Made It Out of the Canyonlands!

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This is a short update just to let you know that we finally made it out of the canyonlands on Monday. I am on a borrowed sticky keyboard which has knocked my typing words per minute back down to my old high school levels of a negative rating after subtracting for mistakes.

It was a long day for Steve, Vicky, myself and all the fur critters, a VERY long day. They had set off at 4AM from Albuquerque for our last day of moving and were ready to kick butt for one last mission and it was a full-out, non-stop mission. And I was dreading that last long look around so badly; my supply of stress adrenaline depleting rapidly now after three months nonstop. The fur family was the last to be loaded up, followed by Terry's cowboy hats on the headrest and his shoes on the passenger side of my Dakota although barfing Ms. Daisy would ride shotgun with me, too. True to form and despite a dose of Dramamine, she performed one very colorful flash of stomach contents before setting down which I have still not addressed. I would like to vegetate for a full week or so after yesterday's emotional exodus.

They led with Terry's big Ram diesel pulling the red 16 footer across the washes and down the choppy and often deeply sandy roads at a snail's pace since we had packed the last of the Rat's contents hurriedly and much less professionally than Wayne had done. Two hours later, we reached the highway and I had managed to stop long enough along the way to each back and wrestle a number of aspirin from the box beside the yowling cats' crates and the disturbing ailments subsided reasonably by the time we reached pavement. Then the pace picked up considerably. Even so, we were all exhausted by the time we arrived at the new place. Once essential critter comforts were addressed, it was time to quietly sit in a stunned and breathless manner for the rest of the evening with good and jovial company.

Hopefully, I will be back within a week; right now, I just need to sleep a little and then adjust to a reality long postponed.
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Mud to Dust and Back to Snow Again!

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Pre-ramble: I had every intention of posting the curious inscription beneath the petroglyphs of the last post. I went through my files and realized that my photos were poor at best, at least as far as offering any detail for you to study and consider further. Although I had scaled the talus gingerly with my gimpy knee that day, I did not make the last few feet up to take a detailed photo of it. Getting up to a location is not so daunting but, in the wisdom of my later years, I have come to appreciate that gravity and inertia will complicate any return downwards many fold. And so it was my intention to return to that location this week to capture better photos this time. The weather and this lingering illness apparently had ideas of their own. Fine, be that way, next week then!

The bug: Mark succumbed fully to this latest nasty bug on Sunday . Today, he is 95% recovered. I am at about 70% recovered, enough to start this new journal entry. And as Slim would say "Well, that's GOOD!"
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Our inevitable mud of spring has finally cried and dried itself away. Dust has taken its place without apology. What you see above and below is the dust created by the heavy construction traffic to the new well on our land across the creek. The heavy rolling tires only aggravated the already lustful appetite of the young Spring winds and I have no doubt that over a ton of dust was uprooted and offered up to their pleasures.
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The mood of the canyon can change within the hour. The tantrums of the ever-restless skies above can turn your best-laid plans to naught just as quickly. Above, a sudden darkness is elbowing out our normal deep blue sky and voluptuous white clouds. Below, you can see the 'big picture' of that encroaching weather bully. There is something incredibly humbling and inspiring about being able to see the weather around you at this broad a scale.
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I can tell it's a Wednesday night despite the lack of calendars around here ... the cowboys are arriving for supper. If you enlarge this photo, you just might see something in the far background which may alarm you - not to worry however. I will cover that story at a later date.

It's funny how a ritual can be established without any planning at all and Wednesday has lately become our default dining get together. And it is a joyous one, an occasion to laugh and indulge and catch up on the previous week's news. Above, Slim and Clay pile out of Slim's truck. When I questioned Slim's odd parking angle to the porch, he unveiled a nicely premeditated plan to have the tail gate fold down at porch height and thus giving dogs easy access to the world and cowboys easy access to coolers. That boy is always thinking.
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I eventually pulled the thick pork steaks out of the oven. They had been slow and low baking since lunchtime in a thick sweet and sour sauce along with half-fried, half-baked seasoned potato slices and a long pan of cornbread. I replicated Clay's bacon cooked green beans and upped the ante a little with some finely diced pepperoni added in for good measure.

