First light reaches La Tierra by way of the Sangre de Cristos, then runs west across piñon-dotted hills until it touches the long blue rim of the Jemez. Late summer is when the chamisa begins to bloom gold along the arroyos and trails that wind through this open high-desert country at the northwest edge of Santa Fe. JVs landscape keeps lawns and landscaped yards here, coaxing green out of sandy ground that would rather grow blue grama and cholla. A lawn mowed close, beds weeded and paths raked smooth beside warm stucco walls make a home look settled into the land rather than set down on it. Under a sky this enormous, a well-tended yard shows from a long way off.