Denizens of the ditch

Last Saturday was spring cleaning on the Pacheco ditch (acequia) that flows from the Rio Pueblo south into Ranchos de Taos. This year, as last, the cleaning began at our new head gate and ended just behind the Immel hacienda. It took ten of us about four hours. Our annual effort keeps the cool mountain water flowing freely to each of our parcels along its serpentine path. Sometimes the work borders on backbreaking and other times, as this year, it’s a casual stroll through field and farm as you reconnect with vecinos (neighbors) you may not have seen since the last time you shoveled and raked.

I carried my pocketable Sony RX100 Mark II so I could grab shots of the work but wound up instead with headshots. One is of John Hall, once a textbook publisher in Cambridge and a former resident of Lincoln, MA as we are. John has been on my list of potential victims since I met him at our first cleaning eight years ago. The other is of the wired for sound Russell Droke.

Gentleman rancher John Hall

Russell "The Dervish" Droke

When I asked Russell if I could photograph him he said, “Why not. I’m used to it.” And now you know why.  He's got some mug on him.