Serenity has landed

I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last post. It's been a busy month, including an almost-two-week, 3500+ mile road trip. About a week before we left, our Simple Pump arrived:





Pump in a Tube or two

 The pump was installed, as advertised, in about two hours, with the generous help of Don, who works on pumps for a living and was curious about our hand pump. We now have water!



Connecting drop pipe section

 


Installing pump rod

 

Simple pump in action






Water!



As soon as the pump was in and working, we began the process of moving to This Land (which will probably be renamed Raven's Nest, which apparently it was for many years). First, we moved the bunnies to the dog kennel, which Rosa the Chewdle doesn't call home. Then we hitched Serenity up and hauled her out to her new home:

Meanwhile, back at the ranch ....



The view from the kitchen window

For those of you who don't believe we live in the Wild West, this was the view out our front gate the day we moved Serenity:

Now it's time to go pump some more of that fresh water....

Organic Living

Organic Living is not the same thing as Organic Gardening, although we plan to do some of that as soon as we can get set up for it. Organic Living is also known as "go with the flow." Before moving up here, we both spent a lot of time researching things, drawing up plans in SketchUp and making decisions based on what we knew (or thought we did) about the area, our property, etc. Soon after arriving here, those plans went out the window. Rather than starting with the carefully drawn plans, we began with the Bunny Barn, as we realized we need a safe place for the bunnies before moving from our Home Base in town (where the bunnies occupy a portion of a secure dog kennel.) We bought a kennel for Rosa the Chewdle, and covered it with wire, because everyone told us we have to watch out for coyotes and hawks and other predators that will consider her a tasty snack. We set up the kennel in front of Tex the Container and wrapped a tarp around the east end to give Rosa a break from the wind:

Neither the Bunny Barn nor the kennel were part of those carefully made plans. Nor was the next step. We went out to work one day, after a night of very strong (i.e. 55 mph) west winds, to discover that the kennel, shipping weight *167 pounds* had moved four feet, so that the gate side (on the right in the photo) was touching the front of the dog house! Now we needed a wind break on the west side of our evolving compound. The next project on our list was bumped down a few notches to make way for a six-foot tall privacy fence:

The fence created a nice sheltered corner for the kennel, and the tarp went on top for shade--until more wind started ripping the grommets out and tearing up the tarp. We now have a new plan for shading the kennel, to be implemented soon. In the meantime, we took some time off to do a little sight seeing. We drove around Rhyolite Butte, which is clearly visible across the valley:

This photo doesn't do justice to the rocks near the base of the butte. This gives a better idea of scale:

The guy lounging against the rock there came up with a simple way to add another room onto the front of the Bunny Barn, which I decided would be an ideal place to do laundry. We don't yet have electricity--those carefully laid plans call for a solar electric system, but our experience here so far suggests that a wind generator is a better alternative for the local climate. We do get quite a lot of sun (especially since This Land has no trees on it), but they don't Call the Wind Maria for nothing. Er, that is, it rarely stops blowing, and reasonably-priced wind generators will charge batteries with as little as 4.5 mph winds, which we have plenty of. (Remember that moving dog kennel?) Anyway, not having power means hauling the laundry to a laundromat, which requires at least a 100-mile round trip and plugging far too many quarters into washers and dryers. Following the last such outing, I bought a laundry sink, a plunger and some clothes line, and we got busy building the Wash House:

At the same time, I began to agree with Greg, the Bunny Barn is much too nice for bunnies, or even mere storage. We put a floor in the Wash House, for obvious reasons (the dirt here, referred to as powder by some of the local residents, is very fine, especially when one walks on it all the time, and the aforementioned wind blows it everywhere), and the idea of putting a floor in the Bunny Barn suggested a much better use: a Starter Studio, where I can create some Western artwork. I have plenty of inspiration. With this in mind, we bought enough materials to finish the Wash House and put a floor in the Former Bunny Barn. (For the summer, the bunnies will share the dog kennel with Rosa, who would really rather not be in there.)

The Wash House, Phase I, is now complete. Phase II will entail insulating, putting in some kind of waterproof floor covering and wall coverings, but we have until winter to get that done. In the meantime, I have done two loads of hand laundry, with very agreeable results. (I can hear my women friends rolling their eyes and saying, "She's excited about doing hand laundry? Must be spending too much time in the sun ....")

In the meantime, we've had visits from more of the neighbors, including one I'd rather not have drop by:

This one was a bull snake, probably looking for gophers, not it's look-alike cousin the rattler, but still, I prefer not to encounter them unexpectedly. Or otherwise.

We're learning to be a bit more flexible with our plans, to consider the weather forecast to be more like guidelines, and the most important lesson so far is, Always Take the Cameras. The one day we both forgot our cameras, a pronghorn strolled across the road, grazed by the gate for a bit and then sauntered off across the desert, all too far away for a decent cell phone photo. Aarrghh ....

Building the Bunny Barn

Tex the Container has a new companion, the Bunny Barn:

                                "Puttin' on the Roof"
                              

 It took the two of us nine days (including one day spent in Elko taking care of business, and two half days in West Wendover, buying lumber), using only hand tools, with one minor exception: Greg did an angle cut on the short boards between the rafters with a circular saw, back at Home Base in town.

                      "I have a saw, and I know how to use it ...."

            Step one: dig post holes. Water helps with the digging.

         "Post holer: digging holes for posts." -- River Tam, in Firefly

                             Posts and girts frame my Mountain.

                                     Add a top plate and rafters,

Put on some siding,

And close in the roof. Finishing touch: photograph the moon on Easter morning.

Then turn around and photograph Easter Sunrise.