The banter, laughing and conferring never stopped throughout the evening, even when a more dignified version of Blazing Saddles set in after supper. Poor ol' Brou, I suspect, has become the classic scapegoat for errant flatulence; his reputation a curse which will 'dog' him in perpetuity. God bless that pup and his long patience at being conveniently and unjustly accused!
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Before the cowboys left that evening, a much colder wind and heavier gray clouds had over-shadowed us under the cover of darkness. Slim's dogs took shelter under the 45' trailer as snow started to fall. Above is this morning's remaining snow covering. Am I feeling more convinced that winter's last hurrah has come and gone now? Better but no cigar just yet.
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Sunday Sundries

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"It's quiet out there ...." .........."Yeah, too quiet."
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Remember that much quoted old Western movie cliché? Well that's the state of the onion out here right now. The snow has been melting and running off. Our creek and the major wash have been running bank to bank at times. The roads are one big mud bog. The BLM has just circulated the 'if you can't drive and leave less than a 6" rut, don't do it' declaration which effectively silences the gas field for the time being. Yep, we are in full rutting season at the moment. It's been a couple of weeks since our last supply run to town and might be another couple before we're able to do it again. Our food supply is holding out well but beer and fuel might become an issue before then. So if I disappear, you'll know that the generator has finally run dry. I'm giving you that techno heads up now, just in case.

With the weather and road conditions, it really is quiet out here. The two new gas wells in progress have become ghost towns. We haven't heard or seen another vehicle in days. The howling winds have been the only source of noise here. Well, except for the fella below.
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I had been hoping for Moose to send down one of Alberta's famous Chinooks, the warm dry winds that pierce the bitter cold of their winters. Above is what I got instead. It was hidden by the mesa's edge but a brawny whup, whup, whupping had me first conjecturing that it was multiple helicopters. I was only able to capture a marginal photo after it loomed into sight well to the east of us. It was an impressive creature stubbornly defying gravity as it plodded along but not necessarily a handsome one. Both ends looked amusingly like cartoon creatures but it's rear end (on the right above) unfortunately reminded me of Barney the Dinosaur grinning down at me. Only that aspect left me wishing for SAMs. Otherwise, it was a very much appreciated air show to punctuate the silence.
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So Daisy here sums up the current mood at the Rat; seen here grinning and lying with her front paws crossed; "Hey, we can't dance so let's just hang out and goof around."
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Saturday night just insisted on some kind of classic comfort food so I dug a loaf of frozen bread dough out of the freezer. Unburdening the freezer remains a priority and good excuse. Found my coveted 16" pizza pan, primed it generously with olive oil and then worked the softened dough forever to spread it out to the edges and applied the pizza sauce. Then a layer of quartered large pepperoni and the inevitable extra herbs and spices. But I had an urge for something extra gooey and a taste for mushrooms so I got out a can of cream of mushroom soup, hand-whipped it into a lighter texture and carefully applied small dollops of it all over the sauce and pepperoni. Shamelessly applied over a pound of stray mozzarella (found in the freezer as well), a light sprinkling of Parmesan and then tamped it all down very gently to spread and incorporate the mushroom soup into the cheese. Then the final layer of more pepperoni, fresh mushrooms and some ancient frozen green pepper slices (those were 'OK' but obviously not as good as fresh ones).

It presented the answer to everything I had hoped to satisfy. Thick and creamy, rich enough that both of us were happy in leaving the second half for another night's treat. I love those meals that don't leave you looking for 'a little something else' to finish off the hunger and even better if they provide a second sitting on another night.
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So, Saturday morning, I'm looking out a Rat window, up at the mesa top and something registers as unusual. I saw what looked like a mound of snow on a small stump. But the stump just seemed out of place so I got out the field glasses. During one of our supper and social evenings, Slim had mentioned how you just get used to what looks normal and what looks just a little off when spotting game. He was right; the glasses revealed the white rump of a mule deer doe. I took out the new camera with the great 12X zoom lens and fired away. The absolutely worst feature of this Canon S3-IS is the view finder. Unlike my adored old SLR where what you see is what you get, you look into the view finder and see some very vague digital image. It's absolutely ghastly so you point in the general direction, cross your fingers, click and hope for the best.
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Fortunately, the auto focus is reasonably efficient and the views above are similar to what my field glasses had revealed. Remember that you can click on any of these images for a larger view but do so especially for these deer photos directly above.

