Black Mesa Ranch
Snowflake, Arizona, USA
Artisan Cheese
Nubian Goats
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Updated!
6/07: We have revamped our Ranch Workshop Packages!
In addition to our one and three-day cheese making and goat management workshops learn about our free open- house days and lodging accommodations.
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Award Winning Artisan Goat Cheeses
4 Awards 2005 ADGA National Competition
3 Awards 2004 ADGA National Competition
2 Awards 2005 ADGA National Competition
2 Awards 2004 ADGA National Competition
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Click here to read the online version of Kathryn's booklet
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This site last updated:
March 29, 2008
© 2000-2008 Black Mesa Ranch Inc. All Rights Reserved
Arizona Grown!
A cowgirl at sunset
10/5/00 First load up
First moving trip from Tucson up to the ranch and back with the truck and very full trailer with D’s hardwood supply and lots of heavy shop stuff. Went via Phoenix and Payson to take it easier on the truck (no Salt River Canyon) and the trip took 7 hours, 2 hours longer than we had anticipated. Returned via route 77 as normal and were back in 5 hours.
Our first load to the Ranch
10/7/00 Second load up
Our second day-trip up from Tucson and back (via route 77) with the truck and full trailer including almost all of the rest of the shop stuff. Returned to Tucson with a load of non-burnable garbage and toxics (paint, garden chemicals etc.) to dispose of there.
Met with Matt a guy from a local solar company. He came out, looked the ranch over, took some rough measurements of distances and discussed at length some of the possibilities we had for our power generating needs. Matt was quite clean cut, in our experience, for a building contractor. He had a pleasant demeanor, even disposition, wasn’t cussing every other word and when, at one point, he reached into his shirt pocket it wasn’t for a pack of cigarettes, but for a calculator. One thing we had learned while researching this area is that there is a high concentration of Mormons residing here. There is even going to be a Mormon Temple built just outside of town in the next year or so. Even having known this, we were pleasantly surprised by actually not being turned off by an encounter with a construction tradesman.
10/8/00 Going away Party
Packing the house like mad. Going away party at Martha & Glenda’s with many fun people saying good-bye. So many said something like “Oh, I’m SO jealous! I’ve always wanted to do something like that. How exciting! How adventurous you are!” that we decided to document our little adventure with this journal for posterity.
Why are the neighbors being so helpful as we move from Tucson?
10/9/00 Tractor is ready!
Went to pick up the tractor from the dealership. Paid and got it loaded on the trailer then they told us that because it was a bank holiday they could not verify the funds and we could not take it. We left the loaded trailer there.
10/10/00
Lots more packing and getting ready to leave the house to the realtor.
Called to confirm that the tractor funds had been verified and to tell them we would pick it up the next morning.
Went shopping at Costco and stocked up on the essentials: TP, dog food, soda pop etc.
Loaded the RV to the gills (and then some) with almost all the remaining shop stuff (including a 500 pound generator) plus as many provisions as we can squeeze in.
Going away dinner at our friends, Martha & Glenda’s house.
10/11/00 Official arrival day!
Last minute packing and vehicle checks. Picked up the trailer and tractor and had them load the rear blade into the back of the truck. Trip up was very smooth despite occasional showers. K drove the RV, D drove truck-trailer rig. Stopped to run the dogs and get lunch in Globe. Vehicles performed perfectly. We officially arrive at the ranch to live here and call it home.
Off loaded the tractor and pushed a few things around with it.
Got the RV setup behind the barn. It is to be our new temporary home on the ranch until we get some rudimentary work done on the South house, which in turn will be our more permanent, though still temporary, home until we get the North House fully renovated (probably a year or more from now).
Arrival with the new tractor
10/12/00
Windy and cold today. We are hoping this is not normal for this time of year here or we might be in trouble when winter really arrives!
Tried to reach guy who would be setting the diesel and gasoline tanks but had very difficult time communicating with cell phone from ranch. He said he might be able to set diesel tank soon but had to get in more tanks, he would call back.
Got in touch with Matt, the local solar guy, and made an appointment to meet with him the next morning to see some of his projects in the area and further discuss our system.
Started to examine water tanks in preparation for filling but it was too windy to go up on the tower. We'd had the old pump jack well pump replaced with a new submersible one in late August when we had come up from Tucson to close on buying the property and that was quite an experience (as chronicled on our "Buying the Property" web page), but had not worked on hooking it up until now. Wired the generator cord for the well pump. Started to wire the well pump controller with the cord for the generator but couldn’t figure out what to do with the white wire. Tried to call Kelly who installed the pump but was not able to reach him. Tried to leave a message but cell communication was very bad. We also found that the pack rats had been happily munching on the insulation on the pump wire and had completely stripped a 4” section about 2’ from the end. We disconnected the wire, shortened it and re connected it to the control box and measured for conduit to encase the wire.
Worked on organizing the barn into areas (shop, storage, vehicles and temporary household things) and cleaned it pretty well and built a big burn pile (too windy to light). D did some roadwork with the tractor up around the well area.
Used the tractor to unload the tractor’s rear blade from the truck bed.
Attempted to send a couple of emails with our new cellular email and internet system but it was unable to connect even though we were able to find a spot with good reception. Found out that the system only works in digital areas not analog as we had been lead to believe. We’ll have to see if we can get refunded for this now-worthless service.
10/13/00 Pumped water!
Painted our mailbox out at the main road.
Stopped by Kelly’s and got the information on how to wire the generator to the pump (the white wire just gets capped off, the two hots and ground only are used.). Also picked up a manual for our pump and got some information on doing a water potability test (we can do it ourselves with a $25 kit he sells which checks for coliform and nitrates/nitrites). We discussed our concerns about our water storage tanks and looked at a couple of options. Our tower is an odd size and cannot fit a very large tank as they are now configured. He said he would price a custom-built steel tank for us and give us a call.
Met with Matt (at Ed’s Market) and spent several hours driving around to numerous properties for which he had done the solar installations. His work looks neat and professional and the customers we met seemed very pleased with their systems. After noting that all of the houses we looked at had a different method of handling their well water than we have, we discussed our concerns about the conditions of our tanks with him. He recommended setting a 4500-gallon tank on the ground at the well in conjunction with a pressure tank and pump. He guessed a $2800 cost of its installation. We scheduled a 9 AM meeting for the next day for him to present a comprehensive estimate.
Got the generator wired to the pump motor and fired it up. Generator handled the start-up and running loads with no problem and got our first independent water flowing from our well. Ran it for a while but before long it was quite apparent that both tanks leaked like sieves, though a good deal was still filling into them. We tried to turn on the two valves coming down from the tanks in the valve house but one turned very hard and the other turned very easy, no real way to tell if they were really working or not. We left the pump going and went to the South house to see if we could get any flow there. Found an outside valve recessed about 2 feet into the ground near where we believed the water entered the house and we tried to open it with a valve tool but it was completely fused and immobile.
Brought over the tractor and K used the backhoe to uncover the area around the valve. We found a gas line in very bad shape and two 2” PVC water lines. One of the lines had a ¾” galvanized line running off it to the valve (which we could now see was seized in the open position) so we are pretty sure that it is indeed the water line even though the line entering the house is PVC again. We removed the in-line filter inside the house but were unable to get any water out at all.
