https://dillonsouthwest.org/ An independent regional journal on the American Southwest: its water, its land and maps, its weather and its seasons, and the working life of the small towns that hold the high desert. en-us Tue, 15 Sep 2026 08:00:00 GMT https://dillonsouthwest.org/life/a-chorus-season-built-in-a-kitchen/https://dillonsouthwest.org/life/a-chorus-season-built-in-a-kitchen/Tue, 15 Sep 2026 08:00:00 GMTWork and communityHow small Southwest towns build a choral season from amateur voices: auditions, programming, dues, boards, and summers that empty the room. https://dillonsouthwest.org/life/working-dogs-on-southwest-ranches-and-the-end/https://dillonsouthwest.org/life/working-dogs-on-southwest-ranches-and-the-end/Sat, 12 Sep 2026 08:00:00 GMTWork and communityWhat ranch dogs do, how they are kept sound through a hot season, and what happens when a working dog can no longer work. https://dillonsouthwest.org/sky/adobe-walls-mass-against-sun-and-frost/https://dillonsouthwest.org/sky/adobe-walls-mass-against-sun-and-frost/Tue, 08 Sep 2026 08:00:00 GMTSky and seasonsThick adobe walls hold heat and cold, and flat earthen roofs shed the monsoon. A look at how Santa Fe's old buildings answer sun, frost and rain. https://dillonsouthwest.org/life/off-grid-power-is-a-load-list-not-a-battery-box/https://dillonsouthwest.org/life/off-grid-power-is-a-load-list-not-a-battery-box/Fri, 04 Sep 2026 08:00:00 GMTWork and communityOff grid power in the desert Southwest is a load list, a fuel plan and a maintenance calendar read against the seasons. What a household or small town keeps https://dillonsouthwest.org/land/reading-dry-ground-the-way-an-ecologist-does/https://dillonsouthwest.org/land/reading-dry-ground-the-way-an-ecologist-does/Mon, 31 Aug 2026 08:00:00 GMTLand and mapsAn ecological assessment reads soils, water and plants. In the arid Southwest that reading is less forgiving, and it decides what a parcel can carry. https://dillonsouthwest.org/land/reading-an-old-map-of-the-southwest/https://dillonsouthwest.org/land/reading-an-old-map-of-the-southwest/Mon, 24 Aug 2026 08:00:00 GMTLand and mapsA historic map of the Southwest records who surveyed it, what they named, and what they left off the sheet.