Monday, June 5, 2017

El Rancho de las Golondrinas

La Cienega, NM   High 90  Low 64

After reluctantly leaving the Very Large Array and spending a night in that “will not ever stop again” RV park, we headed up I-25 towards Santa Fe.

Our son, Steve, and his wife, Jen, live and work on El Rancho de las Golondrinas and we moved into their driveway to spend the week-end.

house

acequia flumeThis is a historic rancho and  living history museum. What a glorious place to be able to call home. Both Steve and Jen absolutely love the work they are doing on the ranch. Steve is in Operations and his main work is to maintain water systems on the ranch. Their acequia system (irrigation ditch complex) is on the Register of Historic Places.

Jen is involved in the agricultural end. They grow an amazing selection of vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers. Needless to say, Steve and Jen eat very well because the staff is allowed to use what they want.

This garden has a few veggies and lots of herbs.

DSCN3238

Let me give you some background on this Ranch. The name means The Ranch of the Swallows. It is located on the El Camino Real (the Royal Road that extended from Mexico City to Santa Fe) and was a place where caravans would stop. It was a paraje, an official rest stop for travelers.

DSCN3228   

The ranch is located on 200 acres just south of Santa Fe and offers examples of life during the period when Spain ruled in the southwestern portion of North America.

DSCN3234

DSCN3237

The property was purchased in 1932 by Leonora Curtin and her mother. Leonora and her Finnish husband saw the potential of the site for a living history museum. Existing historic buildings were restored, period structures were erected and historic buildings were brought in from other sites around New Mexico.

DSCN3239

The museum opened in 1972 and is dedicated to the history, heritage and culture of 18th and 19th century New Mexico. Guides are dressed in period clothing and demonstrate weaving, hide tanning, milling, blacksmithing and the planting of crops.

DSCN3244

This is already a long post so I’m going to finish in another post. I still have so many pictures to go through.

13 comments:

  1. Looks like a very cool place. Will have to visit if I get to Santa Fe again.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love living history museums. How lucky your kids are to be able to live and work there.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh what a beautiful place to work. Steve and Jen sure have a very interesting jobs. I don't remember them ever working here. Are these new jobs?

    ReplyDelete
  4. What an amazing place to work!! This sounds so interesting....I love for history to be preserved!!! Well done!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. WOW I love this place. You kids have a great job. Can't wait to see more

    ReplyDelete
  6. This is the kind of place my granddaughter would love to work at. I bet there is always something new going on there.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Sounds like an interesting place so I'm off to do more research.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Looks like you've discovered another great place to visit on the road. It's a good thing also you found a good place to park. So, would like to know a little about your "never stop again" RV park.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Looks very cozy in that driveway.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I see we're not the only ones driveway camping. What a fantastic place to stay, love historical locations, how great your son and DIL live and work there. Bet you saw lots more than the average tourist. :c)

    ReplyDelete
  11. Visiting family and a neat area..hard to beat:)

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for visiting today. I look forward to reading your comments. Have a beautiful day.