Went over to the North house to try and locate the valve there and see if we could easily get water there. Couldn’t find a valve but there was a large wet spot near where we thought the water might enter the house. We dug by hand down about 2 feet and found a galvanized pipe, probably an LP gas line. Decided we needed the backhoe over but it was getting late and quit for the day.
10/14/00 Solar electric contracted, water to the houses!
Met with Matt at Ed’s Market and went over his estimate for PV solar system and water tank with pressure pump work for the ranch. The rates seemed reasonable, actually about $1000 less on the solar part than we had anticipated and he threw in a bunch of labor for installing the water system parts on that end of things. Gave him a check for almost $18,000 and he said he would be out on Wednesday to install the posts for the panel arrays and to measure the actual distances for the wire runs to the houses. We later noticed that he had omitted the wire run to one of the houses which will probably cost us another $400.
Went to Ace Hardware and bought some conduit and fittings ($40) for completing the installation of the well pump control box so the pack rats can’t get to the wires anymore.
Back at the ranch we disassembled the well pump control box wiring, mounted the box on the pump house and ran all the cable from the well in the conduit. We still need to make an enclosure for the control box and the S-O generator cord. K cleaned and caulk-sealed the wellhead.
Decided to continue our investigations into getting water to the houses by doing some work at the well. K cleaned out garbage and misc. insulation about 2’ deep from the valve house floor and removed the wire-bound newspaper insulation from the two 2” PVC supply lines coming into the house from the water tanks which are mounted on a platform 20’ above the house while D supervised and ran some water into the tanks. To our great surprise we found, buried under all the insulation mess, a cast iron manifold designed to combine the intakes from the two supply tanks and distributed it to 8 separately-valved plumbing circuits. 7 of the circuits were 2” PVC and the eighth was 1 ½”. All of the valves were turned off so we decided to see if one would supply the South house. Using walkie-talkies to communicate K went to the South house to open the valve that was located just before the filter unit we had removed while D worked on getting the valves to move. Only 4 of the eight moved freely. Testing each of them one at a time we found that #4 indeed allowed water to the South House! We noticed that #7 allowed a large amount of water to flow through quite quickly but we don’t have a clue to where.
Next we decided to see if we could get water to the North house. When K arrived, there was a significant amount of water already in the basement. Obviously one of the valves we had tested had done something. The North house had not been cleaned at all and the water which had mixed with the very large quantity of rodent droppings and other refuse was totally nasty. K found that the toilet valve on the lower level was running a bit and that there was still water coming out of the wall behind it. We turned off all the valves and spent some time mucking out the bathroom and pulling off parts of the wall to expose the problem. We found that one section of ¾ PVC in the wall was the very thin-wall-type we call “egg-shell” which is intended only for irrigation (non-pressurized) applications. It had simply disintegrated over time or possibly in conjunction with freezing temperatures sometime in the past. With the line entering the house exposed and open we continued with testing the valves at the well. After refilling the tanks a bit again we found that #4 also did this house.
We next decided to test a hose bib at the barn the same way. Unfortunately we were unable to get the underground shut-off valve to turn (even broke off the tool trying) so gave up on that for today.
In our running around we did find where all the water from valve #7 was going. It had made a nice little geyser in the middle of the road about 30’ from the valve house up near the well. We decided to excavate and find out what the problem was. D used the backhoe and K shoveled once we got close to uncover the area. D snagged a 2” PVC line at about 2’ deep but it had a clean factory end. More work uncovered 3 more 2” PVC buried nearby (poked a hole in another one too, aaaargh). Eventually got enough uncovered without breaking them any more to prepare them for repairs. Found the mate to the factory end pipe, it too a clean-cut end going off at a 45 degree angle to the first. Both ends showed evidence that there had been plastic and wire wrapped around the joint in place of a fitting piece. Small surprise it burst. The ground showed signs that it had been leaking for some time including an abundance of tree roots and caliche-fied soil throughout the area. We didn’t have the parts to make the repairs so we quit for the day.
10/15/00
Headed over to the South house to finish digging out where the water line enters the house. Took turns on the backhoe and in the pit shoveling and got enough uncovered to make a new 1” pipe connection to the 2” supply. This we will run into the house to the pressure pump and tank which will then have a 1” line running to the North house and ¾” pipe for distribution in the South house. Our plan, pending discussions with Matt, is to use the existing 2” water supply line that runs between the two houses as a conduit in which to run the 1” line. We hope to be able to simply push it through inside to avoid trenching the 200’ between the two houses.
Next we worked at the North house also trying to uncover where we thought the water supply entered the house. K finally found the sleeve that was covering the location of the shut-off valve about a foot below the dirt. With that as a guide we took turns with the backhoe removing dirt, looking for any sign of the 2” PVC from the South house. We dug deeper and deeper and finally found the long-abandoned gas line at about 3’ deep. Continuing deeper near the valve location we did eventually uncover the valve at about 4’ deep and began extending the hole carefully toward the South house, but couldn’t find the PVC pipe. K dug by hand for a while and found that the valve lead to a series of unexplainable 90° bends in 1” PVC then through the wall into the house. For some reason the 2” pipe must be in another direction. We decided to pursue the elusive Main line at another time.
Decided to go into town for lunch and a quick sponge bath courtesy of the Snowflake McDonalds and thought it would be a good opportunity to see how the dogs behaved unrestrained while we were gone. We pretty much expected Bosco & Max to follow us for a while but figured they would give up, at least by the end of the driveway which is about ½ of a mile. We underestimated their stamina. We drove as fast as we could (granted not all that fast considering the driveway condition) and they kept up right behind us. When we stopped to open the barbed wire section that acted as a gate they were there right behind us. We tried to get them to stay or go back but to no avail, they followed. We drove the next two miles of the County dirt road at about 50 mph and lost them as much in the great cloud of dust as in outpacing them. We stopped at the crest of a hill and looked back to see if we could spot them. Nothing. We waited a few minutes. Still nothing. We then got worried about them having gotten a long way from the houses and worried that they might get into trouble on somebody else’s land and so we went back to see how far they had gotten and if they had headed back. We found them both hanging out in the shade of a tree at the side of the road a good mile from the house, looking still ready to go. So we went… back to our camp. I drove at 25 mph for the first ½ mile and Bosco kept right up the whole way. Max lagged behind but caught up by the time we reached our gate. By the time we reached the RV again Bosco really needed a drink but still looked fit to race again. The old dogs Roc and Callebaut were comfortably sleeping in the sun but didn’t mind when we threw all of them in the RV, locked it and headed back out to town.
K replaced the falling-down section of 4-wire barbed fencing that had been acting as our main gate with a section of chain. While still a temporary fix it will make going in and out less of a chore.
I spend the rest of the day working on our driveway with the tractor. It was all bucket work, though we do have a rear blade for maintaining the roads once they are put somewhat in order. After 10 years or more of complete neglect the road was little more than a rough wash in most places. I figure I got the section from the gate to the barn about ¼ done before it got dark.
10/16/00
Big shopping and errand day.
Went into Snowflake (left the dogs in the RV) and did some banking. Had not received any mail at our rural route box since we put the numbers on it several days ago so went to the P.O. to make sure that our addressing was correct and that there was not a problem with our mail box. Our carrier said it was fine and she did have some stuff for us today.
