Home at the Ranch: Old Days & Old Ways

Planning rules advanced

After killing off the energy rules, the Corporation Commission voted to open a new case to formulate rules on a new integrated resource planning process, part of which was included in the rejected energy rules.

Under current rules, TEP and other utilities have developed their own resource plans based on expected demand and a mix to serve that demand cost-effectively. But the ACC rejected the last plans TEP and APS filed in 2018, citing an over-reliance on natural-gas generation.

In 2019, the commission chairman at the time, Republican Bob Burns, had proposed a new resource-planning process that relied less on utility demand forecasts and set up an “all-source” request for proposals process for new generating resources, which could include sources like natural gas as well as carbon-free renewables like solar.

Márquez Peterson said she supports the all-sources approach and wants to develop the resource-planning as part of a new rule-making process, which could take up to nine months to draft and another nine months to bring to a final vote, ACC staffers said.

Kennedy suggested that the panel strip the carbon-free energy mandates from the rejected energy rules and vote on the rest as a package including the new resource-planning process.

But the ACC’s chief legal counsel said that would require an unlikely reconsideration of the previous vote or launching a whole new rule-making process anyway, since stripping out the mandates would substantially change the rules as published.

The commissioners agreed to start a new rule-making process for resource planning, initially based on work by stakeholders as part of the energy-rules process. ▫

HOME AT THE RANCH

by Don Hartman

Old Days & Old Ways

Ioften get laughed at for owning and working the old stuff. You know the older equipment without all the bells and whistles, the stuff without all the electronics and gizmos, for running the stuff with faded paint and rusty hoods.

Heck some of my stuff is lucky to have a working radio! But that’s just the way I roll… I do have some modern stuff… but I don’t care for it, because I can’t work on it, and often the parts stores and technical services are as many as 60 miles or more from the farm, or maybe it’s just because I can’t figure it out.

Maybe it’s because I just don’t have patience to sit and wait until the dealerships open. Anyway, call me old school I guess. I make do with what I have, partly because money is tight and in agriculture we only get paid once a year… at harvest. So we have to make it last.

I just wish we could go back to the days when guys knew everything there was to know about the underside of a hood when it came to mechanical stuff and how to fix it. I wish we could go back to the days when the mom and pop parts stores would answer the phone, you could run to town and they’d open up Thanksgiving Day or Christmas Eve and they’d take care of you. Those were the days of service!

The big cities have part stores on every corner and mechanics a plenty. But to haul our big equipment to town to get fixed is a chore and expensive. When it comes to equipment I use it up, I wear it out, I fix it up and make it do, or I’ll just do without.

We patch our own tires and run them until we just can’t anymore because a new tractor tire can cost as much as $3,000… and a long trip to town. Nothing is cheap anymore! I miss the days before all the EPA regulations; before cell phones and internet; before computer boards and electrical circuits, before diesel exhaust fluid and all those sensors.

I like the old stuff with steel hoods and framed doors, before those durned plastic hoods that don’t last but rot away from the heat and sun. The kind of equipment that if it has fuel, oil, and a battery… by golly I can make it run!

I miss the days when you could pop the hood on a pickup, pull and file a set of points, put ‘em back and fire it up. I miss the days when any kid could fix a bicycle chain, and bailing wire was plentiful. When trips to the dump were a treasure hunt looking through stuff that other people tossed away, and gathering those treasures that might be of use to us. When you live in rural New Mexico far from town, jury rigging was the school I attended because money was tight and parts are miles away. I’ve done so much with so little for so long that I can do pretty much anything with nothing. That’s just how we farmers and ranchers do it.

Don Hartman manages and operates Hartman Farms LLC with his wife and son in southwestern New Mexico, raising famous New Mexico green chile as well as onions, watermelons, cotton, grain sorghum, and hay. Don grew up working on a farm from the time he was 12 and decided that it was the life he wanted for himself and his family. Don is a first generation farmer starting on his own at 20 years old. He is a graduate of Deming High school, and is currently working on his Master’s Degree from the School of hard knocks which he still attends regularly. Don is currently Vice President of Outstanding Farmers of America, serves as a state board member with New Mexico Farm & Livestock Bureau, is the Vice President and longtime member of Luna County Farm Bureau. Don has a long list of accolades for his excellence in agriculture and conservation. Don is a supporter and advocate for youth and agriculture, donating time and resources for programs like 4-H and FFA. Don can be followed on Facebook and is known for his writing of inspirational and sometimes humorous stories known as “My thoughts from the tractor seat.” ▫