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Viva Corrales! ends with cars, tractors, plants and heritage
Nancy Freshour shows off some of her plants during the Corrales Garden Tour, which was held the last weekend of Viva Corrales!
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CORRALES — Viva Corrales! came to an end the weekend of May 17-18 with celebrations throughout the village.
There were three essential events that summed up the weekend, including a garden tour, Heritage Day at Casa San Ysidro and a classic car and tractor show at San Ysidro Church.
The garden tour focused on sustainable gardening and showcased a batch of Corrales homes. Homeowner Nancy Freshour was new to the tour this year, but she is well-known to the community, or at least her horse is.
Her home’s garden, aptly named Aspen’s Acres after her horse and former Corrales pet mayor, is a picture of health despite recent dry weather.
She moved to her Corrales home for better living circumstances for both her and Aspen.
“In 2005, I purchased my beautiful horse, Aspen. After continuing to live in Albuquerque for one year and boarding my horse, I wanted her in my backyard, so I started searching for a new home. We landed in Corrales, and we’re in heaven. My home is gorgeous and comfortable. The views of the Sandias to the east in the morning and to the west at night are incomparable,” she said.
She had her work cut out for her at her new home, however.
“I made every mistake in the books,” she added.
She explained that desert gardening was new to her as she came from Alaska.
“When I bought the property, it was a disaster — a weed pile overrun with goatheads, sagebrush, ocotillo and cactus. The goatheads overwhelmed the front of the house,” she said.
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Now, her home is an oasis with water-conscious plants all over.
“Today the weeds are gone, the goatheads being the biggest challenge that took five years to conquer. Native plants that I took from my neighbor’s yard at about 12 inches tall are now full-grown trees. NM bird of paradise and desert willow grow like bad weeds, bloom like the most beautiful Cancun flowers and require minimal water. I planted an amazing sand cherry. It thrives in sand, requires virtually no water, grows and blooms from white flowers in spring, red berries in late spring, green leaves in summer, autumn-colored leaves in fall and all you gotta do is keep the rabbits away in the spring,” she said.
She also utilized a fake grass lawn in her backyard and enjoys many wildflowers.
Freshour’s home is sanctuary for more than her and Aspen, though. All of her animals, known as the A-Team, share Aspen’s Acres. She has two horses, one mule, a dog and a cat.
“They love their home; the horses and mule enjoy the wild sunflowers,” she said.
Freshour isn’t done with it, either. She has plans for another acre she acquired near the animals’ barn.
While the garden tour was in full bloom, Heritage Day was also going on at Casa San Ysidro. Site manager Aaron Gardner from the Albuquerque Museum spoke on the importance of the day to the Corrales community.
“Today, we’re celebrating the San Ysidro feast day in tandem with the Corrales Historical Society. We’ve been celebrating Heritage Day for probably over 15 years now,” he said.
He said the reason they do Heritage Day is to remind the public of the traditions and historic arts that are still prevalent in today’s world.
“So, Heritage Day is all about taking artists from all over New Mexico and having them here to demonstrate and sell their work, and we sort of celebrate that with live music and food and all kinds of entertainment,” Gardner said.
Throughout the day, Casa San Ysidro featured Acoma Enchanted Dancers and Lara Manazanares, a singer-songwriter from Northern New Mexico. There was also blacksmith work, loom weaving and more.
Near the end of the celebration, Gardner said they had about 300 people show up for the event.
The classic car and vintage tractor show was also a popular stop. Kids were fond of the Corrales Tractor Club’s mini-tractor obstacle course and operating a John Deere.
The next big Corrales event will be the Harvest Festival in September.