Went into Show Low and stopped in at the Fuel Company who we had been trying to get to come out to the ranch and set diesel and gas tanks. The guy Bill I had been speaking with wasn’t there but Jerry was very helpful. We discussed all of the reasonable options for onsite delivery and because we wouldn’t really be going through tons of fuel and the distance and the road quality to the ranch all contributed to a much higher per gallon price than we had anticipated. The tanks were also going to cost us $500 each instead of for the pair so we decided to go with a 55-gallon drum style system that we will periodically bring in to have re-filled as we needed. Picking up the fuel will save us about 7 cents per gallon. We will apply for a credit line and get a key card with which we can go there at any time day or night and get any product we want. We still needed to find a hand pump for the drum so went to look for that and do some other business before buying the barrel and fuel.
Went to the travel agency and arranged for K to fly from Phoenix to KC and back near Thanksgiving for her family’s annual get-together. She then found a commuter flight from Show Low to Phoenix at convenient times to connect for each leg. Those flights will save me 2, 9-hour drives to and from the airport.
Went to Checker Auto parts for a deep cycle battery for the RV. We have been having problems with the power and inverter for several days and had found that the house battery was losing water fast, probable through a crack somewhere. Found a fairly close match and bought it.
Next went to an AutoZone and a True Value Hardware store looking for the drum pumps but to no avail.
Then we went to the title company where we had purchased the property. We had been thinking that there were a couple of adjacent parcels whose additions to our own would improve the property a lot, a partial parcel, maybe 20 acres which has a well on it and another 40-acres directly behind our two houses which would give us some room for a back yard or patio. We got the names of the adjacent property owners from the title company and will figure out the best way to contact them to see if they want to sell sometime soon.
We then went to a Cellular One cell phone place. We have been having trouble with reception on our Verizon phone since we arrived. In speaking with some locals we learned that Verizon has an antenna in Holbrook and one in Show Low but none that really covers our ranch’s area. Cellular One on the other hand has numerous cells in the area and most people seem pleased with their service. We also had just signed up for the Verizon wireless internet service in conjunction with our move but have found out it is totally inaccessible in an analog area which this is. We investigated Cellular One’s various plans and said we would be back pending the outcome of our discussion with Verizon about canceling our service with them and getting reimbursed.
We then headed to find the Show Low Verizon store. It was out of business so we headed to Pinetop to their Verizon store but couldn’t find the store at the address we had from the phone book. We called the Verizon 1-800 number and eventually got through to ask where the stores were and were told that the nearest one was now in Flagstaff. I explained the whole story and was told (just before the battery ran out, another problem with their phones) that if we returned the equipment in good condition to the store where we bought it within 30-days we could get a full refund. We will follow up right away.
Stopped at a plumbing supply place to get some 2” PVC, fittings and a couple of “yard hydrants”. These are the coolest freeze-free outside hose bibs we’ve seen and wanted to get a couple up and running at the ranch before things got really cold. Filled out some paperwork to get an account there. They were out of the 2” PVC.
Headed back to Show Low and stopped at a Napa Auto Parts to look for the barrel pump. Their computer said that they had the one we wanted in stock but nobody could find it. They called up to the Snowflake store that said they for-sure had one in stock.
Grabbed a quick lunch then went back to the fuel company to buy the 55-gallon drum and have it filled with red (off-road) diesel (which costs a bit less than the regular because no road-use taxes are applied) then headed back to Snowflake.
Stopped at the well drillers for a water safety/potable test kit.
K went to the Ace Hardware and got the 2” PVC we needed and a couple of other things while I went to the Napa next door for the barrel pump. We made a quick stop at Ed’s IGA then we headed home.
While K did some organizing and unpacking I replaced the RV house battery. It now seems to have solved all the problems we were having with the RV electrical system.
K got a temporary office set up in the barn and did some bill paying and I made the necessary repairs to the 2” plumbing we had found making a geyser in the driveway and also did the initial 10-hour servicing on the tractor.
We then used the tractor’s loader to unload the barrel of diesel from the truck and I assembled and installed the new pump for it.
10/17/00
No problem last night with the inverter on the RV or other electrical anomalies so we think that problem is fixed.
A brisk clear calm morning (ice in the dog’s water dish outside when we got up) so we decided to light the large burn pile we have been building. It caught quickly and burned hard for an hour then settled down to a nice low burn for the rest of the day allowing us to do some other things.
Used the new barrel of diesel & hand pump to fill up the tractor. Worked great but for some reason the fuel gauge on the tractor never registered any fuel added, still reading just over ¼ full. Later in the day, after several hours of work, it began registering correctly. Guess it just got stuck.
Used the backhoe to dig up a hose bib and underground valve near the barn door in hopes that we could find which valve in the valve house at the well does that run and install one of our new hydrants. Digging and removal of the old stuff went smoothly and we even had all the parts to connect the hydrant to the existing 1” PVC. Only problem was when we went to find which of the 8 valves would send the water here, none did. We have no clue why. There is another underground valve at the other end of the barn which we guessed just shut off water to the bathroom in the barn but it’s too stuck to move so we can’t test that theory without digging it up too. We wonder if it might shut off all the water beyond it including the hose bib we’ve been working on. Shelf that project for another day.
The water test kit we bought yesterday takes 48 hours to provide a result so we fired up the generator at the well, connected the pump and let it run for about an hour to get good clear flow for the test. By the time we got back to do the test, water was pouring out of the numerous large holes in both tanks, cascading down the tower and creating a small river down a nearby wash. It was really quite a sight, rather beautiful. We turned off the power and took the required samples. One test that gives results immediately showed that we had no Nitrite or Nitrate concentrations in the water to worry about. The other test for f coliform will be done in a couple of days.
K used the tractor to fill in the section of the road up near the well that we had to dig up to do the repairs to the 2” PVC water line.
The solar guys are supposed to be here in the next couple of days to set the posts for the panel racks so we went over to the Power House with the tractor to clear and smooth the ground where we had decided to site them. It took longer than we had hoped it would because we kept running into buried pile of various metal railings, angle iron, etc. Eventually got the area ready to go. K cleaned out the Power House except for some shelving so the solar guys have plenty of room to get started.
K did some cleaning around the RV while D did some more tractor work on the driveway, getting it about ¾ done from the County road to the Barn.
10/18/00 One week anniversary
One week ago this afternoon we arrived at the ranch to stay!
We were hoping Matt & Co. from Solar Exchange would be here today to set the posts for the solar panel arrays but he called and left a message that he was hung up of a Reservation job and wouldn’t be out until tomorrow or Friday. It was a beautiful day, cold in the morning but warmed quickly to the low 70’s. With nothing really planned we bask in the sun for a while then did a couple of non-essential projects for a change.
We went down to the pumps for the underground fuel-type tanks to see if there was anything in them. There are 2 standpipes with piston-type hand pumps and two access ports for filling and checking the fuel quantity. All were padlocked closed but we had gotten a key for them (along with a few others) from the previous owners. We had found a long square dipstick marked with gradations in inches and gallons in the barn. When dropped into the first tank it showed just a touch of unidentifiable liquid on the end so basically the tank was empty. The second tank showed that there was almost 500 gallon (43 inches) of some petroleum product in it. We couldn’t exactly identify it but it smelled like possibly kerosene. The pump worked, though the hose leaked and we took out about a quart of the liquid into a bucket. At first it pumped very yellow then clear. The smell was still hard to identify, possibly because whatever it was had been in there for over 10 years. We took the liquid over to where yesterday’s burn pile was still barely smoldering and tossed it on. A big puff of nasty white smoke poured from the pile for a minute but no other reaction. Enough of that for today. More experiments with it another time perhaps.
