Stress Hardiness, Optimizing Stress, Being Fully Alive

It’s been an interesting week. I’ve been fighting off a cold since last Wednesday, and I haven’t had much appetite. That’s unusual for me and by this morning I was having trouble even drinking enough water and was clearly getting dehydrated.

So when Andy came home from the land we went down to our local Urgent Care. I’ve had good luck with them in the past and was lucky again today. They do plenty of business but we didn’t have to wait long and the doctor took all the time he needed. He didn’t try to jump to a conclusion and rush me out the door. We ended up deciding that I should try some anti-nausea pills and try to drink enough water to rehydrate myself. But he would gladly have given me a saline IV if I had preferred. He also said to be sure to get enough salt, something that wouldn’t have occurred to me. So I took a pill and have been munching on pretzels and drinking water. I wouldn’t say I’m back to normal yet, but it looks encouraging. I will definitely keep you posted.

I’m mainly grateful that Urgent Care is there if I need them. What about you? Do you have a resource like this? Whom do you go to when you need help?

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We now have nine solar panels mounted, only nine more to go (on a separate pole). We still need to install the batteries and hook them up to the panels, but things are moving along.

Also Joe is finishing up a project down here and should shortly be ready to get the permit to finish the shed. It pays to be patient.

What about you? Are you getting opportunities to practice your patience?

 
In spite of the storms the end of autumn and the first few days of winter, it has turned out to be a mild winter so far. The snow is starting to melt where the sun hits it. However, it was too snowy and windy early this week for Greg and his crew to work on the solar array.

Not surprisingly Andy says he notices the wind is a lot stronger up there now that the trees are gone. Sometimes it shakes the car when he sits inside it to eat his lunch. Joe is starting to work on getting the permit to insulate the shed and install a heater, so presumably in the fullness of time Andy will be able to eat in a bit more luxury. Luxury, of course, is in the eyes of the beholder.

One of my big luxuries right now is belonging to audible.com and having people read to me. That plus all the information the internet puts at my finger tips. I feel privileged and rich. What about you? What are your favorite luxuries?

 

 

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Greg and his crew started working on installing the solar panels yesterday and today. They won’t be able to come tomorrow, but will hopefully do more next week.

And even better news–the building inspector is planning to meet Andy at the Forest Service gate tomorrow morning. Presumably that means he will give the shed his blessing so we can finish the inside. We plan to get it insulated, install a heater, workbench, etc. so Andy has a place to keep warm and work on projects, or at least have a cozy place to have his lunch.

What about you? Any news to share?

български икони

12/20/11 Beate and Tim’s place.
 

12/24/11 Beate and Tim’s place and Andy’s walking stick.
 

1/05/12 Beate and Tim’s place.
 

After those several storms the end of fall and first few days of winter, we’ve had sunny, above-freezing weather the past couple of weeks. It’s easy to see that some of the snow has melted. Maybe the forecast of a warmer, drier winter will be true after all. Who knows? I’m not about to bet on anything to do with the weather, except that it’s unpredictable. What about you?

 
As I mentioned before, we’ve chosen the sink in the above picture. But that isn’t the faucet we picked. For that I thought we had decided on this one, with a separate water control on the side:
 

 
And Dahl’s thought we had chosen this one:
 

 
At first I thought this one looked even stranger than most, but now I’m thinking it might be less obtrusive and more convenient.

Have you had any experience with modern faucets? Do you have any opinions? Or are you just glad you don’t have to spend any time thinking about subjects like this?

Have you had to make any decisions lately?

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Click on picture for better resolution.
 

Beate and Tim’s place. Click on picture for better resolution.

 
The weather forecasters have been predicting a warmer and drier winter here. So far we haven’t seen it. We received more snow in the past few weeks than we did all of last winter. And when Andy plowed today the snow was coming down so heavily it was hard for him to see the sides of the road. Of course this was only the second day of winter.

Do you think the rest of the winter will be any more mild?

 

 
As I mentioned before, things are slowing down up on the land now. Andy is plowing the road when needed, and we’re gradually planning our little kitchen and bathroom. At Steve’s suggestion we went to Pittman Brothers in Santa Fe last Thursday to start talking about the process. They’ll design the kitchen and bathroom for us and provide the cabinets and counter tops. First we have to choose all of the sinks, faucets, appliances, etc. and give Steve the dimensions. As we understand it he’ll draw a set of preliminary plans that satisfy the building code, and we’ll take them back to Pittman Brothers to talk about our choices there. Apparently that will be our first draft and they will show us drawings of what it will look like so we can make changes if we like.

Some people may think this is overkill for an 8 X 8 foot kitchen, but there are so many little details to decide in the project we decided we can use all the hand holding we can get.

Steve and Pittman Brothers also suggested we go to Dahl Plumbing for the sink, tub, shower, etc. and we made our first trip there this past Tuesday. That’s another very fancy place, but we did appreciate the hour and a half Glenn, the fellow we talked to, spent with us. In the first picture above he’s showing Andy a shower head, and the second picture shows the sink we may get. (We’re not at all sure about the faucets he showed us.)

The adventure continues.

Did you have any adventures this week?

View of shed from a distance. For better resolution click on picture.
 

View towards the east from our clearing. For better resolution click on picture.

 
No one except Andy went up this week. Joe and his crew had planned to go up Monday, but it was way too cold. It’s warmed up since then so if he doesn’t come up tomorrow we’ll phone Steve to find out what’s happening. Greg, the photovoltaic fellow, was planning to start installing the solar panels today but his schedule changed and he now plans to go up December 20-23. It doesn’t matter because the batteries won’t come until the first week in January. He plans to finish the installation then.

So Andy and I went to Santa Fe to talk to talk to a designer about our kitchen and bathroom. We felt comfortable with him so the next step is to figure out the appliances we want, get their measurements, then go back to the designer with the house plans and details. We weren’t looking forward to this step but it shouldn’t be too bad now that it’s clear exactly what we need to do. We actually got farther along today than we expected. We do know from experience that taking the first few steps is usually the hardest. I will let you know!

How was your week?

For better resolution and more pictures start here.
 

The radiant heating system has been laid and the house pad has been inspected. Everything is ready for the concrete to be poured. We had thought that might be postponed because of the storm that’s supposed to hit us tomorrow, but tonight Joe phoned to tell Andy to be at the gate 8:30 tomorrow morning to let the concrete trucks in. I will let you know how it goes.

Joe has also been working on getting county approval for the shed. We’re not yet sure if that has gone through…we’ll believe it when we get an official piece of paper in our own little hands. We’re not supposed to start using it until then. Presumably in the fullness of time, or hopefully sooner.

How did your week go? And how is the weather where you are?