These two does took their sweet time munching around the base of that pine tree. I'd love to find out just what food source they were so enthralled with; they were there for well over an hour. I have a feeling that these were part of the three doe group I had seen just the day before as they grazed down in our canyon bottom. We had discovered a well-worn trail which ascended the 300 foot face during one of our 'all critters of the Rat' outings last Fall. They could flit up the mesa face in five minutes and not even breathe hard. This is an awesome place to quietly exist and observe.
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A Tin Roof and Flat Tires

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Today is the catch-all for all the news too small to warrant separate posts. I don't have photos of any of these items so I am including two unrelated photos to appease the visually focused among us.

Saturday: Our gas field friend Earl limped his truck over to the Rat with a VERY flat tire after Mark had departed for 'up top' to help Slim feed his cattle. That tire was more than a little flat, it was painfully scrunched and bunched to one side of the rim and Earl was hoping that we had a hydraulic jack . His jack would not have been as safe in this snow pack. I painfully remembered that our big hydraulic jack was one of the many useful things that had to be left behind to completely unappreciative recipients in the big move. What we had was even less suitable than what Earl had brought with him. But at least he had ample sympathetic company, including Brou who remembers and adores him.

He eventually chipped out his jack from the deep crusted snow in his truck bed. As he had predicted, the bumper on his Ford proceeded to lever upwards long before he achieved any space between the flat tire and the ground. It took him a bit to wrestle the spare wheel off it's roof-level mount and I thought about his very recent hernia operation with discomfort and concern. But these guys are tough. He chipped and dug a hollow to fit in the spare, got it in place with lug nuts in situ and began to back off the jack. It must have been something about the way I said "Ohhhhhhh m-a-a-a-n!" that had him stop and return to inspect the spare which was flattening out nicely on the bottom with every new drop of the jack. We just kind of looked at each other with that knowing acknowledgment about that poop sandwich factor in life. He said "I don't suppose you guys have a compressor, do ya?" Another bad memory ensued of my shop compressor being hauled away gratis at moving time. It had taken 30 years to become reasonably independent and now all that was gone. I feel like an apartment dweller with a bread knife as my only tool.

A call to Mark located his cheesy 12V inflater picked up since. As I had warned Earl, he would have plenty of time to join me in a cup of Mark's coffee. And then some. That was a shame since he was working both Saturday and Sunday to make a dent in the maintenance of these neglected gas wells. An hour later, and after jumping up and down on the bumper to settle it back down to allow tailgate clearance, he was back on the road but I made sure that he took the cheesy inflater with him - it certainly beat the options of having that tire go flat again even further into the middle of nowhere.
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Mark and Slim finished the feed run by 4PM and Slim joined us for supper around 7PM. I got a late start on my spaghetti sauce but it seemed to go over well anyway. I like to simmer the base for the better part of the day normally. We sat and ate, drank and gabbed as usual; great plans made to conquer the world, or at least this small part of it. And we behaved, as he made us promise, throwing him out before 10PM so that he wouldn't sleep in too long the next morning. It was an unusually early 'lights out' for us, too.
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I love tin roofing! I found an extra reason to love corrugated tin when I saw this thin layer of snow easing its way off the edge and slowly forming a large curl in the thaw.
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Here is what remained of that snow curl yesterday! The sun ate away at the snow until only a lace frame remained but still channeling water down to the original icicles. It was such a delicate structure that I dared not shut the door too firmly.

I was going to write a follow-up entry on hiking with cats and encountering an even more unlikely avian guardian but I am just plain typed out for now.
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February's Lion Weather

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Sunday morning - snow storm

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Brou and Daisy charge out to greet Mark as he returns from his ice-breaking rounds.
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There was six inches on the ground by Monday morning, another three added by the following morning. .

