Tips for living in isolation
Living 65 miles from the nearest city of any real magnitude can shape your life a little differently than most. Most of my early life was spent on an outlying ranch in NE New Mexico, 65 miles southwest of Clayton and 80 miles north of Tucumcari. He learns to fend for himself quite well under these circumstances, but that inaccessibility also produces good neighbors.
Our closest neighbor was three miles away, and there were a few others within twenty miles. Getting closer to each other became second nature, as there were rarely any alternatives. Plumbing, carpentry, and tearing need to be fairly mastered on a remote ranch. However, if you are not prepared for some things, your neighbor will probably help you.
My grandmother got her hair done in Raton, NM once a week or so, and that trip took two hours one way! You need to make an extensive shopping list when you live so far from the city. Our grocery purchases generally involved at least two shopping carts and sometimes three. People often stared in amazement at the overloaded carts we were pushing to the cash register. We always ask for dry ice to pack cold food for the long drive home.
Telephones were not installed on the ranch until 1986, a fact that amazes most of the townspeople. Just making a phone call required a lot of planning. The closest phone to us, in my youth, was in Mosquero, New Mexico, a small town 25 miles away. There was a gas station there, with a phone that you could park in your car, and I remember when I was young, sitting for what seemed like hours while Grandma made phone calls.
Once the phone was finally installed, long distance bills were always horrendous, usually over $ 250 a month simply because every call he made was long distance. These days, with most remote locations having access to the internet, the ability to make calls online can save your life. If you live in a remote location but have Internet service, look up phone services online if you haven’t already.
Sometimes I wonder how we made everything work with the difficulty that this kind of isolated life implies. But the rewards are great; you have wide open spaces to breathe fresh air and the freedom to do whatever you want. As the old cowboy said, “I would never live in a place where if I couldn’t pee on the back porch.”