Month: July 2023

2 years ago this week Alan and I sold our home in Bayfield and moved into our camper Pippin. 3 months later we bought 4Fords. And here we are, still loving the place. Sometimes, it’s difficult to imagine how much work we’ve done. Other times, it seems like so little. Sometimes it feels overwhelming, other times, it feels just right. There is much more to do, of course, but in tiny, little baby steps we are achieving our goal of living in a self-sustaining, off-grid home with a tiny carbon footprint. In a larger sense, we hope to demonstrate that it is possible to live comfortably in the midst of abrupt, extreme climate change and, more importantly, without doing more harm to our earth. Our ultimate dream and goal, of course, is to have zero reliance on fossil fuels, access to affordable, quality food that rejects CAFOs and GMOs, and to use resources in a way that builds resilience and regeneration, not impotence and rigidity. Also, we wish to create a landscape that encourages and invites wild critters of all types to hang out, from native grasses to rattlesnakes. Any of us can make positive change, if we can overcome our fears and take that first baby step.

This week, we have continued taking those baby steps:

Learning to stucco is my next project. I’m getting my start by doing the finish work around the new windows. You can see where I’ve put some in and where the hardware cloth is waiting for more. It gets so hot by 11am on that side of the house, I can only do a little every morning before I roast. Next, I’ll move on to doing other repairs around the house. There are surprisingly few cracks or damage, but they need to get fixed before water gets in and harms the straw bales beneath (mold!). Then, I’ll start on the bigger stuff: the walls of the generator room and around the sunroom. The goal is to finish the stucco work by fall and maybe get the whole house painted. Not sure if it will happen this year, but I can dream! Question: should we keep it the same color, or go for something new?

Next, Alan hooked up the cold water into the shower. We had no idea if the showerhead or faucet would even work. It’s been years since they were used. We had no idea if they had frozen or if they leaked. But Alan made the hook-up and, lo-and-behold, they both work great. No leaks and plenty of pressure. You can’t imagine what a wonderful thing a running shower is until you’ve not had one for 2 years! A cold shower, in this heat, is a pleasure. And the tiles are in great condition. No repairs needed there. (Actual HOT running water will follow soon.)

Today, Joe came and started on getting the new cistern situated. A 3′ hole was dug, and 6″ of sand spread. Then, the tank was tipped in and filled with 12″ of water to hold its shape while getting the hole backfilled. Since it might rain, we made a temporary downspout, covered with the tarp. You don’t want to lose a drip of water around here! Once set up, I will wrap it with insulated covers to protect it from UV damage and keep it from freezing. The 2 cisterns together should give us over 6 months of drinking water. This is the kind of thing the people of Phoenix and LA will need to learn if they want to live there in the future. Water is precious.

Another project I am even more excited about is repairing the broken tiles that fell while removing the old windows. The builders did not know about wonderboard, so the old ones, while lovely, were never very secure. I ordered a box of 100 random Talavera tiles and look forward to making the interior windows look cheery.

And FINALLY, it RAINED!

Thank you Alan, for your Rain Dance.

This is my mantra of the week. There is no doubt in my mind that where we live molds our culture and our behavior. One of the sillier ways I see it is in the obsession so many urban folks have with wearing black. Do they know that black became popular in part as a way to hide the ubiquitous coal dust that coated everything in the 1800s? Before that, black was rare (expensive to dye, so only for the wealthy) and for widows and funerals, but designers and dressmakers in the Victorian era were unable to fix the stained chintzes and silks their customers brought back, so there was a campaign (started in Paris, I believe, then quickly spread to London and NYC) to make black popular. And it never slowed down. The dirt found on farms can wash out more easily, so it never caught on in rural areas……landscape and culture. (There’s a great article about this in an old NY Times, but it won’t let me link it here)

For those who live in a landscape where nature is non-existent, or at least well-subdued and groomed, the culture must evolve as anthropocentric (1): humans as the center of all things. That’s what it looks like to most (but not all, of course!) city-dwellers. Nature represents at best only retreat, vacation, or occasional beauty, at worst a scary and dangerous place needing subjugation. Whereas, in a landscape where you are tiny and nature is everything, the culture becomes increasingly biocentric (2), and that musk thistle Alan and I deplore becomes as important as ourselves.

Yesterday, I spent the day in Pagosa Springs while the truck was in the shop. I hung out at the Root House Coffee Shop, which serves great stuff and has lots of comfy seating, then took a 5 mile walk along the River Trail, through downtown and then south through the wetlands, stopping every little bit to wet my head and feet in the San Juan River, as it was above 90.

