Fire pit and solar shower.

After the rather tiring chore of spreading the gravel, we had settled into a routine of small chores until we got some energy back. That mostly consisted of warfare against the ants and the cutting, splitting and organizing of the scrap wood left over from the construction.

A quick word about the ants. I had come here thinking I would need to deal with the red harvester ants since they were so prevalent, and caused Zuno so much pain last summer. As it turns out, the red ants haven't really been a problem. Jill did get bitten once and can attest to the pain of the bite, but for the most part they have not factored in. The tiny brown ants on the other hand have been a nuisance. We were hardly here a week when they had started to make inroads into the garage, the teardrop shed, and the pump house. It was in the pump house where I discovered they are quite destructive to wood. They are like tiny carpenter ants. Our plan to use the fairly earth friendly Equal sweetener did NOT work, so I finally went to full on toxic warfare. I used a combination of Terro ant bait and Ortho spray. As of this writing, I seem to have the ones that were invading my space under control.

The next two jobs on my list were building a fire pit and a larger solar shower.

The fire pit which we had out back at 14 Spring St in Maine is one of the few things that I miss about Maine. I decided I wanted something similar at Mariposa. I bought a few cinder blocks for the cooking section, and then hauled rock from the ridge behind the house for the circle. Since I took this photo, we have adorned the pit with a few pottery shards we found south of the house. I haven't used the pit yet, but I am looking forward to doing so when the days get shorter and the nights get colder.

Since we arrived a little over a month ago, we have been using a bag type solar shower which my folks gave to us. It works quite well, but we wanted something a little more permanent. I had purchased a black plastic 55 gallon drum a while back and installed a spigot.

Originally I was going to dig holes and set the 4x4 posts in Quickcrete, but it has been dry and the ground is as hard as a rock. The thought of trying to dig the post holes did not appeal to me. I decided to attach the shower structure to the pump house instead. Another trip to good old Home Depot in Gallup provided the lumber for the frame. I had built up the bed with some of the gravel road base, and set blocks for the 4x4 corner posts to rest on. We decided that a sit down shower would suffice, which saved some money on the lumber and made filling the barrel less of a hassle. The corner posts are 6 footers, so you CAN stand up in the shower, you just don't get much pressure.

Like the washing machine (Charlotte) we shall see how well it works.

Before and after videos

As promised here are the before and after videos. The upload used a significant chunk of my monthly satellite allotment, so don't be expecting too many videos in the future :)

Before

After

Misc Pictures

I have some pics that don't really fit into any particular thread, so I decided I would post them here. Nothing too exciting, so don't get your hopes up.

Sunrise over Cerro Alto.

Cool cloud formation we saw while sitting on the porch watching a lightning storm

Jill and Zeke chillin' on the porch

Dog walk on the road to nowhere

Someone in Fence Lake has a sense of humor, there hasn't been any water in Fence Lake in a LONG time

We have a LOT of species of beetles here at Mariposa, some of them quite large. I assume this grub is the larvae to one such beetle. It is certainly about the largest grub I have ever seen.

Another creepy bug

Rainbow!

Gopher Snake

Tarantula

First fire in our little Morso wood-stove

The view towards Quemado as you crest the ridge that leads towards our friends Gene and Karen's house.

The birds of Mariposa

I have decided to keep a running list of the birds we have identified here at Mariposa. Some of them are familiar, and others are new to me. I will update the list as we spot new species.

Turkey Vulture
Raven
American Kestrel
Western Wood Pewee
Juniper Titmouse
Western Bluebird
Chipping Sparrow
House Finch
Black Chinned Hummingbird
Rufous Hummingbird
Broad tailed Hummingbird
Lesser Goldfinch
White Winged Dove
Mourning Dove
Bullock's Oriole
Red Tailed Hawk
Brown Headed Cowbird
Mountain Chickadee
Pinyon Jay
Says Phoebe
Canyon Towhee
Hairy Woodpecker
Red Shafted Flicker
Lark Sparrow
Black Headed Grosbeak
Lazuli Bunting
Common Nighthawk
Western Scrub Jay
Black Throated Gray Warbler
Williamson Sapsucker
Green Tailed Towhee
Red Breasted Nuthatch
White Breasted Nuthatch
White Crowned Sparrow
Dark Eyed Junco (Oregon, Gray Headed and Pink Sided sub-species I believe)
Spotted Towhee
Grey Catbird
Sharp Shinned Hawk
American Robin
Pine Siskin
Red Naped Sapsucker
Cassin's Finch
Stellar's Jay
Western Tanager

Don't Fence Me In...Or Out

We had a moonlight visitor recently who raised an interesting difference between living in a western state vs an eastern state. Although we did not get to see our visitor in the flesh, there is no doubt about who it was. (Photos of hoof prints and cow flops)

Our neighbors, and just about everyone else we've met out here, keep cattle. We do not keep cattle. We do, however, have an expensive pole mounted solar array that would make a prime steer scratching post, and bales of straw for our compost system that are attractive to cows, and we do plan to have a vegetable garden at some point. To protect these investments, it was important to learn who was responsible for keeping the 2,000 lb walking steak factories out of areas where they are unwelcome. Who has the responsibility for building the fences shows the difference between eastern and western states. 

It works like this: back east, if you have an animal that your neighbor does not want crossing on to their property, it is your responsibility to fence your animal in. That is a "fence in" state. Here in the west, if your neighbor doesn't want your animals crossing on to their property, it is their responsibility to fence your animal out. That is a "fence out" state. New Mexico is a fence out state, so it is up to us to build fences around any areas we want to be steer-free. Here is attempt #1 at a fence around the delicious straw bales. (Photo is compost area fence)

We will also want to keep deer and elk out of the garden, and they may not be too impressed with this fence design. The plan is to use local experts to construct fences for the solar array and the garden. We'll write up a separate entry when that happens. For now, keep your cloven hooves crossed that this fence keeps the one-ton moonlight visitors fenced out!

