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.



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.