I had something half-written to go with these photos. I cannot finish it at the moment but wanted to let you see our latest storm before it became old news.
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A Great Ice Breaker! Part 2

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As promised, you are now headed into Part 2 of making the morning rounds of the range with Mark. It's still chilly out there but Mark's been working up some body warmth with his ax and shovel and the truck heater is being backed off incrementally as the morning progresses.
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This is work place scenery that both of us find easy to live with.
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This is stop number 5, the second to last. Another set of Slim's ladies anxiously mill around as Mark pokes a hole through the ice for them in an old stock tank. His cows really are lovely and well-mannered. Some out here on the range are not.
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Final stop! Unlock the gate and wander up the road into Slim's cow camp. I tried to get a photo of Slim's four horses with my ailing camera options. I had a great shot framed of all four and then the camera shut itself off. With the prospect of their breakfast at hand, you have to be quick with shutter. By the time I had reached into the truck for the other camera, all four had closed in on me tightly and the most congenial of them was snorting sweet nothings into my ear; giving me goosebumps and raising the hair on the back of my neck. At that point, all I could have photographed was a very large and friendly horse eyeball so I gave up.

They were not interested in Mark's ice breaking at all but fell in behind him like kids chasing the Good Humor man when he headed to the trailer. The hay is kept behind an inner gate in the trailer. After his first day on the feed and water run, he learned to swing the outer trailer gate shut behind him. By not having done so on the first run, he turned around with the hay bale and ran into a solid wall of exuberant horse flesh which had followed right in behind him.
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Above and below are more views from up top as he went from one location to another.
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He'll trade these work day views any day for one of smoggy skyscrapers in the distance.
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Heads up: I might be somewhat sporadic in my postings over the next little while. I don't feel so good right now and the writing does not come easy. If I attempt to do forced production writing, it will lack that element of joy that this place holds for us. Part of that joy is in not feeling pressured to please anyone outside the canyon and, you, my blog buds, have been so good about understanding that pressure. I will certainly write updates when the good days are front and center - I just can't count on them - so please understand that I might disappear for longer than what has been normal up until now .

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A Great Ice Breaker! Part 1

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Mark has recently found one of the few jobs in the world where everyone is elated to see you show up. Although jobs have found both of us since we arrived, his actually has not inspired stress-related gall bladder attacks early every morning on the days he has to show up. His new venture all started during one of our delightful evenings with Slim. Rather than pay someone full time to keep the water supply open for his cattle, Slim was hoping that us semi-retired old farts might just be able to do the rounds when he was up north tending to the rest of his cattle business. What the heck, we're willing to try anything once as long as it isn't a net negative experience. Some endeavors aren't worth any amount of money in this life but you don't know until you try.

Slim took Mark around on one of his infamous 'drive-arounds' and showed him the route for six water sources which had to be cleared of ice every morning for the cattle to drink. With our high desert temperatures in the winter, there WILL be ice every morning which needs to be broken up and removed.

It was a week or two later that I decided to go along for the ride. It was a great excuse to go 'up top' and look around at parts of our ranch which we would rarely see otherwise. Digital camera problems reared to the fore early on as usual. The new camera with the intentionally small memory card filled up quickly. It wasn't long thereafter that my original battery-eating camera began pouting for lack of power and shutting itself off. These devices are NOT helping my transition into this new age of convenience at all.
. From this, our first stop, you can see part of our ranch in the background. As you can see, Slim's ladies were already rushing to join Mark with the prospect of water to drink.

* Explanation of the asterisk in these two photos: Try as I might, Mark was determined to be as camera-elusive as I. When he saw the few photo views I had been allowed, I was severely censored by the head of the Rat Politburo. "No butt shots!!!" he proclaimed as he slammed his shoe down upon the podium. "But ... but you purposely turned your back to the camera!" I retorted to deaf and determined ears. Hmmppphhh! Ve haf vays! Hey, I'm the cook so he can't stay mad for TOO long although I am definitely not asking him to proofread this entry.
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The ladies had already gathered by the time he took the first few swings with the ax. He found it disconcerting to swing the ax full heft, full arc when there were so many soft noses diving in towards him and he found it nearly impossible to dissuade them. They barely waited for him to scoop out the 3 to 4 inch thick blocks of ice before taking over.
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Shloooooooooooosh!
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I really enjoyed watching them take their first drink of the new day. As you can see, some nearly submersed their muzzles to above the nostrils, each making a long shlooooshing noise like a rowdy kid consuming soup as they sucked up the soothing water.