We also put together a chain-link kennel to give Rosa a coyote- and hawk-free place to hang out. It has a chicken-wire top, indoor-outdoor carpet and the Puppy Palace, a doghouse I cobbled together out of leftovers from the Bunny Barn. To my surprise, once she realized she can jump on top of it, Rosa decided it was okay after all:

                                "If Snoopy can do it, so can I!"

The main challenge we have here is the wind. After five and a half years in southern New Mexico, we're no stranger to wind, but riding it out in a travel trailer is rather different than living in a house. But mostly it stops us from working when it gets too strong. Good thing we don't have deadlines to meet.



Well, well, well ....

It's been a busy week at This Land, and I now have a new appreciation for the job of well drilling. Thanks to Mark and Phil, who spent the entire week drilling, pumping and capping, the well is in, all 180 feet of it.

"Lucy, you got some 'splainin' to do!" Okay, it just looks like Lucille Ball at the laundromat--this was part of the flushing process, apparently involving suds of some kind. It looks a lot like the snow the guys brought with them on Monday from Elko.

Several of the neighbors came to call, both the four-legged kind:

and the people kind. James stopped by on Thursday and introduced himself, then on Friday we had visits from Curt (who helped deliver Tex--thanks Curt!), Harold, Dianne and Robert. It's good to know we have friendly, helpful folks around us. We really aren't in the Middle of Nowhere. (We know almost as many neighbors here already as we knew in our city neighborhood.)

While the Well Guys were hard at work, so were we, hauling dirt around to fill potholes in the driveway, cleaning up the site of the first building project, where the old shack stood, collecting trash (and a few more relics of the past) and rocks for that first building. Rosa the Chewdle got to explore her new bit of desert, although she has to watch out for coyotes, hawks and Edgar the Raven, all of whom would find her a tasty snack.



Running Away To Home

Montello, Nevada--only 200 miles round-trip to Wal-Mart. I think I'll shop local ....

We finally made it--home. Well, almost. We're renting an RV space in town while waiting on the well and a couple other bits and pieces. We spent four days on the road, to accommodate those 40-mph hills towing Serenity, and trying to get into the habit of relaxing. Also, driving shorter distances was less stressful on Bunnicula and Bun-Bun, the two Cinnamon rabbits given to us shortly before we left New Mexico. We don't usually name livestock, but we wanted a way to tell them apart, short of saying "the dark one," or "the lighter-colored one." (No photos yet--they're currently battened down in a covered dog run, awaiting the arrival of a last-hurrah winter storm due in any minute now.)

Marvin and Matilda, two of the Terrifying Space Monkeys enjoyed themselves at campgrounds along the way, first at the Picacho KOA near Tucson:

and then at the Ely, Nevada KOA:

On Thursday morning, a call to the well driller brought an almost-immediate response, and now the drilling rig is sitting on This Land, not far from Tex, ready to start drilling:

This will probably also have to wait until the projected storm passes, but we're confident the well will go in soon, as I'm sure they'll want their rig for other jobs.

Montello is a fairly friendly place. Just this morning, the neighbors came to call:

In the meantime, Greg has been busy reattaching barbed wire to the fence posts and I've been cleaning up the site of an old shack/cabin. The building has been gone for a few years, but the footprint is still there, and full of trash. Some of it is interesting trash, though, like partial pages from a 700-plus page book on such things as composting, growing fruit trees and other subjects of interest to the average homesteader. I believe the relics to be at least 20 years old, some much older. (The two fairly complete polyester shirts sort of scream 80s. No, I didn't save them.<shudder>) In the midst of very masculine relics (rotting socks, a razor handle, car parts and bits of a radio, I think) I found most of the pieces of a very delicate Sheffield china tea cup:

Interesting picture of previous occupants ... I find myself wanting to build my studio on the site of this former dwelling. There's history here, and a fabulous view of the mountains across the valley. Home.



This Land, Part One

Our Compound now has a building:

Thanks to Preston, Tex has arrived and is waiting to be useful storage/workshop space.

While exploring the property this week, we again found something of a mystery. We saw it before, but I didn't think to photograph it. It appears to be an earth-bermed condo for some kind of burrowing animal, as it has ventilation holes on top at the back. Anyone have any ideas what it might have been used for? It's probably been there for 25-30 years, at least. I keep trying to think of a good use for it:                  

The lid of the barrel is lying in front there, waiting to be put back over the opening. Curious ....

Our plans are progressing, and I hope to soon be blogging from This Land, just north of Montello. We have a few million details to see to first, but there's light at the end of the tunnel, and I don't think it's a train. The sock monkeys can hardly wait!

New Year, New Life

"Yes, yes--this is a fertile land, and we will thrive here. We will rule over all this land, and we will call it--This Land!"

Pilot Wash's dinosaurs on Joss Whedon's "Firefly"

Here it is, 2012, and Life had taken a rather major turn: my husband, Greg, is now retired, three years early. This means we can now (or soon, anyway) move forward with our plans to move to our property near Montello, Nevada and start our ranch, which we call--This Land. We have some fence posts and a lot of sagebrush,

 which we hope to convert into a comfortable off-grid cabin and studio, a decent garden and home for some livestock. We intend to start small and grow the ranch as we can pay for it, since we are tired of renting our house from the bank. We have a travel trailer, Serenity,

to provide living space while we build the cabin. A lot of our friends and relatives think we're nuts for wanting to do this. We respect their lifestyle choices and hope they will respect ours. The off-grid, self-sustaining life is not for everyone. Nor is the "cold desert." But we look forward to waking up to this every morning:

and watching our neighbors:

I intend to chronicle our progress on this blog, so if you are interested, please check back often, and follow us in our adventure.