Forbes Magazine has once again ranked Las Cruces, NM as on of the top 20 small cities to live. Las Cruces ranks 14 on the Forbes 2011 “Best Small Places for Business and Careers” list.

This is the forth time that Las Cruces has made the top twenty on this list.

Forbes looked at small cities from across the U.S. and based their ranking on 12 areas relating to past and future projected job growth, business and living costs, income growth, education, projected economic growth, and quality of life areas such as crime rate, cultural and recreational opportunities and net migration patterns.

Forbes reports that, “In most of these hot hubs you’ll find a strong university or two, providing rich cultural life and the kind of technology transfer that sparks entrepreneurial activity – giving that educated population lots of reasons to stick around.”

That is exactly what you’ll find in Las Cruces and at New Mexico State University.

NMSU features one of the country’s best science and agricultural programs and is home to the Las Cruces Symphony Orchestra. Plus, NMSU and Dona Ana Branch Community College offer endless opportunities for continued education and community classes.

Click here to see more of the honors Las Cruces has received.

To find out more about what makes Las Cruces, NM the best place to live, come by our Las Cruces, New Mexico Model Home at 7038 Calle Estancias today and enjoy some free Starbucks Coffee. Call 888.511.9872 for directions or to schedule your tour.

The Las Cruces Farmers Market is one of my favorite places to pick up fresh, locally grown produce each week. That is where I met Charlie from LPO Las Cruces. Charlie got me hooked up with LPO farms online where I am able order fresh produces and much more each week. One of the great things about LPO Farms is that they have locations all over New Mexico. That way you can get a wide variety of fresh fruits and veggies, locally grown right here New Mexico and support our local farmers at the same time!

Originally, to make a weekly order from LPO you would have to drive out to the farm on Friday to pick up your produce. The farm pick-up location is on Snow Road, just about an eight minute drive from Picacho Hills. It is a beautiful drive, so I don’t mind doing it. But being a busy mom, home delivery is even better!

My little ones are loving the farm-fresh blueberries, peaches and carrots from LPO Farms in Las Cruces.

If you love fresh veggies, I would encourage you to try out LPO. It is free to sign up for an account on the LPO web site. Then you can order as much or as little as you want each week. There is no minimum weekly requirement, so if you want to skip a week it’s no big deal.

LPO Las Cruces is currently planning to begin home delivery to the Picacho Hills area next Monday, July 25, 2011. All you have to do is place your order by this Sunday, July 24th at 10 am. As long as they get a good response and have enough people ordering they will continue to do home delivery in our area.

So I’d encourage you to check it out. I ordered the Weekly Harvest Box last week and got all the fruits and veggies you see above for just $30. Even my kids are loving it! There are three ways to contact Los Poblanos:

Website: www.lospoblanosorganics.com
Email: info@lospoblanosorganics.com
Phone:  Andy Taylor 505-681-4060

To find out more about what makes Las Cruces, NM the best place to live, come by our Las Cruces, New Mexico Model Home at 7038 Calle Estancias today and enjoy some free Starbucks Coffee. Call 888.511.9872 for directions or to schedule your tour.

The Artists of Picacho Hills have asked us to invite anyone interested in gardening or art to attend their annual Art in the Garden Tour. This is the 4th year that the Artists of Picacho Hills have hosted this event, but the first time that they are inviting the general public.

The gardens and views from Picacho Hills are beautiful as is the art work. The artwork of 20 artists will include paintings, photography, gourd art, fabric art, jewelry, weavings, and baskets; all one of a kind originals.

Garden plants are labeled and knowledgeable gardeners will be glad to answer questions. Tour maps will be available if you follow the signs starting on Picacho Hills Drive. Tour time is 11:00 am to 4:00 pm. To see samples of the artwork, visit www.artistsofpicachohills.com or check out Art in the Garden on Facebook.

Come by our Las Cruces, New Mexico Model Home at 7038 Calle Estancias today for free Starbucks Coffee. Call 888.511.9872 for directions or to schedule your tour.

Make sure to follow our blog (just enter your email address in the feedburner box on the right) to catch this whole series.

Contact Picacho Mountain today at 888.511.9872 for more information on building your rammed earth or green home in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Custom Estate Homes, Patio Homes, Town Homes, and Neighborhood Retail.

To fine out more about Building a Rammed Earth Home with Soledad Canyon Earth Builders visit their web site, or contact Pat at 575.527.9897.

