Mud Party!

Next weekend on both Saturday and Sunday (14-15) I'm hosting a mud party to get my bedroom done! We will be plastering the wall, working on a cob-bottle wall and doing an adobe floor. How much we get done depends on how many people show up. I'll have snacks and lunch. If you're interested in participating, email me or write a comment with your email and I'll get back to you. Thanks!

Chicken Coop

Upgrading the Shed

Solar Electricity!

What's Been Happening

I've gotten a lot done lately. Along with that is an anxiety that I'm not getting things done fast enough and that there is a sense of urgency. Which there isn't. It isn't even the solstice yet! Today is a day off. A real day off. I'm friends with a couple who keep Shabbat. They don't do it because of deep religious convictions, but because of its original purpose: to force you to break the week, give you time to spend with family and loved ones and to take a rest and to sit with life. They stay at home, or wherever they happen to be if they're on a trip, and don't drive on Saturdays. I stopped by last week to borrow some tools to set up my solar system and ended up staying for brunch and the entire afternoon. I could sense the strong effect of committing to such a thing in a world where a sense of urgency is so pervasive.

I'm Collecting Water!

So, I've been quite bad about blogging. I find that whenever I'm actually doing things I don't have time to write about it, and when I do have time to write it means I'm not doing much and thus don't have much to write about. It took me a little bit of time to get back into the groove of things--finally, helping a couple friends on their projects helped me get started on my own. I worked pretty hard for a week, got my catchment set up and then left to visit family. It began raining right after I finished, so when I return I should have a happy amount of water waiting for me. I cannot even imagine how that will change my life.

The start of the gutters.

Cistern and pipe-run hole.

The slitted 4" hdpe pipe.

Finished gutters.

The hanging tape for connecting the gutters.

Milla backfilling around the cistern.

Almost done connecting the downspouts!

Connected downspouts!

Milla is the champion of silicone!

Water catchment!

Connecting the PEX to the cistern.

Backfilling the pipe trench.

Eventual box around water on/off switch from cistern.

PEX hooked up to cistern outlet.

Back in New Mexico!

So I finally arrived back to Taos on Friday after a 5 month west coast sojourn. I had forgotten that sunshine existed so what a nice surprise this 70 degree weather is. Soon it will be time to get back to the house. The first order of business is to exterminate the mice that have taken up residence in my humble abode, and probably destroyed most of my stuff which I naively left laying around. I say probably because, though I've been home for two days, I haven't actually gone up to my house yet.