Unfortunately, they were unable to fix neither the truck horn nor the back up camera, so the day was pretty much a bust, but I did enjoy the river.

In the meantime, Alan installed the second-stage Regulator, which essentially regulates the main Regulator. Who’d think that propane could be so complicated? He did get the dryer hooked up, and has made good progress on hot water.

On Sunday, we took the day off for a drive to escape heat in the AC of the truck and visit a friend in Ensenada. We explored the Los Brazos area, a lovely winding road up to the Los Brazos Cliffs, with many summer homes and cabin/RV resorts. There’s no public access in the area, which was disappointing. Then we went through Heron Lake State Park, stopping at the lake to let the dogs cool off. Zane jumped, dove, swam and had a blast. Clair sedately waded along the edge, never going deeper than 3″. She really does not like water. We found the Rio Chama Trail, a 11 mile out-and-back hike along the river, and plan to go back once it cools down a bit.

The prolonged drought has made us more aware and nervous about water. We decided to install a second rainwater cistern. It holds 1600 gallons and will catch roof water off the front of the house. A contractor will be digging the hole and hauling sand to level it in a few days. Our other cistern, which holds 1100 gallons, is down to about 400 gallons. This is our drinking and cooking water. The well is doing a great job for everything else, still running at 5 gallons/minute, which is a lot of water for this part of the Southwest in the middle of a long, hot, dry spell.

We have a lot of musk thistle in the arroyo, grown 6′ tall from seeds washed down in the flash floods. Alan and I are not fond of musk thistle, as it is prickly and competes with native grasses, but bees and hummingbirds love it, and it provides homes, food, and pollen for both, so we are learning to like it more. (Practicing Biocentrism?).

After refinishing the hearth with epoxy (in last post), I decided that I liked the results so much I wanted to do more. So I spread a bunch of the stuff on the rock that holds up our stair stringers. (The adobe floor alone is not solid enough to hold up that kind of weight). I decided to make a diorama of it, and turned it into a little lake, complete with a rhino and frogs.

Pray for rain.

(1) https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/social-sciences/anthropocentrism#:~:text=Anthropocentrism%20literally%20means%20human%2Dcentered,or%20in%20their%20instrumental%20value.

(2) (https://study.com/academy/lesson/biocentrism-in-environmental-ethics.html#:~:text=Biocentrism%20is%20the%20ethical%20perspective,and%20protection%20of%20the%20environment.)

There’s no doubt that we are 2 of the 50 million people struggling with the prolonged heat wave hitting the Southwest. Temps in the low 90s are not unusual for northern New Mexico in July, but seeing those temps for many days in a row is. Until a couple days ago, it was still cooling down into the high 30s at night, which was a pleasure, but now the night temperatures are only dropping to about 50. That is also unusual.

Luckily, our crazy little adobe/strawbale house manages the heat well. Running a couple of fans we are able to keep it very comfortable, never going above 74 inside. I can’t help but believe that what Alan and I are doing here is what everyone will need to adopt if they want to live in the Southwest. The decades of cheap, profiteering building practices which emphasized air conditioning over good insulation are a thing of the past. Especially as great alternatives already exist.

In addition, I’ve been reading the horror stories about the thousands of homes in the Phoenix suburbs that have been cut off from water. If you want to move to the Phoenix area to get out of the snow, read the fine print on your home contract! (1, 2). And Chama, the town nearest to us, has not had drinkable water for much of the past year (3, 4). I really think that many homeowners will not be able to rely on their towns to provide good water in the future. Rainwater capture and improved water management might become mandatory. We need to learn from the trees! They seem to be able to suck water from bare rock. These cedar/junipers use up to 50 gallons/day. Where does it all come from?

Our own water situation has been great so far. After 2 months without rain, we still have about 600 gallons of filtered rainwater for drinking, and the well is producing 5 gallons/minute. We are still waiting for the water testing report that will tell us how successful we’ve been in our filtration. Will it be drinkable? Will I be able to water a garden with it? We think so, as it looks and tastes great. I know this may be difficult to relate to for those of you dealing with constant rain and flood……the amount of energy you may be spending on keeping things dry, we spend on keeping things wet!

I’ve been working on small projects around the house that don’t require being out in the sun. I repaired the wood stove hearth, which is made of local rocks, but which were impossible to clean because of the rough surface. I covered it with a layer of epoxy, which is easy to wipe down and looks shiny and clean. Continuing in that vein, I’m now repairing the front door area, putting in some tiles and a screen door. I’m waiting for grout to finish it, and then will start on the trim work.