Photo By Calc-tufa

Have you looked outside lately? It’s murky out there. It seems like there are fires burning all around us right now. Be­tween the soot, smoke, dust and wind, many of us have been thinking a lot about the quality of the air we breathe.

The fires have given us a visual re­minder of contaminants in our outdoor air. Surprisingly, indoor-air quality is ranked as one of the biggest concerns among homebuyers.

The average American spends 90 percent of their time indoors. As we age, indoor-air quality becomes more and more important, especially for baby boomers like me. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has even listed indoor-air pollution among the top five environmental health concerns.

Baby boomers seem to be leading the craze for healthy living. We spend a sig­nifi cant amount of time and money on our health, buying exercise equipment, vitamins, supplements, gym member­ships, etc. Parents are starting to think more about indoor-air quality as well as more children are being diagnosed with allergies, asthma and other breathing disorders at an early age.

With all the money we spend trying to improve our health, it just makes sense to spend a little time and money looking at ways we can improve the quality of the indoor air we breathe.

Here are three ways the EPA recommends to easily improve the air quality in your home.

Control pollution sources
Cutting off the pollutants at the source is a great place to start improving air quality. This is an area where an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It will cost you a lot more to clean your air than it will to remove the source of contamination.

If you are building a new home, this can be as simple as selecting non-toxic or low-VOC (volatile organic compounds) building materials. There are many seemingly harmless build­ing materials that contain toxic and harmful substances. Ask your homebuilder about using non-toxic paint, flooring, cabi­netry and more. The slight increase in the cost of non-toxic materials will definitely payoff in health benefits, especially if someone in your family struggles with asthma.

For existing homes, you can look for ways to seal off or en­close the sources of contamination. For contamination sources that can’t be contained, such as a gas stove, you can adjust the settings to decrease the amount of emissions.

On an even more basic level, you can begin purchasing green and non-toxic household prod­ucts. There are a variety of affordable options on the market today. Just using newer environmentally friendly clean­ing products in your daily life will help improve the quality of the air in your home.

Improve ventilation

Whether disposable or permanent, a clean filter plays an important role in the quality of your indoor air.

Ventilation can increase your energy costs as conditioned air is vented out.

However, improving ventilation will pay off in health benefits. Since outdoor air is actually less polluted than indoor air, ventilation is a great way to improve indoor-air quality.

Most cooks these days prefer a gas cooktop, but appliances that burn gas can cause particulates and carbon monoxide.

Incomplete combustion and poor ventila­tion of appliances such as cook stoves, gas furnaces, gas boilers and gas water heaters can increase the amount of indoor contaminants.

Make sure your gas stove has an adequate fan that exhausts outside your home. Also, have your gas or wood-burning fire­place checked to make sure it is properly sealed and vented.

Making sure the spot-vents around your home, such as bathroom vents, are properly installed and functioning will help to remove particulates from your indoor air.

Air filtration
Filtration is the third way you can help improve your indoor air quality.

While ventilation is extremely important, drawing out­door air into the house can cause another source of indoor air pollution through particulates and allergens that are drawn indoors through your heating, ventilation and cooling (HVAC) system. This is especially true of older evaporative cooling systems. This can trigger asthma and other respiratory problems.

Most home HVAC systems today have a filtration system.

Experts recommend using filters with a minimum efficiency reporting value of (MERV) 6-8. The higher MERV level, the better, especially for those with asthma or other respiratory concerns.

In addition to proper HVAC filtration, there are many other types and sizes of air cleaners on the market. A huge selection of portable household air purifiers can be found at home stores ranging from $20 to more than $300. Selecting the right purifier will be based on how large an area you want to filter and how much money you want to spend.

Portable air purifiers may not remove enough of pollutants for individuals with specific heath concerns. If that is the case, you can also elect to install a whole-house air purifier, which is generally more effective than a portable system.

Whichever system you select, make sure to follow all manuf­acturer’s instructions on upkeep and maintenance to get the optimal benefits.

We may not be able to control the wildfires raging around us, but eliminating pollutants, proper ventilation and air puri­fication can help us make sure our homes are a safer, healthier place to live.

Contact Picacho Mountain today at 888.511.9872 for more information about building a green home at Picacho Mountain.

Contact us today at 888.511.9872 for more information about all that Las Cruces, New Mexico has to offer and the spectacular custom homes at Picacho Mountain. Custom Homes, Patio Homes, Town Homes, Neighborhood Retail, and more!

Stay cool this summer by properly maintaining your rooftop mounted package air conditioner and gas heating unit.

OK, the wind has stopped blowing – now it’s hot! I am already getting homeowner calls for help to improve summer comfort indoors.