The tractor had 20.5 hours on it so we did another 10-hour maintenance on it. The 50-hour mark is a very important one for maintenance on the tractor and it looks like it will be coming up quickly. Along with all the regular 10-hour stuff the engine oil (about 2 gallons) and filter need to be changed and the transmission (hydraulic) fluid (almost 9 gallons) and filter replaced too. We made a comprehensive list for our visit to the John Deere dealership in Flagstaff on our big shopping trip, hopefully Friday of this week.
D spent 7 hours on the tractor digging our construction-phase dump for non-burnables, mostly metal and some glass. It is a pit about 30’ wide and 8’ deep and probably around 75’ long for now but will get bigger as we need it to. One end tapers as a ramp for the tractor and access for putting junk in. The deep end still needs a little more digging to make it as large as possible for the initial dumping. We cleared a large open space, shielded by trees near the barn of all the debris in preparation for the pit, getting 5 bucket-loaders full of wood for our camp fires and several trips of miscellaneous supplies like large-gauge PVC piping, and lumber to the “Supply Depot” area we are setting up to the West of the barn (near “The RV Park”).
K worked on organizing all our various lists into a better system and made a good food-shopping list for our next run into town.
She also drove out to the mailbox and got the mail, running the 2 younger dogs as far as they wanted to go. By the time she got back they were both already back at the RV waiting. It was a good experiment to see if they would be inclined to head back home or go off exploring when we leave them here.
10/19/00
A pretty warm morning, the heat in the RV only came on once or twice last night. Still having some problems with the inverter in the RV, weird problems. Sometimes when we are running the generator (like when we are microwaving something) and go to shut it off the inverter doesn’t switch to batteries like it is supposed to. We have to turn the generator on and off several times to get it to “click in”. Other times everything seems to be running fine on batteries and we go to open the refrigerator door and all the lights go off. We shut the door and they come back on again and then can open the door again with no problem. We hope it all holds out until we have our solar power station up and running next week.
Called Matt (the solar guy) this morning. He’s now not going to be out until Friday afternoon to set the posts but is still on schedule to start full work on the system Monday. His delay in getting here has thrown back our schedule for several projects because we need his input on the water distribution system for the two houses (which will be run off a pressure pump and tank from him) and a decision on how to tie into the existing 8-valve distribution manifold to the new 4500 gallon water holding tank he will be installing.
Our plan to go to Flagstaff Friday is now out so we’ll try to go Saturday, early so as to hopefully catch the John Deere dealership open. K noticed that one of the sway bar parts from the tractor’s 3-point hitch, that we have not yet used, is very bent. I don’t even know how you could bend this ½” thick steel bar. We’ll take it in with us and see if they’ll replace it or if we will have to take it back to the Tucson dealership.
We got as far as we could without Matt’s information in making a plumbing parts list for Flagstaff shopping. We figured all new LP gas line and new water connections for the South house, plus new valves and connections for all the fixtures for it as well. We also measured for new doors for the South house.
We fueled the tractor, then K went into town to do some grocery shopping while D finished up the tractor work on the dump pit. It’s now ready for filling the first 7’ deep by 10’ long section.
The tractor had a thick layer of red dirt dust all over it from all the loader work we’d been doing so I took it up to the well, ran the pump and hosed it off. I also re-filled some 5-gallon buckets with water for the dogs and bathroom use. The potability test of the water looked like it was going to be fine but there was another 8 hours or so to be sure. Even if it checked out with no bacteria we still have concerns about drinking it. It tastes fine, maybe a bit iron-y but not bad. The problem is that even though it seems to come out of the well clear, within a short time, an hour or so, it is quite yellow. By the next morning it has settled out a very fine layer of a yellow-brown substance. Our guess is that this is a fine mineral suspension of some kind and while it is probably harmless we will be looking into a way to filter out these particulates before using the water for drinking or cooking. The water situation in the RV is getting pretty critical (the 30 gallon tank has lasted a week which isn’t too bad) so K will be picking up some drinking water from the store.
While K was still shopping I cleaned out a 55-gallon drum with a lock-ring lid and filled it up at the well, bringing it back to camp using the tractor bucket. I set it in the fire pit and built a roaring fire around the base. An hour later when K returned home (and just as a nice little thunderstorm opened up on us) we had a big pot of nearly boiling water for bathing and other washing. We stripped down just inside the barn doors and took turns dumping buckets of the water over each other, shampooing, lathering and rinsing. It felt just wonderful. Ah the simple pleasures of life!
Heating the bath water
The rain kept up about all afternoon so we spent the rest of the day working on setting up the shop and continuing to organize the storage areas in the barn.
10/20/00
Once again we were hoping that Matt would show up today to get started on the PV Solar system so we look for projects that we can stop in the middle of in case he does. He didn’t. He left a message around 3 PM saying he was just finishing up a project and would head out straight away. He left another message after 5 PM that the other job ran longer and that it didn’t really make any sense to come out and start now, he would begin first thing Monday. I called him in the evening and he answered a couple of questions we needed answered before we could finish our supply shopping list and re-confirmed that they would be here around 8 AM Monday.
We took both the tractor and truck over to the South house to do some clean-up work, mostly picking up piles we had made on earlier visits to the property. Using the tractor loader we over-filled the truck bed twice with metal scrap and made the first deposits in the construction dump. Looks like we should get about 8 truckloads in before having to expand the hole any.
A load to the dump
We also compiled a pretty good-sized burn pile near the house (the third major burn pile there since we bought the place)
Using the backhoe we expanded the hole we had made to work on the water inlet to the house so that we could have the supply inlet and outlet to the North house from the new pressure pump pass through the wall nearer to where it would be located.
We then spent most of the rest of the day trying to find a clean-out or tank cover for the septic system at the South house. Working off some pretty specific directions made for us by the previous owners we carefully measured and marked where the tank was supposed to be located. The measures he left us said “so far in such-a-direction from the corner of the building (no problem) and so far in such-a-direction from the garden”. Yeah right. If there was a garden here 10 years ago (or more) any sign is long gone. We used the first measurement and made an educated guess for the other direction, based on a large pile of dirt in the area we thought might have been a remnant of the tank-burying process. The next question was how deep to dig. We figured that with a toilet on the lower level (about 4.5’ below grade) and accounting for normal waste slope from there, the tank should be at about 68-72” deep. Well, we dug and dug and dug in our chosen location down to nearly 80” deep but never found a thing. We noticed that both the toilets were along the rear wall of the house so we surmised that the waste line could very well exit the house there. Since we already had a pretty big hole back there for the work on the water lines we decided to enlarge that hole (and deepen it considerably) to see if we could find where the waste line exited, planning to follow it, if necessary, to find the tank. Well we dug and dug again but still were not able to locate any sign of a waste line. There was an apparent series of wood stake markers set into the soil near the front corner of the house right where a waste line might exit if it came straight from the house to the place we had figured the tank was supposed to be. We thought it the stakes might be marking the location of a clean out. We dug and dug some more but again found nothing. Back to the one place we had at least partial directions for, we expanded the hole for the tank and deepened it some more but still never found a thing. We gave up for the day.