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Here is one minor view from up top. There is something immensely invigorating about standing there alone in this complete silence and not being able to see another house in the distance. I told you there were reasons for our determination to stay!

I will finish my tour of his rounds on the post coming up next!
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Chilly Dogs and Found Artists

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It has been bitterly cold here for the last week, the thin air of great altitude denying any healing warmth the sun has to offer lately. The insulated heat sink under the Rat has been depleted and our piping has finally ceased to provide us water. Still, we can't complain; there are others whose much better appointed homes have long since suffered the same fate. And we remember the two bleak previous winters where we had no water at all for months.

The caustic voices of the winds pummeled their way through the windows yesterday and the little gas heaters could not fend off their chilling call. It dropped to -15F last night and took the last of the water with it by this morning. But it will be all right for Slim is coming to dinner tonight and no such miseries shall deter us from having a wonderful supper. I scrounged 6 small filet mignons from the freezer and they are thawing now in expectation. The oven will bring the inner Rat temperature up to a comfortable level as the potatoes bake. Slim's refreshing countenance will add the remaining necessary warmth. What more could we ask for?

The Rat retains three of its four large 70s era single-glazed windows. Replacing them was not in the budget and we have covered them over with sheets of very effective mylar coated bubble insulation at night ever since we have been its occupants. But even the bubble insulation cannot hold up to these sub zero temperatures for long and we were greeted by a heavy frost on each as we pulled off the insulation this morning. I was overwhelmed by the beauty of the patterns which Jack Frost had quietly painted over the course of the night. I simply had to share this with you.

Here is the view which Jack Frost saw this morning (minus the long early morning shadows of the Rat).

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Here is the impressionist painting Jack Frost created from that view.
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As much as I wanted to see my favorite view from that window, I also could not bear to see this natural work of art eventually grant quarter to the heat of the new day without capturing it.

Do you really stop long enough to marvel in the miracles of this far too short dance here? Don't run beyond the end of your dance card with regrets, ever. Take every step and every breath into account, miss nothing so eloquent but subtle that nature has to offer. It is not confined to our vast open spaces here; it is everywhere, it is with you always. See, absorb, rejoice and be ever grateful.
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General update:

Activity on the new gas well across the street has resumed. This is the current view from our front window; frac tanks all in a row awaiting that next step in the process. Apparently that will not be a pleasant experience for us. Today brings the laying of gas pipe to bring that well on-line. With luck, I will have a post on that with more details later.

Oh joy of joys beyond those extant: an unannounced NEW gas well site has sprung up in the view beyond the barn on our leased grazing lands. Apparently the courtesy of a heads-up notice on so-called 'multiple use' lands is not deemed necessary.
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My apologies; I have not been making the rounds of my blog friends as often as I so love to do. Regrettably, I have not been feeling as well as might be preferred. There is so much more that I wish to share with you and there seems so little time to do so.
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To Stand Within the Clouds

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In our time, we have all likely stepped outside and stood within the clouds. Like myself, you probably never recognized or fully appreciated those moments. It wasn't until we moved to the ranch with its vast perspectives that I could grasp this stunning phenomena. In the photo above, you will see the clouds pressed low into our canyon, their bottoms scrubbing down hard against the mesa walls.
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The rays of the sun here wield their influence above all else and I was able to step out onto the porch that morning in relative comfort despite the below-freezing temperatures. I saw those snow clouds and realized that I was now standing within them, nearly blinded by the sharp crystalline reflections of each single snow flake. I caught a few on my hand and saw that they were all perfectly hexagonal and symmetrical in their pure and ideal created form, unmarred by temperature in their descent to the ground.

