the cloudhaus in cloudcroft, new mexico

    I stopped in to hear Rhiannon Lace play at Black Bear Coffee when she mentioned that she was playing at Tularosa Distillery. "Wha?" I wha'd. A distillery? In Tulie? And a chance to hear Rhiannon again? Oh, hell yeah! Turned out I misheard: Rhiannon performed at the distillery the night before . Regardless, the visit to this gorgeous little distillery was well worth it.  Peter and Heather Kauffman opened the distillery in November 2024, and it is glorious. Located on the northeastern edge of town, the distillery and breezeway-connected Tumbleweed Lounge are gorgeous, Corten-clad geometric objects rusting like old Ford pick-ups with unfettered views of the Sacramento foothills in their shattered rearview mirrors. At the moment, the Kauffmans are distilling and selling bottles of sotol with plans for agave. They are also seeking to sow and snare their own succulents, a nearly decade-long process. The lounge is decidedly hip, smartly decorated, and wouldn't be out o...

  Cloudcroft, New Mexico, is perched at the top of the Sacramento Mountains at nearly 9,000 feet above sea level. From the right vantage point, you can see White Sands in the Tularosa Basin as well as Alamogordo nestled against the foothills. On a clear day, you can see the Organ Mountains this side of Las Cruces. On a clear night, you can see the lights of El Paso reflected off the atmosphere. Cloudcroft has spent many a year struggling with its water supply, fed by springs and water wells. Given Cloudcroft's home at the top of the mountain, the springshed and aquifers beneath are not that big and are susceptible to drought. At one point, Cloudcroft pined to have the nation's first direct potable reuse plant (and the second in the world!) before a bad concrete pour (and rain?) put the project on the back burner. Some locals suggest rainwater harvesting as a solution to the village's water woes. Rainwater harvesting is collecting rain from a roof and storing it in a tank fo...