With all the tractor work today we missed its next 10-hour maintenance (at 30 hours) by 4 hours but since I was out of grease and we are headed in to Flagstaff tomorrow (not going to be using it) to get supplies, we will hold off doing it until our return.
10/21/00
Big shopping excursion today. Off to the big city of Flagstaff at about 7 AM. Took the two younger dogs, left the old ones at the ranch. Took the truck with trailer so we could buy some 20’ lengths of pipe. Once out of Snowflake headed North to Holbrook where we would pick up I-40 to Flag we noticed some ominous clouds around. Turning on the AM radio we found a Show Low station and just caught the weather “increasing clouds with a good chance of rain for the next few days”. One of the things we should have learned by now is to try to plan trips around the weather so we don’t get caught off guard when the washes near and on the property start to run. Oh well we were on our way and did not expected it to be too long of a trip. It’s about 130 miles to Flag from the ranch and we figured to make it in about 2 ¼ hours, which was about right on.
We called the John Deere place while on the road to get directions so we could pick up our needed supplies but they were not open. The man who answered said that they regularly deliver to the Snowflake area and all we had to do was call in an order.
First order of business was a stop at Sam’s club. We needed to pick up a set of “Gorilla Shelves” for the battery storage in our Power House. We did a bit of other shopping, generally checking out what stuff they had for future reference.
Next we went to the Verizon Communication Store to see what could be done about our very poor cellular reception and the lack of the Internet service we had been sold. Eventually we were able to get them to take back all of our equipment for a full refund and cancel the service. We are now completely out of communication with everybody until we can get to another cell phone company and get a new phone and service, probably Monday. This stop took way longer than we had anticipated.
On to Home Depot. Bought a ton of stuff including a new door for the South house, lots of water and gas supply and other plumbing parts, two new gates for the main entrance to the ranch and a clothes washer and dryer set. This last is particularly funny to us as we still have no water, no electric and no gas with which to run the appliances. We ended up with three very full flatbed carts and spend about $1700 but saved $170 with a 10% coupon. They didn’t have any 20’ pipe so we bought some 10’ lengths and will get the rest of the 20’-ers at a plumbing supply place next week. Still used the trailer well because the gates were 14’ and 12’ respectively and really needed to be flat for travel. By the time we left HD the sky was black and the rain was really coming down. We bought a cheap-o tarp to cover the stuff we didn’t want to get wet. Another too-long stop, leaving there well after 3PM.
Hit rain, some really heavy, most of the way home. We got to figuring that we’d likely be spending most of the night in the truck waiting for the washes to subside before we could get home. The washes we saw were running fast and as we turned South from Holbrook we could see another big storm cell ahead, about where we figured Snowflake was. Amazingly, as we entered Snowflake, the roads were dry. The big storm cell we’d seen was black as can be and very close, directly in front of us as we turned East on Concho Highway toward home. The dirt roads in were in good shape as the rain began to fall while we were just a few miles from the ranch. By the time we got to the big wash it was raining pretty good but the wash was not running so we made it home with no problem. The old dogs were fine and glad to see us. We unhitched the trailer and backed the truck as far into the barn as we could with the tractor in there, enough to get it the load out of the weather and called it a night.
10/22/00
Another cold and rainy day. First project was unloading the truck from yesterday’s big supply shopping trip, organize and play a bit with all the new stuff.
We then loaded up the truck with tools and supplies to do some work at the Power House. Our goal was to have it all ready for the Solar Dudes when they showed up tomorrow. This entailed installing a ceiling in the room, insulating the attic space, sealing the North gable end and installing the Gorilla Shelves we had just purchased. We used the molded Masonite panels we had salvaged from when we had removed the mudroom/entryway from the South house for the ceiling. It looked just fine. We used some of the insulation that we found stored in the barn left over from its construction, and also used some salvaged plywood for the gable end piece. All the projects went very smoothly despite the drizzle and periodic downpours. Naturally we ended up running back to the barn a couple of times for something we’d forgotten which made us think of the many projects we had done on various properties in the Armory Park Historic District in Tucson where it had been closer to run home to our house for something than it was now to run to our own barn. Funny indeed.
After lunch D did another 10-hour service on the tractor. Aside from checking various fluid levels and air handling equipment and safety controls all grease fitting get grease every 10 hours. There are 16 fittings on the loader, 18 on the backhoe and 4 on the tractor itself.
K kept the burn pile going, cleaned up a previous pile and took a truck load of metal scrap from near the campsite to the Dump while D took the tractor and worked on the road.
Got the wash crossing and the rest of the County road done from there to the ranches main gate then finished the work on the drive road from the gate to the "Trailer Park" (the fond moniker we have bestowed on the lovely collection of mobile homes, travel trailers and their assorted out-buildings grouped near the big metal barn). The road is starting to shape up nicely. The drive road is now about 2/3 done.
10/23/00
It started to rain around 1 AM and kept up almost all night with periods of heavy rain every so often. When we woke up it was still coming down pretty good and it was very chilly. Based on previous experiences we figured that the Big Wash was probably running pretty good and the chances of the Solar guys getting through (assuming they would even work on such a rainy day) was very, very small. We called a “Rivered-In Day”. Rivered-In Days are like snow days for school kids where you don’t have to do what you’re supposed to do, sort of like a holiday.
We began the day with a walk down to the Draw with the dogs. Sure enough it was running pretty good. We figured that if we really had to we would chance it in the truck but there was no business that pressing this morning. The wash had apparently run quite a bit harder during the night at some point because much of the North bank was eaten away leaving a 3’ drop-off where the road was supposed to cross. Once the rain quits we’ll have to come down with the tractor and repair the road again. Most of the work on the drive road held up well but the county road parts we maintain need some serious drainage work to keep the storms from continuing to erode the road. On the walk back we re-examined an animal skeleton that the dogs had found on a previous hike and to our surprise we found it was that of a small Black Bear. The skull still had most of the fur and aside from a large hole where its right eye should have been it was in decent shape. D brought it back to the camp and hung it in a tree to “season” before adding it to the growing collection of found-trophies from the ranch.
Did another 10-hour maintenance on the tractor.
Used the backhoe to dig a small but deep pit near camp, dumped the RV tanks and re-filled the hole. First dump in 13 days, not bad.
Took the tractor along with the 55-gallon drum and some 5-gallon buckets up to the well. Gave the tractor a bath and brought all the containers back to camp filled with water. Set the drum near the fire to begin warming for some domestic uses.
We took several hours and demo-ed the collapsed metal storage building at the Trailer Park, taking half a dozen bucker-loaders full to the Construction Dump plus burning several loads of garbage. Cleared more around the area moving some stuff to the Supply Yard, dumping some and burning some.
While K kept the burn pile stoked, D spend some time doing more road and grading work with the tractor around the barn area and the campsite.
