. Members in the club are active and come from every walk of life. Check out their website for more information.

No matter if you like exercise, books, or target shooting and outdoor pursuits, there is an organization for you in Los Alamos. I hope that you’ve gotten some good ideas on ways to get involved here in Los Alamos. If you’re new to our community, we welcome you! If you’ve been here for years, hopefully you’ve read about an organization that appeals to you. And if you’re ready to join our community here in Los Alamos, please give me a call. I’d love to talk to you!

Gardening in Los Alamos

March 26, 2022 /

No matter the status of your green thumb, there are some really interesting options for gardening here in Los Alamos. The topsoil here on the Pajarito Plateau isn’t ideal for growing gardens, but modern farming and gardening technology have come up with soil additives and organic fertilizing options that can help you with everything from basic fertility issues to improving the taste of your vegetables and fruits.

If your home is older and you’re located on a large lot, you might have plenty of room for a garden. Sunlight might be a problem if you live on a lot filled with towering trees or one that happens to be in the shadow of the mountains. Maybe you’re in one of the newer developments such as Quemazon or Mirador and you don’t have the space for a garden. That doesn’t exclude you from the enjoyment of growing your own flowers, fruits, and vegetables here in Los Alamos. It just means you might want to check into joining one of the community gardens.

If you’re scratching your head and wondering what I’m talking about, you’re probably not alone. Many residents don’t realize that our lovely city on the hill boasts three separate locations for community gardening. There’s a fairly well known plot up on North Mesa accessible from the North Mesa Stables, another in front of the Police Station, and a third in White Rock. The White Rock Community Garden is directly across State Road 4 from the Visitor Center near the Canada del Buey trailhead.

Community Gardens have a long history here in the United States. According to the Smithsonian’s education and gardening website, “Since the 1890s, Americans have turned to the garden to confront social problems such as economic recession, war, urban decline, and environmental injustice.” You’ve probably heard of Victory Gardens, popular during WWI and WWII, but you might not know that a good number of the Victory or “War Gardens” from WWI were Community Gardens. And it wasn’t just morale they were trying to boost either. There was a shortage of food during these times. “The War Garden Commission reported there were 3,500,000 war gardens in 1917, which produced some 350 million dollars worth of crops.” (communitygardens.si.edu)

Photo Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institute Archives

Community Gardening programs were kickstarted in large cities during recession, depression, and periods of heightening unemployment. Why? Because it gave people something to do. It’s good for the body and soul to be outside under the sun working hard. And growing food to feed your family is just as important as taking the excess produce to the Farmers’ Market to earn some much needed cash. With the rise of the Farm to Table movement, this has literally become a way of life for not just family farms, but also enterprising individuals.

With the recent social and political issues going on not only in our country, but internationally, there has never been a better time to get outside and garden! Here in Los Alamos, the growing season is just getting underway. I’ve been noticing members of the Community Gardens out clearing the fall collection of leaves and debris away from their garden plots in preparation for planting. If you’d like to be a part of the Los Alamos Community Gardening movement, contact the Parks & Recreation Department for more information. If you’ve ever wondered what the Parks department actually does here in Los Alamos, they maintain 29 parks and 20 playgrounds covering 600 acres, 4,000 acres of open space, and 58 miles of local trails. Of course, there’s also management of the North Mesa Stables, the Community Gardens, and more than a few amazing amenities like the Aquatic Center and the Ice Rink. So when you’re ready to start growing your own produce in your Community Garden Plot, they’re the department to call.

Worried you have a brown thumb instead of a green one? That’s okay! There are tons of resources online and around Los Alamos to help out. 4-H Cooperative Extension is a wealth of information about soil and land conservation. According to the Smithsonian, part of the community gardening movement has been a growth of School Gardens. The idea of the School Garden actually dates back to the early 1900s. But organizations like Montessori and many public school districts have continued the use of gardening as a way to educate your kiddos in concepts of science, economics, and nutrition. In many large urban areas, outdoor pre-schools are becoming the choice of parents wanting their children to learn about green, growing things.

Here in Los Alamos, the North Mesa Stables based Little Farm on the Hill is working to offer “farm school” classes focused on nutrition and wellness, gardening, and animal husbandry. Keep an eye out for their upcoming camps in Summer of 2022. And if you want to join your kids in learning how to grow a few things, check in with the Los Alamos Garden Club and ask for local resources on how to get your garden growing in Los Alamos.

So get your favorite pair of outdoor shoes and some gloves and get outside this spring! It’s a beautiful time of year here in Los Alamos and there’s no better time to get involved. And when you’re ready to buy and sell real estate here in Los Alamos, look me up! I’ve love to talk Los Alamos Real Estate with you!

Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

March 18, 2022 /

The word neighbor might make you smile or groan. So much about liking or not liking your neighbors falls outside of your control. But some things you can control. Things like what kind of fencing you choose. Privacy is a huge part of feeling secure in your home and your fence is what establishes the level of privacy you enjoy.

