Mister Fix-It

We've spent the first week and a half just trying to carve out a little chunk of habitability here in the desert.  One thing I have learned in my 16 years living in the southwest is that the sun can kill you, and rather quickly too, if you're not smart about it.  The two biggest priorities here are shade and water.  We didn't bring nearly enough of either one. 

We schedule our days around the sun -- and the heat.  Morning comes early around here.  Twilight starts around 4:30am, with our neighbor's various creatures awakening and making noise right away; Cattle, a donkey and a rooster.  Of course there are also the coyotes.  They are an interesting animal, from what I've heard.  I've only actually caught a glimpse of one as it retreated into the brush a hundred yards or so away.  It seems they all awaken to a call from one of their leaders in the evening twilight, and then receive a "go to bed" call in the early dawn hours.  From time to time throughout the night, you can hear a lone call.  One of them has made a kill, and is calling the others to join in the feast.  Responding calls can be heard from various directions and distances, but that distane closes very rapidly.  As they all gather out there somewhere in the darkness, the cacophony is raucous enough to wake the dead.  Good thing I'm so tired lately, it doesn't even wake me up anymore. 

So far we have erected and assembled several things to make things more bearable out here, at least for a while until the house is built:  We have installed a pressure tank and plumbing system so we can pump water from the well and store it under pressure.  We don't want the submersible well pump to run every time someone opens a faucet, that would wear it out quickly.  That proved to be more of a challenge than anticipated.  The PVC  cement we bought said no purple primer is required for a proper fit and seal.  WRONG.  Every single fitting we made that would handle pressurized water has failed, or is leaking, which means it's going to fail.  We cannot hold pressure in the tank for more than a few hours before it leaks out down to 0psi.  Not cool.  One fitting at a time, we redo our work.

We erected a couple of carport structures, purchased at Costco.  They are 10ft x 20 ft, and we set them end to end, so that we have a structure of 10 ft x 40 ft, with a wood floor.  We also purchased a swamp cooler and stuck it inside the tent.  It takes the edge off the afternoon heat.  We've had to adjust, tweak and fix various things on the tents to seal them up a little better.  Too many gaps and the bugs and dust get in, as well as letting the heat escape.  There is about a 4" gap at the bottom of the walls of this structure.  Our dogs, a dachshund, 2 chihuahuas, and an eskimo spitz, think this is the greatest thing ever.  Poblem is, they then track in all sorts of dirt, dust and mud.  We're trying to create a somewhat clean sanctuary from the elements here.  This simply will not do.  So, we've decided to build a 2ft tall kicker, or footer wall along the bottom edge of the tent structure.  We'll water seal the wood with Thompson's Water Seal in anticipation of the summer Monsson Season. 

I've been told that the term "RV"  stands for "ruined vacation".  I'm beginning to understand firsthand why.  The only time you will not have something broken on your camper, trailer, or mobile home is when it's on the sales lot.  We have a little pop-up camping trailer, that is used for sleeping purposes only.  It's too small and cramped to cook or clean or do anything but sleep in it.  Unfortunately, the plumbing leaks, there are holes in the screen.  My brother in law, who is here with an RV trailer of his own, is wrestling with leaks and an awning that it being ripped apart by the wind.  How people think RV-ing is fun is beyond me. 

There are so many things to build and fix around here.  I only have the strength to mention a few here.  We ARE making progress here, though.

FROM STAY AT HOME DAD TO HOMESTEADING DAD

As  the title suggests, there are going to be some changes around here.

 I haven't posted in a while because we have moved -- literally.  We have decided to chuck it all in and move to the country.  We bought 40 acres a while back, and were planning on making this move, but not so quickly.  You see, my wife's father, Harry Eugene Orcutt, had a dream for years to live in the country and in a log home.  His entire family, his wife, children and their spouses (myself included) share in that dream.  I have lived in big cities all my life, but have always enjoyed trips to the country, and to tell you the truth, I prefer the wide open spaces to living on top of other people, and they on top of me.  Harry had put off his dream time and time again in deference to taking care of his family in the here and now.  Well, as cruel fate would have it, he was LITERALLY 8 hours away from retirement and bringing that dream to reality when he was struck by a massive, fatal heart attack. 

We were all planning on making this move a little later, but Harry's sudden departure shocked us into action.  Why have a dream is you don't actually work to fulfill it?  We're not waiting.  So we are forging full speed ahead to the 40 acres we all bought together to make Harry's dream come true. 

Here's where it gets interesting.  Our land is in central Arizona.  It's high desert, cattle country.  We are quite literally 30 miles from nowhere.  Oh sure, there's a general store and a gas station here or there, but if you want a Starbucks you're driving 30 miles one way.  When we startedearlier this year, there was nothing but a barren scrath patch of desert, all bugs and dust.  Today, there isn't much else.  We've had a couple acres of it scraped and cleared, and we have parked our camping trailers atop.  The whole fam-damly is here, 5 adults and 5 kids.  The kids range from 10 years old down to 3 months old.  yeah, we're a little nuts!

So anyway, not to make this a novel-length post, this blog will be shifting focus from a stay at home dad's perspective to a home MAKING dad's perspective.  I won't have time for a while to post recipes.  For the time being, I really don't even have a kitchen.  Instead, I will be chronicling the steps we are taking to carve out our little slice of heaven, and to fulfill Harry's dream.  I'll be touching on things like setting up camp, fighting off bugs, beating the heat, finding/making shade, living with a well not suitable for drinking (yet), no pressurized water (yet), generator power, swamp coolers, M*A*S*H* style tents, solar PV systems, and so on, and on...

So let the adventure begin!  I used to say that being a stay at home dad was the hardest, yet most rewarding job I've ever had.  Now I'm not so sure.  I'll blog later about our struggles to get that water cleaned up and running, and how glorious it feels to finally take a REAL running shower after many many days of teapot sponge baths.