10/24/00
Rain again periodically throughout the night but much lighter and more sporadic than the previous night. We got up to a light drizzle and tentatively called a Rivered-In Day. Turned on the radio and heard a weather report saying that “the nasty storm was on it’s way out of the area”
D headed down to the main wash crossing with the tractor to see if it could be worked and found the streambed wet but not running. Repaired the road and did a little preemptory work on the bed hopefully to lessen the impact of the next storm. Time will tell if it does any good.
Removed one of the hand pumps from the underground petroleum storage tanks to see if it could be adapted for use on a 55-gallon drum. It looked like with a new hose and nozzle and a shorter supply pipe it should work OK. We plan to get a barrel of unleaded gasoline for use around the ranch to go with the one of diesel we are now using.
D headed off with truck and trailer to do some running around and shopping: Went to Pinetop to a plumbing supply place to get the long lengths of pipe we had been unable to find elsewhere; stopped at several hardware stores between Pinetop and Snowflake for a small list of misc. parts and got most of them; Went to a cellular phone store in Show Low to get a new phone and service (called the solar guys and the tractor place in Tucson about a missing part and a damaged part); Dropped off our credit app. at the 76 fuel supplier in Show Low, bought another drum and had it filled with unleaded gasoline; Went to Napa Auto Supply stores in Show Low and Snowflake looking for a new hose and nozzle for the unleaded fuel barrel, ended up special ordering them; Went to a dentist in Snowflake recommended by Matt the Solar Guy to get a dental bridge that had come out a couple of days ago re-set (he ended up doing it for nothing because I wasn’t covered by insurance for it. Go figure.); Stopped at Ed’s IGA in Snowflake for a late lunch and some groceries and bottled water then went home. The talk of the towns was the unseasonable weather. Greer got 12” of snow over the last two days and Hanagan Meadows got 18”. Snow was in the forecast for the White Mountains area down to the 7200’ level (still about 1000’ higher than any part of the ranch) over the next day or so. October is supposed to be a very dry month here.
Meanwhile the solar guys had arrived at the ranch, did some measuring for cable lengths, did a little posthole digging and trenching, and answered a bunch of questions for Kathryn that we had been accumulating for them. They said they would be back tomorrow (Wednesday) and Friday to do work, hopefully giving us some battery power by the end of this week then finish at least the electrical part early next week.
K did a bunch more cleaning and organizing around the Supply Yard and finally got to play on the tractor doing some grading in the area and moving piles around. D helped working in that area after getting home, both working until after dark.
10/25/00 2-week anniversary!
Gorgeous day for our 2-week anniversary here at the ranch! We arrived 2 weeks ago this afternoon.
Worked a long morning getting the water supply ready at the south house. Hammer-drilled holes through the concrete block and ran a 1” PVC line from the 2” pipe coming down from the well into the lower-level room to where the pressure pump and tank were going to be. Also ran a 1” line out from the house and joined into the 2” pipe going on the North house, as well as making a repair to a section to the 2” PVC we had damaged with the backhoe and capping off where the old 1” line to the house used to run.
When we checked for phone messages at lunch there were a bunch from Bill our Tucson realtor. He had several offers-to-buy for us on our house there. He had faxed them to Bea, our realtor up here (actually in Show Low) and needed to hear back from us right away. We tried getting a hold of Bea but were unable to reach her and nobody at her office knew anything about any faxes for us so we left messages for her everywhere. We decided the thing to do was head in to Show Low and see if we could at worse get the faxes re-sent. As we were picking up our tools so we could go Bea (and her husband Lou) showed up at the ranch with the offers. They were much impressed with our work in the short time we had been here. We took the offers from them and made arrangements to go to her office where we could use their fax to send responses.
Leaving all the dogs in the RV we headed in to Show Low. Bea was not there but she had told the people in the office we would be coming and they treated us great. They gave us a conference room and let us make a bunch of long-distance calls without paying for them, sent a big bunch of faxes to Bill for us and allowed Bill to send us some more while we waited there. Just after taking care of as much business as we could for the night Bea showed up and she and Lou took us out to dinner (“Burg & Brew”!)
We also gave Bea the information we had gotten from the title company about the parcels adjacent to ours which we were interested in possible purchasing and asked her to contact the owners to see if they were interested in selling.
10/26/00
Another magnificent day. Pretty much spent the whole day running new gas line in anticipation of getting a propane tank set as soon as possible. K trenched from the location we had chosen for the tank to the South house and D worked at measuring, threading and assembling pipe to get gas to the range/oven, the water heater, the clothes dryer, and the furnace (yet to be purchased). Also did another repair to a 2” PVC waterline we ha hit with the backhoe and capped off a 1” PVC line that we think probably ran to a couple of hose bibs near the house.
Once the trenching was done K went into town for some parts and picked up lunch. After lunch we headed back to work and D did more on the gas line, getting all of it roughed in. K filled in the gas line trench then took the tractor around to the rear of the South house to begin filling in our trenching from doing the water supply plumbing.
As we arrived back at our campsite near the barn we heard a vehicle approaching. To our great surprise and pleasure it was the UPS driver with a delivery! We had been wondering if the delivery drivers, especially UPS, FedEx etc would come out here at all. You know those UPS TV commercials where you see the familiar brown truck driving, and driving, and driving then arriving at some little grass-hut-village in the middle of Africa? Well I guess that it could well be true, not just catchy advertising. The delivery was some parts for the tractor shipped from the dealer in Tucson including a hood-guard that they had forgotten to install when they did the bucket loader, and a part for the 3-point hitch that we had noticed was badly bent (though we had never used it).
10/27/00 our first Power!
A nice morning but a bit overcast. As is our custom we fired up the generator and started the RV’s engine while we had our morning cocoa to help keep the batteries charged and make sure things are working. We turned on the radio with a local AM station on and caught the weather “another storm front coming in today, locally heavy rain, snow to 7000 ft., probable not as much precipitation as the last storm (that made us Rivered-In for 2 days), continuing through the weekend with highs near 40 and lows around freezing.” UGH.
We decided to go set the posts for the new gates as long as the weather held. It was good digging weather, but tough going never the less. Temps did start to climb a bit and when the sun shown through it was a really nice day. Got the holes dug and posts set in concrete (had to truck the water out in 5-gallon buckets, of course) as well as some general ground leveling around the entrance area with the tractor
Grabbed an early lunch and were just finishing when the Solar guys showed up with a truck and trailer full of stuff. They headed over to the Powerhouse to get started and we followed soon after with the truck & tractor. They had all our batteries, the power panel, cables, solar panels, the water pressure pump and pressure tank etc. They worked on re-configuring the Gorilla shelves we had assembled in order to allow more room between the shelves (this would allow better access to the batteries for maintenance) then mounted the power panel. The power panel is huge. It incorporates the inverter, charge controller, AC and DC power disconnects, control modules and some other components I don’t exactly yet know what they do. The panel weighs a couple of hundred pounds and it took three of us to mount it to the wall. Matt also gave us a temporary 4-gang receptacle for some limited power over the weekend. The batteries came about 70% charged so we will have a little juice if we need it. The racks for the solar panels had not arrived yet so the panels could not be mounted. Monday they will return and run the wires to the houses, put in the Powerhouse light and permanent receptacles and set up the inverter so that we can use our generator to charge the batteries. This will be a help for the short term until the panels are set and for times in the future for if the panels are not able to keep up with demand (due to high usage, lots of cloud cover or whatever).
