Spring has sprung

As Jill so correctly pointed out the other day, it has been a long time since I have lived in a place where the vernal equinox actually seems to herald spring. I am pleased to say that here at Mariposa, spring has sprung.

On March 22nd, we saw the first lizard of spring. A number of the bird species which were gone for the winter have returned. And of course, porch setting has become a regular pastime again.

In addition to sitting around, we have started taking longer morning walks; 1-2 hours on average. I have also started to get back into the swing of morning chores, with such activities as cutting firewood and hauling rocks to put around the base of the man shed.

We are looking forward to the arrival of the chicken coop I ordered, so that we can start having fun with chickens.

I would have to say, life is good.

New Toys

When Mike Gray from Beehive came out in December to finish up some solar stuff, he brought a cool little portable battery kit with him. He said he brought it to work sites in case he needed auxiliary power. He had designed it for an emergency preparedness seminar that he had given, but felt like he would like to build another one with a larger inverter. The kit consists of two 55 amp/hour AGM batteries, a charge controller, an inverter, and a trickle charger (in case the sun doesn't shine). All wired and fused in a heavy duty rolling case.

I had been thinking about a second solar system to run the heat lamp in the pump house during the winter, and to run a fan, or light, or battery chargers in the man shed during the summer, so I offered to buy it from him. He had only brought one panel with him, but promised to deliver the second panel as soon as possible. Last Wednesday he dropped off the second panel. In the mean time, I had built a rolling rack for the panels, with angle adjustment for the different seasons.

Now that it is all hooked up, I am quite pleased with how it is working.

During our last monthly trip to Gallup, I picked up a large drop-side wagon. It has a 1200 pound capacity, and should be better than our little lawn cart or the wheel barrow for hauling firewood, rocks, and gardening stuff.

On a rare (for  me) impulse buy, I bought a Black and Decker cordless drill. It is a 20v unit with a lithium battery. It probably isn't as robust as a Makita or Ryobi, but it cost about half as much. I used it to install the carrying handles on Jill's tray and it seemed to work very well. I am psyched about not having to drag out the 100 foot extension cord quite as often :)

Garden fence

In preparation for the spring planting, I put up a fence to hopefully keep the deer, elk, and cattle out of our garden.

16 T posts, and 100 feet of 5 foot high hog wire.

I picked a level spot below the pump house, so it wasn't too bad of a chore. Fortunately Dad had given me a fence driver before we moved out, it has really come in handy.

The old truck tire is a gift from our neighbor Laurel up the road. After I have cut out the side walls, it will be used as a raised bed planter.

Free firewood and a battery powered chainsaw.

When we moved out here, one of my goals was to use fossil fuels as little as possible. One of the things I wanted to try was a battery powered chainsaw. The use of Li-Ion batteries these days has made battery powered tools a much more reasonable proposition, but I had my doubts whether a chainsaw would pass muster.

After reading reviews, I decided to try a Greenworks 40v saw with a 16" blade. I bought one extra battery to go with the saw, for a total of 2.

I have been very pleased with the rig. In general I will head out onto the property with the saw and a wheel barrow. I get about 2 hours of work from a battery, which is pretty much all I want to do anyway. I put up about a cord of wood before winter started getting serious, and I figure I will put up a couple more before next winter. I have focused on the juniper, which seems to burn much cleaner than the pinon.

Christmas 2014

Better late than never. Our Christmas was quiet and wonderful. Jill put out our few remaining decorations, and I fried up some chicken on the woodstove using the same simple recipe my grandmother used to use. Life is good.

6 months at Mariposa and hello 2015

I haven't posted any threads lately since the batteries are lowest first thing in the morning when my bonus bandwidth is available. This one will be brief and will have no pictures.

We are still alive and loving it here. The winter routine is even more laid back than the summer routine :) We have been reading a lot, and keeping on top of such chores as still need doing.

We have really only needed to run the generator for any length of time on 2 occasions. The first was when we accidentally left a hot plate running all night, which took the batteries down to 50 percent. The second was a cold, snowy day that kept the solar panels covered. Even on those occasions, the generator was only used for a few hours.

The house is quite toasty with our little wood stove, we are generally much more comfortable than we were during the winter in Maine. I still prefer to use the outhouse, and I have taken to showering in the shed.

We currently have about 6 inches of snow on the ground, but if the forecast holds true, I expect much of that will soon be gone.

Look for more threads in the future as the days get longer.

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 :)