C of O!!

After several visits by a plethora of NM inspectors we FINALLY have our Certificate of Occupancy. I am only making a post about this because it has been such a long drawn out process. We made the initial payment on the Mariposa project in Dec of 2013. So approximately 7 months from start to finish for a 420 square foot home :)

Jill was quick to note that our final inspector (who was a bit of a nit-picker) managed to get the address wrong and neglected to put her name on the certificate despite the fact it was on every other piece of paperwork pertaining to the property.

Gravel vs the monsoon

Last year when we were here, there were a lot of thunderstorms, and a fair amount of run off as a result. I took one look at the soft earth surrounding the house and decided I wanted something that would NOT wash away with the next big storm.

I asked my builder Mark Berry if he knew of someone who could provide me with a dump load of gravel. He recommended a guy out of Springerville, AZ who would be able to deliver a "belly dump" load of road base (gravel with a "binder").

The load was 18 cubic yards of gravel, and here is what it looked like just after delivery:

Jill and I have been spreading it the old fashioned way with a shovel, wheel-barrow, and rake. It is tiring labor, this old body is not used to REAL work.

I will gleefully post a picture when this chore is done.

On a side note, the semi tractor and trailer that the load was delivered in was horrifying. I am no truck enforcement guy and I saw several violations ( he had suffered a blow-out en-route and rode in on a flat tire while telling an amusing anecdote of how the severed retread had almost hit the car behind him). If Trooper Freeman had been around, the fines on this rig probably would have bankrupt the guy.

Finally finished spreading the gravel. Took 10 days working 2-3 hours a day. It is spread 1-3 inches deep depending on where it is at. Now we just need a good rain storm to wash the coating of binder off. The gravel itself is a blue/gray rock and looks nicer than what this picture shows.

Cooking

Jill wanted a special thread for our cooking since we are determined (to the best of our ability) to not use the propane stove. To this point she has used the solar oven to cook bread and cookies, we have used the jet stove to cook some of the other foods, and Jill regularly uses a little slow cooker that has a removable crock pot so that you can use the heating element as a little griddle.

Charlotte

I had a whole long drawn out post in my last blog about the washing machine which I built and Jill named "Charlotte", but I don't have the energy to replicate the whole post.

Originally I was going to buy a hand washer from Lehman's, but the $600+ price tag was a bit daunting. I decided to fab up something similar using stuff I had or that could be acquired fairly cheaply. In the end she cost about $100 to build.

It is basically a wooden cradle with a 30 gallon plastic barrel that rides on wheels. The back and forth motion agitates the clothing and gets them reasonably clean. It really doesn't work as well as the plunger and bucket rig that Jill was using last summer, but it is a bit less work.

Stybba

My retirement present to myself was a brand new Yamaha SR400 motorcycle named Stybba after the mountain pony of Rohan that was ridden by Meriadoc Brandybuck in the "Lord of the Rings".

While some folks say motorcycles are just toys and not practical, I think that the 60-70 mpg that the little single cylinder engine is supposed to get will prove to be more practical than driving to the store in my E350 van :)

Since my delivery of gravel for the driveway didn't arrive today, I did finally get around to installing the rear rack (which had to be ordered all the way from Japan).

I had to loosen the rear signals and let them dangle to get the clearance needed and even then it took some fiddling around to get it in place. Once everything was tightened up though it seems rock solid.

Upgrading the facilities

While we were fine using the open air commode...

I decided with the coming monsoon as well as the eventual winter, we would want some shelter for our bucket toilet. The outhouse is not exactly a wonderful representation of carpentry skill, but part of the reason it is a little wonky is because all of the frame and flooring was reclaimed from the scrap lumber pile left over from the construction of the house. All I ended up buying was the plywood for the walls/roof, and the boards for the door. The crescent moon on the door is an artistic addition by Jill. The old rusty lard can which we found last year is where I burn the used toilet paper.

The housing for the bucket toilet is built from the plans in "The Humanure Handbook" and the swanky toilet seat is from Cabelas :) On the wall is the collage which Jill had made up, which was inspired by the pictures on the walls inside the outhouse at Tuckaway.

The bucket toilet uses sawdust as a cover material, and really is much less nasty than you would think when you hear that someone is pooping in a bucket.

Composting

Part of our plan for simple earth friendly living here at Mariposa involves composting. My set-up is basically the one suggested in Joseph Jenkin's book, "The Humanure Handbook". I have adapted the pallet design a little bit to deal with the evaporation which is a problem in hot, arid climates.

We combined our trip to return the Budget Rental truck in Show Low, Arizona with the purchase of a utility trailer and some bales of straw.

The composting bin is a simple pallet construct, but I lined it with plastic to slow the evaporation which often causes compost heaps in Arizona and New Mexico to be too dry to achieve good thermophilic composting.

An initial 18" layer of straw is used as a compost "sponge" which prevents unwanted leachate from contaminating the soil near the bin. The straw is also used as a cover material which allows aeration of the compost as well as keeping the flies from having a party in the compost. The straw is currently stored on a pallet next to the compost bin. There is a floating vapor barrier on top of the compost which serves two purposes. First it prevents loss of moisture through evaporation, and second it reduces leachate during heavy rains.

Our current toilet facilities are primitive but adequate :) I am in the process of building a small outhouse to give us some protection from the weather.