Inverter and batteries
K worked with the backhoe to finish filling in the holes and trenches in the back of the South house where we had run the new plumbing. She also did some drywall work on the lower level in the area where the pump and pressure tank were going and we had done some plumbing work.
D finished capping off the roughed-in gas piping and installed the new South door. Twice. The first time went well right up to the point where the new screws holding in the door pulled the old wood rough framing out of the concrete block. Had to remove the whole installation, re-attach the rough framing with power-actuated fasteners, then re-install the door. It didn’t go in as easily the second time because I’d already removed the factory supports and shims during the first installation so it had to be really fussed with. Got it about 90% perfect and the rain started up. It had been getting very windy and we had been watching the clouds build and get closer for a while. Stopped fussing with the fit and installed the hardware and locks. It works really well but needs some final adjusting and a serious cleaning to get all of the dog foot prints off the window panes (Bosco has been very helpful).
Called the LP Gas Company to order service. When we had spoken with them a couple of months ago they said it generally took just a couple of days to get a tank set. That was then and this is now I guess because it is now going to be 11/14/00 before they can get out here. Guess we’re really going to have to take the RV into town and get it refilled soon. The good news is that they will be able to take some of the LP we have in those 1000-gallon tanks near the “Trailer Park” (“The BOMBS!”) and transfer it to the new 250-gallon tank they will be setting at no charge. At $1.19/gallon that’s an amazing deal.
We quit early and settled in to a night in the RV listening as the storm swept in, wondering if we would be able to get off the ranch tomorrow to do a planned trip to the Laundromat and now to fill the RV’s propane tank.
10/28/00
It rained hard almost all night but as it got light the rain quit and the clouds disappeared. The sun came up and it looked like a beautiful (if a bit soggy) day.
We started off by trying to knock off a few small leftover projects we had not completed at the South house. D finished setting the new door and made repairs to the front door to make it functional and to weatherproof it. K worked on prepping an area where we needed to repair our new gas line where it had gotten bumped by the backhoe and bent. We removed the bent part and cut the ¾” “scotch” pipe down in the 2’ deep hole. Next we attempted to re-thread the section but the pipe threader kept cutting double threads. We re-cut and tried threading 5 times with the same result and finally quit as the rain and wind picked up again.
D took the truck down to the big wash to see if it was passable for the RV so we could take it into town for some refilling. The wash was still running a little and though the 4wd truck could have made it in a pinch it was too risky to try in the RV.
Took the rest of the day off, read, took a couple of sponge baths and generally goofed off, even watched a DVD on the laptop computer after dinner.
10/29/00
It’s a beautiful, sunny morning promising to be a warm and clear day, and it’s Wash Day (in more ways than one)! First D went out with the tractor to see if the Big Wash was crossable. It was after a bit of fixing work. We then we packed up the RV for a big trip into town.
The trip in was uneventful except for noting that the 6+ miles of dirt roads on the way out were continuing to deteriorate with the rains. The RV pushed through some pretty rough spots without trouble and there were several deep mud holes we had to pound through and it was quite the mess by the time we reached the main road. We are expecting to be able to have the movers bring up the rest of our stuff from Tucson in the next couple of weeks and we worry a bit about the moving truck being able to make it in.
The first stop was the Laundromat where K took several weeks of very dirty clothes, towels, etc to start work on. D headed off with the RV to get all it’s stuff done.
Shooting for one-stop shopping with the RV I went to the “Mustang Conoco” on the main drag in Snowflake. There I filled up the gasoline while waiting for the woman to finish filling a couple of propane bottles for another customer. When I came up to the tank she said something about “I hate doing RV’s” but cheerfully attached the nozzle and began pumping. 9.2 gallons later (cutting it pretty close on our 10-gallon tank) the tank was full but when she tried to remove the nozzle gas started hissing from the valve. Not a good thing. She tried several ways to bleed off pressure (thinking she might have over-filled it) but no matter what it kept leaking out. She went in and called her manager who had a couple of suggestions but none of them worked. By this time the nozzle and the valve area were completely frosted over from the thermal effect of the gas coming out under high pressure. A woman who worked for the LPG company who set and service the tank for the gas station happened to come along as a customer. She came over and suggested that the attendant remove the nozzle even if it leaked a bit. So she took it off and it did keep leaking, more than a bit. The woman said that it must be a bad valve on the RV because that type was supposed to shut off automatically and obviously it wasn’t. The attendant then called the service and route man for the LP gas company in Show Low who said to try “tapping” on the valve to see if it was just stuck. The attendant tried that (with some trepidation) as the leaking gas frosted over her gloves but to no avail. We decided that we should re-attach the LP nozzle to the RV, if we could, which would at least stop the hemorrhaging leak. That worked, but of course I still couldn’t go anywhere. She called the service guy again and he said he would be up in a while from Show Low with a hose so we could safely bleed off the gas and see what the problem was. In the mean time K was still at the Laundromat, probably wondering here the heck I was. I tried calling but there was no phone. I was lamenting how to reach K and the Asst. Manager, Lori offered to just run me down there in her car, which she did! We returned back to the Mustang after telling K the whole story and letting her know I’d be a bit longer. Lori offered me a complimentary soda, a place to sit and tried to figure out how to not charge me for the LP she had pumped into the RV if the service guy had to bleed it all off. The LP guy showed up a little while later and tried the release valve on the nozzle, which still spewed out gas all over the place. He then went to his truck and got out a big hammer. “I told her to give it a tap,” he said “THIS is a tap”. He proceeded to rap the hammer HARD on the valve about 5 times (scared me about to death) then tried the release again…nothing, no leak or anything! He popped off the supply nozzle and all was fine. Can you believe it? In inspecting the valve he said it looked fine. It seemed like some water had gotten into the valve area some how (remember those big mud puddles we had just gone through?) and the LP which he said transfers at about –40° probably just froze a little piece in there, keeping the valve from closing properly. Simple as that. 10 minutes later I had paid for the LP (all of it at my insistence, regardless of what might have leaked out), had filled the RV water tank and was on my way back to the Laundromat.
K was (long) done with the clothes washing. We went out to lunch and did a little bit of grocery shopping then headed back to the ranch.
Upon returning to the ranch we decided that we would make a new campsite at the Powerhouse, near the South house. After all, we had some power; we might as well plug in and enjoy it. We stopped at the old camp at the Barn and picked up a few things then drove the truck and RV over to the South house.
Our new camp site
We had to prepare a level place for the RV and needed some major water for starting the serious cleaning of the South House in preparation for moving in there so D went back to the barn, got the tractor, a 55-gallon drum and a bunch of 5-gallon buckets. D then went up to the well, filled the barrel and buckets, gave the tractor a quick hose-down then headed to the South house with the water. We had been assembling a pretty good-sized burn pile for a while and I set the barrel down next to it as K lit the fire. We’d have a big batch of nice hot water in no time. The smaller buckets we took to the South house.
The fire was going nicely but looked a bit small so I pushed over a large dead tree with the tractor, hooked the whole thing on the bucket and carried it over to the fire where it dropped right in. Now THAT’S a bon fire!
D concentrated on leveling a nice spot near the powerhouse with the tractor while K began scrubbing down the walls and floors of the South House with hot water and strong disinfectants.
