When it comes to animals, Lorenzo Quintana is right there: showing you a huge elk head mounted on his wall that he tracked down on Elk Mountain, to lifting a kitten from under its mother.

"It's only three days old," he said, showing off a little gray and white fur ball.

When Quintana finished college, he had a degree in animal husbandry. Earlier he'd considered veterinary school, but all the twists and turn in life took him in another direction. "My brother became a vet, though, and has a practice up in Farmington. One time I went up and worked with him for about a year," said Quintana.

Today, Quintana is a plumber, a trade he's practiced for 15 years. "I never set out to be one," he said, "but when I saw how much money could be made, I decided to get my license."
From 1952 to 1972 he grew up at the Tres Lagunas Guest Ranch in the Pecos Canyon where his father was the caretaker and his mother was the cook. Quintana says he and his brothers and sisters all had fun, but they learned to work too. "I did everything from cleaning the fish that the people caught in the ponds to chopping wood. I led trail rides and waited tables," he said.
When he left for college, he headed for New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, enrolling in pre-veterinarian courses. He ran out of money after three semesters and joined the Air Force. "They sent us all over the place--San Antonio, Little Rock. The next stop was Vietnam but the day before I was to leave, they canceled those plans. I went to California instead." He worked as an air craft dispatch, filing flight plans. He'd scored high on administrative work and says he "got stuck behind a desk."
"So when I got out, I came back to Pecos and hunted with Richard Ley for a year. It's all I did. I tracked bear, lion, bobcats," he said, and the pelts decorate his house. He shot the big elk with a muzzleloader. Quintana, 56, still hunts, and this year he drew for elk and deer.  
After taking a year off, he went on to work as a wilderness guide then got a job with Conoco Oil drilling core samples for possible mining operations. After three years of that, he went back to NMSU and graduated in 1985.
He went to a local dance in Pecos and met Pam, who grew up in East Pecos. They married, went to Farmington for a year and returned to Pecos. Their daughter, Ashley, ran on the Pecos track team.
"When we came back here, I began working construction, building houses. Then I started working with a plumbing contractor. He showed me the ropes for eight years. I learned the trade--plumbing and doing backhoe work," he said.
What's kept Quintana in business all these years is the demand. "I never thought I'd be able to make a living here. One of my dreams as a young man was being my own boss, and plumbing hit the nail right on the head."  
Quintana has mixed feelings about the changes taking place in Pecos. "The processions at the church are dying out, and I miss them. But if it weren't for Pecos growing, I wouldn't have work," he said. Another positive thing is where he and Pam now live. They love their neighbors. They're real quiet. They live across from the cemetery.

Q. What, if anything, needs to be done in the garden to prepare for winter?
A.. Cooler temperatures and shorter days tells plants to slow the growth cycle and store energy for winter and coming dormancy. Slowly reduce watering and stop deadheading flowers.
Here fall starts late August, and I use low nitrogen fertilizers high in phosphorus and micronutrients. Fruit trees, roses, spring blooming shrubs and perennials will up-take these to decrease their cells' freezing-points and thus "winterize." Many plants such as natives, conifers and shade trees often do fine with no fertilizer.
Most garden cleanup and pruning should be done in spring. The exception is vegetable gardens where debris might harbor a plethora of harmful organisms.
Removal of leaf litter is necessary only if the plant had a disease or insect problem. Leaf litter, leafless stems and dead foliage on perennials protect the plants crown through winter. My wife's rule is NO UGLY so removing spent yarrow flowers or long weak branches that can break in snow won't hurt your plants.
Pruning woody plants now can be useful to control growth, and you may be cutting off spring flowers.
Mulching is always the first best thing you can do for your garden, and it's especially beneficial in winter. Mulch moderates soil temperature and prevents rapid warming and cooling. It also retains moisture, facilitates water penetration and, if organic, improves soil fertility.
About water: I probably see more plant loss and damage due to lack of winter moisture than any other cause. Dry roots die. Established plantings may need monthly watering if weather permits. Twice a month is recommended for new and smaller plants. Pick a day when temperatures are over 40 degrees with enough time to soak in. The goal is to keep the root zone moist, not soaked.

Send your gardening questions to: refugioverde@Plateautel.net or Jeff Clark, HCR 72 Box 130, Ribera, NM 87560

For seven generations, since the 1850s, his
family has been in the area and most

of that time they farmed for a living.                     Dove Parr and Carlota Valencia munch on corn grown by  many  of the people in Pecos this summer

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
by Jonathan Safran Foer
Mariner Books/Houghton Mifflin Co., 2005 325 pp. Softcover. $13.95.

Of the novels dealing with the events marking September 11, this is perhaps the most tender, sensitive and compelling. This memorable book takes you into the world of Oskar Schell, an extraordinarily bright and precocious nine-year-old, whose father died in the World Trade Center. Oskar is not a boy anyone should pass up knowing.
In a vase in his father's closet Oskar finds a key inside a small envelope with "Black" written on it, and he sets out on a mission to find what lock the key fits. The reader gets to know Oskar very well, learning much about how he interacts with his world--his interests and fears, eccentricities, mechanisms for coping with uncertainty and stress, and ways of relating to people important to him.
The author, Jonathan Foer, uses a variety of visuals--photographs, unique spacing, nearly empty pages--to enhance the impact and the power of his story. The only somewhat distracting aspect of the book is a subplot concerning Oskar's grandmother and grandfather. While they are absolutely important to the overall story, the amount of space given to their separate concerns and issues seems a bit excessive.           
We have much to learn from this novel. Through Oskar we have the chance to know more about love and persistence, about sorrow and longing, and, ultimately, about healing. There are heart-piercing moments in this book. There are also moments of laughing out loud, and moments of feeling awed by the goodness and caring that exist in human beings.
This is a book to be read slowly and to savor. Foer's ability to capture the essence of grief, and of great love, is remarkable. If we let ourselves truly enter Oskar's world, we cannot leave it unmoved. And, as Oskar would say, "Jose!"