Planning Your Fence

Here in Los Alamos, the first thing you need to do when planning to upgrade your existing fence or build a new one is to check our county ordinances. You can use this link here. For the most part, if you’re fencing in the back of your home, you need to keep it under six feet in height. If you’re in your front yard, three feet is considered legal. If you have a corner lot or other unique property features, you’ll need to make sure that there aren’t any additional applicable restrictions.

The second thing to ask yourself is what you want your fence to do. Sure. These examples of standard wood fencing are attractive, but will they keep things in or out? Do you have chickens or dogs or children to worry about? How much maintenance do you want to do on your fence?

That beautifully even toned picket fence is going to take a beating in our dry climate. And the UV rays are going to require you to power wash and stain that fence on a yearly basis to even get close to its promised life span. Another frequent complaint of this fencing type is the tendency of the wood posts to dry rot. However, you can look into several different metal post options in order to mitigate that particular problem.

If you’re looking for less maintenance, you might try metal fencing. Some of these wrought iron options are really attractive and can be matched to the spindles on your deck or outdoor staircase.

I realize that when you think metal, you might be thinking about chain link or even barbed wire. While chain link fencing can be an inexpensive option, it doesn’t offer much in the way of privacy. And unless you’re keeping cattle in your yard, barbed wire isn’t going to do anything but add that “rustic” appeal.

Something you might have seen going up in various places around town is masonry walls. There are four to five different varieties of masonry wall, including those covered in stucco, and they can sometimes be combined with other fencing options such as metal or coyote fencing to create a unique and even artistic look to your fence. Masonry walls also have the advantage of being more durable against UV rays and offer good sound buffering. However, they aren’t inexpensive and you’ll likely want to hire a good contractor instead of trying it yourself.

Masonry Walls can be used in several different kinds of fencing combinations.

Location

The other critical piece of planning your fence is the location of your property. How much rock are you going to run into when digging post holes? Are you on the canyon edge? How many bears are you likely to host in your backyard? Are you on the edge of White Rock and prone to sixty mile per hour straight line winds? Does your property have trees to help with the sun’s punishing rays?

All of these questions need to be considered when choosing your best fencing option. Once you’ve determined the material best suited to your needs, you can take a look at budget and the expected lifespan you need from your fence. Keep in mind that part of my “good fences make good neighbors” proverb has to do with choosing a fence that doesn’t offend your neighbors. Talk to them about it. You never know, if you and your neighbors can come to an agreement about what works best for everyone, they might even be willing to help with the cost.

At the end of the day, we’re all neighbors here in Los Alamos. And when you’re ready to talk real estate, give me a call! I’m your hometown real estate expert!

Get Out & Run!

March 9, 2022 /

If you’ve never heard of the Jemez Mountain Trail Runs, you have no idea what kind of fun and excitement you’re missing out on. Even if you don’t enjoy a good trail run, don’t click away from this post just yet. First of all, you don’t have to set out at the crack of dawn and run fifty miles to enjoy this annual event here in Los Alamos. Jemez Mountain Trail Runs offers 50 mile, 50 K and 15 mile runs. You even get 7 hours to complete your 15 miles, which is pretty generous in allowing participants to set a pace that’s comfortable to them.

This year’s Sixteenth Annual Running is scheduled for Saturday May 21. It might seem like this post is a bit early for an even that is still just over two months away, but let’s be honest. It’s been a bit of a strange and sluggish winter here in Los Alamos. This could be just the incentive you need to get out and get moving! It takes some time to work up to a trail run. So now would be the perfect time to start training.

The races have staggered start times between 5:00AM and 8:00AM depending on how much trail running you’d like to do. All races start and finish at the Sheriff’s Posse Lodge up on North Mesa Road.

I love to run, but if you’re more ambitious than I am, you can actually use the 50 Mile and 50K Jemez Mountain Trail Runs as a way to gain ITRA points. The International Trail Running Association was formed in 2013 to keep track of points earned by trail runners in order to qualify for some of the bigger trail races such as the Bighorn in Montana and the Western States in Wyoming. If you really get into trail running, you might even qualify for the UTMB series. This Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc takes place every August in Chamonix, France. It’s like the Olympics of Trail Running, a seven day mega event that challenges trail runners from every corner of the world. And for the record, American women have traditionally done pretty darned well in this race!

Meanwhile, Back In Los Alamos…

Part of the coolness of the Jemez Mountain Trail Runs is that it traverses one of Los Alamos County’s best trails. The Mitchell Trail. Sometimes known as Forest Road #69, The Mitchell Trail was first developed as an Eagle Scout Project. The trail was created in 1974 by David Mitchell with the purpose of connecting Los Alamos with Guaje Canyon. Erosion and later flash flooding damage caused by the Cerro Grande Fire in May 2000 and the Las Conchas Fire in 2011 made the northern portion of the trail impassable. However, in 2018 efforts were made to rebuild this important connecting trail by moving a portion to the ridge in order to provide access to the Guaje Reservoir.

