Back at the Park – Days 23 – 37

Dec 18 – Jan 1

Good evening everyone.

Time once again for an overdue update.

First:  I hope everyone had enjoyable Christmas and New Years.

I spent Christmas Eve with various neighbor’s at Tom and Alicia’s.  I ate a delicious dinner completely off diet.  We played night time bali ball on rocky uneven terrain that you couldn’t see, so that was fun.

Christmas Day afternoon we had a potluck at the park and I once again gorged myself on food I ought not be eating.

New Years Eve we had another potluck at the park which was a repeat gorging, followed by a bonfire for a couple of hours.  I excused myself from the bonfire  when Sasha started barking at the Coyotes which just started their cries around 9 PM local time.

That was the fun stuff for me.  Now to fill in some details on the work and miscellaneous stories since my last post.

As predicted, other than picking up the steel posts, I got nothing done in the evenings during the week of my training as it was dark when training got over.

Saturday Dec 23, I got up around 4 AM local time, drove to Sierra Vista to start my shopping day early in hopes of avoiding the crowds.  While I had planned on starting at Lowes or Home Depot, I decided I’d rather get Walmart out of the way before it got busy with last minute shoppers.  Followed by a stop at Lowes, CoOp, TSC, Fry’s, and finally The Outside Inn.   As I got back into the Portal/Rodeo area about 90 minutes before dark, I decided the groceries in the cooler since morning could wait another couple hours.  I stopped at the property and unloaded the new wheel barrel and concrete, then drove to Tom and Alicia’s to finally retrieve my tractor (I had left it at their place while I was in Michigan).  I drove the tractor to the property, dropped off the bucket, then drove back to hookup the auger so I could move it back.  I did well at hooking up the auger considering I had never hooked it up before.  That is, until it was time to connect the hydraulic lines.  I was able to connect one line, no problems.  I could not get the other connected.  I am convince the quick connect adapter is broken.  I will call tomorrow to get a replacement ordered.  As that line was not necessary to move the auger to the property, I went ahead and moved it.  As I walked back from my property to get my truck from Tom and Alicia’s, I noticed all of Tom’s cattle 50′ or so off the drive which I had not noticed as I was driving through there on the tractor 15 minutes before.  I watched them as they watched me as I was making the 20 minute walk back down the drive.  For all the acre’s of land he has, all his cattle must have been along that drive watching me watch them with no fence between us.  I am thankful cattle are not “territorial”.  🙂  Once I made it back to my truck without getting gored, Tom hollered at me to come in and visit for a bit which I gladly accepted.  Groceries have gone this long in the cooler, what is another hour?

On the way home, I noticed some pretty red and blue Christmas lights flashing behind me on the road.  Ok. So they weren’t really Christmas lights.  The nice Hidalgo County officer informed me that 67 in a 60 was not an acceptable speed in this area.  I am thankful he let me go with a warning.  I am thankful my speedometer is 2-3 MPS off as I thought I was doing 69-70 for which he very may have written me a citation for.  So, one of many lessons I have learned this holiday season.  Don’t speed in Hildalgo County, NM.  Hmmm… Seems like I forgot that same lesson previously….  oh, that previous lesson was don’t do 70 in a 55 and pass a Sheriff’s vehicle.  Same theme, but slightly different.  🙂

Christmas Eve day I worked on the property clearing land where the solar panels will be mounted before stopping and getting cleaned up for the previously mentioned Christmas party.

Christmas day I continued work clearing the land then worked on marking the locations of the posts for the solar panel mounting system before stopping to drive back to the park to make stuffed mushrooms for the potluck.  I make two different recipes of stuffed mushrooms because they both sounded good.  Both were a hit.  I came home with an empty pan.

Shortly after Christmas Day (maybe even on Christmas day), I was reflecting on how little time I have left before I was planning on moving the trailer to the land and how slowly I am progressing with preparing the land for me to move.  So, I broke it down.  What do I need to move?

• Water for dishes and cooking.
• A place to park the trailer.
• 7×24 communication (phone and internet)

Ok.  While it is a PITA, I can haul in the water I need.

In regards to a place to park the trailer,  I can clear a spot easily enough in 4 hours with the tractor.

That leaves communications.  When I have power, I have communications.  So I need power.  While I can run the generator 24 hours a day, I prefer not to.  A compromise would be to run off battery at night which is what I was planning on anyway with the solar setup, and use the generator to charge the batteries during the day until I get the panels installed.  That means I have to get the electronics installed somewhere.  I need to move construction of the temporary structure that will house the solar system electronics up on the priority list to #1.

In terms of time management, I need to make at least one leg of a shopping trip in the dark so I am not wasting daylight.  If I can make both legs of the trip in the dark and not miss any shopping stops due to stores being closed, then even better.  Daylight needs to be used as much as possible for working on projects at the property.

I’ll also be taking a week of vacation next week so I can focus on getting that structure built and the electronics installed before Jan 20.

