Physical Setting

Corridor in front of the dinning room building. The wood pillars that support the tile roof are the "horcones" characteristic of our architecture.

The land.

Los Horcones is located on 260 acres (100 hectares ) of partially desert land.

Native Vegetation.

It consists mainly of mesquite, iron wood, palo verde trees, cactus and bushes.

Native Fauna.

It includes coyote, deer, javelin pigs, rabbits, jack rabbits, desert tortoises, snakes and other desert animals.

Part of the citrus orchard with orange, grapefruit, tangerine and lemon trees.

Weather

The temperature varies from 2 to 46 Centigrade degrees. The coldest months are: December, January, February and early March, with 2 º C in the morning and night to 27º C at noon (most winter days are sunny). The hottest months start at the end of May, June, July, August and early September with 27º C to 46º C (about 5 days per year). October, November, late March, April and early May have the best weather. In winter it rains from 2 to 4 inches, in summer, 7 or 8 inches.

Although Los Horcones is in the country, we have: water (from our own 2 wells), electric power from the city (for emergencies we have a power plant), sewage, radio (to communicate with our office in Hermosillo), cellular telephone (mainly for emergencies), computers (the internet service is in the city not in Los Horcones).

There is a town hospital with doctor, a nurse and ambulance 7 miles far from the community. (Although we generally visit doctors in the city).

Presently, there are 22 buildings in the community besides corrals and hutches for animals, gardens and orchards. There are 18 communal buildings and 4 are private buildings (which house the private rooms used by members and visitors). We have power (from the city) and water from our own well.

All members have free access to the communal buildings, like the dinning room &kitchen, offices, shops, school, library, laundry, etc. We can use whatever is in the communal buildings without asking anybody for permission. In contrast, the private buildings (that house the member's private quarters) are private in that we need to ask permission to go inside or to use something kept there.

	We call this building "Casa Grande" (large house). It has two large rooms and one small room that connects them. We use one of the salons for our assemblies, conferences and courses, The other salon is a recreation room with ping-pong, pool, football and air jockey tables.
	This is the "laundry building" which has the communal closet (with the clothes members share), the washing machines, a sewing room and a double bathroom.

At Los Horcones, the physical setting constantly changes.

There are 4 buildings with private rooms (bedrooms and bathrooms) for members and visitors. In Los Horcones, every member or couple have its own private bedroom usually with a bathroom, sometimes the bathroom is shared. In contrast with communal buildings, to enter a private room or take something kept there, it is necessary to ask for permission to the person who uses it.

A section of several private rooms for members and guests.

Questions and comments to:

Last up-date: December, 2002.

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