Tuesday

It’s that time of season again, tax time!

Maybe if I just don’t file they will think I don’t exist; but then again that might be like cheating death. It’s not going to happen!

I worked on this 12x16 Anasazi cliff dwelling piece today. Monarch Canyon is about a mile long cut through the sandstone which ends with an over hanging cliff towering above you. Many of these cliff dwellings are up and down Comb Ridge in the four corners area and have made for fun hikes over the years for our families, and in this case for some interesting paintings as well. In the afternoon light, usually the hottest part of the day, the ruin is all in shade and stays relatively cool. Most cliff dwellings are facing usually in an easterly direction, so they would get the warmth of the morning sun and avoid the late afternoon heat. About a thousand years ago water flowed out of cracks in the sandstone behind Monarch Ruin and provided drinking water for the residence.

It would have been a nice place to hang out until the population exceeded the food production, combined with a prolonged drought; civilization soon turned into more survival instincts and the entire area broke down into chaos in the 1300’s.

Richard Boyer