First Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is always a special time; family and food. While we were missing our family, the food was delicious.

It was a beautiful day, and the dogs didn't mind hanging around outside while I stoked up a fire; Zuno in the sun, Zeke in the shade

The table was set,

The sides were in the oven,

The turkey (burgers) were roasting over an open flame,

When it all came together, we were well pleased. Turkey, stuffing, potatoes, gravy, green bean casserole, and cream cheese/olive stuffed celery stalks. Our friends from Rincon Ranch had given us a couple of bottles of sparkling cider which added to the holiday feel. Yummy.

It goes without saying, we have much to be thankful for :)

First snow

While we did dodge the recent deep freeze that hit pretty much the rest of the country to the east, we did get our first snow (Nov 16) and single digit temps (Nov 17).

I find the snow to be much more pleasant when there is only an inch of it, I don't have to clear a driveway or roof, and I don't have to go to work.

By running the propane heater for about an hour before dark, and having a timer turn on the heat lamp at 0300, the lowest temperature the pump house reached was 34 degrees. I didn't heat the garage at all and the temp near the water heater bottomed out at 46 degrees.

Inside the house, even though it was quite cold outside, we went to bed with the indoor temp at 69 degrees and woke up to 56 degrees without heating at all over night. I had to think how many times the furnace would have come on at Bonnybank if the temps had been in the low teens overnight.

So far I am relatively pleased with our prospects for the winter at Mariposa.

Cold weather is coming

At this elevation (just over 7000 feet) it tends to get pretty cold at night; Zuno would be willing to bear witness to that:

Since our house is super insulated, the heating requirements are easily met by our little woodstove and a wall mounted propane heater. The coldest night we have had thus far was about 20 degrees, and the house only dropped from 64 degrees to 58 degrees overnight. A morning fire with 4 small pieces of pine brings the temp up to 68 degrees in the course of an hour.

Unfortunately, I was stymied in my GRAND PLAN by the burdensome state of New Mexico housing permit requirements. My original plan for the water system was this: Solar pump brings water to a buried cistern. Hand pump bring the water from the cistern to the surface. Jill carries the water from the pump house to the residence. :D The type of hand pump I bought allowed the water to drop back down to a frost free depth between uses.

Sadly, the state would not permit our house without hot and cold running water. To this end, the builder installed a pressure tank in the pump house, and a propane water heater in the garage. Now I have to admit, it HAS been nice being able to turn on a faucet and get water, but the placement of the pressure tank and the water heater cause concern with the approach of the cold weather. The builder would say things like "the only thing I am worried about is the feed line from the pressure tank freezing up" "if we insulate it, it SHOULD be alright". Or the propane guy: "the heater unit SHOULD be alright here, it gets some heat from the house" "these lines are not SUPPOSED to break if they freeze".

The advice of the guy who did the wiring for the pressure tank was to build a footing around the pump house shed to keep the cold from bleeding in underneath, and to rig a heat lamp near the pressure tank itself (actually he said ideally the pressure tank should have been installed in the garage, but whatever). He suggested a cinder block footing, but I decided to use the free building materials I had at my disposal.

I insulated around the pressure tank itself and bought a small heat lamp that could be directed at the most vulnerable parts of the system. I also bought little battery operated thermometers to keep track of the temps.

For the propane water heater, I built a little insulated booth out of foamboard, and moved a bunch of water storage in as an emergency water supply if the pipes froze, but also as a heat sink.

As an additional measure if we run into one of the REALLY cold spells that the locals like to prophesy every chance they get ("I remember back in the 70s it was 35 below zero for a WEEK!") I bought 2 indoor rated portable propane heaters and hooked them up to 40lb bottles. There is one in the pump house and one in the garage.

I realize that all of my planning may still be to no avail, so I did locate the buried cistern and I purchased a marine bilge pump so I can access that supply of water if the pipes leading to the house freeze up.

I did make a collar and a cover so I could back fill and insulate the cistern opening from the cold as well.

In the end, I am hoping we will do ok through the cold winter months. Time will tell. If I had to do it all over, I think I would have just passed on having the building permitted (there are tons of rural folks living in uninspected dwellings out here)  and rolled the dice on living without homeowner's insurance.

Fatty Lumpkin

While we loved the Ford E350 van which we bought several years ago, it suffered from 2 defects here in NM. One, it was 2 wheel drive. The roads in this area can be pretty bad after rain or snow, so the idea of a 4x4 was enticing. Two, it was so big, I don't think I could have gotten it safely into my garage.

We decided to buy a new truck. I did some research and landed on a Toyota Tacoma Access Cab. I went with the 4 cylinder engine for better fuel economy.

Originally I had planned to name it "Snowmane" in keeping with the Tolkien steed names for my vehicles. The drive back from Albuquerque however quickly showed me that the little truck could not live up to the name of the horse ridden into battle by Theoden King.

I decided the truck's preferred pace was more like that of Tom Bombadil's pony, Fatty Lumpkin.

We tend to just call it Lumpy.

It has been a good little truck thus far, but it won't be winning any races.

Austin's visit

My brother Austin is the first relative to venture out to Mariposa. He was not deterred by the notion of living out of the back of his truck, pooping in a bucket, or showering outdoors. He arrived on a Saturday, after a long drive with bad traffic in the areas of Sante Fe and Albuquerque.

The first order of business was the leveling of his truck/home away from home (we did offer to let him sleep in the house or in the shed, but he was really looking forward to using his truck camper).

Soon after that, we settled into our usual routine of being retired and it seemed to appeal to Austin. I heard him remark on more than one occasion "it doesn't get any better than this". I tend to agree :)

We DID do a few different activities, the first of which was a road trip to the El Malpais National Monument which is about an hour northeast of Fence Lake. we went to the Ranger Station/Visitor Center, the Sandstone Bluffs overlook,

 the Zuni/Acoma trailhead, and of course, Ventana Arch.

In addition to our usual activities of porch sitting and eating, we also shot our longbows and air rifles, played some prairie croquet, and a game Austin introduced called "ladder ball".

Jill was a gracious hostess and made Austin his own fire poker out of barbed wire (since I wouldn't let him touch mine :))

All in all we had a very enjoyable visit, and Austin has promised to return soon. We look forward to seeing him.

New Shed

After we really got settled in and put everything where we wanted, we found the garage space was a little cramped. I particularly did not enjoy threading Stybba (the motorcycle) past Lumpy ( the truck) every time I wanted to go for a ride.

We decided to buy a Weatherking 10x16 shed, which Jill often calls the "Man Shed".

I had a fairly flat spot picked out, and it only took a couple of days with a shovel, a rake, and a 2x4 to make a level pad.

The shed was completed to my order in about 10 days, and delivered on a full sized flatbed tractor/trailer.

Jill immediately got busy on making a barbed wire fence "A" to adorn the front, and I made a list of stuff from good old Home Depot to build a work bench.

I built a work bench, and actually had a bunch of shelf brackets left over from Spring St in Maine which allowed me to put in a nice row of shelves.

I bought a folding aluminum ramp to roll Stybba up into the shed, and moved a bunch of stuff over from the garage. I love my new space, and we both love the added room in the garage.