I ran back inside and returned with our dictionary magnifying glass and seated myself down on the lowest of the steps. With my left upper arm resting comfortably on the highest stair and my cheek casually resting upon my left hand, I spent a glorious half hour observing each perfect snowflake as it came to rest upon that otherwise barren stair tread; all different, all magnificent and all nearly perfect. Then I wondered how many people have taken a pass on this incredible experience to sit and endure the lack of entertainment as they channel-surf with the remote.
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Occasionally I would look up and around to absorb this gloriously sparkling dance of Nature around me and breathe in, deeply savoring this fleeting spectacle. With each breath came an incredible sense of well-being and a cell-deep simple peace and joy. The troubles of the world were as distant and unfathomable at that moment as any black hole at the far reaches of our universe.
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It is my Christmas wish to you that Nature will offer you such a glorious sanctuary moment and that you will have the child-like wisdom to stop and enjoy it fully for what it is; a gift of the most freely given and valuable kind.

A similar gift is the connection with good souls. I wanted to stop here and say thanks to the friends I have found through this blog. You made a big difference with your encouragement when I needed it to make it through a traditionally tough time of year. You remind me of those snowflakes; each different and each so stunningly beautiful.
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Chili Today, Not Hot Tamale Either

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The cold weather is officially here! It got down to 1 degree above zero just the night before last. The good news is that we still had running water in the morning, unlike the nice surprise we had before we got the two doors finally hung on the Rat's official Water Department addition. Thing of it is, our plans keep changing as we go, mercurial at best. Accordingly, we have learned that postponing our wild hairs of the moment is a ultimately a good thing. We had put off installing an open flame gas heater in the new addition since it was also going to be our repository for solar-charged batteries. Having an open flame heater in the midst of charging batteries emitting hydrogen seemed like hosting a cigar bar in the balloon shell of the Hindenburg so we waited.

Now, with the advent of the new buildings, the battery closet will likely move over there in the Spring (or whenever the roads and weather accommodate us). In the interim, the solar hook-up is on hold but we can at least apply temporary open-flame heat in this addition. Everything might change again by then so we are not going through the aggravation of running permanent black iron piping anywhere until Spring.
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To keep the pipes and well head from freezing in the interim, we dragged out the blast furnace (above) that we used so judiciously last year and the year before to heat the Rat itself before our project to add reasonably safe and thermostatically controlled LP units. Yep, this unit will kill you in a fairly tight enclosure ... but we survived that phase. We would fire it up, get the place to the point that the walls were getting soft, shut it down, go to bed and then just hope that the temperatures wouldn't drop below freezing inside until morning. Oftentimes it worked. Hallelujah and good riddance to using it as a primary heat source however! We look upon it more kindly now as a quick heat builder in the addition (which does not share common air space with the Rat). We fire it up just before turning off the generator at night and get the temperature up to dry sauna quality and then turn it off.
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Now here is the part I really want to talk about. This photo above shows a new kerosene lamp, one of several that I bought on-line dirt cheap from Pennsylvania in the summer. Bruno's recent post about some old kerosene lamps got me to thinking about it again.

I had remembered friends talking about Lehman's Hardware YEARS ago as far as supplying the Amish and anyone going off-the-grid and found that they even had a website. They were clearing out these foreign made reproductions of old Dietz railroad lanterns for something like $7 each. I had lost all my antiques ones in the moving insanity to folks who wanted them badly. I thought about how many I wanted of the two different models available and gave the list to Mark the next day to order (he is the official on-line orderer) . I was heart-broken that the sale had ended between my finding it and the next day when Mark tried to order them. But never say never, at least not with decent folks; I sent them an e-mail and, would you believe it in this day and age, they said "Well, okay, close enough, just talk to so-and-so in the order department and she will let it go through." My faith in mankind (at least parts of it) surged up twelve points on a scale of one to ten when I heard that.

So here I am with my nice supply of new kerosene lamps thanks to a Mennonite hardware in Pennsylvania. I now have a very nice bias towards Mennonites, no doubt about it. In fact, it will be a Mennonite clan who will be constructing our new buildings and we have been met with the same trust and decency in dealing with them so far. It is a reinvigorating experience after dealing with the uniformly disappointing people of our last locale. And now you know why I don't refer to that last place (our long exile) by name. As Beautiful Dave the Cat would say "They sucked, they REALLY sucked!"