D then did some “de-plumbing” in preparation for installing some new faucets and fixtures in the kitchen and upper level bathroom. The cold water supply to the kitchen sink was loose through the floor and further investigation showed that the PVC piping was broken off. I located the place in a lower level room ceiling where I suspected the problem to be above and removed a section of wallboard to expose the area. Sure enough, the riser pipe up to the sink was shattered. It was made of the wrong type of PVC for use in pressurized household systems (the “eggshell stuff we had run into at the North house once already). This was a bad sign. If the next section was of the same material we’d have to keep tracing it back, replacing any of the pipe we found of that type. Fortunately the very next section was the normal and correct “schedule 40” type. Phew!
K continued cleaning and got the Front Room ready so we could begin moving some of our construction supplies temporarily into there. She also got the first and second cleanings in the kitchen done. What a difference! The kitchen sink is actually a nice cast-iron fixture! The cabinets are in pretty good shape! Unfortunately darkness caught up with us before we were really ready to quit for the day. Soon we will have lighting so we can work longer (oh boy!).
The bon fire was still going strong and we got to sit out and have dinner by the fire as usual, but with a completely new vista. Looking down at the valley now (as opposed to up at the mesa from our old campsite) was quite different. When we first arrived here, if we stayed out a bit after dinner, we could watch the full moon rise over the mesa. Tonight we watched the sliver moon set behind the hills at the far other side of the valley as we ate. With the moon down we could really appreciate the isolation of our location. Though we do see and hear vehicles fairly regularly on the dirt roads leading into the area, (sound travels very well across the valley) the residences here are spread very thinly. Tonight it is quite dark but looking in every direction we can only see the lights of a total of three other structures in the far distance, probably 3-5 miles from here. The marvelous stillness of the night is nearly absolute.
10/30/00
A beautiful sunny morning with just a few clouds in the sky despite the weatherman’s forecast for a wet morning with a chance of snow down to the 7000-foot level. No sign of wet weather at all but it is cold. Thin ice coats the truck and our little camp table.
D started off the day doing a 10-hour maintenance on the tractor. It’s due for its 50-hour major maintenance but the supplies from the John Deere dealership in Flagstaff have not arrived yet.
K worked nearly the whole day giving various parts of the South house thorough cleanings including the kitchen cabinets, stove (extra nasty job) the windows (WOW what a difference that made) and much of the lower level. The kitchen is actually to the point we can begin moving dry-goods food over from the barn. She kept the bon fire going all day to keep the 55-gallon drum of water hot for cleaning with. By mid-afternoon the wind had really picked up and though it remained sunny there was a definite bite to the air.
In anticipation of the solar guys beginning to trench and lay conduit from the Power House to the South and North houses D worked on the tractor doing some rough grading around both houses including filling in the holes we had dug looking for the septic tank or clean-out (never did find it yet). There are many large hills and valleys to even out as well as necessary grading to ensure water drainage away from the house. Much of the dirt level around the South house is too high to begin with, coming up to the windowsills for the lower level. We want at least 6” clearance below the sills.
Solar guys showed up around 1 PM as we are taking lunch and worked until about 5 PM. They got some of the trenching done to about 6” deep but we asked them to do it all deeper because the grading is far from complete and we’d really hate to cut through their new cable. They intended to get the system ready so that we could charge the batteries with a generator today but didn’t have all the right parts. Matt said we hadn’t even scratched the surface of the battery capacity so far being plugged in and not to worry. They plan on returning tomorrow (“unless it snows then don’t even look for us.”).
Seriously lame and shallow trenching
The UPS driver showed up as it was starting to get dark with the supplies from the John Deere dealer so I will be able to do the big maintenance on the tractor tomorrow.
Even with the fire going it was too windy and cold to sit out and have dinner so we ate in the RV tonight with the heater going.
10/31/00
It started to rain about 9 PM last night. A thunderstorm rolled in across the valley and shook the RV with gusty winds punctuated by booms of the thunder. It rain heavily for several hours before quieting down.
To our surprise in the morning we found that the storm had not just ended or passed in the night but had simply gotten quiet. Snow quiet. A light dusting of wet snow and ice remained on vehicles and trees and was quite beautiful. The sun came out regularly from the scattered clouds and, still having a good deal of warmth despite the cool (low 40’s) temperature, began melting the snow.
An October surprise - snow!
K drove the truck down to the Big Wash to see if the road was passable. She reported that a determined person could get through even though it was running slightly. We figured the solar guys would not be coming.
We started right in on the 50-hour maintenance on the tractor, changing the engine oil & filter and the hydraulic oil & filter despite not being able to find an oil filter wrench (could have sworn I had one somewhere). Doing the hydraulic fluid entailed removing the backhoe attachment from the tractor, which isn’t that difficult but doing it for the first time and trying to follow the instructions in the book was time consuming. Putting it back on again was even harder because we were not sure of the best way to route all the hydraulic hoses so that they wouldn’t get snagged or pinched during either the mounting procedure or subsequent use. The book was completely useless in helping us with that part. One interesting note is that we are using a brand-new hydraulic product from John Deere. It’s a completely biodegradable, corn oil based product (not a petroleum derivative). After use it can safely be dumped anywhere. Between segments or when the excitement of the maintenance got too great for her, K did some office work and bill paying (her temporary office is still located in the barn).
There were light snow flurries on-and-off all morning.
One of the solar guys did show up. He spent the day trenching to the North house and running the wire in conduit to it. Our battery bank is getting perilously close to the max draw-down we should be looking at and they promised to be back first thing tomorrow morning to install the wiring to make it possible for us to use a generator to recharge the system.
The weather was changeable all day, from bright and sunny to periods of heavy, though brief snowfall. The snow was the darnedest thing I’ve seen. You could watch the black clouds roll across the valley like summer monsoons. In fact, many of the snow squalls were accompanied by thunder and lightning. The snow itself was also interesting; it didn’t fall in flakes but in small wet and heavy balls. At first you’d think it was large sleet or perhaps small hail but the noisy little snowballs were quite soft and malleable when handled. The snow didn’t stay long, melting fast when the sun re-appeared but was just beautiful against the evergreen trees and black rocks of the mesa while it lasted. The temperature highs today were in the mid-40’s.
At lunch we noticed Mad Max (one of the dogs) fussing with one of his legs. Upon examination we found a large, pretty nasty and somewhat infected scrape on the inside of his right hind limb. Our guess is maybe a barbwire injury but it really could have been anything. We cleaned it up, applied an antiseptic and will have to help him keep it clean and dry as possible for the next few days, and keep a sharp eye on it.
We move a truckload of non-tool stuff from the barn to the South house, mostly boxes of things for the kitchen, which is almost ready for use (aside from not having power, water or gas!).
Most of the afternoon we spent in the South house continuing to clean and sanitize. A lot of effort went into removing as much of the carpet and adhesive residue from the particleboard kitchen floor as we could and it came out pretty good. D installed the gas valve and connections to the range and K did a lot of bleach mopping all around and more window cleaning in the main bedroom. We caught part of a weather report that said the “unsettled” weather pattern we were experiencing would likely last another 3 days, through Friday. Gorgeous sunset tonight.
No trick-or-treaters showed up at the ranch this evening. Such a surprise! Guess we’ll have to eat all the candy ourselves.