First things first, do you know if your air conditioning unit is working like it’s sup posed to? The Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) provides the following advice on AC maintenance:

• Check the air filter and change it if it’s dirty, or according to the manufacturer’s recommendation, to keep dust from collecting on the evaporator coil fins. Keeping your filter clean can cut energy consumption 5 to 15 percent. Turn off the power to the furnace before pulling the filter out so that the fan doesn’t come on and blow dust throughout the home. Be sure to position the new filter according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
• Clear away leaves, grass, weeds, plants and other debris that block airflow through the outdoor condensing unit, which is the large metal box in your yard next to your home. Anything that collects on the unit’s fins will block airflow and reduce its efficiency. Grass clippings thrown by the lawn mower are particularly common offenders.
• Occasionally clean the outdoor condensing unit by spraying it with a water hose.
• Check to make sure air-conditioning vents inside your home are not obstructed by furniture, especially the main return grill.
• Closing off unused rooms and closing vents in those rooms can help; however, you should consider adding zone controls to automatically set back the temperature in unused areas. Doing so can cut cooling costs as much as 20 percent.
• Set the fan speed on high except in very humid weather (if your unit has this option). When it’s humid, set the speed on low – you will get less air movement, but the extended cycle times will remove moisture from the air and will make it feel cooler.

If these maintenance items don’t cut it, call one of our local qualified heating and air conditioning service companies. Be sure to insist that the technician:

• Check for the correct amount of refrigerant and test for refrigerant leaks.
• Capture any refrigerant that must be evacuated from the system.
• Check for and seal duct leakage in central systems.
• Measure airflow through the evaporator coil.
• Check the accuracy of the thermostat.
• Verify the correct electric control sequence and make sure that the heating system and cooling system cannot operate simultaneously.
• Inspect electric terminals, clean and tighten connections, and apply a non conductive coating if necessary.
• Check belts and oil motors for tightness and wear.

After you know that the AC is tuned and ready you can still improve comfort and reduce electricity use:

• Don’t try to cool the great outdoors. Consider blower door testing and follow up weatherization work to keep cool air inside.
• Install and learn to use a programmable thermostat – don’t keep the AC running at full capacity when no one is home.
• Use room and ceiling fans, they are in expensive to run and they can make it feel 5 degrees cooler. There is no benefit to overall home temperature or comfort if fans run without people under or in front of them – turn ’em off when you leave.
• Our high desert nights allow it to cool off quickly after dark, open windows at night and in the morning to let the crisp air in – don’t forget to close up the house before you kick the AC back on.
• The biggest heat load in summer comes through roof mounted skylights and east and west facing windows. Plants, awnings or solar screens that shade windows and skylights let you remove less heat from the house with expensive air conditioning.
• Plan cooking and laundry for the coolest hours of the day, a batch of brownies cooked in the heat of the day can raise the kitchen temperature 10 degrees. Knock the rust off the grill to cook outside and run the dishwasher and dryer overnight.
• Interior house lighting creates heat as a by-product; try to use indirect day lighting when it is available for indoor tasks. Also consider CFL or LED bulbs and fixtures that give off a fraction of the heat output of standard incandescent bulbs.
• Isolate and cool your attic. Check your insulation level at the ceiling. Many houses built before the ’80s have minimal or incomplete attic/ceiling insulation (blown in Fiberglas or cellulose insulation is cheap to add to an accessible attic). If you replace a roof, make sure your new roof material is light colored or reflective. This will reduce temperatures in the attic space and will extend the life of the roof decking as well.

You can enjoy our long desert summer more if you get control of air conditioning comfort and cost right now.

Miles Dyson is the owner of Inspection Con nection LC – Professional Home Energy Rating and Home Inspection Services in Mesilla Park and can be reached at 202-2457. Dyson is a RESNET certi fied Home Energy Rater and ASHI certified Home Inspector.

Wayne and Kiki Suggs of Classic New Mexico Homes specialize in Pueblo style, Mission style and Territorial style homes here in Las Cruces, NM. Their integrity, attention to detail, and artistry set them apart from other builders in the area.

We recently sat down with Wayne and Kiki Suggs of Classic New Mexico Homes to find out what they love about Las Cruces and why they recommend Picacho Mountain home sites to their customers.

Watch this video and let us know what you think!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeSE5y-tADI

Contact Picacho Mountain today at 888.511.9872 for more information about building a luxury home at Picacho Mountain or visit the Classic New Mexico Homes web site for more information about Wayne and Kiki Suggs!