Stress Hardiness, Optimizing Stress, Being Fully Alive

 
Our land is less depressing now that the debris has been removed and some of the dead trees have been cut down. Our new saying is

When all the trees burn up we might as well enjoy the view.

Click on picture for larger view.

 
The above picture is of Andy, Greg (our solar engineer) and Joe (our contractor) using a Solar Pathfinder to see what trees still needed to be cut down to keep them from shading our photovoltaic panels. The picture was taken Wednesday and hopefully Joe will start building the supports for the array next week.
 

 
The last four trash containers were still there, but they were finally removed that afternoon, so progress continues to be made. There is clearly a long way left to go. In the fullness of time….

 

 

 
Andy spent some time this week cutting down more trees to open up the view. I spent hours on the internet getting an education about roofing options and how we would need to install each of them. Steve (our architect/project manager) recommended asphalt, but we decided we really needed metal, both for durability and for lightning protection. It turns out there are metal shingles now, not just the standard standing seam panels, and they may be what we choose.

As far as I can tell the metal shingles are less complicated to install than the metal panels, but all roofs require care. YouTube has some great videos about incorrectly installed asphalt roofs. One of the problems with asphalt is the mistakes aren’t as noticeable until the shingles blow off or the roof leaks. As I said, I’ve learned a lot. Getting skilled workmen can be a problem in the mountains of Northern New Mexico, so it’s nice to know the potential problems ahead of time.

Tomorrow Andy is going up with the well driller to see which pipes need to be replaced in our water system, and tomorrow afternoon we have an appointment with the solar engineer who will design our photovoltaic system. So things are starting to happen.

Steve had continuing education classes in Santa Fe Monday-Wednesday, but presumably we will hear from him soon. We can’t get started on the foundations for the shed and the house until he finishes the plans and gets a building permit.

I’ve sent away for samples of roofing and siding materials so I can pick some colors. We received two samples of siding today and they look quite different from the colors on their website. Final decisions about the outside of the house can’t be made until we see what our possibilities are and how they fit together. There’s a good chance I’ll get that information before it holds up progress. I do believe in planning ahead!

What about you? Do you have any projects you’re working on? If so how are they going?

We actually have a set of house/cabin plans now. (The structure is only 768 square feet.) We may change some details, but they should be enough to start applying for a building permit. The interesting thing is since we don’t have a house address or lot number, Sandoval County wanted a survey of our land. Just a receipt from the taxes we’ve been paying for the past 35 years wasn’t enough. Fortunately we had a survey made years ago and could actually find it. That saved a lot of time and money.

I spent a lot of time looking at siding colors today, and tried seeing how they might look up on our land:

 
The colors probably aren’t accurate, but they’re better than nothing. And it does keep me off the streets and out of trouble.

Is time whizzing by for you too?

 
If all goes well Andy and I will go to Santa Fe tomorrow to visit our truck, and maybe even bring it home. Originally we were going to pick it up last Saturday but that morning we received a phone call saying the modifications wouldn’t be done until that evening. We could pick it up Monday. We were tied up most of this week so we asked about picking it up Sunday instead. No problem. It was guaranteed to be done. We didn’t need to phone to check.

Yeah, sure. We haven’t lived this long without developing a bit of paranoia. So we phoned Sunday morning slightly after 10 am. No answer. We tried again after 11 am. Again, no answer. We checked on the internet, which said it was closed on Sundays. The answering machine did not give their hours so we gave up for Sunday.

Monday I phoned the fellow I had talked to Saturday to see what had happened. He said they were open from 10 to 5 on Sundays, but the truck still wasn’t quite done. It would be done that evening for sure.

Anyway, we decided to put it out of our minds until tomorrow at the earliest. But then Tuesday the friendly paperwork fellow phoned to say he had forgotten to give us a couple of pieces to sign. Could we come in and sign them? The sooner the better. And the truck was ready to be picked up.

Needless to say, we didn’t rush right down there. We’ll go tomorrow, see what happens and let you know. We can’t lose them all, can we?

Update: Friday, September 16

We got down there by 10 am and it only took an hour to be on our way home. Here’s a picture of Andy climbing into it:
 

 
I haven’t tried it yet, but getting in and out doesn’t look as if it will be very graceful. I’m even shorter than he is.

 
Do you think this truck is big enough?

I love the distortion from the camera lens because it reminds me of how easy it is to see things incorrectly and think our perceptions represent reality. Here is a more accurate picture:
 

 
The truck is still plenty big.

What happened is we got a call from the Dodge place Monday saying they had found a truck that was almost exactly what we wanted, so we didn’t have to wait six to ten weeks. It still needed a spray-in bed liner for rust protection and a sliding window for hauling long objects, but we went down Tuesday and paid for it so they could make the modifications.

The thing that surprised us was having to spend about an hour filling out paperwork. We had already spent a half hour on red tape before we were sent to this fellow to complete the transaction. It took another half hour to go through his pile. He was cheerful, friendly and efficient, but we still had to sign every single piece of paper.
 

 
I am so glad I don’t have his job.

What about you? How patient are you with paperwork? Have you had to endure any recently?

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We had mixed feelings Saturday. We were happy that we finally got some roadwork done and started on the debris removal, but we were also sad to say goodbye to our beloved tractor. We built it from a kit when Kaitlin was a kid, and it was an important part of our experiences up on the land.
 

 

 

 
Goodbye, Little Tractor, we won’t forget you.

Have you had to say goodbye to something/someone recently?

 
Monday we thought we were finally getting started with the cleanup and fixing our well. Then it rained that afternoon and everything had to be set back a week.

Here’s a picture of me walking on/in one of the roads up to our place:
 

 
Here’s a picture of Andy walking on another road up to our place:
 

 
There was also a bit of erosion along our 1.1-mile driveway. Notice the handle of the 5-foot-long shovel:
 

 

 
For more pictures click here.

With any luck the road will be passable by the end of the weekend. And we’ll finally start getting something done Monday…the Good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise again.

Never do unto others as you would have others do unto you. They might have different tastes.
—George Bernard Shaw

Does it ever bother you that other people look at the world differently from you? That they have different tastes? Or do you think that makes life more fascinating?

The big danger/problem after a severe fire is flash flooding, of course. Here’s a picture of a beaver pond that was down the road from us before the fire:
 

Here are two pictures that Andy took today:
 

 

 
As you can see from the animal tracks, it has now turned into a mud flat.

Here’s a picture of the erosion the water caused in the road. Andy included his walking stick to show how deep the rut was.
 

 
As the saying goes,

Life is seldom simple.

Do you have any messes to clean up in your life?