If you’ve never walked or run the Mitchell Trail, the trailhead is located at the top of Arizona Street. According to the hiking project,

“From the trailhead on Arizona Street, travel uphill a short distance to meet the Perimeter Trail coming in from the left, proceed over a low ridge and continue straight when the Perimeter Trail heads to the right. Skirt below a water tank and make a crossing of a dry stream channel. The original trail use to stay in the canyon bottom but flooding in the canyon after the 2011 Las Conchas fire, more or less wiped out the trail. Circa 2014, the Mitchell Trail was officially re-routed by the USFS up out of the canyon and onto the ridge to the west of the canyon. There is an official sign marking the left turn up out of the canyon bottom. There is still a decent use trail in the canyon bottom used by hikers heading to the Natural Arch Trail and this use trail continues through the canyon to the intersection of the “new” trail where it heads up the steep switchbacks to Guaje Ridge.

After about a mile, the Mitchell Trail turns north and steeply ascends to a saddle. Guaje Ridge, hidden until now, is still one half mile and 400 feet of elevation gain ahead. The intersection with the Guaje Ridge Trail #285 is near a plaque honoring the late trail builder, David Mitchell.”

Alltrails.com considers the Mitchell Trail to be 7.1 miles out and back. But part of the fun of the Mitchell Trail is using it again and again to link to other trails here in beautiful Los Alamos County. Whether you’re trying to reach Guaje Canyon, the old Perimeter Trail, or to find the Natural Arch, this is the place to begin.

And whether you want to hike the Mitchell Trail on your own, take a chance on joining the Jemez Mountain Trail Runs, or set your sights on competing in Chamonix, France, our tiny town atop the hill is a great place to be! And when you’re ready to make your home here in Los Alamos, give me a call! I’d love to chat local with YOU.

Looking Back At Real Estate in Los Alamos

February 19, 2022 /

There’s no doubt that we can look back ten years and see change. No matter who you are, a decade is a looong time! But as I celebrate my tenth anniversary as a ReMax real estate broker, I want to take you with me on a time warp journey back through my real estate journey in Los Alamos.

First of all, let’s clarify what ten years really means in this context. I’ve been with ReMax ten years, but I actually started here in the real estate business in 2003. I worked until 2006 before taking a break to raise some babies between 2006-2014. When my kiddos were ready to be a little more independent, I got back into the real estate game. So in reality, we’re talking about almost twenty years of changes in the market here in Los Alamos.

Plenty to Shop For

If you’ve been here in Los Alamos for a few decades, you know that our real estate market can fluctuate in some pretty steep patterns that correlate pretty consistently with LANL projects. Ten, fifteen, and even twenty years ago, we were in a very different market, a buyers market in fact. There were plenty of houses on the market to look at. Buyers could pick and choose from a variety of options. Sometimes the same house would see nearly a $100K price difference from one sale to the next. And that could go in either direction!

The large number of available homes back in the day meant that there were more than a few full time real estate brokers here in town. Back in 2003, names such as my mentor, Kendra Henning, Pearl White, Nancy Mroz, and Jim Gautier adorned many signs around town. Some you still see, some have retired or semi-retired. At that time there were such a large number of local real estate agents that we had our own Los Alamos Association of Realtors® (LAAOR).

New Construction at Quemazon

I remember when Quemazon was a new and fantastically different housing option here in Los Alamos. Buyers could opt to build new instead of buy an existing home right in the (kind of) middle of town. Now we’re building in White Rock and looking at an expansion of Ponderosa Estates. The growth might not be fast, but it is happening.

Homes Prices Were Still Rising

It’s true that we’re seeing home values right now that feel shocking. But it’s important to remember that this isn’t isolated to Los Alamos. This is everywhere! I remember the first Los Alamos home selling in the over $800K price range somewhere around 2005. It seemed unbelievable at that time too. Don’t forget that whether we call things inexpensive or expensive is mostly perception and whatever else is going on at the time. Keep in mind that ten years ago in 2012 the high price for a gallon of unleaded gasoline was $3.62. That isn’t wildly different from what you’re probably paying now. Sometimes it’s difficult to remember how wildly things can fluctuate. Certainly, we’ve seen a steadier rise in real estate values. Circa 2004-2006, the average rise was 5% per year. In 2012 & 2013 the average price dropped 4%! Now we’re seeing a 10%-15% per year increase in prices, but that’s also influenced by inflation, which has risen to 7.5%. That’s the highest inflation rate we’ve experienced in the US since 1982.

A ten year anniversary is certainly something to celebrate, but really I’ve been in the Los Alamos Real Estate game for almost two decades. Since coming back in December of 2014 I’ve sold $93M in volume and worked with 284 families of all shapes and sizes to buy or sell their home. And that’s not even close to how many wonderful people I’ve met through being in this business. I’m so glad to be here in Los Alamos doing what I love in a place that is very much my home! So many exciting things have happened in my time with ReMax and I expect more and more exciting things to keep happening! And when you’re ready to talk real estate in Los Alamos, give me a call. I’d love to chat with you!

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