With the shift in project priority once again comes the need to collect tools and construction materials for the new temporary shed that will house the solar system electronics.

Off to Douglas on Thursday evening to buy lumber.

As a side note, after years of driving in a car without a radio, I have become accustomed to riding in silence with my thoughts to keep me company.  On the way to Douglas I was thinking about my recent encounter with law enforcement in NM and wondering about the presence of law enforcement in Cochise county AZ.  I only ever see boarder patrol and they don’t enforce traffic laws.  How many times have I passed AZ State or Cochise county law enforcement and never new?  Don’t know.  What is their tolerance for speeding?  Don’t know.  It has been my experience everywhere I’ve been (except Hildago county NM) for areas where the speed limit is 55+, law enforcement doesn’t bother you up to 9 mph over the limit.  Wonder what the tolerance/threshold in Cochise county is?  Hope not to find out the hard way.

Get to the hardware store 15 minutes before they close.  Buy some hardware and lumber for the shed construction.  Ask the guy loading my lumber about a good place to go for getting a tire patched as I’ve had a truck tire with a leak and I’m tired of pumping it up every couple days.  Off to TSC for what I don’t recall, then to Walmart for some groceries.

On the way home while lost in thought and practicing not speeding excessively (maybe just a little 🙂 ), a truck comes up on me.  I’m thinking – finally, I’m not the fasted driver on the road.  Waiting for him to pass, but he doesn’t.  Instead, I suddenly see pretty blue and red flashing lights.  Again?  Really?  Where am I?  Did I lose track of where I was and miss the speed limit drop from 65 to 55?  I don’t think so…  As it turns out, both of my license plate lights are out.  I did not know.  Oops…  As usual, such a stop is being used as an excuse to check for illegal activities.  After asking if I had any weapons with me, I was asked to exit the vehicle and join him by his vehicle while he called in my information.  He made conversation with me presumably to assess my state of mind (might I be under the influence).  He asked about drugs, medical marijuana license, meth, in the vehicle or on my person.  “Nope.  Feel free to search.”  It seems he thought he smelled a faint smell of marijuana.  He declined my offer to search stating there were plants in the fields near us and maybe that is what he was smelling.  I don’t know.  I just know it wasn’t me unless it was the smell of camp fire smoke from Christmas night.  He sent me on my way with a warning letter to get it fixed.  I am thankful he was kind enough to not write a fix-it ticket which would then require me to follow up and provide evidence that I fixed it.  I am thankful it was not a moving violation I was being stopped for.  I find it interesting that the Hildago county officer did not mention the lack of license plate lights.  Did they go out between stops?

Friday evening on my way to Sierra Vista, I stopped at the tire repair shop to get my tire patched.  I will definitely go back to Beltrans Tire Repair if I need another tire patched.  In Sierra Vista I picked up an air compressor from a Craigslist seller, and associated pneumatic tools from Harbor Freight.  Also known as CCC – cheap Chinese crap.  As lightly as I plan to use them, I’m hoping they will do the job and won’t be a waste of money.  A stop at the CoOp,  A stop at La Casita for dinner.  A stop at Fry’s grocery to top off on groceries, then a long drive home stopping in Douglas to top off with fuel for the truck.

Saturday, I made two trips to Animas to buy used shipping pallets.  I learned I can fit 15 pallets in the bed of my truck with the cap on.

Sunday, I started construction on the floor of the shed.  I set the support blocks and leveled them.  I cut all the boards for the skids and the frame to length.  I torched the boards (shou sugi ban).  I stained the boards to make them more pest resistant.  I then headed home to make stuffed mushrooms and guacamole for the potluck.

Today, I assembled the frame and was very pleased with it.  It was square and level and looked good.  I then moved it and it completely fell apart.  I was not so pleased with that.  I sat and pondered solutions.  My thoughts ranged from completely scrapping the shed idea and build a hoop house instead to building a hybrid of a shed and hoop house, finally back to sticking with the shed concept but using screws instead of nails.  I seem to recall that nails were better suited for construction where sheer strength was important, such as what I am building.  I finally landed on the decision to continue with the shed but get better quality nails to hold it together.  With the desire to properly manage time as noted above, I opted to not run to Douglas today for better nails considering I will be going tomorrow to pickup straw for the compost bin.  So, what do I do to make use of my time?  Going to need those pallets sorted between what will be used whole in the construction of the shed and what will need to be broken down into boards for individual application into various parts of the shed.  So, I spent the majority of the day breaking down the pallets that I bought Saturday.  I got about half way through them.

As for the animals, Sasha is doing well.  Hershey, not so much.  Hershey stopped eating about a week ago.  Tonight is going to be his last night.  If he doesn’t pass tonight, I will have to put him down tomorrow.  One way or another, he won’t be alone when he goes.  Hoping he goes tonight.  I don’t relish the idea of putting him down tomorrow.

RIP Hershey.

I did take a number of photos this week but I have to work in 6 hours so I need to try to get some sleep.  I will just have to post them next time.

Night all

Cary