For the past couple of mornings (the afternoons are too hot to work), I've been working for and with a neighboring couple. Their property doesn't adjoin mine, but I can see it from here. The job pays well, but it seems that my presence during an unpleasant task is often more personal and advisory than is typical in the usual strict employer/employee relationship.
The best part, aside from the personal connections being forged, is the location. The property where we work is a hundred-acre tract right on, I mean really right on, the U.S. border. The sinister dark-gray border wall is the south border of the place. It's just right there, hard to ignore. One of the Border Monuments is on the property. The east border is the verdant path of the San Pedro River. I need to bring along my camera next time we go!
The couple sold the property after being assured of no support at all from local law-enforcement officials. The couple had been individually shot at. There were malign cliques of meth users and makers who made life difficult. A valued dog had been shot and killed by someone.
The couple bailed out and sold the land: they ended up buying a place just south of mine on N. Frontier Road. The buyer of the border property defaulted and they foreclosed on the man, who had been exhibiting signs of dementia.
So I've been plunged into involvement in a painful process -- we're trying to sift through the interlocking layers of the defaulting owner's possessions, trying to find enough valuable items to justify the expenses: me, their time, and the cost of renting dumpsters.
I can't really say much more, as I need to get permission from those folks to be more explicit.
On a lighter note, this couple has a 170-pound African Spurred Tortoise in its own pen, complete with heated winter quarters. I need to see and photograph that creature! Three emus, too, although I am told that they aren't very friendly.
More, with photos, to come!