There, wasn't that a nice long-suppressed side rant. I needed that. Anywho, I took one of these lanterns, lit it and placed it near the 350 gallon water tank, pressure bladder tank and piping. It seemed to produce just enough heat through the long night to keep the temperatures above freezing point. I can't tell you what a sense of accomplishment it is to turn the kitchen faucet on in the morning and have water come out. We haven't hit the minus 15 below temps yet this year but this is a good start to getting things sorted out.
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Humor of the Day (from Ken) and don't tell me you can't relate to any of these
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What job ad lingo really means

Competitive salary:
We remain competitive by paying you less than our competition.

Join our fast-paced company:
We have no time to train you.

Casual work atmosphere:
We don't pay enough to expect that you will dress up; a couple of the real daring guys wear earrings.

Some overtime required:
Some every night and some every weekend.

Duties will vary:
Anyone in the office can boss you around.

Must have an eye for detail:
We have no quality assurance.

Career-minded:
Female applicants must be childless (and remain that way).

Apply in person:
If you're old, fat or ugly you'll be told that the position has been filled.

Seeking candidates with a wide variety of experience:
You'll need it to replace the three people who just quit.

Problem-solving skills a must:
You're walking into perpetual chaos.

Requires team leadership skills:
You'll have the responsibilities of a manager, without the pay or respect.

Good communication skills:
Management communicates, you listen, figure out what they want and do it.
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First Snow - We Got It All Right

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We had plenty of advanced warning all right. Red e-mailed and asked us what we thought of the snow storm warning - ??? Well, it hit. Prior to this morning, we had one odd afternoon several weeks ago where snowflakes fell lightly in a half-hearted manner and died before hitting the ground.

Last night brought the first of this year's real snow, followed by many low and long murmurs of rolling thunder. We are still not used to snow being chaperoned by thunder but it seems common place out here. I was already in bed and counted patiently to 50 last night before the first long growl of rolling thunder ceased.
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This morning, we awoke to the scene above, well not quite. We awoke to a pristine mantle of snow but by the time I got the camera out fifteen minutes later, Brou and Daisy had already embossed the landscape irrevocably once they remembered that this white stuff was delightful. Daisy was the least inclined to try it and this probably hearkened back to her previous life of solo confinement outside. When Mark tried to get her to join Brou, she politely declined, turned tail immediately and went back to her bed. After some coaxing, she finally discovered the joys of running free in the snow with Brou and cavorting in their usual summer-long manner. It feels wonderful to see her slowly shedding some of her over-shadowing memories.
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The above photo was taken around lunch time. The clouds had become sparse and a generous amount of clear blue sky was reigning above them but the clouds were moving in noticeably fast fashion - you didn't have to find a fixed point and wait patiently to discern which direction they were moving today.
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Barely ten minutes later, I snapped this photo. Any hint of the blue sky had disappeared. The far juts of mesas were rapidly disappearing and the snow began to fall lavishly once more. Nature was not done with her venting by any means. By the time it was all done, we had picked up about four inches of snow.
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About an hour later, I took this photo. Sporadic patches of blue skies had returned and we sensed that the heaviest assault had passed. The temperatures climbed a little, enough for the accumulated snow to start melting and running off the roof of the Rat in a frequent and steady "tap, tap, tap". Not a single vehicle passed by to disturb the wide, white band of snow which had been the road just yesterday. This whiteness without blemish and the silence was a heady elixir of pure peacefulness.

Tonight it's going to be a few tasty chicken club sandwiches on broiler-toasted French bread with real live French fries after my Thanksgiving folly. That's the thing about living out here without the never-ending onslaught of media hype; I thought that TG was still at least a week or more away and didn't put a turkey down on last week's shopping list. We certainly had stuffing out the wazoo though. If you are going to live this far out and have so few supply runs, you need to plan efficiently for them. Well, we are obviously still working on that aspect. Don't want to hear any smug snickering either - try a supply run only twice a month with absolutely NO little cheat stops at the local quick mart - I would dare you to try it in fact. It might tell you things about yourself that you didn't know or care to acknowledge.
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