Alan is now working on the hot water heater, which has been a long slog. Getting the vent parts took ages, and then he had to cut a hole in the roof to install it. That’s all done, so “all” that’s left is hooking it up to propane. I look forward to our first hot shower inside the house (i.e., not in Pippin!)

In the meantime, he has had fun relaxing with old friends and playing with the pups.

Today, I took a hike up the mountain behind the house. It’s a beautiful steep area covered with huge boulders. I found this cave halfway up, flat, sandy, and big enough to sleep in! I guess we have an emergency hiding spot if the s**t hits the fan!

During the evenings, we relax where the shade is best, the back porch, usually. It still often turns into a construction work area, but is a great spot to throw frisbees to the dogs. And, of course, July is time for the Tour de France, our favorite (actually the only) sport we follow. Always a joy to watch the stunning scenery of France, and, this year, the Basque area of Spain. Go Sepp Kuss!

1. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/arizona-restricts-phoenix-home-construction-amid-water-shortage-2023-06-02/#:~:text=The%20state’s%20recently%20concluded%20analysis,Supply%2C%20which%20enable%20home%20construction
2. https://www.cnbc.com/2023/01/17/arizona-suburb-sues-scottsdale-for-cutting-off-its-water-supply-.html
3. https://www.governor.state.nm.us/2022/06/22/state-providing-hundreds-of-thousands-of-gallons-of-water-to-chama-amid-ongoing-water-system-leak-asks-village-to-request-official-county-emergency-declaration-to-enable-additional-state-support/
4. https://losalamosreporter.com/2023/05/11/environment-department-confirms-boil-water-advisory-required-for-chama-water-system/#:~:text=Chama%20Water%20System%20was%20required,water%20quality%20and%20filtration%20effectiveness.

I had to start this belated blog with a slideshow of a walk I took last month with the dogs through a rare Iris superbloom up near Navajo Peak. I’d guess that only 50-60% had bloomed at that point, but it was already spectacular. Of course, photos simply can’t catch the beauty, but you get the idea, and maybe will be inspired to find some wild flowers near you. The smell was as amazing as the flowers. Also amazing was the fact that there had been NO one else up there.

The best part of the day was using my Olympus SLR camera for the first time in several years. I’ve become completely dependent on pics from my Pixel phone, which are pretty good, but not as much fun! Alan gave me the camera years ago, and I took many wonderful photos of animals in the wild, but slowly put it aside for the ease of the phone. Aaarggh!

June was full of good times, interspersed with hard work. Alan was finally able to turn on the filtered well water system, (He has become quite the plumber). It had ZERO leaks and is working perfectly so far, meaning I am able to water the new aspen trees with a hose!

Turning it on was a 2 day job. First we had to SHOCK the well, which involves pouring 3 gallons of bleach down the well head and running it with hundreds of gallons of water through the entire system. We then let it sit 12 hours to kill any bacteria, then flushed all the bleach out with hundreds more gallons. That ran the well dry, so we had to let it recharge to full capacity, which took another few hours. Then, and only then, could we start opening the many shut-off valves. And it all worked!

Now Alan is working on adding backflush drains, and then will start hooking up the on-demand hot water heater! That is truly something to look forward to. It’s been nearly 2 years since we started this adventure: which means nearly 2 years without hot running water. (other than in the camper).

I’ve been doing small projects: sanding the cold room door, finishing the woodwork in the bathroom, lots and lots of laundry, things that are not very exciting, and part of the reason I have not been writing blogs! We’ve also been taking lots of shorter hikes, trying to average at least 3 miles/day.

At night we tend to retire to the “TV room” upstairs and watch a show. We’ve been enjoying Joe Pickett and Alone and the new Avatar. We don’t really watch for very long, which is why the new Avatar movie took us 4 nights to finish.

Our daughter, Amanda, came to visit with Brody, dropping off her older sons, Alex and Will, for 10 days. It is always a pleasure to have them around. Alan and Alex hiked up to the clifftop on the old road Alan found that makes it a relatively easy 2.5 mile walk. The view from the top shows the new gravel covering the driveway. Interestingly, it is much, much greener than it looks here, with thick grass 3′ tall throughout the valley.

We took the kids camping on the Conejos River an hour away. A beautiful spot, but the mosquitos were atrocious! We spent quite a bit of time hiding out in the camper. One day, though, we went up to Platoro, high enough to escape bugs.

Now we’re home, settling into a long, hot, dry spell. It is 90 degrees today, which is hotter than average. Humidity is at about 10%. That’s dry. Fire danger is high. But the mornings are cool, getting down to 35 degrees at 6 am. That makes the heat so much more bearable.

So, Alan and I wish you all a Happy 4th of July and a summer full of joy and fun.