Two celebrations today!

Current news:

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Today is just cause for two celebrations.

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The first and foremost is the success of the brain tumor surgery on Mark's sister. It went as flawlessly as anyone could have expected or hoped for. Up for grand kudos is his other sister who has efficiently anticipated every possible detail at home for a comfortable convalescence. Also up for commendation is their brother who took time off of his busy schedule to be in attendance through the entire procedure and assistance where help and moral support was needed. You folks are one awesome, caring family.

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The second celebration marks our first full year out here in the boonies. It's hard to believe that one year is the interval; sometimes it seems that we have been here for only a few months, at other times it seems like a decade of comfortable familiarity. Either way, it is a noteworthy notch on our belts to be highlighted by at least a variation in menu. From the small freezer, I pulled out two filet mignons from a batch which I had cut out of a whole tenderloin and then seasoned and wrapped in bacon. Such meat cuts here are twice the price that we had been used to paying and our income has plummeted so the occasions in which we bring them out are now considerably less frequent. That's okay, those rare warranted occasions now bring extra appreciation with them as a result.

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I was going to post a synopsis of what we have and have not accomplished in our first year here but a wild hair project of installing the first of our 'safe' wall mounted gas heaters emerged late this afternoon and ran into 'the generator zone'. The first hours of generator time are normally when I compose the next blog entry but we are both left a little lagging after that fairly successful installation. The only glitch is that the pilot light goes out after a while and the manual does not address that particular situation. Accordingly, we turned the supply valve off and, for at least the immediate future, will only activate the unit as it is needed.

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Now that we have gained some familiarity with working with black iron and heater installation, we have a better idea of what materials we need to install at least one more of these heaters before the depth of winter sets in. Mark diagrammed out the next installation and will pick up the required materials tomorrow. I may start to cut Styrofoam to infill the stud centers that we exposed today on a small part of the trailer. This is an experimental run at additional insulative efforts and is subject to change on the fly. If this phase of the project goes well, we will do the whole trailer and sheath it over with a fairly reasonably priced new composite siding that mimics deeply weathered barn siding. So far, the days have still been bearable for working outdoors, as long as you are working where direct sunlight hits. There is already ice building up along the north face of the mesa where the lower sun no longer casts its daily smile. The height of the sun's influence is still bringing temperatures in the 50s but night has seen temperatures as low as 10 degrees so far. We need to kick the pace up a notch before the real cold sets in.

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Next post: Hmmm - might depend on how much outdoor progress we can make in the next few days, assuming the forecast holds.